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SOLOMON's TEMPLE. 


THE COMPLETE WORKS 


Bree Cy Fe 


Tlavius - 
Josephus 


THE CELEBRATED 
JEWISH HISTORIAN 


PPRIEEISING coe) ale sw ee 8s 8's s , 
THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF 
PAE sewWo. With THE«-DESTRUCTION 
OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS 


AND DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING 
Peo nniot JOHN THE BAPTIST, 
JAMES THE JUST, AND THE SACRI- 
Pitter ISAAC. TOGETHER WITH. A 
PIs COURSE ON HADES, OR’HELL. 


3 WITH HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
MEANSLATED BY . ses. es 


WILLIAM WHISTON, A.M. . 


TO WHICH IS ADDED 


AN ANALYTICAL INDEX 
s TO THE ENTIRE WORK 
1345 
MDCCCXCV 
Aohn £. Potter & Company 
Philadelphia - ~ - - 
ew Pork, Boston, Chicago 





(3 Vu AS Hehe} wok! 





> 2 ae Oe a ee ae. 2 


of the whole people, even after the captivity. 
G49 


Ex 


THE 


LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


$1. Tue family from whichI am derived is 
vt an ignoble one, but hath descended all along 
from the priests; and as nobility among several 
sate is of a different origin, so, with us, to 
e of the sacerdotal dignity, is an indication of 
the splendor of a family. Now, I am not only 
sprung from a sacerdota] family in general, but 
from the first of the twenty-four* courses; and 
as among us there is not only a considerable 
difference between one family of each course 
and another, I am of the chief family of that first 
course also; nay, farther, by my mother I am of 
the royal blood; for the children of Asamoneus, 
from whom that family was derived, had both 
the office of the high priesthood, and the dig- 
nity of a king, for a longtime together. I will 
accordingly set down my progenitors in order. 
My grandfather’s father was named Simon, with 
the addition of Psellus: he lived at the same time 
with that son of Simon the high priest, who, first 
ofall the high priests, was named Hyrcanus. 
This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of whom 
was Matthias, called Ephlias; he married the 
daughter of Jonathan the high priest, which 
Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asa- 
moneus, who was high priest, and was the 
brother of Simon the high priest also. This 
Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus, and 
that in the first year of the government of Hyr- 
canus; his son’s name was Joseph, born in the 
ninth year of the reign of Alexandra; his son 
Matthias was born in the tenth year of the reign 
of Archelaus; as was I born to Matthias on the 
first year of the reign of Caius Cesar. I have 
three sons: Hyrcanus, the eldest, was born on 
the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian; as 
was Justus born on the seventh, and Agrippa 
onthe ninth. Thus have I set down the gene- 
alogy of my family, as I have found it describedt 
in the public records, and so bid adieu to those 
who calumniate- me, [as of a lower original.] 
2. Now my father Matthias was not only emi- 
nent on account of his nobility, but had a high- 
er commendation on account of his righteous- 
ness, and was in great reputation in Jerusalem, 
* We may hence correct the error of the Latin copy of the 
second book against Apion, sect. 7, 8, (for the Greek is there 
fost) which says there were then only four tribes or courses 
of the priests, instead of twenty-four. Nor is this testimony 
to be disregarded, as if Josephus there contradicted what he 
had affirmed here, because even the account there given bet- 
ter agrees to twenty-four than to four courses, while he says 
that each of these courses contained above 500 men, which 
multiplied by only four, will make not more than 20,000 
priests; whereas the number 120,000, as multiplied by 24, 
seems much the most probable, they being about one-tenth 
See Ezra ii. 
. Neh. vii. 3 . 1 Esd. v. 24, 25, with Ezraii. 64. 
Neh. vil. 66. 1 Esd. v.41. Nor will this common reading or 
notion of but four courses of priests, agree with Josephus’s 
own farther assertion elsewhere. Antiq.». vii. ch. xiv. sect. 
7. that David’s partition of the priesis into. twenty-four 


courses had continued tothatday. 
_ {An eminent example of the care Of the Jews about their 


“a 


the greatest city we have. I wes myself 
brought up with my brother, whose name was 
Matthias, for he was my own brother, by both 
father and mother; and I made mighty profi- 
ciency in the improvements of my learning, and 
appeared to have both a great memory and un- 
derstanding. Moreover, when I was a child, 
and about fourteen yearsof age, I was com- 
mended by all for the love I had to learning; on 
which account the high priests and _ principal 
men of the city came then frequently to me to- 
gether, in order to know my opinion about the 
accurate understanding of points of the law. 
And when I was about sixteen years old, I had 
a mind to make trial of the several sects that 
were among us. ‘These sects are three: the 
first is that of the Pharisees, the second that 
of the Sadducees, and the third that of the Es- 
sens, as we have frequently told you; for 1 
thought that by this means I might choose the 
best, if I were once acquainted with them all; 
so I contented myself with hard fare, and un- 
derwent great difficulties, and went through 
them all. Nor did I content myself with these 
trials only; but when I was informed that one 
whose name was Banus, lived in the desert, 
who used no other clothing than grew upon 
trees, and had no other food than what grew of 
its own accord, and bathed himself in cold water 
frequently, both by night and by day, in order 
to preserve his chastity, I imitated him in those 
things, and continued with him for three years.* 
So when I had accomplished my desires, I re- 
turned back to the city, being now nineteen 
years old, and began to conduct myself accord- 
ing to the rules of the sects of the Pharisees, 
which is of kin to the sects of the Stoics, as the 
Greeks call them. 

3. But when I was in the twenty-sixth year 
of my age, it happened that I took a voyage to 
Rome, and this on the occasion which I shall 
now describe. At the time when Felix was 
procurator of Judea, there were certain priests 
of my acquaintance, and very excellent persons 
they were, whom on a small and trifling occa- 
genealogies, especially as to the priests. See Cont. Ap. b.i 
x When Josephus here says, that from sixteen to nineteen, 
or for three years, he made trial of the three Jewish sects tne 
Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essens, and yet says pre- 
sently, in all our copies, that he stayed besides with one par- 
ticular ascetic, called Banus, zzp xvrw, with him, and this 
still before he was nineteen, there is little room left for his 
trial of three other sects. I suppose, therefore, that for zap 
eur with him, the old reading might be xp woro1s, with theme 
which is a very small emendation, and takes away the diffi- 
culty before us. Nor is Doctor Hudson’s conjecture, hinted 
at by Mr. Hall in his preface to the Doctor’s edition of Jose 
phus, at all improbable, that this Banus, by this his descrip 
tion, might well be afollower of John the Baptist, and thas 
from him Josephus might easily imbibe such notions, as af 
terward prepared him to have a favorable opinion aboug 


Jesus Christ himself, who was attested to by John the Bap 
tist. ra 


696504 ae 


q 


sion he had put into bonds, and sent to Rome 
to plead their cause before Cesar. These | 
was desirous to procure deliverance for, and 
that especially because I was informed that they 
were not unmindful of piety towards God even 
under their afflictions, but supported them- 
selves with figs and nuts.* Accordingly I came 
to Rome, though it were through a great number 
of hazards by sea; for, as our ship was drown- 
ed in the Adriatic sea, we that were in it, being 
about six hundred in number,} swam for our 
lives all the night, when upon the first appear- 
ance of the day, and upon our sight of a ship of 
Cyrene, I and some others, eighty in all, by 
God’s providence prevented the rest, and were 
taken up into the other ship. And when I 
had thus escaped, and was come to Dicearchia, 
which the Italians call Puteoli, I became ac- 
quainted with Aliturius, an actor of plays, and 
much beloved by Nero, but a Jew by birth; 
through his interest became known to Poppea, 
Czesar’s wife, and took care as soon as possible 
to entreat her to procure, that the priests might 
be set at liberty. And when besides this favor, 
{ had obtained many presents from Poppea, I 
returned home again. 

4, And now I perceived innovations were al- 
ready begun, and that there were a great many 
very much elevated, in hopes of a revolt from 
the Romans. I therefore endeavored to put a 
stop to these tumultuous persons, and persuad- 
ed them to change their minds; and laid before 
their eyes against whom it was that they were 

oing to fight, and told them that they were in- 
forior to the Romans not only in martial skill, 
but also in good fortune; and-desired them not 
rashly, and after the most foolish manner, to 
bring on the dangers of the most terrible mis- 
chiefs upon their country, upon their families, 
and upon themselves. And thisI said with ve- 
hement exhortation, because I foresaw that the 
end of such a war would be most unfortunate 
tous. But I could not persuade them, for the 
madness of desperate men was quite too hard 
for me. 

5 I was then afraid, lest by inculcating these 
things so often, I should incur their hatred and 
their suspicions, asif I were of our enemies’ 
party, and should run into the danger of being 
seized by them, and slain; since they were al- 
ready possessed of Antonia, which was the cit- 
adel; so I retired into the inner court of the tem- 
ple. Yetdid I go out of the temple again, after 
Manahem and the principal of the band of rob- 
bers were put to death, when I abode among 

he high priests and the chief of the Pharisees. 
But no small fear seized upon us when we saw 
the people in arms, while we ourselves knew 
not what we should do and were not able to 
restrain their seditions. However, asthe dan- 
ger was directly upoi us we pretended that we 

* We may note here, that religious men among the Jews, or 
atleast those that were priests, were sometimes ascetics 
also, and, like Daniel and his companions in Babylon, Dan. 
i. 8—16, ate no flesh but figs and nuts, {c. only. This was 
like the £:coo~71, or austere diets, of the Christian ascetics 
im passion week. Constit. v. 18. 

y It hath been thought the number of Paul and his compa- 


aions on ship board, Acts xxvii. 38, which are 276 in our co- 
piea, are 100 many; whereas we find here that Josephus and 


HE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. — 


ee 


\ 
} 
| 


were of the same opinion with them, but omy 
advised them to be quiet for the present, and te 
let the enemy go away, still hoping that Gessius 
[Florus] would not be long ere he came, anid 
that with great forces, and so put an end to 
these seditious proceedings. 

6. But upon his coming and fighting, he was 
beaten, and a great many of those that were 
with him fell. And this disgrace [which Ges- 
sius with Cestius] received, became the calami 
ty of our whole nation; for those that were fond 
of the war were so far elevated with this suc- 
cess, that they had hopes of finally conquering 
the Romans. Of which war another occasion 
was ministered, which was this: ‘Those that 
dwelt in the neighboring cities of Syria seized 
upon such Jews as dwelt among them, with 
their wives and children, and slew thera, when 
they had not the least occasion of complaint 
against them: for they did neither attempt any 
innovation or revolt from the Romans, nor had 
they given any marks of hatred or treacherous 
design towards the Syrians. But what was 
done by the inhabitants of Scythopolis was the 
most impious and highly criminal of all;* for, 
when the Jews, their enemies, came upon them 
from without, they forced the Jews that were 
among them to bear arms against their own 
countrymen, which it is unlawful for us to do 
and when by their assistance they had joined 
battle with those that attacked them, and had 
beaten them, after that victory they forgot the 
assurances they had given these then fellow- 
citizens and confederates, and slew them all, 
being in number many ten thousands [1:3,000.] 
The like miseries were undergone by those 
Jews that were the inhabitants of Damascus, 
But we have given a more accurate account of 
these things in the books of the Jewish war. J 
only mention them now, because I would de 
monstrate to my readers, that the Jews’ war 
with the Romans was not voluntary, but that, 
for the main, they were forced by necessity to ~ 
enter into it. 

7. So when Gessius had been beaten, as we 
have said already, the principal men of Jerusa 
lem, seeing that the robbers and innovators had 
arms in great plenty, and fearing lest they, while 
they were unprovided with arms, should be in 
subjection to their enemies, which also came to 
be the case afterwards; and, being informed 
that all Galilee had not yet revolted from the 
Romans, but some parts of it was still quiet, 
they sent me and two others of the priests who 
were men of excellent characters, Joazar and 
Judas, in order to persuade the ill men there 
to lay down their arms, and to teaeh them 
this lesson, that it were better to have those 
arms reserved for the most courageous men 
that the nation had, [than to be kept byicrel bk 
that it had been resolved, that those our best 
his companions, a very few years after the other, were about 
600. * See of the War, b. ii. ch. xvii. sect. 3. 

t+ The Jews might collect this unlawfulness of fighting 
against their brethren from that law of Moses, Lev. xix. 16, 
“Thou shalt not stand against the blood cf thy neighbor,” 
and that ver. 17. “Thou shalt not avenge, n or bear any grudge 
against the chilaven of thy people; but thou shalt love thy 


neighbor as thysei$”’ as well as from many other places in the 
Pentateuch and Prophets. See Antiq. b. viii. ch. viii, sact. 3 


| 
\ 


Nii 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. J 


meu should always have their arms ready 
against futurity, but still so, that they should 
wait to see what the Romans would do. 

8. When I had therefore received these in- 
structions, I came into Galilee, and found the 
people of Sepphoris in no small agony about 
their country, by reason that the Galileans had 
resolved to plunder it, on account of the firiend- 
ship they had with the Romans, and because 
they had given their right hand, and made a 


league with Cestius Gallus, the president of 


Syria. But I delivered them all out of the fear 
they were in, and persuaded the multitude to 
deal kindly with them, and permitted them to 
send to those that were their own hostages with 
Gessius to Dora, which is a city of Phenicia, as 
often as they pleased; though I still found the 
inhabitants of Tiberias ready to take arms, and 
that on the occasion following: 

9. There were three factions in this city. 
The first was composed of men of worth and 
gravity; of these Julius Capellus was the head. 
Now he, as well as all his companions, Herod 
the son of Miarus, and Herod the son of Gama- 
lus, and Compsus the son of Compsus; (for as 
to Compsus’s brother Crispus, who had once 
been governor of the city under the great king,* 
[Agrippa,] he was beyond Jordan in his own 
possessions;) all these persons before named 
_ gave their advise, that the city should then con- 
tinue in their allegiance to the Romans, and to 
the king. But Pistus, who was guided by his 
son Justus, did not acquiesce in that resolution; 
‘otherwise he was himself naturally of a good 
and virtuouscharacter. But the second faction 
was composed of the most ignoble persons, and 
“was determined for war. But as for Justus, the 
son of Pistus, who was the head of the third 
faction, although he pretended to be doubtful 
about going to war, yet was he really desirous 
of innovation, as supposing that he should gain 
power to himsvIf by the change of affairs. He 
therefore came into the midst of them, and en- 
deavored to inform the muititude, that, “the 
“city of Tiberias had ever been a city of Gali- 
“lee, and that in the days of Herod the tetrarch, 
“who had built it, it had obtained the principal 
“place, and that he had ordered that the city 
“Sepphoris should be subordinate to the city 
“Tiberias; that they had not lost this pre-emi- 
“nence even under Agrippa the father, but had 
“retained it, until Felix was procurator of Ju- 
“dea. But he told them, that now they had 
“been so unfortunate as to be made a present 
“by Nero to Agrippa junior; and that upon 
“Sepphoris’s submission of itself to the Romans, 
“that was become the capital city of Galilee, 
-“and that the royal treasury and the archives 
“were now removed from them.” When he 
had spoken these things, and a great many 
more against Agrippa, in order to provoke the 

people to a revolt, hie added, that “this was the 
“time for them to take arms, and join with the 
“Galileans as their confederates, (whom they 
“might command, and who would now willing- 


* That this Herod Agrippa, the father, was of old called a 
Great King as here, appears by his coins stil] reinaining; to 
. which Havercamp refers us. 


“ly assist them, out of the hatred they bare tu the 
“neople of Sepphoris, because they preserved 
“thei fidelity to the Romans,) and to gather a 
“sreat number of forces in order to punish 
“them.” And as he said this, he exhorted the 
multitude [to go to war;] for his abilities lay in 
making harangues to the people, and in being 
too hard in his speeches for such as opposed 
him, though they advised what was more to 
their advantage, and thus by his craftiness and 
his fallacies,for he was not unskilful in the learn- 
ing of the Greeks, and in dependence on tha 
skill it was, that he undertook to write a history 
of these affairs, as aiming by this way of ha- 
ranguing to disguise the truth. But as to this 
man, and how ul were his character and con- 
duct in life, and how he and his brother were, in 
a great measure, the authors of our destruction,I 
shall give the reader an account in the progress 
of my narration. So when Justus had, by his 
persuasions, prevailed with the citizens of Ti- 
berias to take arms, nay, and had forced a great 
many so to do against their will, he went out, 
and set the villages that belonged to Gadara and 
Hippos on fire; which villages were situated 
on the borders of Tiberias, and of the region of 
Seythopolis. 

10. And this was the state Tiberias was now 
in. But as for Gischala, its affairs were thus: 
When John, the son of Levi, saw some of his 
citizens much elevated upon their revolt from 
the Romans, he labored to restrain them, and 
entreated them that they would keep their alle- 
giance to them. But he could not gain his pur- 
pose, although he did his endeavors to the ut- 
most; for the neighboring people of Gadara, 
Gabara, and Sogana, with the Tyrians, got to- 
gether a great army, and fell upon Gischala, and 
took Gischaia by force, and set it on fire; and 
when they had entirely demolished it, they re- 
turned home. Upon which John was so enrag 
ed, that he armed all his men, and joined battle 
with the people forementioned, and rebuilt Gis- 
chala after a manner better than before, and 
fortified it with walls for its future security. 

11. But Gamala persevered in its allegiance to 
the Romans, for the reason following: Philip the 
son of Jacimus, who was their governor under 
king Agrippa, had been unexpectedly preserved 
when the royal palace at Jerusalem had been 
besieged; but as he fled away, had fallen into 
another danger, and that was, of being killed by 
Manahem, and the robbers that were with him. 
but certain Babylonians, who were of his kin- 
dred, and were then in Jerusalem, hindered the 
robbers from executing their design. So Philip 
staid there four days, and fled away on the fifth, 
having disguised himself with fictitious hai, 
that he might not be discovered; and when he 
was come to one of the villages to him belong- 
ing, but one that was situated at the borders of 
the citadel of Gamala, he sent to some of those 
that were under him, and commanded them to 
come to him. But God himself hindered that 
his intention, and this for his own advantage 
also; for had it not so happened, he had certainly 
perished. For a fever having seizea upon him 
immediately, he wrote to Agrippa and Bernice, 


6 THE LIE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. ; 


and gave them to one of his freed-men to carry 
them to Varus, who at this time was procura- 
tor of the kingdom, which the king and his sis- 
ter had intrusted him withal, while they were 
gone to Berytus with an intention of meeting 
Gessius. When Varus had received these let- 
ters of Philip, and had learned that he was pre- 
served, he was very uneasy at it, as supposing 
that he should appear useless to the king and 
his sister, now Philip wascome. He therefore 
produced the carrier of the letters before the 
multitude, and accused him of forging the 
same; and said, thet he spake falsely, when he 
related that Philip was at Jerusalem, fighting 
among the Jews against the Romans._ So he 
slew him. And when the freed-man of Philip 
did not return again, Philip was doubtful what 
should be the occasion of his stay, and senta 
second messenger with letters, that he might, 
upon his return, inform him what had befallen 
the other that had been sent before, and why 
ne tarried so long. Varus accused this mes- 
senger also, when he came, of telling a false- 
hood, and slew him. For he was puffed up by 
the Syrians that were at Cesarea, and had great 
expectations; for they said that Agrippa would 
be slain by the Romans for the crimes which 
the Jews had commutted, and that he should 
himself take the government, as derived from 
their king: for Varus was, by the confession of 
all, of the royal family, as being a descendant 
of Sohemus, who had enjoyed a tetrarchy about 
Libanus; for which reason it was that he was 
puffed up, and kept the letters to himself. He 
contrived, also, that the king should not meet 
with those writings, by guarding all the passes, 
lest any one should escape, and inform the king 
what had beendone. He moreover slew many 
of the Jews, inorder to gratify the Syrians of 
Cesarea. He hada mind also to join with the 
Trachonites in Batanea, and to take up arms 
and make an assault upon the Babylonian Jews 
that were at Ecbatana; for that was the name 
they went by. He therefore called to him 
twelve of the Jews of Cesarea of the best 
character, and ordered them to go to Ecbatana, 
and inform their countrymen who dwelt there, 
that Varus hath heard, that “you intend 'to 
“march against the king; but, not believing 
‘that report, he hath sent us to persuade you 
“to lay down your arms, and that this compli- 
“ance will be a sign that he did well not to give 
“credit to those that raised the report concern- 
“ing you.” He also enjoined them to send 
seventy of their principal men to make a de- 
fence for them as to the accusation laid against 
them So when the twelve messengers came to 
their countrymen at Ecbatana, and found that 
wiey had no designs of innovation at all, they 
persuaded them to send the seventy men also; 
who not at all suspecting what would come, 
sent them accordingly. So these seventy* 
went down to Cesarea, together with the twelve 
ambassadors, where Varus met them with the 
king’s forces, and slew them all, together with 
the [twelve] ambassadors, and made wm ex- 


*'™he famous Jewish numbers of Twelve and Seventy 
ere here remarkable. 


pedition against the Jews of Ecbatana. Rut - 
there was one of the seventy who escaped, and 
made haste to inform the Jews of their coming, 
upon which they took their arms, with their 
wives and children, and retired to the citadel 
at Gamala, leaving their own villages full of all 
sorts of good things, and having many ten thou 
sands of cattle therein. When Philip was in- 
formed of these things, he also came to the 
citadel of Gamala; and when he was come, 
the multitude cried aloud, and desired him 
to resume the government, and to make an 
expedition against Varus, and the Syrians of 
Cesarea; for it was reported that they had 
slain the king. But Philip restrained their 
zeal, and put them in mind of the benefits 
the king had bestowed upon them; and told 
them how powerful the Romans were, and 
said it was not for their advantage to make war 
with them; and at length he prevailed with 
them. But now, when the king wasacquainted: 
with Varus’s design, which was to cut off the 
Jews of Cesarea, being many ten thousands, 
with their wives and children, and all in one 
day, he called to him Equiculus Modius, and 
sent him to be Varus’s successor, as we have 
elsewhere related. But still Philip kept posses- 
sion of the citadel of Gamala, and of the country 
adjoining to it, which thereby continued in their 
allegiance to the Romans. 

12. Now, as soon as I was come into Galilee, - 
and had learned this state of things by the in- 
formation of such as told me of them, I wrote 
to the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem about them, and 
required their direction what I should do. 
Their direction was, that I should continue 
there, and that, if my fcllow-legates were 
willing, I should join with them in the care of 
Galilee. But those my fellow-legates, having 
gotten great riches from those tithes which as- 
priests were their dues, and were given to them, 
determined to return to their own country. 
Yet when I desired them to stay so long, that 
we might first settle the public affairs, they 
complied with me. So I removed, together 
with them, from the city of Sepphoris, and 
came to a certain village called Bethmaus, four 
furlongs distant from Tiberias; and thence Ff 
sent messengers to the senate of ‘Tiberias, and 
desired that the principal men of the city 
would come to me: and when they were come, 
Justus himself being also with them, I told 
them, that I was sent to them by the people of 
Jerusalem as a legate, together with these other 
priests, in order to persuade them to demolish 
that house which Herod the tetrarch had built 
there, and which had the figures of living crea- 
tures in it, although our laws had forbidden us 
to make any such figures; and I desired, that 
they would give us leave to do so immediately. 
But for a good while Capellus and tlie principal. 
men belonging to the city would not give us 
leave, but were at length entirely overcome by 
us, and were induced to be of our opinion. Se 
Jesus the son of Sapphias, one of those whom 
we have already mentioned as the leader of & 
seditious tumult of mariners and poor people, 
prevented us, and took with him certain Gals 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. , 


weans, and set the entire palace on fire, and 
thought he should get a great deal of money 
thereby, because he saw some of the roofs gilt 
with gold. ‘They also plundered a great deal 
of the furniture, which was done without our 
approbation; for, after we had discoursed 
Capellus ana the principal men of the city, we 
departed from Bethmaus, and went into the 
“Di Galilee. But Jesus and his party slew 
the Greeks that were inhabitants of Tiberias, 
and as many others as were their enemies 
before the war began. ¥ : 
13. When I understood this state of things, I 
was greatly provoked, and went down to Tibe- 
tias, and took all the care I could of the royal 
furniture, to recover all that could be recovered 
from such as had plundered it. They consisted 
of candlesticks made of Corinthian brass; and 
of royal tables, and of a great quantity of un- 
coined silver; and J resolved to preserve what- 
soever came to my hand for the king. SolIsent 
for ten of the principal men of the senate, and 
for Capellus the son of Antyllus, and committed 
the furniture to them, with this charge, that they 
should part with it to nobody else but to myself. 
From thence I and my fellow-legates went to 
’ Gischala to John, as desirous to know his inten- 
tions, and soon saw that he was for innovations, 
and had a mind to the principality; for he de- 
sired me to give him authority to carry off that 
corn which belonged to Ceesar, and Jay in the 
villages of Upper Galilee; and he pretended 
that he would expend what it came to in build- 
ing the walls of his own city. But when J per- 
ceived what he endeavored at, and what he 
had in his mind, I said, I would not permit him 
so to do; for that J thought either to keep it for 
the Romans, or for myself, now J was intrusted 
with the public affairs there by the people of Je- 
rusalem. But when he was not able to prevail 
witb me, he betook himself to my fellow-le- 
ates; for they had no sagacity in providing for 
uturity and were very ready to take bribes. So 
he corrupted them with money, to decree that 
all that corn which was within his province 
should be delivered to him; while I, who. was 
but one, was outvoted by two, and held my 
tongue. Then did John introduce another cun- 
ning contrivance of his; for he said, that those 
Jews who inhabited Cesarea Philippi, and were 
shut up by the order of the king’s deputy there, 
had sent to him to desire him, that, since they 
had no oil that was pure for their use, he would 
provide a sufficient quantity of such oil for 
them, lest they should be forced to make use of 
oil that came from the Greeks, and thereby 
transgress their own laws. Now this was said 
vy John, not out of his regard to religion, but 
out of his most flagrant desire of gain; for he 
knew that two sextaries were sold with them 
ef Cesaiea for one drachma, but that at Gischala 
fourscore sextaries were sold for four drachma. 
So he gave order, that all the oil which was 
there should be carried away, as having my 
permission for so doing; which yet I did not 
grant him voluntarily, but only out of fear of 
the multitude, since, if I had forbidden him, 
I should have been stoned by them. When I 


had, therefore, permitted this to be aone by 
John, he gained vast sums of money by thin 
his knavery. 

14. But when I had dismissed my fellow-le. 
gates, and sent them back to Jerusalem, I tool 
care to have arms provided, and the cities forti 
fied. And,when I had sent for the most hardy 
among the robbers, IJ saw that it was not in my 
power to take their arms from them; but I per- 
suaded the multitude to allow them money as 
pay, and told them it was better for them te 
als them a little wittingly, rather than to [be 
orced bx overlook them when they plunderea 
their goods from them. And when J had oblig- 
ed them to take an oath not to come into that 
country, unless they were invited to come, or 
else when they had not their pay given them, 
J dismissed them, and charged them neither to 
make an expedition against the Romans, nor 
against those their neighbors that lay round 
about them; for my first care was to keep Gali- 
lee in peace. So I was willing to have the 
principal of the Galileans, in all seventy. as hust- 
ages for their fidelity, but still under the notion 
of friendship. Accordingly, I made them my 
friends and companions as J journeyed, and set 
them to judge causes; and with their approba- 
tion it was that I gave my sentences, while | 
endeavored not to mistake what justice requir- 
ed, and keep my hands clear of all bribery in 
those determinations. 

15. I was now about the thirtieth year of mny 
age; in which time of life it is a hard thing for 
any one to escape the calumnies of the envious, 
although he restrain himself from fulfilling any 
unlawful desires, especially where a person is 
in great authority. Yet did J preserve every 
woman free from injuries; and as to what pre- 
sents were offered me, 1 despised them, as not 
standing in need of them. Nor indeed would 
I take those tithes which were due to me asa 
priest, from those that brought them. Yet do 
I confess, that I took part of the spoils of those 
Syrians who inhabited the cities that adjoined 
to us, when J had conquered them, and that 1 
sent them to my kindred at Jerusalem; although 
when I twice took Sepphoris by force, and 
Tiberias four times, and Gadara once, and when 
J had subdued and taken John, who often laid 
treacherous snares for me, I did not punish 
[with death] either him or any of the people 
forenamed, as the progress of this discourse will 
show. And on this account, I suppose, it was 
that God,* who is never unacquainted with 
those that do as they ought to do, delivered me 
still out of the hands of these my enemies, and 
afterwards preserved me when J fell into those 
many dangers which I shall relate hereafter. 

16. Now the multitude of the Galileans had 
that great kindness for me, and fidelity to me, 
that when their cities were taken by force, and 
their wives and children carried into slavery 


*Our Josephus shows, both here and everywhere, that he 
was a most religious person, and one that had a deep sense 
of God and his providence upon his mind, and ascribed all 
his numerous and wonderful escapes and preservations, in 
times of danger, to God’s blessing him, and taking care of him 
and this on account of his acts of piety, justice, h mianity, 
and charity to the Jews his brethren. 


they did not so deeply lament for their own 
calamities, as they were solicitous for my pre- 
servation. But when John saw this, he envied 
me, and wrote to me, desiring that I would give 
him leave to come down, and make use of the 
hot baths of Tiberias for the recovery of the 
health of hisbody. Accordingly I did not hin- 
der him as having no suspicion of any wicked 
designs of his; and I wrote to those to whom I 
had committed the administration of the affairs 
of Tiberias by name, that they should provide 
a lodging for John, and for such as should come 
with him; and should procure what necessaries 
‘oever he should stand in need of. Now at 
this tine my abode was in a city of Galilee, 
which is named Cana. 

17. But when John was come to the city of 
Tiberias, he persuaded the men to revolt from 
their fidelity to me, and to adhere to him; and 
many of them gladly received that invitation of 
his, as ever fond of innovations, and by nature 
disposed to changes, and delighting in seditions: 
but they were chiefly Justus and his father Pis- 
tus, that were earnest in their revolt from me, 
and their adherence to John. But I came upon 
them, and prevented them; for a messenger had 
come to me from Silas, whom I had made | 

vernor of Tiberias, as 1 have said already, 
and had told me of the inclinations of the people 
of Tiberias, and advised me to make haste 
thither; for that, if I made any delay, the city 
would come under another’s jurisdiction. Upon 
the receipt of this letter of Silas, I took two 
hundred men along with me, and travelled all 
night, having sent before a messenger, to let the 
people of Tiberias know that I was coming to 
them. When I came near to thé city, which | 
was early in the morning, the multitude came 
out to meet me; and John came with them, and 
saluted me, but in a most disturbed manner, as 
being afraid that my coming was to call him to 
an account for what I was now sensible he was 
doing. So he in great haste went to his lodging. 
But when J was in the open place of the city, 
having dismissed the guards I had about me, 
excepting one, and ten armed men that were 
with him, I attempted to make a speech to the 
multitude of the people of Tiberias; and, stand- 
ing on a certain elevated place, I entreated 
them not to be so hasty in their revolt; for that 
such a change in their behavior would be to 
their reproach, and that they would then be 
justly suspected by those that should be their 
governors hereafter, as if they were not likely 
to be faithful to them neither. 

18. But, before {| had spoken all I designed, 
I heard one of my own domestics bidding me 
come down; for that it was nota proper time to 
take care of retaining the good will of the peo- 
ple of Tiberias, but to provide for my own safe- 
ty, and escape my enemies there; for John had 
chosen the most trusty of those armed men that 
were about him, out of those thousand that he 
had with him, and had given them orders, when 
he sent them, to kill me, having learned that I 
was alone excepting some of my domestics. 
So those that were sent came as they were or- 
dered; and they had executed what they came 


rHE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. : 


about, had I not leaped down from the e_eva 
tion I stood on, and with one of my guards, 
whose name was James, been carried [out of 
the crowd] upon the back of one Herod of Ti- 
berias, and guided by him down to the lake, 
where I seized a ship and got into it, and escap- 
ed my enemies unexpectedly, and came to 'Ta- 
richez. 

19. Now as soon as the inhabitants of that 
city understood the perfidiousness of the people 
of Tiberias, they were greatly provoked at them. 
So they snatched up their arms, and desired me 
to be their leader against them; for they said 
they would avenge their commander’s cause 
upon them. They also carried the report of 
what had been done to me to all the Galileans, 
and eagerly endeavored to irritate them against 
the people of Tiberias, and desired that vast 
numbers of them would get together, and come 
to them, that they might act in concert with 
their commander what should be determined as 
fit to be done. Accordingly the Galileans came 
to me in great numbers, from all parts, with their 
weapons, and besought me to assault Tiberias, 
to take it by force, and to demolish it, till it lay 
even with the ground, and then to make slaves 
of its inhabitants, with their wives and children. 
Those that were Josephus’s friends also, and 
had escaped out of Tiberias, gave him the same 
advice. But I did not comply with them, think- 
ing ita terrible thing to begin a civil war among 
them; for I thought that this contention ought 
not to proceed farther than words; nay, I told 
them that it was not for their own advantage 
to do what they would have me to do, while 
the Romans expected no other than that we 
should destroy one another by our mutual sedi- 
tions. And by saying this I put a stop to the 
anger of the Galileans. . 

20. But now John was afraid for himself, 
since his treachery had proved unsuccessful. 
So he took the armed men that were about him, 
and removed from Tiberias to Gischala, and 
wrote to me to apologize for himself concern- 
ing what had been done, as if it had been done 
without his approbation, and desired me to have 
no suspicion of him to his disadvantage. He 
also added oaths and certain horrible curses u 
on himself, and supposed he should be thereby 
believed in the points he wrote about to me. 

21. But now another great number of the 
Galileans came together again with their wea- 
pons, as knowing the man, how wicked and how 
sadly perjured he was, and desired me to lead 
thern against him, and promised me that they 
would utterly destroy both him and Gischala. 
Hereupon [ professed that I was obliged to them 
for their readiness to serve me, and that [ would 
more than requite their good-will to me. How- 
ever ] entreated them to restrain themselves, 
and begged of them to give me leaveto do what _ 
T intended, which was to put an end to these 
troubles without bloodshed; and when I had 
prevailed with the multitude of the Galileans to 
let me do so, I came to Sepphoris. 

22. But the inhabitants of this city, having de- 
termined to continue in their allegiance to the 
Romans, were afraid of my conung to them 


VHE PiFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


and tried, by putting me upon another action 
to divert me, that they might be freed from the 
terror they were in. Accordingly they sent 
to Jesus, the captain of those robbers, who 
were in the confines of Ptolemais, and promis- 
ed to give him a great deal of money, if he 
would come with those forces he had with 
him, which were in number eight hundred, 
and fight with us. Accordingly he complied 
with what they desired, upon the promises 
they had made him, and was desirous to fall 
upon us when we were unprepared for him, 
and knew nothing of his coming before- 
hand. So he sent to me, and desired that I 
would give him leave to come and salute me. 
When I had given him that leave, which I did 
without the least knowledge of his treacherous 
- intentions beforehand, he took hisband of rob- 
bers, and made haste to come to me. Yet did 
not this his knavery succeed well at last; for, as 
he was already nearly approaching, one of those 
with him deserted him, and came to me, and 
told me what he had undertaken to do. When 
I was informed of this, I went into the market 
place, and pretended to know nothing of his 
treacherous purpose. I took with me many 
Galileans that were armed, as also some of those 
ot Tiberias: and, when I had given orders that 
all the roads should be carefully guarded, I 
charged the keepers of the gates to give admit- 
tance to none but to Jesus, when he came with 
the principal of his men, and to exclude the 
rest; and in case they aimed to force themselves 
_in, to use stripes, [in order to repel them.] 
Accordingly, those that had received such a 


’ charge did as they were bidden, and Jesus 


came in witha few others; and when I had or- 
dered him to throw down his arms immediate- 
ly, and told him, that if he refused so to do, 
he was a dead man, he, seeing armed men 
stanling all round about him, was tertified 
and complied; and as for those of his follow- 
ers that were excluded, when they were inform- 
ed that he was seized, they ran away. I then 
called Jesus to me by himself, and told him, 
that “I was not a stranger to that treacherous 
design he had against me, nor was I ignorant 
by whom he was sent for; that, however, I 
would forgive what he had done already, if he 
would repent of it, and be faithful to me here- 
after.” And thus upon his promise to do all 
that I desired, I let hin go,and gave hin leave 
to get those whoin he had formerly had with 
him together agai. But I threatened the in- 
habitants of Sepphoris, that, if they would not 
eave off their ungrateful treatment of me, I 
would punish them sufficiently. 

23. At this time it was that two great men, 
who were under tke jurisdiction of the king, 
| Agrippa, ] came to me out of the region of Tra- 
chonitis, bringing their horses and their arms, 
and carrying with them their money also; and 
when the Jews would force them to be circuin- 
cised, if they would stay among them, I would 
hot permit them to have any force put upon 

them,* but said to them, “Every one ought to 


; * Josey} hus’s opinion is here wel) worth noting, that every 
 #)* is te be permitted to worship God according to his own 
‘é 


9 


worship God according to his own inclinations 
and not to be constrained by force; and that 
these men, who had fled to us for protection, 
ought not to be so treated as to repent of’ their 
coming hither.” And when I had pacified the 
multitude, I provided for the men that were 
come to us whatsoever it was they wanted, ac- 
cording to their usual way of living, and that 
in great plenty also. 

24. Now king Agrippa sent an army to make 
themselves masters of the citadel of Gamala, 
and over it Equiculus Modius; but the forces 
that were sent were not enough to encompass 
the citadel quite round, but lay before it in the 
open places and besieged it. But when Ebuti- 
us the decurion, who was intrusted with the 
government of the great plain, heard that I was 
at Simonias, a village situated in the confines 
of Galilee, and was distant from him sixty fur 
longs, he took a hundred horsemen that were 
with him, by night, and a certain number of 
footmen, about two hundred, and brought the 
inhabitants of the city of Gibea along with him 
as auxiliaries, and marched in the night, and 
came to the village where I abode. Upon this, 
I pitched my camp over against him, which had 
a great number of forces in it: but Ebutius 
tried to draw us down into the plain, as great- 
ly depending on his horsemen; but we would 
not come down: for when [I was satisfied of 
the advantage that his horse would have if we 
came down into the plain, while we were all 
footinen, I resolved to join battle with the ene- 
my where Iwas. Now Ebutius and his party 

| made a courageous opposition for some time; 
but when he saw that his horse were useless 
to him in that place, he retired hack to the city 
Gibea, having lost three of his men in the 

‘fight. So I followed him directly with two 

| thousand armed men; and when I was at the 
city Besara, that lay in the confines of Ptole- 
mais, but twenty furlongs from Gibea where 
Ebutius abode, I placed my armed men on the 
outside of the village, and gave orders that they 
should guard the passes with great care, that 
the enemy might not disturb us, until we should 
have carried off the corn, a great quantity of 
which lay there: it belonged to Bernice the 
queen, and had been gathered together out of 
the neighboring villages into Besara; so I loaded 
my camels and asses, a great number of which 
I had brought along with me, and sent the corn 
into Galilee. When I had done this, I offered 
Ebutius battle; but when he would not accept 
of the offer, for he was terrified at our readi- 
ness and courage, I altered my route, and 
marched towards Neopolitanus, because I had 
heard that the country about Tiberias was laid 
waste by him. This Neopolitanus was cap- 
tain of a troop of horse, and had the custody 
of Scythopolis intrusted to nis care by tht ene- 
my; and when I had hindered him froin uoin 
any further mischief to Tiberias, I set myse 
to make provision for the affairs of Galilee. 


conscience, and is not to be compelled in matters of religion, 
as one may here observe, on the contrary, that the rest of the 
Jews were still for obliging all those who married Jews to be 
circumcised, and become Jews, and were ready to destroy all 
that would not submittodoso. Seesect 3land Lukeix 54. 


10 


25. But when John, the son of Levi, who, 
as we before told you, abode at Gischala, was 
informed ‘how ali things had succeeded to my 
mind, and that I was much in favor with those 
that were under me; as also that the enemy 
were greatly afraid of me, he was not pleased 
with it, as thinking my prosperity tended to his 
ruin. So hetook up a bitter envy and enmity 
against me; and hoping, that if he could inflame 
those that were under me to hate me, he should 
put an end to the prosperity I was in, he tried 
to persuade the inhabitants of Tiberias and of 
Sepphoris, (and for those of Gabara he sup- 
posed they would be also of the same mind 
with the others,) which were the greatest cities 
of Galilee, to revolt from their subjection to 
me, and to be of his party; and he told them that 
he would command them better than I did. 
As for the people of Sepphoris, who belonged 
to neither of us, because they had chosen to be 
in subjection to the Romans, they did not com- 
ply with his proposal and for those of 'Tibe- 
rias, they did not indeed so far comply as to 
make a revolt from under me, but they agreed 
to be his friends, while the inhabitants of Ga- 
bara did go over to John; and it was Simon 
that persuaded them so to do; one who was 
beth the principal man in the city, and a parti- 
cular friend and companion of John. It is true, 
these did not openly own the making a revolt, 
because they were in great fear of the Galileans, 
and had frequent experience of the good will 
they bore to me; yet did they privately watch 
for a proper opportunity to lay snares for me; 
and indeed I thereby came into the greatest 
danger, on the occasion following: 

26. There were some bold young men of the 
village Dabaritta, who observed that the wife 
of Ptolemy, the king’s procurator, was to make 
a progress over the great plain with a mighty 
attendance, and with some horsemen that fol- 
lowed, as a guard to them, and this out ofa 
country that was subject to the king and queen, 
into the jurisdiction of the Romans; and fell 
upon them on the sudden, and obliged the wife 
of Ptolemy to fly away, and plundered all the 
carriages. ‘They also came to me to Tarichee, 
with four mules’ loading of garments, and other 
furniture; and the weight of silver they brought 
was not small, and there were five hundred 
pieces of gold also. Now I had a mind to 
preserve these spoils for Ptolemy, who was my 
countryman; and it is prohibited us by our laws 
even to spoil our enemies:* so I said to those 
that brought these spoils, that they ought to be 
Kept in order to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem 
with them, when they came to be sold. But 
the young men took it very ill that they did not 
receive a part of those spoils for themselves, 
as they expected to have done; so they went 
among the villages, in the neighborhood of 

* How Josephus could say here that the Jewish laws for- 
bade them to “‘spoil even their enemies,’ while yet, a little 
before his time, our Savior had mentioned it as then a cur- 
rent maxim with them, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and 
hate thine enemy,” Matt. v. 43,is worth ourinquiry. I take 
it that Josephus, having been now for many years an Ebio- 
nite Christian, had learned this interpretation of the law of 


Moses from Christ, whom he owned for the true Messiah, 
as it follows in the succeeding verses, which, though he 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


Tiberias, and told the people, that I was going 
to betray their country to the Rornans, and that 
I used deceitful language to them, when I said, 
that what had been thus gotten by rapine 
should be kept for the rebuilding of the walls 
of the city of Jerusalem; although I had re- 
solved to restore these spoils again to their form: 
er owners. And indeed they were herein not 
mistaken as to my intentions; for when I had 
gotten clear of them, I sent for two of the prin- 
cipal men, Dassion, and Janneus the son of 
Levi, persons that were among the chief friends 
of the king, and commanded them to take the 
furniture that had been plundered, and to send 
it to him; and I threatened that I would order 
them to be put to death by way of punishment, 
if they discovered this my command to any 
other person. 

27. Now when all Galilee was filled with 
this rumor, that their country was about to be 
betrayed by me to the Romans, and when all 
men were exasperated against me, and ready 
to bring me to punishment, the inhabitants of 
Tarichee did also themselves suppose that 
what the young men said was true, and persuad- 
ed my guards and armed men to leave ine 
when I was asleep, and to come presently to 
the hippodrome, in order there to take counse} 
against me their commander. And when they 
had prevailed with them, and they were gotten 
together, they found there a great company as- 
sembled already, who all joined in one clamor, 
to bring the man, who wasso wicked to them 
as to betray them, to his due punishment; and 
it was Jesus the son of Sapphias, who princi- 
pally set them on. He wasa ruler in Tiberias, 
a wicked man, and naturally disposed to make 
disturbances in matters of consequence, a se 
ditious person he was indeed, and an innoya- 
tor beyond every body else. He then took the 
laws of Moses into his hands, and came into the 


midst of the people, and said, “O my fellow- . 


citizens, if you are not disposed to hate Jose- 
phus on your own account, have regard how- 
ever to these laws of your country, which your 
commander in chief is going to betray; hate 
him therefore on both these accounts, and bring 
the man who hath acted thus insolently to his 
deserved punishment.” 

28. When he had said this, and the multitude 
had openly applauded him for what he had said, 
he took some of the armed men, and made haste 
away to the house in which I lodged, asif he 
would kill mé immediately, while I was bce 
insensible of all till this disturbance happened, 
and, by reason of the pains I had been taking, 
was fallen fast asleep. But Simon, who was 
intrusted with the care of my body, and was 
the only person that stayed with me, and saw 
the violent incursion the citizens made upon 
me, awaked me, and told me of the dangeg 
might not readin St. Matthew’s gospel, yetmigh he have 
read much the same exposition in their own Ebior ite or Na 
zarene gospel itself, of which improvements made by Jo- 
sephus, after he was become a Christian, we have already 
had several examples in this his life, sect. 3, 13, 15, 19, 21, 
23; and shall have many more therein before its conclu- 


sion, as well as we have them elsewere in all his later wim 
ings. 


—~ 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. i} 


1 was mm, and desired me to let him kill me, that 
l might die bravely and like a general, before 
my enemies came in, and forced me [to kill 
myself,] or kill me themselves. Thus did he 
discourse to me, but I committed the care of my 
life to God, and made haste to go out to the mul- 
titude. Accordingly I put on a black garment 
and hung my sword at my neck, and went by 
such a different way to the hippodrome, where- 
in I thought none of my adversaries would 


meet me; sol appeared among them on the | 


sudden, and fell down flat on the earth, and 
bedewed the ground with my tears: then 
1 seemed to them all an object of compassion. 
And when I perceived the change that was 
made ir. the multitude, I tried to divide their 
opinions, before the armed men should return 
from my house: sol granted them that I had 
been as wicked as they supposed me to be; but 
still I entreated them to let me first inform them 
for what use I had kept that money which 
arose from the plunder, and that they might 
then kill me if they pleased; and upon the 
multitude’s ordering me to speak, the armed 


_men came upon me, and when they saw me, 


they ran to kill me: but when the multitude 
bade them hold their hands, they complied, and 
expected that as soon as I should own to them 
that I kept the money for the king, it would be 
looked on asa confession of my treason, and 
they should then be allowed to kill me. 

29. When, therefore, silence was made by 
the whole multitude, I spake thus to them: “O 


_my countrymen, I refuse not to die, if justice 


sorequire. However, Iam desirous to tell you 
the truth of this matter before Idie; foras I 
know that this city of yours ['Taricheze] was a 
city of great hospitality, and filled with abun- 
dance of such menas have left their own coun- 


tries,and are come hither to be partakers of 


‘la fortune whatever it be, I had a mind to 
uild walls about it, out of this money, for 
which you are so angry with me, while yet it 


was to be expended in building your own walls,” 


Upon my saying this, the people of Tarichez 
and the strangers cried out, that “they gave me 
thanks, and desired me to be of good cou- 
rage.” Although the Galileans and the people 
of ‘Tiberias continued in their wrath against 
me, insomuch that there arose a tumult among 
them, while some threatened to kill me, and 
some bid me not to regard them; but when I 
promised them that I would build them walls 
at Tiberias, and at other cities that wanted 
them, they gave credit to what I promised, and 
returned every one to hisown home. So I es- 
saped the forementioned danger, beyond al] my 
nopes, and returned to my own house, accom- 
ped with my friends, and twenty armed men 

50: 

30, However those robbers and other authors 
of this tumult, who were afraid on their own 
account, lest I should punish them for what 


_ they had done, took six hundred armed men 


and came to the house were I abode, in order 
to set it on fire. When this their insult was 
told me, I thought it indecent for me to run 
uway, and I resolved to expose myself to danger, 


and to act with some boldness; so ] gave order 
to snut the doors, and went up into an upper 
room, and desired that they would send some 
of their men in to receive the money [from the 
spoils;] for [told them they would then have 
no occasion to be angry with me; and when 
they had sent in one of the boldest men of 
them all, I had him whipped severely, and } 
cominanded that one of his hands should be cut 
off, and hung about his neck; and in this case 
was he put out to those that sent him. At which 
procedure of mine they were greatly affrighted 
and in no small consternation, and were afraid 
that they should themselves be served in like 
manner, if they stayed there; for they suppos- 
ed that I had in the house more armed men 
than they had themselves; so they ran away 
immediately, while I, by the use of this strata- 
gem, escaped this their second ueacherous de- 
Sign against me. 

31. But there were still some that irritated 
the multitude against me, and said, that those 
great men that belonged to the king ought not 
to be suffered to live, if they would not change 
their religion to the religion of those to whom 
they fled for safety: they spake reproachtully 
of them also, and said, that they were wizards,* 
and such as called in the Romans upon them. 
So the multitude was soon deluded by such 
plausible pretences as were agreeable tu their 
own inclinations, and were prevailed on by 
them. But when I was informed of this, I in- 
structed the multitude again, that those who fled 
to them for refuge ought not to be persecuted; I 
also laughed at the allegation about witchcraft, 
and told them that the Romans would not 
maintain so many ten thousand soldiers, if they 
could overcome their enemies by wizards, 
Upon my saying this, the people assented for a 
while; but they returned again afterwards, as 
irritated by some ill people against the great 
men: nay, they once made an assault upon the 
house in which they dwelt at Tarichee, in or- 
der to kill them; which when I was informed 
of, I was afraid lestso horrid a crime should 
take effect, and nobody else would make that 
city their refuge any more. I therefore came 
myself, and some others with me, to the house 
where these great men lived, and locked their 
doors, and had a trench drawn from their houses 
leading to the lake, and sent for a ship, and em- 
barked therein with them, and sailed to the con- 
fines of Hippos; I also paid them the value of 
their horses, nor in such a flight could I have 
their horses brought tothem. I then dismissed 
them, and begged of them earnestly that they 
would courageously bear this distress which 
befell them. I was also myself greatly dis 
pleased that I was compelled to expose those 
that had fled to meto go again into an enemy’s 
country; yet did I think it more eligible that 
they should perist among the Romans, if it 
should so happen, than in the country that was 
under my jurisdiction. However, they escaped 
at length and king Agrippa forgave them their 


* Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notion of witch- 
craft; but that our Josephus was too wise to give any cour 
tenance to it. 


12 
offences. And tius was the conclusion of what 
concerned these men. 

32. But as for the inhabitants of the city of 
Tiberias, they wrote to the king, and desired 
him to send them forces sufficient to be a guard 
to their country; for that they were desirous to 
come over to him: this was what they wrote 
tohim. But when I cametothem, they desired 
me to build their walls, as | had promised them 
to do; for they had heard that the walls of 'Ta- 
richee were already built: I agreed to their 
proposal accordingly. And when I had made 
preparation for the entire building, I gave order 
to the architects to go to work; but on the third 
day, when I was gone to Tarichez, which was 
thirty furlongs distant from Tiberias, it so fell 
out, that some Roman horsemen were discov- 
ered on their march, not far from the city, 
whick made it to be supposed that the forces 
were come from the king; upon which they 
shouted and lifted up their voices in commen- 
dations of the king, and in reproaches against 
me. Hereupon one came running to me, and 
told me what their dispositions were, and that 
they had resolved to revolt from me; upon hear- 
ing which news I was very much alarmed; for 
{ bad already sent away my armed men from 
Tarichez to their own homes, because the next 
day wasour Sabbath; for I would not have the 

ople of Tarichew be disturbed [on that day] 
hy a multitude of soldiers; and indeed, when- 
ever I sojourned at that city, I never took any 
sarticular care fora guard about my own body 
sia I had had frequent instances of the 
fidelity its inhabitants bore to me. I had now 
about me no more than seven armed men be- 
sides some friends, and was doubtful what to 
do; for to send to recall my own forces I did 
uot think proper, because the present day was 
almost over, and had those forces been with me, 
{ could not take up arms on the next day, be- 
sause our laws forbid us so to do, even though 
our necessity should be very great; and if I 
should permit the people of 'Tarichez, and the 
strangers with them, to guard the city, I saw 
that they would not be sufficient for that 
purpose, and I perceived that I should be oblig- 
ed to delay my assistance a great while; for I 
thought with myself that the forces that came 
from the king would prevent me, and that I 
should be driven out of the city. I considered 
therefore, how to get clear of these forces by a 
stratagem; so I immediately placed those my 
friends of Taricheze, on whom I could best con- 
fide, at the gates, to watch those very carefully 
who went out at those gates; I also called to me 
the heads of families, and bid every one of them 
to seize upon a ship,* to go on board it, and to 
take a master with them, and follow him to the 
eity of Tiberias. 1 also myself went on board 
one of those ships, with my friends, and the 
seven armed men already mentioned, and sailed 
for Tiberias. 

33. But now, when the people of Tiberias 
perceived that there were no forces come from 

* In this section, as well as sect. 18, and sect. 33, those 
small vessels that sailed on the sea of Galilee, are called by 


Josephus Nyzrr, and Ilaoww, and X«xey, ¢. e. plainly, ships, 
eo that we need not wonder at our Evangelists, who sull 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


the king, and yet saw the whole ake full of 
ships, they were in fear what would become 
of their city, and were greatly terrified, as sup- 
posing that the ships were full of men on board, 
so they then changed their minds, and threw 
down their weapons, and met me with their 
wives and children, and made acclamations te 
me, with great commendations; for they ima- 
gined that I did not know their former inclina- 
tions [to have been against me;] so they persuad 
ed me to spare the city. But when I was com 
near enough, I gave order to the masters of th 
ships to cast anchor a good way off the land, tha 
the people of Tiberias might not perceive that 
the ships had no men on board; but I went near- 
er to the people in one of the ships, and rebuked 
them for their folly, and that they were so fickle 
as, Without any just occasion in the world, to re- 
volt from their fidelity to me. However, I assur- 
ed them that I would entirely forgive them for 
the time to come, if they would send ten of the 
ringleaders of the multitude to me; and when 
they complied readily with this proposal, and 
sent me the men forementioned, I put them 
on board a ship, and sent them away to 'Tar- 
icheze, and ordered them to be kept in prison. 
34. And by this stratagem it was that I 
gradually got all the senate of Tiberias inte my 
power, and sent them to the city foremen- 
tioned, with many of the principal men among 
the populace; and those not fewer in number 
than the other. But when the multitude saw 
into what great miseries they had brought them- 
selves, they desired me to punish the author of 
this sedition; his name was Clitus, a young 
man, bold and rash in his undertakings. Now 
since I thought it not agreeable to piety to put 
one of my own people to death, and yet found 
it necessary to punish him, I ordered Levi one 
of my own guards, to go to him, and cut off 
one of Clitus’s hands; but as he that was ordered 
to do this, was afraid to go out of the ship alone, 
among so greata multitude, I was not willing 
that the timorousness of the soldier should ap- 
pear to the people of Tiberias. So I called 
to Clitus himself, and said to him, “Since thou 
deservest to lose both thine hands, for thy in- 
gratitude to me, be thou thine own executionet, 
lest, if thou refusest so to be, thou undergo a 
worse punishment.” And, when he earnestly 
begged of me to spare him one of his hands, 
it was with difficulty that I granted it. ‘So in 
order to prevent the loss of both his hands, he 
willingly took his swoxd, and cut off his own 
left hand; and this put an end to the sedition. 
39. Now the men of Tiberias, after I was gone 
to Tarichez, perceived what stratagem [ had 
used against them, and they admired how I had 
put an end to their foolish sedition, without 
shedding of blood. But now, when I had sent 
for some of thosexmultitudes of the people of 
Tiberias out of prison, among whom were Jus- 
tus and his father Pistus, made them to sup 
with ine, and during our supper-time, I said to 
them, that I knew the power of the Romans 
call them ships, nor aught we to render them boats, as some 


do. Their number was in all 230, as we learn from our aw 
thor elsewhere; Of the War, B. ii. chap. xxi. eect. 8 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHAUS. 


was superior to all others, but did not say so 
[publicly] because of the robbers. So I ad- 
vised them to do as I did, and to wait for a pro- 

er opportunity, and not to be uneasy at my 
Rem their commander; for that they could not 
expect to have another who would use the like 
moderation that [had done. [I also put Justus 
tn mind how the Galileans had cut off his 
brother’s hands, before ever [ came to Jerusa- 
1m, upon an accusation laid against him, as if 
he had been a rogue, and had forged some let- 
ters; as also how the people of Gamala, in a 
sedition they raised against the Babylonians, 
after the departure of Philip, slew Chares, who 
was a kinsman of Philip, and withal how they 
had wisely punished Jesus, and his brother 
Justus’s sister’s husband [with death.] When 
I had said this to them during supper-time, I in 
the morning ordered Justus, and all the rest 
that were in prison, to be loosed out of it, and 
sent away. 

36. But before this, it happened that Philip, 
the son of Jacimus, went out of the citadel of 
Gamala upon the following occasion: when 
Philip had been informed that Varus was put 
~ out of his government by king Agrippa, and 
that Modius Equiculus, a man that was of old 
his friend and companion, was come to suc- 
ceed him, he wrote to him, and related what 
turns of fortune he had had, and desired him 
to forward the letters he had sent to the king 
and queen. Now when Modius had received 
these letters, he was exceeding glad, and sent 
the letters to the king and queen, who were 
then about Berytus. But when king Agrippa 
knew that the story about Philip was false, (for 
it had been given out, that the Jews had begun 
a war with the Romans, and that this Philip 
had been their commander in that war,) he 
sent some horsemen to conduct Philip to him, 
and, when he was come, he saluted him very 
obligingly, and showed him to the Roman com- 
manders, and told them that this was the man 
of whom the report had gone about as if he 
_ had revolted from the Romans. He also bid 
him take some horsemen with him, and to go 
quickly to the citadel of Gamala, and to bring 
out thence all his domestics, and to restore the 
Babylonians to Batanea again. He also gave 
it him in charge to take all possible care that 
none of his subjects should be guilty of mak- 
ing any innovation. Accordingly, upon these 
directions from the king, he made haste to do 
what he was commanded. 

37. Now there was one Joseph, the son of a 
female physician, who excited a great many 
reue men to join with him. He also inso- 
ently addressed himself to the principal per- 
sons at Gamala, and persuaded them to revolt 
from the king, and take up arms, and gave 
them hopes that they should, by his means, re- 
cover their liberty. And some they forced 
imto the service, and those that would not ac- 
quiesce in what they had resolved on, they 
slew. They also slew Chares, and with him 
Jesus, one of his kinsmen, and a brother of 
Justus of Tiberias, as we have already said. 
Those of Gamala also wrote to me, desiring 





13 


me to send them an armed force, and workmen 
to raise up the wall of their city; nor did I re- 
ject either of their requests. The region of 
Gaulonitis did also revolt from the king, as far 
as the village Solyma. I also built a wall 
about Seleucia and Soganni, which are villages 
naturally of very great strength. Moreover, I 
in like manner, walled several villages of Upper 
Galilee, though they were very rocky of them- 
selves. ‘Their names are Jamnia, and Meroth, 
and Achabare. I also fortified, in the Lower 
Galilee, the cities of Tarichez, Tiberias, Sep- 
phoris, and the villages, the cave of Arbela, 
Bersobe, Selamin, Jotapata, Caphareccho, and 
Sigo, and Japha, and Mount Tabor.* I also 
laid up a great quantity of corn in these places, 
and arms withal, that might be for their se- 
curity afterward. 

38. But the hatred that John, the son of Levi, 
bore to me, grew now more violent, while he 
could not bear my prosperity with patience. So 
he proposed to himself, by all means possible, to 
make away with me, and built the walls of Gis- 
chala, which was the place of his nativity. He 
then sent his brother Simon, and Jonathan the 
son of Sisenna, and about a hundred armed 
men, to Jerusalem, to Simon the son of Gama- 
liel,t in order to persuade him to induce the 
commonalty of Jerusalem to take from me the 
government over the Galileans, and to give their 
suffrages for conferring that authority upon him. 
This Simon was of the city of Jerusalem, and 
of avery noble family, of the sect of the Phari- 
sees, which are supposed to excel others in the 
accurate knowledge of the laws of their coun- 
try. He was aman of great wisdom and rea- 
son, and capable of restoring public affairs by his 
prudence, when they were in an ill posture. 
He was also an old friend and companion of 
John; but at that time he had a difference with 
me. When therefore he had received such an 
exhortation, he persuaded the high priests,Ana- 
nus, and Jesus the son of Gamala, and some 
others of the same seditious faction, to set me 
down, now I was growing so great, and not to 
overlook me while I was aggrandizing mys-lf 
to the height of glory; and he said, that it would 
be for the advantage of the Galileans, if I were 
deprived of my government there. Ananus also, 
and his friends, desired them to make no delay 
about the matter,lest I should get the knowledge 
of what was doing too soon, and should come and 
make an assault upon the city with a great ar- 
my. ‘This was the counsel of Simon; but Ana- 
nus the high priest demonstrated to them, that 
this was not an easy thing to be done, becatise 
many of the high priests, and of the rulers of 
the people, bore witness that I had acted lixe 
an excellent general, and that it was the work 
of ill men to accuse one against whom they 
had nothing to say. 

39. When Simon heard Ananus say this, he 


* Part of these fortifications on Mount Tabor may be 
those still remaining, and which were seen lately by Mz. 
Maundrel. See his Travels, p. 112. 

t This Gamaliel may be the very same that is mentioned 
by the rabbins in the Mishna, in Juchasin, and in Porta 
Mosis, as is observed in the Latin notes. He might be alee 
that Gamaliel II. whose grandfather was Gamaliel I. wre 
is mentioned Acts xxii. 3. See Prid. at the year 446, 


14 THE LIFE Or FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


desired that the messengers would conceal the 
thing, and not jet it come among many, for that 
he would take care to have Josephus removed 
out of Galilee very quickly. So he called for 
John’s brother, [Simon,] and charged him, that 
they should send presents to Ananus and his 
friends; for, as he said, they might probably by 
that means persuade them to change their 
minds. And indeed’Simon did at length thus 
compass what he aimed at, for Ananus, and 
those with him being corrupted by bribes, 
agreed to expel me out of Galilee, without 
making the rest of the citizens acquainted with 
what they were doing. Accordingly they re- 
solved to send men of distinction as to their 
families, and of distinction as to their learning 
also. ‘T'wo of these were of the populace, Jo- 
nathan* and Ananias, by sect of the Pharisees; 
while the third, Jozar, was of the stock of the 

riests, and a Pharisee also; and Simon, the 
ee of them, was of the youngest of the high 
priests. These had it given them in charge, 
that, when they were come to the multitude of 
the Galileans, they should ask them what was 
the reason of their love to me? and if they 
said, that it was because I was born at Jerusa- 
lem, they should reply, that they four were all 
born at the same place; and if they should say, 
it was because I was well versed in their law, 
they should reply, that neither were they un- 
acquainted with the practices of their country; 
out if, besides these, they should say, they loved 
me because I was a priest, they should reply, 
that two of these were priests also. 

40. Now, when they had given Jonathan and 
his companions these instructions, they gave 
them forty thousand [drachme] out of the 
public money: but when they heard that there 
was a certain Galilean that then sojourned at 
Jerusalem, whose name was Jesus, who had 
about him’a band of six hundred armed men, 
they sent for him, and gave him three months’ 
pay, and gave him orders to follow Jonathan 
and his companions, and be obedient to them. 
They also gave money to three hundred men 
that were citizens of Jerusalem, to maintain 
them all, and ordered them also to follow the 
ambassadors; and when they had complied, 
and were gotten ready for the march, Jonathan 
and his companions went out with them, 
having along with them John’s brother, and a 
bundred armed men. The charge that was 

iven them by those that sent them was this, 

at if I would voluntarily lay down my arms, 
they should send me alive to the city Jerusa- 
lem; but that in case I opposed them, they 
should kill me, and fear nothing, for that it was 
their command for them so to do. They also 
wrote to John to make all ready for fighting 
me, and gave order to the inhabitants of Sep- 
phoris, and Gabara, and Tiberias, to send 
auxiliaries to John. 

41. Now, as my father wrote me an account 
of this, (for Jesus, the son of Gamala, who was 
present in that council, a friend and companion 


* This Jonathan is also taken notice of in the Latin notes, 
ag the same that is mentioned by the rabbins in Porta 


of mine, told him of it,) I was very mueb 
troubled, as discovering thereby, that my fel 
low-citizens proved so ungrateful to me, as, 
out of envy, to give order that I should be 
slain; my father earnestly pressed me also in 
his letter to come to him, for that he longed to 
see his son before he died. I informed my 
friends of these things, and that in three days’ 
time I should leave the country, and go home. 
Upon hearing this they were all very sorry, and 
desired me, with tears in their eyes, not to leave 
them to be destroyed; for so they thought hey 
should be, if I were deprived of the comman 
over them: but as I did not grant their request 
but was taking care of my own safety, the 
Galileans, out of their dread of the conse- 
quences of my departure, that they should then 
be at the mercy of the robbers, sent messen- 
gers over all Galilee to inform them of my 
resolution to leave them. Whereupon, as soon 
as they heard it, they got together in great num- 
bers, from all parts, with their wives and chil- 
dren; and as they did, as it appeared to me, not 
more out of their affection to me, than out of 
their fear on their own account; for while I 
staid with them, they supposed that they should 
suffer no harm. So they all came into the 
great plain, wherein I lived, the name of which 
was Asochis. 

42. But wonderful it was what a dream I 
saw that very night; for when I had betaken 
myself to my bed, as grieved and disturbed at 
the news that had been written to me, it seem- 
ed to me, that a certain person stood by me,*®* 
and said, “O Josephus! leave off to afflict thy 
soul, and put away all fear; for what now 
grieves thee will render thee very considerable, 
and in all respects most happy; for theu shalt 
get over not only these difficulties, but many 
others, with great success. However, be not 
cast down, but remember that thou art to fight 
with the Romans.” When I had seen this 
dream, I got up with an intention of going 
down to the plain. Now when the whole 
multitude of the Galileans, among: whom were 
the women and children, saw me, they threw 
themselves down upon their faces, and, with 
tears in their eyes, besought me not to leave 
them exposed to their enemies, nor to go away 
and permit their country to be injured by them, 
But when I did not comply with their en- 
treaties, they compelled me to take an oath, 
that I would stay with them: they also cast 
abundance of reproaches upon the people of 
Jerusalem, that they would not let their country 
enjoy peace. 


43. When I heard this, and saw what sorrow . 
the people were in, | was moved with compas- — 


sion to them, and thought it became me to un- 
dergo the most manifest hazards for the sake 
of so great a multitude; so I let them know 1 
would stay with them. And when I had given 
order that five thousand of them should come 
to me armed, and with provisions for their 

* This [take to be the first of Josephus’s remarkable or 
divine dreams, which were predictive of the great things 
that afterwards came to pass: of which see more in the note 


on Antiq. B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9. The other isin the Was 
B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 3, 9, ; 


ae ee 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 


18 


maintenance, [ sent the rest away to their own | friends to stay, and ordered my servant to get 
homes; and when those five thousand were |some wine ready. I also opened the letter 


come, I took them, together with three thou- 
sand of the soldiers that were with me before, 
and eighty horsemen, and marched to the vil- 
lage of Chabolo, situated in the confines of 
Ptolemais, and there kept my forces together, 
pretending to get ready to fight with Placidus, 
who was come with two cohorts of footmen, 
and one troop of horsemen, and was sent 
thither by Cestius Gallus, to burn those villages 
of Galilee that were near Ptolemais. Upon 
whose casting up a bank before the city Ptole- 
mais, I also pitched my camp at about the 
distance of sixty furlongs from that village. 
And now we frequently brought out our forces 
as if we would fight, but proceeded no farther 
than skirmishes at a distance; for when Placi- 
dus perceived that I was earnest to come to a 
battle, he was afraid, and avoided it. Yet he 
did not remove from the neighborhood of 
Ptolemais. 

44, About this time it was that Jonathan and 
his fellow-legates came. ‘They were sent, as 
we have said already, by Simon, and Ananus 
the high priest. And Jonathan contrived how 
he might catch me by treachery; for he durst 
not make any attempt upon me openly. So 
he wrote me the following epistle: “Jonathan, 
and those that are with him, and are sent by 
the people of Jerusalem, to Josephus, send 
greeting: We are sent by the principal men 


“of Jerusalem, who have heard that John of 


contain a great number of soldiers.” 


Gischala hath laid many snares for thee, to 


-rebuke him, and to exhort him to be subject to 
~ thee hereafter. 


Weare also desirous to consult 
with thee about our common concerns, and 
what is fit to be done. We therefore desire 
thee to come to us quickly, and to bring only a 
few men with thee, for this village will not 
Thus it 
was that they wrote, as expecting one of these 
two things, either that I should come with- 
out armed men, and then they should have me 
wholly in their power; or, if I came with a 


» great number, they should judge me to be a 


pave enemy. Now it was a horseman who 
rought the letter, a man at other times bold, 
and one that had served in the army under the 
king. It was the second hour of the night 


that he came, when I was feasting with my 


friends, and the principal of the Galileans. 
This man, upon my servant’s telling me, that a 
certain horseman of the Jewish nation was 
come, was called in at my command, but did 
not so much as salute me at all, but held out a 


letter, and said, “This letter is sent thee by 


thuse that are come from Jerusalem. Do thou 
write an answer to it quickly, for I am obliged 
to return to them very soon.” Now my guests 


_ could not but wonder at the boldness of the | 
soldier. 


But I desired him to sit down and 
sup with us; but when he refused so to do, I 


aeld the letter in my hands as I received it, 


and fell a talking with my guests about other 
matters, But a few hours afterward, I got up, 
and, when I had lismissed the rest to go to 


their beds, I bid only four of my intimate 


so that nobody could perceive it; and, un- 
derstanding thereby presently the purport of 
the writing, I sealed it up again, and appeared 
as if I had not yet read it, but only held it in 
my hands. I ordered twenty drachme should 
be given the soldier, for the charges of his 
journey; and when he took the money, and 
said he thanked me for it, 1 perceived that he 
loved money, and that he was to be caugh 
chiefly by that means, and I said to him, “If 
thou, wilt but drink with us, thou shalt have a 
drachmee for every glass thou drinkest.” So 
he gladly embraced this -proposal, and drank 
a great deal of wine, in order to get the more 
money, and was so drunk that at last he could 
not keep the secrets he was entrusted with, but 
discovered them, without my putting questions 
to him, viz. that a treacherous design was con- 
trived against me, and that I was doomed te 
die by those that sent him. When I heard this, 
I wrote back this answer: “Josephus to Jona- 
than and those that are with him, sendeth 
greeting: Upon the information that you are 
come in health into Galilee, I rejoice, and this 
especially, because I can now resign the care 
of public affairs here to your hands, and re- 
turn into my native country, which is what I 
have desired to do a great while; and I confess 
I ought not only to come to you as far as Xa- 
loth, but farther, and this without your com- 
mands. But I desire you to excuse me, be- 
cause | cannot do it now, since I watch the 
motions of Placidus, who hath a mind to go up 
into Galilee; and this I do here at Chabolo. 
Do you therefore, on the receipt of this epistle 
come hither to me. Fare you well.” 

45. When I had written thus, and given the 
letter to be carried by the soldier, I sent along 
with him thirty of the Galileans of the best cha- 
racters, and gave them instructions to salute 
those ambassadors, but to say nothing else te 
them. [also gave orders to as many of those 
armed men, whom I esteemed most faithful to 
me, to go along with the others, every one with 
him whom he was to guard, lest some conversa- 
tion might pass between those whom [ sent and 
those that were with Jonathan. So these men 
went [to Jonathan.] But, when Jonathan and 
his partners had failed in this their first attempt, 
they sent me another letter, the contents where- 
of were as follows: “Jonathan and those with 
him, to Josephus, send greeting: We require 
thee to come to us to the village Gabaroth, on 
the third day, without any armed men, that we » 
may hear what thou hast to lay to the charge of 
John [ot Gischala.”] When they had written 
this letter, they saluted the Galileans whom | 
sent, and came to Japha, which was the largest 
village of all Galilee, and encompassed with 
very strong walls, and had a great number of 
inhabitants in it. There the multitude of men 
with their wives and children met them, and 
exclaimed loudly against them, and desired 
them to be gone, and not to envy them the 
advantage of an excellent commander. With 
these clamors, Jonathan and his partners were 


1G THE LIFE OF F 


greatly provoked, although they durst not show 
their anger openly; so they made them no an- 
ewer, but went to other villages. But still the 
same clamors met them from all the people, 
who said,“Nobody should persuade them to 
have any other commander besides Josephus.” 
So Jonathan and his partners went away from 
them without success, and came to Sepphoris, 
the greatest city of all Galilee. Now the men 
of that city who inclined to the Romans in 
their sentiments, met them indeed, but neither 
praised nor reproached me; and when they 
were gone down from Sepphoris to Asochis, 
the people of that place made aclamor against 
them, as those of Japha had done. Where- 
upon they were able to contain themselves 
no longer, but ordered the armed men that were 
with them to beat those that made the clamor 
with their clubs. And when they came to Ga- 
bara, John met them, with three thousand arm- 
ed men; but,as I understood by thew letter, 
that they had resolved to fight against me, I 
arose from Chabolo, with three thousand arm- 
ed men also, but left in my camp one of my 
fastest friends, and came to Jotapata, as desir- 
ous to be near them, the distance being no more 
than forty furlongs. Whence I wrote thus to 
them: “If you are very desirous that I should 
come to you, you know there are two hundred 
and forty cities and villages in Galilee, I will 
come to any of them which you please, except- 
ing Gabara and Gischala; the one of which is 
John’s native city, and the other in confederacy 
and friendship with him.” 

46. When Jonathan and his partners had re- 
ceived this letter, they wrote meno more an- 
swers, but called a council of their friends to- 
gether, and taking John into their consultation, 
they took counsel together by what means they 
might attack me. John’s opinion was, that 
they should write to all the cities and villages 
that were in Galilee; for that there must be 
certainly one or two persons in every one of 
them that were at variance with me, and that 
they should be invited to come to oppose me as 
an enemy. He would also have them send 
this resolution of theirs to the city Jerusalem, 
that its citizens, upon the knowledge of my be- 
ing adjudged to be an enemy by the Galileans, 
might themselves also confirm that determina- 
tion. He said also, that when this was done, 
even those Galileans who were well affected to 
me would desert me out of fear. When John 
had given them this counsel, what he had said 
was very agreeable to the rest of them. I was 
also made acquainted with these affairs about 
the third hour of the night, by the means of 
ane Saccheus, who hvd belonged to them, but 
now deserted them and came over to me, and 
told me what they were about; so I perceived 
that no time was to be lost. Accordingly I 
gave command to Jacob, an armed man of my 
guard, whom I esteemed faithful to me, to take 
two hundred men, and to guard the passages 
that led from Gabara to Galilee, and to seize 
upon the passengers, and send them to me, es- 
pecially such as were caught with letters about 
them: I also sent Jeremias himself, one of my ! 


LUAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


friends, with six hundred armed men, to the 
borders of Galilee, in order to watch the roads, 
that led from this country to the city Jerusalem, 
and gave him charge to lay hold of such as 
travelled with letters about them, to keep the 
men in bonds upon the place, but to send me 
the letters. 

47. When I had laid these commands upon 
them, I gave them orders, and bid them to take 
their arms and bring three days’ provision with 
then, and be with me the next day. I also 
parted those that were about me into four parts, 
and ordained those of them that were the most 
faithful to be a guard to my body. I also 
set over them centurions, and commanded them 
to take care that nota soldier whom they did 
not know should mingle himself among them. 
Now on the fifth day following, when I was ‘in 
Gabaroth, I found the entire plain that was be- 
fore the village full of armed men, who were 
come out of Galilee to assist me; many others 
of the multitude also, out of the village, ran 
along with me. But as soon as I had taken 
my place, and began to speak to them, they all 
made an acclamation, and called me tle bene- 
factor and savior of the country. And when I 
had made them my acknowledgments, and 
thanked them, [for their affection to me,] I alse 
advised them to fight* with nobody, nor to 
spoil the country; but to pitch their tents in the 
plain, and be content with the sustenance they 
had brought with them; for I told them that I 
had a mind to compose these troubles without 
shedding any blood. Now it came to pass, that 
on the very same day those who were sent by 
John with letters, fell among the guards whom 
{ had appointed to watch the roads; so the men 
were themselves kept upon the place, as my 
orders were, but I got the letters, which were 
full of reproaches and lies: and I intended to 
fall upon these men without saying a word of 
these matters to any body. 

48. Now assoon as Jonathan and his compa- 
nions heard of my coming, they took all their 
own friends, and Jobn with them, and retired 
to the house of Jesus, which indeed was a large 
castle, and no wav unlike a citadel; so they pri- 
vately laid a band of armed men therein, and 
shut all the ovner doors but one, which they 
kept open; and they expected that I should 
come out of the roadto them, tosalute them. 
And indeed they had given orders to the armed 
men, that when I came they should let nobody ~ 
besides me come in, but should exclude others; 
as supposing that, by this means, they should 
easily get me under their power: but they were 
deceived in their expectation; for I perceived 
what snares they had laid for me. Now as 
soon as I was got off my journey, I took up 
my lodgings over against them, and pretended 
to be asleep; so Jonathan and his party, think. 
ing that I was really asleep, and at rest, made 


* Josephus’s directions to his soldiers here are much the 
same that John the Baptist gave, Luke iii. 14, “Do violence 
to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with 
your wages.”? Whence Dr. Hudson confirms this conjecture 
that Josephus, in some things, was, even now, 8 follower 
of John the Baptist; which is no way improbable. Ser 
the mote on sect. 2. 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


haste to go down into the plain, to persuade the 
people that I was an ill governor. But the 
matter proved otherwise, for upon their appear- 
ance, there was a cry made by the Galileans 
immediately, declaring their good opinion of 
me as their governor; and they made a clamor 
against Jonathan and his partners, for coming 
to them when they had suffered no harm, and 
as though they would overturn their happy 
settlement; and desired them by all means to 
go back again, for that they would never be 
persuaded to have any other to rule over them 
but myself. When I heard ofthis, I did not fear 
to go down into the midst of them; I went 
therefore myself down presently to hear what 
Jonathan and his companions said. As soon 
as I appeared, there was immediately an accla- 
ination made to me bythe whole multitude, 
and acry in my commendation by them, who 
confessed their thanks were owing to me for 
my good government of them. 

49. When Jonathan and his companions 
heard this, they were in fear of their own lives, 
and in danger lest they should be assaulted by 
the Galileans on my account; so they contrived 
how they mightrun away. Butas they were 
not able to get off, for I desired them to stay, 
they looked down with concern at my words 
to them. I ordered, therefore, the multitude 
to restrain entirely their acclamations, and 
placed the most faithful of my armed men 
upon the avenues, to be a guard to us, lest 
John should unexpectedly fall upon us; and 
[ encouraged the Galileans to take their wea- 
pons, lest they should be disturbed at their 
enemies, if any sudden assault should be made 
uponthem. And then, in the first place, I put 
Jonathan and his partners in mind of their 
Satie letter, and after what manner they 

ad written to me, and declared they were sent 
by the common consent of the people of Jeru- 
salem, to make up the differences [ had with 
. John, and how they had desired me to come to 
them; and as I spake thus, I publicly showed 
that letter they had written, till they could not 
at all deny what they had done, the letter itself 
convicting them. [ then said, “O Jonathan, 
and you that are sent with him as his col- 
leagues, if I were to be judged as to my be- 
havior, compared with that of John’s, and had 
brought no more than two* or three witnesses, 
Sade men and true, itis plain you had been 

orced, uponthe examination of their charac- 
ters beforehand, to discharge the accusations; 
that therefore you may be informed that I have 
acte1 well in the affairs of Galilee, I think 
three witnesses too few to be brought by aman 
that hath done as he ought to do; sol give you 
all these for witnesses. Inquire of them} how 


“ We here learn the practice of the Jews, in the days of 
J osepnus, to inquire into the characters of witnesses, before 
they were admitted, and that their number ought to be three, 
or two at the least, also exactly asin the law of Moses, and 
in the Apostolical Constitutions, B. ii. ch. xxxvii. See 
Horeb Covenant Revived, page 97, 98. 

{ This appeal to the whole body of the Galileans by Jo- 
sep)izs, and the testimony they gave him of integrity in his 
conduct, as their governor, is very like that appeal and tes- 
tumony in the case of the prophet Samuel, | Sam. xii 1—5, 
ead perhaps was done by Josephus im unianon of him. 


3 


r"? 


I have lived, and whether I have not vehaved 
myself with all decency, and after a virtuous 
manner among them. And I further con- 
jure you, O GaliJeans, to hide no part of the 
truth, but to speak before these men as before 
judges, whether I have in any thing acted 
otherwise than well.” 

50. While I was thus speaking, the united 
voices of all the people joined together, and 
called me their benefactor and savior, and at- 
tested to my former behavior, and exhorted me 
to continue so to do hereafter; and they all said, 
upon their oaths, that their wives had been 
preserved free from injuries, and that no one 
had ever been aggrieved by me. After this, 
I read to the Galileans two of those epistles 
which had been sent by Jonathan and his eal- 
leagues, and which those whom I had appoi t- 
ed to guard the road had taken, and sent to n € 
These were full of reproaches and of lies, 
if I had acted more like a tyrant than a gover 1- 
or against them, with many other things besid es 
therein contained, which were no better inde *d 
than impudent falsities. I also informed t ie 
multitude how I came by these letters, aid 
that those who carried them delivered them) ip 
voluntarily; for I was not willing that my er e- 
mies should know any thing of the guards | 
had set, lest they should be afraid, and leave 
off writing hereafter. 

51. When the multitude heard these thinjss, 
they were greatly provoked at Jonathan, aid 
his colleagues that were with him, and were 
going to attack them and kill them; and this 
they had certainly done, unless I had restrain- 
ed the anger of the Galileans, and said, tat 
“I forgave Jonathan and his colleagues w} at 
was past, if they would repent, and go to their 
own country, and tell those who sent them t 16 
truth, as to my conduct.” Whenl had sad 
this, I let them go, although I knew they would 
do nothing of what they had promised. But 
the multitude were very much enraged against 
them, and entreated me to give them leave te 
punish them for their insolence; yet did I try 
all methods to persuade them to spare the men, 
for I knew that every instance of sedition was 
pernicious to the public welfare. But the multi- 
tude were too angry with them to be dissuaded, 
and all of them went immediately to the house 
in which Jonathan and his colleagues abode, 
However, when I perceived that their rage 
could not be restrained, I got on horseback, and 
ordered the multitude to follow me to the vil- 
lage Sogane, which was twenty furlongs off 
Gabara; and by using this stratagem, I so man- 
aged myself, as not to appear to begin a civil 
war among therm. 

52. But when I was come near Sogay e | 
caused the multitude to make a halt, and ex- 
horted them not to be so easily provoked to ans 
ger, and to the inflicting such punishments as 
could not be afterward recalled; [also gave or- 
der, that a hundred men who were already in 
years, and were principal men among cin 
should get themselves ready to go to the city 0 
Jerusalem, and should make a complaint be- 
fore the people, of such as raised seditions im 


18 


the country. And I said to them, that “in case 
they be moved with what you say, you shall 
desire the community to write to me, and to en- 
join me to continue in Galilee, and to order 
Neneh and his colleagues to depart out of it.” 
When I had suggested these instructions to 
them, and while they were getting themselves 
ready as fast as they could, I sent them on this 
errand on the third day after they had been 
assembled; I also sent five hundred armed men 
with them [as a guard.] I then wrote to my 
friends in Samaria, to take care that they might 
safely pass through the country: for Samaria 
was already under the Romans, and it was ab- 
solutely necessary for those that go quickly [to 
Jerusalem] to pass through that country; for in 
that road you may, in three days’ time, go from 
Galilee to Jerusalem. I also went myself, and 
conducted the old men as far as the bounds of 
Galilee, and set guards in the roads; that it might 
not be easily known by any one that these men 
were gone. And when I had thus done, I 
event and abode at Japha. 

53. Now Jonathan and his colleagues having 
failed of accomplishing what they would have 
done against me, they sent John back to Gis- 
chala, but went themselves to the city ‘Tiberias, 
expecting it would submit itself to them; and 
this was fuunded on a letter which Jesus, their 
then governor, had written them, promising 
that if they came, the multitude would receive 
them and chose to be under their government; 
so they went their ways with this expectation. 
But Silas, who, as I said, had been left curator 
of Tiberias by me, informed me of this, and de- 
sired me to make haste thither. According- 
ly I complied with his advice immediately, 
and came thither, but found myself in danger 
of my life from the following occasion: Jo- 
nathan and his colleagues had been at Tiberias, 
and had persuaded a great many of such as 
bad a quarrel with me to desert me; but when 
they heard of my coming they were in fear 
for themselves, and came to me, and when they 
bad saluted me, they said, that I was a happy 
man in having behaved myself so well in the 
government of Galilee; aud they congratulated 
me upon the honors that were paid me; for 
they said, that my glory was a credit to them, 
mince they had been my teachers and fellow 
eitizens; and they suid farther, that it was but 
just that they should prefer my friendship to 
them rather than John’s, and that they would 
have unimediately gone home,but that they staid 
that they might deliver up Jolin into my power; 
and when they said this they took their oaths 
of it, and those such as are most tremendous 
amongst us, and such as [ did not think fit to 
disbelieve. However, they desired me to lodge 
somewhere else; because the next day was the 
Sabbath, and that it was not fit the city of Ti- 
berias should be disturbed [on that day.] 

54. So I suspected nothing, and went away 
to Tarichez; yet did I withal leave some to 
mace inquiry in the city how matters went, 
and whether any thing was said about me; I 
also set any persons all the way that led from 
Tarichee to Tiberias that they might commn- 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


nicate from one to another, if they learned any 
news from those that were left in the city. On 
the next day, therefore, they all came into the 
Proseucha;* it was a large edifice, and capable 
of receiving a great number of people: thither 
Jonathan went in, and though he durst not 
openly speak of a revolt, yet did he say that 
their city stood in need of a better governor 
than it then had. But Jesus, who was the 
ruler, made no scruple to speak out, and said 
openly, “O fellow-citizens! it is better for you 
to be in subjection to four than to one; and 
those such as are of high birth, and not with- 
out reputation for their wisdom;” and pointed 
to Jonathan and his colleagues. Upon his 
saying this, Justus came in and commended 
him for what he had said, and persuaded some 
of the people to be of his mind also. But the 
multitude were not pleased with what was ~ 
said, and had certainly gone into a tumult, un- 
less the sixth hour which was now come had 
dissolved the assembly, at which hour our law 
requires us to go to dinner on Sabbath-days: so 
Jonathan and his colleagues put off their 
council till the next day, and went off without 
success. When I was informed of these af- 
fairs, [ determined to go to the city of Tibe- 
rias in the morning. Accordingly, on the next 
day, about the first hour of the day, 1 came © 
to ‘Tiberias, and found the multitude al- 
ready assembled in the Proseucha; but on 
what account they had gotten together, those 
that were assembled did not know. But when 
Jonathan and his colleagues saw me there un- 
expectedly, they were in disorder; after which 
they raised a report of their own contrivance, 
that Roman horsemen were seen at a place 
called Union, in the borders of Galilee, thirty 
furlongs distant from the city. Upon which 
report Jonathan and his colleagues cunningly 
exhorted me not to neglect this matter, nor to 
suffer the land to be spoiled by the enemy. 
And this they said with a design to remove me 
out of the city, under the pretence of the wam 
of extraordinary assistance, while they might 
dispose the city to be my enemy. 
50. As for myself, although I knew of their 


design, yet did I comply with what they pro- 
posed, lest the people of Tiberias should have - 


occasion to suppose, that I was not careful of 
their security. I therefore went out; but when 
I was at the place, [ found not the least foot- 
steps of any enemy, so I returned as fast as 
ever I could, and found the whole council as- 
sembled, and the body of the people gotten 
together, and Jonathan and his colleagues 
bringing vehement accusations against me, as 
one who had no concern to ease them of the 
burdens of war, and as one that lived luxu- 
riously. And as they were discoursing thus, 
they produced four letters as written to them, 
from some people that lived at the borders ef 

* Itis worth noting here that there was now a great Pro- 
seucha, or place of prayer, in the city Tiberias itself, though 
such Proseucha used to be out of cities, as the synagogues 
were within them; of them see Le Moyne on Polycarp’s 
epistle, page 76. [tis also worth our remark, that the Jews 
in the days of Josephus used to dine at the sixth hour of 


noon; and that in obedience to their notions of the law ef 
Moses also. 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


Galilee, umploring that they would come to 
their assistance, fo. that there was an army of 
Romans, both ho:semen and footmen, who 
would come and lay waste the country on the 
third day; they desired them also to make 
haste, and not to overlook them. When the 
people of ‘Tiberias heard this, they thought 
they spake truth, and made a clamor against 
me, and said, I ought not to sit still, but to go 
away to the assistance of their countrymen. 
Hlereupon I said, (for [ understood the mean- 
ing of Jonathan and his colleagues,) that I was 
ready to comply with what they proposed, and 
without delay to march to the war which they 
spake of; yet did I advise them, at the same 
time, that since these letters declared that the 
Romans would make their assault in four 
several places, they should part their forces 
into five bodies, and make Jonathan and his 
colleagues generals of each body of them, be- 
cause it was fit for brave men, not only to give 
counsel, but to take the place of leaders, and 
assist their countrymen when such a necessity 
pressed them; for, said I, it is not possible for 
me to lead more than one party. This advise 
of mine greatly pleased the multitude; so they 
compelled them to go forth to the war. But 
their designs were put into very much disor- 
der, because they had not done what they had 
designed to do, on account of my stratagem, 
which was opposite to their undertakings. 

06. Now there was one, whose name was 
Ananias, a wicked man he was, and very mis- 
-chievous: he proposed that a general religious 
fast* should be appointed the next day, for all 
the people, and gave order that at the same 
hour they should come to the same place 
without any weapons, to make it manifest be- 
fore God, that while they obtained his assist- 
ance they thought all these weapons useless. 
This he said, not out of piety, but that they 
might catch me and my friends unarmed. 

Now I was hereupon forced to comply, lest 
{ should appear to despise a proposal that 
tended to piety. As soon, therefore, as we 
were gone home, Jonathan and _ his colleagues 
wrote to John, to come to them in the morn- 
ing, and desiring him to’come with as many 
soldiers as he possibly could, for that they 
should then be able easily to get me into their 
hands, and to do all they desired to do. When 
John had received this letter, he resolved to 
comply with it. As for myself, on the next 
day, I ordered two of the guards of my body, 
whom I esteemed the most courageous, and 
most faithful, to hide daggers under their gar- 
ments, and to go along with me, that we might 
defend ourselves, if any attack should be made 
upon us by our enemies. [ also myself took 
my breast-plate, and girded on my sword, so 
that it might be,.as far as it was possible, con- 
cealed, and came into the Proseucha. 

57. Now Jesus, who was the ruler, command- 
ed that they should exclude all that came with 
mz, for he kept the door himself, and suffered 

- mone but his friends to go in. And while we 


* One may observe here, that this lay Pharisee Ananias, 
as we have seen he was, sect. 39, took upon him to appoint 


them whether I told a lie or not. 


19 


were engaged in the duties of the day, and had 
betaken ourselves to our prayers, Jesus got up, 
and inquired of me what was become of the 
vessels that were taken out of the king’s palace, 
when it was burnt down, [and] of that uncoin- 
ed silver; and in whose possession they now 
were? ‘This he said in order to drive away 
time till John should come. I said that Ca- 
pellus, and the ten principal men of Tiberias, 
had them all, and I told him that he might ask 
And when 
they said they had them, he asked me, what is 
become of those twenty pieces of gold which 
thou didst receive upon the sale of a certain 
weight of uncoined money? I replied, that I 
had given them to those ambassadors of theirs, 
as a maintenance for them, when they were 
sent by them to Jerusalem. So Jonathan and 
his colleagues said, that I had not done well to 
pay the ambassadors out of the public money. 
And when the multitude were very angry at 
them for this, for they perceived the wicked- 
ness of the men, I understood that a tumult was 
going to arise; and being desirous to provoke 
the people to a greater rage against the men, I 
said, “Butif I have not done well in paying our 
ambassadors out of the public stock, leave off 
your anger at me, for I will repay the twenty 
pieces of gold myself.” 

58. When I had said this, Jonathan and his 
celleagues held their peace; but the people 
were still more irritated against them, upon 
their openly showing their unjust ill-will to me. 
When Jesus saw this change in the people, he 
ordered them to depart, but desired the senate 
to stay; for that they could not examine things 
of such a nature ina tumult; and asthe people 
were crying out that they would not leave me 
alone, there came one and told Jesus and his 
friends privately, that John and his armed men 
were at hand; whereupon Jonathan and his 
colleagues, being able to contain themselves no 
longer, (and perhaps the providence of God 
hereby procuring my deliverance; for had not 
this been so, I had certainly been destroyed by 
John,) said, “O you people of Tiberias, leave 
off this inquiry about the twenty pieces of gold; 
for Josephus hath not deserved to die for them, 
but he hath deserved it by his desire of tyran- 
nizing and by cheating the multitude of the 
Galileans with his speeches, in order to gain the 
dominion over them.” When he had said this, 
they presently laid hands upon me, and en- 
deavored to kill me; but, as soon as those .hat 
were with me saw what they did, they drew 
their swords, and threatened to smite them, if 
they offered any violence to me. The people 
also took up stones, and were about to throw 
them at Jonathan; and so they snatched me 
from the violence of my enemies. 

59. But, as I was gone out a litte way, 1] 
was just upon meeting John, who was march- 
ing with his armed men. So I was afraid of 
him and turned aside, and escaped by a nar- 
row passage to the lake, and seized on a shi 
and embarked in it, and sailed over to Tan 


afast at Tiberias, and was obeyed; though indeed it wae 
not outof religion, but Knavish policy. 


‘20 
cher. So, beyond my expectation, I escaped 
this danger. Whereupon I presently sent for 
the chief of the Galileans, and told them after 
what manner, against all faith given, I had been 
very near to destruction from Jonathan and his 
colleagues, and the people of Tiberias. Upon 
which the multitude of the Galileans were very 
angry, and encouraged me to delay no longer 
to make war upon them, but to permit them to 
go against John, and utterly to destroy him, as 
well as Jonathan and his colleagues. How- 
ever, I restrained them, though they were in 
such a rage, and desired them to tarry awhile, 
till we should be informed what orders those 
ambassadors that were sent by them to the 
city of Jerusalem, should bring thence; for I 
told them that it was best for them to act ac- 
cording to their determination: whereupon 
they were prevailed on. At which time also, 
John, when the snares he had laid did not take 
effect, returned back to Gischala. 

60. Now in a few «days those ambassadors 
whoin we had sent, came back again and in- 
formed us, that the people were greatly pro- 
voked at Ananus, and Simon the son of Ga- 
maliel, and their friends; that without any pub- 
lic determination, they had sent to Galilee, and 
had done their endeavors that [ might be turn- 
ed out of the government. The ambassadors 
said farther, that the people were ready to burn 
their houses. They also brought letters, where- 
by the chief men of Jerusalem, at the earnest 
petition of the people, confirmed me in the 
government of Galilee, and enjoined Jonathan 
and his colleagues to return home quickly. 
When I had gotten these letters, 1 came to the 
village Arbela, where I procured an assembly 
of the Galileans to meet, and bid the ambas- 
gadors to declare to the:n the anger of the peo- 

le of Jerusalem at what had been done by 
Riise and his colleagues, and how much 
thev hated their wicked doings, and how they 
ha: confirmed me in the government of their 
country; as also what related to the order they 
ha! in writing for Jonathan and his colleagues 
to return home. So I immediately sent them 
the letter, and bid him that carried it to inquire, 
ag well as he could, how they intended to act 
{on this occasion.] 

61. Now when they had received that letter, 
an were thereby greatly disturbed, they sent 
for John and for the senators of Tiberias, and 
for the principal men of the Gabarens, and pro- 
posed to hold a council, and desired them to 
consider what was to be done by them. How- 
ever the governors of Tiberias were greatly dis- 
posed to keep the govermmnent to themselves; 
for they said it was not fit to desert their city 
fow it was committed to their trust, and that 
otherwise I should not delay to fall upon them; 
for they pretende. falsely that so I had threaten- 
edtodo. Now John was not only of their opin- 
ion, but advised thein that two of them should 
go to accuse me before the multitude, [at Jeru- 
galem,] that I did not manage the affairs of Gal- 
ilee as [ought to do, and that they would easily 
persuade the people, because of their dignity, 
and because the whole multitude are very mu- 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


table. When therefore it appeared that John 
had suggested the wisest advice to them, they 
resolved that two of them, Jonathan and Ana- 
nias, should go to the people of Jerusalem, and 
the other two [Simon and Joazar| should be left 
behind to tarry at Tiberias. They also took 
along with them a nundred soldiers for their 
guard. 

62. However, the governors of Tiberias took 
care to have their city secured with walls, and 
commanded their inhabitants to take their arms, 
They also sent for a great many soldiers from 
John to assist them against me, if there should 
be occasion for them. Now John was at Gis 
chala. Jonathan, therefore, and those that were 
with him, when they were departed from Tibe- 
rias, «nd as soon as they were come to Dabaritta, 
a village that lay in the utmost parts of Galilee, in 
the great plain, they about midnight fell pane 
the guards I had set, who both commande 
them to lay aside their weapons, and kept 
them in bonds upon the place, as I had charged 
them to do. This news was written to me by 
Levi, who had the command of that guard com- 
mitted to him by me. Hereupon I said nothing 
of it for two days; and pretended to know 
nothing about it, [sent a messenger to the peo- 
ple of Tiberias, and advised them to lay their 
arms aside, and to dismiss their men, that they. 
might go home. But supposing that Jonathan, 
and those that were with him, were already 
arrived at Jerusalem, they made reproachful 
answers to me; yet was I not terrified thereby 
but contrived another stratagemn against them; 
for [ did not-think it agreeable with piety to 
kindle the fire of war against the citizens. As 
[ was desirous to draw those men away from 
Tiberias, [ chose out ten thousand of the best 
of my armed men and divided them into three 
bodies, and ordered them to go privately, and 
lie still as an ambush, in the villages. I also led 
a thousand into another village, which lay in- 
deed in the mountains, as did the others, but 
only four furlongs distant from Tiberias, and 
gave order, that when they saw my signal, 
they should come down immediately; while I 
myself lay with my soldiers in the sight of eve- 
ry body. Hereupon the people of ‘Tiberias, at 
the sight of me, came running out of the city 
perpetually, and abused me greatly. Nay their 
madness was come to that height, that they 
made a decent bier for me, and standing about 
it, they mourned over me in the way of jest 
and sport; and [I could not but be myself in a 
pleasant humor upon the sight of this mad- 
ness of thetrs. 

63. And now, being desirous to catch Simon 
by a wile, and Joazar with him, I sent a mes- 
sage to them, and desired them to come a little 
way out of the city, with many of their friends 
to guard them; for I said I would come down 
to them, and make a league with them, and — 
divide the government of Galilee with them. 
Accordingly Simon was deluded on account 
of his imprudence, and out of the hopes of 
gain, and did not delay to come; but Joazar 
suspecting snares were laid for him, staid be- 
hind. So when Simon was come out, and hia 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


friends with him for his guard, I met him, and 
- saluted him with great civility, and professed 
that I was obliged to him for his coming up to 
me; but a little while afterward I walked along 
with him, as though I would say something to 
him by himself, and, when I had drawn him a 
good way from his friends, I took him about 
the middle, and gave him to my friends that 
were with me, to carry him into a village; and, 
commanding my armed men to come down, I 
with them made an assault upon Tiberias. 
Now as the fight grew hot on both sides, and 
the soldiers belonging to Tiberias were in a 
fair way to conquer me, (for my armed men 
were already fled away,) I saw the posture of 
my affairs; and encouraging those that were 
with me, I pursued those of Tiberias, even 
when they were already conquerors, into the 
city. J also sent another band of soldiers into 
the city by the lake, and gave them orders to 
set on fire the first house they could seize upon. 
When this was done, the people of ‘Tiberias 
thought that their city was taken by force, and 
- go threw down their arms for fear, and. im- 
plored, they, their wives and children, that I 
would spare their city. So I was over-persuad- 
ed by their entreaties, and restrained the sol- 
diers. from the vehemency with which they 
pursued them; while I myself, upon the coming 
on of the evening, returned back with my sol- 
diers, and went to refresh myself. I also in- 
’ yited Simon to sup with me, and comforted 
him on occasion of what had happened; and 
I promised that I would send him safe and 
gecure to Jerusalem, and withal would give 
him provisions for his journey thither. 

64. But, on the next day, I brought ten thou- 
sand armed men with me, and came to Tibe- 
rias. I then sent for the principal men of the 
multitude into the public place, and enjoined 
them to tell me who were the authors of the 
revolt; and when they had told me who the 
men were, I sent them bound to the city 
Jotapata. But, as to Jonathan and Ananias, I 
freed them from their bonds, and gave them 
provisions for their journey, together with 
Simon and Joazar, and five hundred armed 
men who should guard them, and so I sent 
them to Jerusalem. The people of Tiberias 
also came to me again, and desired that I would 
forgive them for what they had done, and they 
_ said they would amend what they had done 
amiss, with regard to me, by their fidelity for 
the time to come; and they besought me to 
preserve what spoils remained upon-the plun- 
der of the city, for those that had lost them. 
Accordingly, I enjoined those that had got 
them, to bring them all before us; and when 
they did not comply for a great while, and I 
saw one of the soldiers that were about me 
with a garment on that was more splendid than 

ordinary, I asked him whence he had it and he 
_ replied that he had it out of the plunder of the 
city; I had him punished with stripes, and 
I threatened all the rest to inflict a severer 
oN eet upon them, unless they produced 
before us whatsoever they had plundered; and 
_ when a great many spoils were brought to- 


$i 


‘gether, I. restored to every one of “Tiberias 


what they claimed to be their own. 

65. And now I am come to this part of my 
narration, I have a mind to say a few things te 
Justus, who hath himself written a history con- 
cerning these affairs; as also to others whe 
profess to write history, but have little regard 
to truth, and are not afraid, either out of ill- 
will or good-will to some persons, to relate 
falsehoods. These men do, like those whe 
compose forged deeds and conveyances; and 
because they are not brought to the like punish- 
ment with them, they have no regard to truth. 
When, therefore, Justus undertook to write 
about these facts, and about the Jewish war, 
that he might appear to have been an indus- 
trious man, he falsified in what he related about 
me, and could not speak truth even about his 
own country; whence it is, that being belied 
by him, I am under a necessity to make my 
defence; and so I shall say what I have con- 
cealed till now. And let no one wonder that 
I have not told the world these things a great 
while ago. For although it be necessary for 
an historian to write the truth, yet issuch a one 
not bound severely to animadvert on the wick- 
edness of certain men; not out of any favor to 
them, but out of an author’s own moderation. 
How then comes it to pass, O Justus, thou 
most sagacious of writers, (that I may address 
myself to him as if he were here present,) for 
so thou boastest of thyself, that I and the Gali- 
leans have been the authors of that sedition 
which thy country engaged in, both against the 
Romans and against the king [Agrippa ed 
For before ever I was appointed governor o 
Galilee by the community of Jerusalem, both 
thou, and all the people of Tiberias, had not 
only taken up arms, but had made war with 
Decapolis of Syria. Accordingly, thou hadst 
ordered their villages to be burnt, and a do- 
mestic servant of thine fell in the battle. Nor 
is it I only who say this; but so it is written in 
the commentaries of Vespasian the emperor, 
as also how the inhabitants of Decapolis came 
clamoring to Vespasian at Ptolemais, and de-~ 
sired that thou, who wast the author [of that 
war] mightest be brought to punishment. And 
thou hadst certainly been punished at the com- 
mand of Vespasian, had not king Agrippa, 
who had power given him to have thee put to 
death, at the earnest entreaty of his sister Ber- 
nice, changed the punishment of death into a 
long imprisonment. ‘Thy political administra- 
tion of affairs afterwards does also clearly dis- 
cover both thy other behavior in life, and that 
thou wast the occasion of thy country’s revolt 
from the Romans; plain signs of which I shali 
produce presently, Ihave also a mind to say 
a few things to the rest of the people of Tibe 
rias on thy account, and to demonstrate to 
those that light upon this history, that you bear 
no good-will, neither to the Romans, nor to the 
king. To be sure, the greatest cities of Gali- 
lee, O Justus, were Sepphoris, and thy country 
Tiberias. But Sepphoris, situated in the very 
midst of Galilee, and having many villages 
about it, and able with ease to have been bold 


22 


and troublesome to th Romans, if they had so 
pleased, yet did it resolve to continue faithful 
to those their masters, and at the same time 
excluded me out of their city, and prohibited 
all their citizens from joining with the Jews in 
the war, and that they might be out of danger 
from me, they by a wile got leave of me to 
fortify their city with walls: they also, of their 
own accord, admitted of a garrison of Roman 
legions, sent them by Cestius Gallus, who was 
then president of Syria, and so had me in con- 
vempt, though I was then very powerful, and 
all were greatly afraid of me; and at the same 
time that the greatest of our cities, Jerusalem, 
was besieged, and that temple of ours, which 
belonged to us all, was in danger of falling 
under the enemy’s power, they sent no assist- 
ance thither, as not willing to have it thought 
they would bear arms against the Romans. 
But as for thy country, O Justus, situated upon 
the lake of Genesareth, and distant from Hip- 
pos thirty furlongs, from Gadara sixty, and 
from Scythopolis, which was under the king’s 
jurisdiction, a hundred and twenty; when 
there was no Jewish city near, it might easily 
have preserved its fidelity [to the Romans] if it 
had so pleased them to do; for the city and its 
people had plenty of weapons. But, as thou 
sayest, I was then the author [of their revolt.] 
And pray, O Justus, who was the author after- 
wards, For thou knowest that I was in the 
vower of the Romans before Jerusalem was 
Fei iced, and before the same time Jotapata 
was taken by force, as well as many other for- 
tresses, and a great many of the Galileans fell 
in the war. It was, therefore, then a proper 
time, when you were certainly freed from any 
fear on my account, to throw away your wea- 
pons, and to demonstrate to the king and to 
the Romans, that it was not of choice, but as 
forced by necessity, that you fell into the war 
against them; but you staid till Vespasian came 
himself as far as your walls, with his whole 
army; and then you did indeed lay aside your 
weapons out of fear, and your city had for 
certain been taken by force, unless Vespasian 
had complied with the king’s supplication for 
you, and had excused your madness. It was 
not J, therefore, who was the author of this, 
but your own inclinations to war. Do not you 
remember how often I got you under my 
power, and yet put none of you to death? nay, 
you once fell into a tumult one against another, 
and slew one hundred and eighty-five of your 
citizens, not on account of your good-will to 
the king and to the Romans, but on account of 
our own wickedness, and this while I was 
alee by the Romans in Jotapata. Nay, in- 
deed, were there not reckoned up two thou- 
sand of the people of Tiberias, during the 
siege of Jerusalem, some of whom were slain, 
and the rest caught and carried captives? But 
thou wilt pretend that thou didst not engage 
in the war, since thou didst flee to the king. 
Yes, indeed, thou didst flee to him; but I say 
it was out of fearof me. Thou sayest, in- 
deed, that it is I who am a wicked man. But 
then, for what reasor was it that king Agrippa. 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


who procured thee thy life when thou was 

condemned to die by Vespasian, and who be- 
stowed so much riches upon thee, did twice 
afterward put thee into bonds, and as often 
obliged thee to run away from thy country, 
and, when he had once ordered thee to be put 
to death, he granted thee a pardon at the earn- 
est desire of Bernice? and, when (after so 
many of thy wicked pranks) he had made 
thee his secretary, he caught thee falsifying hie 
epistles, and drove thee away from his sight. 
But I shall not inquire accurately into these 
matters of scandal against thee. Yet cannot I 
but wonder at thy impudence, when thou hast 
the assurance to say, that thou hast better re- 
lated these affairs [of the war] than have all 
the others that have written about them, whilst 
thou didst not know what was done in Galilee; 
for thou wast then at Berytus with the king: 
nor didst thou know how much the Romans 
suffered at the siege of Jotapata, or what mise- 
ries they brought upon us; nor couldst thou 
learn by inquiry what I did during that siege 
myself; for all those that might afford such in- 
formation were quite destroyed in that siege. 
But perhaps thou wilt say, thou hast written of 
what was done against the people of Jerusa- 
lem exactly. But how should that be? for 
neither wast thou concerned in that war, nor 
hast thou read the commentaries of Ceesar; of 
which we have evident proof, because thou 
hast contradicted those commentaries of Caesar 
in thy history. But if thou art so hardy as to 
affirm that thou hast written that history better 
than all the rest, why didst thou not publish 
thy history while the emperors Vespasian and 
Titus, the generals in that war, as well as king 
Agrippa and his family, who were men ve 

well skilled in the learning of the Greeks, 
were all alive? for thou hast had it written 
these twenty years, and then mightest thou 
have had the testimony of thy accuracy. But 
now when these men are no longer with us, 
and thou thinkest thou canst not be contradict- 
ed, thou venturest to publish it. But then I 
was not in like manner afraid of my own writ- 
ing, but I offered my books to the emperors. 
themselves, when the facts were almost under 
men’s eyes; for I was conscious to myself, that 
I had observed the truth of the facts; and as I] 
expected to have their attestation to them, so I 
was not deceived in such expectation. More- 
over, I immediately presented my history to 
many other persons, some of whom were con- 
cerned in the war, as was king Agrippa, and 
some of his kindred. Now the emperor Ti- 
tus was so desirous that the knowledge of these 
affairs should be taken from these books alone 
that he subscribed his own hand to them, and 
ordered that they should be published; and fo: 
king Agrippa, he wrote me sixty-two letters, 
and attested to the truth of what I had therein 
delivered; two of which letters I have here 
subjoined, and thou mayest thereby know 
their contents. “King Agrippa to Josephus, 
his dear friend, sendeth greeting: I have read 
over thy book with great pleasure, and it ap- 
pears to me, that thou hast done it much more 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


acourately, and with greater care, than have 
the other writers. Send me the rest of these 
hooks. Farewell, my dear friend.” “King 
Agrippa to Josephus, his dear friend, sendeth 
greeting: It seems by what thou hast written, 
that thou standest in need of no instruction in 
order to our information from the beginning. 
However, when thou comest to me, I will in- 
form thee of a great many things which thou 
dost not know.” So when this history was 
perfected, Agrippa, neither by way of flattery, 
which was not agreeable to him, nor by way 
of irony, as thou wilt say, (for he was entirely 
a stranger to such an evil disposition of mind,) 
but he wrote thus by way of attestation to 
what was true, as all that read histories may 
do. And so much shall be said concerning 
Justus,* which I am obliged to add by way of 
digression. 

66. Now when I had settled the affairs of 
Tiberias, and had assembled my friends as a 
Sanhedrim, I consulted what I should do as to 
John. Whereupon it appeared to be the opinion 
of all the Galileans, that I should arm them all, 
and march against John, and punish him as 
the author of all the disorders that had hap- 
pened. Yet was I not pleased with their de- 
termination; as proposing to compose these 
troubles without bloodshed. Upon this I ex- 
norted them to use the utmost care to learn the 
names of all that were under John; which 
when they had done, and I thereby was ap- 
_ prized who the men were, I published an edict, 
wherein I offered security and my right hand 
to such of John’s party as had a mind to re- 
pent; and I allowed twenty days’ time to such 
as would take this most advantageous course 
for themselves. I also threatened, that unless 
they threw down their arms, I would burn 
their houses, and expose their goods to public 
sale. When the men heard of this, they were 
_in no small disorder, and deserted John; and, 
to the number of four thousand, threw down 
their arms, and came to me. So that no others 
staid with John but his own citizens, and about 
fifteen hundred strangers that came from the 
metropolis of Tyre; and, when John saw that 
he had been outwitted by my stratagem, he 
continued afterward in his own country, and 
was in great fear of me. 

67. But about this time it was that the peo- 
ple of Sepphoris grew insolent, and took up 
arms, out of a confidence they had in the 
strength of their walls, and because they saw 
me engaged in other affairs also. So they seni 
to Cestius Gallus, who was president of Syria, 


. ™ The characterof this history of Justus of Tiberias, the 
dvd. of our Josephus, which is now lost, with its only re- 
maining fragment, are given by a very able critic, Photius, 

_ who read that history. Itisin the 33rd code of his Biblio- 
theca, and runs thus: “I have read (says Photius) the 
ehronology of Justus of Tiberias, whose title is this, [The 
Chronology of] the Kings of Judah which succeeded one ; 
ther. This [Justus] came out of the city Tiberias in Galilee. 
‘He begins his history from Moses, and ends it not till the death 

_ 3f Agrippa, the seventh [ruler] of the family of Herod, and 
the last king of the Jews; whotook the government under 

Claudius, had it augmented under Nero, and still more aug- 

mented by Vespasian. He died in the third year of Trajan, 

where also his historyends. He is very concise in his lan- 
guage,and slightly passes over those affairs that were most ne- 


al 


2a 


and desired that he would either come quickly 
to them, and take their city under his protec- 
tion, or send them a garrison. Accordingly 
Gallus promised them to come, but did nat 
send word when he would come: and, when I] 
had learned so much, I took the soldiers that 
were with me, and made an assault upon the 
people of Sepphoris, and took the city by force. 
The Galileans took this opportunity, as think- 
ing they had now a proper time for showi 


‘their hatred to them, since they bore ill-wi 


to that city also. They then exerted them- 
selves, as if they would destroy them all utter- 
ly, with those that sojourned there also. So 
they ran upon them, and set their houses on 
fire, as finding them without inhabitants; for 
the men out of fear ran together to the citadel 
So the Galileans carried off every thing, and 
omitted no kind of desolation which they could 
bring upon their countrymen. When I saw 
this, I was exceedingly troubled at it, and com- 
manded them to leave off, and put them in 
mind that it was not agreeable to piety to do 
such things to their countrymen: but since they 
neither would hearken to what I exhorted, nor 
to what I commanded them to do, (for the 
hatred they bore to the people there, was too 
hard for my exhortations to them,) I bid those 
my friends, who were most faithful to me, and 
were about me, to give out reports, as if the 
Romans were falling upon the other part of the 
city with a great army; and this I did, that, by 
such a report being spread abroad, I might 
restrain the violence of the Galileans, and 
preserve the city of Sepphoris. And at length 
this stratagem had its effect; for, upon hearing 
this report, they were in fear for themselves, 
and so they left off plundering, and ran away; 
and this more especially, because they saw me, 
their general, do the same also; for, that I might 
cause this report to be believed, I pretended to 
be in fear as well as they. Thus were the im- 
habitants of Sepphoris unexpectedly preserved 
by this contrivance of mine. 

68. Nay, indeed, Tiberias had like to have 
been plundered by the Galileans also upon the 
following occasion: the chief men of the senate 
wrote to the king, and desired that he would 
come to them, and take possession of their city. 
The king promised to come, and wrote a letter 
in answer to theirs, and gave it to one of his 
bedchamber, whose name was Crispus, and 
who was by birth a Jew, to carry it to Tiberias. 
When the Galileans knew that this man car 
ried such a letter, they caught him, and brought 
him to me; but as soon asthe whole multitude 


cessary to be insisted on; and being under the Jewish preju- 
dices, as indeed he was himself alsoa Jew by birth, he 
makes not the least mention of the appearance of Christ, og 
what things happened to him, or of the wonderful works 
that he did. He was theson of acertain Jew whose name 
was Pistus. He wasa man, ashe is described by Josephus, 
of a most profligate character; a slave both to money and te 
pleasures. In public affairs he was opposite to Josephus; and 
itis related, thathe laid many plots against him, but that Jo- 
sephus, though he had this his enemy frequently under his 
power, did only reproach him in words, and so.et hum 
without farther punishment. He says also, that the 

tory which this man wrote is, for the main, fabulous, ané 
chiefly as to those parts where he describes the Roman waz 
with the Jews, and the taking of Jerusalem. 


24 THE LIEt OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


beard of it, they were enraged, and betook 
themselves to their arms. Soa great many of 
them got together from all quarters the next 
day, and came to the city Asochis, where I then 
lodged, and made heavy clamors, and called 
the city Tiberias a traitor to them, and a friend 
to the king; and desired leave of me to go 
down and utterly destroy it; for they bore the 
ike ill-will to the people of Tiberias, as they 
did to those of Sepphoris. 

6Y. When I heard this, I was in doubt what 
to do, and hesitated by what means I might 
deliver Tiberias from the rage of the Galileans; 
for | could not deny that those of 'Tiberias had 
written to the king, and had invited him to 
come to them; for his letters to them in an- 
swer thereto, would fully prove the truth of 
that. So I sat a long time musing with myself, 
and then said to them, “I know well enough 
that the people of Tiberias have offended; nor 
shall I forbid you to plunder their city. How- 
ever, such things ought to be done with discre- 
tion; for they of Tiberias have not been the 
only betrayers of our liberty, but many of the 
most eminent patriots of the Galileans, as they 
pretended to be, have done the same. ‘Tarry, 
therefore, till I shall thoroughly find out those 
authors of our danger, and then you shall have 
them all at once under your power, with all 
such as you shall yourselves bring in also.” 
Upon my saying this, | pacified the multitude, 
snd they left off their anger, and went their 
ways; and |] gave orders that he who brought 
the king’s letters should be put into bonds; but 
ina few days 1 pretended that I was obliged, 
vy a necessary affair of my own, to go out of 
che kingdom. I then called Crispus privately, 
and ordered him to make the soldier that kept 
him drunk, and to run away to theking. So 
when Tiberias was in danger of being utterly 
destroyed a second time, it escaped the danger 
by my skilful management, and the care that I 
had for its preservation. 

70. About this time it was that Justus, the 
son of Pistus, without my knowledge, ran 
away to the king; the occasion of which I will 
here relate. Upon the beginning of the war 
between the Jews and the Romans, the people 
of Tiberias resolved to submit to the king, and 
not to revolt from the Romans; while Justus 
tried to persuade them to betake themselves to 
their arms, as being himself desirous of inno- 
vations, and having hopes of obtaining the 
government of Galilee, as well as of all his own 
eguntry [Tiberias] also. Yet did he not ob- 
min what he hoped for; because the Galileans 
tere ill-will to those of Tiberias, and this on 
account of their anger at what miseries they 
had suffered from them before the war; thence 
it was that they would not endure that Justus 
should be their governor. I myself also, who 
bad been entrusted by the community of Jeru- 
salem with the government of Galilee, did fre- 

uently come to that degree of rage at Justus, 
et I had almost resolved to kill him, as not 
able to bear his mischievous disposition. He 
was, therefore, much afraid of me, lest at 
ength my passion should come to extremity; 


w 


so he went to the king, as supposing that he 
should dwell better, and more safely with 
him. . " 

71. Now when the people of Sepphoris had, 
in so surprising a manner, escaped their first 
danger, they sent to Cestius Gallus, and desir- 
ed him to come to them immediately, and take 
possession of their city, or else to send forces 
sufficient to repress all their enemies’ incursions 
upon them; and at last they did prevail with 
Gallus to send them a considerable army, both 
of horse and foot, which came in the night-time, 
and which they admitted into the city. But 
when the country round about it was harassed 
by the Roman army, I took those soldiers that 
were about me, and came to Garisme; where I 
cast up abank,a good way off the city Seppho- 
ris; and when I was at twenty furlongs distance, 
I came upon it by night, and made an assault 
upon its walls with my forces; and when I had 
ordered a considerable number of my soldiers 
to scale them with ladders, I became master of 
the greatest part of the city. But soon after, 
our unacquaintedness with the places forced 
us.to retire, after we had killed twelve of the 
Roman foetmen, and two horsemen, and a few 
of the people of Sepphoris, with the loss of 
only a single man of ourown. And when it 
afterwards came to a battle in the plain against 
the horsemen, and we had undergone the dan- 
gers of it courageously for a long time, we 
were beaten; for upon the Romans encompass- 
ing me about, my soldiers were afraid and fled 
back. There fell in that battle one of those 
that had been entrusted to guard my body; his 
name was Justus, who at this time had the 
same post with the king. At the same time 
also, there came forces, both of horsemen, and 
footmen, from the king, and Sylla their com 
mander, who was the captain of this guard; 
this Sylla pitched his camp at five furlongs dis- 
tance from Julias, and set a guard upon the 
roads, both that which led to Cana, and that 
which led to the fortress Gamala, that he might 
hinder their inhabitants from getting provisions 
out of Galilee. 

72. As soon asI had gotten intelligence of 
this I sent two thousand armed men, anda 
captain over them, whose name was Jeremiah, 
who raised a bank a furlong off Julias, near to 
the river Jordan, and dil no more than skir 
mish with the enemy; till I took three thousand 
soldiers myself, and came to them. But onthe 
next day, when I had laid an ambush in a 
certain valley, not far from the banks, I pro- 
voked those that belonged to the king to come 
to a battle, and gave orders to my own soldiers 
to turn their backs upon them, until they should 
have drawn the enemy away from their cam 
and brought them out into the field, which was 
done accordingly, for Sylla, supposing that our 


party did really run away, was ready to pursue 


them, when our soldiers that lay in ambush 
took them on their backs, and put them all in- 
to great disorder. 
sudden turn with my own forces, and met 
those of the king’s party, and put them to 


flight. And I he i performed great things that 


I also immediately made a — 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


day, if a certain fate had not been my hinder- 
ance; for the horse on which I rode, and upon 
whose back I fought, fell into a quagmire, and 
threw me on the ground, and I was bruised on 
my wrist, and carried into a village named 
Cepharnome or Capernaum. When my sol- 
diers heard of this, they were afraid I had 
been worse hurt than I was, and so they did 
not go on with their pursuit any further, but 
returned in very great concern for me. I 
therefore sent for the physicians, and while I 
was under their hand, I continued feverish all 
that day; and, as the physicians directed, I was 
at night removed to ‘T'arichee. 

73. When Sylla and his party were in- 
formed what had happened to me, they took 
courage again, and understanding that the 
watch was negligently kept in our camp, 
they, by night, placed a body of horsemen 
im ambush beyond Jordan, and when it was 
day they provoked us to fight; and as we 
did not refuse it, but came into the plain, their 
horsemen appeared out of that ambush in 
which they had lain, and put our men into dis- 
order, and made them run away; so they slew 
six men of our side. Yet did they not go off 
with the victory at last; for when they heard 
that some armed men were sailed from Tari- 
chez to Julius, they were afraid and retired. 

74, It was not now long before Vespasian 
ezme to Tyre, and king Agrippa with him; 
bit the Tyrians began to speak reproachfully 
of the king, and called him an enemy to the 
Romans. For they said, that Philip, the ge- 
neral of his army, had betrayed the royal pa- 
lave, and the Roman forces that were in Jeru- 
salem, and that it was done by his command. 
When Vespasian heard of this report, he rebuk- 
ei the Tyrians, for abusing a man who was both 
a king, and a friend to the Romans; but he ex- 
herted the king to send Philip to Rome, to 
auswer for what he had done before Nero. 
. But when Philip was sent thither, he did not 
come into the sight of Nero, for he found him 
very near death on account of the troubles that 
then happened, and a civil war; and so he re- 
turned to the king. But when Vespasian was 
come to Ptolemais, the chief men of Decapo- 
lis of Syria, made a clamor against Justus of 
Tiberias, because he had set their villages on 
fire; so Vespasian delivered him to the king, to 
be put to death by those under the king’s juris- 
diction, yet did the king [only] put him into 
bonds, and concealed what he had done from 
Vespasian, as I have before related. But the 

ople of Sepphoris met Vespasian, and sa- 
uted him, and had forces sent them, with Pla- 
eidus their commander: he also went up with 
them, as I also followed them, till Vespasian 
eame into Galilee. As to which coming of his, 
and after what manner it was ordered, and 
how he fought his first battle with me near 
the village of 'Tarichew, and how from thence 
they went to Jotapata, and how I was taken 
alive and bound, and how I was afterwards 
loosed, with all that was done by me in the 
Jewish war and during the siege of Jerusa- 
tem, I have eae related them in the 


; 


) 


books concerning the war of the Jews. How- 
ever, it will, I think, be fit for me to add now 
an account of those actions of my life, which 
I have not related in that book of the Jewish 
Wer. 

75. For when the siege of Jotapata was 
over, and I was among the Romans, I was 
kept with much care, by means of the great 
respect that Vespasian showed me. Moreover, 
at his command, I married a virgin,* who was 
from among the captives of that country: yet 
did she not live with me long, but was divore- 
ed, upon my being freed from my bonds, and 
my going to Alexandria. However, I married 
another wife at Alexandria, and was thence 
sent, together with Titus, to the siege of Jeru- 
salem, aud was frequently in danger of being 
put to death: while both the Jews were very 
desirous to get me under their power, in order 
to have me punished; and the Romans also, 
whenever they were beaten, supposed that it 
was occasioned by my treachery, and made 
continual clamors to the emperors, and desired 
that they would bring me to punishment, as a 
traitor to them: but Titus Cesar was well ac- 
quainted with the uncertain fortune of war 
and returned no answer to the soldiers’ vehe- 
ment solicitations against me. Moreover, when 
the city of Jerusalem was taken by force, 
Titus Cesar persuaded me frequently to take 
whatsoever 1 would out of the ruins of my 
country, and said, that he gave me leave so to 
do. But when my country was destroyed, I 
thought nothing else to be of any value, which 
I could take and keep as a comfort under my 
calamities; so I made this request to Titus, that 
my family might have their liberty; I had also 
the holy bookst by Titus’s concession. Nor 
was it long after that I asked of him the life of 
my brother, and of fifty friends with him, and 
was not denied. When I also went once to 
the temple, by the permission of Titus, where 
there were a great multitude of captive women 
and children, I got all those that I remembered 
as among my own friends and acquaintance to 
be set free, being in number about one hun- 
dred and ninety; and so I delivered them with- 
out their paying any price of redemption, and 
restored them to their former fortune. And 
when I was sent by Titus Cesar with Cerea 
lius, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain 
village called T'hecoa, in order to know whether 
it was a place fit for a camp, as I came back, 
I saw many captives crucified, and remember- 
ed three of them as my former acquaintanca, 
I was very sorry at this in my mind, and wen 
With tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him 
of them; so he immediately commanded them 
to be taken down, and to have the greatest 


* Here Josephus, a priest, honestly confesses nat he did 
that atthe command of Vespasian, which he had before 
told us was not lawful for a priest to do by the law of Mo- 
ses, Antiq. B. iii. ch. xii. sect.2. I mean the taking a captive 
woman to wife. See also against Apion, B.i. ch. vii. But 
he seems to have been quickly sensible that his compliance 
with the command of an emperor would not excuse him, 
for he soon put her away, as Reland justly observes here. 

+ Of this most remarkable clause, and its most important 
consequences, see Essay on the Old Testament, page 193- 
195 


25 


care taken of them in order to their recovery; 
et two of them died under the physician’s 
ands, while the third recovered. 

76. But when Titus had composed the trou- 
bles in Judea, and conjectured that the lands 
which I had in Judea would bring me in no 
profit, because a garrison to guard the country 
was afterwards to pitch there, he gave me 
another country in the plain. And when he 
was going away to Rome, he made choice of 
me to sail along with him, and paid me great 
respect: and when we were come to Rome, I 
had great care taken of me by Vespasian; for 
he gave me an apartment in his own house, 
which he lived in before he came to the em- 
pire. He also honored me with the privilege 
of a Roman citizen; and gave me an annual 
pension; and continued to respect me to the 
end of his life, without any abatement of his 
kindness to me; which very thing made me 
envied, and brought me into danger; for a cer- 
tain Jew, whose name was Jonathan, who had 
raised a tumult in Cyrene, and had persuaded 
two thousand men of that country to join with 
him, was the occasion of their ruin. But 
when he was bound by the governor of that 
country, and sent to the emperor, he told him, 
that I had sent him both weapons and money. 
However, he could not conceal his being a liar 
from Vespasian, who condemned him to die; 
according to which sentence he was put to 
death. Nay, after that, when those that envied 
my good fortune did frequently bring accusa- 
tions against me, by God’s providence I es- 
eaped them all. I[ also received from Vespa- 
sian no small quantity of land, as a free gift 
im Judea, about which time I divorced my 


THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 


wife also, as not pleased wit: ner behavior, 
though not till she had been -he mother of 
three children, two of whom are dead, and 
one, whom I named Hyrcanus, is alive. After 
this, I married a wife who had lived at Crete, 
but a Jew by birth; a woman she was of emi- 
nent parents, and such as were the most iilus 
trious in all the country, and whose character 
was beyond that of most other women, as her 
future life did demonstrate. By her I had two 
sons, the elder was named Justus, aud the next 
Stmonides, who was also named Agrippa. And 
these were the circumstances of my domestic 
affairs. However, the kindness of the emperor 
to me continued still the same: for when Ves- 
pasian was dead, Titus, who succeeded him in 
the government, kept up the same respect for 
me which I had from his father; and when I 
had frequent accusations laid against me, he 
would not believe them. And Domitian, who — 
succeeded, still augmented his respects to me; 
for he punished those Jews that were my accu- 
sers, and gave command that a servant of mine, 
who was an eunuch, and my accuser, should 
be punished. He also made that country I had 
in Judea, tax free; which is a mark of the 
greatest honor to him who hath it; nay, Domi- 
tia, the wife of Cesar, continued to do me 
kindnesses. And this is the account of the 
actions of my whole life: and let others judge 
of my character by them as they please. But 
to thee, O Epaphroditus,* thou most excellent 
of men, do | dedicate all this treatise of our 
Antiquities; and so, for the present, I here con- 
clude the whole. | 


* Of this Epaphroditus, see the note on the Preface to the 
Antiquities. 


[Vide Bisuor Porrevs’s Lectures, vol. ii. page 234.] 


“Tis History 1s spoken of in the highest terms by men of the greatest learning and the 
soundest judgment, from its first publication to the present time. 


“The fidelity, the veracity, and the probity of JosEPuus, are universally allowed, and Scali- 


ger in particular declares, that not only in the affairs of the Jews, but even of foreign nations, 
he deserves more credit than all the Greek and Roman writers put together. Certain at leas: 
it is, that he had that most essential qualification of an historian,—a perfect and accurate know- 
"edge of all the transactions which he relates; that he had no prejudices to mislead him in the 
representation of them; and that, above all, he meant no favor to the Christian cause. For 
even allowing the so much controverted passage, in which he is supposed to bear testimony te 
Christ, to be genuine, it does not appear that he ever became a convert to his religion, but com 
tuaued, probably, a zealous Jew to the end of his life. 


_ Scriptures. 


PREFACE.* 


¢ 1. THosE who undertake to write histories, 
do not, I perceive, take that trouble on one and 
the same account, but for many reasons, and 
those such as are very different one from 
another. For some of them apply themselves 
to this part of learning, to show their great skill 
im composition, and that they may therein ac- 
quire a reputation for speaking finely. Others 
of them there are who write histories in order 
to gratify those that happen to be concerned in 
them; and on that account have spared no 
pains, but rather gone beyond their own abili- 
ties in the performance. But others there are 
who, of necessity and by force, are driven to 
write history, because they were concerned in 
the facts, and so cannot excuse themselves 
from committing them to writing, for the ad- 
vantage of posterity. Nay, there are not a few 
who are induced to draw their historical facts 
out of darkness into light, and to produce them 
for the benefit of the public, on account of the 
great importance of the facts themselves with 
which they have been concerned. Now of 
these several reasons for writing history, I must 
rofess the two last were my own reasons also: 
or since I was myself interested in that war 
which we Jews had with the Romans, and 
knew myself its particular actions, and what 
conclusion it had, I was forced to give the his- 
tory of it, because I saw that others perverted 
the truth of those actions in their writings. 
2. Now I have undertaken the present work, 


as thinking it will appear to all the Greeks} 


worthy of their study: for it will contain all 
our antiquities, and the constitution of our gov- 
ernment, as interpreted out of the Hebrew 
And, indeed, I did formerly in- 
tend, when I wrote of the war,{ to explain 
who the Jews originally were, what fortunes 
they had been subject to, and by what legisla- 


_tor they had been instructed in piety, and the 


these his Antiquities. 
lished about A. D.75, and these Antiquities, A. D. 93, 


exercise of other virtues; what wars, also, they 
had made in remote ages, till they were un- 
willingly engaged in this last with the Romans; 
jut because this work would take up a great 
ompass, I separated it into a set treatise by it- 
self, with a beginning of its own, and its own 


-yonclusion; but in process of time, as usually 
-mappens to such as undertake great things, I 


Be weary, and went on slowly, it being a 
arge subject, and a difficult thing to translate 
our history into a foreign, and to us unaccus- 


* This preface of Josephus is excellent 1. ‘ts kind, and 
highly worthy the repeated perusal of the reader, before he 
set about the perusal of the work itself. 

} That is, all the Gentiles, both Greeks and Romans. 

} We may seasonably note here, that Josephus wrote 
his seven books of the Jewish War long before he wrote 
Those books of the war were pub- 


about eighteen years later. 


4 


tomed language. However, some persons there 
were who desired to know our history, and 
so exhorted me to go on with it; and above 
all the rest, Epaphroditus,* a man who isa lov- 
er of all kinds of learning, but is principally, de- 
lighted with the knowledge of history; and this 
on account of his having been himself con 
cerned in great affairs, and many turns of for 
tune, and having shown a wonderful vigor of 
an excellent nature, and an immovable vir- 
tuous resolution in them all. I yielded to this 
man’s persuasions, who always excites such as 
have abilities in what is useful and acceptable 
to join their endeavors with his. I was also 
ashamed myself to permit any laziness of dis- 
position to have a greater influence upon me 
than the delight of taking pains in such stu- 
dies as were very useful: I thereupon stirred 
up myself, and went on with my work more 
cheerfully. Besides the foregoing motives, I 
had others which I greatly reflected on; and 
these were, that our forefathers were willing to 
communicate such things to others; and that 
some of the Greeks took considerable pains te 
know the affairs of our nation. 

3. I found, therefore, that the second of the 
Ptolemies was a king, who was extraordinary 
diligent in what concerned learning, and the 
collection of books; that he was also peculiarly 
ambitious to procure a translation of our law, 
and of the constitution of our government 
therein contained, into the Greek tongue. Now 
Eleazer the high priest, one not inferior to any 
other of that dignity among us, did not envy 
the forenamed king the participation of that 
advantage, which otherwise he would for cer- 
tain have denied him; but that he knew the 
custom of our nation was, to hinder nothing of 
what we esteemed ourselves, from being com- 
municated to others. Accordingly I thought 
it became me, both to imitate the generosity of 
our high priest, and to suppose their might 
even now be many lovers of learning, like the 
king; for he did not obtain all our writings at 
that time; but those who were sent to Alexan- 
dria as interpreters gave him only the books of 
the law, while there was a vast number of 
other matters in our sacred books. They in- 
deed contain in them the history of five thou- 
sand years; in which time happened many’ » 
strange accidents, many chances of war and 
great actions of the commanders, and muta- 
tions of the form of our government. Upon the 
whole, a man that will peruse this history may 

* This Epaphroditus was certainly alive in the third year 
of Trajan, A. D.100.. See the note on Antiq. b.i. against 
Apion, sect.1. Who he was -we do not know; for as to 
Epaphroditus, the freedman of Nero, and afterwards Dom 
tian’s secretary, who was put to death by Domitian in the 


14th or 15th year of his reign, he could not be ative in the 
third of Trajan. 


28 PREFACE. . 


principally learn from it, that all events suc- 
eeed well, even to an incredible degree, and the 
reward of felicity is proposed by God; but then 
it is to those that follow his will, and do not 
venture to break his excellent laws; and that 
so faras men any way apostatize from the ac- 
curate observation of them, what was practi- 
cable before becomes impracticable;* and what- 
soever they set about as a good thing is con- 
verted into an incurable calamity. And now I 
exaort all those that peruse these books, to 
apply thei minds to God; and to examine the 
aud of our legislator, whether he hath not 
understood his nature in a manner worthy of 
him; and hath not ever ascribed to him such 
operations as become his power, and hath not 

reserved his writings from those indecent fa- 

les which others have framed; although, by 
the great distance of time when he lived, he 
might have securely forged such lies; for he 
lived two thousand years ago: at which vast 
distance of ages the poets tnemselves have 
not been so hardy as to fix even the generations 
of their gods, much less the actions of their 
men, or their own laws. As I proceed, there- 
fore, I shall accurately describe what is con- 
tained in our records, in the order of time that 
belongs to them; for I have already promised 
#0 to do throughout this undertaking; and this, 
without adding any thing to what is therein 
wontained, or taking away any thing there- 
thom. 

4. But because almost all our constitution 
depends on the wisdom of Moses our legislator, 
I :annot avoid saying somewhat concerning 
him beforehand, though I shall do it briefly; I 
inean, because otherwise, those that read my 
books may wonder how it comes to pass that 
my discourse, which promises an account of 
lews and historical facts, contains so much of 
piilosophy. ‘The reader is therefore to know 
t).at Moses deemed it exceedingly necessary that 
be who would conduct his own life well, and 
gtve laws to others, in the first place should 
fonsider the divine nature; and, upon the con- 
tumplation of God’s operations, should thereby 
initate the best of all patterns, so far as it is 
possible for human nature to do, and to endea- 
vor to follow after it; neither could the legislator 
himself have a right mind without such a con- 
templation; nor would any thing he should 
write tend to the promotion of virtue in his 
readers: I mean, unless they be taught, first of 


* Josepius here plainly alludes to the famous Greek pro- 
ven If & be withus every thing that is impossible becomes 


all, that God is the Father and Lord of all things 
and sees all things; and that thence he bestows 
a happy life upon those that follow him, but 
plunges such as do not walk in the paths of 
virtue into inevitable miseries. Now when 
Moses was desirous to teach this lesson to fis 


countrymen, he did not begin the establishment . 


of his laws after the same manner that other 
legislators did; I mean, upon contracts and 
other rights between one man and another; but 
by raising their minds upwards to regard God, 
and his creation of the world; and by persuad- 
ing them, that we men are the most excellent 
of the creatures of God upon earth. Now 
when once he had brought them to submit to 
religion, he easily persuaded them to submit in 
all other things; for as to other legislators, they 
followed fables, and by their discourses trans- 
ferred the most reproachful of human vices 
unto the gods, and so afforded wicked men the 
most plausible excuses for their crimes; but as 
for our legislator, when he had once demon- 
strated that God was possessed of perfect vir- 
tue, he supposed that men also ought to strive 
after the participation of it; and on those whe 
did not so think and so believe, he inflicted the 
severest punishments. I exhort, therefore, my 
readers to examine this whole undertaking in 
that view; for thereby it will appear to them, 
that there is nothing therein disagreeable either 
to the majesty of God, or to his love to man- 
kind; for all things have here a reference to the 
nature of the universe; while our legislator 
speaks some things wisely but enigmatically, 
and others under a decent allegory, but still 
explains such things as required a direct ex- 
plication plainly and expressly. However 
those that have a mind to know the reasons of 
every thing, may find here a very curious phi- 
losophical theory, which I now indeed shal 
waive the explication of; but if God afford me 
time for it,* I will set about writing it after I 
have finished the present work. I shall now 
betake myself to the history before me, after I 
have first mentioned what Moses says of the 
creation of the world, which I find described 
in the sacred books after the manner following. 


* As to this intended work of Josephus concerning the 
reasons of many of the Jewish laws, and what philosophical 
or allegorical sense they would bear, the loss of which 
work is by some of the learned not much regretted, I am in 
clinable, in part,to Fabricius’s opinion, ap. Havercam 
p. 63, 64: That “we need not doubt but, among some 
and frigid conjectures derived from Jewish imaginations, Jo- 
sephus would have taught us agreater number of excellent 
and useful things, which perhaps nobody, neither am 
the Jews nor among the Christians, can now inform us 
so that I would give a great deal to find it still extant.” 





—————— 


ANTIQUITIES 


OF THE JEWS. 





BOO 


17s 


@GONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THREE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE YRARS 
FROM THE CREATION TO THE DEATH OF ISAAC. 


CHAPTER I. 


The Constitution of the World and the Dispo- 
silion of the Elements. 


§ 1. In the beginning God created the heaven 
and the earth. But when the earth did not 
come into sight, but was covered with thick 
darkness, and a wind moved upon its surface, 
God commanded that there should be light: and 
when that was made, he considered the whole 
mass, and separated the light and the dark- 
ness; and the name he gave to one was Wight, 
and the other he called Day; and he named the 
beginning of light, and the time of rest, the 
Evening and the Morning. And this was in- 
deed the first day. ( But Moses said it was one 
day; tne cause of which I am able to give even 
now; but because I have promised to give such 
reasons for all things in a treatise by itself, I 
shall put off its exposition till that time.) After 


* this, on the second day, he placed the heaven 


it 
) 


and the seeds to spring out of the earth. 


over the whole world, and separated it from the 
other parts, and he determined it should stand 
by itself. He also placed a crystalline [firma- 
ment] round it, and put it together in a manner 
agreeable to the earth, and fitted it for giving 
moisture and rain, and for affording the advan- 
tage of dews. On the third day he appointed the 
dry land to appear, with the sea round about it; 
and on the very same day he made the plants 
On 
the fourth day he adorned the heaven with the 
sun, the moon, and the other stars; and appoint- 
ed them their motions and courses, that the vi- 
cissitudes of the seasons might be clearly signi- | 
fied. And on the fifth day he produced the living 
ereatures both those that swith and those that 
fly; the former in the sea, the latter in the air. 
He also sorted them as to society and mixture 
for procreation, and that their kinds might in- 


(& crease and multiply. On the sixth day he 


Ke 





ereated the four-footed beasts, and made them 
male and female. 
formed man. Accordingly Moses says that in 
just six days, the world, aud all that is therein, 
was made; and thatthe seventh day was a rest, 
and a release from the labor of such operations; 
whence it is that we celebrate arest from our 
labors on that day, and call it the Sabbath: 
whith word denotes rest in the Hebrew 
tongue. 

2. Moreover Moses, after the seventh day 
was over,* begins to talk philosophically; and 


* Since Josephus, in his preface, sect. 4, says, that Mos- 
es wrote some things enigmatically, some allegorically, and 
he rest in plain words; since, in his account of the first chap- 


On the same day he also | 


concerning the formation of man_ says thus 
That God took dust from the ground, and 
formed man, and inserted in him a spirit and 
a soul.* This man was called Adam, which in 
the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is red, be- 
cause he was formed out of red earth com- 
pounded together; for of that kind is virgin 
and true earth. God also presented the living 
creatures, when he had made them according 
to their kinds, both male and female, to Adam; 
and he gave them those names by which they 


are still called. But when he saw that Adam 
had no female companion, no society (for 
there was no such created), and that he won- 
dered at the other animals which were male 
and female, he laid him asleep, and took away 
one of his ribs, and out of it formed the wo- 
man; whereupon Adam knew her when she 
was brought to him, and acknowledged that 
she was made out of himself. Now a woman 
is called in the Hebrew tongue Jssa; but the 
name of this woman was Eve, which signifies 
the mother of all living. 


3. Moses says farther, that God planted a 
paradise in the East, flourishing with all sorts 
of trees; and that among them was the Tree 
of Infe, and another of Knowledge, whereby 
was to be known what was good and evil. 
And that when he had brought Adam and his 
wife into this garden, he commanded them to 
take care of the plants. Now the garden was 
watered by one river,f which ran round about 


ter of Genesis, and the three first verses of the second, he 
give us no hints of any mystery at all; but when he here 
comes to verse 4, &c. he says, that Moses, after the seventh 
day was over, began to talk philosophically; it is not very 
improbable that he id bestaon the rest of the second and 
the third chapters in some enigmatical, or allegorical, or phi- 
losophical sense. The change of the name of God just at 
this place, from Elohim to Jehovah Elohim; from God to Lord 
God, in the Hebrew Samaritan, and Septuagint, does also not 
alittle favor some such change in the narration or con 
struction. 

* We may observe here, that Josephus supposed man % 
be compounded of spirit, soul, and body, with St. Pauli, } 
Thess. v. 23, and the rest of the ancients. He elsewhere 
says also, that the blond of animals was forbidden to #8 
eaten as having init soul and spirit, Antiq. b. iii. ehap. 
xi. sect. 2. 

t Whence this strange notion came, which yet is rot pe- 
culiar to Josephus, but, as Dr. Hudson says here, is derived 
from elder authors, as if four of the greatest rivers of the 
world, running two of them at vast distances from the othe: 
two, by some means or other watered Paradise, is hard te 
say. Onlysince Josephus has already appeared to allegorize 
this history, and takes notice that these four names had a 
particular signification; Phison for Ganges, a Multitude; 
Phrath for Euphrates, either a Dispersion or a Flower; 
Diglath for Tigris, what is swift with narrowness; and Geon 
for Nile, which arises from the East; we perhaps mistake 
him, when we suppose he literally means those four rivers, 
especially as to Geon or Nile, which arises from the East, 
while he very well knew the literal Nile arises from the 
South; though what farther allegorical sense he had in view 
is now, I fear, impossible to be determined. 


e 


3U 
the whole earth, and was parted into four 
parts. And Phison, which denotes a Multi- 
fude running into India, makes its exit into the 
sea, and is by the Greeks called Ganges. Eu- 
phrates also, as well as Tigris, goes down into 
the Red Sea.* Now the name Euphrates, or 
Phrath, denotes either a Dispersion or a [lower; 
by Tigris, or Diglath, is signified what is swift 
anth narrowness; and Geon runs through Egypt, 
and denotes what arises from the East, which 
the Greeks call Vile. 

4, God, therefore, commanded that Adam 
and his wife should eat of all the rest of the 

lants, but to abstain from the Tree of Know- 
Sic and foretold to them that if they touch- 
ed it, it would prove their destruction. But 
while all the living creaturest had one lan- 
guage at that time, the serpent, which then 
fired together with Adam and his wife, showed 
an envious disposition, at his supposal of their 
living happily and in obedience to the com- 
mands of God; and imagining that when they 
disobeyed them, they would fall into calami- 
ties, he persuaded the woman, out of a mali- 
cious intention, to taste of the Tree of Know- 
ledge; telling them, that in that tree was the 
knowledge of good and evil; which knowledge, 
when they should obtain, they would lead a 
happy life! nay, a life not inferior to that of a 
god; by which means he overcame the wo- 
man, and persuaded her to despise the com- 
mand of God. 


that tree, and was pleased with its fruit, she | geance on him that way. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


painstaking; which state of labor and _pains- 
taking would soon bring on old age, and death 
would not be at any remote distance; but now 
thou hast abused this my good will, and hast 
disobeyed my commands; for thy silence is 
not the sign of thy virtue, but of cis evil con- 
science.” However Adam excused his si 

and entreated God not to be angry at him, ad 
laid the blame of what was done upon his 
wife; and said that he was deceived by her, 
and thence became an offender; while she 
again accused the serpent. But God allotted 
him punishment, because he weakly submitted 
to the counsel of his wife; and said, the ground 
should not henceforth yield its fruits of its own 
accord, but that when it should be harassed by 
their labor, it should bring forth some of its 
fruits, and refuse to bring forth others. He 
also made Eve liable to the inconveniency of 
breeding, and the sharp pains of teeene forth 
children; and this because she persuaded Adam 
with the same arguments wherewith the ser- 
pent had persuaded her, and had _ thereby 
brought him into a calamitous condition. He 
also deprived the serpent of speech, out of in- 
dignation at his malicious disposition towards 
Adam. Besides this, he inserted poison under 
his tongue, and made him an enemy to men; 
and suggested to them, that they should direct 
their strokes against his head, that being the 
place wherein lay his mischievous designs to- 


Now, when she had tasted of | wards men, and it being easiest to take ven- 


And when he had 


persuaded Adam to make use of it also. Upon | deprived him of the use of his feet, he made 


this they perceived that they were become 

aked to one another; and being ashamed thus 
to appear abroad, they inventéd somewhat to 
cover them; for the tree sharpened their un- 
derstanding: and they covered themselves with 
fig leaves; and tying these before them, out of 
modesty, they thought they were happier than 
they were before, as they had discovered what 
they were in want of.. But when God came 
into the garden, Adam who was wont be- 
fore to come and converse with him, being 
conscious of his wicked behavior, went out of 
the way. This behavior surprised God; and 
he asked what was the cause of this his pro- 
cedure? And why he, that before delighted in 
that conversation, did now fly from it, and 
avoid it? When he made no reply, as con- 
scious to himself that he had transgressed the 
command of God, God said, “I had before 
determined about you both, how you might 
lead a happy life, without any affliction, and 
care, and vexation of soul: and that all things 
which might contribute to your enjoyment and 
pleasure should grow up by my providence, of 
their own accord, without your own labor and 

* By the Red Sea is not here meant the Arabian Gulf, 
which alone we now call by that mame; but all that South 
Sea, v hich included the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, as 
far as the East Indies, as Reland and Hudson here truly note, 
from the old geographers. 

j~ Hence it appears, that Josephus thought several at least 
of the brute animals, particularly the serpent, could speak 
%efore the fall. And I think few ofthe more perfect kinds 
ef those animals want the organs of speech at this day. 
‘Many inducements there are also toa notion, that the pre- 


sent state they are in, is not their original state; and that their 
#apacities have »een once much greaterthan we now see 


him to go rolling all along, and dragging him- 
self upon the ground. And when God had 
appointed these penalties for them, he remov- 
ed Adam and Eve out of the garden into 
another place. 


‘ 


CHAPTER II. 


Concerning the Posterity of Adam, and the Ten 
Generations from him to the Deluge. 


§ 1. Adam and Eve had two sons; the elder 
of them was named Cain;' which name, when 
it is interpreted, signifies a possession; the 
younger was Abel, which signifies sorrow. 
They had also daughters. Now the two breth- 
ren were pleased with different courses of life; 
for Abel the younger was a lover of righteous- 
ness; and believing that God was present at all 
his actions, he excelled in virtue; and his em- 
ployment was that of a shepherd. But Cain 
was not only very wicked in other respects, but 
was wholly intent upon getting: and he first 
contrived to plough the ground. He slew his 
brother on the occasion following. They aad 
resolved to sacrifice to God. Now Cain 
them, and are capable of being restored to their former con- 
dition. But as to this most ancient and authentic, and pro- 
hable allegorical account of that grand affair of the fall of 
our first parents, 1 have somewhat more tosay in way of 
conjecture; but being only aconjecture, [ omit it. Only 
thus far, that the imputation of the sin of our first parents 
to their posterity any farther than as some way the cause on 
occasion of man’s mortality, seems almost entirely ground- 
less;. and that both man and the other subordingts -reatures 
are hereafter to be delivered from the curse ther bro 


upon them, and at last to be delivered from that bunduge of 
corrution, Rom. viii. 19—22. 


| 


BOOK |L—CHAPTER II. 31 


brought the fruits of the earth, and of his hus- 
bandry; but Abel brought milk, and the first 
fruits of his flock: but God was more delighted 
with the latter oblation,* when he was honored 
with what grew naturally of its own accord, 
than he was with what was the invention of a 
eovetous man, and gotten by forcing the 
ground; whence it was, that Cain was very 
angry that Abel was preferred by God before 
him; and he slew his brother and hid his dead 
body, thinking to escape discovery. But God, 
knowing what had been done; came to Cain, 
and asked him, What was become of his 
brother? because he had not seen him for many 
days; whereas he used to observe them convers- 
ing together at other times. But Cain was in 
doubt with himself, and knew not what an- 
swer to give to God. At first he said, That 
he himself was at a loss about his brother’s 
disappearing, but when he was provoked by 
God, who pressed him vehemently, as resolv- 
ing to know what the matter was, he replied, 
He was not his brother’s guardian or keeper, 
nor was he an observer of what he did. But, 
in return, God convicted Cain, as having been 
the murderer of his brother, and said, “I won- 
der at thee, that thou knowest not what is be- 
come of a man whom thou thyself hast de- 
stroyed.” God, therefore, did not inflict the 
punishment [of death] upon him, on account 
of his offering sacrifice, and thereby making 
supplication to him not to be extreme in his 
wrath to him; but he made hii accursed, and 
threatened his posterity in the seventh genera- 
tion. He also cast him, together with his wife, 


out of that land. And when he was afraid, 


that in wandering about he should fall among 
the wild beasts, and by that means perish, God 
bid him not to entertain such a melancholy 
suspicion, and to go over all the earth without 
fear of what mischief he might suffer from 
wild beasts; and setting a mark upon him, that 
he might be known, he commanded him to 
depart. 

2, And when Cain had travelled over many 
countries, he, with his wife, built a city named 
Nod, which is a place so called, and there he 
settled his abode; where also he had children. 
However, he did not accept of his punishment 
in order to amendment, but to increase his 
wickedness; for he only aimed to procure eve- 
ry thing that was for his own bodily pleasure, 
though it obliged him to be injurious to his 
geighbors. He augmented his household sub- 
stance with much wealth, by rapine and vio- 
lence; he excited his acquaintance to procure 
pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a 
great leader of men into wicked courses. He 
also introduced a change in that way of sim- 
plicity wherein men lived before; and was the 
autho: of measures and weights; and whereas 


* St. John’s account of the reason why God accepted the 
sacrifice of Abel, andrejected that of Cain; as also why 
ain slew Abel, on account of that his acceptance with 
God, is much betterthan this of Josephus. I mean, because 
Cain was of the evilone, and slew his brother. And, where- 

fore slew he him?~ Because his own works were evil, and his 
érother’s righteous. 1 John,iii.12. Josephus’s reason seems 
#9 be n9 better than a Pharisaical notion or tradition 


they lived innocently and generously while 
they knew nothing of such arts, he changed 
the world into cunning craftiness. He first of 
all set boundaries about lands; he built a city, 
and fortified it with walls, and he compelled 
his family to come together to it, and called 
that city Enoch, after the name of his eldest 
son Enoch. Now Jared was the son of Enoch, 
whose son was Malaleel, whose sou was Me- 
thusela, whose son was Lamech, who had 
seventy-seven children by two wives, Silla and 
Ada. Of those children by Ada, one was Ja- 
bel; he erected tents, and loved the life of a 
shepherd. But Jubal, who was born of the 
same mother with him, exercised himself in 
music, and invented the psaltery and the harp.* 
But Tubal, one of his children by the other 
wife, exceeded all men in strength, and was 
very expert and famous in martial performanc- 
es. He procured what tended to pleasure of 
the body by that method; and first of all in- 
vented the art of making brass. Lamech was 
also the father of a daughter, whose name was 
Naamah; and because he was so skilful in 
matters of divine revelation, that he knew he 
was to be punished for Cain’s murder of his 
brother, he made that known to his wives. 
Nay, even while Adam was alive, it came to 
pass, that the posterity of Cain became exceed- 
ing wicked, every one successively dying, one 
after another, more wicked than the former. 
They were intolerable in war, and vehement 
in rooberies: and if any one were slow to mur- 
der people, yet was he bold in his profligate 
behavior, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries 
for gain. 

3. Now Adam, who was the first man, and 
made out of the earth, (for our discourse must 
now be about him,) after Abel was slain, and 
Cain fled away on account of his murder, was 
solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement 
desire of children, he being two hundred and 
thirty years old; after which time he lived other 
seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed 
many other children, but Seth in particular. 
As for the rest, it would be tedious to name 
them: I will, therefore, only endeavor to give 
an account of those that proceeded from Seth. 
Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and 
came to those years in which he could discern 
what was good, he became a virtuous man; 
and, as he was himself of an excellent charac- 
ter, so did he leave children behind him, who 
imitated his virtues.{ All these proved to be of 
good dispositions. 'They also inhabited the 
same country without dissensions, and in a@ 
happy condition, without any misforttines fall 
ing upon them, till they died. ‘They also were 
the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom 


* From this Jubal, not improbably, came Jobel, the trum- 
pet of Jobel or Jubilee, that large and loud musical instrument, 
used in proclaiming the liberty at the year of Jubilee. 

t The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradi. 
tion, was thirty-three sons, and twenty-three daughters. 

¢{ What is here said of Seth and his posterity, that they 
were very good and virtuous, and at the same time very hap- 
py, without any considerable misfortunes, for seven genera- 
tions, [see chap. ii. sect. 1, before, and chap. iii. sect. 1, here- 
after,] is exactly agreeable to the state of the world and the 
conduct of Providence :n all the first ages. 


$2 


which is concerned with the heavenly bodies 
and their wrder. And, that their inventions 
might not be lost before they were sufficiently 
known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world 
was to be destroyed at one time by the force 
of fire, and at another time by the violence 
and quantity of water, they made two pillars;* 
the one of brick, the other of stone; they in- 
scribed their discoveries on them both, that in 
case the pillar of brick should be destroyed 
by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, 
and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and 
also inform them that there was another pil- 
lar of brick erected by them. Now this re- 
mains in the land of Siriad to this day 


CHAPTER III. 


Concerning the Flood; and after what manner 
Noah was saved in an Ark, with his kindred; 
and afterwards dwelt in the plain of Shinar. 


§ 1. Now this posterity of Seth continued to 
esteem God as the Lord of the universe, and to 
have an entire regard to virtue for seven gene- 
rations; but in process of time they were per- 
verted and forsook the practices of their fore- 
fathers; and did neither pay those honors to 
God which were appointed them, nor had they 
any concern to do justice towards men; but for 
what degree of zeal they had formerly shown 
for virtue, they now showed by their actions 
a double degree of wickedness, whereby they 
made God to be their enemy. For many an- 
gelst of God companied with women, and 
begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of 
all that was good on account of the confidence 
they had in their own strength; for the tradi- 
tion is, that these men did what resembled the 
acts of those whom the Grecians call grants. 
But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; 
and being displeased at their conduct, persuaded 
them to change their dispositions and_ their 
actions for the better; but seeing they did not 
yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked 
pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him, 
together with his wife and children, and those 
they had married; so he departed out of that 
land. 

2. Now God loved this man for his right- 
eousness. Yet he not only condemned those 
other men for their wickedness, but determin- 
ed to destroy the whole race of mankind, and 
to make another race that should be pure from 
wickedness and cutting short their lives, and 
making their years not so many as they former- 


* Of Josephus’s mistake here, when he took Seth the 
ssn of Adam for Seth or Sesostris, king of Mgypt, the erector 
of this pillar in the land of Siriad, see Essay on the Old 
Testament, Appendix, p. 159, 160. Although the main of 
this relation might be true; and Adam might foretell a Con- 
flagration and a Deluge, which all antiquity witnesses to be 
an ancient tradition; nay, Seth’s posterity might engrave 
their inventions in astronomy on two such pillars; yet, it is 
n') way credible that they could survive the deluge, which 
has buried all such pillars and edifices far under ground, in 
the sed ments of its waters, especially since the like pillars of 
the Egyptian Seth or Sesostris were extant, after the flood, 
im the land of Siriad, and perhaps in the days of Josephus 
arso, as is shown in the place here referred to. 

{ This notion, that the fullen angels were, in some sense, 
a fathers of the old giants, was the constant opinion ef an- 

qvity, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ly lived, but one hundred and twenty only,* 
he turned the dry land into sea and thus 
were all these men destroyed; but Noah alone 
was saved; for God suggested to him the follow- 
ing contrivance and way of escape: That he 
should make an ark of four stories high, three 
hundred cubits long,t fifty cubits broad, and 
thirty cubits high. Accordingly he entered 
into that ark, and his wife, and sons, and their 
wives, and put into it not only other provisions 
to support their wats there, but also sent in 
with the rest, all sorts of living creatures, the 
male and his female, for the preservation of 
their kinds, and others of them by sevens. 
Now this ark had firm walls, and a roof, and 
was braced with cross beams, so that it could 
not be any way drowned, or overborne by 
the violence of the water. And thus was 
Noah, with his family, preserved. Now he 
was the tenth from Adam, as being the son of 
Lamech, whose father was Methusela; he was 
the son of Enoch, the son of Jared; and Jared 
was the son of Malaleel, who, with many of 
his sisters, were the children of Cain, the son 
of Enos. Now Enos was the son of Seth, the 
son of Adam. 

3. This calamity happened in the six hun- 
dredth year of Noah’s government, [age,] in 
the second month,t called by the Macedonians 


Dius, but by the Hebrews Marshesvan; for so q 


did they order their year in Egypt. But Moses 
appointed that isan, which is the same with 
Xanthicus, should be the first month of their 
festivals, because he brought them out of Egyp 
in that month. So that this month began the 
year as to all the solemnities they observed to 
the honor of God, although he preserved the 
original order of the month as to selling and 
buying, and other ordinary affairs. 
says, that this flood began on the twenty-seventh 
[seventeeth] day of the forementioned month, 
and this was two thousand six hundred and 
fifty-six [one thousand five hundred and _fifty- 
six] years from Adam the first man; and the 
time is written down in our sacred hooks,§ 
those who then lived having noted down with 


* Josephus here supposes, that the life of these giants (for 


Now he 


4 


of them only do | understand him) was now reduced to 12@ — 


years; which is confirmed by the fragment of Enoch, sect. 
10, in Authent. Ree. part 1, p. 268. Foras tothe rest of 
mankind, Josephus himself confesses their lives were much 
longer than 120 years, for many generations after the flood, 
as we shall see presently; and he says, they were gradually 
shortened till the days of Moses, and then fixed [for some 
time] at 120, chap. vi. sect. 5. Nor indeed need we sup 
that either Enoch or Josephus meant to interpret these 120 
years for the life of men before the flood, to be different 
from the 120 years of God’s patience [perhaps while the ark 
was preparing] till the deluge; which [ take to be the mean 
ing of God when he threatened this wicked world, that il 
they so Jong continued impenitent, their days should be ne 
more than 120 years. 

t+ Acubit is about 2] English inches 

¢ Josephus here truly determines that the year of the 
flood began about the autumnal equinox; as to what day of 
the month the flood began our Hebrew and Samaritan, and 
perhaps Josephus’s own copy, more rightly placed it on the 
17th day instead of the 27th as here; for Josephus 
with them as to the distance of 150 days to the 17th day ef 
the 7th month, as Gen. vii. 24. with vilii.-4. 

§ Josephus here takes notice, that these ancient genea- 
logies were first set down by those that then lived, and from 
them were transmitted down to posterity; which | suppose 
to bethe tme account of that matter. For there is no rea- 
sop to immaguie that men were net taught to read and wre 


; 


’ 


ee ee ee 





BOOK L—CHAPTER TF. 


great accuracy both the births and the deaths 
of illustrious men. 

4, For indeed Seth was born when Adam was 
m his two hundred and thirtieth year, who liv- 
ed nine hundred and thirty years. Seth begat 
Enoch in his two hundred and fifth year; who, 
when he had lived nine hundred and twelve 
years, delivered the government to Cainan his 
zon, whom he had at his hundred and ninetieth 
year. He lived nine hundred and five years. 
Cainan, when he had lived nine hundred and 
ten years, had his son Malaleel, who was born 
in his hundred and seventieth year. This 
Malaleel, having lived eight hundred and 
ninety-five years, died, leaving his son Jared, 
whom he begat when he was at his hundred 
and sixty-fifth year. He lived nine hundred 
and sixty-two years; and then his son Enoch 
gucceeded him, who was born when his father 
was one hundred and sixty-two years old. 
Now he, when he had lived three hundred and 
sixty-five years, departed, and went to God; 
whence it is, that they have not written down 
his death. Now Methusela, the son of Enoch, 
who was born to him when he was one hun- 
dred and sixty-five years old, had Lamech for 
his son, when he was one hundred and eighty- 
seven years of age; to whom he delivered the 
government, when he had retained it nine hun- 
dred and sixty-nine years. Now Lamech, 
when he had governed seven hundred and 
seventy-seven years, appointed Noah his son 
to be ruler of the people, who was born to La- 
mech when he was one hundred and eighty- 
two years old, and retained the government 
nine hundred and fifty years. These years 
collected together make up the sum before set 
down. But let no one inquire into the deaths 
of these men; for they extended their lives all 
along, together with their children and grand- 
children; but let him have regard to their 
births only. 

5. When God gave the signal, and it began 
to rain, the water poured down forty entire 
days, till it became fifteen cubits higher than 
the earth; which was the reason why there 
were no greater number preserved, since they 
“had no place to fly to. When the rain ceased, 
the water did but just begin to abate after one 
hundred and fifty days; that is,on the seventeenth 
day of the seventh month, it then ceasing to 
subside for a little while. After this, the ark 
rested on the top of a certain mountain in Ar- 
menia; which, when Noah understood, he 
epened it, and seeing a small piece of land 
about it, he continued quiet, and conceived 
some cheerful hopes of deliverance. But a 
few days afterward, when the water was de- 
ereased to a greater degree, he sent outa raven, 
as desirous to learn whether any other part 
of the earth was left dry by the water, and 
whether he might go out of the ark with safety; 
but the raven returned not. And after seven 
days, he sent out a dove, to know the state of 


soon after they were taught to speak: and perhaps all ty the 

‘Messiah himself, who under the Father, was the Creator or 
Governor of mankind, and who frequently in those early 

_ days appeared to them. 
5 


3 


the ground, which eame tack to him covered 
‘with mud, and bringing an olive branch. 
Hereby Noah learned that the earth was be- 
come clear of the flood. So after he had stayed 
seven more days, he sent the living creatures 
out of the ark, and both he and his family 
went out, when he also sacrificed to God, an@ 
feasted with his companions. However, thé 
Armenians call this place Azofarnptoy,* the Place 
of Descent; for the ark being saved in that 
place, its remains are showed there by the in- 
habitants to this day. 

6. Now all the writers of the barbarian his- 
tories make mention of this flood, and of this 
ark; among whom is Berossus the Chaldean. 
For when he was describing the circumstances 
of the flood, he goes on thus, “It is said, there is 
still some part of this ship in Armenia, at the 
mountain of the Cordyzeans; and that some peo- 
ple carry off pieces of the bitumen, which they 
take away, and use chiefly as amulets, for the 
averting of mischiefs.” Hieronymus the Egyp- 
tian also, who wrote the Phenician antiquities, 
and Manaseas, and a great many more, make 
mention of the same. Nay, Nicholas of Damas- 
cus, in his ninety-sixth book, hath a particular 
relation about them; where he speaks thus: 
“There is a great mountain in Armenia, over 
Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported 
that many who fled at the time of the deluge 
were saved ; and that one who was carried in an 
ark, came on shore upon the top of it; and that 
the remains of the timber were a great while 
preserved. This might be the man about whom 
Moses, the legislator of the Jews, wrote.” 


7. But as for Noah, he was afraid, since God 
had determined to destroy mankind, lest he 
should drown the earth every year; so he offered 
burnt offerings; and besought God that nature 
might hefeafter go on in its former orderly 
course; and that he would not bring on so great 
a judgment any more, by which the whole race 
of creatures might be in danger of destruction ; 
but that, having now punished the wicked, he 
would of his goodness spare the remainder, 
and such as he had hitherto judged fit to be de- 
livered from so severe a calamity; for that other- 
wise these last must be more miserable than 
the first, and that they must be condemned to a 
worse condition than the others, unless they be 
suffered to escape entirely; that is, if they be 
reserved for another deluge, while they must 
be afflicted with the terror and the sight of the 
first deluge, and must also be destroyed by a 
second. He also entreated God to accept of 

* This AxcBarupsov, or place of descent, is the proper 
rendering of the Armenian name of this very city. It is 
called in Ptolemy, Naxwana, and by Moses Chorenensts 
the Armenian historian, Idshenan; but at the place itself 
Nachidsheuan, which signifies the first place of descent; and 
isa lasting monument of the preservation of Noah in the 
ark, upon the top of that mountain, at whose foot it was 
built, as the first city or town after the flood. See Antiq. 
b. xx. chap. ii. sect. 3. and Moses Chorenensis, p. 71. 723 
who also says, p. 19, that another town was related by tra- 
dition to have been called Seron, or the place of dispersion, 
on account of the dispersion of Xisuthrus, or Noah’s sons, 
from thence first made. Whether any remains of this ark 
be still preserved, as the people of the country suppose, [ 
cannot certainly tell. Mons. Tournefort had not very jong 


since a mind to see the place himself, but met with too great 
dangers and difficulties to venture through them. 


SA 


hiv ancrifice, and te grant, that the earth might 
never again undergo the like; effects of his 
wrath; that men might be permitted to go on 
cheerfully in cultivating the same; to build. ci- 
ties, aud live happily in them; and that they 
might not be deprived of any of those good 
things which they enjoyed before the flood; but 
might attain to the like length of days and old 
age, which the ancient people had arrived at 
before. 

8. When Noah had made these supplica- 
tions, God, who loved the man for his right- 
eousness, granted entire success to his prayers; 
and said, that it was not he who brought the 
destruction on a polluted world, but that they 
underwent that vengeance on account of their 
own wickedness; and that he had not brought 
meu into the world, if he had himself deter- 
wiitied to destroy them, it being an instance of 
greater wisdom not to have granted ther life 
at all, than, after it was granted, to procure 
their destruction; but the injuries, said he, they 
otfered to my holiness a.d virtue, forced me to 
bring this punishment upon them. But | will 
l_ave off for the time to come, to require such 
punishments, the effects of so great wrath, for 
their future wicked actions, and especially on 
account of thy prayers. But if | shall, at any 
nine, send tempests of rain in an extraordinary 
manner, be not affrighted at the largeness of 
tlie showers; for the water shall no more over- 
s read the earth. However, I require you to 
alistain froshedding the blood of men, and to 
kep yourselves pure from murder; and to pun- 
ish those that cominit any such thing. I per- 
mit you to make use of all the other living 
creatures at your pleasure, and as your appe- 
nies lead you; for [ have made you lords of 
them all, both of those that walk on the land, 


ANTIQUITIES OF 'THE JEWS. 


lave for witnesses to what | have said, ali those — 
that have written antiquities, both among the — 
ureeks and Barbarians: for even Manetho, who | 
wrote the Egyptian history, and Berossus, who 
collected the Chaldean monuments, and Mo- 
chus and Hestizeus, and besides these Hierony- 
mus the Egyptian, and those who composed 
the Phenician history, agree to what I here say — 
Hesiod also, and Hecatzeus, and Hellanicus, aud — 
Acusilaus; and, besides these, Ephorus and 
Nicolaus relate, that the ancients lived a thou- _ 
sand years. But as to these matters, let every 
one look upon them as they think fit. 


CHAPTER IV. / 
Concerning the Tower of Babylon and the Confu- 
sion of Tongues. | 
§ 1. Now the sons of Noah were three, Shem, 
and Japhet, and Ham, born one hundred years 
before the deluge. These first of all descend- 
ed from the mountains into the plains, and fixed 
their habitation there; and persuaded others 
who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds — 
on account of the flood, and so were very — 
loath to come down from the higher places, to — 
venture to follow their examples. Now the 
plain in which they first dwelt, was called Shs- _ 
nar. God also con:manded them to send colo- | 
nies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the — 
earth, that they might not raise seditions among - 
themselves, but might cultivate a great part of 
the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful — 
manner. But they wereso ill instructed that — 
they did not obey God: for which reason they ~ 
fell into calamities, and were made.sensible, by — 
experience, of what sin they had been guilty 
For when they flourished with a numereus 
youth, God admonished them again to send — 
out colonies; but they, imagining that the pros- 





wid of those that swim in the waters, and of|perity they enjoyed was not derived from the 


those that fly in the regions of the air on high, 
excepting their blood, for therein is the life. 
But I will give you a sign that I have left off 
my anger, by iny bow, (whereby is meant the 
rainbow, for they determined that the rainbow 
was the bow of God.) And, when God had 
avid and promised thus, he went hway. 

9. Now when Noah had lived three hundred 
and fifty years after the flood, and all that time 
happily, he died, having lived the number of 
nine hundred and fifty years. But let no one 
upon comparing the lives of the ancients with 
our lives, and with the few years which we 
now live, think, that what we have said of them 
is false; or make the shortness of our lives at 
present an argument, that neither did they at- 
tain to so long a duration of life, for those an- 

‘cients were beloved of God, and [lately] made 
by God himself; and because their food was 
then fitter for the prolongation of life, might 
well live So great a number of years; and be- 
sides,God afforded them a longer time of life on 
sccount of their virtue, and the good use they 
made of it in astronomical and geometrical dis- 
coveries which would not have afforded the 
tume for foretelling, [the periods of the stars,] 
unless they had lived six hundred years: for the 
great year is completed in that interva) Nowk 


| 
tavor of God, but supposing that then own ! 
power was the proper cause of the plentiful : 
condition they were in, did not obey him. 
Nay, they added to this their disobedience to— 
the divine will, the suspicion they were there- 
fore ordered to send out separate colonies, that — 
being divided asunder, they might the more - 
easily be oppressed. 

2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to_ 
such an affront and contempt of God. He was — 
the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold © 
man, and of great strength of hand. He per — 
suaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it” 
was through his means they were happy, but 
to believe that it was their own courage which — 
procured that happiness. He also gradually 
changed the government into tyranny, seein 
no other way of turning men from the fear o 
(sod, but to brmg them into a constant depend- 
«ence on his own power. He also said, “He 
would be revenged on God, if he should have’ 
a mind to drown the world again, for that he 
would build a tower too high for the waters to 
le able to reach; and that he would.avenge 
himselfon God for destroying their forefathers.” 

3. Now the multitwle were very ready to 
fllow the determination of Nimrod, and ta 
exteeru it a piece of cowardice to submit se 

















wg 2 


_ God; and they built a tower, neither sparing 
any pains, nor being in any degree negligent 
about the work. And by reason of the multi- 
tude of hands employed in it, it grew very 
high, sooner than any one could expect; but 
the thickness of it was so great, and it was so 
strongly built, that thereby its great height 
seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really 
was. It was built of burned brick, cemented 
together with mortar made of bitumen, that it 
might not be liable to admit water. When God 
gaw that they acted so madly, he did not re- 
solve to destroy them utterly, since they were 
mot grown wiser by the destruction of the 
former sinners, but he caused a tumult among 
them, by producing in them divers languages, 
and causing, that through the multitude of those 
languages, they should not be able to under- 
stand one another. The place wherein they 
built the tower isnow called Babylon, because 
of the confusion of that language which they 
readily understood before; for the Hebrews 
mean by the word Babel, confusion. ‘The Si- 
byl also makes mention of this tower, and of 
the confuson of the language when she says 
thus, “When all men were of one language, 
some of them built a high tower, as if they 
would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the 
gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the 
tower, and gave every one his peculiar langu- 
age, and for this reason it was that the city was 


called Babylon.” But as to the plain of Shinar, | 


BOOK 1—CHAPTERS V. Vi. 


33 


on the nations by those that first seized upon 
them. Japhet the son of Noah had seven 
sons. ‘They inhabited so, that beginning at the 
mountains Taurus and Amanus, they proceed- 
ed along Asia, as far as the river Tanais, and 
along Europe to Cadiz; and settling themselves 
on the lands they. lighted upon, which none 
had inhabited before, they called the nations 
by their own nanies. For Gomer founded 
those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, 
[Gauls,] but were then called Gomerites. Ma- 
gog founded those that from him were named 
Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called 
Scythians. Now as to Javan and Madai, the 
sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Ma- 
deans, which are called Medes by the Greeks; 
but from Javan, Jonia and all the Grecians are 
derived. Thobel founded the Thobelites, 


| which are now called Iberes; and the Moso- 


cheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are 
Cappadocians. There is also a mark of their 
ancient denominations still to be showed; for 
there is even now among them a city called 
Mazaca, which may inform those that are able 
to understand, that so was the entire nation 
once called. Thiras also called those whom 
he ruled over, Thiracians; but the Greeks 
changed the name into Jhracians. And so 
many were the countries that had the children 
of Japhet for their inhabitants. Of the three 
sons of Gomer, Aschanaz founded the Ascha- 
nasians, who are now called by the Greeks 


in the country of Babylonia, Hestiwus mentions | Rheginians. So did Riphath found the Riph- 
it, when he says thus, “Such of the priests as | eans, now called Paphlagonians; and Thru- 
were saved took the sacred: vessels of Jupiter gramma the Thrugrammeans, who, as the 
Enyalius, and came to Shinar of Babylonia.” | Greeks resolved, were named Phrygians. Of 
CHAPTER V. | the three sons of Javan also, the son of Japhet, 

| Elisa gave name to the Elisians, who were Ii 


ri h sent out | : 
ee poreniyo/ Noah sent ow {subjects; they are now the AXolians. 


abroad, to the Tharsians, for so was Cicilia of %ld call- 


‘ ie eye . . . 2 i 


Colonies, and inhabited the whole earth. 


§ 1. After this they were dispersed 


Tharsus 


colonies everywhere; and each colony Poole | city they have, and a metropolis also, is Tarsus, 


possession of that land which they lighted 
upon, and unto which God led them, so that 
the whole continent was filled with them, both 
the inland and the maritime countries. ‘There 
were some also who passed over the sea in 
ships, and inhabited the islands; and some of 
those nations do still retain the denominations 
which were given them by their first founders; 
but some have lost them also, and some have 
‘only admitted certain changes in them, that 
they might be the more intelligible to the in- 
habitants. And they were the Greeks who 
became the authors of such mutations; for 
when, in after ages, they grew potent, they 
elaimed to themselves the glory of antiquity; 
iving names to the nations that sounded well, 
in Greek,] that they might be better under- 
_ stood among themselves; and setting agreeable 
forms of government over them, as if they 
were a people derived from themselves. 


_ CHAPTER VI. 
Nation was Denominated from ther 
Be Jirst inhalniants. 

__§1. Now they were the grandchildren of 
~ Noah, in honor of whom names 


x 


the Tau bemg by change put for the Theta. 
Cethimus possessed the island of Cethima; it - 
is now called Cyprus; and from that it is, that 
all islands, and the greatest part of the sea- 
coasts, are named Cethium by the Hebrews; 
and one city there is nm Cyprus that has been 
abie to preserve its denomination; it is called 
Citius by those who use the language of thé 
Greeks, and has not, by the use of that dialect, 
escaped the name of Cethium. And so many 
nations have the children and grandchildren of 
Japhet possessed. Now when I have premis- 
ed somewhat, which perhaps the Greeks do 
not know, J] will return and explain what I 
have omitted; for such names are pronounced 
here after the manner of the Greeks, to please 
my readers; for our own country language 
does not so pronounce them. But the names 
in all cases are of one and the same ending: 
for the name we here pronounce JVoeas is 
there Voah; and in every case retains the same 
termination. 

2. The children of Ham possessed the land 
from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of 
Libanus; seizing upon all that was on its sea- 


were imposed | poasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping # 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


as their own. Some imdeed, of its names are | the sacred books but their names, for the He- 
utterly vanished away; others of them being| brews overthrew their cities: and their calami- 
changed, and another sound given them, are | ties came upon them on the occasion following. 


aardly to be discovered, yet a few there are 
which have kept their denominations entire. 
For of the four sons of Ham, time has not at 
all hurt the name of Chus; for the Ethiopians, 
aver whom he reigned, are even at this day, 
ith by themselves and by all men in Asia, 
ialled Chusites. 'The memory also of the Mes- 
faites is preserved in their name; for all we 
who inhabit the country [of Judea] call Egypt 
Vestre and the Egyptians Mestreans. Phut 
also was the founder of Libya, and called the 
inhabitants Phutites, from himself; there is also 
a river in the country of the Moors, which 
bears that name; whence it is that we may see 
the greatest part of the Grecian historiograph- 
ers mention that river, and the adjoining coun- 
try, by the appellation of Phut; but the name 
it has now, has been by change given it from 
one of the sons of Mestraim, who was called 
Lybyos. We will inform you presently what 
has been the occasion why it has been called 
Africa also. Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, 
inhabited the country now called Judea, and 
called it from his own name Canaan. The 
children of these [four] were these: Sabase, 
who founded the Sabeans; Evilas, who founded 
the Evileans, who are called Getuli; Sabathes 
founded the Sabathens; they are now called 
by the Greeks Astaborans; Sabactas settled the 
Sabactens; and Ragmus the Ragmeans; and he 
had two sons, the one of which Judadas,$ettled 
the Judadeans, a nation of the western Ethio- 
pians, and left them his name; as did Sabas, to 
the Sabeans. But Nimrod, the son of Chus, 
stayed and tyrannized at Babylon, as we have 
already informed you. Nowall the children of 
Mesrafin, being eight in number, possessed the 
country from Gaza to Egypt, though it retain- 
ed the name of one only, the Philestim, for 
the Greeks called part of that country Pales- 
tine. As for the rest, Ludiem, and Enemim, 
and Labim, who alone inhabited in Libya, and 
called the country from himself; Nedim, and 
Pethrosim, and Chesloim, and Cepthorim, we 
know nothing of them besides their names; for 
the Ethiopic war,* which we shall describe 
hereafter, was the cause that those cities were 
overthrown. The sons of Canaan were these: 
Sidonius, who also built a city of the same 
name; it is called by the Greeks Sidon; Ama- 
thus inhabited in Amathine, which iseven now 
called Amatie by the inhabitants, although the 
Macedonians named it Epiphania, from one of 
kis posterity; Arudues possessed the island 
Aradus; Arucas possessed Arce, which is in 
Libanus, But for the seven others [Euens,] 
Chetteus, Jebuseus, Amorreus, Gergeseus, Eu- 
deus, Sineus, Samareus, we have nothing in 

* One observation ought not to be here neglected with 
regard to that Ethiopic war which Moses, as general of the 
Egyptians, put an end to, Antiq. b. ii. ch. x. and about which 
eur late writers seem very unconcerned; viz. that it was a 
war of that consequence, as to occasion the removal or de- 
struction of six or seve nations of the posterity of Mitzraim, 
with their cities; which Josephus would not have said, if he 


had not had ancient records to justify those his assertions, 
though those records be all now lest. 


3. Noah, when after the deluge the earth was 
resettled in its former condition, set about its 
cultivation; and when he had planted it with 
vines, and when the fruit was ripe, and he had 
gathered the grapes in their season, and the 


wine was ready for use, he offered sacrifice, and — 


feasted, and being drunk, he fell asleep, and lay 
naked in an unseemly manner. When his 
youngest son saw this, he came laughing, and 
showed him to his brethren; but they covered 
their father’s nakedness. And when Noah, was 
made sensible of what had been done, he pray 
ed for posterity to his other sons; but for Ham, 
he did not curse him, by reason of his nearness 
in blood, but cursed his posterity. And when 
the rest of them escaped that curse, God inflict- 
ed it on the children of Canaan. But as to 
these matters, we shall speak more hereafter. 
4. Shem the third son of Noah, had five sons, 
who inhabited the land that began at Euphrat- 
es, and reached to the Indian ocean. For Elam 
left behind him the Elamites, the ancestors of 
the Persians. Ashur lived at the city Nineve; 
and named his subjects Assyrians, who became 
the most fortunate nation, beyond others. Ar- 
phaxad named the Arpharadites, who are now 


called Chaldeans. Aram had the Aramites, 


which the Greeks called Syrians; as Laud 


founded the Laudites, which are now called 


ph re Of the four sons of Aram, Uz found- 
ed Trachonitis and Damascus, this country lies 
between Palestine and Celosyria. Ul founded 
Armenia, and Gather the Bactrians; and Mesa 


the Mesaneans; it is now called Charax Spasi-- 


ni. Sala was the son of Arphaxad; and his 
son was Heber, from whom they originally call- 
ed the Jews* Hebrews. Heber begat Joctan 
and Phaleg; he was called Phaleg because he 


was born at the dispersion of the nations to— 
their several countries; for Phaleg among the 


Hebrews signifies division. Now Joctan, one 


of the sons of Heber, had these sons, Elmodad, — 


Saleph, Asermoth, Jera, Adoram, Aizel, Decla, 
Ebal, Abimael, Sabeus, Ophir, Euilat, and Jo- 


bab. These inhabited from Cophen, an In-— 
dian river, and in part of Aria adjoining to it. 
And this shall suffice concerning the sons of © 


Shem. 

5. I will now treat of the Hebrews, The 
son of Phaleg, whose father was Heber, was 
Ragau; whose son was Serug, to whom was 


born Nahor; his son was Terah, who was the 


father of Abram, who accordingly was the 
tenth from Noah, and was born in the twe 
hundred and ninety-second year after the de- 
luge; for Terah begat Abram in his seventieth 


* That the Jews were called Hebrews, from this their prn- 
genitor Heber, our author Josephus here rightly affirms; and 
not from Abram the Hebrew, or Passenger over Euphrates, 
as many of the moderns suppose. Shem is also called the~ 
Father of all the children of Heber, or of all the Hebrews, in 
a history long before Abram passed over Euphrates, Gen. 
x. 21, though it must be confessed, that, Gen. xiv. 13, where 
the original says, they told Abram the Hebrew, the 8 
gint renders it the Passenger, ~:perys: but this is spoken 
only of Abram himself, who had then lately passed over 
Euphrates, and is another signification of the Hebrew weed 
taken as an appellative and not as a proper name 


{ 


eptua-— 


mi 


4 
4 
i 


BOOK 1—CHAPTERS VU. VIII. a7 


ear. Nahor begat Haran, when he was one 

undred and twenty years old; Nahor was 
born to Serug at his hundred and thirty-second 
year; Ragau had Serug at one hundred and 
thrty; at the same age also, Phaleg had Ra- 
gau; Heber begat Phaleg in his hundred and 
thirty-fourth year; he himself being begotten 
by Sala, when he was a hundred and thirty 
years old, whom Arphaxad had for his son at 
the hundred and thirty-fifth year of his age. 
Arphaxad was the son of Shem, and born 
;welve years after the deluge. Now Abram 
had two brethren, Nahor and Haran; of these 
Haran left a son, Lot; as also Sarai and Milcha 
his daughters: and died among the Chaldeans, 
mm acity of the Chaldeans, called Ur; and _ his 
monument is shywed to this day. These mar- 
ried their nieces. Nahor married Milcha, and 
Abraham married Sarai. Now Terah hating 
Chaldea, on account of his mourning for Haran, 
they all removed to Haran of Mesopotamia, 
where Terah died, and was buried, when he 
had lived to be two hundred and five years old; 
for the life of man was already by degrees di- 
minished, and became shorter than before, till 
the birth of Moses; after whom the term of hu- 
man life was one hundred and twenty years, 
God determining it to be the length that Moses 
happened to live. Now Nahor had eight sons 
by Milcha; Uz, and Buz, Kemuel, Chesed, Az- 
~ au, Pheldas, Jadelph, and Bethuel. These were 
all the genuine sons of Nahor; for 'Teba, and 
Gaam, and Tachas, and Mecha, were born of 
Reuma his concubine; but Bethuel had a 
daughter Rebecca, and a son Laban. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How Abram our forefather went out of the land 
of the Chaldeans, and lived in the land then call- 
ed Canaan, but now Judea. 


§ 1. Now Abram, having noson of his own, 
adopted Lot, his brother Haran’s son, and his 
wife Sarai’s brother; and he left the land of 
Chaldea when he was seventy-five years old, 
and at the command of God, went into Canaan, 
and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his 
posterity. He was a person of great sagacity, 
both for understanding all things, and persuad- 
ing his hearers, and not mistaken in his opin- 
ions; for which reason he began to have higher 
notions of virtue than others had, and he de- 
termined to renew, and to change the opinion 
all men happened then to shave concerning 
God; for he was the first that ventured to pub- 
lish this notion, that there was but One God, 
the Creator of the Universe; and that as to other 
{gods, | if they contributed any thing to the hap- 
piness of men, that each of them afforded it 
only according to his appointment, and not by 
their own power. This his opinion was de- 
*ived from the irregular phenomena that were 
visible both at land and sea, as well as those 
that happen tothe sun and moon, and all the 
heavenly bodies; thus, “if [said he] these bodies 
had power of their own, they would certainly 
take care of their own regular motions; but 
since they co not preserve such regularity, 
they make it plain that so far as they co-ope- 





rate to our advantage, they do it not ol their 
own abilities, but as they are subservient to him 
that commands them, to whom alone we ought 
justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving. 
For which doctrines, when the Chaldeans, and 
other people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult 
against him, he thought fit to leave that coun- 
try; and at the command, and by the assistance 
of God, he came and lived in the land of Ca- 
naan. And when he was there settled, he built 
an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God. 

2. Berosus mentions our father Abram with- 
out naming him, when he says thus: “In the 
tenth generation after the flood, there was 
among the Chaldeans, a man, righteous and 
great, and skilful in the celestial science.” But 
Hecatzeus does more than barely mention him: 
for he composed, and left behind him, a book 
concerning him. And Nicolaus of Damascus, 
in the fourth book of his history, says thus: 
“Abram reigned at Damascus, being a foreign- 
er, Who came with an army out of the land 
above Babylon, called the land of the Chalde- 
ans; but, after a long time, he got him up, and 
removed from that country also, with his peo- 
ple, and went into the land then called the land 
of Canaan, but now the land of Judea, and this 
when his posterity were become a multitude, 
as to which posterity of his, we relate their his- 
tory in another work. Now the name of 
Abram is even still famous in the country of 
Damascus; and there is showed a_ village 
named from him, the habitation of Abram. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


That when there was a Famine in Canaan, Abram 
went thence into Egypl; and after he had con- 
tinued there awhile, he returned back again. 


§ 1. Now after this, when a famine had in- 
vaded the land of Canaan, and Abram had dis 
covered that the Egyptians were in a flourish- 
ing condition, he was disposed to go down to 
them, both to partake of the plenty they en- 
joyed, and to become an auditor of their priests, 
and to know what they said concerning the 
gods; designing either to follow them, if they 
had better notions than he, or to convert them 
into a better way, if his own notions proved the 
truest. Now seeing he was to take Sarai with 
him, and was afraid of the madness of the 
Egyptians with regard to women, lest the king 
should kill him on occasion of his wife’s great 
beauty, he contrived this device:—He pretend- 
ed to be her brother, and directed her in a dis- 
sembling way to pretend the same; for he said 
it would be for their benefit. Now as soon as 
they came into Egypt, it happened to Abram 
as he supposed it would, for the fame of his 
wife’s beauty was greatly talked of; for whick 
reason Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, would not 
be satisfied with what was reported of her, but 
would needs see her himself, and was prepar- 
ing to enjoy her; but God put astop to his un- 
just inclinations, by sending upon hima distem- 
per, and a sedition against his government. 
And when he inquired of the priests, how he 
might be freed from these calamities, they told 
him that his miserable condition was derived 


38 
from the wrath of God, upon account of his 
inclinaons to abuse the stranger’s wife. He 
chen, out of fear, asked Sarai, who she was? 
and who it was that she brought along with 
her? And when he had found out the truth, 
he excused himself to Abram, that supposing 
the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, 
he set his affections on her, as desiring an af- 
finity with him by marrying her; but not as in- 
cited by lust to abuse her. He also made him 
a large present in money; and gave hitn leave 
to enter into conversation with the most learn- 
ed among the Egyptians; from which conver- 
sation, lis virtue ard his reputation became 
more conspicuous than they had been before. 

2. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly 
addicted to different customs, and despised one 
another’s sacred and accustomed rites, and 
were very angry one with another on that ac- 
count, Abram couferred with each of them, 
and confuting the reasonings they made use of, 
every one for their own practices, he demon- 
strated that. such reasonings were vain, aud 
void of truth; whereupon he was admired by 
thei, in those conferences, as a very wise man, 
and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed 
on any subject he undertook; and this not only 
in understanding it, but in persuading other 
men also to assent to him. He communicated 
to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the 
science of astronomy; for, before Abram came 
mto Egypt, they were unacquainted with those 
parts of learning; for that science came from 
the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to 
the Greeks also. 

3. As soon as Abraham was come back into 
Canaan, he parted the land between him and 
Lot, upon account of the tumultuous behavior 
of their shepherds, concerning the pastures 
w »erein they should feed their flocks. How- 
ever, he gave Lot his option, or leave, to 
choose which lands he would take: and he took 
himself what the other left, which were the 
lower grounds at the foot of the mountains; 
and he himself dwelt in Hebron, which is a 
city seven years ancienter than Tanus of Egypt. 
But Lot possessed the land of the plain, and 
the river Jordan, not far from the city Sodom, 
which was then a fine city, but is now destroy- 
ed by the will and the wrath of God; the cause 
of which [I shall show in its proper place 
hereatier. 


CHAPTER IX. 


The Destruction of the Sodomites by the Assy- 
: rian War. 


§ Ll. At this time, when the Assyrians had 
the dominion over Asia, the people of Sodom 
were in a flourishing condition, both as to 
riches and the number of their youth. There 
were five kings that managed the affairs of this 
country, Ballas, Barsas, Senabar, and Sumo- 
bor, with the king of Bela, and each king led 
on his own troops. And the Assyrians made 
war upon them, and dividing their army into 
four parts, fought against them. Now every 
part of the army had its own commander; and 
when the battle was joined, the Assyrians were 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWo. A ill 





conquerors and imposed a tribute upon the — 
kings of the Sodomites, who submitted to this 
slavery twelve years, and so long they con- — 
tinued to pay their tribute; but on the thirteenth -— 
year they rebelled, and then the army of the 
Assyrians caine upon thern, under their com- 
manders, Amraphel, Arioch, Chedorlaomer, 
and Tidal. ‘These kings» had laid waste all 
Syria, and overthrown the offspring of the 
giants. And when they were come over against 
Sodom, they pitched their camp at the vale 
called the Shme-pits, for at that time there 
were pits in that place; but now, upon the de- 
struction of the city of Sodom, that vale be- 
came the Lake Asphaltites, as it is called; how- 
ever, concerning this lake we shall speak more 
presently. Now when the Sodomites joined 
battle with the Assyrians, and the fight was 
very obstinate, many of them were killed, and 
the rest were carried captive; among which 
captives was Lot, who had come to assist the 
Sodomites. 


CHAPTER X. 


How Abram fought with the Assyrians, and over 
came them, and saved the Sodomite Prison. 
ers, and took from the Assyrians the prey they 
had gotten. 


§ 1. When Abram heard of their calamity 
he was at once afraid for Lot his kinsman, am 
pitied the Sodomites, his friends and neighbors; 
and thinking it proper to afford them assistance, 
he did not delay it, but marched hastily, and 
the fifth night fell upon the Assyrians, near 
Dan, for that is the name of the other spring 
of Jordan, and before they could arm theim- 
selves, he slew some as they were in their beds, 
before they could suspect any harm; and others 
who were not yet gone to sleep, but were so 
drunk that they could not fight, ran away. 
Abram pursued after them, till, on the second 
day, he drove them in a body into Hoba, a 
place belonging to Damascus; and thereby de- 
monstrated, that victory does not depend on 
multitude, and the number of hands, but the 
alacrity and courage of soldiers overcome the 
most numerous bodies of men, while he got 
the victory over so great an army with no 
more than three hundred and eighteen of his 
servants, and three of his friends, but all those 
that fled returned home ingloriously. 

2. So Abram, when he had saved the captive 
Sodomites, who had been taken by the Assy- 
rians, and Lot also, his kinsman, returned home 
in peace. Now the king of Sodom met hita 
at a certain place which they called the King’ 
Dale, where Melchisedec, king of the city Sa- 
lem, received him. That name signifies the 
righteous king: and such he was, without dis- 
pute, insomuch that, on this account, he was 
made the priest of God: however, they after 
ward called Salem Jerusalem. Now this Mel 
chisedec supplied Abram’s army in a hospr 
table manner, and gave them provisions in 
abundance; and as they were feasting, he be- 
gan to praise him, and to bless God for subdu 
ing his enemies under him. And when Abram 
gave him the tenth part of his prey, he accept 


} BOOK I—CHAPTER XI. wh 
ed of the gift. But the king of Sodom desired 


would live better hereafter; for that the reason 
_ Abram to take the prey: but entreated that he 


of her being in such a miserable case was this, 


might have those men restored to him whom 
Abram had saved from the Assyrians, because 
‘they belonged unto him. But Abram would 
not doso; nor would make any other advantage 

of that prey, than what his servants had eaten; 
but still insisted that he should afford a part to 
his friends that had assisted him in the battle. 
The first of them was called Eschol, and then 
Ex:rer, and Mambre. 

3. And God commended his virtue, and said, 
Thou shalt not however lose the rewards thou 
hast deserved to receive by such thy glorious 
actions. He answered, And what advantage 
will it be to me to have such rewards, when I 
have none to enjoy them after me? for he was 
hitherto childless. And God promised that he 

should have a son, and that his posterity should 
be very numerous; insomuch that their num- 
ber shouldbe like the stars. When he heard 
that, he offered a sacrifice to God, as he com- 
manded him. ‘The manner of the sacrifice 
was this: He took a heifer of three years 
old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a 
ram in like manner of three years old, and a 
urtle-dove, and a pigeon;* and, as he was en- 
joined, he divided the three former, but the 
Birds he did not divide. After which, before 
he built his altar, where the birds of prey fiew 
about as desirous of blood, a divine voice came 
to him, declaring, that their neighbors would 
be grievous to his posterity, when they should 
be in Egypt, for four hundred years;+ during 
which time they should be afflicted, but after- 
wards should overcome their enemies, should 
conquer the Canaanites in war, and possess 
themselves of their land and of their cities. 

4. Now Abram dwelt near the oak called 
Ogyges; the place belongs to Canaan, not far 
from the city of Hebron. But being uneasy 
at his wife’s barrenness, he entreated God to 
grant that he might have male issue; and God 
required of him to be of good courage; and said, 
that he would add to all the rest of the benefits 
that he had bestowed upon him, ever since he 
led him out of Mesopotamia, the gift of chil- 
dren. Accordingly Sarai, at God’s command, 
prought to his bed one of her handmaidens, a 
woman of Egyptian descent, in order to obtain 

children by her, and when this handmaid was 
with child, she triumphed, and ventured to 
affront Sarai, as if the dominion were to come 
to asonto be born of her. But when Abram 
resigned her into the hands of Sarai, to punish 
her, she contrived to fly away, as not able to 
bear the instances of Sarai’s severity to her; 
and she entreated God to have compassion 

en ner. Nowa divine angel met her, as she 

was going forward in the wilderness, and bid 
her return to her master and mistress, for if 
she would s ibmit to that wise advice, she 

_ * ft is worth toting here, that God required no other 
sacrifices under thie law of Moses than what were taken from 
these five kinds of animals which he here required of 
Abram. Nordid the Jews feed upon any other domestic 

_ animals than the three here named, as Reland observes on 
Antiq. b. iv. ch. iv. sect. 4. 


+ As to this affliction of Abram’s posterity for 400 years, 
fee Antiq. b. ii. ch. ix. sect. 1. 


that she had been ungrateful and arrogant to 
wards her mistress. He also told her that if 
she disobeyed God, and went on still in her 
way, she should perish; but if she woud return 
back, she should become the mother of a son, 
who should reign over that country. These 
admonitions she obeyed, and returned to her 
master and mistress, and obtained forgiveness, 
A little while afterwards she bare Ismael, which 
may be interpreted, heard of God, because God 
had heard his mother’s prayer. 

5. The forementioned son was born te 
Abram when he was eighty-six years old; but 
when he was ninety-nine, God appeared to 
him, and promised him, that he should have 
asop by Sarai, and commanded that his name 
should be fsaac; and showed him, that from 
this son should spring great nations and kings, 
and that they should obtain all the land 
of Canaan by war, from Sidon to Egypt. 
But he charged him im order to keep his pos- 
terity unmixed with others, that they should be 
circumcised in the flesh of their foreskin, and 
that this should be done on the eighth day after 
they were born; the reason of which circumci 
sion, I will explain in another place. And 
Abram inquiring also concerning Ismael, whe- 
ther he ghould live or not, God signified to hira 
that he should live to be very old, and should 
be the father of great nations. Abram there- 
fore gave thanks to God for these blessings; and 
then he, and all his family, and his son Ismael, 
were circumcised immediately; the son being 
that day thirteen years of age, and he ninety 
nine. 


CHAP. X] 


How God overthrew the Nation of the Sodomites, 
out of his wrath against them for their sins. 


§ 1. About this time the Sodomites grew 
proud, on account of their riches and great 
wealth; they became unjust towards men, and 
impious towards God, insomuch that they did 
not call to mind the advantages they received 
from him; they hated strangers, and abused 
themselves with Sodomitical practices. God 
was, therefore, much displeased at them, and 
determined to punish them for their pride, and 
to overthrow their city, and to lay waste their 
country, until there should neither plant nor 
fruit grow out of it. 

2. When God had thus resolved concerning 
the Sodomites, Abraham, as he sat by the oak 
of Mambre, at the door of his tent, saw three 
angels; and thinking them to be strangers, he 
rose up, and saluted them, and desired they 
would accept of an entertainment, and anide 
with him; to which, when they agreed, he or- 
dered cakes of meal to be made presently; and 
when he had slain a calf, he roasted it, and 
brought it to them, as they sat under the oak. 
Now they made a show of eating; and besides, 
they asked him about his wife Sarah, where 
she was? and when he said, she was within, 
they said, they should come again, hereafter, and 
find her become a mother. Upon which the 


40 


woman !aughed and said, that it was impossible 
she should bear children, since she was ninety 
years of age, and her husband was a hundred. 
Then they concealed themselves no longer, but 
declared that they were angels of God: and that 
one of them was sent to inform them about the 
child, and two of the overthrow of Sedom. 

3. When Abraham heard this, he was griev- 
ed for the Sodomites; and he rose up, and be- 
sought God for them, and entreated him that 
he would not destroy the righteous with the 
wicked. And when God had replied, that 
there was no good man among the Sodomites; 
for if there were but ten such men among 
them, he would not punish any of them for 
their sins, Abraham held his peace. And the 
angels came to the city of the Sodomites, and 
Lot entreated them to accept of a lodging with 
him; fer he was a very generous and hospita- 
‘le man, and one that had learned to imitate 
the goodness of Abraham. Now when the 
Sodomites saw the young men to be of beauti- 
‘ul countenance, and this to an extraordinary 
degree, and that they took up their lodgings 
with Lot, they resolved themselves to enjoy 
these beautifiul boys by force and violence; and 
when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not 
to offer any thing immodest to the strangers, 
but to have regard to their lodging in his 
house; and promised, if their inclinatioys could 
not be governed, he would expose his daughters 
to their lust, instead of these strangers: neither 
thus were they made ashamed. 

4, But God was much displeased at their im- 
pudent behavior, so that he both smote those 
men with blindness, and condemned the Sodo- 
mites to universal destruction. But Lot, upon 
God’s informing him of the future destruction 
of the Sodomites, went away, taking with him 
his wife and daughters, who were two, and 
still virgins; for those that were betrothed* to 
them were above the thoughts of going, and 
deemed that Lot’s words were trifling. (God 
then cast a thunderbolt upon the city, and set 
it on fire, with its inhabitants; and laid waste 
the country with the like burning, as I formerly 
said when I wrote the Jewish war.t But Lot’s 
wife continually turning back to view the city, 
as she went from it, and being too nicely in- 
quisitive what would become of it, although 
God had forbidden her so to do, was changed 
into a pillar of salt;t for I have seen it, and it 


* These sons-in-law to Lot, as they are called, Gen. xix. 
@—14, might beso styled because they were betrothed to 
Lov’s daughters, though not yet married to them. See the 
rote on Antiq. b. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 1. 

¢t Of the War, b. iv. ch. vili. sect. 4. 

t This pillar of salt was, we see here, standing in the 
days of Josephus, and he had seen it. Thatit was standing 
then, is also attested by Clement of Rome, contemporary 
with Josephus; as also that it was so in the next century, is 
attested by [renmus, with the addition of an hypothesis how 
it came to last solong, with all its members entire. Whether 
the account that some modern travellers give be true, that it 
Is still standing, I donot know. Its remote situation, at the 
atmost southern point of the sea of Sodom, in the wild and 
dangerous deserts of Arabia, makes it exceeding difficult for 
imquisitive travellers to examine the place; and for common 
reports uf country people, at a distance, they are not very 
satisfactory. In the meantime [ have no opinion of Le 
Clere’s dissertation cr hypothesis about this question, which 
gao only be dets.inined by eye-witnesses. When Chris- 
@an princes, 50 ca’led, ‘ay aside their foolish and unchris- 


ANTIQUITIES OF ‘THE Ji WS. | 
remains at this day. Now he and his daugh © 


ters fled to a certain small place, encompassed 
with the fire, and settled init it is to this day 
called Zoar; for that is the word which the He- 
brews use for a small thing. There it was 
that he lived a miserable life, on account of 
his having no company, and his want of pro- 
visions. 

d. But his daughters, thinking that all man- 
kind were destroyed, approached to their 
father,* though taking care not to be perceived. 
This they did, that mankind might not w.erly 
fail: and they bare sons; the son of the elder 
was named Moab, which denotes one derived 
from his father; the younger bare Ammon, 
which name denotes one derived from a kins- 
man. 'The former of whom was the father of 
the Moabites, which is even still a great nation; 
the latter was the father of the Ammonites; 
and both of them are inhabitants of Celosy- 
ria. And such was the departure of Lot from 
among the Sodomites. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Concernung Abimelech, and concerning Ismael the 
Son of Abraham; and concerning the Arabi- 
ans, who were his posterity. 


§ 1. Abraham now removed to Gerar of Pa- 
lestine, leading Sarah along with him, under the 
notion of his sister, using the like dissimula- 
tion that he had used before, and this out of 
fear; for he was afraid of Abimelech, the king 
of that country, who did also himself fall ir 
love with Sarah, and was disposed to corrupt 
her: but he was restrained from satisfying his 
lust by a dangerous distemper which befell 
him from God. Now when his physicians de- 
spaired of curing him, he fell asleep, and saw 
a dream, warning him not to sbuse the stran- 
ger’s wife; and when he recovered, he told 
his friends that God had inflicted that disease 
upon him, by way of punishment for his inju- 
ry to the stranger, and in order to preserve thr 
chastity of his wife; for she did not accomps - 
ny him as his sister, but as his legitimate wife; 
and that God had promised to be gracious to 
him for the time to come, if this person be ence 
secure of his wife’s chastity. When he hac 
said this, by the advice of his friends, he sent 
for Abraham, and bid him not be concerned 
about his wife, or fear the corruption of her 
chastity for that God took eare of him, and 
that it was by his providence that he received 
his wife again without her suffering any abuse. 
And he appealed to God and to his wile 


tian wars and quarrels, and send a body of fit perséns te 
travel over the East, and bring us faithful accounts of all 
ancient monuments, and procure us copies of ail ancient re 
cords, at present lost among us, we may hope for full satis 
faction in such inquiries, but hardly before. 

* [ see no proper wicked intention in these daughters of 
Lot, wheu in a case which appeared to them of unavoida- 
ble necessity, they procured themselves to be with child by 
their father. Without such an unavoidable, necessity, in- 
cest isa horrid crime; but whether, in such acase of ne- 
cessity, as they apprehended this to be, according to Jusepn- 
us, it was any such crime, I am tot satisfi?d. In the 
meantime, they making their father drunk, and their solici- 
tous concealment of what they did from him, shows that they 
despaired of persuading him to anaction, which, at the best, 
could not but be very suspicious and shocking to so good @ 
man. ‘ 





*3con-— 








Awpeanmanw’s CELESTIAL VISITORS. 





BOOK L—CHAPT Hin all. 


wience, and said, that he had not any inclina- 
uion at first to enjoy her, if he had known she 
was his wife; but since, said he, thou ledst her 
about as thy sister, I was guilty of no offence. 
He also entreated him to be at peace with him; 
and to make God propitious to him, and that 
if he thought fit to continue with him, he 
should have what he wanted in abundance; 
but that if he designed to go away, he should be 
honorably conducted, and have whatsover sup- 
ply he wanted when he came thither. Upon his 
saying this, Abraham told him, that his pre- 
tence of kindness to his wife was no lie, be- 
cause she was his brother’s daughter; and that 
he did not think himself safe in his travels 
abroad without this sort of dissimulation; and 
that he was not the cause of his distemper, but 
was only solicitous for his own safety; he said 
also, that he was ready to stay with him. 
Whereupon Abimelech assigned him land and 
money; and they covenanted to live together 
without guile, and took an oath at a certain 
well, called Beersheba, which may be interpret- 
ed, the well of the oath; and so it is named 
by the people of the country unto this day. 

2. Now ina little time Abraham had a son 
by Sarah, as God had foretold to him, whom 
he named Isaac, which signifies laughter — 
And indeed they so called him, because Sarah 
laughed when God* said she should bear a son, 
she not expecting such a thing, as being past 
the age of childbearing, for she was ninety 
years old, and Abraham a hundred; so that this 
son was born to them both in the last year of 
each of those decimal numbers. And they 
circumcised him upon the eighth day; and from 
that time the Jews continue the custom of 
circumcising their sons withim that number 
of days. But as for the Arabians, they cir- 
cumcise after the thirteenth year, because 
Ismael, the founder of their nation, who was 
born to Abraham of the concubine, was cir- 
cumcised at that age; coucerning whom I will 
presently give a particular account with great 
exactness. 

3. As for Sarah, she at first loved Ismael, 
who was born of her own handmaid Hagar, 
with an affection not inferior to that of her 
own son, for he was brought up in order to suc- 
ceed in the government; but when she herself 
had borne Isaac, she was not willing that Is- 
mael should be brought up with him, as being 
too old for him, and able to do him injuries, 
when their father should be dead; she there- 
fore persuaded Abraham to send him and 
his mother to some distant country. Now, at 
the first, Le did not agree to what Sarah was so 
vealous for, and thought it an instance of 
the greatest barbarity to send away a young 
ehildt and a woman, unprovided of necessaries: 

* Itis well worth observation, that Josephus here calls 
that principal angel who appeared to Abraham, and foretold 
the birth of Isaac, directly God; which language of Jose- 
phus here prepares us to believe those other expressions 
ef his, that Jesus was a wise manif it be lawful to cull him 
a man, Antiq. b. xviii. chap. iii, sect. 3, and of God the 
Vord, in his homily concerning Hades, may be both genu- 
me. Noristhe other expression of divine angel, used pre- 


sentiy, and before also, of any other signification. i 
+ Josephus here calls Ismael a young caild or infant, 
a 


but at length he agreed to it, beeause God was 
pleased with what Sarah had determined; so he 
delivered Ismael to his mother, as not yet able 
to go by himself; and commanded her to take 
abottle of water and aloaf of bread, and so to 
depart, and to take necessity for her guide 
But as soon as her necessary provisions failed, 
she found herself in an evil case? and when the 
water was almost spent, she laid the young 
child, who wasready to expire, under a fir-tree, 
and went on farther, that so he might die while 
she was absent. But a divine angel came’ to 
her, and told her of a fountain hard by, and 
bid her take care, and bring up the child, be- 
cause she should be very happy by the preser- 
vation of Ismael. She then took courage, upon 
the prospect of what was promised her, and 
meeting with some shepherds, by their care 
she got clear of the distresses she had been 
in. 

4. When the lad was grown up, he married 
a wife, by birth an Egyptian, from whence the 
mother was herself derived originally. Of this 
wife were born to Ismael twelve sons, Nabaioth, 
Kedar, Abdeel, Mabsam, Idumas, Masmaos, 
Masaos, Chodad, Theman, Jetur, Naphesus, 
Kadmas. These inhabited all the country 
from Euphrates to the Red Sea, and called it 
Nabatene. They are an Arabian nation, and 
name their tribes from these both because of 
their own virtue and because of the dignity of 
Abraham their father. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


Concerning Isaac, the legitimate Son of Abra- 
ham. 


§ 1. Now Abraham greatly loved Isaac, as 
being his only begotten,* and given to him at the 
borders of old age, by the favor of God. The 
child also endeared himself to his parents still 
more by the exercise of every virtue, and ad- 
hering to his duty to his parents, and being 
zealous in the worship of God. Abraham 
also placed his own happiness in this prospect, 
that when he should die, he should leave this 
his son in a safe and secure condition; which 
accordingly he obtained by the will of God, 
who being desirous to make an eaperiment of 
Abraham’s religious disposition towards him- 
self, appeared to him, and enumerated all the 
blessings he had bestowed on him; how he 
had made him superior to his enemies, and 
that his son Isaac, who was the principal part 
of his present happiness, was derived from 


though he was above thirteen years of age: as Judas calle 
himself and his brethren young men, when they were 47 
and he had two children, Antiq. b. ii. chap. vi. sect. 8, and 
they were of much the same age as is a damsel of 12 years 
old called a little child, Mark v. 39—42, five several times. 
Herod is also said by Josephus to be a very young man at 
25. See the note on Antiq. b. xiv. chap. ix. sect 2: and Of the 
War, b. i.chap. x. And Aristobulus is styled a very litth 
child at16 years of age, Antiq. b. xv. chap. ii. sect. 6,7, 
Domitian is also called by hima very young child when he 
went on his German expedition, at about 18 years of age 
Of the War, b. viii. chap. iv. sect. 2. Samson’s wife, and 
Ruth, when they were widows, are called children, Antiq. & 
iii. ch. viii. sect. 6, and ch. ix. sect. 2, 3. 

* Note, that both here, and Heb.xi.17, Isaac is called Abra- 
ham’s only begotten son, though he, at the same time, had 
another son, Ismael. The Septuagint expresses the trae 
mneaning, by rendering the text the beloved son. 


42 


nim, and he said, that he required this son 07) 
his as a sacrifice and holy oblatie~.. Accord- 

ingly he commanded him to earry him to the 

mountain Moriah, and to build an altar, and 

offer him for a burnt offering upon it; for that 

this woul] best manifest his religious disposi- 

,on towards him, if he preferred what was 

pleasing to God before the preservation of his 

own son. 

2. Now Abraham thought that it was not 
right to disobey God in any thing, but that he 
was obliged to serve him in every circumstance 
of life, since all creatures that live, enjoy their 
life by his providence and the kindness he be- 
stows on them. Accordingly he concealed 
this command of God, and his own intentions 
about the slaughter of his son, from his wife, 
as also from every one of his servants; other- 
wise he should have been hindered from his 
obedience to God; and he took Isaac, together 
with two of his servants, and laying what 
things were necessary for a sacrifice upon an 
ass, he went away to the mountain. Now the 
two servants went along with him two days; 
but on the third day, as soon as he saw the 
mountain, he left those servants that were with 
him till then, in the plain, and having his son 
alone with him he came to the mountain. It 
was that mountain upon which king David af- 
terwards built the temple.* Now they had 
brought with them every thing necessary for a 
sacrifice, excepting the animal that was to be 
offered only. Now Isaac was twenty-five years 
old. And as he was building the altar, he 
asked his father, “What he was about to offer, 
since there was no animal there for an obla- 
tion?” To which it was answered, “That God 
would provide himself an oblation, he being 
able to make a plentiful provision for men out 
of what they have not, and to deprive others 
of what they already have, when they put too 
much trust therein; that, therefore, if God 
pleased to be present and propitious at this 
sacrifice, he would provide himself an obla- 
tion.” 

3. As soon as the altar was prepared, and 
Abraham had laid on the wood, and all things 
were entirely ready, he said to his son, “O son, 
[ poured out a vast number of prayers that I 
might have thee for my son; when thou wast 
come into the world, there was nothing that 
could contribute to thy support, for which I 
was 10t greatly solicitous, nor any thing wherein 
J thougnt myself happier than to see thee 
grown up to man’s estate, and that I might 
leave thee at my death the successor to my 
dominion; but since it was by God’s will that 
[ became thy father; and it is now his will that 
{ »elinquish thee, bear this consecration to God 
with a generous mind; for I resign thee up to 
God, who thought fit now to require this testi- 
mony of honor to himself on account of the 


* Here is a plain error in the copies, which say, that king 
David afterwards built the temple on this mount Moriah, while 
it was certainly no other than king Solomon who built that 
temple, as indeed Procopius cites it from Josephus. For it 
was for certain David, and not Solomon, who built the first 
altar there, as we learn, 2 Sam. xxiv. 18, &c. 1 Chron. 
<xi, 22, &c. and Antiq. b vii, chap. xiii. sect 1. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


favors ne aath conferred on me, m veing to 
me’ a supporter and defender. Accordingly, 
thou, my son, wilt now die, not in any common 
way of going out of the world, but sent to God 
the Father of all men beforehand, by thy own 
father, in the nature of a sacrifice. [I sup- 
pose he thinks thee worthy to get clear of 
this world, neither by disease, neither by war, 
nor by any other severe way, by which death 
usually comes upon men, but so that he will 
receive thy soul with prayers and holy offices 
of’ religion, and will place thee near to himself 
and thou wilt there be to me a succorer, a 
supporter in my old age; on which account I 
principally brought thee up, and thou wilt 
thereby procure me God for my coinforter in- 
stead of thyself.” 

4. Now Isaac was of such a generous dispo- 
sition as becaine the son of such a father, and 
was pleased with this discourse, and said, “That 
he was not worthy tobe born at first, if he 
should reject the determination of God and of 
his father, and should not resign himself up 
readily to both their pleasures; since it would 
have been unjust if he had not obeyed, even 
if his father alone had so resolved.” So he 
went immediately to the altar to be sacrificed. 
And the deed had been done if God had not 
opposed it; for he called loudly to Abraham by 
his name, and forbade him to slay his son, and 
said, “It was not out of a desire of human blood 
that he was commanded to slay his son, nor 
was he willing that he should be taken away 
from him whom he had made his father, but to 
try the temper of his mind, whether he wou!d 
be obedient to such acommand. Since, there- 
fore, he now was satisfied as to that his alacrity, 
and the surprising readiness he showed in this 
his piety, he was delighted in having bestowed 
such blessings upon him; and that he would 
not be wanting in all sort of concern about him, 
and in bestowing other children upon him, 
and that his son should live to a very great age; 
that he should live a happy life, and bequeath 
a large principality to his children, who should 
be good and legitimate.” He foretold also, 
that his family should increase into many na- 
tions; and that those patriarchs should leave 
behind them an everlasting name;* that they 


* Itseems, both here and in God’s parallel blessing to Ja- 
cob, ch. xix. sect. 1, that Josephus had yet no notion of the 
hidden meaning of that most important and most eminent 
promise, ‘In thy seed shall allthe families of the earth be 
blessed. He saith not of seeds, as of many, but as of ones 
and to thy seed, which is Christ.”? Gal. iii. 16. Nor isit an 
wonder, he being, I think, as yet, not a Christian. And h 
he been a Christian, yet since he was, to be sure, till the la 
ter part of his life, no more than an Ebionite Christian, whe, 
above all the apostles, rejected and despised St. Paui, it 
would be no great wonder if he did not follow his interpre-. 
tation. In the meantime, we have, in effect, St. Panl’s ex- 
position in the Testament of Reuben, sect. 6, in Authent 
Rec. part. i. p. 302, who charges his sons, “To warship the 
Seed of Judah, who should die for tty m in visible and invis- 
ble wars; and should be among then, an eternal King.”? Nae 
is that observation of a learned foreigner of my acquaintance 
to be despised, who takes notice that as seeds in the plural 
mustsignify posterity, so seed in the singular may signify eithes 
posterity or asingle person; and thatin this promise of all na 
tions being happy in the seed of Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob 
&e. itis always used in the singular. To which I shall add, 


‘ hat it is sometimes, as it were, paraphrased by the son of Ab 


raham, the son of David, &e. whie 


is capable of no such 
ambiguity, ; . 


BOOK 1—CHAPTERS XIV. XV. XVL 


es 


shoula obtain the possessior of the land of| her, after he had obliged him to give him the 


Canaan, and be envied by all men. When 
God had said this, he produced to them a ram, 
which did not appear before, for the sacrifice. 
So Abraham and Isaac, receiving each other un- 
expectedly, and having obtained the promises 
of such great blessings, embraced one another; 
_ and when they had sacrificed, they returned to 
Sarah, and lived happily together, God afford- 
ing them his assistance: in all things they desired. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Concerning Sarah, Abraham’s Wife, and how she 
ended her days. 


§ 1. Now Sarah died a little while after, 
having lived one hundred and twenty-seven 
years. They buried her in Hebron; the Cana- 
anites publicly allowing them a burying-place: 
which piece of ground Abraham bought for four 
hundred shekels, of Mphron, an inhabitant of 
Hebron. And both Abraham and his descend- 
ants built themselves sepulchres in that place. 


CHAPTER XV. 


How the Nation of the Troglodytes were derived 
JSrom Abraham by Keturah. 


§ 1. Abraham, after this, married Keturah, 
by whom six sons were born to him, men of 
- courage and of sagacious niinds: Zambran, and 

Jazar, and Madan, and Madian, and Josabak, 
and Sous.. Nowthe sons of Sous were, Saba- 
than, and Dadan. The sons of Dadan were, 
Latusim, and Assur, and Luum. The sons of 
Madian were, Ephas, and Ophren, and Anoch, 
and Ebidas, and Eldas. Now for all these sons 
and grandsons, Abraham contrived to settle 
them in colonies; and they took possession of 
Troglodytes, and the country of Arabia the 
Happy, as far as it reaches tothe Red Sea. It 
is related of this Ophren, that he made war 
against Libya, and took it, and that his grand- 
thildren, when they inhabited it, called it from 
bisname Africa. And indeed Alexander Poly- 
histor gives his attestation to what I here say, 
_ who speaks thus: “Cleodemus the prophet, who 
was also called Malchus, who wrote a history 
of the Jews, inagreement with the history of 
Moses, their legislator, relates, that there were 
many sons born to Abraham by Keturah: nay, 
he names three of them, Apher, and Surim, 
and Japhran. That from Surim was the land 
of Assyria denominated; and that from the other 
two, Apher and Japhran, the country of Africa 
took its name, because these men were auxili- 
aries to Hercules, when he fought against 
Libya and Antzeus; and that Hercules married 
Aphra’s daughter, and of her he begat a son, 
Diodorus; and that Sophon was his son from 
_ whom the barbarous people called Sophacians 
were denominated. 


CHAPTER XVI. 
How Isaac took Rebeka to Wife. 


§ 1. Now when Abraham, the father of Isaac, 
had resolved to take Rebeka, who was grand- 
daughter to his brother Nahor, for a wife to his 
gon Isaac, whe was then about forty years old, 
he sent the ancientest of his servants to betroth 


obliging manner. 


strongest assurances of his fidelity. Which as- 
surances were given after the manner following: 
They put each other’s hands under each eitiar 
thighs, then they called upon God as the wit- 
ness of what was to be done. He also sent 
suc. vresents to those that were there, as were 
in esteem, on account that they either rarely or 
never were seen inthat country. This servant 
got thither not under a considerable time; for it 
requires much time to pass through Mesupo- 
tamia, in which it is tedious travelling, both in 
winter for the depth of the clay, and in swn- 
mer for want of water; and besides this, for the 
robberies there committed, which are not to be 
avoided by travellers but by caution before 
hand. However the servant came to Haran 
And when he was in the suburbs, he metz 
considerable number of maidens going to the 
water; he therefore prayed to God, that Re- 
beka might be found among them, or her whom 
Abraham sent him as his servant to espouse to 
his son, in case his will were that this mar- 
riage should be consummated, and that she 
might be made known to him by this sign, that 
while others denied him water to drink, she 
might give it him. 

2. With this intention he went to the well, 
and desired the maidens to give him some wa- 
ter to drink: but while the others refused, on 
pretence that they wanted it all at home, and 
could spare none for him, one only of the come 
pany rebuked them for their peevish behavior 
towards the stranger; and said, What is there 
that you will ever communicate to any body, 
who have not so much as given the man some 
water? She then offered him water in an 
And now he began to hope 
that his grand affair would succeed: but desir- 
ing still to know the truth, he commended her 
for her generosity and good nature, that she 
did not scruple to afford asufficiency of water 
to those that wanted it, though it cost her some 
pains to draw it; and asked who were her pa- 
rents, and wished them Joy of such a daughter; 
and mayest thou be espoused, said he, to their 
satisfaction, into the family of an agreeable hus- 
band, and bring him legitimate children. Nor 
did she disdain to,satisfy his inquiries, but told 
him her family. They, says she, call me Re- 
beka; my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; 
and Laban is my brother, and, together with 
my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, 
and is the guardian of my virginity. When 
the servant heard this, he was very glad at what 
had happened, and at what was told him, as 
perceiving that God had thus plainly dire: ted 
his journey; and producing his bracelets and 
some other ornaments, which it was esteemed 
decent for virgins to wear, he gave them to the 
damsel, by way of acknowledgment, and as a 
reward for her kindness in giving him water to 


| drink; saying, it was but just that she should 


have them because she was so much more 
obliging than any of the rest. She desired also 
that he would come and lodge with them, since 
«he approach of the night gave him not time to 
proceed farther And producing his precious 


44 


ornaments for women, he said, he desirec to 
frust them to none more safely than to such as 
she had showed herself to be; and that he be- 
lieved he might guess at the humanity of her 
mother and brother, that they would not be dis- 
pleased, from the virtue he found in her, for he 
would not be burdensome, but would pay the 
hire for his entertainment, and spend his own 
money. ‘To which she replied, that he guess- 
ed right as tc the humanity of her parents; but 
complained, that he should think them so par- 
simonious as to take money; for that he should 
have all on free cost. But she said, she would 
first inform her brother Laban, and if he gave 
her leave, she would conduct him in. 

3. As soon then as this was over, she intro- 
duced the stranger; and for the camels, the 
servants of Laban brought them in, and took 
care of them, and he was himself brought in 
to supper by Laban. And after supper, he says 
to him, and to the mother of the damsel, ad- 
dressing himself to her: “Abraham is the son 
of Terah, and a kinsman of yours, for Nahor, 
the grandfather of these children, was the 
brother of Abraham by both father and mother; 
upon which account he hath sent me to you, 
being desirous to take this damsel for his son to 
wife. He is his legitimate son; and is brought 
up as his only heir. He could indeed have had 
the most happy of all the women in that coun- 
try for him, but he would not have his son 
marry any of them; but out of regard to his 
own relations, he desired him to match here, 
whose affection and inclination I would not 
have you despise; for it was by the good plea- 
aure of God, that other accidents fell out in my 
journey, and that thereby I lighted upon your 
daughter, and your house; for when I was 
near to the city, I saw a great many maidens 
coming to a well and I prayed that I might 
meet with this damsel, which has come to pass 
accordingly. Do you, therefore, confirm that 
marriage, whose espousals have been already 
made by a divine appearance; and show the 
respect you have for Abraham, who hath sent 
me with so much solicitude, in giving your con- 
sent to the marriage of this damsel.” Upon 
this they understood it to be the will of God, 
and greatly approved of the offer, and sent 
their daughter, as was desired. Accordingly 
{saac married her, the inheritance being now 
come to him; for the children by Keturah were 
gone to their own remote habitations. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


Concerning the Death af Abraham. 


21. A little while after this Abraham died. 
He was a man of incomparable virtue, and ho- 
nored by God in a manner agreeable to his 

iety towards him. The whole time of his 
ife was one hundred seventy and five years; 
and he was buried in Hebron, with his wife 
Sarah, by their sons Isaac and Ismael. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


Concernng the Sons of Isaac, Esau and Jacob. 
Of their Nativity and Education. 


4 1 Now Isaac’s wife proved with child, af- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ter the death of Abraham;* and when her belly 
was greatly burdened, Isaac was very anx- 
ious, and inquired of God, who answered that 
Rebeka should bear twins; and that two nations 
should take the names of those sons; and that 
he who appeared the second should excel the 
elder. Accordingly she, in a little time, as God 
foretold, bore twins; the elder of whom, from 
his head to his feet, was very rough and hairy; 
but the younger took hold of his heel as they 
were in the birth. Now the father loved the 
elder, who was called Esau, a name agreeable 
to his roughness, for the Hebrews called such a 
hairy roughness (Esau, or) Seir;+ but Jacob the 
younger was best beloved by his mother. 

2. When there was a famine in the land, 
Isaac resolved to go into Egypt, the land there 
being good; but he went to Gerar, as God 
commanded him. Here Abimelech the king 
received him, because Abraham had formerly 
lived with him, and had been his friend. And 
as in the beginning he treated him exceeding 
kindly, so he was hindered from continuing in 
the same disposition to the end, by his envy at 
him; for when he saw that God was with Isaac, 
and took such great care of him, he drove him 
away from him. But Isaac, when he saw 
how envy had changed the temper of Abim- 
elech, retired to aplace called the Valley, not 
far from Gerar; and as he was digging a well, 
the shepherds fell upon him, and began to fight, 
in order to hinder the work, and because he 
did not desire to contend, the shepherds seem- 
ed to get the better of him, so he still retired, 
and dug another well; and when certain other 
shepherds of Abimelech, began to offer him 
violence, he left that also, and still retired, thus 
purchasing security to himself by a ra 
and prudentconduct. At length the king gave 
him leave to dig a well without disturbance. 
He named this well Rehoboth, which denotes a 
large space; but of the former wells, one was 
called Escon, which denotes strife, the other 
Sitenna, which name signifies enmity. | 

3. It was now that Isaac’s affairs increased, 
and his power was in a flourishing condition; 
and this from his great riches. But Abimelech 
thinking Isaac throve in opposition to him, 
while their living together made them suspi- 
cious of each other, and Isaac’s retiring, show- 
ing a secret enmity also, he was afraid that his 
former friendship with Isaac. did not secure 
him, if Isaac should endeavor to revenge the 
injuries he had formerly offered him; he there- 
fore renewed his friendship with him, and 
brought with him Philoc, one of his generals, 
And when he had obtained every thing he de- 
sired by reason of Isaac’s good nature, whe 
preferred the earlier friendship Abimelech had 
shown to himself and his father, to his later 
wrath against him, he returned home. 

4, Now when Esau, one of the sons of Isaac, 


* The birth of Jacob and Esau is here said to be afte 
Abraham’s death; it should have been after Sarah’s death 
The order of the narration in Genesis, not always exactly 
according to the order of time, seems to have led Josephus 
into it, as Dr. Bernard observes here. 

t For Seir in Josephus, the coherence requires that we 
read Esau or Seir, which signify the same thing. 


SOOk I—CHAPTER XIX 


whom the father principally loved, was now 
some to the age of forty years, he married Adah, 
the daughter of Helon, and Aholibamah, the 
daughter of Esebeon; which Helon and Ese- 
beon were great lords among the Canaanites, 
thereby taking upon himself the authority, and 
pretending to have dominion over his own 
marriages, without so much as asking the ad- 
vice of his father; for had Isaac been the arbi- 
trator, hie had not given him leave to marry 
thus for he was not pleased with contracting 
any alliance with the people of that country; 
put not caring to be uneasy to his son by com- 
manding him to put away these wives, he re- 
solved to be silent. 

5. But when he was old, and could not see at 
all, he called Esau to him, and told him, that be- 
sides his blindness, and the disorder of his eyes, 
his very old age hindered him from his wor- 
ship of God [by sacrifice, ] he bid him therefore 
to go out a hunting, and when he had caught 
as much yenison as he could, to prepare him a 
supper,* that after this he might make suppli- 
cation to God, to be to him a supporter and an 
assister during the whole time of his life; saying, 
that it was uncertain when he should die, and 
that he was desirous, by his prayers for him, to 
procure, beforehand, God to be merciful to him. 

6. Accordingly Esau went out a hunting. 
But Rebeka} thinking it proper to have the 
supplication made to obtain the favor of God 
to Jacob, and that without the consent of Isaac, 
bid him kill kids of the goats, and prepare a 
supper. So Jacob obeyed his mother, accord- 
ing to all her instructions. Now when the sup- 
per was got ready, he took a goat’s skin, and 
put it about his arms, that by reason of its hairy 
roughness he might, by his father, be believed 
to be Esau; for they being twins, and in all 
things else alike, differed only in this thing. 
This was done out of his fear, that before his 
father made his supplications, he should be 
caught in his evil practice, and lest he should, 
on the contrary, provoke his father to curse 
him. So he brought in the supper to his father. 
Isaac perceiving by the peculiarity of his voice, 
who he was, called his son to him, who gave 
him his hand, which was covered with the 
goat’s skin. When Isaac felt that, he said, 
“Thy voice is like the voice of Jacob, yet be- 
cause ef the thickness of thy hair, thou seemest 
to be Esau.” So suspecting no deceit, he ate 
the supper, and betook himself to his prayers 

* This supper of savory meat, as we call it, Gen. xxvii. 4, 
to be caught by hunting, was intended plainly for a festival 
orsacrifice, and upon the prayers that were frequent at sac- 
rifices, Isaac expected, as was then usual in such eminent 
cases, that a divine impulse would come upon him, in order 
to the solemn blessing of his son there present, and his fore- 
telling his future behaviour and fortune. Whence it must be, 
that when Isaac had unwittingly blessed Jacob, and was af- 
xrward made sensible of his mistake, yet did he not attempt 
40 alter it, how earnestly soever his affection for Esau might 
incline him to wish it might be altered, because he knew 
that this blessing came not from himself, but from God, and 
that an alteration was out of his power. A second afflatus 
then came upon him, and enabled him to foretell Esau’s 
future behavior and fortune also. 

+ Whether Jacob or his mother Rebeka were most blame- 
able in this imposition upon Isaac in his old age, I cannot 
determine. However, the blessing being delivered as a pre- 


diction of future events, by a divine impulse, and foretelling 
things to befall to the posterity of Jacob and Esau, in future 


45 
and intercessions with God; and said, “O Lord 
of allages, and Creator of all substance; for it 
was thou that didst propose to my father grea! 
plenty of good things, and bast vouchsafed te 
bestow on me what | have; and hast promisee 
to my posterity to be their kind supporter, and 
to bestow on them still greater blessings; do 
thou, therefore, confirm these thy promises, and 
do not overlook me because of my present 
weak condition, on account of which I most 
earnestly pray to thee. Be gracious to this iny 
son; and preserve him and keep him from every 
thing that is evil. Give him a happy life, and the 
possession of as many good things as thy pow- 
er is able to bestow. Make him terrible to his 
enemies, and honorable and beloved among his 
friends.” 

7. Thus did Isaac pray to God, thinking his 
prayers had been made for Esau. He had but 
just finished them, when Esau came in from 
hunting. And when Isaac perceived his mis- 
take, he was silent; but Esau required that he 
might be made partaker of the like blessing 
from his father that his brother had partook of; 
but his father refused it, because all his prayers 
had been spent upon Jacob: so Esau lamented 
the mistake. However, his father, being griev- 
ed at his weeping, said, that “he should excei 
in hunting, and strength of body; in arms, ani! 
all such sorts of work; and should obtain glory 
forever on those accounts, he and his posterity 
after him; but still should serve his brother.” 

8. Now the mother delivered Jacob, when 
he was afraid that his brother would inflict 
some punishment upon him, because of the 
mistake about the prayers of Isaac; for she 
persuaded her husband to take a wife for Jacob 
out of Mesopotamia, of her own kindred. 
Esau having married already Basemmath, the 
daughter of Ismael, without his father’s con- 
sent, for Isaac did not like the Canaanites, se 
that he disapproved of Esau’s former marri- 
ages, Which made him take Basemmath to wife, 
in order to please him; and indeed he had a 
great affection for her. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


Concerning Jacob’s Flight into Mesopotamia, by 
reason of the fear he was in of his brother. 


§ 1. Now Jacob was sent by his mother to 
Mesopotamia in order to marry her brother 
Laban’s daughter, (which marriage was per- 
mitted by Isaac on account of his obsequious- 


ages, was for certain providential; and according to what Re- 
beka knew to be the prrpose of God, when he answered her 
inquiry, “before the children were born,”? Gen. xxv. 2, 
“‘that‘one people should be stronger than the other people; 
and that the elder, Esau, should serve the younger, Jucod.” 
Whether Isaac knew or remembered this old oracle, deliv- 
ered in our copies only to Rebeka; or whether, if he knew 
and remembered it, he did not endeavor to alter the Divine 
determination, out of his fondness for his elder and worse 
son Esau, to the damage of his younger and better son Ja- 
cob, as Josephus elsewhere supposes, Antiq. b. li. chap. Vit. 
sect. 3, [cannot certainly say. If so, this might tempt Rebeke 
to contrive, and Jacob to put this imposition upon him. How 

ever, Josephus says here, that it was Isaac, and not Rebeka, 
who inquired of God at first, and received the foremention- 
ed oracle, sect. 1, which, if it be the true reading, renders 
Isaac’s procedure more inexcusable. Nor was it probably 
any thing else that so much encouraged Esan formerly 
marry two Canaanitish wives, without his parent’s consem 

as Isaac’s unhappy fondness for him. 


a 
ness to the desires of his wife;) and he accord- 
ingly journeyed through the land of Canaan; 
and because he hated the people of that coun- 
try, he would not lodge with any of them, but 
took up his lodging in the open air, and laid 
his head on a heap of stones that he had gath- 
ered together. At which time he saw in his 
sleep such a vision standing by him: he seemed 
to see a ladder that reached from the earth 
unto heaven, aud persons descending down the 
ladder, that seemed more excellent than hu- 
man; and at last God himself stood above it, 
and was plainly visible to him, who, calling 
aim by his name, spake to him these words: 

2. “O Jacob, it is not fit for thes, who art 
the son of a good father, and grandson of one 
who had obtained a great reputation for his 
eminent virtue, to be dejected at thy present 
circumstances, but to hope for better times, for 
thou shalt have great abundance of all good 
things, by my assistance; for 1 brought Abra- 
ham hither out of Mesopotamia, when he was 
driven away by his kinsmen; and [ made thy 
father a happy man; nor will I bestow a less 
degree of happiness on thyself. Be of good 
courage, therefore, and under my conduct pro- 
ceed on this thy journey, for the marriage thou 
goest so zealously about shall be consummated. 
And thou shalt have children of good charac- 
ters, whose multitude shall be innumerable; 
and they shall leave what they have to a still 
more numerous posterity, to whom, and to 
whose posterity, I give the dominion of all the 
land, and their posterity shall fill the entire 
earth and sea, so far as the sun beholds them; 
but do not thou fear any danger, nor be afraid 
of the many labors thou must undergo, for by 
my providence I will direct thee what thou art 
to do in the time present, and still much more 
in the time to come.” 

3. Such were the predictions which God 
made to Jacob. Whereupon he became very 
ioyful at what he had seen and heard, and he 
poured oil on the stones, because on them the 

rediction of such great benefits was made. 
He also vowed a vow that he would offer sacri- 
fices upon them, if he lived and returned safe; 
and if he came again in such a condition, he 
would give the tithe of what he had gotten to 
God. He also judged the piace to be honora- 
ble, and gave it tne name of Bethel, which, 
im the Greek, is interpreted, the house of God. 

4. So he proceeded on his journey to Meso- 
potamia, and at length came to Haran; and 
meeting with shepherds in the suburbs, with 
boys grown up, and maidens sitting about a 
certain well, he stayed with them, as wanting 
water to drink; and beginning to discourse 
with them, he asked them whether they knew 
such a one as Laban? and whether he was 
still alive? Now they all said they knew him, 
for he was not so inconsiderable a person as to 
be unknown to any of them; and that his 
daughter fed her father’s flock together with 

hem; and that indeed they wondered that she 
was not yet come: for by her means thou 
mightest learn more exactly whatever thou de- 
sirest to know about that family. While they 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


were saying this, the damsel came, and the 
other shepherds that came down along with 
her. 'Then they showed her Jacob, and told 
her that he was a stranger, who came to in- 
quire about her father’s affairs. But she, as 
pleased, after the custom of children, with Ja- 
cob’s coming, asked him who he was? and 
whence he came to them? and what it was he 
lacked that he came thither? She also wished 
it might be in their power to supply the wants 
he came about. 

3. But Jacob was quite overcome, not so 
much by their kindred, nor by that affection 
which might arise thence, as by his love to the 
damsel, and his surprise at her beauty, which 
was so flourishing as few of the women of that 
age could vie with. . He said then, “There is 
a relation between thee and me, elder than 
either thy or my birth, if thou be the daughter 
of Laban; for Abraliam was the son of Terah, 
as well as Haran and Nahor. Of the last of 
whom, Nahor, Bethuel thy grandfather was the 
son. Isaac my father was the son of Abraham 
and of Sarah, who was the daughter of Haran. 


But there isa nearer and later cement of mu-. 


tual kindred which we bear to one another, for 
my mother Rebeka was sister to Laban thy 
father, both by thesame father and mother; I 
therefore and thou are cousin-germans. And 
I am now come to salute you, and to renew 
that affinity which is proper between us.” Up- 
on this the damsel, at the mention of Rebeka, 
as usually happens to young persons, wept, and 
that out of the kindness she had for her father, 
and embraced Jacob, she having learned an ac- 
count of Rebeka from her father, and knew 
that her parents loved to hear her named; and 
when she had saluted him, she said, that 
“He brought the most desirable and greatest 
pleasure to her father, with all their family, who 
was always mentioning his mother, and alwa 
thinking of her, and her alone; and that this 
will make thee equal in his eyes to any advan- 
tageous circumstances whatsoever.” Then she 
bid him go to her father, and follow her while 
she conducted him to him, and not to deprive 
him of such a pleasure by staying any longer 
away from him. 

6. When she had said thus, she brought him 
to Laban; and being owned by his uncle, he 
was secure himself, as being among his friends; 
and he brought a great deal of pleasure to them 
by his unexpected coming. But a little while 
afterward, Laban told him, that he could not 
express in words the joy he had at his coming; 
but still he inquired of him the occasion of his 
coming, and why he left his aged father and 
mother, when they wanted to be taken care of 
by him: and that he would afford him all the 
assistance he wanted. ‘Then Jacob gave him 
an account of the whole occasion of his jour- 
ney, and told him, “That Isaac had two sons 
that were twins, himself and Esau; who, be- 
cause he failed cf his father’s prayers, which by 
his mother’s wisdom were put up for him, 
sought to kill him, as deprived of the kingdom* 


* By this, “deprivation of the langdom that was to be 
given Esau of God,” as the first-born, it appears that Josephus 


< 


BOOK L—CHAPTER XIX. 


which was to be given him of God, and of the 
blessings for which their father prayed: and 


thet this was :he occasion of his coming hither, 


as his mother had commanded him to do; for 

we are all(says he) brethren one to another; 
but our mother esteems an alliance with your 
family more than she does one with the fami- 
lies of the country; so I look upon yourself 
and God to be the supporters of my travels, 
and think myself safe in my present circum- 
stances.” 

7. Now Laban promised to treat him with 
great humanity, both on account of his ances- 
tors, and particularly for the sake of his mother, 
towards whom, he said, he would show his 
kindness, even though she were absent, by 
taking care of him; for he assured him he 
would make him the head shepherd of his 
flock, and gave him authority sufficient for that 
purpose; and when he should have a mind to 
return to his parents, he would send him back 
with presents, and this in as honorable a man- 
ner as the nearness of their relation should 
require. This Jacob heard gladly; and said 
he would willingly, and with pleasure, undergo 
any sort of pains while he tarried with him, 
but desired Rachel to wife, as the reward of 
those pains, who was not only on other ac- 
counts esteemed by him, but also because she 
was the means of his coming to him; for he 
snid he was forced by the love of the damsel 
w make this proposal. Laban was well pleas- 
al with this agreement, and consented to give 


‘the damsel to him, as not desirous to meet with 


aity better son-in-law; and said he would do 
this, if he would stay with him some time, for 


he was not willing to send his daughter to be 


ainong the Canaanites, for he repented of the 
alliance he had made already by marrying his 
sister there. And when Jacub had given his 
consent to this, he agreed to stay seven years; 
for so many years he had resolved to serve his 
father-m-law, that having given a specimen 
of his virtue, it might be better known what 
sort of a man he was. And Jacob, accepting 
of his terms, after the time was over, he made 
the wedding feast; and when it was night, 


_ without Jacob’s perceiving it, he put his other 


, 


. 
é 


; 


daughter into bed to him, who was both elder 
than Rachel, and of no comely countenance. 
Jacob lay with her that night, as being both in 
drink and in the dark. However, when it was 
day, he knew what had been done to him; and 
he reproached Laban for his unfair proceed- 
ing with him; who asked pardon for that ne- 
cessity which forced him to do what he did; 
for he did not give him Lea out of any ill de- 
gign, but as overcome by another greater ne- 
Dessity; that notwithstanding this, nothing 
should hinder him from marrying Rachel; but 
that when he had served another seven years, 
he would give him her whom he loved. Jacob 


thought, that a “Kingdom to be derived from God,”’ was due 
‘to him whom Isaac should bless as his first-born, which I 
take to be that kingdom which was expected wnder the Mes- 
siah, who, therefore, was to be born of his posterity whom 
Isaac should so bless. Jacob, therefore, by obtaining this 


_ blessing of the first-born, became the genuine heir of that 


i 


Bi 


_&ingdom, in opposition to Esau 


a 


47 


submitted to this condition, for his love to the 
damsel did not permit him to do otherwise; 
and when anothes seven years were gone, he 
took Rachel to wife. : 

8. Now each of these had handmaids, by 
their father’s donation. Zilpha was handmaid 
to Lea, and Bilha to Rachel, by no means 
slaves, * but however subject to their mistress- 
es. Now Lea was sorely troubled at her hus- 
band’s love to her sister, and she expected she 
should be better esteemed if she bare him chil- 
dren. So she entreated God perpetually; and 
when she had borne a son, and her husband 
was on that account better reconciled to her, 
she named her son Reubel, because God had 
mercy upon her in giving her a son, for that is 
the signification of this name. After some 
time she bare three more sons; Simeon, which 
name signifies that God had hearkened to her 
prayer. Then she bare Levi, the confirmer of 
their friendship. After him was born Judah, 
which denotes thanksgiving. But Rachel, fear- 
ing lest the fruitfulness of her sister should 
make herself enjoy a lesser share of Jacob’s 
affections, put to bed to him ner handmaid 
Bilha, by whom Jacob had Dan. One may 
interpret that name into the Greek tongue a da 
vine judgment. And after him Nepthalim, as 
it were unconquerable in stratagem, since Ra- 
chel tried to conquer the fruitfulness of her sis- 
ter by this stratagem. Accordingly Lea took 
the same method and used a counter-strata- 
gem to that of her sister’s; for she put to bed 
to him her own handmaid. Jacob therefore 


-had by Zilpha a son whose name was Gad, 


which may be interpreted fortune; and_ after 
him Asher, which may be called a happy man, 
because he added glory to Lea. Now Reubel, 
the eldest son of Lea, brought apples of man- 
drakes} to his mother. When Rachel saw 
them, she desired that she would give her the 
apples; for she longed to eat them, but when 
she refiised, and bid her be content that she 
had deprived her of the benevolence she ought 
to have had from her husband; Rachel, in or 
der to mif‘gate her sister’s anger, said, she would 
yield her husband to her; and he should lie 
with her that evening. She accepted of the 
favor, and Jacob slept with Lea by the favor of 
Rachel. She bare then these sons, Issachar, 
denoting one born by hire; and Zabulon, one 


* Here we have the difference between slaves for life and 
servants, such as we now hire fora time agreed upon or 
both sides, and dismiss again after the time contracted fos 
is over, which are no slaves, but free men and free women. 
Accordingly, when the Apostolical Constitutions forbid @ 
clergyman to marry perpetual servants or slaves, b. vi. ch 
XVii. it is meant only of the former sort, as we learn else- 
where from the same Constitutions, ch. xlvii. can. Ixxxii. 
But concerning the twelve sons of Jacob; the reasons of 
their several names, and the times of their several births im 
the intervals here assigned; their several excellent charac- 
ters; their several faults and repentance; the several acct 
dents of their lives, with their several prophecies at them 
deaths, see the testaments of these twelve patuarchs, sul 
preserved at large in the Authent. Ree. part i. p. 294—443, 

¢ [ formerly explained these mandrakes, as we with the 
Septuagint and Josephus render the Hebrew word Dudaim, 
of the Syrian Muwz, with Ludolphus, Authent. Ree. part. £ 
p. 420. But have since seen such a very probable account 
in MS. of my leamed friend Mr. Samuel Barker, of what 
we still call mandrakes, and their description by the ancient 
naturalists and physicians, as inclines me to think these here 
mentioned, were really mandrakes, and no other. 


12 


pom as a pledge of benevolence towards her; 
and a daughter Dina. After some time Ra- 
chel had a son, named Joseph, which signified 
there should be another added to him. 

9. Now Jacob fed the flocks of Labun his 
father-in-law all this time, being twenty years, 
after which he desired leave of his father-in- 
law to take his wives and go home; but when 
bis father-in-law would not give him leave, he 
contrived to do it secretly. He made trial 
therefore of the disposition of his wives what 
they thought of this journey. When they ap- 
peared glad and approved of it, Rachel took 
along with her the images of the gods, which, 
according to their laws, they used to worship 
in their own country, and ran away together 
with her sister. The children also of them 
both, and the handmaids, and what possessions 
they had, went along with them. Jacob also 
drove away half the cattle, without letting 
Laban know of it beforehand. But the reason 
why Rachel took the images of the gods, al- 
though Jacob had taught her to despise such 
worship of these gods, was this, that in case 
they were pursued, and taken by her father, 
she might have recourse to these images, in 
order to obtain his pardon. 

10. But Laban, after one day’s time, being 
acquainted with Jacob’s and his daugliter’s de- 
parture, was much troubled, and pursued after 
them, leading a band of men with him; and on 
the seventh day over took them, and found 
them resting on a certain hill; and then indeed, 
he did not meddle with them, for it was even- 
tide; but God stood by him in a dream, and 
warned him to receive his son-in-law and his 
daughters ina peaceable manner; and not to 
venture upon any thing rashly, or in wrath to 
them, but to make a league with Jacob. And 
he told him, that if he despised their small 
number and attacked them in a hostile manner, 
he would himself assist them. When Laban 
had thus been forewarned by God, he called 
Jacob to him the next day, in order to treat 
with him, and showed him what dream he had; 
in dependence whereon he came confident- 
ly to him, and began to accuse him, alleging 
that he had entertained him when he was poor 
and in want of all things, and had given him 
pen of all things which he had: “For,” said 

e, “I have joined my daughters to thee in mar- 
riage, and supposed that thy kindness to me 
would be greater than before; but thou hast 
had no regard to either thy own mother’s rela- 
tion to me nor to the affinity now newly con- 
tracted between us; nor to those wives whom 
thou hast married; nor to those children, of 
whom I am the grandfather. Thou hast treated 
me as an enemy, by driving away my cattle; 
and by persuading my daughters to. run away 
from their father; and by carrying home those 
sacred paternal images which were wor- 
shipped by my forefathers. and have been ho- 
nored with the like worship which they paid 
them, by myself. In short thou hast done this 
whilst thou wert my kinsman, and my sister’s 
son, and the husband of my daughters, and 
was hospitably treated by me, and didst eat at 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


my table.” When Laban had said this, Jacoe 
made his defence: “That he was not the only 
person in whom God had implanted the love of 
his native country, but that he had made it na- 
tural to all men; and that, therefore, it was but 
reasonable that, after so long a time, he should 
go back to it. And as to the prey, of whose 
driving away thou accusest me, if any other 
person were the arbitrator, thou wouldst be 
found in the wrong; for instead of those thanks 
I ought to have had from thee, for both keeping 
thy cattle, and increasing them, how is it thas 
thou art unjustly angry at me because I hav 
taken, and have with me, a small portion of 
them? But then, as to thy daughters, take notice, 
that it is not through any evil practices of mine 
that they follow me in my return home, but frore 
that just affection which wives naturally have 
to their husbands. ‘They follow, therefore, not 
so properly myself as their own children.” 
And thus far of his apology was made, in or- 
der to clear himself of having acted unjustly. 
To which he added his own complaint and ac- 
cusation of Laban, saying, “While I was thy 
sister’s son, and thou hadst given me thy daugh- 
ters in marriage, thou hast worn me out witb 
thy harsh commands, and detained me twenty 
years under them. That indeed which was 
required in order to my marrying thy daugh- 
ters, hard as it was, I own to have been toler- 
able; but as to those that were put upon me 
after those marriages, they were worse; and 
such indeed as an enemy would have avoided.” 
For certainly Laban had used Jacob very ill; 
for when he saw that God was assisting to 
Jacob in all that he desired, he promised him, 
that of the young cattle which should be born, 
he should have sometimes what was of a white 
color; and sometimes what should be of a black 
color; but when those that came to Jacob’s 
share proved numerous, he did not keep his 
faith with him; but said he would give them 
to him the next year, because of his envying 
him the multitude of his possessions. He 
promised him as before, because he though) 
such an increase was not to be expected; bu: 
when it appeared to be fact, he deceived him. 
11. But then, astothe sacred images, he bid 
him search for them; and when Laban accept 
ed of the offer, Rachel being informed of it, 
put those images into that camel’s saddle on 
which she rode, and sat upon it; and said, that 
her natural purgation hindered her rising ups 
so Laban left off searching any farther, not 
supposing that his daughter in such circum- 
stances would approach to those images. So 
he made a league with Jacob, and bound it by 
oaths, that he would not bear him any malice on 
account of what had happened; and Jacob made 
the like league, and promised to love Laban’s 
daughters. And these leagues they confirmed 
with oaths also, which they made upon certain 
mountains, whereon they erected a pillar, m 
the form of an altar; whence that hill is called 
Gilead; and from thence they call that land the 
land of Gilead at this day. Now when they 
had feasted after the making of the league, 


Laban returned home. 


BOOK I—CHAPTERS XX. XXI 


CHAPTER XX. 
Concermng the Meeting of Jacob and Esau. 


§ 1. Now as Jacob was proceeding on his 
journey to the land of Canaan, angels appear- 
_ ed to him, and suggested to him good hope of 
his future condition; and that place he named 
the Camp of God. And being desirous of 
knowing what his brother’s intentions were to 
him, he sent messengers to give him an exact 
account of every thing, as being afraid, on ac- 
count of the enmities between them. He charg- 
ed those that were sent to say to Esau; that “Ja- 
tob had thought it wrong to live together with 
iim while he was in anger against him, and so 
had gone out of the country; and that he now 
thinking the length of time of his absence 
must have made up their differences, was re- 
turning; that he brought with him his: wives 
and his children with what possessions he had 
gotten; and delivered himself, with what was 
most dear to him into his hands; and should 
think it his greatest happiness to partake to- 
gether with his brother of what God had he- 
stowed on him.” So these messengers told him 
this message. Upon which Esau was very 
glad, and met his brother with four hundred 
men. And Jacob, when he heard that he was 
coming to meet him with such a number of 
men, was greatly afraid; however, he commit- 
ted his hope of deliverance to God; and con- 
sidered: how, in his present circumstances, he 
might preserve himself and those that were 
with him, and overcome his enemies, if they 
attacked him injuriously. He, therefore, dis- 
tributed his company into parts; some he sent 
before the rest, and the others he ordered to 
come close behind, that so if the first were 
overpowered, when his brother attacked them, 
they might have those that followed as a 
refuge to fly unto. And whenhe had put his 
company into this order, he sent some of them 
to carry presentsto his brother. The presents 
were made up of cattle, and a great number of 
four-footed beasts,of many kinds, such as would 
be very acceptable to those that received them, 
on account of their rarity. Those who were 
sent went at certain intervals of space asunder, 
that by following thick one after another, they 
might appear to be more numerous, that Esau 
might remit of his anger, on account of these 
presents, if he were stillina passion. Instruc- 
tions were also given to those that were sent to 
speak gently to him. 

2. When Jacob had made these appoint- 
ments all the day, and night came on, he moved 
on with his company; and as they were gone 
ever a certain river called Jabboc, Jacob was 
feft behind; and meeting with an angel, he 
wrestled with him, the angel beginning the 
‘struggie: but he prevailed over the angel, who 
used a voice and spake to him in words, ex- 
horting him to be pleased with what had hap- 
pened to him, and not to suppose that his vic- 
tory was a small one, but that he had overcome 
a divine angel, and to esteem the victory as a 


sign of great blessings that should come to him; | 
and that his offspring should never fail; and | 


that no man shonld be too hard for tus power. 
wie 


49 


He also commanded hin to be called Isreel,* 
which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that 
struggled with the divine angel... "These promises 
were made at the prayer of Jacob; for when 
he perceived him to be the angel of God, he 
desired he would signify to him what should 
befall him hereafter. And when the angel had 
said what is before related, he disappeared; but 
Jacob was pleased with these things, and named 
the place Phanuel, which signifies, the face of 
God. Now when he felt pain by this struggling 
upon his broad sinew, he abstained from eat 
ing that sinew himselfafterward; and for his 
sake it is still net eaten by us. 

3. When Jacob understood that his brother 
was near, he ordered his wives to go before, 
each by herself, with the handmaids, that they 
might see the actions of the men, as they were 
fighting, if Esau were so disposed. He then 
went up to his brother Esau, and bowed down 
to him, who had no evil design upon him, but 
saluted him; and asked him about the com- 
pany of the children and of the women; and 
desired, when he had understood all he want 
ed to know about them, that he would ge 
along with him to their father; but Jacob pre- 
tending that the cattle were weary, Esau re- 
turned to Seir, for there was his place of habe 
tation, he having named the place roughness 
from his own hairy roughness. 


CHAPTER XXI. 
Concerning the Violation of Dina’s Chastity. 


§ 1. Hereupon Jacob came to the place, till 
this day called Tents, [Succoth] from whence 
he went to Shechem, which is a city of the 
Canaanites. Now as the Shechemites were 
keeping a festival, Dina, who was the only 
daughter of Jacob, went into the city to see 
the finery of the women of that country. But 
when Shechem, the son of Hamor the king 
saw her, he defiled her by violence; and being 
greatly in love with her, he desired of his 
father that he would procure the damsel! te 
him for a wife. To which desire he conde- 
scended, and came to Jacob, desiring him to 
give leave that his son Shecliem might, ac- 
cording to law, marry Dina. But Jacob, not 
knowing how to deny the desire of one of 
such great dignity, and not yet thinking it law- 
ful to marry his daughter toa stranger, en- 
treated him to give him leave to have a cons 
sultation about what he desired him to do, 
So the king went away, in hopes that Jacob 
would grant him this marriage. But Jacob in 
formed hissons of the detilement of their sister, 
and of the address of Hantor; and desire 
them to give their advice whit they should doy 
Upon this, the greatest part said nothing, not 
knowing what advice to give. But Simeon 
and Levi, the brethren of the damsel, by the 
same mother, agreed between themselves upon 
the action following: it being now the time of 


* Perhaps this may be the proper meaning of the word B- 
rael by the present and the old Jerusalem analogy of the He- 
brew tongue. In the meantume, itis certain thatthe Hellen- 
ists of the first century n Egypt, and elsewhere, interpreted 
Is ra-el, to be a man seeing God, as ‘8 evident from the 
fragment foreeted 


50 


a festival, when the Shechemites were employ- 
ed in ease and feasting, they fell upon the 
watch, when they were asleep, and coming 
into the city, slew all the males;* as also the 
king and his son with them; but spared the 
women. And when they had done this with- 
eut their father’s consent, they brought away 
their sister. 

2. Now while Jacob was astonished at the 

reatness of this act, and was severely blaming 
Fis sons for it, God stood by him, and bid him 
be of good courage; but to purify his tents, 
and t) offer those sacrifices which he had vow- 
ed to offer when he went first into Mesopota- 
mia, and saw his vision. As he was, therefore, 
purifying his followers, he lighted upon the 
gods of Laban, (for he did not before know 
they were stolen by Rachel,) and he hid them 
in the earth, under an oak in Shechem. And 
departing thence, he offered sacrifice at Bethel, 
the place were hesaw his dream, when he 
went first into Mesopotamia. 

3. And when he was gone thence, and was 
eome over against Ephrata, he there buried 
Rachel, who died in childbed. She was the 
only one of Jacob’s kindred that had not the 
honor of burial at Hebron. And when he 
bad mourned for her a great while, he called 
tae son that was born of her Benjamint, be- 

* Of this slaughter of the Shechemutes by Simeon and 
i ov, see Authent. Rec. part. i. p. 309, 418, 432—439. But 
wy Josephus has omitted the circumcision of these She- 
#} einites, as the occasion of their death; and of Jacob’s 
@ eat grief, asin the Testament of Levi, sect. 5, I cannot tell. 

+ Since Benoni signifies the son of my sorrow, and Benja- 
edn, the son of days,or one born in the father’s old age, Gen. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


cause of the sorrow the mother had with him. ~ 
These are all the children of Jacob, twelve 
males, and one female. Of them eight were 
legitimate, viz. six of Lea, and two of Rachek 
and four were of the handmaids, two of each; 
all whose names have been set down already, 


CHAPTER XXIL 
How Isaac died, and was buried in Hebron. 


§ 1. From thence Jacob came to Hebron, 
city situate among the Canaanites, and there 1. 
was that Isaac lived; and so they lived together 
fora little while; for as to Rebeka, Jacob did 
not find her alive. Isaac also died not long 
after the coming of his son, and was buried by 
his sous, with his wife, in Hebron, where they 
had a monument belonging to them from their 
forefathers. Now Isaas was a man who was 
beloved of God, and was vouchsafed great in- 
stances of providence by God, after Abrahain — 
his father, and lived to be exceeding old; for 
when he had lived virtuously one hundred and 
eighty-five years, he then died. 


xliv. 20. I suspect Josephus’s present copies to be here im- 
perfect, and suppose, that in correspondence to other copies, 
he wrote, that Rachel called her son’s name Benont, but 
his father called him Benjamin, Gen. xxxv. 18. As for Ben 
jamin, as commonly explained, the son of the right hand, it 
makes no sense at all, and seems to be a gross modern error 
only. The Samaritan always writes this name truly Ben- 
jamin, which probably is here of the same signification, only 
with the Chaldee termination in, instead of tn, in the He- 
brew, as we pronounce Cherubin or Cherubin indifferently 
Accordingly both the Testament of Benjamin, sect. 2, p. 401, 
and Philo de nominum inutatione, p. 1059, write the name 
Benjamin, but explain itnot the son of his right han. bust 
the son of days, 





BOOK 


Il. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF 
[ISAAC TO THE EXODUS OUT OF EGYPT. 





CHAPTER I. 


How Esau and Jacob, the sons of Isaac, divided 
their habitations; and Esau possessed Idumea, 
and Jacob Canaan. 


§ 1. Arrer the death of Isaac, his sons divid- 
eJ their habitations respectively. Nor did they 
retain what they had before: but Esau depart- 
ed from the city of Hebron, and left it to his 
orother, and dwelt in Seir, and ruled over Idu- 
mea. He called the country by that name 
fiom himself, for he was named Adom; which 
appellation he got on the following occasion: 
One day returning from the toil of hunting 
very hungry, (it was when he was achild in 
age, he lighted on his brother when he was 
getting ready lentile-pottage for his dinner, 
which was of a very red color; on which ac- 
eount he the more earnestly longed for it, and 
desired him to give him some of it to eat. But 
he made advantage of his brother’s hunger, and 
forced him to resign up to him his birthright, 
and he being pinched with famine, resigned it 
up to him, under an oath. Whence it came, 
that on account of the redness of this pottage, 

was, un way of jest, by his contempora- 


ries called Adom, for the Hebrews call what is 

red Adom; and this was the name given to this 

country; but the Greeks gave ita more agreea: 
ble pronunciation, and named it Idumea. 

2. He became the father of five sons; of 
whom Jaus, and Jalomas, and Coreus, were by 
one wife, whose name was Alibama; but of the 
rest, Aliphaz was born to him by Ada, and Ra- 
guel by Basemath; and these were the sons of 
Esau. Aliphaz had five legitimate sons, The- 
man, Omer, Saphus, Gotham, and Kanaz; for 
Amalek was not legitimate, but by a concu- 
bine, whose name was Thamna. ‘These dwelt 
in that part of Idumea which was cailed Ge- 
balitis, and that denominated from Amalek 
Amalekitis; for Idumea was a large country, 
and did then preserve the name of the whol 
while in its several parts it kept the names 
its peculiar inhabitants. 

CHAPTER II. 

How Joseph, the youngest of Jucob’s sons, was 
envied by his brethren, when certain dreams 
had foreshowed his future happiness. 

§ 1. It happened that Jacob came to so 
happiness as rarely any other persen had arrived — 


BOOK H.—CHAPTER III. 


at. He was richer than the rest of the inha- 
_ bitants of that country; and was at once envied 
and admired for such virtuous sons; for they 
were deficient in nothing, but were of great 
souls, both for laboring with their hands and 
enduring of toil; and shrewd also in under- 
standing. And God exercised such a provi- 
dence over him, and such a care of his happi- 
_ ness, as to bring him the greatest blessings, 
even out of what appeared to be the most sor- 
rowful condition; and to make him the cause 
of our forefathers’ departure out of Egypt, 
him and his posterity. The occason was this: 
When Jacob had his son Joseph born to him 
by Rachel, his father loved him above the rest 
of his sons, both because of the beauty of his 
body and the virtues of his mind, for he excel- 
led the rest in prudence. This affection of his 
father excited the envy and hatred of his breth- 
ren; as did also his dreams which he saw, and 
related to his father and to them, which foretold 
his future happiness, it being usual with man- 
kiid to envy their very nearest relations such 
their prosperity. Now the visions which Joseph 
saw in his sleep were these: 
2. When they were in the middle of harvest, 
and Joseph was sent by his father with his 
brethren to gather the fruits of the earth, he 
saW a vision in a dream, but greatly exceeding 
the accustomary appearances that come when 
we are asleep; which when he was got up, he 
told his brethren, that they might judge what 
it portended. He said, “He saw the last night 
that his wheat-sheaf stood still in the place 
whiere he set it, but that their sheaves ran to 
sow down to it, as servants bow down to their 
masters.” But as soon as they perceived the 
vision foretold that he should obtain power 
and great wealth, and that his power should be 
in opposition to them, they gave no interpreta- 
tion of it to Joseph, as if the dream were not 
by them understood: but they prayed that no 
pirt of what they suspected to be its meaning, 
might come to pass; and they bare a still 
gieater hatred to him on that account. 

3. But God, in opposition to their envy, sent 
a second vision to Joseph, which was much 
more wonderful than the former; for it seemed 
to him that the sun took with him the moon, 
and the rest of the stars, and came down to 
the earth, and bowed down to him. He told 
this vision to his father, and that, as suspect- 
ing nothing of ill-will from his brethren, when 
they were there also, and desired him to inter- 
pret what it should signify. Now Jacob was 
pleased with the dream; for, considering the 
prediction in his mind, and shrewdly and 
wisely guessing at its meaning, he rejoiced at 
the great things thereby signified, because it 
declared the future happiness of his son; and 
that, by the blessing of God, the time would 
come when he should be honored, and thought 
worthy of worship by his parents and brethren, 
as guessing that the noon and sun were like 
his mother and father; the former as she that 
gave increase and nourishment to all things, 
and the latter, he that gave forin and other 
powers ta them: «and that the stars were like 


at 


his brethren, since they were eleven in num- 
ber, as were the stars that receive their power 
from the sun and moon. 

4, And thus did Jacob make a judgment of 
this vision, and that a shrewd one also. But 
these interpretations caused very great grief to 
Joseph’s brethren; and they were affected to 
him hereupon as if he were a certain stranger, 
that was to have those good things which were 
signified by the dreams, and not as one that 
was a brother, with whom it was probable they 
should be joint partakers; and as they had been 
partners in the same parentage, so should they 
be of the same happiness. ‘They also resolved 
to kill the lad; and having fully ratified that 
intention of theirs, as soon as their collection 
of the fruits was over, they went to Shechem, 
which is a country good for feeding of cattle, 
and for pasturage; there they fed their flocks, 
without acquainting their father with their re- 
moval thither: whereupon he had melancholy 
suspicions about them, as being ignorant of his 
sons’ condition, and receiving no messenger 
from the flocks that could inform him of the 
true state they were in; so because he was in 
great fear about them, he sent Joseph to the 
flocks, to learn the circumstances his brethren 
were in, and to bring him word how they did. 


CHAPTER IL 


How Joseph was thus sold by his brethren inte 
Egypt, by reason of their hatred to him; 
and how he there grew famous and illustrious 
and had his brethren under his power. 


§ 1. Now these brethren rejoiced as soon as 
they saw their brother coming to them, not in- 
deed as at the presence of a near relation, or 
as at the presence of one sent by their father, 
but as at the presence of an enemy, and one 
that by Divine Providence was delivered into 
their hands, and they already resolved to kill 
him, and not let slip the opportunity that lay 
before them. But when Reubel, the eldest of 
them, saw them thus disposed, and that they had 
agreed together to execute their purpose, he 
tried to restrain them, showing them the hein- 
ous enterprise they were going about, and the 
horrid nature of it; that this action would ap- 
pear wicked in the sight of God, and impious 
before men, even though they should kill one 
not related to them, but much more flagitious 
and detestable to appear to have slain their own 
brother; by which act the father must be treat- 
ed unjustly in the son’s slaughter, and the 
mother* also be in perplexity while she la- 
ments that her son is taken away from her, 
and this not in a natural way neither. So he 
entreated them to have aregard to their own 
consciences, and wisely to consider what mis- 
chief would betide them upon the death of so 
good a child, and their youngest brother; that 
they would also fear God, who was already 


* We may here observe, that in correspondence to Jo 
seph’s second dream, which implied that his mother, whe 
was then alive, as well as his father, should come and bow 
down to him, Josephus represents her here as still alive after 
she was dead, for the decorum of the dream that foretold it, 
as the interpretation of that dream does also in all our copies 
Gen. xxxvil. 10, 


52 


both a spectator and a witness of the designs 
they had against their brother; that he would 
love them if they abstained from this act, and 
yielded to repentance and amendment; but in 
ease they proceeded to do the fact, all sorts of 
punishments would overtake them from God 
for this murder of their brother, since they 
polluted his providence, which was every- 
where present, and which did not overlook 
what was done, either in deserts or in Cities; 
for wheresoever a man is, there ought he to 
suppose that God is also. He told them farther, 
that their consciences would be their enemies, 
if taey attempted to go through so wicked an 
enterprise,which they can never avoid, whether 
it be a good conscience, or whether it be 
such a one as they will have within them 
when once they have killed their brother. He 
also added this, besides, to what he had before 
said, that it was not a righteous thing to kill a 
brother, though he had injured them; that it is 
a good thing to forget the actions of such near 
friends, even in things wherein they might 
seem to have offended; but that they were 
going to kill Joseph, who had been guilty of 
nothing that was ill towards them, in whose 
case the infirmity of his smal! age should rather 
procure him mercy, and move them to unite 
together in the care of his preservation. ‘That 
the cause of killing him made the act itself 
much worse, while they determined to take 
him off out of envy at his future prosperity; 
an equal share of which they would naturally 
partake while he enjoyed it, since they were to 
him not strangers, but the nearest relations, for 
they might reckon upon what God bestowed 
upon Joseph as their own; and that it was fit 
for them to believe that the anger of God 
would, for this cause, be more severe upon 
them, if they slew him who was judged by 
God to be worthy of that prosperity which 
was to hoped for; and while, by murdering 
him, they made it impossible for God to be- 
stow it upon him. 

2. Reubel said these, and many other things, 
and used entreaties to them, and thereby en- 
deavored to divert them from the murder of 
their brother. But when he saw that his dis- 
course had not mollified them at all, and that 
they made haste to do the fact, he advised 
then. to alleviate the wickedness they were 
going about in the manner of taking Joseph 
off; for as he had exhorted them first, when 
they were going to revenge themselves, to be 
d¥ssuaded from doing it; so, since the sentence 
for killing their brother had prevailed, he said 
hat they would not, however, be so grossly 
ruilty, if they would be persuaded to follow 
Fis present advice, which would include what 
they were so eager about, but was not so very 
bad, but in the distress they were in, of a lighter 
nature. He begged of them, therefore, not to 
kill their brother with their own hands, but to 
cast him into the pit that was hard by, and so to 
let him die: by which they would gain so much, 
that they would not defile their own hands 
with his blood. Tothis the young men readi- 
ly agreed; so Reubel took the lad, and tied 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. . f 


him with a cord, and let him down gently tate 
the pit, for it had no water at all in it; who, when 
he had done this, went his way to seek for 
such pasturage as was fit for feeding their flocks 

3. But Judas, being one of Jacob’s sons also, 
seeing some Arabians, of the posterity of Ismael, 
carrying spices and Syrian wares out of the 
land of Gilead to the Egyptians; after Reubel 
was gone, advised his brethren to draw Joseph 
out of the pit, and sell him to the Arabians, 
for if he should die among strangers a great 
way ofl, they should be freed from this barbar- 
ous action. This, therefore, was resolved on; 
so they drew Joseph up out of the pit, and sold 
him to the merchants for twenty pounds.* He 
was now seventeen years old. But Reubel, 
coming in the night-time to the pit, resolved to 
save Joseph, without the privity of his brethren; 
and when upon his calling to him he made no 
answer, he was afraid that they had destroyed 
him after he was gone; of which he corr 
plained to his brethren; but when they had told 
him what they had done, Reubel left off I is 
mourning. 

4, When Joseph’s brethren had done this te 
him, they considered what they should do to ¢s- 
cape the suspicions of their father. Now thy 
had taken away from Joseph the coat whitb 
he had on when he came to them, at the tirie 
they let him down into the pit; so they thought 
proper to tear that coat to pieces; and to dip if 
into goat’s blood, and then to carry it and show 
it to their father, that he might believe he 
was destroyed by wild beasts. And when they 
had so done, they came to the old man, but 
this not till what had happened to his son had 
already come to his knowledge. ‘Then they 
said that they had not seen Joseph, nor knew 


what mishap had befallen him, but that they — 


had found his coat bloody and torn to pieces, 
whence they had a suspicion that he had fallen 
among wild beasts, and so perished, if that was 
the coat he had on when he came from home. 


aes 


Now Jacob had before some better hopes that — 


his son was only made a captive; but now he 
laid aside that notion, and supposed that this 


coat was an evident argument that he was dead, 


for he well remembered that this was the coat 


he had on when he sent him to his brethren; — 
so he hereafter lamented the lad as now dead, — 


and as if he had been the father of no more than ~ 


one, without taking any comfort im the rest; 


and so he was also affected with his misfor-— 


tune before he met with Joseph’s brethren, 
when he also conjectured that Joseph was de- 
stroyed by wild beasts. He sat down also cloth- 


za 


ed in sackcloth, and in heavy affliction, inso~— 


much that he found no ease when his sons cons 
forted him, neither did his pains remit by lengtk 


of time. 
CHAPTER IV. 
Concermng the signal Chastity of Joseph. 


§ 1. Now Potiphar, an Egyptian, who was— 


chief cook to king Pharaoh, bought Joseph of 


* The Septuagint have twenty pieces of gold; the Testamens 
of God, 30, the Hebrew and Samaritan, 20, of silver; ana the 


vulgar Latin, 30. What was the true number and true sum, 


eannot therefore, aow be known. 


_ lying with her 


BOOK IL—CHAPTER IV. 


the merchants, who sold him. to him. He 
had him in the greatest honor, and taught him 
the learning that became a free man, and gave 
him leave to make use of a diet better than was 
allotted toslaves. He intrusted also the eare of 
his house to him. So he enjoyed these advan- 
tages; yet did not he leave that virtue which he 
had before, upon such a change of his condi- 
tion, but he demonstrated that wisdom was 
able to govern the uneasy passions of life, in 
such as haveit in reality, and do not only put it 
on for a show, under a present state of pros- 
perity. 

2. For when his master’s wife was fallen in 
love with him, both on account of his beauty 
of body and his dexterous management of af- 
fairs, and supposed, that if she should make it 
known to him, she could easily persuade him 
to come and lie with her, and that he would 
look upon it as a piece of happy fortune that his 
mistress should eptreat him, as regarding that 
state of slavery be was in, and not his moral 
character, which continued after his condition 
was changed. So she made known _ her 
naughty inclinations, and spake to him about 
However, he rejected her en- 
treaties, not thinking it agreeable to religion to 
yield so far to her as to do what would tend to 
the affront and injury of him that purchased 
him, and had vouchsafed him so great honors. 
He, on the contrary, exhorted her to govern 
that passion, and laid before her the impossi- 
bility of her obtaining her desires, which he 
thought might be conquered, if she had no 
hope of succeeding: and he said, that as to 
himself, he would endure any _ thing- what- 
ever before he would be persuaded to it; for al- 
though it was fit for a slave, as he was, to do 
nothing contrary to his mistress, he might well 
be excused in a case where the contradiction 
was to such sort of commandsonly. But this 


opposition of Joseph’s when she did not ex- 


pect it, made her still more violent in her love 
to him; and she was sorely beset with this 
naughty passion,so she resolved to compass 
her design by asecond attempt. 

3. When, therefore, there was a_ public 
festival coming on, in which it was the custom 
for women to come to the public solemnity, 


she pretended to her husband that she was 


sick, as contriving an opportunity for solitude 


and leisure, that she might entreat Joseph 
again. Which opportunity being obtained, 


' she used more kind words to him than before; 


and said, that it had been good for him to have 
yielded to her first solicitation, and to have 
given her no repulse, both because of the re- 


-yerence he ought to bear to her dignity who 
solicited him, and because of the vehemency 


of her passion, by which she was forced, 
though she were his mistress, to condescend 


. beneath her dignity; but that he may now, by 


taking more prudent advice, wipe off the im- 
putation of his former folly; for whether it 


were, that he expected the repetition of her 


 Bolicitations, she had now made it, and that 


with greater earnestness than before, for that 
she had pretended sickness on this very ac- 


ee > 
OG 





count, and had preferred his conversation be- 
fore the festival and its solemnity; or whether 
he opposed her former discourses, as not be- 
lieving she could be in earnest, she now gave 
him sufficient security, by thus repeating her 
application, that she meant not in the least by 
fraud to impose upon him; and assured him, 
that if he complied with her affections, he 
might expect the enjoyment of the advantages 
he already had; and if he were submissive te 
her, he should have still greater advantages; 
but that he must look for revenge and hatred 
from her, in case he rejected her desires, ana 
preferred the reputation of chastity before his 
mistress; for that he would gain nothing by 
such procedure, because she would then be- 
come his accuser, and would falsely pretend to 
her husband that he attempted her chastity; 
and that Potiphar would hearken to her words 
rather than to his, let his be ever so agreeable 
to the truth. 

4. When the woman had said thus, and even 
with tears in her eyes, neither did pity dis- 
suade Joseph from his chastity, nor did fear 
compel him to a compliance with her; but he 
opposed her solicitations, and did not yield to 
her threatenings, and was afraid to do an ill 
thing; and chose to undergo the sharpest pun- 
ishment, rather than to enjoy his present ad- 
vantages, by doing what his own conscience 
knew would justly deserve that he should die 
for it. He also put her in mind that she was a 
married woman, and that she ought to cohabit 
with her husband only; and desired her to suf- 
fer, these considerations to have more weight 
with her than the short pleasure of lustful dal- 
liance, which would bring her to repentance 
afterward; would cause trouble to her, and yet 
would not amend what had been done amiss. 
He also suggested to her the fear she would be 
in, lest they should be caught; and that the ad- 
vantage of concealment was uncertain, and 
that only while the wickedness was not known 
[would there be any quiet for them;] but that 
she might have the enjoyment of her hus- 
band’s company without any danger. And he 
told her, that in the company of her husband 
she might have great boldness, from a good 
conscience, both before God and before men. 
Nay, that she would act better like his mis- 
tress, and make use of her authority over him 
better, while she persisted in her chastity, than 
when they were both ashamed for what wick- 
edness they had been guilty of; and that it is 
much better to depend on a good life, well act- 
ed, and known to have been so, than upon 
the hopes of the concealment of evil prac- 
tices. 

5. Joseph, by saying this, and more, tried tc 
restrain the violent passion of the woman, and 
to reduce her affection within the rules of rea- 
son; but she grew more ungovernable and ear- 
nest in the matter, and since she despaired of 
persuading him, she laid her hands upon him, 
and had amindto force him. But as soon as Jo- 
seph had got away from her anger, leaving alse 
his garment with her, for he left that to her, and 
leaped out of her chamber, she was greatly afraid 


5A 


lest he should discover her lewdness to her hus- 
band, and greatly troubled at the affront he had 
offered her, so she resolved to be beforehand with 
him and to accuse Joseph fa:sely to Potiphar, 
and by that means to revenge herself on him for 
his pride and contempt of her; and she thought 
it a wise thing in itself, and also becoming a 
woman, thus to prevent his accusation. Ac- 
cordingly she sat sorrowful and in confusion, 
framing herse f so hypncritically and angrily, 
that the sorrow, which was really for her be- 
ing disappointed of her lust, might appear to 
be for the attempt upon her chastity; so that 
when her husband came home, and was dis- 
turbed at the sight of her, and inquired what 
was the cause of the disorder she was in, she 
began to accuse Joseph: “O husband,” said she, 
“mayest thou not live a day longer if thou dost 
not punish the wicked slave who has desired 
to defile thy bed; who has neither minded who 
he was when he came to our house, so as to 
behave himself with modesty; nor has he 
been mindful of what favors he had received 
from thy bounty, (as he must be an ungrateful 
man indeed, unless he in every respect carry 
himself ina manner agreeable to us,) this man, 
[ say, laid a private design to abuse thy wife, 
and this at the time of a festival, observing 
when thou wouldst be absent. So that it now 
is clear, that his modesty, as it appeared to be 
formerly, was only because of the restraint he 
was in out of fear of thee, but that he was not 
really of a good disposition. This has been 
occasioned by his being advanced to honor be- 
yond what he deserved, and what he hoped for, 
insomuch that he concluded, that he who was 
deemed fit to be trusted with thy estate and the 
government of thy family, and was preferred 
above thy eldest servants, might be allowed to 
touch thy wife also.” Thus when she had end- 
ed her discourse, she showed him his garment, 
as if he then left it with her when he attempt- 
ed to force her. But Potiphar, not being able 
to disbelieve what his wife’s tears showed, and 
what his wife said, and what he saw himself, 
and being seduced by his love to his wife, did 
not set himself about the examination of the 
truth, but taking it for granted that his wife 
was a modest woman, and condemning Joseph 
as a wicked man, he threw him into the male- 
factors’ prison; and had a still higher opinion 
of his wife, and bare her witness, that she was 
a woman of a becoming modesty and chastity. 


CHAPTER V. 
What things befell Joseph in Prison. 


§ 1. Now Joseph, commending all his affairs 
to God did not betake himself to make his de- 
fence, nor to give an account of the circum- 
stances of the fact, but silently underwent the 
bonds and the distress he was in, firmly believ- 
ing that God, who knew the cause of his af- 
fliction, and the truth of the fact, would be 
more powerful than those that inflicted the 
punishments upon him; a proof of whose provi- 
dence he quickly received; for the keeper of 
the prison, taking notice of his care and fidelity 
nm ae affairs he had set him about, and the dig- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ~ 





nity of his countenance, relaxed his bonds, and 
thereby made his heavy calamity fighter ana — 


more supportable to him; he also permitted him ; 
to make use of a diet hetter than that of the rest 


of the prisoners. 
when their hard labors were over, fell to dis 
coursing one among another, as is usual in such 


Now his fellow-prisoners, — 


by 
V 


A 
‘ 
: 


as are equal sufferers, and to inquire one of 


another, what were the occasions of their heing- 
condemned to a prison. Among them the king’s | 
cupbearer, and one that had been respected by 
him, was put in bonds upon the king’s anger at 
him. This man was under the same bonds— 
with Joseph, and grew more familiar with him; 
and upon h‘s observing that Joseph had a bet- 
ter understanding than the rest had, he told 
him of a dream he had, and desired he would 


interpret its meaning; complaining that, be- 


sides the afflictions he underwent from the 


king, God did also add to him trouble from his 


dreams. 


2. He therefore said, that in his sleep he | 


saw three clusters of grapes hanging upon 
three branches of a vine, large already and ripe 
for gathering, and that he squeezed them into 
a cup, which the king held in his hand; and 
when he had strained the wine, he gave it to 
the king to drink, and that he received it from 
him with a pleasant countenance. This, he 
said was what he saw; and he desired Joseph, 
that if he had any portion of understanding in 
such matters, he would tell him what this vis- 
ion foretold: who bid him be of good theer, 
and expect to be loosed from his bonds in three 
days’ time, because the king desired his service, 
and was about to restore him to it again; for 
he let him know that God bestows the fruit of 
the vine upon men for good; which wine is 
poured out to him, and is the pledge of fidel- 
ity and mutual confidence among men; and 


puts an end to their quarrels, takes away pas-— 


sion and grief out of the minds of them that 
use it, and makes them cheerful. ‘Thou sayest 
that thou didst squeeze this wine from three 


clusters of grapes with thine hands, and that) 


the king received it; know, therefore, that this — 
vision is for thy good, and foretells a release 
from thy present distress, within the same 
number of days as the branches had whence 
thou gatheredst thy grapes in thy sleep. How- 
ever, remember what prosperity I have fore-— 
told thee when thou hast found it true by ex-— 
perience: and when thou art in authority, de 
not overlook us in this prison, wherein thou 


wilt leave us, when thou art gone to the place — 


we have foretold; for we are not in prison for 
any crime, but for the sake of our virtue and 
sobriety are we condemned to suffer the pen- 
alty of malefactors, and because we are not 
willing to injure him that has thus distressed 
us, though it were for our own pleasure. The 


cupbearer, therefore, as was natural to do, rm 


joiced to hear such an interpretation of his 
dream, and waited the completion of what had 
been thus showed him beforehand. : 

3. But another servant there was of the king, — 
who had been chief baker, and was now bound ~ 


in prison with the cupbearer; he also was ia 


a an 


BOOK IIl—CHAPTER V. 


good hope, upon Joseph’s interpretation of the 
ether’s vision, for he had seen a dream also; so 
he desired that Joseph would tell him what 
the visions he had seen the night before might 
mean. They were these that follow: “Me- 
thought,” says he, “I carried three baskets 
upon my head, two were full of loaves, and 
the third full of sweatmeats and other eatables, 
such as are prepared for kings; but that the 
fowls came flying, and ate them all up, and 
had no regard to my attempt to drive them 
away.” And he expected a prediction like to 
that of the cupbearer. But Joseph, considering 
and reasoning about the dream, said to him, 


Ks 


5. But the king took him by tne hand, and, 
“O young man,” says he, “for my servant bears 
witness that thou art at present the best and 
most skilftl person I can consult with, vouch- 
safe me the same favors which thou bestowedst 
on this servant of mine, and tell me what 
events they are which the visions of my dreams 
foreshow; and I desire thee to suppress nothing 
out of fear, nor to flatter me with lying words, 
or with what inay please me, although the truth 
should be of a melancholy nature. For it 
seemed to me that, as I walked by the river, I 
saw kine fat and very large, seven in number, 
going from the river to the marshes; and other 


that he would willingly be an interpreter of |kine, of the same number like them, met them 


ood events to him, and not of such as his 
Afar denounced to him: but he told him that 
he had only three days in all to live, for that 
the [three] baskets signify, that on the third 
day he should be crucified and devoured by 
fowls, while he was not able to help himself: 
Now, both these dreams had the saine several 
events that Joseph foretold they should have, 
and this to both the parties; for on the third 
day before mentioned; when the king solemn- 
ized his birth-day, he crucified the chief baker, 
but set the butler free from his bonds; and re- 
stored him to his former ministration, 

4, But God freed Joseph from his confine- 
ment, after he had endured his bonds two years, 
and had received no assistance from the cup- 
bearer, who did not remember what he had 
said to him formerly; and God contrived this 
method of deliverance for him. Pharaoh the 
king had seen in his sleep the same evening 
two visions; and after them had the interpre- 
tations of them both given him. He had for- 
gotten the latter, but retained that of the dreams 
themselves. Being therefore troubled at what 
he had seen, for it seemed to him to be all of a 
melancholy nature; the next day he called to- 
gether the wisest men among the Egyptians, 

esiring to learn from them the interpretation 
of his dreams. But when they hesitated about 
them, the king was so much the more disturb- 
ed. And now it was that the memory of Jo- 
seph, and his skill in dreams, came into the 
mind of the king’s cupbearer, when he saw 
the confusion that Pharaoh was in; so he 
came and mentioned Joseph to him, as also 
the vision he had seen in prison, and how the 
event proved as he had said; as also, that the 
chief baker was crucified on the very sane day 
and that this also happened to him, according 
to the interpretation of Joseph. ‘That Joseph 
himself was laid in bonds by Potiphar, who 
was his head cook, as a slave; but he said he 
was one of the noblest of the stock of the He- 
brews; and said further, his father lived in great 
splendor. If, therefore, thou wilt send for him, 
and not despise him on the score of his mis- 
fortunes, thou wilt learn what thy dreams sig- 
nify. So the king commanded that they should 
bring Joseph into his presence; and those who 
received the command came and brought him 
- with them, having taken care of his habit, that 
_ I might be decent, as the king had enjoined 
_ them to do 


out of the marshes, exceeding lean and ill-fa- 
vored, which ate up the fat and the large kine, 
and yet were no better than before, and not less 
miserably pinched with famine. After I had 
seen this vision, I awaked out of my sleep, 
and being in disorder, and considering with my- 
self what this appearance should be, I fell asleep 
again and saw another dream, much more won- 
derful than the foregoing, which still did more 
afiright and disturb me: I saw seven ears of 
com growing out of one root, having their 
heads borne down by the weight of the grains, 
and bending down with the fruit, which was 
now ripe, and fit for reaping; and near these I 
saw seven other ears of corn, meagre and weak 
for waut of rain, which fell to eating and con- 
suming those that were fit for reaping, and put 
me into great astonishment.” 

6. To which Joseph replied: “This dream,” 
said he, “O king, although seen under two 
forms, signifies one and the same event of 
things; for when thou sawest the fat kine, which 
is an animal made for the plough and for labor, 
devoured by the worst kine, and the ears of 
corn eaten up by the smaller ears, they foretell 
a famine, and want of the fruits of the earth, 
for the same number of years, and equal with 
those when Egypt was in a happy state; and 
this so far, that the plenty of these years will 
be spent in the same number of years of 
scarcity, and that scarcity of necessary provi- 
sions will be very difficult to be corrected; as 
a sign whereof, the ill-favored kine, when they 
had devoured the better sort, could not be sa- 
tisfied. But still God foreshows what is to 
come upon men, not to grieve them, but that 
when they know it beforehand, they may by 
prudence make the actual experience of what 
is foretold the more tolerable. If thou, there- 
fore, carefully dispose of the plentiful crops 
which will come in the former years, thou wilt 
procure that the future calamity will not be felz 
by the Egyptians.” 

7. Hereupon the king wondered at the dis 
cretion and wisdom of Joseph; and asked hime 
by what means he might so dispense the fore- 
going plentiful crops, in the happy years, as te 
make the miserable crops more tolerable. Jo- 
seph then added this his advice: To spare the 
good crops, and not permit the Egyptians te 
spend them luxuriously, but to reserve what 
they would have spent in luxury beyond their 
necessity, against the time of want. He alse 


66 


exhorted him to take the corn of the husband- 
men, und give them only so much as would be 
guiticient for their food. Accordingly Pha- 
ragh, being surprised at Joseph, not only for 
his intervretation of the dream, but for the 
counsel he had given him, intrusted him with 
dispensing the corn, with power to do what he 
thought would be for the benefit of the peo- 
ple of Egypt, and for the benefit of the king, 
as believing that he who first discovered this 
method of acting would prove the best over- 
seer of it. But Joseph, having this power 
given him by the king, with leave to make use | 
of his seal, and to wear purple, drove in his | 
ehariot through all the land of Egypt, and took 
the corn of the husbandmen,* allotting as 
much to every one as would be sufficient for 
seed and for food, but without discovering to 
any one the reason why he did so. 


CHAPTER VI. 
How Joseph, when he was become famous in 
Egypt, had his brethren in subjection. 


§ 1. Joseph was now grown up to thirty 
years of age, and enjoyed great honors from 
the king, who called him Psothom Phanech, 
out of regard to his prodigious degree of wis- 
dom; for that name denotes the revealer of se- 
exels. He also married a wife of very high 
quaity; for he married the daughter of Pete- 
plires,t one of the priests of Heliopolis; she 
was a virgin, and her name was Asenath. « By 
her he had children before the scarcity came 
on, Manasseh, the elder, which signifies’ forget- 
fid, because his present happiness made him 
forget his former misfortunes: and Ephraim, 
the younger, which signifies restored, because 
he was restored to the freedom of his fore- 
fathers. Now, after Egypt had happily passed 
over seven years, according to Joseph’s inter- 
pretation of the dreams, the famine came upon 
them in the eighth year; and because this mis- 
fortune fell upon thern when they had no sense 
of it beforehand,t they were all sorely afflicted 
by it, and came running to the king’s gates; and 
he called upon Joseph, who sold the corn to 
them, being become confessedly a savior to the 
whole multitude of the Egyptians. Nor did 
he open this market of corn for the people of 
that country only, but strangers had liberty to 
buy also, Joseph being willing that all men, 
who are naturally akin to one another, should 
have assistance from those that lived in happi- 
ness. 

2. Now Jacob also, when he understood 


* That is, boughtit for Piiaraoh ata very low price. 

¢ This Potiphar, or as in Josephus, Petephres,who was now 
a priest of On, or Heliopolis, is the same name in Josephus, 
and perhaps in Moses also, with him whois before called the 
head cook, or captainof the guard, and to whom Joseph was 
sold, see Gen. xxxvii. 36; xxxix. 1; with xli.50. They are 
aiso affirmed to be one and the same person in the Testa- 
ment of Joseph, sect. 18, for he is there said to have married 
the daughter of his master aud mistress. Nor is this a no- 
tion peculiar to that Testament; but, as Dr. Bernard con- 
fesses, note on Antiq. b. ii. chap. iv. sect. 1, common to 
Jusephus, to the Septuagint interpreters, and to other learn- 
ed Jews of old time. 

{ This entire ignorance of the Egyptians of these years, of 
famine before tney came, told us before as well as here, chap. 
¥. sect. 7, by Josepbus, seems to be almost incredible. It is 
in no Other copy taat J know of 


ANTIQUITIES OF ‘THE JEWS. 


that foreigners might come, sent all his sop 
into Egypt to buy cora; for the land of Canaar 
was grievously afflicted with the famine; anc — 
this great misery touched the whole continent 
He only retained Benjamin, who was born tc 
hirn by Rachel, and was of the same mother 
with Joseph. ‘These sons of Jacob then came — 
into Egypt, and applied themselves to Joseph, — 
wanting to buy corn; for nothing of this kind — 
was done without his approbation, since even 
then only was the honor that was paid the ane 
himself advantageous to the persons that pai 
it, when they took care to honor Joseph also. — 
Now when he well knew his brethren, they — 
thought nothing of him; for he was buta youth 
when he left them, and was now come to an — 
age so much greater that the lineaments of his — 
face were changed, and he was not known by ~ 
them; besides this, the greatness of the dignity — 
wherein he appeared suffered them not so 
much as to suspect it was he. He now made ~ 
trial what seniiments they had about affairs of — 
the greatest consequence; for he refused to sell — 
them corn, and said they wére come as spies 
of the king’s affairs; and that they came from 
several countries, and joined themselves togeth- 
er, and pretended that they were of kin, it not 
being possible that a private man should breed 
up so many sons, and those of so great beauty — 
of countenance as they were; such an educa- — 
tion of so many children being not easily ob- — 
tained by kings themselves. Now this he did — 
in order to discover what concerned his father, 
and what happened to him after his own de- 
parture from him, and as desirmg to know 
what was become of Benjamin his brother; for 
he was afraid that they had ventured on the like 
wicked enterprise against him that they had 
done to himself, and had taken him off also. 
3. Now these brethren of his were under 
distraction and terror, and thought that ve 
great danger hung over them; yet not at 
reflecting upon their brother Joseph; and 
standing firm under the accusations laid against — 
them, they made their defence by Reubel, the — 
eldest of them, who now became their spokes-_ 
man: “We come not hither,” said he, “with 
any unjust design, nor in order to bring any 
harm to the king’s affairs; we only want to be 
preserved, as supposing your humanity might 
be a refuge for us from the miseries which our 
country labors under, we having heard that — 
you proposed to sell corn, not only to your own | 
countrymen, but to strangers also, and that you — 
determined to allow that corn in order to pre- 
serve all that want it; but that we are brethren 
and of the same commen blood, the peculiar — 
lineaments of our faces, and those not so much — 
different from one another, vainly show. Our 
father’s name is Jacob, a Hebrew man, who 
had twelve of us for his sons by four wives; 
which twelve of us, while we were ail alive, 
were a happy family; but when one of our 
brethren, whose name was Joseph, died, our 
aflairs changed for the worse; tor our father 
could not forbear to make a long lamentation 
for him, and we are in afiliction, both by the 
calamity of the death of our brother, and the 



































* 
v 


miserab.e state of our aged father. 
now, therefore, come to buy corn, having in- 
trusted the care of our father, and the provision 
for our family, to Benjamin, our youngest 


BOOK I[1.--CHAPTER VIL. 


We are 


brother; and if thou sendest to our house, thou 
mayest learn whether we are guilty of the 
least falsehood in what we say.” 

4, And thus did Reubel endeavor to per- 
suade Joseph to have a better opinion of thei. 
But when he had learned from them that Ja- 
cob was alive,and that his brother was not 
destroyed by them, he for the present put them 
in prison, as intending to examine more into 
their affairs when he should be at leisure. But 
on the third day he brought them out, and said 
tothem, “That since you constantly affirm that 
you are not come to do any harm to the king’s 
affairs; that you are brethren, and the sons of 
the father whom you named, you will satisfy 
me of the truth of what you say, if you leave 


_ one of your company with me, who shall suffer 


no injury here; and if, when you have carried 
corn to your father, you will come to me again, 
and bring your brother, whom you say you left 


there along with you: for this shall be by me 


esteemed an assurance of the truth of what | 
you have told me.” MHereupon they were in 
greater grief than before; they wept, and per- 
tually deplored one among another the ca- 
mity of Joseph; and said, “They were fallen 
into this misery as a punishment inflicted by 


God for what evil contrivances they had against 


him.” And Reubel was large in his reproaches 
of them for their too late repentance, whence 
no profit arose to Joseph; and earnestly ex- 
horted them to bear with patience whatever 
they suffered, since it was done by God in way 
of punishment on his account. Thus they 
spake to one another, not imagining that Jo- 
seph understood their language. A general 
sadness also seized on them at Reubel’s words, 
and a repentance for what they had done; and 
they condemned the wickedness they had per- 
petrated, for which they judged they were 
justly punished by God. Now when Joseph 


_ saw that they were in this distress, he was so 


affected at it that he fell into tears, and not 
being willing that they should take notice of 
him, he retired; and after awhile came to them 
again, and taking Simeon,* in order to his 
being a pledge for his brethren’s return, he 


bid them take the corn they had bought, and 


gotheir way. He also commanded his steward 
pars to put the money which they had 
rought with them for the purchase of corn 


into their sacks, and to dismiss them therewith, 


who did what he was commanded to do. 

5. Now when Jacob’s sons were come into 
the land of Canaan, they told their father what 
had happened to them in Egypt, and that they 


_ were taken to have come thither as spies upon 
_ the king; and how they said they were breth- 
~ ren, and had left their eleventh brother with 


their father, but were not believed; and 


* The reason why Simeon might be selected out of the 


yest for Joseph’s prisoner, is plain in the Testament of Si- 


sreon, viz. that he was one of the bitterest of all Joseph’s 
trethren against him, sect. 2, which appears also in part by 
he Testament of Zabulon, sect. 3. 


57 
how they had left Simeon with the governor 
until Benjamin should go thither, and be a tes- 
timonial of the truth of what they had said. 
And they begged of their father to fear noth- 
ing, but to send the lad along with them. But 
Jacob was not pleased with any thing his sons 
had done, and he took the detention of Simeon 
heinously, and thence thought it a foolish thing 
to give up Benjamin also. Neither did he 
yield to Reubel’s persuasion, though he begged 
it of him; and gave leave that the grandfather 
might, in way of requital, kill his own sons, in 
case any harm came to Benjamin in the jour- 
ney. So they were distressed, and knew not 
what to do. Nay, there was another accident 
that still disturbed them more, the money that 
was found hidden in their sacks of corn. Yet 
when the corn they had brought failed them, 
and when the famine still afflicted them, and 
necessity forced them, Jacob did od still re- 
solve tosend Benjamin with his brethren, al- 
though there was no returning into Egypt un- 
less they came with what they had promised. 
Now, the misery growing every day worse, 
and his sons begging it of him, he had no other 
course to take in his present circumstances, 
And Judas, who was of a bold temper upon 
other occasions, spake his mind very freely to 
him: “That it did not become him to be afraid 
on account of his son, nor to suspect the worst, 
as he did; for nothing could be done to his son 
but by the appointment of God, which must 
also for certain come to pass though he were at 
home with him; that he ought not tocondemn 
them to such manifest destruction; nor deprive 
them of that plenty of food they might have 
from Pharaoh, by his unreasonable fear about 
his son Benjamin, but ought to take care of 
the preservation of Simeon, lest by attemptin 
to hinder Benjamin’s journey, Simeon shoul 
perish. He exhorted him to trust God for him, 
and said he would either bring his son back to 
him safe, or, together with his, lose his own 
life.” So that Jacob was at length persuaded, 
and delivered Benjamin to them, with the price 
of the corn doubled; be also sent presents to 
Joseph, of the fruits of the land of Canaan, 
balsam,} and rosin, as also turpentine, and 
honey. Now their father shed many tears at 
the departure of his sons, as well as themselves. 
His concern was, that he might receive them 
back again safe after their journey; and their 
concern was, that they might find their father 
well, and noway afflicted with grief for them. 
And this lamentation lasted a whole day; so 
that the old man was at last tired with grief, 
and stayed behind; but they went on their way 
for Egypt, endeavoring to mitigate their grief 
for their present misfortunes, with the hopes of 
better success hereafter. 

6. As soon as they came into Egypt, they 
were brought down to Joseph. But here no 
small fear disturbed them, lest they should be 


* The coherence seems to me to show, that the negative 
particle is here wanting, which I have supplied in brackets, 
and I wonder none have hitherto suspected it ought to be 
supplied. f 

t Of the precious balsam of Judea, and the turpentine, see 
the note on Antiq. b. viii. chap. vi. sect. 6. 


58 


accused about the price of the corn, as if’ they 
had cheated Joseph. They then made a long 
apology to Joseph’s steward; and told him, that 
when they came home they found the money 
in their sacks, and that they had now brought 
it along with them. He said he did not know 
what they meant; so they were delivered from 
that fear. And when he had loosed Simeon, 
and put him into a handsome habit, he suffer- 
ed him to be with his brethren; at which time 
Joseph came from his attendance on the king. 
So they offered him their presents; and upon 
bis putting the question to them about their 
father, they answered that they found him well. 
He also, upon his discovery that Benjamin was 
alive, asked whether this was their younger 
brother, for he had seen him. Whereupon 
they said he was; he replied, that the God over 
all was his protector. But when his affection 
to him made him shed tears, he retired, desir- 
ing he might not be seen in that plight by his 
brethren. Then Joseph took them to supper, 
and they were set down in the same order as 
they used to sit at their father’s table. And al- 
though Joseph treated them all kindly, yet did 
he send a mess to Benjamin that was double 
to what the rest of the guests had for their 
shares. 

7. Now when after supper they had compos- 
ed themselves to sleep, Joseph commanded 
his steward both to give them their measures 
of corn, and to hide its price again in their 
sacks; and that withal they should put into Ben- 
jamin’s sack the golden cup out of which he 
loved hiraself'to drink. Which things he did 
in order to make trial of his brethren, whether 
they would stand by Benjamin when he should 
be accused of having stolen the cup, and should 
appear to be in danger; or whether they would 
leave him, and depending on their own inno- 
cency, go to their father without him. When 
the servant had done as he was bidden, the 
sons of Jacob knowing nothing of all this, 
went their way, and took Simeon along with 
them and had a double cause of joy, both be- 
cause they had received him again, and because 
they took back Benjamin to their father, as 
they had promised. But presently a troop of 
horsemen encompassed them, and brought with 
them Joseph’s servant, who had putthe cup 
into Benjamin’s sack. Upon which unexpect- 
ed attack of the horsemen they were much 
disturbed, and asked what the reason was that 
they came thus upon men who, a little before, 
had been by their lord thought worthy of an 
honorable and hospitable reception? They 
replied by calling them wicked wretches, who 
had forgot that very hospitable and kind treat- 
ment which Joseph had given them, and did 
eotscruple to be injurious to him and to carry 
off that cup out of which he had, in so friend- 
ly amanner, drunk to them; and not regarding 
their friendship with Joseph, no more than the 
danger they should bein if they were taken, 
in comparison of the unjust gain. Hereupon 
he threatened that they should be punished; 
for, though they had escaped the knowledge 
ef him who was but a servant, yet they had not 


ANTIQUITIES OF TILE JEWS. 


»\ 


escaped the knowledge of God, ncr had gons 
off with what they had stolen: and, after all, 
asked why we come upon them? as if they 
knew nothing of the matter, and he told them 
that they should immediately know it by their 
punishment. ‘This and more of the same na- 
ture, did the servant say, in way of reproach to 
them: but they, being wholly ignorant of any 
thing here that concerned them, laughed at 
what he said, and wondered at the abusive 
language which the servant gave them, when 
he was so hardy as to accuse those who did 
not before so much as retain the price of their 
corn, Which was found in their sacks, but 
brought it again, though nobody else knew of 
any such thing; so far were they from offering 
any injury to Joseph voluntarily. But still, 
supposing that a search would be a more sure 
justification of themselves than their own de- 
nial of the fact, they bid him search them, and 
that if any of them had been guilty of the theft 
to punish them all; for being noway conscious 
to themselves of any crime, they spake with 
assurance, and, as they thought, without any 
danger to themselves also. The servants de- 
sired there might be a search made; but they 
said, the punishment should extend to him 
alone who should be found guilty of the theft. 
So they made the search; and having searched 
all the rest, they came last of all to Benjamin, 
as knowing it was Benjamin’s sack in which 
they had hidden the cup; they having indeed 
searched the rest only for a show of accuracy, 
so the rest were out of fear for themselves 
and were now only concerned about Benja- 
min, but still were well assured that he would 
also be found innocent; and they reproached 
those that came after them for their hindering 
them, while they might, in the meanwhile, have 
gotten a good way on their journey. But, as 
soon as they had searched Benjamin’s sack, a 
founa the cup, and took it from him, and a 

was changed into mourning and lamentation. 
They rent their garments, and wept for the 
punishment which their brother was to under- 
go for his theft, and for the delusion they had 
put on their father when they promised they 
would bring Benjamin safe to him. What 
added to their misery was, that this melancholy 
accident came unfortunately at a time when 
they thought they had gotten off clear; but 
they confessed that this misfortune of their 


brother, as well as the grief of their father for 


him, was owing to themselves, since it was 
they that forced their father to send him wit 
them, when he was averse to it. ; 


8. The horsemen, therefore, took Benjamm — 


and brought him to Joseph, his brethren also 
following him; who, when he saw him in cus- 
tody, and them in the habit of mourners, said, 
“How came you, vile wretches as you are, to 


have such a strange notion of my kindness to — 
you, and of God’s providence, as impudently — 
to do thus to your benefactor, who in such a — 


hospitable manner had entertained you?”— 


Fy 


Whereupon they gave up themselves to be 
punished, in order to save Benjamin; and call 
ed to mind what a wicked enterprise they had 


BOOK If.—CHAPTER VI. 


been guilty of against Joseph. They also pro- 
nounced him more happy than themselves, if 
he were dead, in being freed from the miseries 
of this life; and if he were alive, that he enjoy- 
ed the pleasure of seeing God’s vengeance upon 
them. They said farther, that they were the 
plague of their father, since they should now 
add to his former affliction for Joseph, this other 
affliction for Benjamin. Reubel also was large 
im cutting them upon this occasion. But Jo- 
seph dismissed them; for he said, they had been 
guilty of no offence, and that he would con- 
tent himself with the lad’s punishment; for he 
said. it was not a fit thing to let him go free, 
for the sake of those who had not offended; 
nor was it a fit thing to punish them together 
with him who had been guilty of stealing. 
And when he promised to give them leave to 
0 away in safety, the rest of them were un- 
er great consternation, and were able to say 
nothing on this sad occasion. But Judas, who 
had persuaded their father to send the lad 
from him, being otherwise also a very bold 
and active man, determined to hazard himself 
for the preservation of his brother. “It is 
true,” * said he, “O governor, that we have 
been very wicked with regard to thee, and on 
that account deserve punishment; even all of 
us may justly be punished, although the theft 
were not committed by all, but only by one of 
_ us, and he the youngest also; but yet there re- 
mains some hope for us, who otherwise must 
be under despair on his account, and this from 
thy goodness, which promises us a deliverance 
out of our present danger. And now [ beg 
thou wilt not look at us, or at that great crime 
we have been guilty of, but at thy own excel- 
Jent nature, and take advice of thine own virtue, 
instead of that wrath thou hast against us; 
which passion those that otherwise are of a 
low character indulge, as they do their strength, 
and that not only on great, but also on very 
triflmg occasions. Overcome, sir, that passion, 
and be not subdued by it, nor suffer it to slay 
those that do not otherwise presume upon their 
own safety, but are desirous to accept of it 
from thee; for this is not the first time that 
thou wilt bestow it on us, but before, when we 
came to buy corn, thou affordest us great 
plenty of food, and gavest us leave to carry so 
much home to our family as has preserved 
them from perishing by famine. Nor is there 
any difference between not overlooking men 
that were perishing for want of necessaries, 
and not punishing those that seem to be offend- 
ers, and have been so unfortunate as to lose the 
advantage of that glorious benefaction which 
hey received from thee. This will be an in- 
atancc of equal favor, though bestowed after a 
different manner; for thou wilt save those this 
way whom thou didst feed the other; and thou 
wilt hereby preserve alive, by thy own bounty, 


* This oration seems to me too large, and too unusual a 
digression, to have been composed by Judas on this occasion. 
It seems to me a speech or declamation composed formerly, 
in the person of Judas, and in the way of oratory, thatlay by 
him, and which he thought fit to insert on this occasion. 
See two more such speeches or declamations, Antiq. b. vi. 
th. yiv. sect. 4. 


58 


those souls which thou didst not sutfer to be 
distressed by famine; it being, indeed, at once 
a wonderful and a great thing to sustain our 
lives by corn, and to bestow on us that pardon, 
whereby, now weare distressed, we may con- 
tinue those lives. And I am ready to suppose 
that God is willing to afford thee this opportu- 
nity of showing thy virtuous disposition by 
bringing us into this calamity, that it may appear 
thou canst forgive the injuries that are done to 
thyself} and mayest be esteemed kind to others, 
besides those who, on other accounts, stand 
in need of thy assistance; since it is indeed a 
right thing to do well to those who are in dis- 
tress for want of food, but stilla more glorious 
thing to save those who deserve to be punish- 
ed, when it is on account of heinous offences 
against thyself; for if it be a thing deserving 
commendation to forgive such as have been 
guilty of small offences, that tend to a person’s 
loss, and this be praiseworthy in him that over- 
looks such offences, to restrain a man’s passicn 
as to crimes which are capital to the guilty, ts 
to be like the most excellent nature of Guid 
himself. And truly, as for myself, had it not 
been that we had a father, who had discovered, 
on occasion of the death of Joseph, how mis- 
erably he is always afflicted at the loss of | is 
sons, I had not made many words on account 
of the saving of our own lives; I mean, ariy 
farther than as that would be an excellent cli3- 
racter for thyself, to preserve even those thut 
would have nobody to lament them when thuy 
were dead, but we would have yielded our- 
selves up to suffer whatsoever thou pleasedit: 
but now, (for we do not plead for mercy te 
ourselves, though, indeed, if we die, it will le 
while we are young, and before we have the ea- 
joyment of life,) have regard to our father, aid 
take pity of his old age, on whose account it 
is that we make these supplications to ther. 
We beg thou wilt give us those lives, whico 
this wickedness of ours has rendered obno3- 
ious to thy punishment; and this for his sake 
who is not himself wicked, nor does his bein 

our father make us wicked. He is a 30a 
man, and not worthy to have such trials of his 
patience: and now we are absent, he is afilict- 
ed with care for us. Butif he hear of our 
deaths, and what was the cause of it, he will 
on that account die an immature death: and 
the reproachful manner of our ruin will hasten 
his end, and will directly kill him, nay, will 
bring him to a miserable death, while he will 
make haste to rid himself out of the world, 
and bring himself to a state of insensibility, 
before the sad story of our end come abroad 
into the rest of the world. Consider these 
things in this manner, although our wickedness 
does now provoke thee with a just desire of 
punishing that wickedness, and forgive it for 
our father’s sake: and let thy commiseration of 
him weigh more with thee than our wicked 

ness. Have regard to the old age of our 
father, who, if we perish, will be very lonely 
while he lives, and will soon die himself also. 
Grant this boon to the name of fathers, for 
shereby thou wilt honor him that begat thee 


60 


and wilt grant it to thyself also, who enjoyest 


already that denomination; thou wilt then, by 


that denomination, be preserved of God, the 
Father of all, by showing a pious regard to 
which, in the case of our father, thou wilt ap- 
pear to honor him who is styled by the same 
name; I mean, if thou wilt have this pity on 
our father, upon the consideration how misera- 
ble he will be if he be deprived of his sons. 
[t is thy part, therefore, to bestow on us what 
God has given us, when it is in thy power to 
take it away, and so to resemble him entirely 
in charity; for it is good to use that power, 
which can either give or take away, on the 
merciful side; and when it is in thy power to 
destroy, to forget that thou ever hadst that 
power, and to look on thyself as only allowed 
power for preservation; and that the more any 
one extends this power, thé greater reputation 
does he gain to himself. Now, by forgiving 
our brother what he has unhappily committed, 
thou wilt preserve us all; for we cannot think 
of living if he be put to death, since we dare 
not show ourselves alive to our father without 
vur brother, but here must we partake of one 
and the same catastrophe of this life. And so 
far we beg of thee, O governor, that if thou 
condemnest our brother to die, that thou wilt 
punish us together with him, as partners of his 
crime. I will only leave with thee this one 
consideration, and then will say no more, viz: 
that our brother committed this fault when he 
was young, and not yet of confirmed wisdom 
in his conduct, and that men naturally forgive 
mich young persons. I end here, without 
aiding what more I have to say, that in case 
thou condemnest us, that emission may be 
supposed to have hurt us, and permitted thee 
to take the severer side. But in case thou 
settest us free, that this may be ascribed to thy 
own goodness, of which thou art inwardly 
conscious, that thou freest us from condemna- 
tion; and that not by barely preserving us, but 
granting us such a favor as will make us ap- 
ar more righteous than we really are, and 
y representing to thyself more motives for 
our deliverance than we are able to produce 
ourselves. If, therefore, thou resolvest to slay 
him, I desire thou wilt slay me in his stead, 
and send him back to his father; or if thou 
pleasest to retain him with thee as a slave, I 
am fitter to labor for thy advantage in that ca- 
city, and, as thou seest, ain better prepared 
for either of those sufferings.”* So Judas 
peing very willing to undergo any thing what- 
ever for the deliverance of his brother, cast 
cimself at Joseph’s feet, and earnestly labored 
to assuage and pacify his anger. All his breth- 
ren also fell down before him weeping, and 
delivering themselves up to destruction for the 
preservation of the life of Benjamin. 
9. But Joseph, as overcome now with his af- 
fections, and no longer able to personate an 
angry man, commanded all that were present 


* In all this speech of Judas we may observe, that Jose- 

us still supposed that death was the punishment of theft 

Egypt, in the days of Joseph, though it never was so 
among the }2ws by the law of Moses. 


: 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 
to depart, that he might make himself known 


to his brethren when they were alone. And 
when the rest were gone out, he made himself 
known to his brethren, and said, “I commend 
you for your virtue and your kindness to our 
brother; I find you better men than I could 
have expected from what you contrived about 
me. Indeed, I did all this to try your love to 
your brother; so I believe you were not wick- 
ed by nature, in what you did in my case, but 
that all has happened acccrding to God’s will 
who has hereby procured our enjoyment of 
what good things we have; and if we continue 
in a favorable disposition, of what we hope for 
hereafter. Since, therefore, I know that our 
father is safe and well, beyond expectation, and 
I see you so well disposed to your brother, I will 
no longer remember what guilt you seem to 
have had about me, but will leave off to hate you 
for that your wickedness, and do rather return 
you my thanks, that you have concurred with 
the intentions of God to bring things to their 
present state. I would have you also rather to 
forget the same, since that imprudence of yours 
is come to such a happy conclusion, than to 
be uneasy and blush at those your offences. 
Do not, therefore, let your evil intentions when 
you condemned me, and that bitter remorse 
which might follow, be a grief to you now, be- 
cause those intentions were frustrated. Go, 
therefore, your way, rejoicing in what has hap- 
pened by the divine providence, and inform 
your father of it, lest he should be spent with 
cares for you, and deprive me of the most 
agreeable part of my felicity; I mean, lest he 
should die before he comes into my sight, and 
enjoys the good things that we now have. 
Bring, therefore, with you our father, and you. 
wives and children, and all your kindred, and 
remove your habitation hither; for it is not 
proper that the persons dearest to me should 
live remote from me, now my affairs are so 
prosperous, especially when they must endure 
five more years of famine.” When Joseph had 


said this, he embraced his brethren, who were | 


intears and sorrow. But the generous kind- 
ness of their brother seemed to leave among 
them no room for fear lest they should be pun- 
ished on account of what they had consulted 
and acted against him. And they were then 
feasting. Now the king, as soon as he heard 
that Joseph’s brethren were come to him, was 


exceeding glad of it, as if it had been a part of | 


his own good fortune; and gave them wagons 
full of corn, and gold and silver, to be convey- 
ed to his father. Now when they had receiv~ 
ed more of their brother, part to be conveyed 
to their father, and part as free gifts to every 
one of themselves, Benjamin having still more 
than the rest, they departed. 


CHAPTER VIL 


The removal of Joseph’s Father, with all hes 
Family, to him, on account of the Famine. 


2 


§ 1. As soon as Jacob came to know, by his 


sons’ returning home, in what state Joseph was, 
that he had not only escaped death, for which 
he lived all along in mourning, but that he 


BOOK IL—CHAPTER V1. 


lived in splendor and happiness, and ruled over 
Egypt jointly with the king, and had entrusted 
to his care almost al] his affairs; he did not think 
any thing he was told to be incredible, con- 
sidering the greatness of the works of God, 
and his kindness to him, although that kindness 
had, for some late times, been intermitted; so 
he immediately and zealously set upon his jour- 
ney to him. 

2. When he came to the well of the oath, 
Le siete he offered sacrifice to God; and 

ing afraid that the happiness there was in 
Egypt might tempt his posterity to fall in love 
with it, and settle in it, and no more think of re- 
moving into the land of Canaan, and possessing 
it, as God had promised them; as also being 
afraid, lest if this descent into Egypt were 
made without the will of God, his family 
might be destroyed there; out of fear withal, 
lest he should depart this life before he came 
to the sight of Joseph, he fell asleep, revolving 
these doubts in his mind. 

3. But God stood by him, and called to him 
twice by his name; and when he asked, who he 
was? God said, “No, sure, it is not just that thou 
Jacob shouldst be unacquainted with that God 
who has been ever a protector and a helper to 
thy forefathers, and after them to thyself; for 


when thy father would have deprived thee of 


the deminion, I gave it thee: and by my kind- 
ness it was, that when thou wast sent into Mes- 
opotamia all alone, thou obtainedst good wives; 
and returnedst with many children, and much 
wealth. Thy whole family also has been pre- 
served by my providence; and it was I who 
conducted Joseph thy son, whom thou gavest 
up for lost, to the enjoyment of great prosperity. 
I also made hi:n lord of Egypt, so that he 
differs but little from a king. Accordingly, I 
come now as a guide to thee in this journey; 
and foretell to thee that thou shalt die in the 
arms of Joseph; and I inform thee, that thy 
posterity shall be many ages in authority and 
glory, and that [ will settle them in the land 
which I have promised them.” 

4. Jacob, encouraged by this dream, went on 
more cheerfully for Egypt, with his sons, and 
all belonging to them. Now they were in all 
geventy. I once indeed thought it best not to 
set down the names of this family, especially 
because of their difficult pronunciation, [by the 
Greeks,] but upon the whole, [ think it neces- 
sary to mention those names, that I may dis- 
prove such as believe that we came originally 
not out of Mesopotamia, but are Egyptians. 
Now Jacob had twelve sons; of these Joseph 
was come thither before. We will, therefore, 
set down the names of Jacob’s children and 

dchildren. Reubel had four sons Anoch, 
hallu, Assaron, Charmi. Simeon had six, 
Janel, Jamin, Avod, Jachin, Soar, Saul. Le- 
_ yi had three sons, Gersom, Caath, Merari. Ju- 
das had three sons, Sala, Phares, Zerah; and 
by Phares two grandchildren, Esrom and 
Amar, Issachar had four sons, Thola, Phua, 
Jasub,Samaron. Zabulon had with him three 
sons, Sarad, Helon, Jalel. 
ty of Lea; with whom went her daughter Di- 





So far is the posteri-" 


5) 
nah. These are tnirty-three. Rachel had two 
sons, the one of whom, Joseph, had two sons 
also, Manasseh and Ephraim. The other, Ben- 
jamin, had ten sons, Bolau, Baechar, Asebel, 
Geras, Naaman, Jes, Ros, Momphis, Opphis 
Arad. These fourteen added to the thirty- 
three, before enumerated, amount to the nurn- 
ber forty-seven. And this was the legitimate 
posterity of Jacob. He had beside by Bilha, 
the handmaid of Rachel, Dan and Naphthali, 
which last had four sons, that followed him, 
Jesel, Guni, Issari and Sellim. Dan had an on- 
ly begotten son, Usi. If these be added to those 
before mentioned, they complete the number 
fifty-four. Gadand Aser were the sons of Zit 
pha, who was the handmaid of Lea. These 
had with them, Gad seven, Saphoniah, Augis, 
Sunis, Azabon, Aerin, Eroed, Ariel. Aser had 
a daughter Sarah, and six male children, whose 
names were Jomne, Isus, Isui, Baris, Abar and 
Melchiel. If we add these, which are sixteen, 
to the fifty four, the forementioned number 
[seventy] is completed, Jacob* not being hin 
self included in that number. 

5. When Joseph vaderstood that his father 
was coming, fer Judas his brother was come 
berore him, and informed him of his approach, 
he went out to meet him, and they met toget!+ 
er at Heroopolis. But Jacob almost fainted 
away at this unexpected and great joy; hovy 
ever, Joseph revived him, being yet not hiri- 
self able to contain from being affected in the 
same manner, at the pleasure he now had, yet 
was he not wholly overcome with his passicn, 
as his father was. After this, he desired Jacob to 
travel on slowly, but he himself took five of } is 
brethren with him, and made haste to the king 
to tell him that Jaceb and his family were con ¢ 
which was a joyful hearing to him. He also 
bid Joseph teil him what sort of life his breth 
ren loved to lead, that he might give them 
leave to follow the same. Who told him they 
were good shepherds, and had been used to 
follow no other employment but this aloite. 
Whereby he provided for them, that they 
should not be separated, but live in the saine 


place, and take care of their father; as also 


hereby he provided, that they might be accept- 
able to the Egyptians, by doing nothing that 
would be common to them with the Egyptiansy 
for the Egyptians are prohibited to meddle 
with the feeding of sheep.t 

6. When Jacob was come to the king, and 
saluted him, and wished all prosperity to his 
government, Pharaoh asked him how old he 
now was? upon whose answer, that he was a 
hundred and thirty years old, he admired Jacob 
on account of the length of his life. And 


* All the Greek copies of Josephus have the negative par- 
ticle here, that Jacob himself was not reckoned one of the 
70 souls that came into Egypt; but the old Latin copies want 
it, and directly assure us he was one of them. It is, there- 
fore, hardly certain which of these was Josephus’s true read 
ing, since the number 70 is made up without him, ifwe recte 
on Lea for one, but if she be not reckoned, Jacob must him- 
self be one, to complete the number. 

{ Josephus thought that the Egyptians hated or despised 
the employmentof a shepherd in the days of Joseph; whereas 
Bishop Cumberland has shown that they rather hated such 
Phenician or Canaanite shepherds as had long enslaved the 
Egyptians of old ums. Bee bis Sanchoniatho, p. 361, %6®. 


6 
when he had added, that still he had not lived 
80 long as his forefathers, he gave him leave to 
live with his children in Heliopolis; for in that 
city the king’s shepherds had their pasturage. 
7. However the famine increased among the 
Egyptians; and this heavy judgment grew 
more oppressive to them, because neither did 
the river overflow the ground, for it did not 
rise to its former height, nor did God send rain 
upon it;* nor did they indeed make the least 
provision for themselves, so ignorant were they 
what was to be done; but Joseph sold them 
corn for their money. But when their money 
failed them, they bought corn with their cattle, 
and their slaves, and if any of them had a 
small piece of land, they gave up that to pur- 
chase them food, by which means the king be- 
came the owner of all their substance; and 
they were removed some to one place, and 
some to another, that so the possession of their 
country might be firmly afforded to the king; 
excepting the lands of the priests, for their 
country continued still in their own posses- 
sion. And indeed this sore famine made their 
minds, as well as their bodies, slaves: and at 
leagth compelled them to procure a sufficiency 
ef food by such dishonorable means. But 
when this misery ceased, and the river over- 
flowed the ground, and the ground brought 
forth its fruits plentifilly, Joseph came to every 
city, and gathered the people théreto belong- 
ing together, and gave them back entirely the 
land which, by their own consent, the king 
might have possessed alone, and alone en- 
joyed the fruits of it. He also exhorted them 
to look on it as every one’s own possession; 
and to fall to their husbandry with cheerful- 
ness; and to pay asa tribute to the king, the 
fifth} part of the fruits for the land which the 
king when it was his own restored to them. 
These men rejoiced upon their becoming un- 
eacpectedly owners of their lands, and diligently 
observed what was enjoined them. And by 
this means Joseph procured to himself a 
greater authority among the Egyptians, and 
reater love to the king from them. Now this 
w, that they should pay the fifth part of 
their fruits as tribute, continued until their 


latter kings. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
Of the Death of Jacob and Joseph. 


§ 1. Now when Jacob had lived seventeen 
years in Egypt, he fell into a disease, and died 
m the presence of hissons; but not till he made 


* Reland here puts the question, how Josephus could com- 
plain of its not raining in Egypt during this famine, while the 
ancients affinn, tat it never does naturally rain there? His 
answer is, that when the ancients deny that it rainsin Egypt, 
they only mean the Upper Egypt above the Delta, which is 
called Egyptin the strictest sense; but thatin the Delta [and 
by consequence in the Lower Egypt adjoining to it] itdid of 
old, and still does rain sometimes. See the note on Antiq. 
b. iil. ch. i. sect. 6. 

} Josephus supposes, that Joseph now restored the Egyp- 
tans their lands again, upon the payment of a fifth part as 
tnbute. Itseeins to me rather that the land was now con- 
sidered as Pharaoh’s landand this fifth part as its rent, to be 
paid to him, ashe was their landlord, and they his tenants; 
and that the lands were not properly restored, and this fifth 
Sas reserved as tribute only, till the days of Sesostris. See 

ay on the Old Testament, Append. 143, 149. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


his prayers for their enjoying alee ea and 
till he had foretold to them prophetically how 
every one of them was to dwell in the land of 
Canaan. But this happened many years after- 
ward. He also enlarged upon the praises of 
Joseph;* how he had not remembered the evil 
doings of his brethren to their disadvantage; 
nay, on the contrary, was kind to them, be- 
stowing upon them so many benefits, as seldom 
are bestowed upon men’s own benefactors. 
He then commanded his own sons, that they 
should admit Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Ma- 
nasseh, into their number, and divide the land 
of Canaan in common with them: concern- 
ing whom we shall treat hereafter. However, 
he made it his request, that he might be buried at 
Hebron. So he died, when he had lived full 
a hundred and fifty years, three only abated, 
having not been behind any of his ancestors 
in piety towards God; and having such a re- 
compence for it, as it was fit those should have 
who were so good as these were. But Joseph, 
by the king’s permission, carried his father’s 
dead body to Hebron, and there buried it at a 
great expense. Now his brethren were at 
first unwilling to return back with him, be- 
cause they were afraid, lest, now their father 
was dead, he should punish them for their 
secret practices against him, since he was now 
gone, for whose sake he had been so gracious 
to them. But he persuaded them to fear no 
harm, and to entertain no suspicions of him; 
so he brought them along with him, and gave 
them great possessions, and never left off his 
particular concern for them. 

2. Joseph also died when he had lived an 
hundred and ten years: having been a man 
of admirable virtue; and conducting all ha 
affairs by the rules of reason; and used his 
authority with moderation, which was the 
cause of his so great felicity among the Egyp- 
tians, even when he came from another coun- 
try, and that in such ill circumstances also as 
we have already described. At length his 
brethren died, after they had lived happily in 
Egypt. Now the posterity and sons of these 
men, after some time, carried their bodies, and 
buried them at Hebron; but as for the bones 
of Joseph, they carried them into the land of 
Canaan afterward, when the Hebrews went 
out of Egypt, for so had Joseph made them 
promise him upon oath. - But what became of 
every one of these men, and by what toils the 
got the possession of the land of Canaan, sh 
be showed hereafter, when I have first ex- 
plained upon what account it was that they 


left Egypt. 
oyP" CHAPTER IX. 


Concerning the Afflictions that i bee the Hebrews 
in Egypt, during four hundred years.* 


§ 1. Now it happened that the Egyptians 
grew delicate and lazy, as to pains-taking, and 


* As to this encomium upon Joseph, as preparatory te 
Jacob’s adopting Ephraim and Manasseh into his own fami- 
ly, and to be admitted for two tribes, which Josephus here 
mentions, all our copies of Genesis omit it, ch. xlviii. nor de 
we know whence he took it, or whetherit be not his own 
embellishinent only. 2 

{ As to the affliction of Abraham/’s posterity for 400 years, 





; 
) 


be ee? 


7 ya 
MOE a é 


BUOK Il—CHAPTER IX. 


gave themselves up to other pleasures, and in 
particular to the love of gain. They also he- 
came very ill-affected towards the Hebrews, as 
touched with envy at their prosperity: for when 
they saw how the nation of the Israelites flour- 
ished, and were become eminent already in 
plenty of wealth, which they had acquired by 
their virtue and natiral love of labor, they 
thought their increase was to their own detri- 
ment. And having in length of time forgotten 
the benefits they had received from Joseph, par- 
ticularly the crown being now come into anoth- 
er family, they became very abusive to the Isra- 
elites, and contrived many ways of afflicting 
them; for they enjoined them to cut a great 
number of channels for the river, and to build 
walls for their cities and ramparts, that they 
might restrain the river, and hinder its waters 
from stagnating, upon its running over its own 
banks: they set them also to build pyramids* 
and by all this wore them out; and forced them 
to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to ac- 
custom themselves to hard labor. And four 
hi ndred years did they spend under these af- 
fictions; for they strove one against the other 
which should get the mastery, the Egyptians 
diwiring to destroy the Israelites by these labors, 
aid the Israelites desiring to hold out to the 
ed under them. 

2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were 
ft this condition, there was this occasion offered 
imelf to the Egyptians, which made them more 
mr icitous for the extinction of our nation. 
One of those sacred scribes,t who are very sa- 
‘gucious in foretelling future events truly, told 
} e king that about this time there would a child 
b born to the Israelites, who, if he were rear- 
el, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, 
wid would raise the Israelites; that he would 

.ccel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory that 
would’ be remembered through all ages. 
Which thing was so feared by the king, that 
acording to this man’s opinion; he command- 
ei that they should cast every male child, who 
was born to the Israelites into the river, and 
destroy it; that besides this the Egyptiant mid- 


ms. Antiq, b. i. ch. x. sect.3. And as to what cities they 
bailt in Egypt under Pharaoh Sesostris, and of Pharaoh Se- 
8 stris’s drowning in the Red Sea, see Essay on the Old 
Yast. Append. p. 139—162. 

* Of this building of the pyramids of Egypt by the Israel- 
fies, see Perizonius Orig. Egypti#, chap. xxi. It is not im- 
possible they might build one or more of the small ones, but 
ihe larger ones seem much later. Only, if they be all built 
af stone, this does not so well agree with the Israelites? la- 
bors, which are said to have been in brick, and not in stone, 
as Mr. Sandys observes in his Travels, p. 137, 128. 

+ Dr. Bernard informs us here, that, instead of this single 
priest or prophet of the Egyptians, without a namein Jose- 
shus the Targum of Jonathan names the two famous an- 
tagonists of Moses, Jannes, and Jambres. Nor is it at all 
unlikely that it might be one of these who foreboded so much 

_musery to the Egyptians, and so much happiness to the Is- 
raelites from the rearing of Moses. 

t Josephus is clear that these midwives were Egyptians, 
end not Israelites, as in our other copies; which is very 
probable, it not being easily to be supposed, that Pharaoh 
could trust the Israelite midwives to execute so barbarous a 
sommand against their own nation. Consult, therefore, and 
correct hence our ordinary copies, Exod. i. 15—22. And 
tndeed Josephus seeiis to have had much completer copies 
of the Pentateuch, or other authentic records now lost, about 
the birth and actions of Moses, than either our Hebrew, 
Samaritan, or Greek Bibles afford us, which enabled him to 

_ ee so large and particular about him. 


63 
wives should watch the labors of the Hebrew 
women, and observe what was born, for those 
were the women who were enjoined to do the 
oftice of midwives to them; and by reason of 
their relation to the king, would not transgress 
his commands. He enjoined also, that if any 
parents should disobey him, and venture to 
spare their male children alive,* they and their 
families should be destroyed. This was a se- 
vere affliction indeed to those that suffered it, 
not only as they were deprived of their song, 
and while they were the parents themselves, 
they were obliged to be subservient to the de- 
struction of their own children, but as it was 
to be supposed to tend to the extirpation of 
their nation, while upon the destruction of their 
children, and their own gradual dissolution, 
the calamity would become very hard and in- 
consolable to thein. And this was the ill state 
they were in. But no one can bé too hard for 
the purpose of God, though he contrive ten 
thousand subtle devices for that end, for this 
child, whom the sacred scribe foretold, was 
brought up and concealed from the observers 
appointed by the king; and he that foretold 
him did not mistake in the consequences of 
his preservation, which were brought to pass 
after the manner following. 

3. A man whose name was Amram, one of 
the nobler sort of the Hebrews, was afraid for 
his whole nation, lest it should fail, by the want 
of young men to be brought up hereafter; and 
Was very uneasy at it, his wife being then with 
child, and he knew not what to do. Hereupon 
he betook himself to prayer to God; and en- 
treated him to have compassion on those men 
who had nowise transgressed the Jaws of his . 
worship, and to afford them deliverance from 
the miseries they at that time endured, and to 
render abortive their enemies’ hopes of the de- 
struction of their nation. Accordingly God 
had mercy on him, and was moved by his sup- 
plication. He stood by him in his sleep, and 
exhorted him not to despair of his future favors. 
He said further, that he did not forget their pie- 
ty towards him, and would always reward them 
for it, as he had formerly granted his favor to 
their forefathers, and made them increase from 
a few, to so greata multitude. He put him 
in mind, that when Abraham was come alone 
out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, he had been 
made happy not only in other respects, but 
that when his wife was at first barren, she was 
afterward by him enabled to conceive seed, and 
bare him sons. ‘That he left to Ismael and to 
his posterity the country of Arabia; as also to 
his sons by Keturah, Troglodytis; and to Isaac, 
Canaan. That by my assistance, said he, he 
did great exploits in war, which, unless you be 
yourselves impious, you must still remember. 
As for Jacob, he became well known to stran- 
gers also, by the greatness of that prosperity in 
which he lived, and left to his sons, who came 
into Egypt with no more than seventy souls, 

* Of this grandfather of Sesostris, Rameses the Great, whe 
slew the Israelite infants, and of the inscription,on his obe- 
lisk, containing, in my opinion, one of the oldest records of 


mankind, see Essay on the Old Test. Append. p. 139, 145, 
147, 217—220. 


64 
while you are now become above six hundred 
thousand. Know, therefore, that I shall provide 
for you all in common what is for your good, 
and particularly for thyself what shall make 
thee famous; for that child, out of dread of 
whose nativity the Egyptians have doomed the 
Israelite children to destruction, shall be this 
child of thine, and shall be concealed from those 
who watch to destroy him; and when he is 
brought up in asurprising way, he shall deliver 
the Hebrew nation from the distress they are 
under from the Egyptians. His memory shall 
be famous while the world lasts and this not 
only among the Hebrews, but fo-eigners also. 
All which shall be the effect of my favor to 
thee, and tothy posterity. He shall also have 
such a brother, that he shall himself obtain my 
priesthood, and his posterity shall have it after 
him to the end of the world. 

_ 4. When the vision had informed him of 
these things, Amram awaked and told it to Joc- 
hebed, who was his wife. And now the fear 
increased upon them on account of the predic- 
ticn in Amram’s dream; for they were under 
concern, not only for the child, but on account 
of’ the great happiness that was to come to him 
also. However, the mother’s labor was such 
as afforded a confirmation to what was fore- 
old by God, for it was not known to those that 
watched her, by the easiness of her pains, and 
because the throes of her delivery did not fall 
upon her with violence. And now they nour- 
ished the child at home privately for three 
nvonths; but after that time, Amram, fearing he 
should be discovered, and, by falling into the 
king’s displeasure, both he and his child should 
perish, and so he should make the promise of 
God of none effect, determined rather to trust 
the safety and care of the child to God, than 
to depend on his own concealment of him, 
which he looked upon asa thing uncertain, 
and whereby both the child so privately to be 
nourished, and himself, would be in imminent 
danger; but he believed thut God would some 
way for certain procure the safety of the child, 
in order to secure the truth of his own pre- 
dictions. When they had thus determined, 
they made an ark of bulrushes, after the man- 
ner of a cradle, and of a bigness sufficient for 
an infant to be laid in, without being too 
straightened: they then daubed it over with 
slime, which would naturally keep out the 
water from entering between the bulrushes, 
and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat 
upon the river, they left its preservation to 
God; so the river received the child, and car- 
ried him along. But Miriam, the child’s sister, 
passed along upon the bank over against him, 
as her mother had bid her, to see whither the 
ark would be carried, where God demonstrat- 
ed, that human wisdom was nothing, but that 
the Supreme Being is able to do whatsoever 
he pleases: that those who, in order to their 
own security, condemn others to destruction, 
and use great endeavors about it, fail of their 
purpose; but that others are, in a surprising 
manner, preserved, and obtain a prosperous 


condition almost from the very midst of their ' 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


calamities, those, J mean, whose dangers arise 
by the appointment of God. And indeed such 
a providence was exercised in the case of this 
child, as showed the power of God | 
5. Thermuthis was the king’s daughter. 
She was now diverting herself by the banks 
of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along 
by the current, she sent some who could swim, 
and bid them bring the cradle to her. When 
those that were sent on this errand came to her 
with the cradJe, and she saw the little chil 
she was greatly in love with it, on account o 
its largeness and beauty: for God had taken 
such great care in the formation of Moses, that 
he caused him to be thought worthy of bring- 
ing up, and providing for, by all those that had 
taken the most fatal resolutions on account of 
the dread of his nativity, for the destruction of 
the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis 
bid them bring her a woman that might afford 
her breast to the child; yet would not the child 
admit of her breast, but turned away from it, 
and did the like to many other women. Now 
Miriam was by when this happened, not to 
appear to be there on purpose, but only as 
staying to see the child, and she said, “It is in 
vain that thou, O queen, callest for these wo- 
men for the nourishing of the child, who ae 
noway of kin to it; but still if thou wilt order 
one of the Hebrew women to be brought, pex 
haps it may admit the breast of one of its own 
nation.” Now since she seemed to speak we.l, 
Thermuthis bid her procure such a one, and 1 
bring one of those Hebrew women that gave 
suck. So when she had such authority given 
her, she came back and brought the mother, 
who was known to nobody there. And now 
the child gladly admitted the breast, and seem 
ed to stick close to it; and so it was, that at the 
queen’s desire, the nursing of the child was 
entirely intrusted to the mother. ’ 
6. Hereupon it was that Thermuthis impos 
ed this name ‘Moses’ upon him, from what 
had happened when he was put into the river, 
for the Egyptians call the water by the name 
of ‘Mo,’ and such as are ‘saved out of it, by 
the name of ‘Uses; so by putting these two 
words together, they imposed the name upon 
him. And he was by the confession of all, 
according to God’s prediction, as well for his 
greatness of mind, as for his contempt of diffi- 
culties, the best of all the Hebrews, for Abra- 
ham was his ancestor of the seventh genera- 
tion. For Moses was the son of Amram, who 


—. 


was the son of Caath, whose father Levi was _ 


the .son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, 
who was the son of Abraham. Now Moses’s 
understanding became superior to his age, 
nay, far beyond that standard; and when he 
was taught, he discovered greater quickness of 
apprehension than was usual at his age, and 
his actions at that tine promised greater, when 
he should come to the age of a man. God 
did also give him that tallness, when he waa 
but three years old, as was wonderful. 
for his beauty, there was nobody so unpolite, 
as when they saw Moses, they were not greatty 
surprised at the beauty of his couptenances 


And 


a 





.Tue FinpInc or Mosks. 





) BOOK I.—CHAPTER X. i ds 


aay, it happened frequently, that those that 


met him as he was carried along the road, 
were obliged to turn again upon seeing the child; 
that they left what they were about and stood 
still a great while to look on him, for the 
beauty of the child -was so remarkable and 
natural to him on many accounts, that it de- 


tained the spectators, and made them stay 
longer to look upon him. 


7. Thermuthis, therefore, perceiving him to 
be so remarkable a child, adopted him for her 
sen, having no child of her own. And when 


one time she had carried Moses to her father, 


she showed him to him, and said she thought 
to make him her father’s successor, if it should 
please God she should have no legitimate child 
of her own; and said to him, “J have brought 
up a child who is of a divine form,* and of a 

enerous mind; andas [ have received him 
rom the bounty of the river, in a wonderful 
nanner, I thought proper to adopt him for my 
son, and the heir of thy kingdom.” And when 
she had said this,she put the infant into her 
father’s hands: so he took him, and hugged him 
close to his breast: and, on his daughter’s ac- 
count, in a pleasant way, put his diadem upon 
his head; but Moses threw it down to the 


‘ground, and in a puerile mood, he wreathed it 


round, and trod upon it with his feet, which 
seemed to bring along with it an evil presage 
concerning the kingdom of Egypt. But when 
the sacred scribe saw this,(he was the same 
person who foretold that his nativity would 
bring the dominion of this kingdom low,) he 
made a violent attempt to kill him; and ery- 
ing out in a frightful manner, he said, “This, 
O king! this child is he of whom God foretold, 
that if we kill him we shall be in no dang>r; 
he himselfaffords an attestation to the predic- 
tion of the same thing, by his trampling upon 
thy government, and treading upon thy diadem. 
Take him therefore out of the way, and deliver 
the Egyptians from the fear they are in about 
nim; and deprive the Hebrews of the hope 
they have of being encouraged by him.” But 
Thermuthis prevented him, and snatched the 
ehild away. And the king was not hasty to 
siay him, God himself, whose providence pro- 
tected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. 
He was, therefore, educated with great care. 
So the Hebrews depended on him, and were of 
sood hopes that great things would be done 
y him; but the Egyptians were suspicious of 
what would follow such his education. Yet 


ecause if Moses had been slain, there was no 


one, neither akin or adopted, that had any ora- 
ele on his side for pretending to the crown of 


Egypt, and likely to be of greater advantage 


Ee 


b 


to them, they abstained from killing him. 
CHAPTER X. 
_ How Moses made War with the Ethiomans. 


_ $1. Moses, therefore, when he was born, and 
‘Srought up in the foregoing manner, and came 


* What Josephus here says of the beauty of Moses, that 
be was of divine orm, is very like what St. Stephen says 


_e@f the same beauty, that Moses was beautiful in the sight of 
God, Aw. vii. 20. 


NE 


to the age of maturity, made his virtue mani- 
fest to the Egyptians; and showed, that he waa 
born for the bringing them down, and _ raisin 
the Israelites. And the occasion he laid hold 
of was this; the Ethiopians, who are next 
neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad 
into their country, which they seized upon, 
and carried off the effects of the Egyptians, 
who, in their rage, fought against them, and 
revenged the affronts they had received from 
them; but being overcome in battle, some of 
them were slain, and the rest ran away in a 
shameful manner, and by that means saved 
themselves, whereupon the Ethiopians follow- 
ed after them in the pursuit, and thinking that 
it would be a mark of cowardice if they did 
not subdue all Egypt, they went onto subdue 
the rest with greater vehemence; and when 
they had tasted the sweets of the country, 
they never left off the prosecution of the wer: 
and as the nearest part had not courage enoujrh 
at first to fight with them, they proceeded as 
far as Memphis and the sea itself, while not 
one of the cities were able to oppose then, 
The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, t e- 
took themselves to their oracles and propt e- 
cies, and when God had given them this coun- 
sel, to make use of Moses the Hebrew, and 
take his assistance, the king commanded his 
daughter to produce him that he might be the 
general of their army.* Upon which, when 
she had made him swear he would do him no 
harm, she delivered him to the king, and sup- 
posed his assistance would be of great advan- 
tage to them. She withal reproached the 
priests, who when they had before admonished 
the Egyptians to kill him, were not ashamed 
now to own their want of his help. 

2. So Moses, at the persuasion both of Ther- 
muthis and the king himself, cheerfully under- 
took the business: and the sacred scribes of 
both nations were glad; those of the Egyp- 
tians, that they should at once overcome their 
enemies by his valor, and that by the same 
piece of management, Moses would be slain; 
but those of the Hebrews, that they should es- 
cape from the Egyptians, because Moses was 
to be their general. But Moses prevented the 
enemies, and took and led his army before 
those enemies were apprized of his attacking 
them: for he did not march by the river, but 
by land, where he gave a wonderful demon- 
stration of his sagacity; for when the ground 
was difficult to be passed over, because of the 
multitude of serpents, which it produces in 
vast numbers, and indeed is singular in some 
of those productions, which other countries de 
not breed, and yet such as are worse than 

* This history of Moses, as general of theEgyptians against 
the Ethiopians, is wholly omitted in our Bibles, but is thug 
cited by Ireneus, from Josephus, and that soon after his owr 
age: **Josephus says, that when Moses was nourished in the 
king’s palace, he was appointed general of the army against 
the Ethiopians, and conqueredthem; when he married that 
king’s daughter, because out of her affection for him, she de- 
livered the city uptohim.”? See the Fragments of lreneus, 
ab. edit. Grab. p. 472. Nor perhaps did St. Stephen refer w 
any thing else, when he said of Moses, before he was sent by 


God to the Israelites, that he was not only learned in all the 


wisdom of the Esyphians, but was also mighty in words and 


tn deeds, Acts vil. "i 


others in power and mischief, and an unusual 
fierceness of sight, some of which ascend out 
of the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, 
and so come upon men at unawares, and do 
them a mischief, Moses invented a wonderful 
stratagem to preserve the army safe, and with- 
out hurt; for he made baskets like unto arks, 
of sedge, and filled them with ibes,* and car- 
ried them along with them; which animal is 
the greatest enemy to serpents imaginable, for 
they fly from them when they come near 
them, and as they tly they are caught and de- 
voured by them, as if it were done by the 
harts; but the ibes are tame creatures, and only 
enemies to thie serpentine kind. But about 
those ibes I say no more at present, since the 
Greeks are not themselves unacquainted with 
this sort of bird. As soon, therefore, as Moses 
was come to the land which was the breeder 
of these serpents, he let loose the ibes, and by 
their means repelled the serpentine kind, and 
used them for his assistants before the army 
came upon that ground. When he had, there- 
fore, proceeded thus on his journey, he came 
upon the Ethiopians before they expected 
him; and joining battle with them, he beat 
tiem, and deprived them of the hopes they 
had of success against the Egyptians, and 
went on in overthrowing their cities, and in- 
deed made a great slaughter of these Ethio- 
pians. Now when the Egyptian army had 
aace tasted of this prosperous success, by the 
means of Moses, they did not slacken their 
diligence, insomuch that the Ethiopians were 
ni danger of being reduced to slavery, and all 
sorts of destruction. And at length they re- 
tired to Saba, which was a royal city of Ethio- 
pia, Which Cambyses afterward named ‘Meroe,’ 
after the name of his own sister. The place 
was to be besieged with very great diffi- 
culty, since it was both encompassed by the 
Nile quite round, and the other rivers, Astapus 
and Astaborus, made it a very difficult thing 
for such as attempted to pass over them; for 
the city was situate in a retired place, and was 
inhabited after the manner of an island, being 
encompassed with a strong wall, and having 
the rivers to guard them from their enemies, 
and having great ramparts between the wall 
and the rivers, insomuch, that when the waters 
come with the greatest violence it can never 
be drowned; which ramparts make it next to 
impossible for even such as are gotten over the 

rivers to take the city. However, while Moses 

was uneasy at the army’s lying idle, (for the 

enemies durst not come to a battle,) this acci- 

dent happened: Tharbis was the daughter of 

the king of the Ethiopians; she happened to 

see Moses as he led the army near to the walls, 

and fought with great courage, and admiring 

the subtlety of his undertakings, and believing 

him to be the author of the Egyptian success, 

when they had before despaired of recovering 

their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great 

danger the Ethiopians were in, when they had 

* Pliny speaks of these birds called Ibs, and says, ‘“The 


Egyptians invoked them against the serpents.”’ Hist. Nat. 
book x ch. 25. Strabo speaks of this island J.eroe, and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. : Ea ss 


* 


before boasted of their great acniey ements, 
she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the 
prevalency of that passion, sent to him the 
most faithful of her servants to discourse with 
him upon their marriage. He thereupon ac- 
cepted the offer, on condition she would pro- 
cure the delivering up of the city, and gave 
her the assurance of an oath to take her to his 
wife, and that when he had once taken posses 

sion of the city, he would not break his oath 
to her. No sooner was the agreement made, 
but it took effect immediately; and when Moses 
had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to 
God, and consummated his marriage, and led 
the Egyptians back to their own land. 


CHAPTER XI. 


How Moses fled out of Egypt into Midian. 


§ 1. Now the Egyptians; after they had been 
preserved by Moses, entertained a hatred to 
him, and were very eager in compassing their 


}- 


designs against him, as suspecting that he- 


would take occasion, from his good success, to 
raise a sedition,-and bring innovations into 
Egypt; and told the king he ought to be slain. 
The king had also some intentions of himself to 
the same purpose, and this as well out of envy at 
his glorious expedition at the head of his army, 
as out of fear of being brought low by him; and 
being instigated by the sacred scribes, he was 
ready to undertake to kill Moses. But when 
he had learned beforehand what plots, there 
were against him, he went away privately: and 
because the public roads were watched, he took 
his flight through the deserts, and where his 
enemies could not suspect he would travel; 
and though he was destitute of food, he went 
on, and despised that difficulty courageously. 


And when he came to the city of Midian, - 


which lay upon the Red Sea, and was so de- 
nominated from one of Abraham’s sons by Ke- 
turah, he sat upon a certain well, and rested 
himself there after his laborious journey and 
the affliction he had been in. It was not far 
from the city; and the time of the day was 
noon, where he had an occasion offered him by 
the custom of the country, of doing what re- 
commended his virtue, and afforded him an 
opportunity of bettering his circumstances. 

2. For that country having but little water, 


the shepherds used to seize on the wells before _ 


others came, lest their flocks should want wa- 
ter; and lest it should be spent by others before 
they came. ‘There was now come therefore to 
this well seven sisters that were virgins, the 
daughters of Raguel, a priest, and one thought 
worthy by the people of the country of 


honor; these virgins, who took care of their ~ 


father’s flocks, which sort of work it was cus- 
tomary and very familiar for women to do ip 
the country of the Troglodytes, they came first 


of all, and drew water out of the well in a 
quantity sufficient for their flocks, into troughs, — 


rs 


aso 


a 


“Ay 


> f 
PO imeve 


cae 


which were made for the'reception of that wa- — 


these rivers Astapus and Astaborus, book xvi. p. 771, 788, and 
book xvii. p. 821, : 


eae 


re 


2 
on te 


> 


tea 


“ 


ml 


as wut when the shepherds came upon the 
L~jaens, and drove them away, that they might 
hare the command of the waters themselves, 
Moses thinking it would be a terrible reproach 
upon him if he overlooked the young women 
under unjust oppression, and should suffer the 
violence of the mento prevail over the right of 
the maidens, he drove away the men, who had 
@ mind to more than their share, and afforded 
a proper assistance to the women, who after 
having received such a benefit from him, came 
to their father, and told him how they had 
been affronted by the shepherds, and assisted 
by a stranger, and entreated, that he would not 
let this generous action be done in vain, nor go 
without a reward. Now the father took it 
well from his daughters that they were so de- 
sirous to reward their benefactor, and bid them 
bring Moses into his presence, that he might 
‘be rewarded as he deserved. And when Mo- 
ses came, he told him what testimony his 
daughters bare to him, that he had assisted 
them; and that as he admired him for his vir- 
tue, he said that, Moses had bestowed such his 
assistance on persons not insensible of bene- 
fits, but where they were both able and willing 
to return the kindness, and even to exceed the 
‘measure of his generosity. So he made him 
his son, and gave him one of his daughters in 
‘marriage; and appointed him to be the super- 
iniendent over his cattle, for of old all the 
wealth of the barbarians was in those cattle. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Concerning the Burning Bush, andthe Rod of 
: Moses. 


__ § 1. Now Moses, when he had obtained the 
_avor of Jethro, for that was one of the names 
of Raguel, stayed there, and fed his flock; but 
eome time afterward, taking his station at the 
mountain called Sinai, he drove his flocks 
‘thither to feed them. Now this is the highest 
of all the mountains thereabouts, and the best 
for pasturage, the herbage being there good; 
and it had not been before fed upon, because 
of the opinion men had that God dwelt there, 
the shepherds not daring to ascend up to it. 
And here it was that a wonderful prodigy hap- 
ned to Moses; fora fire fed upona thorn- 
bush; yet did the green leaves and the flowers 
continue untouched, and the fire did not at all 
consume the fruit branches, although the flame 
was greaiand fierce. Moses was affrighted at 
this strange sight, as it was to him: but he was 
still more astonished when the fire uttered a 
voice, and called to him by name, and spake 
words to him, by which it signified to him how 
bold he had been in venturing to come into a 
place whither no man had ever come before, 
_ because the place was divine; and advised him 
) Temove a great way from the flame, and to 
@ contented with what he had seen; and 
ough he were himself a good man, and the 
ring of great men, yet that he should not 
ry any farther: and he foretold to him, that he 
Should have glory and honor among men, by 
the blessing of God upon him. He also com- 
ma ded him to go away thence, with confi- 










. Nese BOOK IL—CHAPTER XT. 


67 


dence, to Egypt, in order to his being the com- 
mander and conductor of the bo ly of the He- 
brews, and to his delivering his own people 
from the injuries they suffered there: “For,” 
said God, “they shall inhabit this happy land 
which your forefather Abraham inhabited, and 
shall have the enjoyment of all sorts of good 
things; and thou, by thy prudence, shalt guide 
them to those good things” But still he en- 
joined him, when he had crought the Hebrews 
out of the land of Egypt, to come to that place, 
and to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving there. 
Such were the divine oracles which were de- 
livered out of the fire. 

2. But Moses was astonished at what he saw, 
and much more at what he heard; and he said, 
“TI think it would be an instance of too great 
madness, O Lord, for one of that regard I bear 
to thee, to distrust thy power, since I myself 
adore it, and know that it has been made mani- 
fest to my progenitors; but I am still in doubt 
how IJ, who am a private man, and one of no 
abilities, should either persuade my own coun- 
trymen to leave the country they now inhabit, 
and to follow me toa land whither [lead them: 
or if they should be persuaded, how ean I force 
Pharaoh to permit them to depart, since they 
augment their own wealth and prosperity by 
the Jabors and works they put upon them.” 

3. But God persuaded him to be courageous 
on all oceasions, and promised to be with him, 
and to assist kim in his words, when he was to 
persuade men, and in his deeds, when he was 
to perform wonders. He bid him also to take 
a signal of the truth of what he said, by throw- 
ing his rod upon the ground, which when he 
had done, it crept along, and was become a ser- 
pent and rolled itself round in its folds, and 
erected its head, as ready to revenge itself on 
such as should assault it, after which it became 
a rod again as it was before. After this God 
bid Moses put his right hand into his bosom: 
he obeyed, and when he took it out it was white 
and in color like to chalk, but afterward it re- 
turned to its wonted color again. He also, up- 
on God’s command, took some of the water 
that was near him, and poured it upon the 
ground, and saw the color was that of blood. 
Upon the wonder that Moses showed at these 
signs, God exhorted him to be of good courage, 


-and to be assured that he would be the great- 


est support to him; and bid him make use of 
those signs in order to obtain belief among all 
men, that thou art sent by me, and dost all 
things according to my commands. Accord- 
ingly, I enjoin thee to make no more delays 
but to make haste to Egypt, and to travel night 
and day, and not to draw out the time; and so 
make the slavery of the Hebrews, and their 
sufferings, to last the longer. 

4. Moses having now seen and heard’ these 
wonders, that assured him of the truth of these 
promises of God, had no room left him to dis- 
believe them; he entreated him to grant him 
that power when he should be in Egypt; and 
besought him to vouchsafe him the knowledge 
of his own name, and since he had heard and 
seen him, that he would also tell him his name, 


68 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


that when he offered sacrifice, he might in- | 


voke him by such his name in his oblations. 
Whereupon God declared to him his holy 
name, which had never been discovered to men 
before; concerning which it is not lawful for 
me to say any more.* Now these signs ac- 
companied Moses, not then only, but always, 
when he prayed for them: of all which signs 
he attributed the firmest assent to the fire in 
‘the bush; and believing that God would bea 
gracious supporter to him, he hoped he should 
be able to deliver his own nation, and bring ca- 
lamities on the Egytians. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


How Moses and Aaron returned into Egypt to 
Pharaoh. 


§ 1. So Moses, when he understood that the 
Pharaoh, in whose reign he fled away, was 
dead, asked leave of Raguel to go to Egypt, 
for the benefit of his own people: and he took 
with him Zipporah, the daughter of Raguel, 
whom he had married, and the children he 
had by her, Gersom and Eleazar, and made 
haste into Egypt. Now the former of these 
names, Gersom, in the Hebrew tongue, signi- 
fies, that he was in a ‘strange land; and Elea- 
zar, that, by the ‘assistance of the God of his 
fathers,’ he had escaped from the Egyptians. 
Now when they were near the borders, Aaron, 
his brother, by the command of God, met him, 
to whom he declared what had befallen him 
at the mountain, and the commands that God 
had given him. But as they were going for- 
ward, the chief men among the Hebrews hay- 
ing learned that they were coming, met them: 
to whom Moses declared the signs he had 
seen; and while they could not believe them, 
he made them see them. So they took cou- 
rage at these surprising and unexpected sights, 
and hoped well of their entire deliverance, as 
believing now that God took care of their pre- 
servation. 

2. Since then Moses found that the Hebrews 
would be obedient to whatsoever he should 
direct, as they promised to be, and were in 
love with liberty, he came to the king, who had 
indeed but lately received the government, and 
told him how much he had done for the good 
of the Egyptians, when they were despised by 
the Ethiopians, and their country laid waste 
by them; and how he had been the commander 
of their forces, and had labored for them, as if 
they had been his own people; and he inform- 
ed him in what danger he had been during 
that expedition, without having any proper re- 
turns made him, as he had deserved. He also 
informed him distinctly, what things happened 
t) him at mount Sinai, and what God said to 
him; and the signs that were done by God, in 
order to assure him of the authority of those 
commands which he had given him. He also 


* This superstitious fear of discovering the name with 
four letters, which of late we have been used falsely to pro- 
nounce Jehovah, but seems to have been originally pronounc- 
ed Jaho:, or Juo, is never, I think, heard of till this passage 
of Joseobus; and this superstition, in not pronouncing that 
name, has continued among the Rabbinical Jews to this day, 
{though whether the Samaritans and Caraites observed it 


exhorted him not to disbelieve what he told 
him, nor to oppose the will of God. 

3. But when the king desired Moses he 
made him in earnest see the signs that were 
done at mount Sinai. 
angry with him, and called him an ill man, 
who had formerly run away from his Egyptian 
slavery, and came now back with deceitful 
tricks and wonders, and magical arts, to asto- 
nish him. And when he had said this, he 
commanded the priests to let him see the same 
wonderful sights, and as knowing the Egyp- 
tians were skilful in this kind of learning, and 
that he was not the only person who knew 
them, and pretended them to be divine, as also 
he told him, that, when he brought such won- 
derful sights before him, he would only be be- 
lieved by the unlearned. Now when the 
priests threw down their rods, they became 
serpents. But Moses was not daunted at it; 
and said, “O king, I do not myself despise the 
wisdom of the Egyptians, but I say that what 
I do is so much superior to what these do by 
magic arts and tricks, as divine power exceeds 
the power of man; but I will demonstrate that 
what I do is not. done by craft, or counterfeit- 
ing what is not really true, but that they appear 
by the providence and power of God.” 
when he had said this, he cast his rod down 
upon the ground, and commanded it to turn 
itself into a serpent. 
all round, and devoured the rods of the Egyp- 
tians, which seemed to be dragons, until it 
had consumed them all; it then returned to its 
own form, and Moses took it into his hand 
again. 

4, However, the king was no more moved, 


5 a= 
—— 


Yet was the king very 


And | 


It obeyed him, and went — 


when this was done, than before; and being — 


very angry, he said, “That he should gain 
nothing by his cunning and shrewdness against 
the Egyptians.” And he commanded him 
that was the chief task-master over the He- 
brews, to give them no relaxation from their 


labors, but to compel them to submit to greater — 


oppressions than before. And though he al 
lowed them chaff before for the making their 
bricks, he would allow it them no longer, but 
he made them to work hard at brick-making 


in the day-time, and to gather chaff in the 
Now when their labor was thus dou-— 


night. 
bled upon them, they laid the blame upon 
Moses, because their labor and their misery 


were on his account become more severe to- 


them. But Moses did not let his courage sink 


for the king’s threatenings; nor did he abate of © 
his zeal on account of the Hebrews’ com- — 


plaints, but he supported himself, and set his 


soul resolutely against them both, and used hia 
own utmost diligence to procure liberty to his — 
So he went to the king, and — 
persuaded him to let the Hebrews go to meunt — 


countrymen. 


Sinai, and there to sacrifice to God, because 


so early, does not appear.) Josephus also durst not setdowr — 
the very words of the ten commandments, as we shall see — 
hereafter, Antiq. b iii. ch. v. sect. 4, which superstitions — 


silence, has yet not been discontinued, even by the Pabbins 


There is, however, no doubt bus. octh dhese va itou. cop 


cealments were taught Josephus \y the Pharise 7 a ary of 
men at once very wicked and very supe<s!ab 21.8 ' 





BOOK I1—CHAPTER XIV. 


God had enjoined them so to do. He per- 
suaded him also, not to counterwork the de- 
signs of God, but to esteem his favor above 
all things, and to permit them to depart, lest, 
before he be aware, he lay an obstruction in 
the way of the divine commands, and so occa- 
gion his own suffering such punishments as it 
was probable any one that counterworked the 
divine commands should undergo, since the 
severest afflictions arise from every object, to 
those that provoke the divine wrath against 
them: for such as these have neither the earth 
vor the air for their friends; nor are the fruits 
of the womb according to nature, but every 
thing is unfriendly and adverse towards them. 
He said further, that the Egyptians should 
know this by sad experience; and that besides, 
the Hebrew people should go out of their 
country without their consent. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Concerning the Ten Plagues which came upon 
the Egyptians. 


§ 1. But when the king despised the words of 
Moses, and had no regard at all to them, griev- 
ous plagues seized the Egyptians; every one of 
which I will describe, both because no such 
plagues did ever happen to any other nation as 
the Egyptians now felt; and because I would 
demonstrate that Moses did not fail in any one 
thing that he foretold them, and because it is 
for the good of mankind, that they may learn 
this caution, not to do any thing that may dis- 
please God, lest he be provoked to wrath, and 
avenge their iniquities upon men. The Egyptian 
river ran with bloody water, at the command of 


God, insomuch that it could not be drunk, and 


they had no other spring of water neither; for 
the water was not only of the color of blood, 
but it brought upon those that ventured to drink 
of it, great pains and bitter torment. Such 
was the river to the Egyptians: but it was 
sweet and fit for drinking to the Hebrews, and 
nowy different from what it naturally used to 
be. As the king therefore, knew not what 
to do in these surprising circumstances, and 
was in fear for the Egyptians, he gave the He- 
brews leave to go away; but when the plague 
ceased, he changed his mind again, and would 
not suffer them to go. 

2, But whon God saw that he was ungrate- 
ful, and upon the ceasing of the calamity would 


not grow wiser, he sent another plague upon 


the Egyptians; an innumerable multitude of 
frogs consumed the fruit of the ground; the 
river was also full of them, insomuch, that 
those who drew water hac it spoiled by the 
blood of these animals, as they died in and 
were destroyed by the water; and the country 
was full of filthy slime, as they were born, and 


"as they died; they also spoiled their vessels in 


. 


their houses which they used, and were found 
‘among what they ate, and what they drank, 
and came in great numbers upon their beds. 
‘There was also an ungrateful smell and stink 
arose from them, as they were born, and as they 
died therein. Now, when the Egyptians were 


_nder the oppressions of these miseries, the 





69 
king ordered Moses to take the Hebrews with 
him, and be gone. Upon which the whole 
multitude of the frogs vanished away, and 
both the land and the river returned to their 
former natures. But as soon as Pharaoh saw 
the land freed from this plague, he forgot the 
cause of it, and retained the Hebrews; and,* 
as though he had a mind to try the nature of 
more such judgments, he would not yet surfer 
Moses and his people to depart, having granted 
that liberty rather out of fear, than out.of any 
good consideration. 

3. Accordingly, God punished his falseness 
with another plague, added to the former; for 
there arose out of the bodies of the Egyptians 
an innumerable quantity of lice, by which, 
wicked as they were, they miserably perished, 
as not able to destroy this sort of vermin, either 
with washes or with ointments. At which ter- 
rible judgment, the king of Egypt was in dts- 
order, upon the fear into which he reasoned 
himself, lest his people should be destroyed, 
and that the manner of this death was also re- 
proachful, so that he was forced in part to re- 
cover himself from his wicked temper to a 
sound mind, for he gave leave for the Hebrews 
themselves to depart. But when the plague 
thereupon ceased, he thought it proper to re- 
quire that they should leave their children and 
wives behind them, as pledges of their return, 
whereby he provoked God to be more vehe- 
mently angry at him, asif he thought to impose 
on his providence, and as if it were only Moses, 
and not God, who punished the Egyptians for 


| the sake of the Hebrews; for he filled that coun- 


try full of various sorts of pestilential creatures, 
with their various properties, such indeed as 
had never come into the sight of men before, 
by whose means the men perished themselves, 
and the land was destitute of husbandmen for 
its cultivation; but if any thing escaped de- 
struction from them, it was killed by a distemp- 
er, Which the men underwent also. 

4, But when Pharaoh did not even then yield 
to the will of God; but while he gave leave to 
the husbands to take their wives with them, yet 
insisted that the children should be left behind, 
God presently resolved to punish his wicked- 
ness with several sorts of calamities, and those 
worse than the foregoing which yet had so 
generally afflicted them: for their bodies had 
terrible boils, breaking forth with blains, while 
they were already inwardly consumed; and @ 
great part of the Egyptians perished in this 
manner. But when the king was not brought 
to reason by this plague, hail was sent down 
from heaven; and such hail it was, as the «le 
mate of Egypt had never suffered before, nor 
was it like to that which falls in other climates - 
in winter time, but larger than that which falls 
in the middle of spring to those that dwell in 
the northern and northwestern regions. This 


* Of this judicial hardening the hearts, and blinding the 
eyes of wicked men, or infatuating them, as a just punish- 
ment for their other wilful sins, to their own destruction, see 
the note on Antiq. b. vii. ch. ix. sect. 6. 

+ As to this winter or spring hail near Egypt and Judea, 
see the like on thunder and lightning there, in the ots om 
Antiq. b. vi. ch. v. sect 6. 


70 


hail broke down their boughs laden with fruit. 
After this a tribe of locusts consumed the seed 
which was not hurt by the hail, so that to the 
Egyptians all the hopes of future fruits of the 
ground were entirely lost. 

5. One would think the forementioned cala- 
mities might have been sufficient for one that 
was only foolish, without wickedness, to make 
him wise. and to make him sensible what was 
fo- his advantage. But Pharaoh, led not so 
nach by his folly as by his wickedness, even 
when he saw the cause of his miseries, he still 
contested with God, and wilfully deserted the 
cause of virtue; so he bid Moses take the He- 
brews away, with their wives and children, but 
to leave their cattle behind, since their own 
cattle were destroyed. But when Moses said, 
that what he desired was unjust, since they 
were obliged to offer sacrifices to God of those 
cattle; and the time being prolonged on this 
account, a thick darkness without the least light, 
spread itself over the Egyptians, whereby their 
sight being obstructed, and their breathing hin- 
dered by the thickness of the air, they died 
miserably, and under a terror lest they should 
be swallowed up by the dark cloud. Besides 
this, when the darkness, after three days and as 
many nights, was dissipated, and when Pha- 
raoh did not still repent, and let the Hebrews 
go, Moses came to him and said: “How long 
wilt thou be disobedient to the command of 
God? for he enjoins thee to let the Hebrews go; 
nor is there any other way of being freed from 
the calamities you are under, unless you do so.” 
But the king was angry at what le said, and 
threatened to cut off his head, if he came any 
more to trouble him about these matters. Here- 
upon Moses said, he would not speak to him 
any more about them, for that he himself, to- 
gether with the principal men among the 
Egyptians, should desire the Hebrews to go 
away. So when Moses had said this, he went 
nis way. 

6. But when God had signified, that with 
one more plague he would compel the Egyp- 
tians to let the Hebrews go, he commanded 
Moses to tell the people, that they should have 
a sacrifice ready, and that they should prepare 
themselves on the tenth day of the month Xan- 
tnucus, against the fourteenth, (which month is 
called by the Egyptians, Pharmuthi, and Nisan 
by the Hebrews; but the Macedonians call it 
Xanthicus,) and that he should carry away the 
Hebrews with all they had. Accordingly, he 
having got the Hebrews ready for their depart- 
ure, and having sorted the people into tribes, 
lie kept them together in one place: but when 
the fourteenth day was come, and all were 
ready to depart, they offered the sacrifice, and 
purified their houses with the blood, using 
bunches of hyssop for that purpose, and when 
they had supped, they burnt the remainder of 
the flesh, as just ready to depart. Whence it 
is that we do still offer this sacrifice in like 
manner to this day, and call this festival ‘Pas- 
cha,’ which signifies the feast of the passover, 
because on that day God passed us over, and 
vent the plague upon the Egyptians: for the «le- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. - : ce 


os 


struction of the first-born came upon the Egyp- — 
tians that night. so that many of the Egyptians, — 
who lived near the king’s palace, persuaded 
Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. Accordingly 
he called for Moses, and bid them be gone; az — 
supposing, that if once the Hebrews were gone 
out of the country, Egypt should be freed from — 
its miseries. They also honored the Hebrews 
with gifts;* some in order to get them to depart 
quickly, and others on account of their neigh © 
borhood, and the friendship they had witb 
them. 


CHAPTER XV. 
How the Hebrews, under the Conduct of Moses 
left Egypt. 

§ 1. So the Hebrews went out of Eyypt, 
while the Egyptians wept, and repented that 
they had treated them so hardly. Now they 
took their journey by Letopolis, a place ut that — 
time deserted, but where Babylon was built af- 
terward, when Cambyses laid Egypt waste, 
but as they went away hastily, on the third day 
they came to a place called Baalzephon on the 
Red Sea; and when they had no food out of 
the land, because it was a desert, they ate of 
loaves kneaded of flour, only warmed by a 
gentle heat, and this food they made use of for — 
thirty days; for what they brought with thein 
out of Egypt would not suffice them any 
longer time; and this only while they dispens- 
ed it to each person, to use so much only as 
would serve for necessity, but not for satiety. 
Whence it is, that, in memory of the want we 
were then in, we kept a feast for eight days, — 
which is called the feast of the unleavened 
bread. Now the entire multitude of those 
that went out, including the women and chil- 
dren, was not easy to be numbered, but those 
that were of an age for war, were six hundred — 
thousand. d 

2. They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, — 
on the fifteenth day of the lunar month; four — 
hundred and thirty years after our forefather — 
Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundrea 
and fifteen years only after Jacob removed inte — 
Egyptt It was the eightieth year of the age — 
of Moses, and that of Aaron three more. They — 
also carried out the bones of Joseph with them, © 
as he had charged his sons to do. a 


*Those large presents made to the Israelites, of vessels — 
of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, were, as Jose- — 
phus truly calls them, gifts really given them, not lent them, sy 
as our English falsely renders them. They were spoils re- ~ 
quired, not borrowed of them, Gen. xv. 14. Exod. iii. 22. xi, — 
2. Ps. ev. 37, as the same version falsely renders the Hebrew 
word here used, Exod. xii. 35, 36. God had ordered the 
Jews to demand these as their pay and reward, during their — 
long and bitter slavery in Egypt, as atonements for the lives — 
of the Egyptians, and asthe condition of the Jews’ depart- 
ure, and of the Egyptians’ deliverance from these terrible — 
judgments, which, had they not now ceased, they had soon ~ 
been all dead men, as they themselves confess, chap, xii. 33. — 
Nor was there any sense in borrowing or lending, when the — 
Israelites were finally departing ou. of the land forever. 

+ Why our Masorete copy so groundlessly abridges this 
account in Exod. xii. 40, as to ascribe 430 years to the sole 
peregrination of the Israelites in Egypt, when itis clear, even 
by that Masorete chronology elsewhere, as well as from the © 
express text itself, in the Samaritan Septuagint, and Jose- + 
phus, that they sojourned in Egypt but half the time; and- 
that by consequence, the other half of their peregrinations 
was in the land of Canaan, before they came into Egypt, i» 
hard to say. See Essay on the Old J estament, p. 62,63. 


bl as 








BOOK II.—CHAPTER XV. 


3. But the Egyptians soon repented that the 
Hebrews were gone; and the king also was 
aE ANY concerned that this had been procur- 
_ ed by the magic arts of Moses: so they resolved 
to go after them. Accordingly they took their 
weapons, and other warlike furniture and pur- 
sued after them in order to bring them back, 
if once they overtook them, because they would 
now have no pretence to pray to God against 
them, since they had already been permitted to 
go out; and they thought they should easily 
®vercome them, as they had no armor, and 
would be weary with their journey; so they 
made haste in their pursuit, and asked of every 
one they met which way they were gone? 
and indeed, that land, was difficult to be travel- 
#24 OVer, not only by armies but by single per- 
sons. Now Moses led the Hebrews this way, 
that in case the Egyptians should repent and 
be desirous to pursue after them, they might 
undergo the punishment of their wickedness, 
and of the breach of those promises they had 
made to them. As also he led them this way 
on account of the Philistines, who had quar- 
relled with them, and hated them of old, that 
by all means they might not know of their de- 

arture, for their country is near to that of 

gypt; and thence it wasthat Moses led them, 
not along the road that tended to the land of the 
Philistines, but he was desirous that they should 
go through the desert, that so after a long jour- 
ney, and after many afflictions, they might enter 
upon the land of Canaan. Another reason of this 
was, that God had commanded him to bring the 
people to mount Sinai, that there they might 
offer him sacrifices. Now when the Egyp- 
tians had overtaken the Hebrews, they prepared 
to fight them, and by their multitude they 
drove them into a narrow place, for the num- 
ber that pursued after them was six hundred 
chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and 
two hundred thousand footmen, all armed. 
They also seized on the passages by which 
they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting 
them up* between inaccessible precipices and 
the sea; for there was [on each side] a [ridge 
of ] mountains that terminated at the sea, which 
were impassable by reason of their roughness, 
and obstructed their flight; wherefore they 
there pressed upon the Hebrews with their 
army, where the [ridges of] the mountains 
were closed with the sea, which army they 
placed at the chops of the mountains, that so 
they might deprive them of any passage into 
the plain. 

4. When the Hebrews, tl.erefore, were nei- 
ther able to bear up, being thus, as it were, 


* Take the main part of Reland’s excellent note here, 
wuch greatlv illustrates Josephus, and the Scripture, in this 
history, as follows: “A traveller,”’ says Reland, ‘‘whose name 
. was Eneman, when he returned out of Egypt, told me that 
he went the same way from Egypt to mount Sinai, which 
he supposed the Israelites of old travelled; and that he found 
several mountainous tracts, that ran down towards the Red 
Sea. He thought the [Israelites had proceeded as far as the 
desert of Etham, Exod. xiii. 20, when they were commanded 
by God to return back. Exod. xiv. 2, and to pitch their camp 
between Migdol and the sea; and that when they were not 
abie to tly unless by sea, they were shut in on both sides by 
mountains. He also thought we might evidently learn 
sence, how it might be said that the Israelites were in 


71 


besieged, because they wanted provisivns, nor 
saw any possible way of escaping: and if they 
should have thought of fighting, they had ne 
weapons, they expected a universal destruc- 
tion, unless they delivered themselves up volun- 
tarily to the Egyptians. So they laid the 
blame on Moses, and forgot all the signs that 
had been wrought by God for the recovery of 
their freedom; and this so far, that their in- 
credulity prompted them to throw stoaes at 
the prophet, while he encouraged them, and 
promised them deliverance; and they resolved 
that they would deliver themselves up to the 
Egyptians. So there was sorrow and lamen- 
tation among the women and children, who 
had nothing but destruction before their eyes, 
while they were encompassed with mountains, 
the sea, and their enemies, and discerned no 
way of flying from them. 

5. But Moses, though the multitude looked 
fiercely at him, did not, however, give over the 
care of them, but despised all dangers, out of 
his trust in God, who, as he had afforded them 
the several steps elready taken for the recovery 
of their liberty, which he had foretold them, 
would not now suffer them to be subdued by 
their enemies, to be either made _ slaves, or be 
slain by them. And standing in the midst of 
them, he said, “It is not just for us to distrust 
even men, when they have hitherto well manag- 
ed our affairs, as if they would not be the same 
men hereafter: but it is no better than madness 
at this time to despair of the providence of 
God, by whose power all those things have 
been performed which he promised, when yu 
expected no such things: I mean, all that 1 
have been concerned in for your deliveram e. 
and escape from slavery. Nay, when we are 
in the utmost distress, as you see we are, we 
ought the rather to hope that God will succor 
us, by whose operation it is that we are now 
encompassed within this narrow place that he 
may deliver us out of such difficulties as are 
otherwise insurmountable, and out of which 
neither you nor your enemies expect you can 
be delivered, and may at once demonstrate 
his own power, and his providence over us. 
Nor does God use to give his help in small dif- 
ficulties to those whom he favors, but, in such 
cases where no one can see how any hope in 
man can better their condition. Depend there- 
fore upon such a protector as is able to make 
small things great, and to show that this mighty 
force against you is nothing but weakness, 
and be not affrighted at the Egyptian army, 
nor do you despair of being preserved because 
the sea before, and the mountains behind, af- 


Etham before they went over the sea, and yet night be said 
to have come into Etham after they had passed over the se& 
also. Besides, he gave an account how he passed over a river 
in aboat near the city Sues, which he says must needs be 
the Heroopolis of the ancients, since that city could not be 
situate anywhere else in that neighborhood.’? 

As to the famous passage produced here by Dr. Bernard, 
out of rlerodotus, as the most ancient Heathen testimony of 
the Israelites’? coming from the Red Sea into Palestine, Bish- 
op Cumberland has showed thatit belongs to the Old Cana- 
anite or Phenician shepherds, and their retiring out of Egypt 
into Canaan or Phenicia, long before the days of Moses 
Sanchoniatho, p. 374 Xe. 


72 


ford you no o»portunity for flying, for even 
these mountams, if God so please, may be 
made plain ground for you, and the sea be- 
come dry land. ’ 


CHAPTER XVI. 


How the Sea was divided asunder for the He- 
brews, when they were pursued by the Egyp- 
tians, and so gave them an opportunity of es- 
caping from tkem. 


§ 1 When Moses had said this, he Jed them 
to the sea, while the Egyptians looked on, for 
they were within sight. Now these were so 
distressed by the toil of the pursuit, that they 
thought proper to put off fighting till the next 
day. But when Moses was come to the sea- 
shore, he took his rod, and made supplication 
to God, and called upon him to be their helper 
and assistant; and said, “Thou art not igno- 
rant, O Lord, that it is beyond human strength 
and human contrivance to avoid the difficul- 
ties we are now under, but it must be thy 
work altogether to procure deliverance to this 
army, which has left Egypt at thy appoint- 
ment. We despair of any other assistance or 
contrivance, and have recourse only to that 
hope we have in thee; and if there be any 
method that can promise us an escape by thy 

rovidence, we look up to thee for it. And 
et it come quickly, and manifest thy power to 
us: and do thou raise up this people unto good 
courage and hope of deliverance, who are 
deeply sunk into a disconsolate state of mind. 
We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place 
that thou possessest; but still the sea is thine, 
&e mountains that enclose us are thine: so that 
these mountains will open themselves if thou 
commandest them, and the sea also, if thou 
ecommandest it, will become dry land. Nay, 
we might escape by a flight through the air, if 
thou shouldst determine we should have that 
way of salvation.” 

2. When Moses had thus addressed himself 
to God, he smote the sea with his rod, which 
parted asunder at the stroke, and receiving 
those waters into itself, left the ground dry, as 
a road, and a place of flight for the Hebrews. 
Now when Moses saw this appearance of God; 
and that the sea went out of its own place, 
and left dry land, he went first of all into it, 
and hid the Hebrews to follow him along that 
divine road, and to rejoice at the danger their 
enensies, that followed them, were in; and gave 
thanks to God for this so surprising a deliver- 
ance which appeared from him. 

3. Now while these Hebrews made no stay, 
but went on earnestly, as led by God’s pre- 
gence with them, the Kgyptians supposed, at 
first, that they were distracted, and were going 
gashily upon manifest destruction. But when 
they saw that they were gone a great way with- 
eut any harm, and that no obstacle or difficulty 
fell in their journey, they made haste to pursue 
therm, hoping that the sea would be calm for 
them also. ‘They put their horse foremost, and 
went down themselves into the sea. Now the 
Hebrews, while these were putting on their ar- 
mor and therein spending their time, were be- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


forehand with them, and escaped thein, and got 
first over to the land on the other side, without 
any hurt. Whence the others were encouraged, 
and more courageously pursued them, as hoping 
no harm would come to them neither: but the 
Egyptians were not aware that they went into a 
road made for the Hebrews, and not for others; 
that this road was made for the deliverance of 
those in danger, but not for those that were earn- 
est to make use of it for the others’ destruction, 
As soon, therefore, as ever the whole Egyptian 
army was within it, the sea flowed to its own 
place, and came down with a torrent raised by 
storms of wind,* and encompassed the Egyp- 
tians. Showers of rain also came down from 
the sky, and dreadful thunder and lightning, 
with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts also were 
darted upon them. Nor was there any thing 
which uses to be sent by God upon men, as in- 
dications of his wrath, which did not happen 
at this time, for a dark and dismal night op- 
pressed them. And thus did all these men per- 
ish, so that there was not one man left to be a 
messenger of this calamity to the rest of the 
Egyptians. 

4. But the Hebrews were not able to contain 
themselves for joy at their wonderful deliver- 
ance, and destruction of their enemies; now 
indeed supposing themselves firmly delivered, 
when those that would have forced them into 
slavery were destroyed, and when they foun¢ 
they had God so evidently for their protector 
And now these Hebrews having escaped the 
danger they were in, after this manner; and 
besides that, seeing their enemies punished in 
such a way as is never recorded of any other 
mem whoinsoever, were all the night employed 
in singing of hymns, and in mirth. Moses 
also composed a song unto God, containing his 


* Of these storms of wind, thunder, and lighting, at this 
drowning of Plaraoh’s army, almost wanting in our copies 
of Exodus, but fully ‘extantin that of David, Psal. Ixxvii. 16. 
17, 18, and in that of Josephus here, see Mssay on the old 
Testament, append. p. 154, 155. 

t What some have here objected against this passage of 
the Israelites over the Red Sea, in this one night, from the 
common maps, viz. that this sea being here about thirty miles 
broad, so great an army could not pass over it in so short a 
time, is a great mistake. Mons. Thevenot, an authentic 
eyewitness, informs us, that this sea, for about five days’ 
journey, is nowhere more than about eight or nine miles ovat 
across, and in one place but four or five miles, according to 
De Lisle’s map, which is made from the best travellers 
theinselves, and not copied from others.—What has been 
farther objected against this passage of the Israelites, and 
drowning of the Egyptians, being miraculous also, viz. That 
Moses might carry the Israelites over at a low tide, without 
any miracle, while yetthe Egyptians, not knowing the tide 
so well as he, might be drowned upon the return of the tide 
is a strange story indeed: as if Moses, who never had lived 
here, could know the quantity and time of the flux and re- 
flux of the Red Sea, better than the Egyptians theinselver 
in its neighborhood! Yetdoes Artapanus, an ancient © eathen 
historian, mforms us, that this was what the more @norant 
Memophites, who lived at a great distance, pretended; 
though le confesses, that the more learned Heliopolitans, 
who lived much nearer, owned the destruction of the Egyp- 
tians, and the deliverance of the Israelites, to have been 
miraculous. And De Castro, a mathematician, who sur- 
veyed this sea with great exactness, informs us, that there is 
no great flux or reflux in this part of the Red Sea, to give a 
color to this hypothesis; nay, that at the elevation of the tide 
there is little above half the height of aiman. See Essay on 
the Old Testament, append. p. 939, 240. So vain and ground- 
ess are these and the like evasions, and subterfuges of our 


|} modern sceptics and unbelievers; and so certainly de 


thorough inquiries, and authentic evidence, disprove and 
confute such evasions and subterfuges upon ail oc rasions. 


x 
4 


‘ 


+ 


on and a thanksgiving for his kindness, in 
-hexameter™ verse. 

5. As for myself, I have delivered every 
part of this history as I found itin the sacred 
vooks: nor let any one} wonder at the strange- 
ness of the narration, if a way were discover- 
ed to those men of old time, who were free 
from the wickedness of the modern ages, wheth- 
er it happened by the will of God, or whether 
it happened of its own accord; while, for the 
take of those that accompanied Alexander king 
of Macedonia, who yet lived comparatively but 
a iittle while ago, the Pamphylian sea _ retired 
and afforded them a passage through itself, 
when they had no other way to go; I mean, 
when it was the will of God to destroy the 


* What that hexameter verse, in which Moses’s triumph- 
ant song is here said to be written, distinctly means, our pre- 
sent ignorance of the Old Hebrew metre or measure will not 
let us determine. Nor does it appear to me certain, that 
even Josephus himself had a distinct notion of it, though he 
speaks of several sorts of that metre or measure, both here 
and elsewhere, Antiq. b.iv. chap. viii. sect xliv. and b. vii. 
ehap. xii. sect. iii. 

t Take here the original passages of the four old authors 
that still remain, as to this transit of Alexander the Great 
over the Pamphylian sea; [ mean of Callisthenes, Strabo, 
Arian, and Appian.—As to Callisthenes, who himself accom- 
panied Alexander in this expedition, Eustathius, in his notes 
npon the third Uiad of Homer, (as Dr. Bernard here informs 
us,) says, that “this Callisthenes wrote, how the Pamphy- 
tian sea did not only open a passage for Alexander, but, rising 
and elevating its waters, did pay him homage as its king.”’ 
Strabo’s account is this, Greg. b.xiv. p. 656: ‘“Now about Pha- 
selis is that narrow passage, by the sea-side, through which 
Alexander led his army. There isa mountain called Climax, 
which adjoins to the. sea of Pamphylia, leaving a narrow 
passage on the shore, which in calin weather is bare, so as 
to be passable by travellers, but when the sea overflows, it is 
corered toa great degree by waves. Now then, the ascent 
ry the mountains being round about and steep, in still weather 
they make use of the road along the coast. But Alexander 
fell into the winter season, and committing himself chiefly 
to fortune, he marched on before the waves retired, and so 
it happened that they were a whole day in journeying over it, 
and were under water up to the navel.?’?—Arian’s account is 
this, b. i. p. 72,73. ““When Alexander removed from Pha- 
selis, he sent some part of his army over the mountains to 


Perga, which road the Thracians showed him. A difficult | 


BOOK OI—CHAPTER I. 


78 


monarchy of the Persians: and this is confessed 
to be true by all that have written about the 
actions of Alexander. But as to these events. 
let every one determine as he pleases. 

6. On the next day Moses gathered together 
the weapons of the Egyptians, which were 
brought to the camp of the Hebrews, by the 
current of the sea, and the force of the wind 
resisting it; and he conjectured that this also 
happened by Divine Providence, that so they 
might not be destitute of weapons. So when 
he had ordered the Hebrews to arm themselves 
with them, he led them to mount Sinai, in order 
to offer sacrifice to God, and to render oblation 
for the salvation of the multitude, as he was 
charged beforehand. 


way it was, but short. However, he himself conducted 
those that were with him by the sea-shore. This road is im- 
passable at any other time than when the north wind blows; 
but if the sonth wind prevail, there is no passing by the shore. 
Now at this time, after strong south winds, a north wind 
blew; and that not without the Divine Providence, (as both 
he and they that were with him supposed,) and afforded him 
an easy and quick passage.’? Appian, when he compares 
Cesar and Alexander together, (De Bel. Civil. b. ii. p. 522,) 
says, ‘That they both depended on their boldness and for- 
tune, as much as on their skill in war. As an instance of 
which Alexander journeyed over a country without water 
in the heat of summer to the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon, 
and quickly passed over the Bay of Pamphylia, when, by 
Divine Providence, the sea was cut off; thus Providence 
restraining the sea on his account, as it had sent rain when 
he travelled [over the desert.??] 

N. B. Since, in the days of Josephus, as he assures us, all 
the more numerous original historians of Alexander gave 
the account he has here set down, as to the providential 
going back of the waters of the Pamphylian sea, when he 
Was going with his army to destroy the Persian monarchy, 
which the forenamed authors now remaining fully confirm, 
itis without all just foundation, that Josephus is here blam- 
ed, by some. late writers, for quoting these ancient authors 
upon the present oceasion. Nor can the reflections of Plu- 
tarch, or any other author later than Josephus, be in the least 
here alleged to contradict him. Josephus went by all the 
evidence he then had, and that evidence of the most authen- 
tic sort also. So that whatever the moderns may think of 
the thing itself, there is hence, not the least color for finding 
fault with Josephus; he would rather have been much te 
blame had he omitted these quotations. 





BOOK III. 


Cf NTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWO YEARS.—FROM THE EXODUS OUT OF EGYPT TO THE 
REJECTION OF THAT GENERATION. 


CHAPTER I. 


_ How Moses, when he had brought the People out 


of Egypt, led them to mount Sinat, but not till 

they had suffered much in their journey. 

§ 1. Wuen the Hebrews had obtained such 
a wonderful deliverance, the country was a 
great trouble to them, for it was entirely a de- 


 sert, and without all sustenance for them; and 


also had exceeding little water, so that it not 


_ only was not at all sufficient for the men, but 


not enough to feed any of the cattle, for it was 
parthed up, and had no moisture that might 


afford nutriment to the vegetables; so they 


_ were forced to travel over ts is country, as hav- 


ing no other country but this totravel in. They 


had indeed carried water along with them 





from the land over which they had travelled 
before, as their conductor had bidden them; 


aut when that was spent, they were obliged to 


10 


draw water out of wells, with pain, by reason 
of the hardness of the soil. Moreover, what 
water they found was bitter, and not fit for 
drinking, and this in small quantities eso. 
And as they thus travelled, they came lat« in 
the evening to a place called ‘Marah,”* which 
had this name from the badness of its water, for 
Mar denotes bitterness. hither they came af- 
flicted, both by the tediousness of their Journey, 
and by their want of food, for it entirely failed 
them at that time. Now here was a well, which 
made them choose to stay in the place which, 
though it were not sufficient to satisfy so great 

* Dr. Bernard takes notice here, that this place Mar. 
where the waters were bitter, is called by the Syrians and 
Arabians Marari, and by the Syrians sometimes Morath, ail 
derived from the Hebrew Mar: he also takes notice, that it is 
ealled the bitter fountain by Pliny himself. Which waters 
remain there to this day, and are still bitter, as Thevenot as 


sures us; and that there are also abundance of palin-trees, 
see his Travels, part. i. chap. xxvi. p. 166 


q 


x 


74 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


an army, did yet afford them some comfort, as | 


with no water; and if they tcon a few drops 
found in such desert places; for they heard from 


of itinto their hands, they found it to be use- 


those who had been to search, that there was 
nothing to be found, if they travelled farther. 
Yet was this water bitter, and not fit for men 
to drink; and not only so, but it was intolerable 
even to the cattle themselves. 

2. When Moses saw how much the people 
were cast down, and that the occasion of it 
could not be contradicted, for the people were 
notin the nature of a complete army of men, 
who might oppose a manly fortitude to the ne- 
cessity that distressed them; the multitude of 
the children, and of the women also, being of 
too weak capacities to be persuaded by reason, 
blunted the courage of the men themselves. 
Moses, therefore, was in greatedifficulties, and 
made every body’s calamity to be his own: for 
they ran all of them to him, and begged of 
him; the women, begged for their infants, and 
the men for the women, thathe would not 
overlook them, but would procuresome way 
or other for their deliverance. He, therefore, 
betook himself to prayer to God, that he would 
change the water from its present badness, and 
make it fit fordrinking. And when God had 
granted him. that favor he took the top of a 
stick that lay down at his feet, and divided it 
in the middle, and made the section Jengthwise. 
He then let it down into the well, and persuad- 
ed the Hebrews that God had hearkened to his 
prayers, and had promised to render the water 
such as they desired it to be, in case they would 
be subservient to him in what he should en- 
join them to do; and this not after a remiss or 
negligent manner. And when they asked, 
what they were to do in order to have the wa- 
ter changed for the better, he bid the strong- 
est men among them that stood there, to draw 
up water;* and told them that when the great- 
est part was drawn up, the remainder would be 
fit to drink: so they labored at it till the water 
was so agitated and purged as to be fit to drink. 

‘3. And now removing from thence, they 
came to Elim; which place looked well at a 
distance, for there was a grove of palin-trees; 
but when they came near it, it appeared to be 
abad place, for the palm-trees were no more 
than seventy, and they were ill grown and 
creeping trees, by the want of water, for the 
country about was all parched, and no mois- 
ture sufficient to water them, and make them 
hopeful and useful, was derived to them from 
the fountains, which were in number twelve; 
they were rather a few moist places than springs, 
which not breaking out of the ground nor run- 
ning over, could not sufficiently water the trees. 
And when they dug into the sand, they met 


* The additions here to Moses’s account of the sweeten- 
tng of the water at Marah, seem derived from some ancient 
profane author, and he such an author also as looks less 
authentic than are usually followed by Josephus. Philo has 
nota syllable of these additions, norany other more ancient 
writer that we know of. Had Josephus written these his 
Antiquities for the use of Jews, he would hardly have given 
them these very improbable circumstances, but writing to 
Gentiles, tha’ they might notcomplain of his omission of any 
accounts of such miracles derived from Gentiles, he did not 
think proper to conceal what he had met with there about 
this matter; which procedure is perfectly agreeable to the 
eharacter and usag? of Josephus uton many occasions, 


less, on account of its mud. The trees also 
were too weak to bear fruit, for want of being 
sufficiently cherished and enlivened by the wa 
ter. So they laid the blame on their conduct. 
or, and made heavy complaints against him; 
and said, that this miserable state, and the ex- 
perience they had of adversity, were owing to 
him: for that they had then journeyed an entire 
thirty days, and had spent all the provisions 
they had brought with thein, and meeting with 
no relief, they were ina very desponding con- 
dition. And by fixing their attention upon 
nothing but their present misfortunes, they 
were hindered froin remembering what deliver- 
ances they had received from God, and those 
by the virtue and wisdom of Moses also; so 
they were very angry at their conductor, and 
were zealous in their attempt to stone him, as 
the direct uccasion of their present miseries. 
4. But as for Moses himself; while the mul- 
titude were irritated and bitterly set against 
him, he cheerfully relied upon God, and upon 
the consciousness of the care he had taken of 
these his own péople: and he came into the 
midst of them even while they clamored against 
him, and had stones in their hands in order to 
despatch him. Now he was of an agreeable 
presence, and very able to persuade the people 
by his speeches; accordingly, he began to mita- 
gate their anger, and exhorted them not to be 
overmindful of their present adversities, lest 
they should thereby suffer the benefits that 
had formerly been bestowed on them to slip 
out of their memories; and he desired them 
by no means, on account of their present ua- 
easiness, to cast those great and wonderful fa- 
vors and gifts, which they had obtained of 
God, out of their minds, but to expect deliver 
ance out of those their present troubles, which 
they could not free themselves from, and this 
by the means of that divine Providence which 
had watched over them; seeing it is probable, 
that God tries their virtue, and exercises their 
patience by these adversities, that it may ap- 
pear what fortitude they have, and what me- 
mory they retain of his former wonderful 
works in their favor, and whether they will 
not think of them upon occasion of the mise- 
ries they now feel. He told them, it appeared 
they were not really good men, eithér in pa- 
tience, or in remembering what had been suc- — 
cessfully done for them, sometimes by con- 
temning God and his commands, wherf by 
those commands they left the land of Egypt, 
and sometimnes by behaving themselves ill to- 
wards him who was the servant of God, and 


This note is, [ confess, barely conjectural: and since ose 

phus never tells us when his own copy, taken out of the tem- 
ple, had such additions, or when any ancient notes supplieé 
them; or indeed when they are derived from Jewish, and 
when from Gentile antiquity, we can go no farther than bare 
conjectures in such cases; only the notions of Jews were 
generally so different froin those of the Gentiles, that we may 
soletiines make no improbable conjectures to which sort 
sich additions belong. See also somewhatlike these addi- 
tions in Josephus’s account of Elisha’s making sweet the 
bitterand barren spring near Jericho. Of the War, ». iv 

chap. viii. sect. iii 


: 


Se this when he had never deceived them, either 


_ were, in appearance, just going to be destroyed, 


_ they ought to reason thus; that God delays to 


BOOK HI—CHAPTER lI. 4% 


isa bird more plentiful in this Arabian gulf 


in what he said, or had ordered them to do by | than anywhere else, flying over the sea, ana 


God’s commands. He also put them in mind | hovered over them, till, wearied with their la- 
of all that had passed: how the Egyptians | borious flight, and indeed, as usual, flying very 
were destroyed when they attempted to detain | near to the earth, they fell down upon the He- 
them, contrary to the command of God; and | brews, who caught them and satisfied their hun- 
after what manner the very same river was to | ger with them, and supposed that this was the 
the others bloody, and not fit for drinking, but | method whereby God meant to supply them 
was to them sweet, and fit for drinking; and | with food. Upori which Moses returned thanks 
how they went a new road through the sea, | to God for affording them his assistance so sud- 
which fled a long way from them, by which | denly, and sooner than he had promised them, 
very means they were themselves preserved, 6. But presently after this first supply of 
but saw their enemies destroyed; and that | food, he sent them a second: for as Moses was 
when they were in want of weapons, God | lifting up his hands in prayer, a dew fell down; 
gave them plenty of them; and so he recount- | and Moses, when he found it stick to his hands, 
ed all the particular instances, how when they | supposed this was also come for food from 
God to them: he tasted it, and perceiving that 
the people knew not what it was, and thought 
it snowed, and that it was what usually fell at 
that time of the year, he informed them, that 
this dew did not fall from heaven after the 
manner they imagined, but came for their pre- 
servation and sustenance. So he tasted it, and 
gave them some of it, that they might he satis- 
fied about what he had told them. They also 
imitated their conductor, and. were pleased 
with the food, for it was like honey in sweet- 
ness and pleasant taste, but like in its body to 
bdellium, one of the sweet spices, but in big- 
ness equal to coriander seed. And very earn- 
est they were in gathering it: but they were 
enjoined to gather it equally,* the measure of 
a homer for each man every day, because this 
food should not come in too small a quantity, 
lest the weaker might not be able to get their 
share, by reason of the overbearing of the 
strong in collecting it. However, these strong 
men, when they had gathered more than the 
measure appointed for them, they had no more 
than others, but only tired themselves more in 
gathering it, for they found no more than a 
homer apiece, and the advantage they got by 
what was superfluous was none at all; it cor- 
rupting, both by the worms breeding in it, and 
by its bitterness. So divine and wonderful a 
food it was! It also supplied the want of other 
sorts of food to those that fed on it. And even 
now in all that place this manna comes down 
in rain, according to what Moses then obtain- 





































God had saved them in a surprising manner: 
that he had still the same power; and that they 
ought not even now to despair of his _provi- 
dence over them: and accordingly he exhorted 
them to continue quiet, and to consider that 
help would not come too late, though it come 
not immediately, if it be present with them 
before they suffer any great misfortune; that 


assist them, not because he has no regard to 
them, but because he will first try their forti- 
tude, and the pleasure they take in their free- 
dom, that he may learn whether you have 
souls great enough to bear want of food, and 
scarcity of waters on its account; or whether 
you love to be slaves, as cattle are slaves to 
such as own them, and feed them liberally, but 
only in order to make them more useful in 
their service. That as for himself, he shall not 
be so much concerned for his own preserva- 
tion; for if he die unjustly, he shall not reckon 
it any affliction, but that he is concerned for 
them, lest, by casting stones at him, they should 
be thought to condemn God himself. 

5. By this means Moses pacified the people, 
and restrained them from stoning him, and 
brought them to repent of what they were 
going to do. And because he thought the ne- 
cessity they were under made their passion 
less unjustifiable, he thought he ought to apply 
himself to God by prayer and supplication; 
and going up to an eminence, he requested of 
God some succor for the people, and some 
way of deliverance from the want they were 
in, because in him, and in him alone, was their 
hope of salvation: and he desired that he 
would forgive what necessity had forced the 
people to do, since such was the nature of 
mankind, hard to please, and very complaining 
mder adversities. Accordingly, God promised 
ae would take care of them, and afford them 
the succor they were desirous of. Now when 
Moses had heard this from God, he came 
down to the multitude. But as soon as they 
Baw im joyful at the promises he had re- 
ceived from God, they changed their sad 
countenances into gladness. So he placed 
himself in the midst of them, and told them 
he came to bring them from God a deliverance 
out of their present distresses. Accordingly, a 
little after came a vast number of quails, which 


*It seems to me, from what Moses, Exod. xvi. 18, St. 
Paul, 2 Cor. viii. 15, and Josephus here says, compared to- 
gether, that the quantity of manna that fell daily, and did 
not putrify, was just so much as came to a homer apiece 
through the whole host of Israel, and no more. 

+ This supposal, that the sweet honey dew, or manna, so 
celebrated in ancient and modern authors, as falling usually 
in Arabia, was of the very same sort with this manna sent to 
the Israelites, savors more of Gentilism than of Judaism oF 
Christianity. Itis not improbable that some ancient Gen- 
tile author, read by Josephus, so thought; nor would he here 
contradict him, though just before, and Antiq. b. iv. chap. iii. 
sect. ii. he seems directly to allow that it had not been scen 
before. However this food from heaven is here described te 
be ‘like snow;? and in Artapanus, a heathen writer, it is com- 
pared to ‘meal like to oatmeal, in color like to snow, raixea 
down by God,’ Essay on the Old Testament, append. p. 233. 
But as to the derivation of the word ‘manna’ whether from 
Man, which Josephus says then signified, whatis it? or from 
‘mannah,’ to divide, i. e. a dividend:or portion allotted to 
every one, it is uncertain: I incline to the latter derivation. 
This manna is called ‘angels? food,’ Psal. Ixviii. 25, and by 
our Savior, John vi. 31, &c. as well as by Josephus here and 
elsewhere, Antiq. b. ili. chap. v. sect. ili. said to be sent the 
Jews from heoven. 


76 


ed of Gud, to send it to the people for their 
sustenance. Now the Hebrews call this food 
‘manna, for the particle ‘man,’ in our lan- 
guage, is the asking of a question, What is 
this? So the Hebrews were very joyful at 
what was sent them from heaven. Now they 
made use of this food for forty years, or as long 
as they were in the wilderness. 

7. As soon as they were removed thence, 
they caine to Rephidim, being distressed to the 
last degree by thirst; and while in the forego- 
ing days they had lit on a few small fountains, 
out now found the earth entirely destitute of 
water, they were in an evil case. ‘They again 
turned their anger against Moses; but he at 
first avoided the fury of the multitude, and 
then betook himself to prayer to God, beseech- 
ing him, that as he had given them food when 
they were in the greatest want of it, so he 
would give them drink, since the favor of giv- 
ing them food was of no value to them while 
they had nothing to drink. And God did not 
delay to give it them, but promised Moses that 
hv would procure them a fountain and plenty 
oi water from a place they did not expect any: 
s he commanded him to smite the rock* which 
they saw lying there, with his rod, and out of 
it to receive plenty of what they wanted, for 
bys had taken care that drink should come to 
tLem without any labor or painstaking. When 
Moses had received this command from God, 
lve came to the people who waited for him, and 
l«oked upon him, for they saw already that he 
was coming apace from his eminence. As 
on as he was come, he told thein that God 
would deliver them from their present distress, 
‘and had granted them an unexpected favor; 
and informed them, that a river should run for 
their sakes out of the rock. But they were 
amazed at that hearing, supposing they were 
of necessity to cut the rock in pieces, now they 
were distressed by their thirst and by their jour- 
ney; while Moses, only smiting the rock with 
his rod, opened a passage, and out of it burst 
out water, and that in great abundance, and 
very clear. But they were astonished at this 
wonderful effect, and, as it were, quenched 
their thirst by the very sight of it. So they 
drank this pleasant, this sweet water; and such 
it seemed to be,as might well be expected 
where God was the donor. They were also in 
admiration how Moses was honored by God; 
and they made grateful returns of sacrifices to 
God for his providence towards them. Now 
that Scripture which is laid up in the templet 
informs us, how God foretold to Moses, that 
water should in this manner be derived out of 


ihe rock. 
CHAPTER II. 


Haw the Amalekites, and the neighboring na- 
tions rade War with the Hebrews, and were 
beaten, and lost a great part of their army. 

§ 1. The name of the Hebrews began al- 
ready to be every where renowned, and rumors 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


about them ran abroad. ‘This made the mna- 
bitants of those countries to be in no small fear, 
Accordingly, they sent ambassadors to one 
another, and exhorted one another to defend 
themselves, and to endeavor to destroy these 
men. Those that induced the rest to do so, 
were such as inhabited Gobolitis and Petra. 
They were called ‘Amalekites,’ and were the 
most warlike of the nations that lived there- 
about: and whose kings exhorted one another, 
and their neighbors, to go to this war against 
the Hebrews; telling them that an army of 
strangers, and such aone as had run away from 
slavery under the Egyptians, lay in wait to ruin 
them, which army they were not, in common 
prudence and regard to their own safety, to 
overlook, but to crush them before they gather 
strength, and come to be in prosperity, and per- 
haps attack them first in a hostile manner, as 
presuming upon our indolence in not attacking 
them before; and that we ought to avenge our- 
selves of them for what they have done in the 
wilderness, but that this cannot be so well done 
when they have once laid their hands on our 
cities, and our goods: that those who endeavor 
to crush a power in its first rise, are wiser than 
those that endeavor to put a stop to its progress, 
when it is become formidable; for these last 
seem to be angry only at the flourishing of oth- 
ers, but the former do not leave any room for 
their enemies to become troublesome to them 
After they had sent such embassages to the 
neighboring nations, and among one another, 
they resolved to attack the Hebrews in battle, 

2. These proceedings of the people of those 
countries occasioned perplexity and trouble te 
Moses, who expected no such warlike prepara- 
tions. And when these nations were ready to 
fight, and the multitude of the Hebrews were 
obliged to try the fortune of war, they. were in a 
mighty disorder, and in want of all necessaries, 
and yet were to make war with men who were 
thoroughly well prepared for it. Then there- 
fore it was that Moses began to encourage 
them, and to exhort them to have a good heart, 
and rely on God’s assistance, by which they 
had been advanced into a state of freedom, and 
to hope for victory over those who were ready 
to fight with them, in order to deprive them 
of that blessing. That they were to suppose 
their own army to be numerous, wanting noth- 
ing, neither weapons, nor money, nor provi- 
sions, nor such other conveniences as when men 
are in possession of, they fight undauntedly; 
and that they are to judge themselves to have 
all these advantages in the divine assistance. 
They are also to suppose the enemy’s army to 
be small, unarmed, weak, aud such as want 
those conveniences which they know must be 
wanted, when it is God’s will that they shall 
be beaten. And how valuable God’s assist- 
ance is, they had experienced, in abundance 
of trials; and those such as were more terri- 
ble than war, for that is only against men, but 


* This rock is there to this day, as the travellers agree; and | Moses 1s ever said to be laid up in the holy house itself, but 


must be the same as was there in the days of Moses, as be- 
tog toolarge to be brought thither by our modern carriages. 
¢ Note here, that this small book of the principal laws of 


the larger Pentateuch, as here, somewhere within the linuts 
of the temple and its courts only. See Antiq. b. v. ch. i. 
sect. 17. 


ot engl tae 


BOOK TI—CHAPTER ff. 


these were against famine and thirst; things 
indeed that were in their own nature insuper- 
able; as also against mountains, and that sea 
which afforded them no way of escaping; yet 
had all these difficulties been conquered by 
yod’s gracious kindness to them. So he ex- 
orted them to be courageous at this time, and 
-2look upon their entire prosperity to depend 
wn the present conquest of their enemies. 

3. And with these words did Moses encou- 
rage the multitude, who then called together 
the princes of their tribes, and their chief men, 
both separately and conjointly. The young men 
he charged to obey their elders, and the elders 
to hearken to their leader. So the people were 
elevated in their minds, and ready to try their 
fortune in battle, and hoped to be thereby at 
length delivered from all their miseries: nay, 
they desired that Moses would immediately 
lead them against their enemies without the 
least delay, that no backwardness might be a 
hinderance to their present resolution. So 
Moses sorted all that were fit for war into dif- 
_ ferent troops; and set Joshua, the son of Nun, 
of the tribe of Ephraim, over them; one that 
-was of great courage, and patient to undergo 
labors; of great abilities to understand, and 
to speak what was proper; and very serious in 
the worship of God; and indeed made, like 
another Moses, a teacher of piety towards God. 
He also appointed a small party of the armed 
men to be near the water; and to take care of 
the children and the women, and of the en- 
tire camp. So that whole night they prepar- 
ed themselves for the battle: they took their 
weapons, if any of them had such as were 
well made, and attended to their commanders, 
as ready torush forth to the battle, assoon as 
Moses should give the word of command. 
Moses also kept awake, teaching Joshua af- 
ter what manner he should order his camp. 
But when the day began, Moses called for 
_ Joshua again, and exhorted him to approve 
himself in deeds, such a one as his reputation 
made men expect from him; and to gain glory 
by the present expedition, in the opinion of 
those under him, for his exploits in this battle. 
He also gave a particular exhortation to the 
principal men of the Hebrews, and encouraged 
the whole army as it stood armed before him. 
And when he had thus animated the army, 
both by his words and works, and prepared 
every thing, he retired to a mountain, and com- 
mitted the army to God and to Joshua. 

4, So the armies joined battle; and it came 
to a close fight hand to hand, both sides show- 
ing great alacrity, and encouraging one another. 
And indeed while Moses stretched out his 
aands towards heaven,* the Hebrews were too 
hard for the Amalekites: but Moses not be- 
ing able to sustain his hands thus stretched 

* This eminent circumstance, that while Moses’s hands 
were ‘lift up’ towards heaven, the Israelites prevailed, and 
while they were ‘let down’ towards the earth, the Amalekites 
prevailed, seems to me the earliest intimation we have of 
the proper posture, used of old, in solemn prayer, which 
was the stretching out of the hands (and eyes) towards hea- 
ven, as other passages of the Old and New Testament in- 


form us. Nay, by the way, this posture seems tc heve cor - 
tinued in the Christian church, till the clergy, insteaa oi 


79 


out, (for as often as he let aown us hands, se 
often were his own people worsted,) he haa 
his brother Aaron, and Hur, their sister Miri 
am’s husband, to stand on each side of him 
and take hold of his hands, and not permit his 
Weariness to prevent it, but to assist him in the 
extension of his hands. When this was done, 
the Hebrews conquered the Amalekites by main 
force; and indeed they had all perished, unless 
the approach of the night had obliged the 
Hebrews to desist from killing any more. Se 
our forefathers obtained a most signal and 
most seasonable victory; for they not only 
overcame those that fought against them, but 
terrified also the neighboring nations, and got 
great and splendid advantage, which they ob- 
tained of their enemies by their hard pains 
in this battle; for when they had taken the 
enemy’s camp, they got ready booty for the 
public, and for their own private families, 
whereas till then they had not any sort of 
plenty, of even necessary food. The foremen- 
tioned battle, when they had once got it was 
also the occasion of their prosperity, not only 
for the present but for the future ages also, for 
they not only made slaves of the bodies of 
their enemies, but subdued their minds alsv, 
and, after this battle, became terrible to all that 
dwelt round about them. Moreover, they ac- 
quired a vast quantity of riches: for a great 
deal of silver and gold was left in the enemy 
camp; as also brazen vessels, which they made 
common use of in their families; many utep- 
sils also that were embroidered, there were 
of both sorts, that is, of what were weaveil. 
and what were the ornaments of their.armor 

and other things that served for use in the fami 
ly, and for the furniture of their rooms; they 
got also the prey of their cattle, and of what 

soever uses to follow camps when they re 

move from one place to another. So the He 

brews now valued themselves upon thep 
courage, and claimed great merit for their va 

lor; and they perpetually inured themselves to 
take pains, by which they deemed every diffi 

culty might be surmounted. Sucn were the 
consequences of this battle. 

5. On the next day Moses stripped the dead 
bodies of their enemies, and gathered together 
the armor of those that were fled, and gave 
rewards to such as had signalized themselves 
in the action; and highly commended Joshua, 
their general, who was attested to by all the 
army, on account of the great actions he had 
done. Nor was any one of the Hebrewsslain; 
but the slain of the enemy’s army were toc 
many to be enumerated: so Moses offered sa- 
crifices of thanksgiving to God, and built an 
altar, which he named, ‘the Lord the Con- 
queror. He also foretold that the Amalekites 
should utterly be destroyed; and that hereafter 
learning their prayers by heart, read them out of a book, 
which is, in great measure, inconsistent with such an ele- 
vated posture, and which seems to me to have been only a 
later practice introduced under the corrupt state of the 
church, though the constant use of divine forms of prayer 
praise, and thanksgiving, appears to me to have been the 


practice of God’s people, Patriarchs: 'ews and Christiane. 
in all the past ages. 


18 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


none of them should remain, because they 
fought against the Hebrews, and this when 
they were in the wilderness, and in their dis- 
tress also. Moreover, he refreshed the army 
with feasting. And thus did they fight this 
first battle with those that ventured to oppose 
them, after they were gone out of Egypt. But, 
when Moses had celebrated this festival for the 
victory, he permitted the Hebrews to rest for a 
few days, and then he brought them out after 
the fight, in order of battle; for they had now 
many soldiers in light armor, And going gra- 
dually on, he came to mount Sinai, in three 
months’ time after they were removed out of 
Egypt; at which mountain, as we have before 
related, the vision of the bush, and the other 
wonderful! appearances, had happened. 


CHAPTER III. 


That Moses kindly received his Father-in-law, 
Jethro, when he came to him to Mount Sinai. 


§ 1. Now when Raguel, Moses’s father-in- 
law, understood in what a prosperous condition 
his affairs were, he willingly came to meet 
him: and Moses took Zipporah his wife, and 
his children, and pleased himself with his 
coming. And when he had offered sacrifice, 
he made a feast for the multitude near the bush 
he had formerly seen, which multitude, every 
one, according to their families, partook of the 
feast. But Aaron and his family took Raguel, 
and sung hymns to God, as to him who had 
been the author and procurer of their deliver- 
ance, and their freedom. They also praised 
their conductor, as him by whose virtue it was, 
that all things had succeeded so well with 
them. Raguel also, in his eucharistical ora- 
tion to Moses, made great encomiums upon 
the whole multitude, and he could not but ad- 
nuire Moses for his fortitude, and that humanity 
he had showed in the delivery of his friends. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Raguel suggested to Moses to set hrs peo- 
ple in order, under their Rulers of Thousands 
and Rulers of Hundreds, who lived without 
order before: and how Moses complied in all 
things with his father-in-law’s admonition. 

§ 1. The next day, as Rague] saw Moses in 
the midst of a crowd of business, (for he de- 
termined the differences of those that referred 
them to him, every one still going to him, and 
supposing that they should then only obtain 
justice if he were the arbitrator; and, those 
that lost their causes, thought it no harm, while 
they thought they lost them justly, and not by 
pclae Raguel, however, said nothing to 

im at that time, as not desirous to be any 
hinderance to such as had a mind to make use 
of the virtue of their conductor. But after- 
ward he took him to himself, and when he 
nad him alone, he instructed him in what he 
ought to do; and advised him to leave the 
trouble of lesser causes to others, but himself 
to take care of the greater, and of the people’s 
safety, for that certain others of the Hebrews 
might be found that were fit to determine 
causes, but that nobody but a Moses could take 


own virtue, and what thou hast done by min 

istering under God to the people’s preservation. 
Permit, therefore, the determination of common 
causes to be done by others, but do thou re- 
serve thyself to the attendance on God only 

and look out for methods of preserving the mul- 
titude from their present distress. Make use of 
the method I suggest to you as to human affairs, 
and take a review of the army, and appoint cho- 
sen rulers over tens of thousands, and then over 
thousands; then divide them into five hundreds, 
and again into hundreds, and into fifties; and set 
rulers over each of them, who may distinguish 
them into thirties, and keep them in order; and 
at last number them by twenties and by tens: 
and let there be one commander over each 
number, to be denominated from the number 
of those over whom they are rulers, but these 
such as the whole multitude have tried, and do 
approve as being good and righteous men:* 
and let these rulers decide the controversies 
they have one with another. But if any great 
cause arise, let. them bring the cognizance of it 
before the rulers of a higher dignity; but if 
any great difficulty arise, that is too hard for 
even their determination, let them send it to 
thee. By these means two advantages will be 
gained: that the Hebrews will have justice 
done them; and thou wilt be able to attend 
constantly on God, and procure him to be more 
favorable to the people. 

2. This was the admonition of Raguel; and 
Moses received his advice very kindly, and 
acted according to his suggestion. Nor did he 
conceal the invention of this method, nor pre- 
tend to it himself, but informed the multitude 
who it was that invented it; nay, he has named 
Raguel in the books he wrote, as the person 
who invented this ordering of the people, as 
thinking it right to give a true testimony to 
worthy persons, although he might have gotten 
reputation by ascribing to himself the inven- 
tions of other men. hence we may learn 
the virtuous disposition of Moses: but of such 
his disposition, we shall have proper occasion 
to speak in other places of these books. 


CHAPTER V. 
How Moses ascended up to Mount Sinai, and r¢ 
cewed Laws from God, and delivered them i 
the Hebrews. 


§ 1. Now Moses called the multitude togeth- 
er, and told them he was going from them. un- 
to mount Sinai, to converse with God; to re- 
ceive from him, and to bring back with him a 
certain oracle; but he enjoined them te pitch 
their tents near the mountain, and prefer the 
habitation that was nearest to God, before one 
more remote. When he had said this, he as- 
cended up to mount Sinai;+ which is the high- 

* This manner of electing the judges and officers of the 
Israelites by the testimonies and suffrages of the people, 
before they were ordained by God or by Moses, deserves to 
be carefully noted, because it was the pattern of the like 
manner of the choice and ordination of bishops, presbytera, 
and deacons, in the Christian church: 


t Since this mountain Sinai is here said to be the highest 
of all the mountains that are in that country, it must be thag 


7 ‘ i wey 
}* NM“ 
3 j i r) 

hy 


care of the safety of so many ten thousands. 
Be not, therefore, says he, insensible of thine 





BOOK II—CHAPTER V. a 


ered together, he stood on an eminence wheace 
they might all hear him, and said, “God has 


ie | | 
_ est of all the mountains that are in that country, 
and is not only very difficult to be ascended by 


“men, on account of its vast altitude, but because 
of the sharpness of its precipices also; nay, 


indeed, it cannot be looked at without pain of 


the eyes: and besides this, it was terrible and 
inaccessible, on account of the rumor that pass- 
ed about, that God dwelt there. But the He- 
brews removed their tents, as Moses had _ bid- 
den them, and took possession of the lowest 
parts of the mountain; and were elevated in 
their minds, in expectation that Moses would 
return trom God with promises of the good 
things he had proposed to them: so they feast- 
ed, and waited for their conductor, and kept 
_ themselves pure, as in other respects, and not 
companying with their wives for three days, as 
he had before ordered them to do. And they 
rayed to God that he would favorably receive 
oses in his conversing with him; and bestow 
some such gift upon them by which they might 
live well. ‘They also lived more plentifully as 
to their diet, and put on their wives and chil- 
_ dren more ornamental and decent clothing than 
they usually wore. 


2. So they passed two days in this way of 


feasting; but on the third day, before the sun 
was up, a cloud spread itself over the whole 
camp of the Hebrews, such a one as none had 
before seen, and encompassed the place where 
they had pitched their tents: and while all the 
rest of the air was clear, there came strong 
winds, that raised up large showers of rain, 
which becamea mighty tempest. There was 
-aiso such lightning, as was terrible to those 
_ that saw it: and thunder with its thunderbolts 
_ were sent down, and declared God to be there 
present ina gracious way to such as Moses 
desired he should be gracious. Now, as to 
these matters, every one of my readers may 
think as he pleases: but Iam under a necessity 
of relating this history, as it is described in the 
sacred books. This sight, and the amazing 
sounds that came to their ears, disturbed the 
Hebrews to a prodigious degree, for they were 
_ notsuch as they were accustomed to: and then 
the rumor that was spread abroad, how God 
frequented that mountain, greatly astonished 
their minds; so they sorrowfully contained 
themwelves within their tents, as both supposing 
Moses to be destroyed by the Divine wrath, and 
expecting the like destruction for themselves, 
__ 3. When they were under these apprehen- 
‘sions, Moses appeared as joyful and greatly 
exalted. When they saw him, they were freed 
from their fear, and admitted of more comforta- 
ble hopes as to what was tocome. ‘The air also 
was become clear and pure of its former dis- 
_erders, upon the appearance of Moses. Where- 
“upon he éalled together the people to a con- 
_ gregation, in order to their hearing what God 


_ would say to them: and when they were gath- 


_ Bow called St. Katherine’s, which is one-third higher than 
_ that within a mile of it now called Sinai, as Mons. Theve- 
“Rot informs us, Travels, part. i. chap. xxviii. p. 168. The 
_ mher name of it, Horeb, is never used by Josephus; and 
k eens Was its name among the Egyptians only, whence the 
elites were lately come, as Sinai was its name among 

_ the Arabians, Canaanites, and other nations, Accordingly 


are 


received me graciously, O Hebrews, as he haa 
formerly done; and hath suggested a happy 
method of living for you, and an order of 
political government, and is now present in the 
camp: I therefore charge you for his sake, and 
the sake of his works, and what we have done 
by his means, that you do not put a low value 
on whatI am going to say, because the com- 
mands have been given by me that now deliver 
them to you, nor because it is the tongue of a 
man that delivers them to you; but if you 
have a due regard to the great importance of 
the things themselves, you will understand the 
greatness of him whose institutions they are, 
and who has not disdained to communicate 
them to me for our common advantage; for 
it is not to be supposed, that the author of 
these institutions is barely Moses, the son of 
Amram and Jochebed, but he who obliged 
the Nile to run bloody for your sakes, and 
tamed the haughtiness of the Egyptians by 
various sorts of judgments: he who provid- 
eda way through the sea for us: he who 
contrived a method of sending us food from 
heaven, when we were distressed for want of 
it, he who made the water to issue out of a 
rock, when we had very little of it before: he 
by whose means Adam was made to partake 
of the fruits both of the land and of the sea: 
he by whose means Noah escaped the deluge: 
he by whose means our forefather Abraham. 
of a wandering pilgrim was made the heir of 
the land of Canaan: he by whose means Isaac 
was born of parents who were very old: he 
by whose means Jacob was adorned with 
twelve virtuous sons: he by whose means Jo- 
seph became.a potent lord over the Egyptians 
he it is who conveys these instructions to you 
by me as his interpreter: and let them be to you 
venerable, and contended for more earnestly 
by youthan your own children, and your own 
wives; for jf you will follow them, you will 
lead a happy life; you will enjoy the land 
fruitful, the sea calm, and the fruit of the 
womb born complete, as nature requires; you 
will be also terrible to your enemies; for I 
have been admitted into the presence of God, 
and been made a hearer of his incorruptible 
voice: so great is his concern for your nation, 
and its duration.” 

4, When he had said this, he brought the 
people, with their wives and children, so near 
the mountain, that they might hear God him- 
self speaking to them about the precepts which 
they were to practise, that the energy of what 
should be spoken, might not be hurt by its ut- 
terance by that tongue of a man, which could 
but imperfectly deliver it to their understanding. 
And they all heard a voice that came to all of 
them from above, insomuch that no ne of these 


wnen (1 Kings ix. 8) the Scripture says that Elijah came 
to Horeb, the mount of God, Josephus justly says, Antig. b. 
viii. chap. xiii. sect. 7, that he came to the mountain called 
Sinai; and Jerome, here cited by Dr. Hudson, says, that he 
took this mountain to have two names, Sinai and Choreb, 
See Nomin. Heb. p. 427 


80 ANTIQUITIES 


words escaped therm, which Moses wrote in two 
tables; which it is not lawful for us to set down 
jirectly,* but their import we will declare. 

5. The first commandment teaches us that 
there is but one God, and that we ought to 
worship him only. The second commands us 
not to make the image of any living creature, 
to worship it. The third, that we must not 
swear by God in a false manner. The fourth, 
that we must keep the seventh day, by resting 
from all sorts of work. The fifth, that we 
must honor our parents. The sixth, that we 
must abstain from murder. The seventh, that 
we must not commit adultery. The eighth, 
that we must not be guilty of theft. The ninth, 
that we must not bear false witness. The 
tenth, that we must not admit of the desire of 
any thing that is another’s. 

6. Now when the multitude had heard God 
himself giving those precepts which Moses 
had discoursed of, they rejoiced at what was 
said, and the congregation was dissolved: but 
on the following days they came to his tent, 
and desired him to bring them, besides, other 
laws from God. Accordingly he appointed 
such laws; and afterward informed them in 
what manner they should act in all cases: 
which laws I shall make mention of in their 
proper time; but I shall reserve most of those 
laws for another work, and make there a dis- 
tinct explication of them. 

7. When matters were brought to this state, 
Moses went up again to mount Sinai, of which 
he had told them beforehand. He made his as- 
cent in their sight; and while he stayed there 
so long a time, (for he was ahsent from them 
forty days,) fear seized upon the Hebrews, lest 
Moses should have come to any harm; nor 
was there any thing else so sad, and that so 
much troubled them, as this supposal that 
Moses was perished. Now tliere was a variety 
in their sentiments about it; some saying that 
he was fallen among wild beasts, and those that 
were of this opinion, were chiefly such as 
were ill-disposed to him; but others saying, 
that he was departed and gone to God; but the 
wiser sort were led by their reason to embrace 
neither of those opinions with any satisfaction, 
thinking that it was a thing that sometimes 
happens to men to fall among wild beasts, and 
perish that way, so it was probable enough 
that he might depart and go to God, on ac- 
count of his virtue; they therefore were quiet, 
and expected the event: yet they were exceed- 
ing sorry upon the supposal that they were de- 
prived of a governor and a protector, such a 
one indeed as they could never recover again: 
nor would this suspicion give them leave to 
wxpect any comfortable event about this man, 
nor could they prevent their trouble and me- 
lancholy upon this occasion. However, the 
camp durst not remove all this while, because 
Moses had bid them afore to stay there. 

o. But when the forty days, and as many 
nights, were over, Moses came down, having 

“Of this and another like superstitious notion of the 
Pharisees, which Josephus complied with, see the note on 


Antiq. b. ii. chap. xii. sect. 4. 
+ This other work of Josenbus, here referred to, seems to 


OF THE JEWS. 


tasted nothing of food usually appointe1 fox 
the nourishment of men. His appearance fill- 
ed the army with gladness, and he declared to 
them what care God had of them, and by wha: 
manner of conduct of their lives they might 
live happily; telling them, that during these 
days of his absence, he had suggested to him 
also that he would have a tabernacle built for 


~ 


him, into which he would descend when he | 


came to them, and how we should carry it 
about with us, when we remove from thia 
place; and that there would be no longer any 
occasion for going up to mount Sinai, but thar 
he would himself come and pitch his taberna- 
cle amongst us, and be present at our prayers; 
as also, that the tabernacle should be of such 
measures and construction as he had showed 
him, and that you are to fall to the work, and 
prosecute it diligently. When he had said 
this, he showed them the two tables, with the 
ten commandments engraven upon them, five 
upon each table; and the writing was by the 
hand of God. . 


CHAPTER VI. 


Concerning the Tabernacle which Moses built in 
the wilderness, for the honor of God, and which 
seemed to be a Temple. 


§ 1. Hereupon the Israelites rejoiced at what 
they had seen and heard of their conductor, 
and were not wanting in diligence accordin 
to their ability; but they brought silver, nh; 
gold, and brass, and of the best sorts of wood, 
and such as would not at all decay by putre- 
faction: camels’ hair also, and sheep skins, 
some of them dyed of a blue color, and some 
of a scarlet; some brought the flower for the 
purple color, and others for white; with wool 
died by the flowers aforementioned; and fine 
linen and precious stones, which those that 
used costly ornaments set in ouches of gold; 
they brought also a great quantity of spices 
for of these materials did Moses build the ta- 
bernacle, which did not at all differ from a 
movable and ambulatory temple. Now when 
these things were brought together with great 
diligence, for every one was ambitious to 
further the work even beyond their ability, he 
set architects over the works, and this by the 
command of God; and indeed the very same 
which the people themselves would have 
chosen, had the election been allowed to them. 


Now their names are set down in writing in 


the sacred books; and they were these, Besa- 
leel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah, the 
grandson of Miriam, the sister of their con- 
ductor; and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach. of 
the tribe of Dan. Now the people went <a 
with what they had undertaken with so great 
alacrity, that Moses was obliged to restraxn 
them, by making proclamation, that what had 
been brought was sufficient, as the artificers 
had informed him. So they fell to work upon 
the building of the tabernacle. Moses inform- 
ed them, according to the direction of God, 
be that which does not appear to have been ever published, 
which yet he intended to publish, about the reasons of many 


of ay laws of Moses; of which see the note on the prefaes, 
ect. 4, 


TA 


7; 

jth what the measures were to be, and its 
yargeness; and how many vessels it ought to 
contain, for the use of the sacrifices. The 


women also were ambitious to do their parts,’ 


about the garments of the priests, and about 
other things that would be wanted in this 
work, both for ornament, and for the divine 
service itself. 

2, Now when all things were prepared, the 
gold, and the silver, and the brass, and what 
was woven, Moses, when he had appointed 
beforehand that there should be a festival, and 
ihat sacrifices should be offered according to 
every one’s ability, reared up the tabernacle.* 
And when he had measured the open court, 
fifty cubits broad and a hundred long, he set 
up brazen pillars five cubits high, twenty on 
each of the longer sides, and ten pillars for the 
breadth behind; every one of the pillars also 
had a ring. Their chapiters were of silver, 
but their bases were of brass; they resembled 
the sharp ends of spears, and were of brass, 

‘fixed into the ground. Cords were also put 
through the rings, and were tied at their farther 
ends to brass nails of a cubit long, which at 
every pillar were driven into the floor, and 
would keep the tabernacle from being shaken 
by the violence of winds. But a curtain of 
fine soft lmen went round all the pillars, and 
hung down in a flowing and loose manner 
from their chapiters, and enclosed the whole 
space, and seemed not at all unlike to a wall 
about it. And this was the structure of three 
of the sides of this enclosure. But as for the 
fourth side, which was fifty cubits in extent, 
and was the front of the whole, twenty cubits 
ef it were for the opening at the gates, wherein 
stood two pillars on each side, after the resem- 
blance of open gates, these were made wholly 
of silver, and polished, and that all over, except- 
ing the bases, which were of brass. Now, on 
each side of the gates there stood three pillars, 
which were inserted into the concave bases of 
the gates, and were suited to them; and round 
them was drawn a curtain of fine linen. But 
to the gates themselves, which were twenty 
cubits in extent, and five in height, the curtain 
was composed of purple, and scarlet, and blue, 
and fine len, and embroidered with many 
and divers sorts of figures, excepting the 
figures of animals. Within these gates was 
the brazen laver for purification, having a basin 
beneath, of the like matter, whence the priests 
might wash their hands, and sprinkle their feet. 
And this was the ornamental construction of 
_ the enclosure about the court of the tabernacle, 
which was exposed to the open air. 

3. As to the tabernacle itself Moses placed 
it in the middle of that court, with its front to 
the east, that when the sun arose it might send 
its first rays upon it. Its length when it was 

set up was thirty cubits, and its breadth was 
twelve [ten] cubits. The one of its walls was 
on the south, and the other was exposed to the 
‘north, and on the back part of it remained the 


_ * Of this tabernacle of Moses, with Its several parts and 
furniture, see my description at large, chap. vi. vii. viii. ix. 
¥. xi. xii. hereto belonging. 

ay ee | 





| BOOK HI—CHAPTER VI. 


8] 


west. It was necessary that its height should 
be equal to its breadth [ten cubits.) There 
were also pillars made of wood, twenty on each 
side; they were wrought intoa quadrangular 
figure, in breadth a cubit and a_ half; but the 
thickness was four fingers; they had thin plates 
of gold affixed to them on both sides inwardly 
and outwardly, they had each of them two te- 
nons belonging to them, inserted into their 
bases, and these were of silver, in each of which 
bases there was a socket to receive the tenons, 
But the pillars on the west wall were six. Now 
all these tenons and sockets accurately fitted one 
another, insomuch that the joints were invisible, 
and both seemed’to be one entire and united 
wall. {[t was also covered with gold, both within 
and without. ‘The number of pillars was equal 
on the opposite sides, and there were on ew h 
part tweuty, and every one of them had the thy-4 
part of a span in thickness: so that the number 
of thirty cubits were fully made up betwe2a 
them. But as to the wall behind, where the vx 
pillars made up together only nine cubits, they 
made two other pillars,and cut them out, -f 
one cubit, which they placed in the corneis, 
and made them equally fine with the oth+r. 
Now every one of the pillars had rings of ga d 
affixed to their fronts outward, as if they hid 
taken root in the pillars, and stood one rcw 
over against another round about, throu,sh 
which were inserted bars girt over with gold, 
each of them five cubits long, and these bound 
together the pillars, the head of one bar run- 
ning into another, after the natue of one tenon 
inserted into another. But forthe wall behind, 
there was but one row of bars that went 
through all the pillars, into which row ran the 
ends of the bars on each side of the longer 
walls, the male with its female being so fasten- 
ed in their joints, that they held the whole firm- 
ly together; and for this reason was all this 
joimted so fast together, that the tabernacle 
might not be shaken, either by the winds, or 
by any other means, but that it might preserve 
itself quiet and immovable continually. 

4. As for the inside, Moses parted its length 
into three partitions, At the distance of ten 
cubits from the most secret end Moses placed 
four pillars, whose workmanship was the very 
same with that of the rest, and they stood 
upon the like bases with them, each a small 
matter distant from his fellow. Now, the 
room within those pillars was the ‘Most Holy 
Place; but the rest of the room was the Tab- 
ernacle, which was open for the priests. Howe 
ever, this proportion of the measures of the 
tabernacle proved to be an imitation of the 
system of the world; for that third part there- 
of which was within the four pillars, to which 
the priests were not admitted, is, as it were, a 
heaven, peculiar to God: but the space of the 
twenty cubits, is, as it were, sea and lund, on 
which men live, and so this part is peculiar to 
the priests only. But at the front, where the 
entrance was made, they placed pij!lars of 
gold, that stood on bases of brass, in number 
seven; but then they spread over the taber- 
nacle vails of fine linen, and purple, and blue 


82 


and scarlet colors, embroidered. The first 
vail was ten cubits every way, and this they 
spread over the pillars which parted the tem- 
ple, and kept the most holy place concealed 
within: and this vail was that which made this 
part not visible to any. Now the whole temple 
was called ‘The Holy Place; but that part 
which was within the four pillars, and to which 
fone were admitted, was called ‘The Holy of 
Holies, This vail was very ornamental, and 
embroidered with all sorts of flowers which 
the earth produces, and there were interwoven 
into it all sorts of variety that might be an or- 
na .uent, excepting the forms of animals. An- 
other vail there was which covered the five 
pillars that were at the entrance; it was like 
the former in its magnitude, and texture, and 
color; and at the corner of every pillar a 
ring retained it from the top downwards half 
the depth of the pillars, the other half affording 
an entrance for the priest, who crept under it. 
Over this there was a vail of linen, of the 
same largeness with the former; it was to be 
drawn this way or that way by cords, whose 
tings, fixed to the texture of the vail, and to 
the cords also, were subservient to the draw- 
mg and undrawing of the vail, and to the fast- 
euing it at the corner, that then it might be 
no hinderance to the view of the sanctuary, 
especially on solemn days; but that on other 
days, and especially when the weather was in- 
elined to snow, it might be expanded, and af- 
ford a covering to the vail of divers colors: 
whence that custom of ours is derived, of 
baving a fine linen vail after the temple has 
been built, to be drawn over the entrances, 
But the ten other curtains were four cubits in 
byeadth, and twenty-eight in length, and had 
golden clasps, in order to join the one curtain 
to the other, which was done so exactly that 
they seemed to be one entire curtain; these were 
spread over the temple, and covered all the top, 
and parts of the walls, on the sides and beuind 
so far as within one cubit of the ground. There 
were other curtains of the same breadth with 
these, but one more in number, and longer, 
for they were thirty cubits long, but these were 
woven of hair, with the like subtlety as those of 
wool were nade, and were extended loosely 
down to the ground, appearing like a triangu- 
lar front and elevation at the gates; the eleventh 
curtain being used for this very purpose. 
There were also other curtains made of skins 
above these, which afforded covering and pro- 
tection to those that were woven, both in hot 
weather, and when it rained. And great was 
the surprise of those who viewed these cur- 
taims at a distance, for they seemed not at all 
wo differ from the color of the sky. But 
those that were made of hair, and of skins, 
reached down in the same manner as did the 
vail at the gates, and kept off the heat of the 
sun, and what injury the rains mightdo. And 
after this manner was the tabernacle reared. 

5. There was also an ark made, sacred to 
God, of wood that was naturally strong, and 


could not be corrupted: this was called Eron, | a talent. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. . vi 


thus: its length was five spans, but its breadth — 
and height were each of them three spans. It 
was covered all over with gold, both within 
and without, so that the wooden part was not 
seen. It had also a cover united to it, by golden 
hinges, after a wonderful manner; which cover 
was every way evenly fitted to it, and had no 
eminences to hinder its exact conjunction. 
There were also two golden rings belonging 
to each of the longer boards, and passing 
through the entire wood, and through them 
gilt bars passed along each board, that it might 
thereby be moved and carried about, as occa- 
sion should require; for it was not drawn ina 
cart by beasts of burden, but borne on the 
shoulders of the priests. Upon this its cover 
were two images, which the Hebrews call 
Cherubims; they are flying creatures, but their 
form is not like to that of any of the creatures 
which men have seen, though Moses said he 
had seen such beings near the throne of God. 
In this ark he put the two tables whereon the ten — 
commandments were written, five upon each 
table,and two and a half upon each side of them; 
and this ark he placed in the most holy place. 

6. But in the holy place he placed a table 
like those at Delphi: its length was two cubits, 
and its breadth one cubit, and its height three 
spans. It had feet also, the lower parts of 
which were complete feet, resembling those 
which the Dorians put to their bedsteads, but 
the upper parts towards the table were wrought 
into a square form. The table had a hollow 
towards every side, having a ledge of four 
fingers depth, that went round about like a 
spiral, both on the upper and lower part of 
the body of the work. Upon every one of the 
feet was there also inserted a ring, not far from 
the cover, through which went bars of wood 
beneath, but gilded, to be taken out upon occa- 
sion, there being a cavity where it was joined 
to the rings: for they were not entire rings, but 
before they came quite round they ended in 
acute points, the one of which was inserted 
into the prominent part of the table, and the 
other into the foot; and by these it was carrieu 
when they journeyed. Upon this table, which 
was placed on the north side of the temple, 
not far from the most holy place, were laid 
twelve unleavened loaves of bread, six upon 
each heap, one above another: they were made 
of two tenth deals of the purest flour, which 
tenth deal [a homer] is a measure of the He- 
brews, containing seven Athenian cotyle; and 
above those loaves were put two vials full of 
frankincense. Now after seven days, other 
loaves were brought in their stead, on the da 
which is by us called the Sabbath; for we call 
the seventh day the Sabbath: but for the occa- 
sion of this invention of placing loaves here, 
we will speak of it in another place. 

7. Over against this table, near the southern 
wall, was set a candlestick of cast gold; hollow 
within, being of the weight of one hundred 
pounds, which the Hebrews call cinchares; if 
it be turned into the Greek language, it denotes” 
It was made with its knops, and 


in our own language. Its construction was| lilies and pomegranates, and bowls, (which 


\ 


1.6). 


ea 


nl 
" 





= AN a 
i a 
Nit AA 

i i ie 





THE ALTAR OF INCENSE. 








BOOK IIIL—CHAPTER VII. 


ormaments amounted to seventy in all,) by 
which means the shaft elevated itself on high 
from a single base, and spread itself into as 
many branches as there are planets, including 
the sun among them. It terminated in seven 
heads, in one row, all standing parallel to one 
another; and these branches carried seven 
lamps, one by one, in imitation of the number 
of the planets; these lamps looked to the east 
and to the south, the candlestick being situate 
obliquely. 

8. Now between this candlestick and the ta- 
dle, which, as we said, were within the sanctu- 
ary, was the altar of incense, made of wood, 
indeed, but of the same wood of which the 
foregoing vessels were made, such as was not 
liable to corruption: It was entirely crusted 
over with a golden plate. Its breadth on each 
side was a cubit, but the altitude double. Upon 
it was a grate of gold, that was extant above 
the altar, which had a golden crown encompass- 
ing it round about, whereto belonged rings and 
bars, by which the priests carried it when they 
journeyed. Before this tabernacle there was 
reared a brazen altar, but it was within made 
of wood, five cubits by measure on each side, 
but its height was but three, in like manner 
adorned with brass plates as bright as gold. 
It had also a brazen hearth of network, for the 
ground underneath received the fire from the 
hearth, because it had no bases to receive it. 
Hard by this altar lay the basins, and the vials, 
and the censers, and the caldrons, made of 
gold: but the other vessels, made for the use of 
the sacrifices, were all of brass. And such was 
the construction of the tabernacle; and these 

were the vessels thereto belonging. 


CHAPTER VIL. 


Which were the garments of the priests and of 
the high priest; concerning the priesthood of 
_ Aaron, with the manner of the purifications 
and sacrifices; as also concerning the festi- 
vals, and how each day was then disposed of; 
with other laws. 


§ 1. There were peculiar garments appoint- 
ed for the priests, and for ail the rest, which 
they call ‘Cahanxe’ [priestly] garments, as al- 
so for the high priest, which they call ‘Caha- 
nee Rabbe,’ and denote ‘the high priest’s gar- 
ments. Such was, therefore, the habit of the 
rest; but when the priest approaches the sacri- 
fices, he purifies hiinself with the purification 
which the law prescribes; and, in the first place, 
he puts on that which is called ‘Machanase,’ 
which means ‘somewhat that is fast tied.’ It 
is a girdle, composed of fine twined linen, and 
is put about the privy parts, the feet being to be 
inserted into them, in the nature of breeches; but 
about half of it is cut off, and it ends at the 
thighs, and is there tied fast. 

2. Over this he wore a linen vestment, made 
‘of fine flax doubled: it is called ‘Chethone,’ 
and denotes ‘linen,’ for we call linen by the 
name of ‘Chethone.’ This vestment reaches 
down to the feet, and sits close to the body; 
and has sleeves that are tied fast to the arms: 
st is girded to the breast a little above the el- 


a 


ag 


bows, by » girdle often going round, four fin- 
gers broad, but so loosely woven that your 
would think it were the skin of a serpent. It 
is embroidered with flowers of scarlet, and 
purple, and blue, and fine twined linen; but the 
warp was nothing but fine linen. ‘The begin- 
ning of its circumvolution is at the breast; and 
when it has gone often round, it is there tied, 
and hangs loosely there down to the ankles: I 
mean this, all the time the priest 1s not about 
any laborious service, for in this position it ap- 
pears in the most agreeable manner to the 
spectators; but when he is obliged to assist at 
the offering sacrifices, and to do the appointed 
service, that he may not be hindered in his 
operations by its motion, he throws it to the 
left, and bears it on his shoulder. Moses in- 
deed calls this belt ‘Abaneth;? but we have 
learned from the Babylonians to call it Emia, 
for so it is by them called. This vestment has 
no loose or hollow parts anywhere in it, but 
only a narrow aperture about the neck; and it 
is tied with certain strings hanging down from 
the edge over the breast and back, and is fast- 
ened above each shoulder: it is called Massa- 
bazanes. 

3. Upon his head he wears a cap, not 
brought to a conic form, or encircling the 
whole head, but still covering more than the 
half of it, which is called Masnaemphthes: and 
its make is such that it seems to be a crown, 
being made of thick swathes, but the contex- 
ture is of linen; and it is doubled round many 
times, and sewed together: besides which, a 
piece of fine linen covers the whole cap from 
the upper part, and reaches down to the fore- 
head and the seams of the swathes, which 
would otherwise appear indecently: this ad- 
heres closely upon the solid part of the head, 
and is thereto so firmly fixed, that it may not 
fall off during the sacred service about the sacri- 
fices. So we have shown you what is’ the 
habit of the generality of the priests. 

4, The high priest, indeed, is adorned with 
the same garments that we have described, 
without abating one; only over these he puts 
on a vestment of a blue color. This also is a 
long robe, reaching to his feet; in our language 
it is called Meeir, and is tied round with a 
girdle, embroidered with the same color and 
flowers as the former, with a mixture of gold 
interwoven;—to the bottom of which garment 
are hung fringes, in color like pomegranates, 
with golden bells,* by a beautiful contrivance 
so that between two bells hangs a pomegra- 
nate, and between two pomegranates a bell 

* The use of these golden bells at the bottom of the high 
priest’s long garment, seems to have been this, that by shak- 
ing his garment atthe time of his offering incense in the 
temple, on the great day of expiation, or at other proper pe~ 
riods of his sacred ministrations there, on the great festivals, 
the people might have notice of it, and might fall to their 
own prayers at the time of incense, or other proper periods 
and so the whole congregation might at once offer those com- 
mon prayers jointly with the high priest himself to the Al 
mighty, see Luke i. 10, Rev. viii. 3, 4. Nor probably is the 
son of Sirach to be otherwise understood, when he says of 
Aaron, the first high priest, Ecclus. xlv. 9. ‘And God com 
passed Aaron with pomegranates, and with many goldem 
bells round about, that, as he went, there might be a sound 


and a noise made, that might be heard in the temple, for a 
memorial to the children of his people.”? 


84 


Now this vesture was not composed of two 
pieces, nor was it sewed together upon the 
shoulders and the sides, but it was one long 
vestment so woven as to have an aperture for 
the neck; not an oblique one, but parted all 
along the breast and the back. A border also 
was sewed to it, lest the aperture should look 
too indecently: it was also parted where the 
hands were to come out. 

©. Besides these, the high priest put on a 
third garment, which was called the Ephod, 
which resembled the Epomis of the Greeks. 
Its make was after this manner: it was woven 
to the depth of a cubit of several colors, with 
gold intermixed, and embroidered, but it left 
the middle of the breast uncovered: it was 
made with sleeves also; nor did it appear to be 
at al] differently made froma short coat. But 
in the void place of this garment there was in- 
serted a piece of the bigness of a span, em- 
broidered with gold, and the other colors of 
the ephod, and called Essen, (the breastplate,) 
which in the Greek language signifies the Ora- 
cle. This piece exactly filled up the void space 
in the ephod. It is united to it by golden rings 
at every corner, the like rings being annexed to 
the ephod, and a blue ribin was made _ use of 
to tie them together by those rings; and that the 
space between the rings might not appear emp- 
ty, they contrived to fill it up with stitches of 
blue ribins. There were also two sardonyxes 
upon the ephod at the shoulders, to fasten it in 
the nature of buttons, having each end running 
to the sardonyxes of gold, that they might be 
buttoned by them. On these were engraven 
the names of the sons of Jacob in our own 
country letters and our own tongue, six on 
each side of the stones on either side; and 
the elder sons’ names were on the right 
shoulder. ‘I'welve stones also there were up- 
on the breastplate, extraordinary in largeness 
and beauty; and they were an ornament not to 
be purchased by men, because of their immense 
value. ‘These stones, however, stood in three 
rows, by four in a row, and were inserted into 
the breastplate itself, and they were set in ouches 
of gold, that were themselves inserted in the 
breastplate, and were so made that they might 
not fall out. Now the first three were asardo- 
nyx, atopaz, and anemerald. ‘The second row 
contained a carbuncle, a jasper, and a sapphire. 
The first of the third row was a ligure, then 
an amethyst, and the third an agate, being the 
ninth of the whole number. The first of the 
fourth row was a chrysolite, the next was an 
onyx, and then a beryl, which was the last of 
all. Now the names of all those sons of Jacob 
were engraven in these stones, whom we 
esteem the heads of our tribes, each stone hav- 
ing the honor of a name, in the order accord- 
ing to which they were born. And whereas 
the rings were too weak of themselves to bear 
the weight of the stones, they madetwo other 
rings of a larger size, at the edge of that part 
of the breastplate, which reached to the neck, 
and inserted into the very texture of the breast- 
plate, to receive chains finely wrought, which 
connected them with golden bands to the tops 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


of the shoulders whose extremity turned back 
wards, and went into the ring, on the promt 
nent back part of the ephod; and this was fot 
the security of the breastplate, that it might not 
fall out of its place. There was also a girdle 
sewed to the breastplate, which was of the fore- 
mentioned colors, with gold intermixed, which 
when it had gone once round, was tied again up- 
on the seam, and hung down. ‘There were alse 
golden loops that admitted its fringes at each ex- 
tremity of the girdle,and included them entirely. 
6. The high priest’s mitre was the same that 
we described before, and was wrought like that 
of all the other priests; above which there was 
another, with swathes of blue embroidered, 
and round it was a golden crown polished, of 
three rows, one above another; out of which 
arose a cup of gold, which resembled the herb 
which we call ‘saccharus,’ but those Greeks 
that are skilful in botany call it ‘Shyoscyamus.’ 
Now lest any one that has seen this herb, but 
has not been taught its name, and is unac- 
quainted with its nature, or having known its 
name, knows not the herb when he sees it, I 
shall give such a description of it. This herb 
is oftentimes in tallness above three spans, but 
its root is like that of a turnip, (for he that 
should compare it thereto would not be mis- 
taken,) but its leaves are like to the leaves of 
mint. Out of its branches it sends out a calyx, 
cleaving to the branch, and a coat encompasses 
it, Which it naturally puts off when it is chang- 
ing, in order to produce its fruit. This calyx 
is of the bigness of the bone of the little 
finger, but in the compass of its aperture, is 
like acup. This I will further describe for the 
use of those that are unacquainted with it. 
Suppose a sphere be divided into two parts, 
round at the bottom, but having another seg 
ment that grows up to a circumference from 
that bottom; suppose it become narrower by 
degrees, and that the cavity of that part grow 
decently smaller, and then gradually grow 
wider again at the brim, such as we see in the 
navel of a pomegranate, with its notches. Ard 
indeed such a coat grows over this plant as 
renders it a hemisphere, and that, as one may 
say, turned accurately in a lathe, and having 
its notches extant above it, which, as I said, 
grow like a pomegranate, only that they are 
sharp, and end in nothing but prickles. Now 
the fruit is preserved by this coat of the calyx, 


which fruit is like the seed of the herb ‘side- — 


ritis:?’ it sends out a flower that may seem to 

resemble that of the poppy. Of this was a- 
crown made, as far as from the hinder part of 

the head to each of the temples: but this 
‘ephielis,’ for so this calyx may be called, did 

not cover the foreliead, but it was covered with — 
a ‘golden plate,* which had inscribed upon it~ 
the name of God in sacred characters. And 

such were the ornaments of the high-priest. 





« 


a) 


$ 


* The reader ought to take notice bere, that the very Mo — 


saic ‘petalon,’ or ‘golden plate,’ for the forehead of the Jew- 


ish high priest was itself preserved, not only till the days of — 


Josephus, but of Origen; and that its inscription, Holiness w 
the Lord, was in the Samaritan characters. See Antiq. b ~ 
viii. ch. iii. sect. 8. Essay on the Old Test. p. 154, and Re 
land, de Spol. Templi, p. 132 By 


‘ 
1 







- 


9 


i 


7 


BOOK IIL—CHAPTER VII. 


__ 7. Now here one may wonder at the ill will 
_ which men bear to us, and which they profess 


to be on account of our despising that deity 
which they pretend to honor; for if any one 
do but consider the fabric of the tabernacle, 
and take a view of the garments of the high 
priest, and of those vessels which we make 
nse of in our sacred ministration, he will find 
tha: our legislator was a divine man, and that 
we are unjustly reproached by others; for if 
any one do without prejudice, and with judg- 
ment, look upon these things, he will find they 
“Were every one made in way of imitation and 
yepresentation of the universe. When Moses 
distinguished the tabernacle into three parts,* 
and allowed two of them to the priests, as a 
lace accessible and common, he denoted the 
and and the sea, these being of general access 
to all; but he set apart the third division for 
God, because heaven is inaccessible to men. 
And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set 


on the table, he denoted the year, as distin- 


guished into so many months. By branching 
out the eandlestick into seventy parts, he se- 
cretly intimated the ‘decani,’ or seventy divi- 
sions of the planets: and as to the seven lamps 


upon the candlesticks, they referred to the 


course of the planets, of which that is the 
number. The vials, too, which were compos- 
ed of four things, they declared the four ele- 
ments; for the plain lien was proper to signify 
the earth, because the flax grows out of the 
earth. The purple signified the sea, because 
that color is died by the blood of a sea shell- 
fish. The blue is fit to signify the air, and the 
scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. 
Now the vestment of the high priest being 
made of linen, signified the earth: the blue de- 
noted the sky, being like lightning in its pome- 

ranates, and in the noise of the bells resemb- 
Fic thunder. And for the ephod, it showed 
that God had made the universe of four [ele- 
ments,| and as for the gold interwoven, I sup- 
pose it related to the splendor by which all 
things are enlightened. He also appointed the 
breastplate to be placed in the middle of the 


_ ephod to resemble the earth, for that has the 


very middle place of the world. And the 


girdle, which encompassed the high priest 


> 


© 


about and includes the universe. 


round, signified the ocean, for that goes round 
Each of the 
sardonyxes declares to us the sun and the 
moon, those, I mean, that were in the nature 
of buttons on the high priest’s shoulders. And 
for the twelve stones, whether we understand 
by them the months, or whether we under- 
stand the like number of the signs of that circle 


which the Greeks call the zodiac, we shall not 


pe mistaken in their meaning. And for the 
mitre which was of a blue color, it seems to 


me to mean heaven, for how otherwise could 


' * When Josephus, both here and chap. vi. sect. 4, sup- 


_ poses the tabernacle to have been parted into three parts, he 
“seems to esteem the bare entrance to be a third division, dis- 


* 


tinct from the holy and the most holy places, and this the 


rather, because in the temple afterwards there was a real 
distinct third part, which was called the ‘porch,’ otherwise 


4 Josephus would contradict his own description of the taber- 


sacle, which gives us a particular account of no more than 


_ wo parts. 





8s 


the name of God be inscribed upon it? That 
it was also illustrated with a crown, and that 
of gold also, is because of that splendor with 
which God is pleased. Let this explication* 
suffice at present, since the course of my nar- 
ration will often, and at many occasions, afford 
me the opportunity of enlarging on the virtue 
of our legislator. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
Of the Priesthood of Aaron. 


§ 1. When what has been described wa 
brought to a conclusion, gifts not being yet pre 
sented, God appeared to Moses, and enjoineu 
him to bestow the high priesthood upon Aaron 
his brother, as upon him that best of them al} 
deserved to obtain that honor, on account of 
his virtue. And when he had gathered the 
multitude together, he gave them an account of 
Aaron’s virtue, and of his good will to them, 
and of the dangers he had undergone for their 
sakes. Upon which, when they had given tes- 
timony to him inall respects, and showed their 
readiness to receive him, Moses said to them, 
“OQ you Israelites, this work is already brought 
to a conclusion, in a manner most acceptable 
to God, and according to your abilities. And 
now, since you see that he is received into this 
tabernacle, we shall first of all stand in need of 
one that may officiate for us,and may minister 
to the sacrifices; and to the prayers that are to 
be put up for us. And indeed had the inquiry 
after such a person been left to me, I should 
have thought myself worthy of that honor, both 
because all men are naturally fond of themselves, 
and because Iam conscious to myself that I 
have taken a great deal of pains for your deliy- 
erance: but now God himself has determined 
that Aaron is worthy of this honor, and has cho- 
sen him for his priest, as knowing him to be the 
most righteous person among you. So thathe 
is to put or the vestments which are consecrated 
to God; he is to have the care of the altars, and 
to make provision for the sacrifices: and he it 
is that must put up prayers for you to God, who 
will readily hear them, not only because he is 
himself solicitous for your nation, but also be- 
cause he will receive them as offered by one that 
he hath himself chosen to this office.”} The He- 


* This explication of the mystical meaning of the Jewish 
tabernacle, and its vessels, with the garments of the high 
priest, is taken out of Philo, and fitted to Gentile philoso- 
phical notions. This may possibly be forgiven in Jews 
greatly versed in heathen learning and philosophy, as Phile 
had ever been, and as Josephus had long been when he 
wrote these Antiquities. In the meantime, it is not to be 
doubted, but in their education they must have both learn- 
ed more Jewish interpretations, such as we meet with in 
the epistle of Barnabas, in that to the Hebrews, and else- 
where among the old Jews. Accordingly, when Josephus 
wrote his books of the Jewish war for the use of the Jews, 
at which time he was comparatively young, and less used te 
Gentile books, we find one specimen of such a Jewish inter- 
pretation; for there (b. v. ch. v. sect. 5,) he makes the sever 
branches of the temple candlesticks, with their seven lamps, 
an emblem of the seven days of creation and rest, which 
are here emblems of the seven planets. Nor certainly wught 
ancient Jewish emblems to be explained any otherwise shar 
according to ancient Jewish and not Gentile notions. -See 
Of the War, b. 1. ch. xxxiii. sect. 2. 

+ Itis well worth our observation, that the two principa. 
qualifications required in this section, for the constitution 
of the first high priest, viz. that he should have an excellent 
‘character’? for virtuous and good actions, as also that he 


86 


orews were pleased with what was said, and 
they gave their approbation to him whom God 
had ordained; for Aaron was of them all the 
most deserving of this honor, on account of 
his own stock, and gift of prophecy, and his 
-brother’s virtue. He had at that time four sons, 
Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 

2. Now Moses commanded them to make 
ase of all the utensils which were more than 
were necessary to the structure of the taberna- 
cle, for covering the tabernacle itself, the can- 
dlestick, and altar of incense, and the other 
vessels, that they might not be at all hurt when 
they journeyed, either by the rain, or by the 
rising of the dust. And when he had gather- 
ed the multitude together again; he ordained 
that they should offer half a shekel for every 
man as an oblation to God; which shekel is a 
piece among the Hebrews, and is equal to four 
Athenian drachmee.* Whereupon they readily 
obeyed what Moses had commanded and the 
number of the offerers was six hundred and 
five thousand five hundred and fifty. Now 
this money that was brought by the men that 
were free, was given by such as were above 
twenty years old, but under fifty; and what 
was collected was spent in the uses of the taber- 
aacle. 

3. Moses now purified the tabernacle and the 
priests; which purification was performed af- 
ter the following manner; he commanded them 
to take five hundred shekels of choice myrrh, 
an equal quantity of cassia, and half the fore- 
going weight of cinnamon and calamus, (this 
last is a sort of sweet spice,) to beat them 
small, and wet them with a hin of oil of olives, 
‘a hin is our own country measure, and con- 
tains two Athenian choas or conguises,) then 
mix thern together, and boil them, and prepare 
them after the art of the apothecary, and make 
them into a very sweet ointment; and afterward 
to take it to anoint and purify the priests them- 
selves, and all the tabernacle, as also the sacri- 
fices. There were also many, and those of va- 
rious kinds, of sweet spices, that belonged to 
the tabernacle, and such as were of very great 
price, and were brought to the golden altar of 
incense; whose nature I do not now describe, 
lest it should be troublesome to my readers. 
But incense} was to be offered twice a day, both 
before sun-rising and at sun-setting. They 
were also to keep oil already purified for the 
lamps, three of which were to give light all day 


should have the approbation of the people, are here noted 
by Josephus, even where the nomination belonged to God 
himseif, which are the very same qualifications which the 
Christian religion requires in the choice of Christian bishops, 
priests, and deacons, as the Apostolical Constitutions in- 
form us, b. ii. ch. iii. 

* This weight and value of the Jewish shekel, in the days 
ef Josephus, equal to about 2s. 10d. sterling, is by the learned 
dews owned to be one-fifth larger than were their old shek- 
els; which determination agrees perfectly with the remain- 
mg shekels that have Samaritan inscriptions, coined gen- 
erally by Simon the Maccabee, about 230 years before Jose- 
phus published his Antiquities, which never weigh more 
than 2s. 5d. and commonly but 2s. 4 1-4d. See Reland, De 
Nummis Samaritanorum, p. 188. 

¢t The incense was here offered, according to Josephus’s 
opinion, before sun-rising and at sun-setting. But in the days 
of Pompey, according to the same Josephus, the sacrifices, 
were offered in the morning and at the ninthhour. Antiq. 
6, xiv. ch. iv. sect. 3. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


long,* upon the sacred candlestick, before Gad, — 
and the rest were to be lighted at the evening. 
4, Nowall was finished, Bezaleel and Aho- 
liab appeared to be the most skilful of the work- 
men: for they invented finer works than what 
others had done before them, and were of great 
abilities to gain notions of what they were form- 
erly ignorant of: and of these Bezaleel was 
judged to be the best. Now the whole time 
they were about this work was the interval of 


¥ 


's 


seven months; and after this it was that was — 


ended the first year since their departure out of 
Egypt. 
year, on the month Xanthicus, as the Macedo- 
nians call it, but on the month Nisan as the He- 
brews call it, on the new moon, they consecrat- 
ed the tabernacle, and all its vessels, which 1 
have already described. 

5. Now God showed himself pleased with 
the work of the Hebrews, and did not permit 
their labors to be in vain; nor did he disdain 
to make use of what they had made, but he 
came and sojourned with them, and pitched 
his tabernacle in the holy house. And in the 
following manner did he come to it: the sky 
was clear, but there was a mist over the taber- 
nacle only, encompassing it, but not with such 
a very deep and thick cloud as is seen in the 
winter season nor yet in so thin a one as men 
might be able to discern any thing through it, 
but from it there dropped a sweet dew, and 
such as showed the presence of God to those 
that desired and believed it. 

6. Now when Moses had bestowed such 
honorary presents on the workmen as it was 
fit they should receive, who had wrought so 
well, he offered sacrifices in the open court of 
the tabernacle, as God commanded him, a bull, 
aram, anda kid of the goats, for a sin-offer- 
ing. Now 'I shall speak of what we do in our 
sacred offices in my discourse about sacrifices. 
and therein shall inform men in what cases 
Moses bid us offer a whole burnt-offering, and 
in what cases the law permits us to partake of 
them as of food. And when Moses had sprink- 
led Aaron’s vestments, himself, and his sons, 
with the blood of the beasts that were slain, and 
had purified them with spring waters and oint- 
ment, they became God’s priests. After this 
manner did he consecrate them and their gar- 
ments for seven days together. The same he 
did to the tabernacle, and the vessels thereto 
belonging, both with oil first incensed, as I said, 
and with the blood of bulls, and of rams, slain 
day by day one, according to its kind. But 
on the eighth day he appointed a feast for the 
people, and commanded them to offer sacrifice. 
according to their ability. Accordingly, they 


But at the beginning of the second — 


contended one with another, and were ambiti- — 


ous to exceed each other in the sacrifices which 
they brought, and so fulfilled Moses’s injunctions 
But as the sacrifices lay upon the altar, a sud 

den fire was kindled from among them of ite 
own accord, and appeared to the sight like fire 


*Hence we may correct the opinions of the modem rab 
bins, who say, that only one of the seven lamps bummed 
in the day-time, whereas Josephus, an eye-witness, saye 
there were three, 


BOOK I1—CHAPTER VILL. 


frorn a flash of lighting, and consumed what- 
aoever was upon the altar. 

7. Hereupon an affliction befell Aaron, con- 
sidered as a man and a father, but was under- 
gone by him with true fortitude; for he had in- 
deed a firmness of soul in such accidents, and 
he thought this calamity came upon him ac- 
cording to God’s will: for whereas he had four 
sons, as I said before, the two elder of them, 
Nadab and Abiliu, did not bring those sacri- 
fices which Moses bade them bring, but such 
as they used to offer formerly, and were burnt 
to death. Now when the fire rushed upon 
them, and began to burn them, nobody could 
quench it. Accordingly, they died in this 
manner. And Moses bid their father, and 
their brethren, to take up their bodies, to carry 
them out of the camp, and to bury them mag- 
nificently. Now the multitude lamented them, 
and were deeply affected at this their death, 
which so unexpectedly befell them. But Moses 
entreated their brethren, and their father, not to 
be troubled for them, and to prefer the honor 
of God before their grief about them, for Aaron 
had already put on his sacred garments. 

8. But Moses refused all that honor which 
he saw the multitude ready to bestow upon 
him, and attended to nothing else but the ser- 
vice of God. He went no more up to mount 
Sinai; but he went into the tabernacle, and 
brought back answers from God to what he 
prayed for. His habit was also that of a pri- 
vate man; and in all other circumstances he 
behaved himself like one of the common 
people, and was desirous to appear without 
distinguishing himself from the multitude, but 
would have it known that he did nothing else 
but take care of them. He also set down in 
writing the form of their government, and those 
laws, by obedience whereto they would lead 
their lives so as to please God, and so as to have 
no quarrels one among another. However, 
the laws he ordained were such as God sug- 
gested to him: so [ shall now discourse con- 
Eine that form of government and those 
aws. 

9. I will now treat of what I before omitted, 
the garment of the high priest: for he [Moses] 
left no room for the evil practices of [false] 
prophets; but if some of that sort should at- 
tempt to abuse the divine authority, he left it 
to God to be present at his sacrifices when he 
pleased, and when he pleased to be absent.* 
And he was willing this should be known, not 
to the Hebrews only, but to those foreigners 
also who were there. But as to those stones,t 


* Of this strange expression that Moses left it to God to be 
present at his sacrifices when he pleased, and when he 
oe to be absent, see the note on b. ii. agaist Apion. 
sect. 16, 

_ These answers by the oracle of Urim and Thummim, 
which words signify light and perfection, 01 as the Sep- 
tuagint render them, revelation and truth and denote nothing 

_ further that I see, but the shining stoues themselves, which 

were used in this method of illumination, in revealing the 

vill of God after a perfect and true manner to his people 

{srael; I say, these answers were not made by the shining 

of the precious stones, after an awkward manner, in the high 
miest’s breastplate, as the modern rabbins vainly suppose; 

_ r certainly the shining of the stones might precede or ac- 

company the oracle, without itself delivering that oracle, 


oH] 


which we told you before, the high pnest bare 
on his shoulders, which were sardonyxes; (and 
I think it needless to describe their nature, they 
being known to every body;) the one of them 
shined out when God was present at their 
sacrifices; I mean, that which was in the na- 
ture of a button on his right shoulder, bright 
rays darting out thence; and being seen even 
by those that were most remote; which splen« 
dor yet was not before natural to the stone. 
This has appeared a wonderful thing to such 
as have not so far indulged themselves in phi- 
losophy, as to despise ‘divine revelation.’ Yet 
will I mention what is still more wonderful 
than this; for God declared beforehand, by 
those twelve stones which the high priest bare 
on his breast, and which were inserted into his 
breastplate, when they should be victorious in 
battle; for so great a splendor shone forth from 
them before the army began to march, that alk 
the people were sensible of God’s being pre- 
sent for their assistance. Whence it carne to 
pass that those Greeks who had a veneration 
for our laws, because they could not possibly 
contradict this, called that breastplate the Ora-~ 
cle. Now this breastplate, and this sardonyx, 
left off shining two hundred years before I 
composed this book, God having been dis- 
pleased at the transgression of hislaws. Of 
which things we shai farther discourse on a fit= 
ter oportunity; but I will now go on with my 
proposed narration. 

10. The tabernacle being now consecrated, 
and a regular order being settled for the priests, 
the multitude judged that God now dwelt 
among them, and betook themselves to sacri- 
fices and praises to God, as being now deliver 
ed from all expectation of evils, and as enter 
taining a hopeful prospect of better times 
hereafter. They offered also gifts to God, 
some as common to the whole nation, and 
others as peculiar to themselves, and these tribe 
by tribe; for the heads of the tribes combined 
together, two by two, and brought a wagon 
and a yoke of oxen. These amounted to six, 
and they carried the tabernacle when they 
journeyed. Besides which, every head of a 
tribe brought a bowl, and a charger, and a 
spoon, of ten darics, full of incense. Now the 
charger and the bowl were of silver; and to- 
gether they weighed two hundred shekels, but 
the bowl cost no more than seventy shekels; 
and these were full of fine flour mingled with 
oil, such as they used on the altar about the 
sacrifices. They brought also a young bullock 
and a ram, with a lamb of a year olc, for a 


voice from the mercy-seat between the cherubimns. See 
Prideaux’s Connex. atthe year 534. This oracle had been 
silent, as Josephus here informs us, two hundred years before 
he wrote his Antiquities, or ever since the days of the last 
good high priest of the.family of the Maccabees, John Hyr- 
canus. Now itis here very well worth our observation, that 
the oracle before us was that by which God appeared to be 
present with and give directions to his people Israel as their 
king, all the while they submitted to him in that capacity, 
and did not set over them such independent kings as govern- 
ed according to their own wills and political maxims, in- 
stead of Divine directions. Accordingly we meet with this 
oracle (besides angelic and prophetic admonitions) all along 
from the days of Moses and Joshua, to the anointingof Saul, 
the first of the succession of kings, Numb. xxvii. 21; Josh 


(see Antiq. b. vi. ch. vi. sect. 4,) but rather by an audible | vi. 6, &c. xix. 50; Judg. i. 1; xviii. 4, 5, 6, 90, 31; xx. 18 2 


a5 


whole burnt-offering, as also a goat for the for- 
iveness of sins. Every one of the heads. of 
ie tribes brought also other sacrifices, called 

eace-offerings, for every day two bulls, and 
ie rams, with lambs of a year old, and kids 
of the goats. These heads of tribes were 
twelve days in sacrificing, one sacrificing every 
day. Now Moses went no longer up to mount 
Sinai, but went into the tabernacle, and learned 
of God what they were to do, and what laws 
should be made; which laws were preferable 
to wuat have been devised by human under- 
_ @tanding, and proved to be firmly observed for 
al] time to come, as being believed to be the 
gift of God, insomuch that the Hebrews did 
not transgress any of those laws, either as 
tempted in times of peace by luxury, or mn 
tinies of war by distress of affairs. But I say 
no more here concerning them, because [ have 
resolved to compose another work concerning 
our laws. 


CHAPTER IX. 
The Nature of our offering Sacrifices. 


§ 1. I will now, however, make mention of 
a few of our laws which belong to purifications, 
and the like sacred offices, since I am accident- 
ally come to this matter of sacrifices. These sa- 
crifices were of two sorts; of these sorts one 
was offered for private persons, and the other 
for the people in general; and they are done 
i two different ways. In the one case, what 
is slain is burnt, as a whole burnt-offering, 
whence that name is given to it; but the other 
is a thank-offering, and is designed for feasting 
those that sacrifice. I will speak of the form- 
er. Suppose a private man offer a burnt-offer- 
ing, he must slay either a bull, a lamb, or a kid 
of the goats, and the two latter of the first year, 
though of bulls he is permitted to sacrifice those 


26, 27, 28; xxi. 1, &c. 1 Sam. i. 17, 18; iii. per tot. iv. per tot. 
nay, till Saul’s rejection of the Divine commands in the war 
with Amalek, when he took upon him to act as he thought 
fit, 1 Sam. xiv. 3, 18, 19, 36, 37; then this oracle left Saul en- 
tirely (which indeed he had seldom consulted before, 1 Sam. 
xiv. 35; 1 Chron. x. 14; xiii. 3; Antiq. b. vii. ch. iv. sect. 23) 
and accompanied David, who was anointed to succeed him, 
aad who consulted God by it frequently, and complied with 
its directions constantly, 1 Sam. xiv. 37, 41; xv. 26; xxii, 13, 
15; xxiii. 9, 10; xxx. 7,8, 18;2 Sam. ii. 1; v. 19, 23; xxi. 1; xxiii. 
14; 1 Chron. xiv. 10, 14; Antiq. b. vi. ch. xii. sect. 5. Saul 

indeed, long after his rejection by God, and when God had 
given him up to destruction for his disobedience, did once 
afterward endeavor to consultGod, when it was too late; 
but God would not then answer him, neither by dreams, nor 
by Urim, nor by prophets, 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. Nor did any of 
David’s successors, the kings of Judah, that we know of, 
consult God by this oracle, till the very Babylonish captivity 
itself, when those kings were at an end, they taking upon 
them, I suppose, too much of despotic power and royalty, 
and too I ttle owning the God of Israel for the supreme king 
ef Israel, though a few of them consulted the prophets some- 
times and were answered by them. At the return of the 
favo tribes, without the return of the kingly government, the 
restoration of this oracle was expected, Neh. vii. 6; 1 Esd. v. 
44; 1 Macc. iv. 46; xiv. 41. And indeed it may seem to 
have been restored for some time after the Babylonish cap- 
tivity, at leastin the days of that excellent liigh priest, John 
“fyreanus, whom Josephus esteemed as a king, a priest, and 
4 prophet; and who, he says, foretold several things that 
game to pass accordingly; but about-the time of his death 
tic here implies that this oracle quite ceased, and not before. 
The following high priests new putting diadems on their 
heads, ana ruing avcording to their own will, and by their 
ewn authority, like the other kings of the Pagan countries 
about them; so that while the God of [srael was allowed to 
be ths supreme king of Israel, an his direetions to be their 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. OTE a 


Peewee. OS ae = 
J ‘ % ‘ 
Yee wows Ton 6 Ue. 


; ayes et) ee 
& 





of a greater aye; but al] burnt-offerings are ve — 
be of males. When they are slain, the priests — 
sprinkle the blood round about the altar; then — 
they cleanse the bodies, and divide them into — 
parts, and salt them with salt, and lay them upon 
the altar, while the pieces of wood are piled — 
one upon another, and the fire is burning: they — 
next cleanse the feet of the sacrifices, and the — 
inwards, in an accurate manner, and so lay 
them to the rest to be purged by the fire, while 
the priests receive the hides. ‘This is the way _ 
of offering a burnt-offering. 
2. But those that offer thank-offerings, do in- — 
deed sacrifice the same creatures, but such as 
are unblemished, and above a year old; how- 
ever, they may take either males or females. 
They also sprinkle the altar with their blood; 
but they lay upon the altar the kidneys and the ~ 
caul, and all the fat, and the lobe of the liver, © 
together with the rump of the lamb; then giv- — 
ing the breast and the right shoulder to the — 
priests, the offerers feast upon the remainder — 
of the flesh for two days; and what remains — 
they burn, 
3. The sacrifices for sins are offered in the 
same manner as is the thank-offering. But 
those who are unable to purchase complete 
sacrifices, offer two pigeons, or turtle-doves; the 
one of which is made a burnt-offering of God; — 
the other they give as food for the priests. But — 
we shall treat more accurately about the ob-_ 
lation of those creatures in our discourse con- — 
cerning sacrifices. But if a person fall into 
sin by ignorance, he offers a ewe lamb, or fe- — 
inale kid of the goats, of the same age; and — 
the priests sprinkle the blood at the altar, not — 
after the former manner, but at the corners of it. 3 
They also bring the kidneys, and the rest of the : 
fat; together with the lobe of the liver, to the — 






















authentic guides, God gave them such directions, as their — 
supreme king and governor; and they were properly undera 
theocracy, by this oracle of Urim, but no longer, (see Dr — 
Bernard’s notes here,) though I confess [cannot but esteem — 
the high priest Jaddus’s divine dream, Antiq. b. xi. ch. viii. 

sect. 4, and the high priest Caiaphas’s most remarkable pro-_ 
phecy, John xi. 47—52, as two small remains or specimens — 
of this ancient oracle, which properly belonged to the Jew- — 
ish high priest. Nor perhaps ought we entirely to forget that — 
eminent prophetic dream of our Josephus himself, (one next — 
to a high priest, as of the family of the Asamoneans of Mac ~ 
cabees,) as tothe succession of Vespasian and Titus to the — 
Roman empire, and that in the days of Nero, and before — 
either Galba, Otho, or Vitellius, were thought of to succeed 
him. Of the War, b. iii. ch. viii. sect. 7. This, I think, may ~ 
well be looked on as the very lastinstance of any thing like 
the prophetic Urim among the Jewish nation, and just pre- — 
ceded their fatal desolation. Buthowit could possibly come 
to pass that such great men as Sir John Marsham and Dr, — 
Spencer should imagine thatthis oracle of Urim and Thum- — 
mim, with other practices as old or older than the laws ef 
Moses, should have been ordained in imitation of somewnat — 
like them among the Egyptians, which we never hear of til 
the days of Diodorus Siculus, Adlian, and Maimonides, or 
little earlier than the Christian era at the highest, is almost — 
unaccountable; while the main business of the law of Meses — 
was evidently to preserve the Israelites from the idolatroua 
and superstitious practices of the neighboring Pagan nations; 
and while it is so undeniable, that the evidence for the 
great antiquity of Moses’s law is incomparably beyond that 
for the like or greater antiquity of such customs in it 
or other nations, which indeed is generally none at all; it is” 
most absurd to derive any of Moses’s laws from the im 
itation of those heathen practices. Such hypotheses de 
monstrate to us, how far incliniwtion can prevail over evi 
dence, in even sume of the most learned part of mankind. 





“~ 


oe 


f 


BOOK ITI—CHAPTER X. ° 
the flesh, and spend it in the holy place on the 


- game day;* for the law does not permit them to 


leave of it untilthe morning. But if any one 
sin and is conscious of it himself, but hath no- 
body that can prove it upon him, he offers a 
ram, the law enjoining him so to do: the flesh 
of which the priests eat as before, in the holy 

lace on the same day. And if the rulers of- 
for sacrifices for their sins, they bring the same 
oblations that private men do; only they so far 
differ, that they are to bring for sacrifices a bull 
or a kid of the goats, both males. 

4. Now the law requires, both in private and 
ublic sacrifices, that the finest flour be also 
rought; for a lamb the measure of one-tenth 

deal, for a ram two, and for a bullthree. ‘This 
they consecrate upon the altar, when it is min- 
gled with oil; for oil is also brought by those that 
gacrifice, for a bull the half of a hin, and fora 
ram the third part of the same measure, and 
one quarter of it fora Jamb. This hin is an 
ancient Hebrew measure, and is equivalent to 
two Athenian choas (or conguises.) They bring 
the same quantity of oil which they do of wine, 
and they pour the wine about the altar; but if 
any one does not offer acomplete sacrifice of 
ar'imals, but brings fine flour only for a vow, 
he throws a handful upon the altar as its first- 
fruits, while the priests take the rest for their 
food, either boiled, or mingled with oil, but 
mude into cakes of bread. But whatsoever it be 
that a priest himself offers, it must of necessity 
all be burnt. Now the law forbids us to sacri- 
fice any animal at the same time with its dam; 
atid in other cases, not till the eighth day after 
ite birth. Other sacrifices there are also ap- 
pointed for escaping distempers, or for other 
occasions, in which meat-offerings are consum- 
ed together with the animals that are sacrificed 
of which it is not lawful to leave any part till 
the next day, only the priests are to take their 
own share. 


CHAPTER X. 


a 


Cmcerning the Festivals: and how each day of 


such festival is to be observed. 


§ 1. The law requires, that out of the public 
expenses, a lamb of the first year be killed eve- 
ry day, at the beginning and at the ending of 
the day; but on the seventh day, which is called 


: _the Sabbath, they kill two, and sacrifice them 


in the same manner. At the new moon, they 
both perform the daily sacrifices, and slay two 
bulls, with seven lambs of the first year, and a 
kid of the goats also, for the expiation of sins; 
that is, if they have sinned through ignorance. 

2. But on the seventh month, which the Ma- 
eedonians call Hyperberetzeus, they make an ad- 
dit on to those already mentioned, and sacrifice 


- a bull, a ram, and seven lambs, and a kid of the 
_ goats, for sins. 


) Bi 


wy 


a 


3. On the tenth day of the same lunar month, 


they fast till the evening; and this day they sa- 


* What Reland well onserves here, out of Josephus, as 


* gompared with the law of Moses, Lev. vii. 15, (that the eat- 


ing of the sacrifice the same day it was offered, seems to 


_ thean only before the morning of the next, although the Jat- 
ter part, i. e. the night, be in strictness part of the next day, 


eccording o the J agg reckoning,) is greatly to be observe? 
i 


i) 


crifice a bull, and two rams, and seven lambs, 
and a kid of the goats, for sins And besides 
these, they bring two kids of the goats; the one 
of which is sent alive out of the limits of the 
camp into the wilderness for the scape-goat, 
and to be an expiation for the sins of the whole 
multitude; but the other is brought into a place 
of great cleanness within the limits of the camp, 
and is there burnt with its skin, without any 
sort of cleansing. With this goat was burnt a 
bull, not brought by the people, but by the high 
priest, at his own charges; which when it was 
slain, he brought of the blood into the holy 
place, together with the blood of the kid of the 
goats, and sprinkled the ceiling with his finger 
seven times, as also its pavement, and again as 
often towards the most holy place, and abom 
the golden altar: he also at last brings it into 
the open court, and sprinkles it about the great 
altar. Besides this they set the extremities, and 
the kidneys, and the fat, with the lobe of the 
liver, upon the altar. The high priest likewise 
presents a ram to God as a burnt-offering. 

4, Upon the fifteenth day of the same month, 
when the season of the year is changing for 
winter, the law enjoins us to pitch tabernacles 
in every one of our houses, so that we pre- 
serve ourselves from the cold of that time of 
the year; as also that when we shall arrive at 
our own country, and come to that city that 
we should have then for our metropolis, be- 
cause of the temple therein to be built, and 
keep a festival for eight days, and offer burnt- 
offerings, and sacrifice thank-offerings, that we 
should carry in our hands a branch of myrtle 
and willow, and a bough of the palm-tree, with 
the addition of the pomecitron. ‘That the 
burnt-offering on the first of those days was to 
be a sacrifice of thirteen bulls, and fourteen 
lambs, and fifteen rams, with the addition of a 
kid of the goats, as an expiation for sins, and 
on the following days the same number of 
lambs, and of rams, with the kids of the goats; 
but abating one of the bulls every day, till they 
amounted,to seven only. On the eighth day 
all work was laid aside, and then, as we said 
before, they sacrificed to God a bullock, a ram, 
and seven lambs, with a kid of the goats, for 
an expiation of sins. And this is the accus- 
tomed solemnity of the Hebrews, when they 
pitch their tabernacles. 

5. In the month of Xanthicus, which is by 
us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our 
year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar montk. 
when the sun is in Aries,(for on this month it 
was that we were delivered from bondage un- 
der the Egyptians,) the law ordained, that we 
should every year slay that sacrifice which } 
before told you we slew when we came out of 
Egypt, and which was called the Passover: 
and so we do celebrate this passover in com- 
panies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice 
till the day following. The feast of.unleavened 
upon other occasions also. The Jewish maxim in such 
cases, it seems, is this, that the day goes before the nigh 
and this appears to me to be the language both of the Old an 


New Testament. See also the note on Antiq. b. iv. chap. 
iv. sect. 4 and Reland’s note on b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 28. 


90 


bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls 
on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues 
seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened 
bread; on every one of which days two bulls 
are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now 
these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid 
of the goats, which is added to all the rest, for 
sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on 
every one of these days. But on the second 
day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth 
day of the month, they first partake of the fruits 
of the earth, for before that day they do not 
touch them. And while they suppose it pro- 
per to honor God, from whom they obtain a 
plentiful provision, in the first place taey offer 
the first-fruits of their barley, and that in the 
manner following: they take a handful of the 
ears, and dry them, then beat them small, and 
purge the barley from the bran; they then bring 
one-tenth deal to the altar, to God: and casting 
one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the 
rest for the use of the priests. And after this 
it is that they may publicly or privately reap 
their harvest. They also, at this participation 
of the first fruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb, 
as a burnt-offering to God. 

6. When a week of weeks has passed over 
after this sacrifice, (which weeks contain forty 
and nine days,) on the fiftieth day, which is Pen- 
tecost, but is called by the Hebrews Asartha, 
which signifies Pentecost, they bring to God a 
loaf, made of wheat flour, of two-tenth deals, 
with leaven; and for sacrifices they bring two 
lambs; and when they have presented them to 
God they are made ready for supper for the 
priests; nor is it permitted to leave any thing of 
them till the day following. They also slay three 
bullocks for a burnt-offering, and two rams, and 
fourteen lambs, with two kids of the goats, for 
sins; nor is there any one of the festivals but in 
it they offer burnt-offerings; they also allow 
themselves to rest on every one of them. Ac- 
cordingly, the law prescribes in them all, what 
kinds they are to sacrifice, and how they are to 
rest entirely, and must slay sacrifices in order 
to feast upon them. 

7. However, out of the common charges, 
baked bread [was set on the table of shew- 
bread,] without leaven, of twenty-four tenth 
deals of flour, for so much is spent upon this 
bread: two heaps of these were baked; they 
were taken the day before the Sabbath, but 
were brought into the holy place en the morn- 
ing of the Sabbath, and set upon the holy 
table, six on a heap, one loaf still standing over 
against another, where two golden cups full of 
frankincense were also set upon them, and 
there they remained till another Sabbath, and 
then other loaves were brought in their stead, 
while the loaves were given to the priests for 
their food, and the frankincense was burnt in 
that sacred fire wherein all their offerings were 
ournt also, and so other frankincense was set 
upon the loaves instead of what was there be- 
fore. The [high] priest also, of his own charg- 
es, offered a sacrifice, and that twice every day. 
It was made of flour mingled with oil, and 
geritly baked by the fire: the quantity war one- 





ANTIQUITIES OF THE J KLWs. . 
tenth deal of flour; he brought the half of it. 


to the fire in the morning, and the other half 
at night. The account of these sacrifices | 
shall give more accurately hereafter: but I 
think I have premised what for the present may 
be sufficient concerning them. 


j CHAPTER XI 
Of the Purifications. 


§ I. Moses took out the tribe of Levi from 
communicating with the rest of the peopie, 
and set them apart to be a holy tribe; and p- 
rified them by water, taken from perpetual 
springs, and with such sacrifices as were usually 
offered to God on the like occasions. He deliver- 
ed to them also the tabernacle, and the sacred 
vessels, and the other curtains which were 
made for covering the tabernacle, that they 
might minister under the conduct of the priest, 
who had been already consecrated to God. 

2. He also determined concerning animals; 
which of them might be used for food, and 
which they were obliged to abstain from; which 
matters, when this work shall give me occa- 
sion, shall be further explained; and the causes 
shall be added, by which he was moved to allot 
some of them to be our food, and enjoined us 
to abstain from others. However, he entirely 
forbade us the use of blood for food, and es- 
teemed it to contain the soul and spirit. He 
also forbade us to eat the flesh of an animal 
that died of itself, as also the caul, and the fat 
of goats, and shéep, and bulls. 

3. He also ordered that those whose bodies 
were afflicted with leprosy, and that had a ga- 
norrheea, should not come into the city:* nay, 
he removed the women, when they had thew 
natural purgations, till the seventh day; after 
which he looked on them as pure, and permit- 
ted them to come in again. The law permits 
those also who have taken care of funerals te 
come in after the same manner, when this 
number of days is over; but if any continued 
longer than that number of days in a state of 
pollution, the law appointed the offering two 
lambs as a sacrifice; the one of which they are 
to purge by fire, and for the other the priests 
take it for themselves. In the same manner 
do those sacrifice who have had the gonorrhoea. 
But he that sheds his seed in his sleep, if he 
goes down into cold water, he has the same 
privilege with those that have lawfully accom- 
panied with their wives. And for the lepers, 
he suffered them not to come into the city at 
all, nor to live with any others, as if they were 
in effect dead persons; but if any one had ob- 


tained, by prayer to God, the recovery from — 


that distemper, and had gained a healthful 
complexion again, such a one returned thanks 
to God, with several sorts of sacrifices; con 
cerning which we will speak hereafter. 

4. Whence one cannot but smile at those 
who say, that Moses was himself afflicted with 
leprosy when he fled out of Egypt, and that 

* We may here note, that Josephus frequently calls the 
camp the city, and the court of the Mosaic tabernacle a tem- 
ple, and the tabernacle itself a holy house, with allusion to 


the latter city, temple, ard holv house, which he knew ee 
well long afterward. 


Cee Sr 


BOOK HT.—CHAPTER XII. 


he became the conductor of those who on that 
account left that country, and led them into the 
land of Canaan; for had this been true, Moses 
would not have made these laws to his own 
dishonor, which, indeed, it was more likely he 
would have opposed, if others had endeavored 
to introduce them, and this the rather, because 
there are lepers in many nations, who yet are 
in honor, and not only free from reproach and 
avoidance, but who have been great captains of 
rmies, and been intrusted with high offices in 
3 commonwealth; and have had the privilege 
f entering into holy places and temples; so 
hat nothing hindered, but if either Moses him- 
‘elf, or the multitude that was with him, had 
been liable to such a misfortune, in the color 
wf his skin, he might have made laws about 
_them for their credit and advantage, and have 
aid no manner of difficulty upon them. Ac- 
cordingly it is a plain case, that it is out of vio- 
lent prejudice only that they report these things 
about us. But Moses was pure from any such 
distemper, and lived with countrymen who 
were pure of it also, and thence made the laws 
which concerned others that had the distem- 
per. He did this for the honor of God. But 
as to these matters, let every one consider them 
after what manner he pleases. 
9d. As to the women, when they have borne a 
child, Moses forbade them to come into the tem- 
ple, or to touch the sacrifices, before forty days 
were over, supposing it to be a boy; but if she 
had borne a girl, the law is, that she cannot be 
admitted before twice that number of days be 
over. And when, after the before-mentioned 
time appointed for them, they perform their sa- 
crifices, the priests distribute them before God. 
6. But if any one suspect that his wife has been 
guilty of adultery, he was to bring a tenth deal 
of barley-flour; they then cast one handful to 
God, and gave the rest of it to the priests for 
food. One of the priests set the woman at the 
gates that are turned towards the temple, and 
took the vail from her head, and wrote the name 
of God on parchment, and enjoined her to swear 
that she had not at all injured her husband; and 
to wish, that if she had violated her chastity, her 
right thigh might be put out of joint; that her 
belly might swell, and that she might die thus: 
but that if her husband, by the violence of his 
affection, and of the jealousy which arose from 
it, had been rashly moved to this suspicion, that 
she might bear a male child on the tenth month. 
Now when these oaths were over, the priest 
wiped ~3 name of God out of the parchment, 
nd wrung the water into a vial. He also took 
ome dust out of the temple, if any happened to 
be there, and put a little of it into the vial, and 
ve it her to drink; whereupon the woman, 
if she were unjustly accused, conceived with 
child, and brought it to perfection in her womb: 
but if she had broken her faith of wedlock to 
her husband, and had sworn falsely before God, 
she died in a reproachful manner: her thigh 
_ fell off from her, and her belly swelled with a 
dropsy. And these are the ceremonies about 
_ sacrifices, and about the purifications thereto 
_ belonging, which Moses provided for his coun- 


91 


trymen. He also prescribed the following laws 
to them. 


CHAPTER XII. 
Several Laws. 


§1. As for adultery, Moses forbade it entire- 
ly, as esteeming it a happy thing that men 
should be wise in the affairs of wedlock; and 
that it was profitable both to cities and families, 
that children should be known to be genuine. 
He also abhorred men’s lying with their moth- 
ers, as one of the greatest crimes; and the like 
for lying with the father’s wife, and with aunts, 
and sisters, and sons’ wives, as all instances of 
abominable wickedness. He also forbade a 
inan to lie with his wife when she was defiled 
by her natural purgation; and not to come near 
brute beasts, nor to approve of the lying with 
a male, which was to huntafter unlawful plea- 
sures on account of beauty. To those who 
were guilty of such insolent behavior, he or- 
dained death for their punishment. 

2. As for the priests, he prescribed to them a 
double degree of purity;* for he restrained 
them in the instances above, and moreover for- 
bade them to marry harlots. He also forbade 
them to marry a slave, or 2 captive, and such as 
got their living by cheating trades, and by keep- 
ing inns: as also a woman parted from her 
husband on any occasion whatsoever. Nay lie 
did not think it proper for the high priest to 
marry even the widow of one that was dead, 
though he allowed that to the priests, but he 
permitted him only to marry a virgin, and to 
retain her. Whence it is that the high priest 
is not to come near to one that is dead, although 
the rest are not prohibited from coming near to 
their brethren, or parents, or children, when 
they are dead, but they are to be unblemished 
inallrespects. He ordered, that the priest who 
had any blemish, should have his portion in- 
deed among the priests, but he forbade him to 
ascend the altar, or to enter into the holy house 
He also enjoined them, not only to observe pu- 
rity in their sacred ministrations, but in their 
daily conversation, that it might be unblama- 
ble also. And on this account it is, that those 
who wear the sacerdotal garments, are without 
spot, and eminent for their purity and sobriety; 
nor are they permitted to drink wine so long as 
they wear those garments.t Moreover, they 
offer sacrifices that are entire, and have no de~- 
fect whatsoever. 

3. And truly Moses gave them all these pre- 
cepts, being such as were observed during nis 
own lifetime. But though he lived now in the 
wilderness, yet did he make provision how 
they might observe the same laws when they 


* These words of Josephus are remarkable, that the law 
giver of the Jews required of the priests a double degree of 
purity, in comparison of that required of the people; of 
which he gives several instances immediately. It was for 
certain the cage also among the first Christians, of the cler 
gy, in comparison of the laity, as the Apostolical Constitu- 
tions and canons everywhere inform us. 

+ We must here note, with Reland, that the precept given 
to the priests not to drink wine while they wore the sacred 
garments, is equivalent to their abstinence from it all the 
while they ministered in the temple, because they them 
always, and then only, wore those sacred garments, whick 
were laid up there from one time of ministration to another, 


we ANTIQUITIES 


should have taken the land of Canaan: he gave 
‘then rest to the land from ploughing and plant- 
ing every seventh year, as he had prescribed 
to them to rest from working every seventh day; 
and ordered, that then, what grew of its own 
accord out of the earth, should in common be- 
long to all that pleased to use it, making no dis- 
tinction in that respect between their own coun- 
trymen and foreigners: and he ordained, that 
they should do the same after seven times seven 
years, which in all are fifty years: and that fif- 
tieth year is called by the Hebrews the Jubilee, 
wherein debtors are freed from their debts, and 
slaves are set at liberty: which slaves became 
such. though they were of the same stock, by 
transgressing some of those laws whose pun- 
ishment was not capital, but they were punish- 
ed by this method of slavery. This year also 
restores the land to its former possessors in the 
manner following: when the Jubilee is come, 
which name denotes liberty, he that sold the 
land and he that bought it, meet together and 
make an estimate, on one hand, of the fruits 
gathered, and on the other hand, of the expens- 
es laid out upon it. If the fruits gathered 
come to more than the expenses laid out, he 
that sold it takes the land again; but if the ex- 
penses prove more than the fruits, the present 
possessor receives of the former owner the 
difference that was wanting, and leaves the 
land to him; and if the fruits received, and the 
expenses laid out, prove equal to one another, 
the present possessor relinquishes it to the form- 
er owner. Moses would have the same law 
obtained as to those houses also which were 
sold in villages ; but he made a different law for 
such as were sold in a city; for if he that sold 
it tendered the purchaser his money again with- 
in a year, he was forced to restore it; but in 
case a whole year had intervened, the purchas- 
er was to enjoy what he had bought. This 
was the constitution of the laws which Moses 
learned of God, when the camp lay under 
Mount Sinai, and this he delivered in writing to 
the Hebrews. 


4, Now when this settlement of laws seemed 
to be well over, Moses thought fit at length to 
take a review of the host, as thinking it proper 
to settle the affairs of war. So he charged the 
heads of the tribes, excepting the tribe of Levi, 
to take an exact account of the number of those 
that were able to go to war; for as to the Levites 
they were holy, and free from all such burdens, 
Now, when the people had been numbered, 
there were found six hundred thousand that 
were able to go to war, from twenty to fifty 
years of age, besides three thousand six hun- 
dred and fifty. Instead of Levi, Moses took 
Manasseh, the son of Joseph, among the heads 
of tribes; and Ephraim instead of Joseph. It 
was, indeed, a desire of Jacob himself to Jo- 
seph, that he would give him his sons to be his 
own by adoption, as I have before related. 

5. When they set up the tabernacle, they 
received it into the midst of their camp, three 
of the tribes pitching their tents on each side 
of it, and roads were cut through the midst of 
these tents. I was like a well-appointed mar- 


/ 
OF THE JEWS. 


ket; and every thing was there ready for sale m 
due order; and all sorts of artificers were in the 
shops; and it resembled nothing so much as a 
city that sometimes was movable, and some~ 
times fixed. The priests had the first places 
about the tabernacle; then the Levites, who, be- 
cause their whole multitude was reckoned from 
thirty days old, were twenty-three thousand 
eight hundred and eighty males. And during 
the time that the cloud stood over the tabernacle, 
they thought proper to stay in the same place, 
as supposing that God there inhabited amon 
them: but when that removed, they journey 
also. 

6. Moreover, Moses was the inventor of the 
form of their trumpet, which was made of silver. 
Its description is this: in length it was little less 
than a cubit. It was composed of a narrow 
tube, somewhat thicker than a flute, but with so 
much breadth as was sufficient for admission 
of the breadth of a man’s mouth; it ended in the 
form of a bell, like common trumpets. Its 
sound was called, in the Hebrew tongue, Asosra. 
Two of these being made, one of them was 
sounded when they required the multitude to 
come together to congregations. When the 
first of them gave a signal, the heads of the 
tribes were to assemble, and to consult about 
the affairs to them properly belonging; but when 
they gave the signal by both of them, they called 
the multitude together. Whenever the taber- 
nacle was removed, it was done in this solemn 
order: at the first alarm of the trumpet, those 
whose tents were on the east quarter prepared 
to remove; when the second signal was given, 
those that were on the south quarter did the 
like; in the next place, the tabernacle was taken 
to pieces, and was carried in the midst of six 
tribes that went before, and six that followed, 
all the Levites assisting about the tabernacle; 
when the third signal was given, that part 
which had their tents towards the west put 
themselves into motion; and on the fourth sig- 
nal, those on the north did so likewise. They 
also made use of these trumpets in their sacred 
ministrations, when they were bringing their 
sacrifices to the altar, as well on the Sabbaths 
as on the rest of the [festival] days. And now it 
was that Moses offered that sacrifice which was 
called the Passover, in the wilderness, as the 
first he had offered after the departure out of 


Egypt. 
CHAPTER XIII 


How Moses removed from Mount Sinai, and con- 
ducted the people to the borders of Canaan, 


§ 1. A little while afterward he rose up, ané ~ 


went from mount Sinai; and having 


through several mansions, of which we shall : 
speak anon, he came to a place called Haze- © 
. to be a 


mutinous, and to blame Moses for the misfor — 


roth, where the multitude began 


tune they had suffered in their travels; and 


that when he had persuaded them to leave a 
good land, they at once had Jost that land, and — 
instead of that happy state he had promised — 
them, they were still wandering in their present — 
miserable condition, being already in want of — 


ee 


- a — ——— 





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NS 
I SAS 
AY NN 





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iil NY Int 
DANY 
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Wf \ 
WX 


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Hi 


Lily 


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UU fjf@ODDPOD OE, 


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MosES VIEWING PROMISED LAND. 








ROOK IT—CHAPTER XIV 


water; and if the manna should happen to fail, 
they must then utterly perish. Yet while they 
generally spake many and sore things against 
-he man, there was one of them who exhorted 
them not to be unmindful of Moses, and of 
what great pains he had been at about their 
common safety; and not to despair of assist- 
ance fron God. ‘The multitude thereupon be- 
came still more unruly, and more mutinous 
inst Moses than before. ‘Thereupon Moses, 
Gihough he were so basely abused by them, en- 
couraged them in their despairing condition, 
and promised that he would procure them a 
great quantity of flesh meat, and that not for 
a few days only, but for many days. This they 
were not willing to believe: and when one of 
them asked, whence he could obtain such a 
vast plenty of what he promised? he replied, 
neither God, nor I, although we hear such op- 
probrious words from you, will leave off our 
labors for you, and this shall soon appear also, 
As soon as ever he had said this, the whole 
camp was filled with quails; and they stood 
round about them, and gathered them in great 
numbers. However, it was not long ere God 
punished the Hebrews for their insolence, and 
those reproaches they had used towards him, 
for no small number of them died. And still 
to this day the place retains the memory of this 
destruction, and is named Kibroth-hattaavah, 
which is the graves of lust. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


How Moses sent some persons to search out the 
land of the Canaanites, and the largeness of 
their cities: and further, that when those who 
were sent were returned, after forty days, and 
reported that they should not be a match for them, 
and extolled the strength of the Canaanites, the 
multitude were disturbed, and fell into despair, 
and were resolved to stone Moses, and to return 
back again into Egypt, and serve the Egyp- 

tans. 

§ 1. When Moses had led the Hebrews away 
from thence to a place called Paran, which was 
near to the borders of the Canaanites, and a 
place difficult to be continued in, he gathered 

the multitude together to a congregation; and 
standing in the midst of them, he said, “Of the 
two things that God determined to bestow upon 
us, liberty, and the possession of a happy coun- 
try, the one of them ye already are partakers 
of, by the gift of God, and the other you will 
quickly obtain; for we now have our abode 
near the borders of the Canaanites, and nothing 
ean hinder the acquisition of it, when we now 
at Jast are fallen upon it; I say, not only no 
_king nor city, but neither the whole race of 
mankind, if they were all gathered together, 
could do it. Let us, therefore, prepare our- 
selves for the work, for the Canaanites will not 
resign up their land to us without fighting, 
but it must be wrested from them by great strug- 
gles war. Let us then send spies, who may 
takea view of the goodness of the land, and 
what strength it isof. Butabove all things, let 
us be of one mind, and let us honor God, who, 
above all, is our helper and assister.” 


B 


2. When Moses had said thus, the multitude 
requited him with marks of respect; and chose 
twelve spies, of the most eminent men, one 
out of each tribe, who, passing over all the 
land of Canaan, from the borders of Egypt, 
came to the city Hamath, and to mount Le- 
banon: and having learned the nature of the 
land, and of its inhabitants, they came home, 
having spent forty days in the whole work. 
They also brought with them of the fruits 
which the land bare: they also showed them 
the excellency of those fruits, and gave an ac- 
count of the great quantity of the good things 
that land afforded, which were motives to the 
multitude to goto war. But then they terrified 
them again with the great difficulty there was 
in obtaining it; that the rivers were so large 
and deep that they could not be passed over; 
and that the hills were so high, that they could 
not travel along for them; that the cities were 
strong with walls, and their firm fortifications 
round about them. They told them also, that 
they found at Hebron the posterity of the 
giants. Accordingly, these spies, who had seen 
the land of Canaan, when they perceived that 
all these difficulties were greater there than 
they had met with since they came out of 
Egypt, they were affrighted at them themselvea, 
and endeavored to affright the multitude also 

3. So they supposed, from what they haus 
heard, that it was impossible to get the possen- 
sion of the country. And when the congre- 
gation was dissolved, they, their wives, and 
children, continued their lamentation, as if Ged 
would not indeed assist them, but only promis- 
ed them fair, .They also again blamed Moses, 
and made a clamor against him and his brother 

aron, the high priest. Accordingly, they 
passed that night very ill, and with contume 
lious language against them; but in the morning 
they ran to a congregation, intending to stone 
Moses and Aaron, and so to return into Egypt. 

4. But of the spies, there were Joshua, the 
son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim; and 
Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, that were afraid 
of the consequence, and came into the midst 
of them, and stilled the multitude, and desired 
them to be of good courage; and neither to 
condemn God, as having told them lies, neither 
to hearken to those who had affrighted them, 
by tellmg them what was not true concerning 
the Canaanites, but to those that encouraged 
them to hope for good success; and that they 
should gain possession of the happiness pro- 
mised them, because neither the height of 
mountains, nor the depth of rivers, could 
hinder men of true courage from attempting 
them, especially while God would take care of 
them beforehand, and be assistant to thein 
Let us then go, said they, against our enemies, 
and have no suspicion of ill success, trusting 
to God to conduct us, and following those that 
are to be our leaders. ‘Thus did these two ex- 
hort them, and endeavor to pacify the rage 
they were in. But Moses and Aaron fell on 
the ground, and besought God, not for their 
own deliverance, but that he would put a sto 
to what the people were unwarily doing, an 


34 


would bring their minds to a quiet temper, 
which were now disordered by their present 
passion. ‘The cloud also did now appear, and 
stood over the tabernacle, and declared to them 
the presence of God to be there. 


CHAPTER XV. 


How Moses was displeased at this; and foretold 
that God was angry, and that they should con- 
tinue in the Wilderness for Forty Years, and 
not [during that time] either return into Egypt, 
or take possession of Canaan. 


§ 1. Moses came now boldly to the multi- 
tude, and informed them that God was moved 
at their abuse of him, and would inflict punish- 
ment upon them, not indeed such as they de- 
served for their sins, but such as parents inflict 
on their children, in order to their correction: 
for, he said, that when he was in the tabernacle, 
and was bewailing with tears that destruction 
which was coming upon them, God put him in 
mind what things he had done for them, and 
what benefits they had received from him, and 

et how ungrateful they had been to him; that 
just now they had been induced, by the timor- 
ousness of the spies, to think that their words 
were truer than his own promise to them; and 
that, on this account, though he would not in- 
deed destroy them all, nor utterly extirminate 
their nation, which he had honored more than 
any other part of mankind, yet he would not 
permit them to take possession of the land of 
Canaan, nor enjoy its happiness, but would 
make them wander in the wilderness, and live 
without any fixed habitation, and without a city, 
for forty years together, as a punishment for 
this their transgression; but that he hath pro- 
mised to give that land to our children, and that 
he would make them the possessors of those 
good things, which, by your ungoverned pas- 
gions, you have deprived yourselves of. 

2. When Moses had discoursed thus to them, 
according to the direction of God, the multitude 
grieved, and were in affliction, and entreated 
Moses to procure their reconciliation to God, 
and to permit them no longer to wander in the 
wilderness, but to bestow cities upon them. 
But he replied, that God would not admit of 
any such trial, for that God was not moved to 
this determination from any human levity, or 
anger, but that he had judicially condemned 
them to that punishment. Now we are not to 
disbelieve that Moses, who was but a single per- 
son, pacified so many ten thousands when they 
were in anger, and converted them to a mild- 
ness of temper; for God was with him, and 
prepared the way to his persuasions of the mul- 
dtude; and as they had often been disobedient, 
thy were now sensible that such disobedience 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


was disadvantageous to them, and that they haa 
still thereby fallen into calamities. 

3. But this man was admirable for his virtue, 
and powerful in making men give credit tw 
what he delivered, not only during the time of 
his natural life, but even there is still no one of 
the Hebrews, who does not act even now as 
if Moses were present, and ready to punish him, 
if he should do any thing that is indecent; nay 
there is no one but is obedient to what laws he 
ordained, although they might be concealed in 
their transgressions. There are, also, inany 
other demonstrations that his power was more 
than human, for still some there have been, who 
have come from the parts beyond Euphrates, a 
journey of four months, through many dangers, 
and at great expenses, in honor of our temple: 
and yet, when they had offered their oblations, 
could not partake of their own sacrifices, be- 
cause Moses had forbidden it, by somewhat in 
the law that did not permit them, or somewhat 
that had befallen them, which our ancient cus- 
toms made inconsistent therewith; some of these 
did not sacrifice at all, and others left their sac- 
rifices in an imperfect condition; nay, many 
were not able even at first so much as to enter 
into the temple, but went their ways in this state, 
as preferring a submission to the laws of Moses, 
before the fulfilling of their own inclinations, 
even when they had no fear upon them that any 


body could convict them, but only out of a 


reverence to their own conscience. ‘Thus this 
legislation, which appeared to be divine, made 
this man to be esteemed as one superior to his 
own human nature. Nay, farther, a little before 
the beginning of this war, when Claudius was 
emperor of the Romans, and Ismael was our 
high priest, and when so great a famine was 
come upon us,* that one-tenth deal [of wheat] 
was sold for four drachmee; and when no less 
than seventy cori of flour were brought into the 
temple at the feast of unleavened bread, (these 
cori are thirty-one Sicilian, but forty-one Athe- 
nian medimni,) not one of the priests were so 
hardy as to eat one crumb of it, even while so 
great a distress was on the land, and this out 
of a dread of the law, and of that wrath which 
God retaims against acts of wickedness, even 
when no one can accuse the actors. Whence 
We are not to wonder at what was then done, 
while to this very day the writings left by Moses 


have so great a force, that even those that hate — 


us, do confess, that he who established this set- 
tlement was God, and that it was by the means 
of Moses, and of his virtue; but as to these mat 
ters, let every one take them as he thinks fit 


* This great famine, ‘n the days of Claudius, is again mes 
tioned in Antiq. b. xx. thap. ii. sect 6, and Acts xi. 38. 


ata Shes 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTERS I. IL 


BOOK IV. 


POVYTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS.—FROM THE REJECTION OF THAT 
GENERATION TO THE DEATH OF MOSES. 


CHAPTER I. 


The fight of the Hebrews with the Canaanites, 
without the consent of Moses, and their defeat. 


§ 1. Now this life of the Hebrews in the wil- 
derness was so disagreeable and troublesome 
to them, and they were so uneasy at it, that al- 
though God had forbidden them to meddle with 
the Canaanites, yet could they not be persuad- 
ed to be obedient to the words of Moses, and 
to be quiet; but supposing they should be able 
to beat their enemies, even without his appro- 
bation, they accused him, and suspected that he 
made it his business to keep them in a distress- 
ed condition, that they might always stand in 
need of his assistance. Accordingly, they re- 
solved to fight with the Canaanites, and said, 
that God gave them his assistance, not out of 
regard to Moses’s intercessions, but because he 
took care of their entire nation, on account of 
their forefathers, whose affairs he took under 
his own conduct: as also, that it was on ac- 
count of their own virtue that he had form- 
erly procured them their liberty, and would be 
assisting to them, now they were willing to 
take pains for it. They also said, that they 
were of themselves of abilities sufficient for the 
conquest of their enemies, although Moses 
should havea mind to alienate God from them: 
that, however, it was for their advantage to be 
their own masters, and, not so far to rejoice in 
their deliverance fro the indignities they en- 
dured under the Egyptians, as to bear the ty- 
ranny of Moses over them, and to suffer them- 
selves to be deluded, and to live according to 
his pleasure, as though God did only foretell 
what concerns us out of his kindness to him, 
as if they were not all the posterity of Abra- 
ham; that God made him alone the author of 
all the knowledge we have, and we must still 
learn it from him: that it would be a piece of 
prudence to oppose his arrogant pretences, and 
to put their confidence in God, and to resolve 
to take possession of that land which he had 
promised them, and not to give ear to him, who, 
on this account, and under the pretence of di- 
vine authority, forbade them soto do. Consid- 
ering, therefore, the distressed state they were 
in at present, and that in these desert places they 
were still to expect things would be worse with 
them, they resolved to fight with the Canaan- 


ites, as submitting only to God, their supreme 


“ommander, and not waiting for any assistance 
from their legislator. 

2. When, therefore, they had come to this 
res lution, as being best for them, they went 
am ng their enemies; but those enemies were 
not dismayed either at the attack itself, or at 
the great multitude that made it, and received 
them with great courage. Many of the He- 
brews were slain: and the remainder of the 


ee Se eS ee ee SS ES EE EEE ee 


army, upon the disorder of their troops, were 
pursued, and fled, after a shameful manner, 
to their camp. Whereupon this unexpected 
misfortune made them quite despond: and they 
hoped for nothing that was good, as gathering 
from it, that this affliction came from the wrath 
of God, because they rashly went out to war 
without his approbation. 

3. But when Moses saw how deeply they 
were affected with this defeat, and being afraid 
lest the enemies should grow insolent upon 
this victory, and should be desirous of gaining 
still greater glory, and should attack them, re- 
solved that it was proper to withdraw the army 
into the wilderness, to a farther distance from the 
Canaanites; so the multitude gave themselves 
up again to his conduct; for they were sensi- 
ble, that without his care for them, their affairs 
could not be ina good condition; and he caused 
the host to remove, and he went farther into the 
wilderness, as intending there to let them rest, 
and not to permit them to fight the Canaanites 
before God should afford them a more favora- 
ble opportunity. 


CHAPTER II. 


The Sedition of Corah, and of the multitude, 
against Moses, and against his brother, con- 
cerning the Priesthood. 


§ 1. That which is usually the case of great 
armies, and especially upon ill success, to be 
hard to be pleased, and governed with diffi- 
culty, did now befall the Jews; for they being 
in number six hundred thousand, and by reason 
of their great multitude not readily subject to 
their governors, even in prosperity, they at this 
time were more than usually angry, both against 
one another, and against their leader, because 
of the distress they were in, and the calamities 
they then endured. Such a sedition overtook 
them, as we have not the like example either 
among the Greeks or the barbarians, by which 
they were in danger of being all destroyed; but 
were, notwithstanding, saved by Moses, who 
would not remember that he had been almost 
stoned to death by them. Nor did God neglect 
to prevent their ruin, but notwithstanding the 
indignities they had offered their legislator, and 
the laws, and their disobedience to the com- 
mandments which he had sent them by Moses, 
he delivered them from those terrible calami- 
ties, which, without his providential care, had 
been brought upon them by this sedition. Sea 
I will first explain the cause whence this sedi- 
tion arose, and then give an account of the se- 
dition itself; as also of what settlements Moses 
made for their government, after it was over. 

2. Corah, a Hebrew of principal account, 
both by his family and by his wealth, one that 
was also able to speak well, and one that could 
easily persuade the people by his speeches, saw 


al 
that Moses was in an exceeding great dignity, 
and was uneasy at it, and envied him on that 
account, (he was of the same tribe with Moses, 
and of kin to him,) was particularly grieved, 
because he thought he better deserved that ho- 
norable post on account of his great riches, 
and not inferior to him in his birth. So he 
raised a clamor against him among the Levites, 
who,were of the same tribe, and especially 
among his kindred, saying, “That it was a very 
sad thing that they should overlook Moses, 
while he hunted after and paved the way to 
glory for himself, and by ill arts should obtain 
it, under the pretence of God’s command; 
while, contrary to the laws, he had given the 
priesthood to Aaron, not by the. common 
suffrage of the multitude, but by his own vote, 
as bestowing dignities in a tyrannical way on 
whom he pleased. He added, that this con- 
cealed way of imposing on them was harder 
to be borne, than if it had been done by an 
open force upon them, because he did now not 
only take away their power without their con- 
sent, but even while they were unapprized of 
his contrivances against them; for whosoever 
is conscious to himself that he deserves any 
dignity, aims to get it, by persuasion, and not 
by an arrogant method of violence; but those 
that believe it impossible to obtain those honors 
justly, they make a show of goodness, and do 
not introduce force, but by cunning tricks grow 
wickedly powerful; that it was proper for the 
multitude to punish such men, even while they 
think themselves concealed in tlieir designs, 
and not suffer them to gain strength, till they 
have them for their open enemies. For what 
account, added he, is Moses able to give why 
he has bestowed the priesthood on Aarcn and 
his sons? for if God had determined to bestow 
that honor on one of the tribe of Levi, [ am 
more worthy of it than he is, I myself being 
equal to Moses by my family, and superior to 
him both in riches and in age; but if God had 
determined to bestow it on the eldest tribe, that 
of Reubel might have it most justly; and then 
Dathan and Abiram, and [On, the son] of Pe- 
leth, would have it, for these are the oldest men 
of that tribe, and potent on account of their 
great wealth also.” 

3. Now Corah, when he had said this, had 
a mind to appear to take care of the public 
welfare, but in reality he was endeavoring to 
procure to have that dignity transferred by the 
multitude to himself. Thus did he, out of a 
malignant design, but with plausible words, 
discourse to those of his own tribe; and when 
these words did gradually spread to more of the 
people, and when the hearers still added to 
what tended to the scandals that were cast upon 
Aaron, the whole army was full of them. Now 
of those that conspired with Corah, there were 
two hundred and fifty, and those of the princi- 
i men also, who were eager to have the pr.est- 

ood taken away fiom Moses’s brother, and to 
bring him into disgrace: nay, the multitude 
themselves were provoked to be seditious, and 
attempted to stone Moses; and gathered them. 
selves together after an indecent manner, with 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWs. 


\ , 
pbanranion and disorder. And now they all 
were, in a tumultuous manner, raising a clamor 
before the tabernacle of God, to prosecute the 
tyrant, and to relieve the mubitude from their 
slavery under him, who, under color of the di- 
vine commands, laid violent injunctions upon 
them; for that, had it been God who chose one 
that was to perform the office of a priest, he 
would have raised a worthy person to that dig- 
nity, and would not have produced such a one 
as was inferior to many others, nor have given 
him that office; and in that case, had he judg- 
ed it fit to bestow it on Aaron, he would have 
permitted it to the multitude to bestow it and 
not have left it to be bestowed by his own 
brother. 

4. Now, although Moses had a great while 
ago foreseen this calumny of Corah, and had 
seen that the people were irritated, yet was he 
not affrighted at it; but being of good courage 
| because he had given them right advice about 
| their affairs, and knowing that his brother had 
been made partaker of the priesthood at the 
command of God, and not by his own fayor to 
him, he came to the assembly; and, as for the 
multitude, he said not a word to them, but 
spake as loud to Corah as he could; and being 
very skilful in making speeches, and having 
this natural talent among others, that he could 
greatly move the multitude with his discourses, 
he said, “O Corah, both thou, and all these 
with thee, (pointing to the two hundred and 
hifly men,) seem to be worthy of this honor; 
nor do I pretend but that this whole compan 
may be worthy of the like dignity; althoug 
they may not be so rich or so great as you ares 
nor have [ taken and given this office to my 
brother, because he excelled others in riches, 
for thou exceedest us both in the greatness of 
thy wealth;* nor indeed because he was of an 
eminent family, for God, by giving us the same 
common ancestor, has made our families equal; 
nay, nor was it out of brotherly affection, 
which another might yet have justly done; for 
certainly, unless I had bestowed this honor out 
of regard to God and to his laws, I had not 
passed by myself, and given it to another, as 
being nearer of kin to myself than to my 
brother, and having a closer intimacy with my- 
self than I have with him: for surely, it wou 
not be a wise thing for me, to expose myself 
to the dangers of offending, and to bestow the 
happy employment on this account upon 
another. But I am above such base practices: 
nor would God have overlooked this matter, 
and seen himself thus despised, nor would he 
have suffered you to be ignorant of what you 
were to do, in order to please him; but he hath 
himself chosen one that is to perform that sa- 
cred office to him, and thereby freed us from 
that care. So that it was not a thing that I 
pretend to give, but only according to the de- 
termination of God; I therefore propose it still 
to be contended for by such as please to put im 
for it, only desiring, that he who has been al 








* Reland here takes notice, that although our Bibles say 
little or nothing of these riches of Corah, yet that both the 
Jews and Mahew @ans ae we «~ sosephug, are full ef 


a £ + 


BOOK IV.-€ 


ready preferred, and has already obtained it, 
imay be allowed now also to offer himself for 
a candulate. He prefers your peace, and your 
living without sedition, to this honorable em- 
ployment, although ff truth it was with your 
approbation that he obtained it; for though 
sod were the donor, yet do we not offend 
when we think fit to accept it with your good 
will; yet would it have been an instance of 
imipiety not to have taken that honorable em- 
ployment when he offered it; nay, it had been 
exceeding unreasonable,when God had thought 
fit any one should have it for all time to come, 
and had made it secure and firm to him, to 
have refused it. However, he himself will 
judge again who it shall be whom he would 
have to offer sacrifices to him, and to have the 
direction of matters of religion; for it is absurd 
that Corah, who is ambitious of this honor, 
should deprive God of the power of giving it 
to whom he pleases. Put an end, therefore, to 
_ your sedition and disturbance on this account; 
and to-morrow morning do every one of you- 
that desire the priesthood, bring a censer from 
home, and come hither with incense and _ fire: 
and do thou, O Corah, leave the judgment to 
God, and await to see on which side he wil! 
give his determination upon this occasion; but 
do not thou make thyself greater than God. 
Do thou also come, that this contest about this 
honorable employment may receive determi- 
nation. And I suppose we may admit Aaron, 
without offence, to offer himself to this scru- 
tiny, since he is of the same lineage with thy-| 
self, and has done nothing in his priesthood | 
that can be liable to exception. Come ye, 
therefore, together, and offer your incense in 
public before all the people; and when you 
offer it, he whose sacrifice God shall accept 
shall be ordained to the priesthood, and shall 
be clear of the present calumny on Aaron, as 
if I had granted him that favor because he was 
my brother.” 





CHAPTER III. 


How those that stirred up this Sedition were de- 
stroyed pore to the will of God; and how 
Aaron, Moses’s brother, both he and his pos- 
terity, retained the priesthood. 


§1. When Moses had said this, the multitude 
left off the turbulent behavior they had indulged, 
and the suspicion they had of Moses, and com- 
mended what he had said, for those proposals 
were good, and so were esteemed of the peo- 
ple. At that time, therefore, they dissolved the 
essembly. But on the next day they came to 
the congregation, in order to be present at the 
sacrifice, and at the determination that was to be 
made between the candidates for the priesthood. 
Now this congregation proved a turbulent one, 
‘and the multitude were in great suspense in ex- 
pectation of what was to be done; for some of 
them would have been pleased if Moses had 
been convicted of evil practices, but the wiser 
sort desired that they might be delivered from 
the present disorder and disturbance; for they 
were afraid, that if this sedition went on, the 
_ good order of sd settlement would rather be | 
1c 


HAPTER III. J 


destroyed; but the whole body of the people 
do naturally delight in clamors against their 
governors, and by changing their opinions upom 
the harangues of every speaker, disturb the pub- 
lic tranquillity. And now Moses sent messen-~ 
gers for Abiram and Dathan, and ordered them 
to come to the assembly, and wait there for the 
holy offices that were to be performed. But 
they answered the messengers that they would 
not obey his summons; nay, would not overlook 
Moses’s behavior, who was growing too great 
for them by evil practices. Now when Moses 
heard of this their answer, he desired the heads 
of the people to follow him, and he went to the 
faction of Dathan, not thinking it any frightful 
thing at all to go to these insolent people; so 
they made no opposition, but went along with 

him. But Dathan and his associates, when they 

understood that Moses and the principal of the 

people were coming to them, came out with 

their wives and children, and stood before their 

tents, and looked to see what Moses would do. 

They had also their servants about them to de- 

fend themselves, in case Moses should use force 

against them. 


2. But he came near, and lifted up his hands 
to heaven, and cried out with a loud voice, in 
order to be heard by the whole multitude, and 
said, “O Lord of the creatures that are in the 
heaven, in the earth and in the sea; for thou art 
the most authentic witness to what I have done, 


| that it has all been done by thy appointment, and 


that it was,thou that affordedst us assistance 
when we attempted any thing, and showedst 
mercy on the Hebrews in all their distresses, do 
thou come now, and hear all that I say, for no ac- 
tion nor thought escapes thy knowledge; so that 
thou wilt not disdain to speak what is true, for 
my vindication, without any regard to the un- 
grateful imputations of these men. As for what 
was done before [ was born, thou knowest best, 
as not learning them by report, but seeing them, 
and being present with them when they were 
done; but for what has been done of late, and 
which these men, although they know them 
well enough, unjustly pretend to suspect, be 
thou my witness. When I lived a private quiet 
life, I left those good things, which by my own 
Ciligence, and by thy counsel, I enjoyed with 
Raguel, my father-in-law, and gave myself up 
to this people, and underwent many miseries on 
their account. [I also bore great labors at first, 
in order to obtain liberty for them, and now, in 
order to their preservation; and have always 
showed myself ready to assist them in every 
distress of theirs. Now, therefore, since I am 


suspected by those very men, whose being is © 


owing to my labors, come thou, as it is reasone 
able to hope thou wilt: thou, I say, who show- 
edst me that fire at mount Sinai, and madest me 
hear its voice, and to see the several wonders 
which that place afforded me: thou, wlio com- 
mandedst me to go to Egypt, and deciare thy 
will to this people: thou, who disturbedst the 
happy estate of the Egyptians, and gavest us 
the opportunity of flying away from our sla- 
very under them, and madest the dominion of 
Pharaoh inferior to my dominion: thou, whe 


-—_~ 


a 


didst make the sea dry land for us, when we 
knew not whither to go, and didst overwhelin 
the Egyptians with those destructive waves 
which had been divided for us: thou, who didst 
bestow upon us the security of weapons when 
we were naked: thou, who didst make the foun- 
tains that were corrupted to flow so as to be fit 
for drinking, and didst furnish us with water 
that came out of the rocks, when we were in 
the greatest want of it: thou, who didst preserve 
our lives with [quails,] which was food from the 
sea, When the fruits of the ground failed us: 
thoi, who didst send us such food from heaven, 
as had never been seen before: thou, who didst 
suggest to us the knowledge of thy laws, and 
appoint us a form of government: come thou, 
Tsay, O Lord of the whole world, and that as 
such a judge and a witness to me as cannot be 
bribed, and show how I have never admitted 
of any gift against justice from any of the He- 
brews; and have never condemned a poor man 
that ought to have been acquitted, on account 
of one that was rich; and have never attempted 
to hurt this commonwealth. I am now here 
present, and am suspected of a thing, the re- 
nietest from my intentions, as if I had given 
the priesthood to Aaron, not at thy command, 
bitt out of my own favor to him, do thou at this 
*pue demonstrate, that all things are adminis- 
tered by thy providence, and that nothing hap- 
pes by chance, but is governed by thy will, and 
thereby attains its end: as also demonstrate, that 
thou takest care of those that have done good 
t» the Hebrews; demonstrate this, I say, by the 
punishment of Abiram and Dathan, who con- 
demn thee as an insensible being, and one over- 
eome by my contrivance. This wilt thou do 
by inflicting such an open punishment on these 
men, who so madly fly in the face of thy glory, 
as will take them out of the world, not in an 
ordinary manner, but so that it may appear they 
dw not die after the manner of other men; let 
that ground on which they tread upon, open 
about them, and consume them with their 
families and goods. ‘This will be a demon- 
stration of thy power to all men; and this me- 
thod of their sufferings will be an instruction 
of wisdom for those that entertain profane sen- 
timents of thee. By this -means I[ shall be 
found a good servant, in the precepts thou hast 
given by me. But if the calumnies they have 
raised avainst me be true, mayest thou preserve 
these inen from every evil accident, and bring 
all that destruction on me which I have im- 
precated upon them. And when thou hast in- 
flicted punishment on those that have endea- 
vored to deal unjustly with this people, bestow 
‘upon them concord and peace. Save this 
multitude that follow thy commandments, and 
preserve them free from harm, and let them 
not partake of the punishment of those that 
have sinned; for thou knowest thyself, it is not 
just, that for the wickedness of those men, the 
whole body of the Israelites should suffer 
punishment.” 
3. When Moses had said this, with tears in 
his eyes, the ground was moved on a sudden; 
and the agitation that set it in motion was like 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


that which the wind produces in the waves of — 


the sea. The people were all affrighted, and 
the ground that was about their tents sunk 
down at the great noise with a terrible sound, 
and carried whatsoeveg was dear to the sedi- 
tious into itself, who so entirely perished, that 
there was not the least appearance that any man 
had ever been seen there, the earth that had 
opened itself about them, closing again, and be- 


coming entire as it was before, insomuch that — 


such as saw it afterward did not perceive that 
any such accident had happened to it, 
did these men perish, and become a demonstra- 
tion of the power of God. And truly, any one 


would lament them, not only on account of 


this calamity that befell them, which yet de- 
serves our commiseration, but also because 
their kindred were pleased with their suffer- 
ings: for they forgot the relation they bare to 
them, and at the sight of this sad accident ap- 
proved of the judgment given against them: 
and because they looked upon the people about 
Dathan as pestilent men, they thought they 
perished as such and did not grieve for them. 

4, And now Moses called for those that con- 
tended about the priesthood, that trial might 
be made who should be priest, and that he 
whose sacrifice God was most pleased with 
might be ordained to that function. here at- 
tended two hundred and fifty men, who indeed 
were honored by the people, not only on ac- 
count of the power of their ancestors, but also 
on account of their own, in which they excel- 
led the others: Aaron also and Corah came 
forth, and they all offered incense, in those cen- 
sers of theirs which they brought with them 
before the tabernacle. Hereupon so great a 
fire shone out as no one ever saw in any that is 
made by the hand of man, neither in those 
eruptions out of the earth, that are caused by 
subterraneous burnings, nor in such fires as arise 
of their own accord in the woods, when the 
agitation is caused by the trees rubbing one 
against another, but this fire was very bright, 
and had a terrible flame, such as is kindled at 
the command of God; by whose eruption on 
them, all the company, and Corah himself, were 
destroyed,* and this so entirely, that their very 
bodies left no remains behind them. Aaron 
alone was preserved, and not at all hurt by the 
fire, because it was God that sent the fire to 
burn those only who ought to be burnt. Here- 
upon Moses, after these men were destroyed, 
was desirous that the memory of this judgment 
might be delivered down to posterity, and that 
future ages night be acquainted with it; and so 
he commanded Eleazar, the son of Aaron, to 


Thus — 


put their censers near the brazen altar, that they — 


might be a memorial to posterity of what these 
men suffered, for supposing that the power of 
God might be eluded. And thus Aaron was 
now no longer esteemed to have the priesthood 


* It appears here, and from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and 
in effect, from the Psalmist, as also from the Apostolical 
Constitutions, from Clement?’s epistle to the Corinthiana, 
from Ignatius’s epistle to the Magnesiaus, and from Euse- 
bius, that Corah was not swallowed up with the Reubenites, 
but burned with the Levites of his own amibe, see Essay ov 
the Old Testament, p. 64, 65. 


——_— sr? 


vy the favor of Moses, but by the public judg- 
ment of God: and thus he and his children 
peaceab y enjoyed the honor afterward. 


CHAPTER IV. 


What happened to the Hebrews during Thirty- 
eight Years in the Wilderness. 


§ 1. However, this sedition was so far from 
ceasing upon this destruction, that it grew much 
stronger, and became more intolerable. And 
the occasion of its growing worse was of that 
na.ure, as made it likely the calamity would 
never cease, but last for a long time: for the 
men believing already that nothing is done 
without the providence of God, would have 
it that these things came thus to pass not with- 
out God’s favor to Moses; they therefore Jaid 
the blame upon him, that God was so angry, 
and that this happened, not so much because 
of the wickedness of those that were punished, 
as because Moses procured their punishment, 
and that these men had been destroyed with- 
out any sin of theirs, only because they were 
zealous about the divine worship; as also that 
he who had been the cause of this diminution 
of the people, by destroying so many men, and 
those the most excellent of them all, besides 
his escaping any punishment himself, had now 
given the priesthood to his brother so firmly, 
that nobody could any longer dispute it with 
him; for no one else, to be sure, could now put 
in for it, since he must have seen those that first 
did so to have miserably perished. Nay, be- 
sides this, the kindred of those that were de- 
Biroyed made great entreaties to the multitude 
to abate the arrogance of Moses, because it 
would be safest for them so to do. 

_ 2. Now Moses, upon his hearing for a good 
while that the people were tumultuous, was 
afraid that they would attempt some other in- 
novation, and that some great and sad calamity 
would be the consequence; he called the mul- 
titude to a congregation, and patiently heard 
what apology they made for themselves, with- 
out opposing them, and this lest he should em- 
bitter the multitude: he only desired the heads 
of the tribes to bring their rods,* with the names 
of their tribes inscribed upon them; and that 
he should receive the priesthood, in whose rod 
God should give a sign. This was agreed to. 
So the rest brought their rods, as did Aaron 
also, who had written the tribe of Levi on his 
rod. These rods Moses laid up in the taberna- 
cle of God. On the next day he brought out the 
rods, waich were known from one another by 
those who brought them, they having distinct- 
ly noted them, as had the multitude also; and as 
to the rest, in the same form Moses had received 
them, in that they saw them still, but they 
also saw buds and branches grown out of 
Aaron’s rod, with ripe fruits upon them; they 
were almonds, the rod having been cut out 
of that tree. The people were so amazed at 
this strange sight, that though Moses and Aaron 


_* Concerning these twelve rods of the twelve tribes of 
Israel, see St. Clement’s account, much larger than that in 
our Bibles, 1 Epist. sect. 45, as is Josephus’s present account, 
some measure, larger also. 


ee 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER IV. 


were before under some aegree of hatred, they 
now laid that hatred aside, and began to admire 
the judgment of God concerning them; so that 
hereafter they applauded what God had decreed. 
and permitted Aaron to enjoy the priesthood 
peaceably. And thus God ordained him priest 
three several times, and he retained that honor 
without farther disturbance. And hereby this 
sedition of the Hebrews, which had been a 
great one, and had lasted a great while, was ai 
last composed. 

3. And now Moses, because the tribe of Levi 
was made free from war, and warlike expedi- 
tions, and was set apart for the divine worship, 
lest they should want, and seek after the neces- 
saries of life, and so neglect the temple, com- 
manded the Hebrews, according to the will of 
God, that when they should gain the possession 
of the land of Canaan, they should assign for- 
ty-eight good and fair cities to the Levites; 
and permit them to enjoy their suburbs, as far 
as the limits of two thousand cubits would ex- 
tend from the walls of the city. And besides 
this, he appointed that the people should pay 
the tithe of their annual fruits of the earth, 
both to the Levites, and to the priests. And this 
is what the tribe receives of the multitude: but 
I think it necessary to set down what is paid 
by all, particularly to the priests. 

4. Accordingly, he commanded the Levites 
to yield up to the priests thirteen of their forty- 
eight cities, and to set apart for them the tenth 
part of the tithes which they every year receive 
of the people; as also, that it was but just to 
offer to God the first fruits of the entire pro- 
duct of the ground, and that they should offer 
the first-born of those four-footed beasts that 
are appointed for sacrifices, if it be a male, to 
the priests, to be slain, that they and their en- 
tire families may eat them in the holy city; but 
that the owners of those first-born which are 
not appointed for sacrifices in the laws of our 
country, should bring a shekel and a half in 
their stead; but for the first-born of a man, 
five shekels: that they should also have the first- 
fruits out of the shearing of the sheep; and that 
when any baked bread corn, and made loaves of 
it, they should give somewhat of what they 
had baked to them. Moreover, when they have 
made a sacred vow, I mean those that are call- 
ed ‘Nazarites, that suffer their hair to grow 
long, and use no wine, when they consecrate 
their hair,* and offer it for a sacrifice, they are 
to allot that hair to the priests, [to be thrown 
into the fire.] Such also as dedicate themselves 
to God, as a corban, which denotes what the 
Greeks call a ‘gift,’ when they are desirous of 
being freed from that ministration, are to lay 
down money for the priests; thirty shekels, if 
it be a woman, and fifty if it be a man; but if 
any be too poor to pay the appointed sum, it 
shall be lawful for the priests to determine that 
sum as they think fit. And if any slay beasts 
at home for a private festival, but not for a re- 


* Grotius, on Numb. vi. 18, takes notice, that the Greeks 
also, as well as the Jews, sometimes consecrated the hair of 
their heads to the goda 


100 


gious one, they are obliged to bring the maw 
and the cheek, [or breast,] and the right shoul- 
der of the sacrifice to the priests. With these 
Moses contrived that the priests should be 
plentifully maintained, besides what they had 
out of those offerings for sins, which the peo- 
ple gave them, as I have set it down in the 
foregoing book. He also ordered, that out of 
every thing allotted for the priests, their servants, 
{their sons,] their daughters and their wives, 
should partake, as weil as themselves, except- 
ing what came to them out of the sacrifices that 
were offered for sins: for of those none but 
the males of the families of the priests might 
eat, and this in the temple also, and that the 
same day they were offered. 

5. When Moses had made these constitutions, 
after the sedition was over, he removed, to- 
gether with the whole army, and came to the 
borders of Idumea. He then sent ambassadors 
to the king of the Idumeans, and desired him 
to give him a passage through his country, and 
agreed to send him what hostages he should 
desire, to secure him from any injury. He de- 
sired him also, that he would allow his army 
liberty to buy provisions; and, if he insisted 
upon it, he would pay down a price for the 
very water they should drink. But the king 
was not pleased with this embassage from 
Moses: nor did he allow a passage for the army, 
but brought his people armed to meet Moses, 
and to hinder them, in case they should endea- 
vor to force their passage. Upon which Moses 
consulted God by the oracle, who would not 
have him begin the war first; and so he with- 
drew his forces, and travelled round about 
through the wilderness. 

6. Ther it was that Miriam, the sister of 
Moses, came to her end, having completed her 
fortieth year since she left Egypt,* on the first 
day of the lunar month Xanthicus.t They 
then made a public funeral for her, at a great 
expense. She was buried upon a certain 
mountain, which they call ‘Sin; and when they 
had mourned for her thirty days, Moses puri- 
fied the people after this manner: he brought 
a heifer, that had never been used to the plough, 
or to husbandry: that was complete in all its 
parts; and entirely of a red color, at a little 
distance from the camp, into a place perfectly 
clean. This heifer was slain by the high priest, 
and her blood sprinkled with his finger, seven 
times before the tabernacle of God; after this, 
the entire heifer was burnt in that state, to- 
gether with: its skin and entrails, and they threw 
¢edar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet wool, into 
the midst of the fire; then a clean man gath- 
ered all her ashes together, and laid them in a 
place perfectly clean. When, therefore, any 
persons were defiled by a dead body, they put 
a little of these ashes into spring water, with 
hyssop, and dipping part of these ashes in it, 
they sprinkled them with it, both on the third 
day, and on the seventh, and after that they 

* Josephus here uses this phrase, when the fortieth year 
was completed, for when it was begun; as does St. Luke, 
when the dey of Pentecost was completed, Acts ii. 1. 


+ Whether Marium died, as Josephus’s Greek copies im- 
ply, or the first day of the month, may be doubted; because 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. & 


* 


“we 


were clean. This he enjoined them to de 
aaa the tribe should come ‘nto their own 
and. 

7. Now when this purification, which their 
leader made upon the mourning for his sister, 
as it has been now described, was over, he 
caused the army to remove, and to march 
through the wilderness, and through Arabia 
And when he came to a place which the Ara- 
bians esteem their metropolis, which was for- 
merly called ‘Arce,’ but has now the name of 
‘Petra,’ at this place, which was encompassed 
with high mountains, Aaron went up one of 
them, in the sight of the whole army, Moses 
having before told him that he was to die, for 
this place was over against them. He put off 
his pontificial garments, and delivered them to 
Eleazar his son, to whom the high priesthood 
belonged, because he was the elder brother, 
and died while the multitude looked upon him, 
He died in the same year wherein he Jost his 
sister, having lived in all a hundred and twenty 
and three years. He died on the first day of 
that lunar month which is called by the Athe- 
nians ‘Hecatombeon,’ by the Macedonians 
‘Lous,’ but by the Hebrews ‘Abba,’ 


CHAPTER V. 


How Moses conquered Sihon and Og, kings of 
the Amorites, and destroyed theis whoie army, 
and then divided their land by lot to two tribes 
and a half of the Hebrews. 


§ 1. The people mourned for Aaron thirty 
days; and when this mourning was over, Moses 
removed the army from that place, and came 
to the river. Arnon, which, issuing out of the 
mountains of Arabia, and running through all 
that wilderness, fell into the lake Asphaltitis, 
and became the limit between the land of the 
Moabites and the land of the Amorites. This 
land is fruitful, and sufficient to maintain a 
great number of men with the good things it 
produces, Moses, therefore, sent messengers 
to Sihon, the king of this country, desiring that 
he would grant his army a passage, upon what 
security he should please to require; he pro- 
mised that he should be noway injured, neither 
as to that country which Sihon governed, nor 
as to its inhabitants; and that he would buy his” 
provisions at such a price as should be to their 
advantage, even though he should desire to” 
sell them their very water. But Sihon refused” 
his offer, and put his army into battle array 
and was preparing every thing in order to 
hinder their passing over Arnon. ; 

2. When Moses saw that the Amorite kin 
was disposed to enter upon hostilities with 
them, he thought he ought not to bear that in — 
sult; and determining to wean the Hebrewe 
from their indolent temper, and prevent the dis — 
orders which arose thence, which had been the 
occasion of their former sedition; (nor indeed” 
were they now thoroughly easy in their minds;, 
he inquired of God whether he would give 
the Latin copies say it was on the tenth, and so say the 
Jewish calendars also, as Dr. Bernard assures us. It ie 
said her sepulchre is still extant near Petra, the old capital 


city of Arabia Petriea, at this day, es also that of Aaron, no 


far off. y 
9 


4 


. 
4 


PALESTINE 


After the Conquest 


THE TWELVE. TRIBES’ 


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Refuge are indica- 
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sf aAERUSA Lem 


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MAP OF PALESTINE AFTER THE CONQUEST. 








BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VI. 


him leave to fight? which when he had done, 
and God also promised him the victory, he was 
himself very courageous, and ready to proceed 
to fighting. Accordingly he encouraged the 
soldiers, and he desired of them that they would 
take the pleasure of fighting, now God gave 
them leave so to do. They then, upon the re- 
ceipt of this commission, which they so much 
longed for, put on their whole armor, and set 
about the work, without delay. But the Amorite 
king was not now like to himself when the He- 
brews were ready to attack him; but both he 
simself’ was affrighted at the Hebrews, and his 
army, which before had showed themselves to 
be of good courage, were then found to be ti- 
morous; so that they could not sustain the first 
onset, nor bear up against the Hebrews, but fled 
away, as thinking this would afford them a more 
likely way for their escape than fighting; for 
they depended upon their cities, which were 
etrong from which yet they reaped no advantage 
when they were forced to fly to them: for as 
soon as the Hebrews saw them giving ground, 
they immediately pursued them close; and 
when they had broken their ranks they greatly 
terrified them, and some of them broke off from 
the rest, and ran away to the cities. Now the 
Hebrews pursued them briskly, and obstinate- 
ly persevered in the labors they had already 
undergone; and being very skilful in slinging, 
and very dexterous in throwing of darts, or 
any thing else of that kind, and also having on 
nothing but light armor, which made them 
quick in the pursuit, they overtook their ene- 
mies; and for those that were most remote, and 
could not be overtaken, they reached them by 
their slings and their bows, so that many were 
slain; and those that escaped the slaughter were 
sorely wounded, and these were more distress- 
ed with thirst more than with any of those 
that fought against thei; for it was the sum- 
mer season, and when the greatest number of 
them were brought down to the river, out of a 
desire to drink: as also, when others fled away 
by troops, the Hebrews came round them, and 
shot at them; so that, what with darts and 
what with arrows, they made a slaughter of 
them all. Sihon also their king was slain. So 
the Hebrews spoiled the dead bodies, and took 
their prey. The land also which they took 
was full of abundance of fruits, and the army 
went all over it without fear, and fed their cat- 
tle upon it, and they took the enemies prison- 
ers, for they could noway put a stop to them, 
since all the fighting men were destroyed. 
Such was the destruction which overtook the 
Amorites, who were neither sagacious in coun- 
cil, nor courageous in action. Hereupon the 
Hebrews took possession of their land, which 
is a country situate between three rivers, and 
naturally resembling an island, the river Arnon 
being its southern limit: the river Jabbok de- 
termining its northern side, which, running in- 
to Jordan, loses its own name, and takes the 
other: while Jordan itself runs along by it on its 
western coast. 

3. When matters were come to this state, 


Og, the king of Gilead and Gaulanitis, fell 


101 


upon the Israelites. He brought an army with 
him, and came in haste to the assistance of his 
friend Sihon. But though he found him al- 
ready slain, yet did he resolve still to come and 
fight the Hebrews, supposing he should be too 
hard for them, and being desirous to try their 
valor; but failing of his hope, he was both 
himself slain in the battle, and all his army 
was destroyed. So Moses passed over the 
river Jabbok, and overran the kingdom of Og. 
He overthrew their cities, and slew all their in 
habitants, who yet exceeded in riches all the 
men in that part of the continent, on account 
of the goodness of the soil, and the great 
quantity of their wealth. Now Og had very 
few equals, either in the largeness of his body, 
or handsomeness of his appearance. He was 
also a man of great activity in the use of his 
hands, so that his actions were not unequal to 
the vast largeness and handsome appearance of 
his body. And men could easily guess at his 
strength and magnitude, when they took his 
bed at Rabbath, the royal city of the Ammon- 
ites; its structure was of iron, its breadth four 
cubits, and its length a cubit more than double 
thereto. However, his fall did not only im- 
prove the circumstances of the Hebrews for 
the present, but by his death he was the occa- 
sion of further good success to them; for they 
presently took those sixty cities, which were 
encompassed with excellent walls, and had 
been subject to him, and all got, both in general 
and in particular, a great prey. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Concerning Balaam the Prophet, and what kind 
of a man he was. 


§ 1. Now Moses, when he had brought his 
army to Jordan, pitched his camp in the great 
plain over against Jericho. ‘This city hasa very 
happy situation, and very fit for producing 
palm-trees and balsam. And now the Israel- 
ites began to be very proud of themselves, and 
were very eager for fighting. Moses then, 
after he had offered for a few days sacrifices 
of thanksgiving to God, and feasted the people, 
sent a party of armed men to lay waste the 
country of the Midianites, and to take their 
cities. Now the occasion which he took for 
making war upon them was as follows. 

2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, 
who had from his ancestors a friendship and 
league with the Midianites, saw how great the 
Israelites were grown he was much affrighted 
on account of his own and his kingdom’s dan-~ 
ger; for he was not acquainted with this,* that 
the Hebrews would not meddle with any other. 
country, but were to be contented with the 
possession of the land of Canaan, God havin 
forbidden them to go any farther. So he, with 


*What Josephus here remarks is well worth our remark 
in this place also, viz. that the Israelites were never to med- 
dle with the Moabites, or Ammonites, or any other people 
but those belonging to the land of Canaan, and the coun- 
tries of Sihon and Og beyond Jordan, as far as the desert an€ 
Euphrates: and that, therefore, no other people had reasox 
to fear the conquests of the Israelites; but that those conn- 
tries, given them by God, were their proper and peculiax 
portion among the nations; and that all who endeavored te 
dispossess them might ever be justly destroyed by then . 


162 


n:vre haste than wisdom, resolved to make an 
attempt upon them by words; but he did not 
judge it prudent to fight against them, after 
they had such prosperous successes, and even 
became out or ul successes more happy than 
before, but he thought to hinder them, if he 
could, from growing greater, and so he resoly- 
ed to send ambassadors to the Midianites about 
them. Now these Midianites knowing there 
was one Balaam, who lived by Euphrates, and 
was the greatest of the prophets at that time, 
and one that was in friendship with them, sent 
some of their honorable princes along with the 
ambassadors of Balak, to entreat the prophet 
to come to them, that he might imprecate 
curses to the destruction of the Israelites. So 
Balaam received the ainbassadors, and treated 
them very kindly, and when he had supped 
he inquired what was God’s will, and what 
this matter was for which the Midianites en- 
treated him to come to them? But when God 
opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors 
and told them, that he was himself very will- 
ing and desirous to comply with them request, 
but informed them, that God was opposite to 
his intentions, even that God who had raised 
him to great reputation on account of the truth 
of his predictions, for that this army which 
they entreated him to come to curse, was in the 
favor of God; on which account he advised 
them to go home again, and not to persist in 
their enmity against the Israelites: and when 
he had given them that answer, he dismissed 
the ambassadors. 

3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest request 
and fervent entreaties of Balak, sent other am- 
bassadors to Balaam, who desiring to gratify 
the men, inquired again of God; but he was 
displeased at this [second] trial,* and bid him 
by no means to contradict the ambassadors, 
Now Balaam did not imagine that God gave 
aim this injunction in order to deceive lim, so 
ne went along with the ambassadors; but when 
the divine angel met him in the way, when he 
was in a narrow passage, and hedged in with a 
wall on both sides, the ass on which Balaain 
rode, understood that it was a divine spirit that 
met him, and thrust Balaam to one of the walls, 
without regard to the stripes which Balaam, 
when he was hurt by the wall, gave ler; but 
when the ass, upon the angel’s continuance to 
distress her, and upon the stripes which were 
given hier, fell down, by the will of God, she 
made use of the voice of a man and complain- 
ed of Balaam, as acting unjustly to her; that 
whereas he had no fault to find with her in her 
former service ta him, he now inflicted stripes 
upon her, as not understanding that she was 
hindered from serving him in what he was 

* Note, that Josephus never supposes Balaam to be an 
idolater, nor to seek idolatrous enchantments, or to prophesy 
falsely, but to be no other than an ill-disposed prophet of 
the true God; and intimates that God’s answer the second 
time, permitting him to go was ironical, and on design that 
he should be deceived (which sort of deception, by way of 
punishment for former crimes, Josephus never scruples to 
admit, as ever esteeining such wicked men justly and pro- 
videntially deceived.) But perhaps, we had better keep here 
close to the text, which says, Numb. xxii. 20, 21, that God 


enly permitted Balaain to go along with the ambassadors, in 
@ase they came and called him, or positively insisted on his 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEW°. 





now going about, by the providence of God. 
And when he was disturbed by reason of the — 
voice of the ass, which was that of a man, the 
angel plainly appeared to him, and blamed 
him for the stripes he had given his ass; and 
mformed him that the brute creature was not 
in fault, and that he was himself come to ob-— 
struct his journey, as being contrary to the will 
of God Upon which Balaam was afraid, ana 
was preparing to return back again, yet did— 
God excite him to go on his intended way; but 
added this injunction, that he should declare 
nothing but what he himself should suggest to 
his mind. 

4. When God had given him this charge, 
he came to Balak; and when the king had en- 
tertained him in a magnificent manner, he de- 
sired him to go to one of the mountains to take 
a view of the state of the camp of the He-— 
brews. Balak himself also came to the moun- 
tain, and brought the prophet along with 
him, with a royal attendance. This mountain 
lay over their heads, and was distant sixty fuz- 
longs from the camp. Now when he saw 
them, he desired the king to build him seven 
altars, and to bring him as many bulls and 
rams; to which desire the king did presently 
conform. He then slew the sacrifices, and 
offered them as burnt-offerings, that he might 
observe some signal of the flight of the He- 
brews. Then said he, “Happy is this people 
on whom God bestows the possession of in- 
numerable good things, and grants them his 
own providence to be their assistant and their 
guide; so that there is not any nation among 
mankind but you will be esteemed superior to 
them in virtue, and in the earnest prosecution 
of the best rules of life, and of such as are 
pure from wickedness, and will leave those 
exceilent rules to your children, and this out of 
the regard that God bears to you, and the pro- 
vision of such things for you as may render 
you happier than any other people under the 
sun. You shall retain that land to which he 
hath sent you; and it shall ever be under the 
command of your children; and both all the 
earth, as well as the seas, shall be filled with 
your glory: and you shall be sufficiently nu- 
merous to supply the world in general, and 
every region of it in particular, with inhabit-— 
ants out of your stock. However, O blessed 
army! wonder that you are become so many — 
from one father. And truly the land of Ca — 
naan can now hold you, as being yet compara-— 
tively few: but know ye that the whole world — 
is proposed to be your place of habitation for-_ 
ever. The multitude of your posterity also — 
shall live as well in the islands as on the conti-_ 
nent, and that more in number than are the stars 


going along with them, on any terms: whereas Balaam — 
seems out of impatience, to have risen up in the morning, — 
and saddled his ass, and rather to have called them, than — 
staid for their calling him; so zealous does he seem to have 
been for his reward of divination; his wages of vata ner Mw 
ness, Numb. xxii. 7, 17, 18, 37; 2 Pet. ii. 15, Jude 5,1 
which reward or wages the truly religious prophet of 
never required nor accepted, as our Josephus justly takes no 
tice in the cases of Samuel, Antiq. b. v. ch. iv. sect. 1, and — 
Daniel, Antiq. b. x. ch. xi. sect. 3. See also Gen. xiv. | 


23; 2 Kings v. 15, 16, 26, 27, and Acts viii. 18—24. 


BOOK ITV.—CHAPTER VI. 


ef heaven. And when you are become so 

many, God will not relinquish the care of you; 
but will afford you an abundance of all good 
things in time of peace, with victory and do- 
minion in time of war. May the children of 
your enemies have an inclination to fight 
against you; and may they be so hardy as to 
come to arins, and to assault you in battle, for 
they will not return with victory, nor will their 
return be agreeable to their chil(tren and wives. 
To so great a degree of valor will you be rais- 
ed by the providence of God, who is able to 
diminish the affluence of some, and to supply 
the wants of others.” 

5. Thus did Balaam speak by inspiration, as 
not being in his own power, but inoved to say 
what he did by the divine Spirit. But when 
Balak was displeased, and said he had broken 
the contract he had made, whereby he was to 
come as he and his confederates had invited 
him, by the promise of great presents; for where- 
as he came to curse their enemies, lie had made 
an encomium upon them, and had declared 
that they were the happiest of men. To which 
Balaam replied, “O Balak, if thou rightly con. 
siderest this whole matter, canst thou suppose 
that it is in our power to be silent, or to say any 
thing when the Spirit of God seizes upon us! 
for he puts such words as he pleases in our 
mouths, and such discourses as we are not 
ourselves conscious of. I well remember by 
what entreaties both you and the Midianites so 
peasy brought me hither, and on that account 

took this journey. It was my prayer, that I 
might not put any affront upon you, as to what 
you desired of me; but God is more powerful 
than the purpose I had made to serve you; for 
those that take upon them to foretell the affairs 
of mankind, as from their own abilities, are en- 
tirely unable to do it, or to forbear to utter what 
God suggests to them, or to offer violence to 
his will; for when he prevents us, and enters 
into us, nothing that we say is our own. I then 
did not intend to praise this army, nor to go 
over the several good things which God intend- 
ed to do to their race, but since he was so favor- 
able to-them, and so ready to bestow upon them 
a happy life, and eternal glory, he suggested 
the declaration of those things to me. But 
now, because it is my desire to oblige thee thy- 
self as well as the Midianites, whose entreaties 
it is not decent for me to reject, go to, let us 
again rear other altars, and offer the like sa- 
crifices that we did hefore; that I may see 
whether I can persuade God to permit me to 
bind these men with curses.” Which, when 
Ralak had agreed to, God would not, even upon 
second sacrifices,* consent to his cursing the 
israelites. Then fell Balaam upon his face, and 
foretold what calamities would befall the sev- 
2ral kings of the nations, and the most eminent 
eities, some of which of old were not so much 


* Whether Josephus had in his copy but two attempts of 
Balaam in all to curse Israel, or whether, by this his twice 
wfering sacrifice, he meant twice beside that first time al- 
eady mentioned, which yet is not very probable, cannot 

now be certainly determined. In the meantime all other 
eories have three such attempts of Balaam to curse them 
«ue present bistory. 


103 


as inhabited; which events have come 1) pasa 
among the several people concerned both in 
the foregoing ages, and in this till my own 
memory, both by sea and by land. From which 
completion of all these predictions that he 
made, one may easily guess that the rest wil? 
have their completion in time to come, 

6. But Balak, being very angry that the Ie 
raelites were not cursed, sent away Balaam, 
without thinking him worthy of any honor 
Whereupon when he was just upon his jour- 
ney, in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for 
Balak, and for the princes of the Midianites, 
and spake thus to them: “O Balak,* and you 
Midianites that are here present, (for T am . 
obliged even without the will of God, to gratify 
you,) it is true no entire destruction can seize 
upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by 
war, nor hy plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits 
of the earth, nor can any other unexpected ac- 
cident be their entire ruin: for the providence 
of God is concerned to preserve them from 
such a misfortune, nor will it permit any such 
calamity to come upon them whereby they 
may all perish: but some smal! misfortunes, 
and those for a short time, whereby they may 
appear to be brought low, may still befall them; 
but after that they will flourish again, to the 
terror of those that brought those mischiefs up 
onthem. So that if you have a mind to gain a 
victory over them for a short space of time, 
you will obtain it by following my directions: 
do you therefore set out the handsomest of such 
of your daughters as are most eminent for beau- 
ty, and proper to force and conquer the mode 
ty of those that behold them, and these deck- 
ed and trimmed to the highest degree you are 
able: then do you send them to be near the Is- 
realites’ camp; and give them in charge, that 
when the young men of the Hebrews desire 
their company, they allow it them; and when 
they see that they are enamored of them, let 
them take their leave; and if they entreat them 
to stay, let them not give their consent till they 
have persuaded them to leave off their obedi 
ence to their own laws, and the worship of that 
God who established them, and to worship the 
gods of the Midianites and the Moabites; for 
by this means God will be angry at them.’} 
Accordingly, when Balaam had suggested this 
counsel, to them he went, his way. 

7. So when the Midianites had sent their 
daughters, as Balaam had exhorted them, the 
Hebrew young men were allured by their beau- 
ty, and came to discourse with them, and be- 
sought them not to grudge them the enjoyment 
of their beauty, nor to deny them their con 
versation. ‘These daughters of the Midianites 


* Such a Jarge and distinct account of this perversion of 
the Israelites by the Midianite women, of which our other 
copies give us but short intimations, Numb. xxxi. 16; 2 Pet. 
ii. 15; Jud. ver. 11; Apoc. ii. 14, is preserved, as Reland 
inforins us, in the Samaritan chronicle, in Philo, and in ether 
writings of the Jews, as well as here by Josephus. 

} This grand maxim, that God’s people of Israe}? eould 
never be hurt, nor destroyed, but by drawing them to sim 
against God, appears to be true, by the entire history of thas 
people, both in the Bible and in Josephus; and is often takem 
notice of in them both. See, in particular. a most reuarie 
able Ammonite testimony to this purpuse, Judith v. 5—-@h 


104 
received their words gladly, and consented to 
it, and staid with them, but when they had 
brought them to be enamored of thein, and 
their inclinations to them were grown to ripe- 
ness, they began to think of departing from 
them; then it was that these men became 
greatly discousolate at the women’s departure, 
and they were urgent with them not to leave 
them, but begged they would continue there, 
and hecome their wives; and they promised 
them they should be owned as mistresses of 
all they had. This they said with an oath; and 
called God for the arbitrator of what they pro- 
‘mised; and this with tears in their eyes, and all 
other marks of concern as might show how 
miserable they thought themselves without 
them, and so might move their compassion for 
them. So the women, as soon as they perceiv- 
ed they had made them their slaves, and had 
caught them with their conversation, began to 
speak thus to them: 

8. “O yon illustrious young imen! we have 
houses of our own at home, and great plenty 
of good things there, together with the natural 
affectionate love of our parents and frien:{s; 
nor is it out of our want of any such things 
that we come to discourse with you, nor did we 
admit of your invitation with design to pros- | 
titute the beauty of our body for gain, but tak- 
ing you for brave and worthy men, we agreed 
to your request, that we may treat you with 
such honors as hospitality required; and now, 
sceing you say that you have a great affection 
for us, and are troubled when you think we are 
dwpartiag, we are not averse to your intreaties; 
and if we may receive such assurance of your 
good will as we think can he-alone sufficient, 
we will be glad to lead our lives with you as 
your wives, but we are afraid that you will in 
time be weary of our company, and will then 
abuse us, and send us back to our parents, after 
an ignominious manner;” and they desired that 
they would excuse them in their guarding 
against that danger. But the young men pro- | 
fessed they would give them any assurance 
they should desire; nor did they at all contradict 
what they requested, so great was the passion 
they had for them. “If then, (said they,) this 
be your resolution, since you make such cus- 
toms and conduct of life as are entirely different 
from: all other men,* insomuch that your kinds 
of food are peculiar to yourselves, and your 
kinds of drink not conunon to others, it will 
be absolutely necessary, if vou would have us 
for your wives that you do withal worship our 
gods: nor can there be any other demonstration 
of the kindness which you say you already have, 
ani! promise to have hereafter to us, than this, that 
you worship the same gods that we do; for has 
any one reason to complain, that now you are 
eorr.e into this country, you should worship 
the proper godsof the same country? espe- 


* What Josephus here puts into the mouths of these Midi- 
anite women, who came to entice the Israelites to lewdness 
and idolatry, viz. that their worship of the God of Israel, in 
opposition to their idol gods, implied their living according to 
the holy laws which the true God had given them by Moses, 
in Opposition to these impure laws which were observed 
wader their fal gods well deserves our consideration, and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


cially while our gods are common to afl 
men, and yours such as belong to nobody else 
but yourselves.” So they said they must 
either come into such methods of divine 
worship as all others came into, or. else they 
must look out for another world, wherein they 
hind live by themselves, according to their own 
aws, 

9. Now the young men were induced by the 
fondness they had for these women, to think 
they spake very well, so they gave themselves 
up to what they persuaded them, and trans- 
gressed their own laws, and supposed there 
were many gods; and resolving that they would 
sacrifice to them according to the laws of that 
country which ordained them, they both were 
delighted with their strange food, and went on 
to do every thing that the women would have 
them do, though in contradiction to their own 
laws; so far indeed, that this transgression was 
already gone through the whole army of the 
young men, and they fell into a sedition that 
was much worse than the former, and into 
danger of the entire abolition of their own in- 
stitutions; for when once the youth had tasted 
of these strange customs, they went with insa- 
tiable inclinations into them, and even where 
soine of the principal men were illustrious on 
account of the virtues of their fathers, they 
also were corrupted with the rest. 

10. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of St 
meon, companied with Cozbi, a Midianitish 
woman, who was the daughter of Sur, a man of 
authority in that country: and being desired 
by his wife to disregard the law of Moses, and to 
follow those she was used to, he complied with 
her, and this both by sacrificing after a manner 
difterent from his own, and by taking a strang- 
er to wife. When things were thus, Moses 
was afraid that matters should grow worse, and 
called the people to a congregation, but then ac- 
cused nobody by name, as unwilling to drive 
those into despair, who, by lying concealed 
might come to repentance; but he said, “That 
they did not do what was either worthy of them- 
selves, or of their fathers, by preferring plea- 
sure to God, and to living according to his will 
that it was fit they should change their courses, 


while their affairs were still in a good state: — 


and think that to be true fortitude which offers 
not violence to their laws, but that which re- 
sists their lusts. And besides that, he said, it 
was not a reasonable thing, when they had liv- 


ed soberly in the wilderness, to act madly now — 


they were in prosperity; and that they ought 
not to lose, ivw they have abundance, what 
they had gained when they had little.” And 


so did he endeavor, by saying this, to correct the — 


young men, and to bring them to repentance 
for what they had done. 


11. But Zimri arose up after him, and said — 


' 
p 


“Yes, indeed, Moses, thou art at liberty to make — 


gives us a substantial reason for the great concern that was 
ever showed, under the law of Moses, to preserve the Israe} 
ites from idolatry, and in the worship of the true God; § 
being of no less consequence than, whether God’s peaple 


should be governed by the holy laws of the true God, or by © 


the impure laws derived from demons, under tie pagar 
idolatry. 


eR 


Qe 


- | 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VII. 


ase of such taws as thou art so fond of, and 
hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made 
them firm; otherwise, if things had not been 
thus, thou hadst often been punished before 
now, and hadst known that the Hebrews are 
not easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me 
one of thy followers in thy tyrannical com- 
mands, for thou dost nothing else hitherto, but, 
under pretence of laws, and of God, wickedly 
impose on us slavery, and gain dominion to 
thyself, while thou deprivest us of the sweet- 
ness of life, which consists in acting according 
to our own wills, and is the right of freemen, 
and of those that have no lord over them. Nay, 
indeed, this man is harder upon the Hebrews 
than were the Egyptians themselves, as pre- 
tending to punish according to his laws, 
every one’s acting what is most agreeable to 
himself; but thou thyself better deservest to 
suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish 
what every one acknowledges to be what is 
good for him, and aimest to make thy single 
opinion to have more force than that of all the 
rest: and what I now do, and think to be right, 
I shall not hereafter deny to be according to 
my own sentiments, JI have married, as thou 
savest rightly, a strange woman, and thou hear- 
est what I do from myself as from one that is 
free; for truly I did not intend to conceal my- 
self. I also own, that I sacrifice to those gods 
to whom you do not think fit to sacrifice; and 
I think it right to come at truth by inquiring 
of many people, and not like one that lives un- 
der tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my 
lie to depend upon one man; nor shall any 
mie find cause to rejoice, who declares him- 
self to have more authority over my actions 
tian myself.” 

12. Now when Zimri had said these things, 
al.out what he and some others had wickedly 
done, the people held their peace, both out of 
fear of what might come upon them, and be- 
cause they saw that their legislator was not 
willing to bring his insolence before the pub- 
lic any farther, or openly to contend with him, 
for he avoided that, lest many should imitate 
the imprudence of his language, and thereby 
disturb the multitude; upon this the assembly 
was dissolved. However, the mischievous at- 
tempt had proceeded farther, if Zimri had not 
been first slain, which came to pass on the fol- 
lowing occasion: Phineas, a man in other re- 
spects better than the rest of the young men, 
and also one that surpassed his contemporaries 
in the dignity of his father, ‘for he was the son 
of Eleazar the high priest, and the grandson 
of [Aaron] Moses’s brother,) who was greatly 
tr ubled at what was done by Zimri, resolved 
in earnest to inflict punishment on him, before 
fis unworthy behavior should grow stronger 
by impunity: and in order to prevent this trans- 
gression from proceeding farther, which would 
happen if the ringleaders were not punished. 
ife was of so great magnanimity, both in 
strength of mind and body, that when he un- 
dertook any very dangerous attempt, he did 
uot leave it off till he overcame it, and got an 
walire victory: so he came into Zimr’s tent, 

nwt 


105 


and slew him with his javelin, and with it he 
slew Cozbi also. Upon which all those young 
men that had a regard to virtue, and aimed to 
do a glorious action, imitated Phineas’s bold- 
ness, and slew those that were found to be 
guilty of the same crime with Zimri. Accord- 
ingly, many of those that had transgressed, 
perished by the magnanimous valor of these 
young men: the rest all perished by a_ plague, 
which distemper God himself inflicted upon 
them; so that all those their kindred, who, instead 
of hindering them from such wicked actions, as 
they ought to have done, had persuaded them 
to go on, were esteemed by God as partners in 
their wickedness, and died. Accordingly, there 
perished out of the army no fewer than four- 
teen [twenty-four] thousand at that time.* 

13. This was the cause why Moses was pro- 
voked to send an army to destroy the Midian- 
ites, concerning which expedition we shall 
speak presently, when we have first related 
what we have omitted; for it is but just not to 
pass over our legislator’s due encomium, on 
account of his conduct here, because, although 
this Balaam, who was sent for by the Midian- 
ites to curse the Hebrews, and when he was 
hindered from doing it by divine Providence, 
did still suggest that advice to them, by making 
use of which our enemies had well nigh cor- 
rupted the whole multitude of the Hebrews 
with their wiles, till some of them were deeply 
infected with their opinions, yet did he do him 
great lionor, by setuung down his prophecies in 
writing. And while it was in his power to 
claim this glory to himself, and make men be- 
lieve they were his own predictions, there 
being no one that could be a witness against 
him, and accuse him for so doing, he still gave 
his attestation to him, and did him the honor 
to make mention of him on this account. But 
let every one think of these matters as he 
pleases. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How the Hebrews fought with the Midianites, 
and overcame them. 


§. 1. Now Moses sent an army against the 
land of Midian, for the causes forementioned, 
in all twelve thousand, taking an equal number 
out of every tribe, and appointed Phineas for 
their commander, of which Phineas we made 
mention a little before, as he that had guarded 
the laws of the Hebrews, and had inflicted 
punishment upon Zimri when he had trans 
gressed them. Now the Midianites perceiving 
beforehand how the Hebrews were coming, 
and would suddenly be upon them, they as- 
sembied their army together, and fortified the 
entrances into their country, and there awaited 
the enemy’s coming. When they were come, 
and they had joined battle with them, an ‘m 
mense number of the M dianites fell, nor could 
they be numbered they were so very many: and 
among thei fell all their kings, five in number, 

* The mistake in all Josephus’s copies, Greek and Latin, 
which have here 14,000 instead of 24,000, is s> flagrant, that 
our very learned editors, Bernard and Hudso1, have put the 


Jatter number directly into the text. I choose rather to pat 
‘tin brackets. 


106 


ANTIQUITIES OF TIT JEWS. 


7 


‘ 


viz. Evi, Zur, Reba, Hur, aud Rekem, who , mind to live in luxury and ease, while all tne — 
was of the same name with a city, the chief) rest were laboring with great pains to ob- 
and capital of all Arabia, which is till now so | tain the land they were desirous to have, and — 
called by the whole Arabian nation, ‘Arecem,’ | that they were not willing to march along, and 
: | undergo the remaining hard service, whereby 


from the name of the king that built it, but is 
by the Greeks called ‘Petra’ Now when the 
enemies were discomfitted, the Hebrews spoil- 
ed their country, and took a great prey, and 
destroyed the men that were its mhabitants, 
together with the women; only they let the 
virgins alone, as Moses had commanded Phi- 
neas to do. who indeed came back bringing 
with him an army that had received no harm, 
and a great deal of prey: fifty-two thousand 
beeves, seventy-five thousand six hundred 
sheep, sixty thousand asses, with an immense 
quantity of gold and silver furniture, which 
the Midianites made use of in their houses; for 
they were so wealthy, that they were very 
luxurious. There were also led captive about 
thirty-two thousand virgins.* So Moses divid- 
ed the prey into parts, and gave one-fiftieth 
part to Eleazar and the two priests, and another 
fiftieth part to the Levites; and distributed the 
rest of the prey among the people. After 
which they lived happily, as having obtained 
an abundance of good things by their valor, 
and there being no misfortune that attended 
them, or hindered their enjoyment of that hap- 
piness. 

2. But Moses was now grown old, and ap- 
pointed Joshua for his successor, both to re- 
ceive directions from God as a prophet, and 
for a commander of the army, if they should 
at any time stand in need of such a one; and 
this was done by the command of God, that 
to tum the care of the public’ should be com- 
mitted. Now Joshua had been instructed in 
all those kinds of learning which concerned 
the laws and God himself, and Moses had been 
his instructer. 

3. At this time it was that the two tribes of 
Gad and Reubel, and the half tribe of Manas- 
seh, abounded in a multitude of cattle, as well 
as in all other kinds of prosperity, whence 
they had a meeting, and in a body came and 
besought Moses to give them, as their peculiar 
portion, that land of the Amorites which they 
had taken by right of war, because it was fruit- 
ful and good for feeding of cattle. But Mo- 
ses, supposing that they were afraid of fight- 
ing with the Canaanites, and invented this pro- 
vision for their cattle asa handsome excuse for 

voiding that war, called them arrant cowards; 
and said, “That they only contrived a decent 
excuse for that cowardice, and that they had a 


“ The slaughter of all the Midianite women that had pros- 
tuted themselves to the lewd Israelites, and the preserva- 
tion of those that had not been guilty therein; the last of 
whicb were no fewer than 32,000, both here and Num. xxxi. 

5, 16, 17, 35, 40, 46, and both by the particular command of 
God, are highly remarkable; and show, that even in nations 
otherwise for their wickedness doomed to destruction, the 
mnocent were sometimes particularly and providentially 
taken care of, and delivered from that destruction; which 
directly implies, that it was the wickedness of the nations 
of Canaan, and nothing else, that occasioned their excision. 
See Gen. xv 16,1 Sam. xv. 18, 33. Constit. Apos. b. viii. 
ehap. xii. p. 402. In the first of which places, the reason of 
tne delay of the punishment of the Amorites is given, be- 
eause their ‘iniquity was aot yet full.” In the second, Saul 


they were, under the divine promise, to pasa 
over Jordan, and overcome those our enemies 
which God had showed them, and so obtain 
their land.” But these tribes, when they saw 
that Moses was angry with them, and when 
they could not deny but he had a just cause to 
be displeased at their petition, made an apology 
for themselves; and said, that “it was not oa 
account of their fear of dangers, nor on ac- 
count of their laziness that they made this re- 
quest to him, but that they might leave the 
prey they had gotten in places of safety, and 
thereby might be more expedite, and ready to 
undergo difficulties, and to fight battles.” They 
added this also, that “when they had built cities, 
wherein they might preserve their children 
and wives, and possessions, if he would be- 
stow them upon them, they would go along 
with the rest of the army. Hereupon Moses 
was pleased with what they said: so he called 
for Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua, and 
the chief of the tribes, and permitted these 
tribes to possess the land of the Amorites; but 
upon this condition, that they should join with 
their kinsmen in the war, until all things were 
settled. Upon which condition they took pos- 
session of the country, and built them strong 
cities, and put into them their children, and 
their wives, and whatsoever else they had that 
might be an impediment to the labors of 
their future marches. 

4, Moses also now built those ten cities, which 
were to be of the number of the forty-eight 
[for the Levites;] three of which he allotted to 
those that slew any person unvoluntarily, and 
fled to them; and he assigned the same time 
for their banishment with that of the life of 
that high priest under whom the slaughter and 
flight happened, after which death of the high 
priest, he permitted the slayer to return home. 
During the time of his exile, the relations of 
him that was slain may, by this law, kill the 
manslayer, if they caught him without the 
bounds of the city, to which he fled, though 
this permission was not granted to any other 
person. Now the cities which were set apart 
for this flight were these: Bezer, at the borders 


of Arabia; Ramoth, of the land of Gilead, and — 


Golan in the land of Bashan. There were to 
be also, by Moses’s command, three other cities 
allotted for the habitation of these fugitives out 


is ordered to go and ‘destroy the sinners, the Amalekites,’ 
plainly inplying, that they were, therefore, to be destroyed 
because they were sinners, and not otherwise. In the third, 
the reason is given, why king Agag was not to be spared, viz 
because of his former cruelty; § as thy sword hath made (the 
Hebrew) women childless, so shall thy mother be made child- 
less among women by the Hebrews.’ In the last place, the 
apostles, or their amanuensis Clemetu, gave this reason for 
the necessity of the coming of Christ, that ‘men had for 
merly perverted both the positive law, and that of nature, 
and had cast out of their mind the memory of the flood, the 
burning or Sodom, the plagues of the Egyptians, and the 
slaughter of the inhabitants of Palestine,’ as signs »f most 
amazing impenitence and insensibility under the )u tish 
ments of horrid wickedness. 


oe eS oe | 


\ 


ee f 


- 
— a a oe 


“4 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VIII. 


of the cities of the Levites, but not till after 
they should be in possession of the land of 
Canaan. 

5. At this time the chief men of the tribe of 
Manasseh came to Moses, and informed him, 
that there was an eminent man of their tribe 
dead, whose name was ‘Zelophehad,’ who left 
no male children, but left daughters, and asked 
him, whether these daughters might inherit his 
and or not? He made this answer, that if 
they shall marry into their own tribe, they shall 
tarry their estate along with them; but if they 
dispose of themselves in marriage to men of 
another tribe, they shall leave their inheritance 
in their father’s tribe. And then it was that 
Moses ordained, that every one’s inheritance 
should continue in his own tribe. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Polity settled by Moses; and how he disap- 
peared from among mankind. 


§ 1. When forty years were completed with- 
in thirty days, Moses gathered the congregation 
together near Jordan, where the city Abila 
now stands, a place full of palm-trees; and all 
the people being come together, he spake thus 
to them: 

2. “O you Israelites and fellow-soldiers, who 
nave been partners with me in this long and 
aneasy journey; since it is now the will of God, 
and the course of old age, at a hundred and 
‘wenty, requires it, that I should depart out of 
chis life; and since God has forbidden me to be 
@ patron or an assistant to you in what remains 
co be done beyond Jordan, I thought it rea- 
sonable not to leave off my endeavors even 
now for your happiness, but to do my utmost 
to procure for you the eternal enjoyment of 


good things, and a memorial for myself when | 


you shall be in the fruition of great plenty and 
prosperity; come, therefore, let me suggest to 
you by what means you may be happy, and 
may leave an eternal prosperous possession 
thereof to your children after you, and then let 
me thus go out of the world: and I cannot but 
deserve to be believed by you, both on account 
of the great things I have already done for you, 
-and because when souls are about to leave the 
body, they speak with the sincerest freedom. 
O children of Israel! there is but one source of 
happiness for all mankind, THE FAVOR oF Gop;* 
for he alone is able to give good things to those 
that deserve them, and to deprive those of them 
that sin against hin; towards whom, if you 
behave yourselves according to his will, and 
according to what I, who well understand his 
nind, do exhort you to do, you will both be 
esteemed biessed, and will be admired by all 
men; and will never come into misfortunes, 
nor cease to be happy: you will then preserve 
the possession of the good things you already 
nave, and will quickly obtain those that you at 
present are m want of; only do you be obe- 
lient to those whom God would have you to 


* Josephus here, in this one sentence, sums up his notion 
of Moses’s very long and very serious exhortation in the book 
ef Deuteronomy; and his words are so true and of such im- 
portance, that they deserve to be had in constant remem- 


107 


follow. Nor do you prefer any other constitu- 
tion of government before the laws now given 
you; neither do you disregard that way of di- 
vine worship which you now have, nor change 
it for any other form: and if you do this, you 
will be the most courageous of all men, in un- 
dergoing the fatigues of war, and will not be 
easily conquered by any of your enemies; for 
while God is present with you to assist you, it 
is to be expected that you will be able to «e- 
Spise the opposition of all mankind; and grea 
rewards of virtue are proposed for you, if you 
preserve that virtue through your whole lives. 
Virtue itself is indeed the principal and _ the 
first reward, and after that it bestows abun- 
dance of others; so that your exercise of virtue 
towards other men will make your own lives 
happy, and render you more glorious than 
foreigners can be, and procure you an undis- 
puted reputation with posterity. These bless- 
ings you will be able to obtain, in case you 
hearken to and observe those laws which, by 
divine revelation, I have ordained for you; that 
is, in case you withal meditate upon the wis- 
dom that is in them. Iam going from you 
myself, rejoicing in the good things you enjoy; 
and I recommend you to the wise conduct of 
your law, to the becoming order of your polity, 
and to the virtues of your commanders, who 
will take care of what is for your advantage; 
and that God, who has been till now your 
leader, and by whose good will I have myself 
been useful to you, will not put a period now 
to his providence over you, but as long as you 
desire to have him your protector, in your pur- 
suits after virtue, so long will you enjoy his 
care over you. Your high priest also, Eleazar, 
as well as Joshua, with the senate, and chief 
of your tribes, will go before you, and suggest 
the best advices to you: by following which 
advices, you will continue to be happy; to 
whom do you give ear without reluctance, as 
sensible that all such as know well how to be 
governed, will also know how to govern, if 
they be promoted to that authority themselves 
And do not you esteem liberty to consist in 
opposing such directions as your governors 
think fit to give you for your practice, as at 
present indeed you place your liberty in noth- 
ing else but abusing your benefactors; which 
error if you can avoid for the time to come, 
your affairs will be in a better condition than 
they have hitherto been: nor do you ever in- 
dulge such a degree of passion in these mat- 
ters, as you have oftentimes done when you 
have been very angry with me; for you know 
that I have been oftener in danger of death 
from you than from our enemies. What I 
now put you in mind of, is not done in order 
to reproach you, for I do not think it proper, 
now I am going out of the world, to bring this 
to your remembrance, in order to leave. you 
offended at me, since at the time when [ under- 
went those hardships from you, I was not angry 


branee both by Jews and Christians: ‘*O children of [srae@ 
there is but one source of happiness for all mankind, the 
favor of God.” 


108 
at you, but [ do it in order to make you wiser 
hereafter; and to teach you that this will be for 
your security, I mean, that you never be inju- 
rious to those that preside over you, even when 
you are become rich, as you will be to a great 
degree when you have passed over Jordan, 
and are in possession of the land of Canaan. 
Since, when you shall have once proceeded so 
far by your wealth, as to a contempt and disre 
gard of virtue, you will also forfeit the favor of 
God; and when you have made him your ene- 
my you will be beaten in war; and will have 
the land which you possess taken away again 
from you by your enemies, and this with great 
reproaches upon your conduct. You will be 
scattered over the whole world, and will as 
slaves, entirely fill both sea and land: and when 
once you have had the experience of what I 
now say, you will repent, and remember the 
laws you have broken, when it is too late. 
Whence I would advise you, if you intend to 
preserve these laws, to leave none of your ene- 
mes alive when you have conquered them, but 
to look upon it as for your advantage to destroy 
them all, lest, if you permit them to live, you 
tate of their manners, and thereby corrupt 
ycur own proper institutions. 1 also do farth- 
er exhort you, to overthrow their altars, and 
thir groves, and whatsoever temples they have 
aniong them, and to burn all such, their nation, 
ard their very memory, with fire, for by this 
mans alone the safety of your own happy con- 
stitution can be firmly secured to you. Andin 
order to prevent your ignorance of virtue, and 
tle degeneracy of your nature into vice, I have 
also ordained you laws, by divine suggestion, 
ard a form of government, which are so good, 
tLat if you regularly observe them, you will be 
erteemed of all men the most happy.” 

3. When he had spoken thus, he gave them 
tlle laws, and the constitution of government, 
written in a book. Upon which the people fell 
into tears, and appeared already touched with 
the sense that they should have a great want of 
their conductor, because they remembered what 
au number of dangers he had passed through, 
and what care he had taken for their preserva- 
tion; they desponded about what would come 
upon them after he was dead, and thought they 
should never have another governor like him; 
and feared that God would then take less care 
of them when Moses was gone, who used to 
intercede for them. They also repented of 
what they had said to him in the wilderness 
when they were angry, and were in grief on 
those accounts, insomuch, that the whole body 
of the people fell into tears with such bitter- 
ness, that it was past the power of words to 
vxemfort them in their affliction. However, 
‘loses gave them some consolation, and by call- 
ing thei off the thought, how worthy he was 
of their weeping for him, he exhorted them to 
keep that form of government he had given 
them: and then the congregation was dissolved 
at that time. 

4. Accordingly, I shall now first describe 
this form of government, which was agreea- | 
a to the dignity and virtue of Moses: and | 





ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


shall thereby inform those that read these an- 
tiquities what our original settlements were. 
and shall then proceed te the remaining histo- 
ries. Now those settlements are still in writ- 
ing, as he Jeft them; and we shal! add nothing 
by way of ornament, nor any thing besides 
what Moses left us, only we shall so far innovate 
as to digest the several kinds of laws into a regu- 


'lar system, for they were by him left in writ- 


ing as they were aceidentally scattered in their 
delivery, and as he upon inquiry had earned 
them of God. On which account I have 
thought it necessary to premise this observa 
tion beforehand, lest any of my own country 
men should blame me, as having been guilty of 
an offence herein. Now part of our constitu- 
tion will include the laws that belong to our 
political state. As for those laws which Mo- 
ses left concerning our common conversation 
and intercourse one with another, I have re- 
served that for a discourse concerning our 
manner of life, and the occasions of those laws 
which I propose to myself, with God’s assist- 
ance, to write, after I have finished the work 
I am now upon. 

5. When you have possessed yourselves of 
the land of Canaan, and have leisure to enjoy 
the good things of it, and when you have af- 
terward determined to build cities, if you will 
do what is pleasing to God, you will have a 
secure state of happiness. Let there be then 
one city of the land of Canaan, and this situate 
in the most agreeable place for its goodness, 
and very eminent in itself, and let it be that 
which God shall choose for himself by pro- 
phetic revelation.- Let there also be one tem- 
ple therein, and one altar, not reared of hewn 
stones, but of such as you gather together at 
random: which stones, when they are whited 
over with mortar, will have a handsome ap- 
pearance, and be beautiful to the sight. Let 
the ascent to it be not by steps,* but by an ac- 
clivity of raised earth. And let there be neither 
an altar, nor a temple, in any other city; for God 
is but one, and the nation of the Hebrews is but 
one. 

6. He that blasphemeth God, let him be 
stoned, and let him hang upon a tree all that 
day, and then let him be buried in an ignomi- 
nious and obscure manner. 

7. Let those that live as remote as the bounds 
of the land which the Hebrews shall possess, 
come to that city where the temple shall be, 
and this three times in a year, that they may 
give thanks to God for his former benefits, and 
may entreat him for those they shall want here- 


* This law, both here and Exod. xx. 25, 26, of not going 


up to God’s altar ‘by ladder steps,’ buton an acclivity, seems - 


not to have belonged to the altar of the tabernacle, which 
was in all but three cubits high, Exod. xxvii. 1, nor to that 
of Ezekiel, which was expressly to be gone up to by steps, 
xliii. 17, but rather to occasional altars of any considerable 
altitude and largeness; as also probably to Solomon’s altar, 
to which it is here applied by Josephus, as well as to that in 


Zorobabel’s and Hervud’s temple, which were, I think, al) 


ten cubits high. See 2 Chron. iv. 1, and Antiq. b. viii. ch. 
iii. sect. 7. ‘The reason why these temples, and these only, 
were to have this ascent on an acclivity, and not by steps, is 
obvious, that before the invention of stairs, such as we now 
use, decency could not be otherwise provided for in the loose 
yarinents Which the priests wore, as the law required. See 
Lamy of the Tabernacle and Temple, p. 444. 


- BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VIT1 


after; and let them by this means maintain a 
friendly correspondence with one another; by 
such meetings and feastings together; for it is 
a good thing for those that are of the same 
stock, and under the same institution of laws, 
not to be unacquainted with each other; which 
acquaintance will be maintained by thus con- 
versing together, and by seeing and talking with 
ene another, and so renewing the memorials of 
this union: for if they do not thus converse 
together continually, they will appear like mere 
strangers to one another. 

8. Let there be taken out of your fruits a 
tenth, besides that which you have allotted to 
the priests and Levites. This you may indeed 
sell in the country, but it is to be used in those 
feasts and sacrifices that are to be celebrated in 
the holy city; for it is fit that you should enjoy 
those fruits of the earth which God gives you 
to possess, so as may be to the honor of the 
donor. 

9. You are not to offer sacrifices out of the 
hire of a woman which is a harlot,* for the 
Deity is not pleased with any thing that arises 
from such abuses of nature; of which sort none 
ean be worse than this prostitution of the body. 
In like manner, no one may take the price of 
the covering of a bitch, either of one that is 
used in hunting, orin keeping of sheep, and 
thence sacrifice to God. 

10. Letno one blaspheme those gods which 
other cities esteem such;t nor may any one 
steal what belongs to strange temples, nor take 
away the gifts that are dedicated to any god. 

11. Let notany one of you wear a garment 
made of woollen and linen, for that is ap- 
pointed to be for the priests alone. 

12. When the multitude are assembled to- 
gether into the holy city for sacrificing every 
seventh year, at the feast of tabernacles, let the 
high priest stand upon a high desk, whence 
he may be heard, and let him read the laws to 
all the people;t and let neither the women nor 
the children be hindered from hearing, no, nor 
the servants neither; for it is a good thing that 
those laws should be engraven in their souls, 
and preserved in their memories, that so it may 
not be possible to blot them out; for by this 
means they will not be guilty of sin, when they 
cannot plead ignorance of what the laws have 
enjoined them. ‘The laws also will have a 
great authority among them, as foretelling what 
they will suffer ifthey break them; and imprint- 
ing in their souls by this hearing what they com- 
mand them to do, that so there may always be 
within their minds that attention to the laws 
which they have despised and broken, and 
have thereby been the causes of their own 
mischief. Let the children also learn the laws 


* The hire of public or secret harlots was given to-Venus 
in Syria,as Lucian informs us, p. 878, and against some such 
vile practice of the old idolaters this law seems to have been 
made. 

+ The Apostolical Constitutions, b. ii. chap. xxvi. sect. 31, 
expound this law of Moses, Exod. xxii. 28, ‘thou shalt not 
tevile or blaspheme the gods,’ or magistrates; which is a 
‘uch more probable exposition than this of Josephus, of 
heathen gods, as here, and against Apion, b. ii. ch. iii. sect. 4. 

+ What book of the law was thus publicly read, see the 
aete on Antiq. b. x. ch. v. sect. 5; and 1 Esd. ix. 39—55. 


as the first thing they are taught, which will be 
the best thing they can be taught, and will be 
the cause of their future felicity. 

13. Let every one commemorate before God, 
the benefits which he bestowed upon them at 
their deliverance out of the land of Egypt, and 
this twice every day; both when the day begins 
and when the hour of sleep comes on, gratitude 
being in its own nature a just thing, and serving 
not only by way of return for past, but also by 
way of invitation of future favors. They are 
also to inscribe the principal blessings they have 
received from God upon their doors, and show 
the same remembrance of them on their army 
as also they are to bear on their forehead, and 
their arm, those wonders which declare the 
power of God, and his good will towards them, 
that God’s readiness to bless them may appear 
every where conspicuous about them.* 

14. Let there be seven men to Judge in every 
city,t and these such as have been before max 
zealous in the exercise of virtue and righteour- 
ness. Let every judge have two officers allotted 
him out of the tribe of Levi. Let those that ave 
chosen to judge in the several cities be had ‘n 
great honor; and let none be permitted to revile 
any others when these are present, nor to carry 
themselves in an insolent manner to them, it 
being natural, that reverence towards those in 
high offices among men should procure men s 
fear and reverence towards God. Let thore 
that judge be permitted to determine accorditg 
as they think to be right, unless any one can 
show that.they have taken bribes, to the per- 
version of justice, or can allege any other av- 
cusation against them, whereby it may appem 
they have passed an unjust sentence; for it is 
not fit that causes should be openly determined 
out of regard to gain, or to the dignity of the 
suiters, but that the judges should esteem whit 
is right before all other things, otherwise Gd 
will by that means be despised, and esteemed 
inferior to those, the dread of whose power hus 
occasioned the unjust sentence: for justice is 
the power of God. He, therefore, that gratifies 
those in great dignity supposes them more 
potent than God himself. But if these judges 
are unable to give a just sentence about tlie 
causes that come before them, (which case is 
not unfrequent in human affairs,) let them send 
the cause undetermined to the holy city, and 
there let the high priest, the prophet, and the 


* Whether these phylacteries, and other Jewish memo- 
rials of the law here mentioned by Josephus, and by Moses 
(beside the fringes on the borders of their garments, Nuinb. 
xv. 37,) were literally meant by God, [ much question. That 
they have been long observed by the Pharisees and the rab- 
binigal Jews, is certain; however, the Karaites, who receive 
not the unwritten traditions of the elders, but keep close to 
the written law, with Jerome and Grotius, think they were 
not literally to be understood, as Bernard and Reland here 
take notice. . Nor, indeed, do I remember, that either in the 
more ancient books of the Old Testament, or in the books 
we call ‘Apocrypha,’ there are any signs of such literal obser- 
vations appearing among the Jews, though their real ormy» 
tical signification, i. e. the constant remeinbrance and obser 
vation of the laws of God by Moses, he frequently inculcatee 
in all the sacred writings. 

t Here, as well as elsewhere, sect. 38; of his Life, sect. 
14; and of the War, b. ii. ch. xx. sect. 5, are but seven 
judges appointed for small cities, instead of twenty-three, im 
the modern rabbins; which modern rabbins are always besa 
of very little authority in comparison of our Josephua 


410 


Sanhedrim, determine as it shall seem good 
to them. 

15. But let not a single witness be credited, 
but three, or two at the least, and those such 
whose testimony is confirmed by their good 
lives. But let not the testimony of women be 
admitted, on account of their levity and bold- 
ness of their sex.* Nor, let servants be admit- 
ted to give testimony, on account of the igno- 
bility of their soul: since it is probable that they 
may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, 
or fear of punishment. But if any one be be- 
beved -to have borne false witness, let him, 
when he is convicted suffer all the very same 
punishments which he, against whom he bare 
witness, was to have suffered. 

16. Ifa murder be committed in any place, 
and he that did it be not found, nor is there any 
suspicion upon one as if he had hated the man, 
and so had killed him, let there bea very dili- 
gent inquiry made after the man, and rewards 
proposed to any who will discover him: but if 
still no information can be procured, let the ma- 
gistrates and senate of those cities that lie near 
the place in which the murder was committed, 
assemble together, and measure the distance 
from the place where the dead body lies; then 
let the magistrates of the nearest city thereto 
purchase a heifer, and bring it to a valley, and 
toa place therein where there is no land plough- 
ed, or trees planted, and let them cut the sinews 
of the heifer; then the priests and Levites, and 
the senate of that city, shall take water and 
wash their hands over the head of the heifer, 
and they shall openly declare that their hands 
are innocent of this murder, and that they have 
neither done it themselves, nor been assisting to 
any that did it. ‘They shall also beseech God to 
be merciful to them, that no such horrid act may 
any more be done in that land. 

17. Aristocracy, andthe way of living under 
t, is the best constitution; and may you never 
have an inclination to any other form of govern- 
ment; and may you always love that form, and 
have the laws for your governors, and govern all 
your actions according to them; for you need no 
supreme governor but God. Butif you shall 
desire a king, let him be one of your own na- 
tion; let him be always careful of justice, and 
other virtues, perpetually; let him submit to the 
iaws, and esteem God’s commands to be his 
highest wisdom; but let him do nothing without 
the high priest, and the votes of the senators: 
let him not have a great number of wives, nor 

ursue abundance of riches, nor a multitude of 

orses, whereby he may grow too proud to sub- 
mit to the laws. And if he affect any such 
things, let him be restrained, lest he become so 
potent that his state be inconsistent with your 
welfare. 

18. Let it not be esteemed lawful to remove 
boundaries, neither our own, nor of those with 
whom we are at peace. Have a care you do 
not take those landmarks away, which are, as 
it were, a divine and unshaken limitation of 


*] have never observed elsewhere that in the Jewish 
government, women were not admitted as legal witnesses 
w courts of justice. None of our copies of the Pentateuch 


ANTIQUTIES OF THE JEWS 


rights made by God himse:f, to ast forever, 
since this going beyond limits, and gaining 
ground upon others, is the occasion of wars 
and seditions; for those that remove boundaries 
are not far off an attempt to subvert the laws. 

19. He that plants a piece of land, whose 
trees produce fruits fa te the fourth year, is 
not to bring thence any first-fruits to God, nor 
is he to make use of that fruit himself, for it is 
not produced in its proper season; for when 
nature has a force put upon her at an unsea- 
sonable time, the fruit is not proper for God 
nor for the master’s use; but let the owner 
gather all that is grown on the fourth year, for 
then it is in its proper season. And let him 
that has gathered it, carry it to the holy city, 
and spend that, together with the tithe of his 
other fruits, in feasting with his friends, with 
the orphans, and the widows. Buton the fifth 
year the fruit is his own, and he may use it as ha 
pleases. 

20. You are not to sow a piece of land 
with seed which is planted with vines, for it is 
enough that it supply nourishment to that plant 
and be not harassed by ploughing also. You 
are to plough your land with oxen: and not to 
oblige other animals to come under the same 
yoke with them; but to till your land with those 
beasts that are of the same kind with each 
other. The seeds are also to be pure and without 
mixture, and not to be compounded of two or 
three sorts, since nature does not rejoice in the 
union of things that are not in their own na- 
ture alike; nor are you to permit beasts of dif- 
ferent kinds to gender together; for there is 
reason to fear that this unnatural abuse may 
extend from beasts of different kinds to men, 
though it takes its first rise from evil practices 
about such smaller things. Nor is any thing to 
be allowed, by imitation whereof any degree 
of subversion may creep into the constitution. 
Nor do the laws neglect small matters, but pro- 
vide that even those may be managed after an 
unblamable manner. 

21. Let not those that reap, and gather in the 
corn that is reaped, gather in the gleanings al- 
so; but let them rather leave some handfuls for 
those that are in want of the necessaries of life, 
that it may be a support and a supply to them, 
in order to their subsistence. In like manner 
when they gather their grapes, let them leave 
some smaller bunches for the poor, and let them 
pass over some of the fruits of the olive-trees, 
when they gather them, and leave them to be 
partaken of by those that have none of their 
own; for the advantage arising from the exact 
collection of all, will not be so considerable to 


the owners as will arise from the gratitude of — 


the poor. And God will provide, that the land 
shall more willingly produce what shall be for 
the nourishment of its fruits, in case you de 
not merely take care of you own advantage, 
but have regard to the support of others also, 
Nor are you to muzzle the mouths of the oxen, 
when they tread the ears of corn in the thrash- 


saya word of it. [tis very probable, however, that this was 
the exposition of the Scribes and Pharisees and the praatiee 
of the Jews in the days of Josephus. 


oe a ee ee 


BOOK TV.—CHAPTER VIIL. 


#4-floor, fur it is not just to restrain our fellow- 
laboring animals, and those that work in order 
to its production, of this fruit of their labors. 
Nor are you to prohibit those that pass by at 
the time when your fruits are ripe to touch 
thein, but to give them leave to fill themselves 
full of what you have, and this whether they be 
of your own country, or strangers, as being glad 
of the opportunity of giving them some parts 
of your fruits when they are ripe; but let it not 
be esteemed lawful for them to carry any away. 
Nor let those that gather the grapes, and carry 
them to the wine-presses, restrain those whom 
they meet from eating of them; for it is unjust, 
out of envy, to hinder those that desire it, to 
partake of the good things that come into the 
world according to God’s will, and this while 
the season is at the height, and is hastening 
away as it pleases God. Nay, if some, out of 
bashfulness, are unwilling to touch these fruits, 
let them be encouraged to take of them, I mean 
those that are Israelites, as if they were them- 
s:lyes the owners and lords, on account of the 
kindred there is between them. Nay, let them 
desire men that come from other countries, to 
partake of these tokens of friendship which 
God-has given in their proper season; for that 
is not to be deemed as idly spent, which any 
one out of kindness communicates to another, 
since God bestows plenty of good things on 
men, not only for themselves to reap the advan- 
tage, but also to give to others in a way of gen- 
erosity; and he is desirous by this means, to 
iuake known to others his peculiar kindness to 
the people of Israel, and how freely he com- 
inunicates happiness to them, while they abun- 
dantly communicate, out of their great super- 
{luities, to even these foreigners also. But for 
him that acts contrary to this law, let him be 
beaten with forty stripes save one, by the pub- 
lic executioner;* let him undergo this punish- 
ment, which is a most ignominious one for a 
freeman, and this because he was such a slave 
to gain as to lay a blot upon his own dignity; 
for it is proper for you who have had the expe- 
rience of the afflictions in Egypt and of those in 
the wilderness, to make provision for those that 
are in the like circumstances; and while you 
have now obtained plenty yourselves, through 
the mercy and providence of God, to distribute 
of the same plenty, by the like sympathy, to 
such as stand in need of it. 

22. Besides those two tithes, which I have 
already said you are to pay every year, the one 
for the Levites, the other for the festivals; you 
are to bring every third year a third tithe to be 
distributed to those that want;} to women also 
that are widows; and to children that are or- 
phans. Butasto the ripe fruits, let them carry 


* This penalty of forty stripes save one, here mentioned 
and sect. 23, was five times inflicted on St. Paul himself by 
the Jews, 2 Cor. xi. 24. 

+Josephus’s plain and express interpretation of this law 
ef Moses, Deut. xiv. 28, 29; xxvi. 12, &c. that the Jews were 
bound every third year to pay three tithes, that to the Le- 
Vites, that for sacrifices at Jerusalem, and this for the indi- 
gent, the widows, and the orphans, is fully confirmed by the 
practice of good old Tobit, even when he was a captive at 
iw against the opinion of the Rabbins, Tobit, ch. i. 

7 8 ; 


ly 


that which is ripe first of all unto the temple; 
and when they have blessed God for that land 
which bare them, and which he had given them 
for a possession, when they have also offered 
those sacrifices which the law has commanded 
them to bring, let them give the first-fruits to 
the priests. But when any one hath done this, 
and hath brought the tithe of all that he hath, 
together with those first-fruits that were for the 
Levites, and for the festivals; and when he is 
about to go home, let him stand before the holy 
house, and return thanks to God, that he hath 
delivered them from the injurious treatment 
they had in Egypt, and hath given them a 
good land, and a large, and let them enjoy the 
fruits thereof; and when he hath openly testifi- 
ed that he hath fully paid the tithes [and other 
dues,] according to the law of Moses, let him 
entreat God that he will be ever merciful and 
gracious to him, and continue so to be to all the 
Hebrews, both by preserving the good things 
which he hath already given them, and by add- 
ing what it is still in his power to bestow upon 
them. 

23. Let the Hebrews marry, at the age fit for 
it, virgins that are free and born of good pa- 
rents. And he that does not marry a virgin, 
let him not corrupt another man’s wife, and 
marry her, nor grieve her former husband. 
Nor let free men marry slaves, although their 
affections should strongly bias any of them so 
to do; for it is decent, and for the dignity of 
the persons themselves, to govern those their 
affections. And farther, no one ought to marry 
a harlot; whose matrimonial oblations, arisin 
from the prostitution of her body, God wil 
not receive; for by these means, the disposi- 
tions of the children will be liberal and virtu- 
ous; [ mean when they are not born of base 
parents, and of the lustful conjunction of such 
as marry women that are not free. If any one 
has been espoused to a woman as to a virgin, 
and does not afterward find her so to be, let him 
bring his action, and accuse her, and let him 
make use of such indications to prove his accu- 
sation as he is furnished withal,* and let the 
father or the brother of the damsel, or some 
one that is after them nearest of kin to her, 
defend her. If the damsel obtain a sentence 
in her favor, that she had not been guilty, let 
her live with her husband that accused her; 
and let him not have any farther power at all 
to put her away, unless she give him very great 
occasions for suspicion, and such as can be no- 
way contradicted. But for him that brings an 
accusation and calumny against his wife, in 
an impudent and rash manner, ‘let him be 
punished by receiving forty stripes save one, 


* These tokens of virginity, as the Hebrew and Septuagins 
style them, Deut. xxii. 15, 17, 20, seem to me very different 
from what our later interpreters suppose. They appear rather 
to have been such close linen garments as were never put 
off virgins after a certain age, till they were riarried, but be 
fore witnesses, and which, while they were «mntire, were cer- 
tain evidences of such virginity. See these Antiq. b. vii. ch. 
viii. sect. 1; 2 Sam. xiii. 18; Isa. iv. 1. Josephus here deter- 
mines nothing what were these particular tokens of virgi- 
nity, or of corruption; perhaps he thought he could not easily 
describe them to the heathens, without saying what they 
might have thought a breach of modesty; which seeming 
breach of modesty, laws cannot always wholly avoid. 


112 


and let him pay fifty shekels to her father. But 
if the damsel be convicted, as having been 
corrupted, and is one of the common people, 
let her be stoned, because she did not preserve 
her virginity till she were lawfully married; 
but if she were the daughter of a priest, let 
her be burnt alive. If any man has two wives, 
and if he greatly respect and be kind to one 
of them, either out of his affection to her, or 
for her beauty, or for some other reason, while 
the other is of less esteem with him; and if 
the son of her that is beloved be the younger 
by birth than another born of the other wife, 
but endeavors to obtain the right of primo- 
geniture, from his father’s kindness to his 
mother, and would thereby obtain a double 
portion of his father’s substance, (for that 
double portion is what [ have allotted him in 
the laws,) let not this be permitted; for it is un- 
just, that he who is the elder by birth should 
9e deprived of what is due to him, on the 
father’s disposition of his estate, because his 
mother was not equally regarded by him. He 
that hath corrupted a damsel espoused to 
another man, in case he had her consent, let 
both him and her be put to death, for they are 
both equally guilty, the man because he per- 
suaded the woman willingly to submit to a 
most impure action, and to prefer it to lawful 
wedlock; the woman, because she was _ per- 
suaded to yield herself to be corrupted, either 
for pleasure or for gain. However, if a man 
light on a woman when she is alone, and forces 
her, where nobody was present to come to her 
assistance, let him only be put to death. Let 
him that hath corrupted a virgin not yet es- 
poused, marry her; but if the father of the 
damsel be not willing that she should be his 
wife, let him pay fifty shekels as the price of 
her prostitution. He that desires to be divorc- 
ed from his wife for any cause whatsoever,* 
ag many such causes happen among men,) 
et him in writing give assurance that he never 
will use her as his wife any more, for by these 
means she may be at liberty to marry another 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


- 
4 
. 
3 


is willing to continue in the family, and to bees 
him children: and when the senate have in- 
quired of him, for what reason it is that he is— 
averse to this marriage, whether he gives a bad — 
or a good reason, the matter must come to this 
issue, that the woman shall loose the sandals 
of the brother, and shall spit in his face, and 
say, “He deserves this reproachful treatment 
from her, as having injured the memory of the 
deceased.” And then let him go away out of 
the senate, and bear this reproach upon him all 
his life long; and let her marry whom she 
pleases, of such as seek her in marriage. But 
now if any man take captive either a virgin, 
or one that hath been married,* and hasa mind 
to marry her, let him not be allowed to bring 
her to bed to him, or to live with her as his 
wife, before she hath her head shaven, and 
hath put on her mourning habit, and lamented 
her relations and friends that were slain in the 
battle, that by these means she may give vent 
to her sorrow for them, and after that may be- 
take herself to feasting and matrimony, for it is 
good for him that takes a woman in order to 
have children by her, to be complaisant to her 
inclinations, and not merely to pursue his own 
pleasure, while he hath no regard to what is 
agreeable to her. But when thirty days are 
past, as the time of mourning, for so many are 
sufficient, to prudent persons, for lamenting 
the dearest friends, then let them proceed to— 
the marriage; but in case when he hath satis- 
fied his lust, he be too proud to retain her for 
his wife, let him not have it in his power to — 
make her a slave, but let her go away whither 
she pleases, and have that privilege of a free 
woman. 

24. Asto those young men that despise their — 
parents, and do not pay them honor, but offer 
them affronts, either because they are ashamed — 
of them, or think themselves wiser than they; 
in the first place, let their parents admonish — 
them in words, (for they are by nature of au- — 
thority sufficient for becoming their judges,) © 
and let them say thus to them: “That they co- — 


husband, although before this bill of divorce 
be given, she is not to be permitted so to do: 
but if she be misused by him also, or if, when 
he is dead, her first husband would marry her 
again, it shall not be lawful for her to return to 
him. Ifa woman’s husband die, and leave 
her without children, let his brother marry her, 
and let him call the son that is born to him by 
his brother’s name, and educate him as the 
heir of his inheritance, for this procedure will 
be for the benefit of the public, because thereby 
families will not fail, and the estate will con- 
tinue among the kindred; and this will be for 
the solace of wives under their affliction, that 
they are to be married to the next relations of 
their former husbands. But if the brother. 
will not marry her, let the woman come before 
the senate, and protest openly that his brother 
will not admit her for his wife, but will injure 
the memory of his deceased brother, while she 


habited together, not for the sake of pleasure, — 
nor for the augmentation of their riches, by — 
joining both their stocks together, but that they — 
might have children, to take care of them in 

their old age, and might by them have what 

they then should want.” And say farther to- 
him, “That when thou wast born we took thee — 
up with gladness, and gave God the greatest 

thanks for thee, and brought thee up with great — 
care, and spared for nothing that was useful for 
thy preservation, and for thy imstruction in 
what was most excellent. And nowsince it is 

reasonable to forgive the sins of those that are— 
young, let it suffice thee to have given so many 

indications of thy contempt of us: reform thy- 

self, and act more wisely for the time to come, — 
considering that God is displeased with those } 
that are insolent towards their parents, because 
he is himself the Father of the whole race of — 
mankind, and seems to bear part of that dis 
* Here it is supposed that this captive’s husband, if she 
were before a married woman, was dead before, or rathe? — 
was slain in this very battle, otherwise it would have bees 


adulterv in him that married her. Py 
a 


* These words of Josephus are very like those of the 
Pharisees to our Savior upon this very subject, Matt. xix. 4, 
“Ye it lawful for a man to put away his wife for everv cause?” 


| 


BOOK 1V.—-CHAPTER VIM. 


-hunor which falls upon those that have the 
Same name, when they do not meet with due 
returns from their children. Andon such the 
law inflicts inexorable punishment; of which 
punishment mayest thou never have the expe- 
rience!” Now if the insolence of young men 
be thus cured, let them escape the reproach 
which their former error deserved, for by this 
means the lawgiver will appear to be good, and 
parents happy, while they never behold. either 
a son or a daughter brought to punishment. 
But ifit happen that these words and_ instruc- 
tions conveyed by them, in order to reclaim 
the man, appear to be useless, then the offend- 
‘+r renders the laws implacable enemies to the 
inso ence he has offered his parents; let him, 
therefore, be brought forth by these very pa- 
rents out of the city,* with a multitude follow- 
ing him, and let him be stoned; and when he has 
continued there for one whole day, that all the 
people may see him, let him be buried in the 
night. And thus it is that we bury all whom 
the laws condemn to die, upon any account 
whatever. Let our enemies that fall in battle 
be also buried; nor let any one dead _ body lie 
above the ground, or suffer a punishment be- 

‘yond what justice requires. 

25. Let no one lend to any one of the He- 
brews upon usury, neither usury of what is 
eaten, or what is drunken; for it is not just to 
make advantage of the misfortunes of one of 
thy own countrymen; but when thou hast been 
assistant to his necessities, think it thy gain, if 
thou obtaimest their gratitude to thee; and with- 
al that reward which will come to thee from 
God, for thy humanity towards him. 

26. Those who have borrowed either silver, 
er any sort of fruits, whether dry or wet, (I 
mean this, when the Jewish affairs shall, by 
the blessing of God, be to their own mini.) let 
the borrowers bring them again, and restore 
them with pleasure to those who lent them, 
laying them up, as it were, in their own treasu- 
ries, and justly expecting to receive them 
thence, if they shall want them again. But if 
they be without shame, and do not restore it, 
let not the lender go to the borrower’s house, 
and take a pledge himself, before judgment be 
given concerning it; but let him require the 
pledgz, and let the debtor bring it of himself, 
without the least opposition to him that comes 
upon him under the protection of the law. And 
if he that gave the pledge be rich, let the credi- 
tor retain it till what he lent be paid him again; 
but if he be poor, let hin that takes it, return 
it before the gomg down of the sun, especial 
iy if the pledge be a garment, thai the debtor 
may have it for a coverng in his sleep. God 
himself naturally showing mercy to the poor 
li also is not lawful to take a millstone, nor any 
ute sil thereto belonging, for a pledge, that the 
debtors may not be deprived of instruments to 
get their food withal, and lest they be undone 


by their necessity. 


27. Let death be the punishment for stealing 


113 


a man; but he that hath pa. toned gold or silver, 
let him pay double. If any one killa man that 
is stealing something out of his house, let him 
be esteemed guiltless, although the man were 
only breaking in at the wall. Let him that 
hath stolen cattle pay four-fold what is lost; 
excepting the case of an ox, for which let the 
thief pay five-fold. Let him that is so poor 
that he cannot pay what mulct is laid upon 
him, be his servant to whom he was adjudged 
to pay it. 

28. If any one be sold to one of his own na 
tion, let him serve him six years, and on the 
seventh let him go free; but if he have a son 
by a woman-servant in his purchaser’s house, 
and if on account of his good will to his mas- 
ter, and his natural affection to his wife and 
children, he will be his servant still, let him be 
set free only at the coming of the year of Ji 
bilee, which is the fiftieth year, and let him 
then take away with him his children and wife. 
and let them be free also. 

29. If any one find gold or silver in the roait 
let him inquire after him that lost it, and make 
proclamation of the place where he found # 
and then restore it to him agai, as not think- 
ing it right to make his own profit by the lose 
of another. And the same rule is to be observ- 
ed in cattle found to have wandered away into 
alonely place. Ifthe owner be not presently 
discovered, let him that is the finder keep it 
with himself, and appeal t God, that he has 
not purloined what belongs to another. 

30. It is not lawful to pass by any beast that 
is in distress, when in a storm it is fallen down 
in the mire, but toendeavor to preserve it, as 
having a sympathy with it in its pain. 

31. It is alsoa duty to show the roads to those 
who do not know them, and not to esteem it a 
matter for sport, when we hinder others’ advan- 
tages by setting them in a wrong way. 

32. In like manner let no one revile a person 
blind or dumb. 

33. If men strive together, end there be no 
instrument of iron, let him that is smitten 'e 
avenged immediately, by inflictnmg the same 
punishment on him that smote him; bur if, 
when he is carried home, he lie sick many diys, 
aud then die, let him that smote him not escipe 
punishment; butif he that is smitten escape 
death. and yet be at great expense for his eine, 
the smiter shal] pay for all that has been expend- 
ed during the time of his sickness, and for all 
that he has paid the physician. He that kicks 
a woman with child, so that the woman iiis- 
earry,* let him pay a fine in money asthe Judges 
shall determine, as having diminished the mutl- 
titude by the destruction of what was in ler 
womb; and let money also be given che wo 


* Philo and others appear to have understood this law, 
Exodus xxi. 22, 28, better than Josephus, who seems 
allow, that though the infant in the mother’s womb, even 
after the mother were quick, and so the infant had a rational 
soul, were killed by the stroke upon the mother, yet if the 
mother escaped, the offender should only be fined, and not 

ut to death; while the law seems rather to mean, thas if the 
infant in that case be killed, though the mother escape, the 


_ *See Herod the Great insisung on the execution of this | offender must he put to death, and not only when tlre mm Cher 


wy. with relation to two of tus sons, before the jodges af 
Perytus, Anug. b. xvi. chap a. sect 2 
13 


is killed, as Josephus understood it. [t seems this wae Gee 
exposition of the Pharisees in the days of Josephus 


iid 


man’s husband by him that kicked her; but if 
she die of the stroke, let him also be put to 
death, the law judging it equitable that life 
should go for life. 

34. Let no one of the Israelites keep any poi- 
son that may cause death,* or any other harm; 
but if he be caught with it, let him be put to 
death, and suffer the very same mischief that he 
would have brought upon them for whom the 
poison was prepared. — 

35. He that maimeth any one, let him un- 
dergo the like himself, and be deprived of the 
same member of which he hath deprived the 
ather, unless he that is maimed will accept of 
money instead of it, for the law makes the suf- 
ferer the judge of the value of what he hath 
suffered, and permits him to estimate it, unless 
he will be more severe.+ 

36. Let him that is the owner of an ox, 
which pusheth with his horn, kill him; but if 
he pushes and gores any oue in the thrashing- 
floor, let him be put to death by stoning, and 
let him not be thought fit for food; but if his 
owner be convicted as having known what his 
nature was, and hath not kept him up, let him 
also be put to death, as being the occasion of 
the ox’s having killed a man. But if the ox 
have killed a man-servant, or a maid-servant, 
let him be stoned; and let the owner of the 
ox pay thirty shekels to the master of him that 
was slain;t but if it be an ox that is thus 
sinitten and killed, let both the oxen, that which 
smote the other, and that which was killed, be 
wild, and let the owners of them divide their 
price between them. 

37. Let those that dig a well or a pit be care- 
ful to lay planks over it, and so keep them shut 
up, not in order to himder any person from 
drawing water, but that there may be no 
danger of falling into them: but if any one’s 
beast fall into such a well or pit thus digged, 
and not shut up, and perish, let the owner pay 
ils price to the owner of the beast. Let there 
be a battlement round the tops of your houses 
mstead of a wall, that may prevent any per- 
eons from rolling down and perishing. 

38. Let him that has received any thing in 
trust for another take care to keep it as a sa- 
cred and divine thing, and let no one invent 
any contrivance whereby tw deprive him that 
nath intrusted it with him of the same, and 
this whether it be a man or a woman, no, not 
although he or she were to gain an immense 
sum of gold, and this where le cannot be con- 
victed of it by any body, for it is fit that a 
man’s own conscience, which knows what lie 
hath, should in all cases oblige him to do well. 
Let this conscience be his witness, and make 


* What we render a witch, according to our modern no- 
fons of witcheraft, Exodus xxii. 18, Philo and Josephus 
saderstood of a poisoner, or one who attempted, by secret 
ead wiilawful drugs or philura, to take away the senses or the 
fives of men. 

¢ This permission of redeeming this penalty with money 
is mat our copies, Exod. xxi. 24, 25; Lev. xxiv. 20; Deut. 
xix. : 

t We may here note, that 30 shekels, the price our Savior 
was sold for by Judas to the Jews, Matt. xxvi. 15, xxvii. 3, 
was fa old value of a bought servant, or slave, among that 
weopic. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


him always act so as may procure him com- 
mendation from others; but let him chiefly 
have regard to God, from whom no wicked 
man can lie concealed; but if he in whom the 
trust was reposed, without any conceit of his 
own, lose what he is intrusted withal, let him 
come before the seven judges, and swear by 
God, that nothing has been lost willingly, or 
with a wicked intention, and that he hath not 
made use of any part thereof, and so let him 
depart without blame; but if he hath made use 
of the least part of what was committed tu 
him, and it be lost, let him be condemned to 
repay all that he had received, after the same 
manner as in those trusts it is to be, if any one 
defraud those that undergo bodily labor for 
him. And let it be always remembered, that 
we are not to defraud a poor man of his wages, 
as being sensible that God has allotted that 
wages to him instead of land, and other pos 

sessions; nay, this payment is not at all to be de- 
layed, but to be made that very day, since God 
is not willing to deprive the laborer of the im- 
mediate use of what he hath labored for. 

39. You are not to punish children for the 
faults of their parents, but on account of their 
own virtue rather to vouchsafe them commise- 
ration, because they were born of wicked pa- 
rents, than hatred, because they were born of 
bad ones. Nor indeed ought we to impute the 
sin of children to their fathers, while young 
persons indulge themselves in many practices 
different from what they have been instructed 
in, and this by their proud refusal of such in. 
struction. 

40.-Let those that have made themselves 
eunuchs be had in detestation: and do you 
avoid any conversation with them, who have 
deprived themselves of their manhood, and of 
that fruit of generation which God has given 
to men for the increase of their kind: let such 
be driven away, as if they had killed their 
children, since they beforehand have lost what 
should procure them; for evident it is, that 
while their soul is become effeminate, they 
lave withal transfused that effeminancy to their 
body also. In like manner do you treat all 
that is of a monstrous nature when it is looked 
on; nor is it lawful to geld either men or any 
other animals.* 

41, Let this be the constitution of your politi- 
ca] laws in time of peace; and God will be so 
merciful as to preserve this excellent settlement 
free froin disturbance. And may that time 
never come which may innovate any thing, and 
change it for the contrary. But since it must 
needs happen that mankind fall into troubles 
and dangers, either undesignedly or intention- 
ally, come, let us make a few constitutions con- 
cerning them, that so being apprized before- 
hand what ought to be done, you may have salu- 
tary counsels ready when you want them, and 
may not then be obliged to go to seek what is 

* This law against castration, even of brutes, is said to be 
so rigorous elsewhere as to inflict death on him that does 5 
which seems only a Pharisaical interpretation in the days 0’ 
Josephus of that law, Lev. xxi. 20, and xxii. 24; only we ma 
hence observe, that the Jews could then have no oxen whic 
are gelt, but only bulls and cows in Judea. 


BOOK IV.-CHAPTER VIN. 


te 0e done, and so be unprovided, and fall into 
‘dangerous circumstances. May you be a labo- 
rious people, and exercise your souls in virtuous 
actions, and thereby possess and inherit the land 

‘without wars, while neither any foreigners 
“make war upon it, and so afflict you, nor any 
internal sedition seize upon it, whereby you 

“may do thingsthat are contrary to your fathers, 
‘and so lose the laws which they have establish- 
ed. And may you continue in the observation 

of those laws which God hath approved of, and 

hath delivered to you. Let all sort of warlike 

operations, whether they befall you now in your 

own time, or hereafter in the times of your pos- 

terity, be done out of your own borders: but 

when you are about to go to war, send embas- 

sages and heralds to those who are your 

‘voluntary enemies, for it is a right thing to 
make use of words to them before you come to 

our weapons of war; and assure them there- 

y, that although you have a numerous army, 

with horses and weapons, and above these, a 
God merciful to you, and ready to assist you, 
you do however desire them not to compel you 
|to fight against them, nor to take from them 
what they have, which will indeed be our gain, 
‘butt what they will have no reason to wish we 
should take to ourselves. And if they hearken 
te you, it will be proper for you to keep peace 
with them; but if they trust on their strength, 
as superior to yours, and will not do you justice, 
lead yourarmy against them, making use of God 
as your supreme commander, but ordaining for 
a lieutenant under him, one that is of the great- 
est courage among you; for these different 
commanders, besides their being an obstacle to 
actions that are to be done on the sudden, are 
a disadvantage to those that make use of thei. 
Lead an army pure, and of chosen men, com- 
posed ofall such: as liave extraordinary strength 
of body, and hardiness of soul; but do you 
send away the timorous part, lest they run 
away in the time of action, and so afford an ad- 
vantage to your enemies. Do you also give leave 
to those who have lately built them houses, and 
have not yet lived in them a year’s time; and 
to those who have planted them vineyards, and 
have not yet been partakers of their fruits, to 
continue in their own country, as well as those 
also who have betrothed or lately inarried them 
wives, lest they have such an affection for these 
things that they be too sparing of their lives, 
and by reserving themselves for these enjoy- 
ments, they becoine voluntary cowards [on ac- 
count of their wives. ] 

42. When you have pitched your camp, take 
eare that you do nothing that is cruel. And 
when you are engaged in a siege, and want 
timber for the making of warlike engines, do 
aot you render the land naked, by cutting down 
trees that bear fruit, but spare them, as consider- 
ing that they were made for the benefit of men; 
and that if they could speak, they would have 
& just plea against you; beeause though they are 
not occasions of the war, they are unjustly treat- 
ed, and suffer in it, and would, if they were able, 
remove themselves into another land. When 
vou have beaten your enemies in battle, slay 





1s 


those that have fought against you; but preserve 
the others alive, that they may pay you tribute, 
excepting the nation of the Canaanites, for as 
to that people you must entirely destroy them, 

43. Take care especially in your battles that 
no woman use the habit of a man, nor man the 
garment of a woman. 

44, This was the form of political government 
which was left us by Moses. Moreover, he 
had already delivered laws in writing,* in the 
fortieth year, [after they came out of Egypt} 
concerning which we will discourse in another 
book. But now on the following days, (for he 
called them to assemble continually,) he deliv- 
ered blessings to them, and curses upon those 
that should not live according to the laws, but 
should transgress the duties that were deter- 
mined for themto observe. After this, he read 
to them a poetic song, which was composed 
in hexameter verse, and left it to them in the 
holy book. It contained a prediction of what was 
to come to passafterward. Agreeably wherete 
all things have happened all along; and do still 
happen to us; and wherein he has not at all 
deviated from the truth. Accordingly he de- 
livered these books to the priests,t with the 
ark; into which he also put the ten command- 
ments, written in two tables. He delivered to 
them the tabernacle also; and exhorted the 
people, that when they had conquered the land, 
and were settled in it, they should not forget 
the injuries of the Amalekites, but make war 
against them, and inflict punishment upon them, 
for what mischief they did them, when they 
were in the wilderness: and that when they had 
got possession of the land of the Canaanites, 
and when they had destroyed the whole mul- 
titude of its inhabitants as they ought to do, 
they should erect an altar that should face the 
rising sun, not far from the city of Shechem, 
between the two mountains, that of Gerizzim 
situate on the right hand, and that called Ebal 
on the left; and that the army should be so di- 
vided, that six tribes should stand upon each of 
the two mountains, and with them the Levites 
and the priests. And that first, those that were 
upon mount Gerizzim should pray for the best 
blessings upon those who were diligent about 
the worship of God, and the observation of 
his laws, and who did not reject what Moses 
had said to them, while the other wished them 
all manner of happiness also; and when these 
last put up the like prayers, the former praised 
them. After this, curses were denounced upon 
those that should transgress those laws, they 
answering one another alternately, by way of 
confirmation of what had been said. Moses 
also wrote their blessings and their curses that 
they might learn them so thoroughly, that they 
might never be forgotten by length of time. 
And when he was ready to die, he wrote these 
blessings and curses upon the altar on each side 
of it;} where he says also the people stood, and 


* These laws seem to be those above-mentioned, sect. 4 
of this chapter. 

+ What laws were now delivered to the priests, see the 
note on Antiq. b. ili. chap. 1, sect. 7. 

¢ Of the exact place where this altar was to be built 
whether nearer mount Gerizzim or mount Ebal, according 
to Josephus, see Essay on the Old Testament, p. 1683—171. 


116 ANTIQUITIES 
ther sacrificed and offered burnt—ofterings, 
though after tnat day they never offered upon 
it any ciher sacrifice, for it was not lawful so 
to do. These are the constitutious of Moses; 
and the Hebrew nation still live according to 
them. 

45. On the next day, Moses called the people 
together, with the women and children, to a 
congregation, so as the very slaves were pre- 
sent also, that they might engage themselves to 
the observation of these laws by oath; anc that 
duly considering the meaning of God in them, 
they might not, either for favor of their kindred 
or out of fear of any one, or indeed for any 
motive whatsoever, think any thing ought to 
be preferred to these laws, and so might trans- 
gress them. That in case any one of their 
own blood, or any city, should attempt to con- 
found or dissolve their coustitution of goveru- 
ment, they should take vengeance upon them, 
both all in general, and each person in parti- 
eular; and when they had eonquered them, 
should overturn their city to the very founda- 
tions, and, if possible, should not leave the 
least footsteps of such miadiess; but that if 
they were not able to take such vengeance, 
they should still demonstrate, that what was 
done was contrary to their wills. So the mul- 
titude bound themselves by oath so to do. 

46. Moses taught them also by what means 
their sacrifices might be most acceptable to 
God; and how they should go forth to war, 
making use of the stones [in the high priest’s 
breastplate] for their direction,* as I have be- 
fore signified. Joshua also prophesied while 
Moses was present. And when Moses had re- 
capitulated whatsoever he had done for the 
preservation of the people, both in their wars 
and in peace, and had co:aposed them a body 
of laws, and procured them an excellent form 
of government, he foretold,as God had declar- 
ed to him, “that if they transgressed that insti- 
tution for the worship of God, they should ex- 
perience the following miseries: their land 
should be full of weapons of war from their 
enemies, and their cities should be overthrown, 
and their temple should be burnt; that they 
should be sold for slaves to such men as would 
have no pity on them in their afflictions: that 
they would then repent, when that repentance 
would noway profit them under their suffer- 
ings. Yet, said he, will that God who founded 
your nation, restore your cities to your Citi- 
zeus, with their temple also, and you shall lose 
these advattages not once only, but often.” 

47. Now when Moses had encouraged Joshua 
© lead out the army against the Canaanites, by 
elling him that Ged would assist hin in all 
nis undertakings, and had blessed the whole 
multitude, he said, “Since I am going to my 
forefathers, and God has determined that this 
ahould be the day of my departure to them, I 

* Dr. Bernard well observes here, how unfortunate this 
neglect of consulting the Urim was to Joshua himself, in the 
ease of the Gibeonites, who put a trick upon him, and en- 
snared hii, together with the rest of the Jewish rulers, with 
asolemn oath to preserve them, contrary to his commission 
to extirpate all the Canaanites, root and braneh; which oath 


he and the other rulers durst never break. See Senptare 
Poliucs, p. 55, 56; and this suure they were brought into, be- 


iad 


OF THE JEWS. D 


% 
return him thanks while L am still alive, a 
present with you, for thes providence he bath 
exercised over you, which hath not only de- 
livered us from the miseries we lay under, but 
hath bestowed a state of prosperity upon us; 
as also, that he hath assisted me in the paius I 
took, and in all the contrivances I had in my 
care about you, in order to better your condi- 
tion, aid hath on all occasions showed himself. 
favorable to us; or rather, he it was who firs 
conducted our affairs, and brought them to 
happy conclusion, by making use of me as a 
Vicarious general under him, and as a minister 
in those matters wherein he was willing to de 
you good: on which account I think it proper 
to bless that divine power which will take care 
of you for the time to come, and this in order 
to repay the debt which I owe him, and to 
leave behind me a memorial that we are oblig- 
ed to worship and honor him, and to keep 
those laws which are the most excellent gift of 
all those be hath already bestowed upon us, or 
which, if he continue favorable to us, he will 
bestow upon us hereafter. Certainly a human 
legislator isa terrible enemy, when his laws 
are afironted, and are mile to no purpose, 
And may you never experience that displea- 
sure of God, which will be the consequence of 
the neglect of these his laws, which he, who is 
your Creator, hath given you!” 

438, When Moses liad spoken thus at the end 
of his life, and had foretold what would befall 
to every one of their wibes afterward,* with 
the addition of a blessing to them, the multitude 
fell into tears, insomuch that even the women, 
by beating their breasts, made manifest the deep 
concern they had when he was about to die. 
The children also Jamented still more, as not 
able to contain their grief; and thereby declar- 
ed, that even at their age they were sensible of 
his virtue, aud mighty deeds: and truly there 
seemed to be a strife between the young and 
the old, who should most grieve for him. The 
old grieved, because they knew what a careful 
protector they were to be deprived of, and so 
lamented their future state; but the young 
grieved not only for that, but also because it so 
happened that they were to be left by him be- 
fore they had well tasted of his virtue. Now 
one may make a guess at the excess of this sor- 
row and lamentation of the multitude, from 
what happened to the legislator himself; for al-— 
though he was always persuaded that he ought 
not to be cast down at the approach of death, 
since the undergoing it was agreeable to the 
will of God, and the law of nature, yet what~ 
the people did so overbore him, that he wept) 
himself. Now as he went thence to the place 
where he was to vanish out of their sight, they 
all followed after him weeping, but Moses beck- 
oned with his hand to those that were remote 
from him, and bade them stay behind in quiet, 
cause they “did not ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord.” — 
Josh. ix. 14. 7 

* Since Josephus assures us here, as is most naturally te — 
be supposed, and as the Septuagint gives the text, Deut | 
XXxiii. 6; that Moses blessed every one of the tribes of Ils 
rael, it is evident that Simeon was not omitted in his copy — 


as it unhappily now is, both in our Hebrew and Samari 
copies. 


¢ 





BOOK V.—CHAPTER L. 


while he exhorted those that were near to him 
that they wonld not render his departure so la- 
mentable. Whereupon they thought they 
ought to grant him that favor, to let him depart 
according as he himself desired, so they re- 
strained themselves, though weeping still to- 
ward one another. All those who accompa- 
nied him, were the senate, and Eleazar the high 
priest, and Joshua their commander. Now as 
s00n as they were come to the mountain call- 
ed ‘Abarim,’ (which isa very high mountain 
situate over against Jericho, and one that affords 
to such as are upon it a prospect of the great- 
est part of the excellent land of Canaan,) he 
dismissed the senate: ahd as he was going to 
embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was stil! dis- 
coursing with them, a cloud stood over him on 
the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain 
valley, although he wrote in the holy books 
that he died, which was done out of fear lest 
they should venture to say, that because of his 
extraordinary virtue he went to God. 

49. Now Moses lived in all one hundred and 
twenty years; a third part of which time, abat- 
ing one month, he was the people’s ruler: and 
he died on the last month of the year, which 


117 


is called by the Macedonians ‘Dystrus, but by 
us ‘Adar,’ on the first day of the month. He 
was one that exceeded all men that ever were, 
in understanding, and made the best use of 
what that understanding suggested to him. He 
had a very graceful way of speaking, in ad- 
dressing the multitude; and as to his other quali- 
fications, he had such a full command of his 
passions, as if he hardly had any such in his 
soul, and only knew them by their names, as 
rather perceiving them in other men than in 
himself. He was also such a general of an 
army, as is seldom seen, as well as such a 
prophet as was never known, and this to such 
a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced, you 
would think you heard the’voice of God him- 
self. So the people mourned for him thirty 
days: nor did ever any grief so deeply affect 
the Hebrews as did this upon the death of 
Moses: nor were those that had experienced 
his conduct the only persons that desired him, 
but those also that perused the laws he left be- 
hind him, had a strong desire after him, and 
by them gathered the extraordinary virtue he 
was master of. And this shall suffice for the 
declaration of the manner of the death of Moses, 


BOOK V. 


OONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH 
OF MOSES TO THE DEATH OF ELI. 





CHAPTER I. 


Aow Joshua, the Commander of the Hebrews, 
made War with the Canaanites, and over- 
came them, and destroyed them, and divided 
their land by lot to the tribes of Israel. 


§1. Wuen Moses was taken away from 
among men, in the manner already described, 
and when all the solemnities belonging to the 
mourning for him were finished, and the sor- 
row for him was over, Joshua commanded the 
multitude to get themselves ready for an expe- 
dition. He also sent spies to Jericho, to dis- 
cover what forces they had, and what were 
their intentions; but he put his camp in order, 
as intending soon to pass over Jordan at a pro- 
per season. And calling to him the rulers of 
the tribe of Reubel, and the governors of the 
tribe of Gad, and [the half tribe of ] Manasseh, 
for half of this tribe had been permitted to 
have their habitation in the country of the 
Amorites, which was the seventh part of the 
land of Canaan,* he put them in mind what 
they had promised Moses; and he exhorted 
them, that for the sake of the care that Moses 
had taken of them, who had never been weary 

* The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. 
Hence Reland is willing to suppose that Josephus did not 
aere mean that their land beyond Jordan was a seventh part 
of the whole land of Canaan; but meant the Amorites as a 
seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus, as well as our 
Bibles, generally distinguish the and beyond Jordan from 
‘the land of Canaan; nor can it be denied, that in strictness 
they were different; yet after two tribes and a half of the 


iwelve tribes came to inherit ‘t it might, in a general way 
ether, be well included under the land of Canaan, or 


of taking pains for them, no, not when he was 
dying, and for the sake of the public welfare, 
they would prepare themselves, and readily 
perform what they had promised; so he took 
fifty thousand of them, who followed him, 
and he marched from Abila to Jordan, sixty 
furlongs. 

2. Now when he had pitched his camp, the 
spies came to him immediately, well acquaint- 
ed with the whole state of the Canaanites: for, 
at first, before they were at all discovered, they 
took a full view of the city of Jericho, without 
disturbance, and saw which parts of the walle 
were strong, and which parts were otherwise, 
and indeed insecure, and which of the gates 
were so weak as might afford an entrance to 
their army. Now those that met them took 
no notice of them when they saw them, and 
supposed they were only strangers, who used 
to be very curious in observing every thing in 
the city, and did not take them for enemies; 
but at even they retired to a certain inn that 
was near to the wall, whither they went to eat 
their supper: which supper when they had 
done, and were considering how to get away, 
information was given to the king as he was at 
Palestine, or Judea; of which we have a clear example here 
before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply, the 
taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the 
twelve tribes together, and parting it into seven parts, the 
part beyond Jordan was in quantity of ground one-seventh 
partof the whole. And this well enough agrees to Relaad’s 
own map of that country, although this land beyond Jordan 
was so peculiarly fruitful and good for pasturage, as the twe 


tribes and a half took notice, Numb. xxxii. 1, 4, 16, that # 
maintained about a fifth part cf the whole people. 


118 


supper, that there were some persons come from 
the Hebrews camp, to view the city as spies, 
und that they were in the inn kept by Rahab, 
ar.| were very solicitous that they might not be 
discovered; so he sent immediately some to 
them, and commanded to catch them, and 
bring them to him, that he might examine 
them by torture, and learn what their business 
was there. As soon as Rahab understood that 
these messengers were coming, she hid the 
spies under the stalks of flax which were laid 
io dry on the top of her house, and said to the 
messengers that were sent by the king, that 
certain unknown strangers had supped with 
her a little before sun-setting, and were gone 
away, who might easily be taken if they were 
any terror to the city, or likely to bring any 
danger to the king: so these messengers being 
thus deluded by the woman,* and suspecting 
no imposition, went their ways without so 
much as searching the inn, but they imme- 
diately pursued them along those roads which 
they most probably supposed them to have 
gone, and particularly those which led to the 
river, but could hear no tidings of them; so 
they left off the pains of any farther pursuit. 
But when the tumult was over, Rahab brought 
the men down, and desired them, as soon as 
they should have obtained possession of the 
land of Canaan, when it would be in their 
power to make her amends for her preserva- 
tion of them, to remember what danger she 
had undergone for their sakes; for that if she 
had been caught concealing them, she could 
not have escaped a terrible destruction, she 
and all her family with her, and so bid them 
go home: and desired them to swear to her, to 
preserve her and her family, when they should 
take the city, and destroy all its inhabitants, as 
they had decreed to do, for so far she said she 
had been assured by those divine miracles of 
which she had been informed. So these spies 
acknowledged, that they owed her thanks for 
what she had done already, and withal swore 
to requite her kindness, not only in words but 
in deeds: but they gave her this advice, that 
when she should perceive that the city was 
about to be taken, she should put her goods, 
and all her family, by way of security, in her 
mn, and to hang out scarlet threads before 
her doors, [or windows] that the commander 
of the Hebrews might know her house, and 
take care to do her no harm; for, said they, we 
will inform him of this matter, because of the 
concern thou hast had to preserve us: but if 
any one of thy family fall in the battle, do not 
thou blame us; and we beseech that God, by 
whom we have sworn, not then to be displeas- 
ed with us, as though we had broken our oaths. 

* It plainly appears by the history of these spies, and the 
innkeeper Rahab’s deception of the king of Jericho’s mes- 
sengers, by tel ing them what was false, in order to save the 
lives of the spies, and yet the great commendation of her 
faith and good works in the New Testament, Heb. xi. 31; 
James ii. 25, as well as by many other parallel] examples 
both in the Old Testament and in Josephus, that the best 
men did not then scruple to deceive those public enemies, 
who might justly be destroyed; as also might deceive ill men 
in order to save life, and deliver themselves from the tyranny 


of their unjust oppressors, and this by telling direct false- 
‘soods; I mean all this where no oath was demanded of them, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 







So these men, when they had made this agree 
ment, went away, letting themselves down by 
a rope from the wall, and escaped, and came 
and told their own people whatsoever they had 
done in their journey to this city. Joshua also” 
told Eleazar, the high priest, and the senate, 
what the spies had sworn to Rahab, who con- 
firmed what had been sworn. ; 
3. Now, while Joshua the commander was 
in fear about their passing over Jordan, for the 
river ran with a strong current, and could not 
be passed over with bridges, for there never 
had been bridges laid over it hitherto, and while 
he suspected, that if he should attempt to make 
a bridge, that the enemies would not afford 
him time to perfect it; and as for ferry-boats, 
they had none, God promised so to dispose of 
the river that they might pass over it, and that 
by taking away the main part of its waters, 
So Joshua, after two days, caused the army and 
the whole multitude to pass over in the manner 
following: the priests went first of all, having 
the ark with them; then went the Levites, bear- 
ing the tabernacle and the vessels which belong- 
ed to the sacrifices: after which the entire mul- 
titude followed according to their tribes, hav 
ing their children and their wives in the midst 
of them, as being afraid for them lest they 
should be borne away by the stream. But ag 
soon as the priests had entered the river first, 
it appeared fordable, the depth of the water be- 
ing restrained, and the sand appearing at the 
bottom, because the current was neither so 
strong nor so swift as to carry it away by its 
force so they all passed over the river without 
fear, finding it to be in the very same state as” 
God had foretold he would put it in, but the 
priests stood still in the midst of the river till 
the multitude should be passed over, and should 
get to the shore in safety, and when all were 
gone over the priests came out also, and per- 
mitted the current to run freely, as it used todo” 
before. Accordingly, the river, as soon as the 
Hebrews were come out of it, arose again 
presently, and came to its own proper magni- 
tude as before. ‘ i 
4. So the Hebrews went on farther fifty fur- 
longs, and pitched their camp at the distance 
of ten furlongs from Jericho; but Joshua built: 
an altar of those stones, which all the heads of — 
the tribes, at the command of the prophet, had 
taken out of the deep, to be afterward a me- 
morial of the division of the stream of this riv- 
er, and upon it offered sacrifice to God; and in’ 
that place celebrated the passover, and had 
great plenty of all the things which they want- 
ed hitherto, for they reaped the corn of the Ca- 
naanites, which was now ripe, and took other 
things as prey, for then it was that their form- 
otherwise they never durst venture on such a procedure. 
Nor was Josephus himself of any other opinion or practice, 
as [ shall remark in the note on Antiq. b. ix. chap. iv. ay 
3, and observes, that I still call this woman Rahab, an inn- 
keeper, nota harlot, the whole of this history both in our 
copies, and especially in Josephus, implying no more. It 


was indeed so frequent a thing, that women who were inn- 
keepers were also harlots, or maintainers of harlots, that 
the word commonly used for real harlots was usually given 
them. See Dr. Bernard’s note here, and Judges xi. 1, and 
Antiq. b. v. ch. vii. sect. 8. i 

7 
ey | 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER 1. 


er food, which was manna, and of which they 
had eaten forty years, failed them. 

3. Now, while the Israelites did this, and the 
Canaanites did not attack them, but kept them- 
selves quiet within their own walls, Joshua re- 
solved to besiege them; so on the first day of 
tle feast [of the passover] the priests carried 
the ark round about, with some part of the arm- 
ed men to be a guard to it. These priests 
went forward, blowing with their seven trum- 
pets, and exhorted the army to be of good 
courage, and went round about the city with 
the senate following them; and when the priests 
had only blown with the trumpets, for they did 
nothing more at all, they returned to the camp. 
And when they had done this for six days, on 
the seventh Joshua gathered together the arin- 
ed men, and all the people together, and told 
them this good tiding, that the city should now 
be taken since God would on that day give it 
them by the fallmg down of the walls, and this 
of their own accord, and without their labor. 
However he charged them to kill every one 
they should take, and not to abstain from the 
slaughter of their enemies, either for weariness, 
or for pity, and not to fall on the spoil, and be 
thereby diverted from pursuing their enemies, 
as they ran away; but to destroy all the ani- 
mals, and to take nothing for their own pecu- 
liar advantage. He commanded them also to 
bring together all the silver and gold, that it 
might be set apart as first-fruits unto God out 
of this glorious exploit, as having gotten them 
from the city they first took, only that they 
should save Rahab and her kindred alive be- 
cause of the oath which the spies had sworn to 
her. | 

6. When he had said this, and had set his 
army in order, he brought it against the city; so 
they went round the city again, the ark going 
before them, and the priests encouraging the 
people to be zealous in the work; and when 
they had gone round it seven times, and had 
stood still a little, the wall fell down, while no 
instruments of war, nor any other force, was 
applied to it by the Hebrews. 

7. So they entered into Jericho, and slew all 
the men that were therein, while they were af- 
frighted at the surprising overthrow of the 
walls, and their courage was: become useless, 
and they were not able to defend themselves; 
so they were slain, and their throats cut, some 
in the ways, and others as caught in their 
houses; nothing afforded them assistance, but 
they all perished, even to the women and the 
shildren, and the city was filled with dead bo- 
lies, and not one person escaped. ‘They also 
burnt the whole city and the country about it; 
but they saved alive Rahab and her family, who 
had fled to her inn. And when she was brought 
to him, Joshua owned to her that they owed 
her thanks for her preservation of the spies. So 
he said he would not appear to be behind her 
in his benefaction to her; whereupon he gave 
her certain lands immediately, and had her in 
great esteem ever afterward. 

8. And if any part of the city escaped the 
fire, he overthrew it from the foundation; and 


11% 


he denounced a curse against its inhabitants, if 
any one sheuld desire to rebuild it, how, upo 
his laying the foundation of the walls, he shoule: 
be deprived of his eldest son, and upon finish- 
ing it, he should lose his youngest son. But 
what happened hereupon we shall spexk of 
hereafter.* . 

9. Now there was an immense quantity of 
silver and gold, and besides those, of brass also, 
that was heaped together out of the city when 
it was taken, no one transgressing the decree, 
nor purloining for their own peculiar advan- 
tage; which spoils Joshua delivered to the 
priests, to be laid up among their treasures. 
And thus did Jericho perish. 

10. But there was one ‘Achar,’ the son [of 
Charmi, the son] of Zebedias, of the tribe of 
Judah, who, finding a royal garment woven en- 
tirely of gold, anda piece of gold that weighed 
two hundred shekels,t and thinking it a very 
hard case, that what spoils he, by running some 
hazard, had found, he must give away, and 
offer it to God, who stood in no need of it, while 
he who wanted it must go without it, made a 
deep ditch in his own tent, and laid them up 
therein, as supposing he should not only be 
concealed from his fellow-soldiers, but from 
God himself’ also. 

11. Now, the place where Joshua pitched 
his camp was called ‘Gilgal,’ which denotes 
‘liberty;’§ for since now they had passed over 
Jordan, they looked upon themselves as freed 
from the miseries which they had undergone 
from the Egyptians, and in the wilderness. 

12. Now, a few days after the calamity that 
befell Jericho, Joshua sent three thousand arm- 
ed men to take Ai, a city situate abeve Jericho: 
but upon the fight of the people of Ai with 
them they were driven back, and iost thirty-six 
of their men. When this was told the Israel- 
ites, it made them very sad, and exceedingly 
disconsolate, not so much because of the rela- 
tion the men that were destroyed bare to them, 


* Upon occasion of this devotion of Jericho to destruction, 
and the exemplary punishment of Achar, who broke that 
‘cherem? or ‘anathema,’ and of the punishment of the fu 
ture breaker of it, Hiel. 1 Kings xvi. 34, as also of the pun- 
ishment of Saul, for breaking the like cherem, or anathema, 
against the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv, we may observe what 
was the true meaning of that law, Lev. xxvii. 28. ‘*None 
devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed; 
but shall surely be put to death,”’ i. e. whenever any of the 
Jews’ public enemies had heen, for their wickedness, so- 
lemnly devoted to destruction, according to the divine com- 
mand, as were generally the seven wicked nations of Cana- 
an, and those sinners the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 18, it was 
utterly unlawful to permit those enemies to be redeemec but 
they were to be all utterly destroyed. See also Numb. xxi 


) Be 

j That the name of this chief was not chan, as ir the 
common copies, but Achar, as here in Josephus, and ir the 
Apostolical Constitut. b. vii.ch. i. and elsewhere, is evident 
by the allusion to that name in the curse of Joshua, ‘Why 
hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee:?? where 
the Hebrew words allude only to the name char, but nea 
to Achan. Accordingly this valley of Achar, or Achor, was, 
and is a known place, alittle north of Gilgal,so called trom 
the days of Joshua till thisday. See Josh..vii: 23; Isa. .ixv. 
10; Hos. ii. 15; and Dr. Bernard’s notes here. 

t Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, thata few words 
are dropped out of Josephus’s copies, on account of the repe 
tition of the word shekels, and thatit ought to be read thus 
**A piece of gold that weighed 5U shekels, and one of silver 
that weighed 200 shekels,”’ as in our other copies, Joshua 
vii. 21. 

§ I.agree here with Dr. Bernard, and approve of Josephus’s 
interpretation of Gilgal for liberty. See Josh. v. 9. 


120 


shouwh those that were destroyed were all good 
men and deserved their esteem, as by the ce- 
spair it cerasioned; for while they believed that 
they were already in effect, in possession of the 
land, and should bring back the army out of 
the battles without loss,as God had promised 
beforehand, they now saw unexpectedly their 
enemies bold with success; so they put sack- 
cloth over their garments, and continued in 
tears and lamentation all the day, without the 
least inquiry after food, but laid what had hap- 
pened greatly to heart. 

'3. When Joshua saw the army so much af- 
flieted, and possessed with forebodings of evil 
as to their whole expedition, he used freedom 
with God, and said, “We are not come thus 
far out ot any rashness of our own, as though 
we thought ourselves able to subdue this land 
with our own weapons, but at the instigation 
of Moses thy servant for this purpose, because 
thou hast promised us by mauy signs, that thou 
wouldst give us this land for a possession, and 
that thou wouldst make our army always su- 
perior in war to our enemies, and accordingly 
some success has always attended upon us, 
agreeably to thy promises; but because we 
have now unexpectedly been foiled, and have 
lost some men out of ourarmy, we are grieved 
at it, as fearing what.thou hast promised us, 
and what Moses foretold us, cannot be depend- 
2d on by us: and our future expectation trou- 
bles us the more, because we have met with 
such a disaster in this our firstattempt. But do 
thou, O Lord, free us from these suspicions, 
for thou art able to find a cure for these disor- 
ders, by giving us victory, which will both take 
awav the grief we are in at present, and pre- 
vent our distrust as to what is to come.” 

14. These intercessions Joshua put up to 
God, as he Jay prostrate on his face: where- 
upon God answered him, “That he should rise 
up, and purify his host from the pollution 
which was got into it: that things consecrated 
to me have been impudently stolen from me;| 
and that this has been the occasion why this | 
defeat has happened to them; and that when 
they should search out and punish the offender, 
he would ever take care they should have the 
victory over their enemies.” This Joshua told 
the people; and calling for Eleazar the high 
priest, and the men in authority, he cast lots, 
tribe by tribe, and when the lot showed that 
this wicked action was done by one of the 
tribe of Judah, he then again proposed the lot 
to the several families thereto belonging, so the 
truth of this wicked action was found to be- 
long to the family of Zachar; and when the 
inquiry was made man by man, they took 
Achar, who upon God’s reducing him to a ter- 
rible extremity, could not deny the fact; so he 
confessed the theft, and produced what he had 
taken in the midst of them, whereupon he was 
immediately put to death; and attained no 
more thay to be buried in the night in a dis- 
graceful manner, and such as was suitable to a 
condemned malefactor. 

15. When Joshva had thus purified the host, 
we led them against Ai; and having by night 





ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


laid an ambush round about the city, he ate — 
tacked the enemies as soon as it was day; but — 
as they advanced boldly against the Israelites, 
because of their former victory, he made them 
believe he retired, and by that meaus drew 
them a great way from the city, they still sup- 
posing that they were pursuing their enemies, _ 
and despised them as though the case had — 
been the same with that in the former | attle; 
after which Joshua ordered his forces to turn 
about, and placed them agaiust their front: he 
then made the signals agreed upon to those 
that lay in ambush, and so excited them to 
fight; so they ran suddenly into the city, the 
inhabitants being upon the walls, nay, others 
of them being in perplexity, and coming to 
see those that were without the gates. Ac- — 
cordingly, these men took the city, and slew 
all that they met with, but Joshua forced those 
that came against him, to come toa close fight, _ 
and discomfitted them, and made them run — 
away; and when they were driven towardsthe _ 
city, and thought it had not been touched, as _ 
soon as they saw it was taken, and perceived — 
it was burnt, with their wives and children, — 
they wandered about the fields in a scattered 
condition, and were noway able to defend 
themselves, because they had nor? to support 
them. Now when this calamity was come — 
upon the men of Ai, there were a greatnumber — 
of children, and women, and servants, and an 
immense quantity of furniture. The Hebrews 
also took herds of cattle, and a great deal of 
money, for this was a rich country. So when 
Joshua came to Gilgal, he divided all these 
spoils among the soldiers. 

16. But the Gibeonites, who inhabited very 
near to Jerusalem, when they saw what mise- 
ries had happened to the inhabitants of Jericho, 
and to those of Ai, and suspected that the like 
sore calamity would come as far as themselves, 
they did not think fit to ask for mercy of Joshua, 
for they supposed they should find little mercy 
from him, who made war, that he might en-— 
tirely destroy the nation of the Canaanites, but 
they invited the people of Cephirah and Kiri- 
athjearim, who were their neighbors, to join 
in league with them, and told them, that nei- 
ther could they themselves avoid the danger 
they were all in, if the Israelites should pre- 
vent them, and seize upon them; so when they 
had persuaded them, they resolved to endea- 
vor to escape the forces of the Israelites. Ac- 
cordingly, upon their agreement to what they — 
proposed, they sent ambassadors to Joshua, — 
to make a league of friendship with him, and 
those such of the citizens as were best approv- — 
ed of, and most capable of doing what was” — 
most advantageous to the multitude. Now 
these ambassadors thought it dangerous to con- 
fess themselves to be Canaanites, but thought 
they might by this contrivance, avoid the dan- 
ger, namely, by saying that they bare no rela- 
tion to the Canaanites at all, but dwelt at a ve 
great distance from them: and they said farther, 
that they came a long way on account of the — 
reputation he had gained for his virtue; and as 
a mark of the truth of what they said, they — 





~~ 


ee Se 


ee ee 



























ACHAN CONCEALING THE STOLEN TREASURES. 


\ spas 


2. 





them. 
they desired, by deceiving the Israelites, went 
_ home: but when Joshua led his army to the 


~ tween them. 
with his whole army to assist them, and march- 


soe 


BOOK Vi—CHAPTER 1. 


@howed Lim the habit they were in; for that 
their clothes were new when they came out, 


but were greatly worn by the length of time 
they had been in their journey, for indeed they 


‘ok torn garments on purpose that they might 
-make him believe so. So they stood in the midst 


of the people, and said that they were sent by 


the people of Gibeon, and of the circumjacent 
_gities, which were very remote from the land 
where they now were, to make such a league 


of friendship with them, and this on such con- 
ditions as were customary among their fore- 


‘fathers; for when they understood, that, by the 


favor of God, and his gift to them, they were 
to have the possession of the land of Canaan 
bestowed upon them, they said, that they were 
very glad to hear it, and desired to be admit- 
ted into the number of their citizens. Thus 


did these ambassadors speak, and, showing 
‘them the marks of their long journey, they 
-entreated the Hebrews to make a league of 


friendship with them. Accordingly, Joshua 
believing what they said, and that they were 


“not of the nation of the Canaanites, entered 


into friendship with them; and Eleazar the 


high priest, with the senate, sware to them, 
that they would esteem them their friends and 


associates, and would attempt nothing that 
st.ould be unfair against them, the multitude 
also assenting to the oaths that were made to 
So these men, having obtained what 


country at the bottom of the mountains of this 
part of Canaan, he understood that the Gib- 
ecnites dwelt not far from Jerusalem, and that 
they were of the stock of the Canaanites, so 
he sent for their governors, and reproached 
them with the cheat they had put upon him; 
but they alleged on their own behalf, that they 
had no other way to save themselves but that, 
and were, therefore, forced to have recourse to 
it. So he called for Eleazar the high priest, and 
for the senate, who thought right to make them 
public servants, that they might not break the 
oath they had made to them; and they ordained 
them to be so. And this was the method by 
which these men found safety and security un- 
der the calamity that was ready to overtake 
them. 

17. But the king of Jerusalem took it to 
heart that the Gibeonites had gone over to 
Joshua; so he called upon the kings of the 
neighboring nations to join together and make 
‘War against them. Now, when the Gibeonites 
saw these kings, which were four besides the 
King of Jerusalem, and perceived that they 
had pitched their camp at a certain fountain 
not far from their city,and were getting ready 
for the siege of it, they called upon Joshua to 
assist them; for such was their case, as to ex- 
pect to be destroyed by these Canaanites, but 


| t9 suppose they should be saved by those that 


came for the destruction of the Canaanites, be- 
tause of the league of friendship that was be- 
Accordingly, Joshua made haste 


ig day and night, in the morning he fell upon 
16 


olan 


f2} 


the enemies as they were gonig up to the siege 
and when he had discomfitted them, he follow- 
ed them, and pursued them down the descen 
of the hills. This place is called ‘Bethhoron; 
where he also understood that God assisted 
him, which he declared by thunder and thun 
derbolts, as also by the falling of hail larger 
than usual. Moreover, it happened that the 
day was lengthened,* that the night might not 
come on too soon, and be an obstruction to the 
zeal of the Hebrews in pursuing their enemies, 
insomuch, that Joshua took the kings, who 
were hidden in a certain cave at Makkedah, 
and put them to death. Now that the day was 
lengthened at this time, and was longer than 
ordinary, is expressed in the books laid up in 
the temple.t 

18. Those kings which made war with, and 
were ready to fight the Gibeonites, being thus 
overthrown, Joshua returned again to the 
mountainous parts of Canaan; and when he 
had made a great slaughter of the people there, 
and took their prey, he came to the camp at 
Gilgal. And now there went a great fame 
abroad among the neighboring people, of the 
courage of the Hebrews, and those that heard 
what a number of people were destroyed, were 
greatly aftrighted at it: so the kings that lived 
about mount Libanus, who were Canaanites, 
and those Canaanites that dwelt in the plain 
country, with auxiliaries out of the land of the 
Philistines, pitched their camp at Beroth, a 
city of the Upper Galilee, not far from Kadesh, 
which is itself also a place in Galilee. Now 
the number of the whole army was three hun- 
dred thousand armed footmen, and ten thou- 
sand horsemen, and twenty thousand chariots, 
so that the multitude of the enemies affrighted 
both Joshua himself and the Israelites; and 
they, instead of being full of hopes of good 
success, were superstitiously timorous, with the 
great terror with which they were stricken. 
Whereupon God upbraided them with the fear 
they were in; and asked them, whether they 
desired a greater help than he could afford 
them? and promised them that they should 
overcome their enemies; and withal charged 
them to make their enemies’ horses useless, 
and to burn their chariots. So Joshua be 
came full of courage upon these promises of 


* Whether this lengthening of the day, by the standing 
still of the sun and moon were physical and real, by the 
miraculous stoppage of the diurnal motion of the earth for 
about half a revolution, or whether only apparent, by aerial 
phosphori imitating thesun and moon as stationary so long, 
while clouds and the night hid the real ones, and this par- 
helion, or mock sun, affording sufficient light for Joshua’s 
pursuit and complete victory, (which aerial phosphori in 
other shapes have been more than ordinarily common o/ 
late years,) cannot now be determined; philosophers and as- 
tronomers will naturally incline to this latter hypothesis. In 
the mean time, the factitself was mentioned in the book of 
Jasher, now lost, Josh. x. 13; and is confirmed by Isaian, 
xxviii. 21; by Habakkuk, iii.11, and by the son of Sira 
Eccles. xlvi. 4; in the Wisdom of Solomon, it is also said o} 
the luminaries, with relation, no doubt, to this and the like 
miraculous standing still and going back, in the days of 
Joshua and Hezekiah, ‘““They have not waudered from the 
day that he created them; they have not forsaken their way 
from ancient generations, unless it were when God cnjoin- 
ed them [so to do] by the command of his servants.”? See 
Authent. Rec. part. i. p. 154. 

+ Of the books laid up in the temple, see the note on Anti 
b. iii. ch. i. sect. 7. 


[22 


God, and went out suddenly against the ene- 
mies, and after five days’ march he came upon 
them, and joined battle with them, and there 
was a terrible fight, and such a number were 
slain as could not be believed by those that 
heard it. He also went on in the pursuit a 
great way, and destroyed the entire army of 
the enemies, few only excepted, and all the 
kings fell in the battle; insomuch that when 
they wanted men to be killed, Joshua slew 
their horses, and burnt their chariots, and pass- 
ed all over their country without opposition, 
no one daring to meet him in battle; but he 
still went on, taking their cities by siege, and 
again killing whatever he took. 

19. The fifth year was now past,.and there 
was not one of the Canaanites remained any 
longer, excepting some that had retired to 
places of great strength. So Joshua removed 
his camp to the mountainous country, and 
placed the tabernacle in the city of Shiloh, for 
that seemed a fit place for it, because of the 
beauty of its situation, until such time as their 
affairs would permit them to build a temple; 
and from thence he went to Sechem, together 
with all the people, and raised an altar where 
Moses had beforehand directed; then did he 
divide the army, and placed one half on mount 
Gerizzim, and the other half on mount Ebal,* 
on which mountain the altar was; he also 
placed there the tribe of Levi, and the priests. 
And when they had sacrificed and denounced 
the [blessings and the] curses, and had left 
them engraven upon the altar, they returned 
to Shiloh. 

20. And now Joshua was-old, and saw that 
the cities of the Canaanites were not easily to 
be taken, not only because they were situate 
in such strong places, but because of the 
strength of the walls themselves, which being 
ouilt round about the natural strength of the 

laces on which the cities stood, seemed capa- 
ble of repelling their enemies from besieging 
them, and of making those enemies despair of 
taking them; for when the Canaanites had 
learned, that the Israelites came out of Egypt 
in order to destroy them, they were busy all 
that time in making their cities strong; so he 
gathered the people together to a congregation 
at Shiloh; and when they, with great zeal and 
haste, were come thither, he observed to them, 
what prosperous success they had already had, 
and what glorious things had been done, and 
those such as were worthy of that God who 
enabled them to do those things, and worthy 
of the virtue of those laws which they follow- 
ed. He took notice also, that thirty-one of 
those kings that ventured to give them battle 
were overcome, aud every army, how great 
soever it were, that confided in their own 
power, and fought with them, was utterly de- 
stroyed, so that not so much as any of their 
posterity remained. And as for the cities, 
since some of them were taken, but the others 
must be taken in length of time, by long sieges, 
both on account of the strength of their walls, 


* Of the situation of this altar, see Essay on the Old T'es- 
eament, p. 172, 171. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


and of the confidence the inhabnants lad ty 
them thereby, he thought it reasonable that— 
those tribes that came along with them from ~ 
beyond Jordan, and had partaken of the dan- — 
gers they had undergone, being their own — 
kindred, should now be dismissed and sent — 
home, and should have thanks for the pains — 
they had taken together with them. As also, 

he thought it reasonable that they should send 
one man out of every tribe, and he such as 

had the testimony of extraordinary virtue, who 

should measure the land faithfully, and with- 

out any fallacy or deceit should inform them — 
of its real magnitude. 

21. Now Joshua, when he had thus spoken 
to them, found that the multitude approved of — 
his proposal. So he sentmen to measure their ~ 
country, and sent with them some geometri- — 
cians, who could not easily fail of knowing 
the truth, on account of their skill in that art. — 
He also gave them acharge to estimate the — 
measure of that part of the land that was most 
fruitful, and what was not so good; forsuch is — 
the nature of the land of Canaan, that one — 
may see large plains, and such as are exceed- 
ing fit to produce fruit, which yet, if they were 
compared to other parts of the country, might 
be reckoned exceeding fruitful, yet if they 
be compared with the fields about Jericho, and 
to those that belong to Jerusalem, will appear 
to be of noaccount at all. And although itso 
falls out, that these people have but a very lit- 
tle of this sort of land, and that it is for the main, 
mountainous also, yet does it now come behind 
other parts, on account of its exceeding good- 
ness and beauty: for which reason Joshua 
thought the land for the tribes should be divi- 
ded by estimation of its goodness, rather than — 
the largeness of its measure, it often happen-— 
ing that one acre of some sort of land was equi- 
valent to a thousand other acres. Now the 
men that were sent, which were in number ten, — 
travelled all about, and made an estimation of — 
the land, and in the seventh month came te — 
him to the city of Shiloh, where they had vet — 
up the tabernacle. : 

22. So Joshua took both Eleazar, and the se- 
nate, and with them the heads of the tribes, and — 
distributed the land to the nine tribes, and to— 
the half tribe of Manasseh, appointing the di-— 
mensions to be according to the largeness of 
each tribe. So when he had cast lots, Judah 
had assigned him by lot the upper part of Judea, — 
reaching as far as Jerusalem, and its breadth 
extending to the lake of Sodom. Now in the 
lot of this tribe there were the cities of Ascalon — 
and Gaza. The lot of Simeon, which was the . 
second, included that part of Idumea which 
bordered upon Egypt and Arabia. As to the 
Benjamites, their lot fell so, that its length reach- — 
from the river Jordan to the sea, but in breadth — 
it was bounded by Jerusalem and Bethel; and 
this lot was the narrowest of all, by reason of ~ 
the goodness of the land, for it included Jer. — 
cho, and the city of Jerusalem. The tribe of © 
Ephraim had by lot the land that extended in 
length from the river Jordan to Gezer, but in 
breadth as far as from Bethel till itended at the - 


i 
ie 





BOOK V.—CHAPTER Il. 
The half tribe of Manasseh had | 


great plain. 
the land from Jordan to the city Dora, but its 
breadth was at Bethshan, which is now called 
Scythvpolis. And after these was Issachar, 
which had its limits in length, mount Carmel 
and the river, but its limit in breadth was mount 
Tabor. The tribe of Zebulon’s lot included the 
land which lay as far as the lake of Gennesa- 
reth, and that which belonged to Carmel and 
the sea. 'Thetribe of Aser had that part which 
was called the Valley, for such it was, and all 
that part which lay over against Sidon. The 
city Arce belonged to their shares, which is al- 
so named Actipus. The Naphtalites received 
the eastern parts, as far as the city of Damas- 
cus and the Upper Galilee, unto mount Libanus, 
and the fountains of Jordan which rise out of 
that mountain; that is, out of that part of it 
whose limits belong to the neighboring city 
Arce. 'The Danites’ lot included all that part 
of the valley which respects the sun-setting, and 
was bounded by Azotus and Dora; as also 
they had all Jamnia and Gath, from Ekron to 
that mountain where the tribe of Judah begins. 

23. After this manner did Joshua divide the 
six nations that bear the names of the sons of 
Canaan, with their land, to be possessed by 
the nine tribes and a half; for Moses had pre- 
vented him, and had already distributed the 
land of the Amorites, which itself was so call- 
ed also from one of the sons of Canaan, to 
the two tribes and a half, as we have showed 
already; but the parts about Sidon, as also 
those that belonged to the Arkites and the Ama- 
thites, and the Aradians, were not yet regularly 
disposed of. 

24. But now was Joshua hindered by his age 
from executing what he intended to do, (as did 
those that succeeded him in the government, 
tuke little care of what was for the advantage 
of the public,) so he give it in charge to every 
tribe, to leave no remainder of the race of 
the Canaanites in the land that had been divid- 
ed to them by lot; that Moses had assured 
them beforehand, that they might rest fully 
satisfied about it, that their own security and 
their observation of their own laws depended 
wholly upon it, Moreover, he enjoined them 
to give thirty-eight cities to the Levites, for 
they had already received ten in the country 
of the Amorites, and three of these he assign- 
ed to those that fled from the manslayers who 
were to inhabit there; for he was very solicitous 
that nothing should be neglected which Moses 
had ordained. These cities were, of the tribe 
of Judah, Hebron; and of that of Ephraim, 
shechem; and of Naphtali, Kadesh, which isa 
place of the Upper Galilee. He also distribut- 
ed among them the rest of the prey not yet 
distributed, which was very great, whereby 
they had an afflvence of great riches, both all 
in general, and erery one in particular; and this 
of gold and of vestments, and of other furni- 
ture, besides 2 multitude of cattle, whose num- 
ber could not be told 

2%. After this was over, he gathered the army 
together to a congregation; and spake thus to 
those tribes that had their settlement in the 





1243 
land of the Amorites, beyond Jordan; for 
50,000 of them had armed themselves, and 
had gone to the war along with them: “Since 
that God, who is the Father and Lord of the 
Hebrew nation, has now given us this land for 
a possession, and promise to preserve us in the 
enjoyment of it as our own forever; and since 
you have with alacrity offered yourselves to 
assist us when we wanted that assistance, on 
all occasions according to his command; it is 
but just, now all our difficulties are over, that 
you should be permitted to enjoy rest, and that 
we should trespass on your alacrity to help us 
no longer, that so, if we should again stand in 
need of it, we may readily have it on any fu- 
ture emergency, and not tire you out so much 
now as may make you slower in assisting us 
another time. We, therefore, return you our 
thanks, for the dangers you have undergone 
with us; and we do it not at this time only 
but we shall always be thus disposed, and be 
so good as to remember our friends, and to 
preserve in mind what advantages we have 
had from them, and how you have put off the 
enjoyment of your own happiness for our 
sakes, and have labored for what we have now 
by the good will of God, obtained, and resolv- 
ed not to enjoy your own prosperity till you 
had afforded us that assistance. However, you 
have, by joining your labor with ours, gotten 
great plenty of riches, and will carry home 
with you much prey, with gold and silver, and, 
what is more than all these, our good will to- 
wards you, and a mind willingly disposed to 
make a requital of your kindness to us, in what 
case soever you shall desire it, for you. have 
not omitted any thing which Moses beforehand 
required of you, nor have you despised him 
because he was dead and gone from you, so 
that there is nothing to diminish that gratitude 
which we ows to you. We therefore dismiss 
you joyfully to your own inheritances; and we 
entreat you to suppose, that there is no limit 
to be set to the intimate relation that is be- 
tween us; and that you will not imagine, that 
because this river is interposel between us, 
that you are of a different race from us, and 
not Hebrews, for we are all the posterity of 
Abraham, both we that inhabit here, and you 
that inhabit there; and it is the same God that 
brought our forefathers and yours into the 
world, whose worship and form of govern- 
ment we are to take care of, which he had or- 
dained, and are most carefully to observe; be- 
cause while you continue in those laws, God 
will also show himself merciful and assisting 
to you; but if you imitate the other nations 
and forsake those laws, he will reject your na- 
tion.” When Joshua had spoken thus, and 
saluted them all, both those in authority one 
by one, and the whole multitude in common, 
he himself stayed where i.e was, but the peo- 
ple conducted those tribes 91. their journey, and 
that not without tears in their eyes; and indeed 
they hardly knew how to part one from the 
other. 

26. Now when the tribe of Reubel, and tha 
of Gad, and as many of the Manassites as fo 


{24 
lowed them, were passed over the river, they 
built an altar on the banks of Jordan, as a 
monument to posterity, and a sign of their re- 
lation, to those that should inhabit on the 
other side; but when those on the other side 
heard that those who had been dismissed had 
built an altar, but did not hear with what in- 
tention they built it, but supposed it to be by 
way of innovation, and for the introduction of 
strange gods, they did not incline to disbelieve 
it, but thinking this defamatory report, as if it 
wiere built for divine worship, was creditable, 
they appeared in arms, as though they would 
avenge themselves on those that built the altar, 
and they were about to pass over the river, and 
to punish them for their subversion of the 
laws of their country, for they did not think it 
fit to regard them on account of their kindred, 
or the dignity of those that had given the occa- 
sion, but to regard the will of God, and the 
manner wherein he desired to be worshipped; 
so these men put themselves in array for war: 
but Joshua, and Eleazar the high priest, and 
the senate, restrained them; and persuaded 
them first to make trial by words of their in- 
tention, and afterward, if they found that their 
intention was evil, then only to proceed to 
make war upon them. Accordingly they sent 
as ambassadors to them Phineas, the son of 
Eleazar, and ten more persons that were in 
esteem among the Hebrews, to learn of them 
what was in their mind, when, upon passing 
over the river, they had built an altar upon its 
banks. But as soon as these ambassadors were 
passed over, and were come to them, and a 
e:mgregation was assembled, Phineas stood up 
aid said, “That the offence they had been 
gaiilty of was of too heinous a nature to be 

inished by words alone, or by them only to 

e amended for the future; yet that they did 
not so look at the heinousness of their trans- 
gression as to have recourse to arms, and to a 
hattle for their punishment immediately, but 
tat, on account of their kindred, and the pro- 
I:ability there was that they might be reclaim- 
ed, they took this method of sending an em- 
hassage to them, that when we have learned 
the true reasons by which you have been 
moved to build this altar, we may neither seem 
to have been too harsh in assaulting you by 
our weapons of war, if it prove that you made 
the altar for justifiable reasons, and may then 
justly punish you if the accusation prove true: 
for we can hardly suppose that you who have 
been acquainted with the will of God, and 
have been hearers of those laws which he 
himself hath given us, now you are separated 
from us, and gone to that patrimony of yours, 
which you, through the grace of God, and 
that providence he exercises over you, have ob- 
tained by lot, can forget him, and can leave 
that a1 <, and that altar which is peculiar to us, 
and can introduce strange gods, and imitate 
the wicked practices of the Canaanites. Now 
this will appear to have been a small crime, if 
you repent now, and proceed no further in 
your madness, but pay a due reverence to, and 

eep in mind, the laws of your country; but if 


ANTIQUITIAS OF THE JEWS. 


you persist in your sins, we will not grud 
our pains to preserve our laws, but we will 
pass over Jordan and defend them, and defend 
God also, and shall esteem of you as of men 
noway differing from the Canaanites, but shall 
destroy you in the like manner as we destroyed 
them; for do not you imagine, that because you 
are got over the river, that you are got out of 
the reach of God’s power; you are everywhere 
in places that belong to him, and impossible it 
is to overrun his power, and the punishmen 
he will bring on men thereby; but if you think 
that your settlement here will be any obstruc- 
tion to your conversion to what is good, 
nothing need hinder us from dividing the land 
anew, and leaving this old land to be for the 
feeding of sheep; but you will do well to re- 
turn to your duty, and to leave off these new 
crimes: and we beseech you, by your children 
and wives, not to force us to punish you. 
Take, therefore, such measures in this assem- 
bly, as supposing that your own safety, and the 
safety of those that are dearest to you, is therein 
concerned, and believe that it is better for you 
to be conquered by words, than to continue in 
your purpose, and to experience deeds and 
war therefore.” 

27. When Phineas had discoursed thus, the 
governors of the assembly and the whole mul- 
titude began to make an apology for themselves, 
concerning what they were accused of, and they 
said, “That they neither would depart from the 
relation they bare to them, nor had they built 
the altar by way of innovation; and they own- 
ed one and the same common God with all the 
Hebrews, and that brazen altar which was be- 
fore the tabernacle, on which they would offer 
their sacrifices: that as to the altar they had 
raised on account of which they were thus sus- 
pected, it was not built for worship, but that it 
might be asign and a monument of our rela- 
tion to you forever, and a necessary caution 
to us to act wisely, and to continue in the laws 
of our country, but not a handle for trans- 
gressing them, as you suspect; and let God be 
our authentic witness, that this was the occa- 
sion of our building this altar: whence we 
beg you will have a better opinion of us, and 
do not impute such a thing to usas would ren- 
der any of the posterity of Abraham well wor- 
thy of perdition, in case they attempt to bring 
in new rites, and such as are different from our 
usual practices.” 

28. Whenthey had made this answer, and 
Phineas had commended them for it, he came 
to Joshua, and explained before the people what 
answer they had received: now Joshua was glad 
that he was under no necéssity of setting them in 
array, or of leading them to shed blood, and 
make war against men of their own kindred 
and accordingly, he offered sacrifices of thanks- 
giving to God for the same: so Joshua after that 
dissolved this great assembly of the people, and 
sent them to their own inheritances, while he 
himself lived in Shechem. But in the twen- 
tieth year after this, when he was very old, he 
sent for those of the greatest dignity in the sev- 
eral cities, with those in authority, and the se- 


SS 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER II. 


gate, and as many of the common people as could 
be present; and when they were come, he put 
them in mind of all the benefits God had be- 
stowed on them, which could not but be a great 
many, since from a low estate they were advanc- 
ed to so great adegree of glory and plenty, 
and exhorted them to take notice of the inten- 
dons of God, which had been so gracious to- 
wards them; and told them, that the Deity 
would continue their friend by nothing else but 
their piety; and that it was proper for him, now 
he was about to depart out of this life, to leave 
such an admonition to them, and he desired that 
they would keep in memory this his exhortation 
to them. 

29. So Joshua, when he had thus discoursed 
to them, died, having lived a hundred and _ ten 
years; forty of which he lived with Moses, in 
order to learn what might be for his advantage 
afterward. He also became their commander 
after his death for twenty-five years. He was 
a man that wanted not wisdom, nor eloquence 
to declare his intentions to the people, but very 
eminent on both accounts. He was of great 
courage and magnanimity, in action and in dan- 
ger; and very sagacious in procuring the peace 
of the people, and of great virtue at all proper 
seasons. He was buried in the city of Timnah, 
of the tribe of Ephraim. About the same time 
died Eleazar the high priest,* leaving the high 
priesthood to his son Phineas. His monument 
also and sepulchre are in the city of Gabbatha. 


CHAPTER II. 


How after the Death of Joshua their commander, 
the Israelites transgressed the laws of their 
country, and experienced great afflictions; and 
when there was a Sedition, the tribe of Benja- 
min was destroyed, excepting only six hundred 
men. 


§ 1. After the death of Joshua and Eleazar, 
Phineas prophesied,} that according to God’s 
will, they should commit the government to the 
tribe of Judah, and that this tribe should de- 
stroy the race of the Canaanites: for then the 


* Since not only Procopius and Suidas, but an earlier au- 
thor, Moses Chorenensis, p. 52, 53, and perhaps from his 
original author, Mariba Catina, one as old as Alexander the 
Great, setsdown the famous inscription at Tangier con- 
eerning the old Canaanites driven out of Palestine by Joshua, 
take it here in that author’s own words: ‘We are those ex- 
iles that were governors of the Canaanites, but have been 
driven away by Joshua the robber, and are come to inhabit 
here.”? See the note there. Nor is it unworthy of our no- 
tice, what Moses Chorenensis adds, p. 538, and this upon a 
diligent examination, viz. that “‘one of those eminent men 
among the Canaanites came at the same time into Armenia, 
and founded the Genthunian family or tribe, and that this 
was confirmed by the manners of the same family or tribe, 
as being like those of the Canaanites.’’ 

+ By prophesying, when spoken of a high priest, Josephus, 
-koth here and frequently elsewhere, means no more than 
eonsulting God by Urim, which the reader is still to bear in 
mind upon alloccasions. And if St. John, who was con- 
temporary with Josephus, and of the same country, made 
use of his style, when he says, that “Caiaphas, being high 
priest that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for that na- 
tion, and not for that nation only, but that also he should 
gather together in one the children of God that were scattered 
abroad,” xi. 51, 52, !e may possibly mean, that this was re- 
vealed to the high pn2st by an extraordinary voice from be- 
tween thecherubims when he had his breastplate, or Urim 
and Thummim on, before orin the most holy place of the 
temple, which was no other than the oracle of Urim and 
Thummiimn. Of which above in the note on Antiq. Db. iii. ch. 
vili. sect. 9. 


1% 


people were concerned to learn what was the 
will of God. They also took to their assistance 
the tribe of Simeon, but upon this condition, 
that when those that had been tributary to the 
tribe of Judah should be slain, they should do 
the like for the tribe of Simeon. 

2. But the affairs of the Canaanites were at 
this time in a flourishing condition, and they 
expected the Israelites with a great army atthe 
city Bezek, having put the government into 
the hands of Adonibezek, which name denotes 
the ‘lord of Bezek,’ for Adoni, inthe Hebrew 
tongue, is called lord. Now they hoped to have 
been too hard for the Israelites, because J oshtia 
was dead: but when the Israelites had joined 
battle with them, I mean the two tribes before 
mentioned, they fought gloriously, and slew 
above ten thousand of them, and put the rest 
to flight; and in the pursuit they took Adoni 
bezek, who, when his fingers and toes were cut 
off by thein, said, “Nay, indeed, I was not al- 
ways to lie concealed from God, as I find by 
what I now endure, while I have not been 
ashamed to do the same to seventy-two kings.”* 
So they carried him alive as far as Jerusalem; 
and when he was dead they buried him in the 
earth, and went on still in taking the cities: and 
when they had taken the greatest part of them, 
they besieged Jerusalem: and when they had 
taken the lower city, which was not under a 
considerable time, they slew all the inhabitants; 
but the upper city was not to be taken without 
great difficulty, through the strength of its walks, 
and the nature of the place. 

3. For which reason they removed their carr p 
to Hebron; and when they had taken it they 
slew all the inhabitants. There were till then 
left the race of giants, who had bodies so 
large, and countenances so entirely different 
from other men, that they were surprising to 
the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The 
bones of these men are still shown to this very 
day, unlike to any credible relations of other 
men. Now they gave this city to the Levites 

* This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small kings, 
over whom Adonibezek had tyrannized, and for which he 
was punished according to the ler talionis, as well as the 
thirty-one kings of Canaan, subdued by Joshua, and named 
in one chapter, Josh. xii. and thirty-two kings, or royal 
auxiliaries to Benhadad, king of Syria, 1 Kings xx. 1; Antiq. 
b. viil. ch. xiv. sect. 1; intimate to us what was the anci- 
ent form of government among several nations before the 
monarchies began, viz. that every city or large town with 
its neighboring villages, was a distinct government by itself 
which is the more remarkable, because this was certainly 
the fonn of ecclesiastical government that was settled by the 
apostles, and preserved throughout the Christian chureh in 
the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, 
that ‘‘it would certainly be for the good of mankind to have 
all the mighty empires and monarchies of the world cantoned 
out into petty states and principalities, which, like so many 
large families, might lie under the observation of their propes 
governors, so that the care of the prince might extend itsel! 
to every individual person under his protection; though he 
despairs ofsuchascheme being brought about and thinks that, 
if it were, it would quickly be destroyed.”? Remarks on Italy, 
4to. p. 151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Ar- 
menian records, though they give us the history of thirty- 
nine of their most ancient heroes or governors after the flood. 
before the days of Sardanapalus, had no proper king tiff 
the fortieth Parerus. Sce Moses Choreneusis, p. 55. And 
that Almighty God does not approve of such absolute or ty- 
rannical monarchies, avd one may learn that reads Deut 
xvii. 14-20, and | Sam. viii. 1—22; although,if such kings 
are set up as Own him for their supreme king, and aim ts 


govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, ang 
protected them and their subjects in all generations. 


126 


as an extraordinary reward, with the suburbs 
xf two thousand cubits; but the land thereto 
belonging they gave asa free gift to Caleb, 
according to the injunctions of Moses: this Ca- 
leb was one of the spies which Moses sent into 
the land of Canaan. They also gave land for 
habitation to the posterity of Jethro the Midian- 
ite, who was the father-in-law to Moses, for 
they had left their own country and followed 
them, and accompanied them in the wilderness. 

4. Now the tribes of Judah and Simeon took 
the cities which were in the mountainous part of 
Canaan, as also Askelon and Ashdod, of those 
that lay near the sea; but Gaza and Ekron es- 
caped them, for they lying in a flat country, 
and having a great number of chariots, sorely 
galled those that attacked them: so these tribes, 
when they were grown very rich by this war, 
retired to their own cities, and laid aside their 
weapons of war. 

5. But the Benjamites, to whom belonged 
Jerusalem, permitted its inhabitants to pay tri- 
bute; so they all left off the one to kill, and the 
other to expose themselves to danger, and had 
time to cultivate the ground: the rest of the 
tribes imitated that of Benjamin, and did the 
same; and contenting themselves with the tri- 
butes that were paid them, permitted the Ca- 
naanites to live in peace. 

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim, when 
they besieged Bethel, made no advance, nor 
performed any thing worthy of the time they 
spent, and of the pains they took about that 
siege, yet did they persist in it, still sitting down 
before the city, though they endured great 
trouble thereby: but after some time, they 
caught one of the citizens that came to them to 
get necessaries, and they gave him some assu- 
rances that if he would deliver up the city to 
them, they would preserve him and his kindred: 
so he sware, that upon these terms he would 
put the city into their hands. Accordingly, he 
that thus betrayed the city was preserved, with 
his family; and the Israelites slew all the in- 
habitants, and retained the city for themselves. 

7. After this, the Israelites grew effeminate 
as to fighting any more against their enemies, 
tut applied themselves to the cultivation of the 
land, which producing them great plenty and 
riches, they neglected the regular disposition of 
- their settlement, and indulged themselves in 
luxury and pleasures, nor were they any long- 
er careful to hear the laws that belonged to 
their political government: whereupon God 
was provoked to anger, and put them in mind 
first, how, contrary to his directions, they had 
spared the Canaanites, and after that, how these 
Canaanites, as opportunity served, used them 
very barbarously. But the Israelites, thought 
they were in heaviness at these admonitions 
from God, yet were they still very unwilling to 
go to war, and since they got large tributes 
from the Canaanites, and were indisposed for 
taking pains by their luxury, they suffered their 
aristocracy to be corrupted also, and did not or- 
dain themselves a senate, nor any other such 
magistrates as their laws had formerly required, 
but they were very much given to cultivating 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


their fields, in »rder to get wealth’ which 
indolence of theirs brought a terrible sedition 
upon them, and they proceeded so far as to 


fight one against another, from the following — 


occasion: 

8. There was a Levite,* a man of a vulgar 
family, that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim, 
and dwelt therein; this man married a wife 
from Bethlehem, which is a place belonging 
to the tribe of Judah. Now he was very fon 
of his wife, and overcome with her beauty; 
but he was unhappy in this, that he did not 
meet with the like return of affection from her 
for she was averse to him, which did more in 
flame his passion for her, so that they quarrek- 
led one with another perpetually; and at last 
the woman was so disgusted at these quarrels, 
that she left her husband, and went to her pa- 
rents in the fourth month. The husband being 
very uneasy at this her departure, and that out 
of his fondness for her, came to his father and 
mother-in-law, and made up their quarrels, 
and was reconciled to her, and lived with them 
there four days, as being kindly treated by her 
parents. On the fifth day he resolved to go 
home, and went away in the evening: for his 
wife’s parents were loth to part with their 
daughter, and delayed the time till the day was 
gone. Now they had one servant that follow- 
ed them, and an ass on which the woman rode: 
and when they were near Jerusalem, having 
gone already thirty furlongs, the servant ad 
vised them to take up their lodgings , some 
where, lest some misfortune should befall them 
if they travelled in the night, especially since 
they were not far off enemies, that season often 
giving reason for suspicion of dangers from 
even such as are friends; but the husband was 
not pleased with this advice, nor was he willing 
to take up his lodgings among strangers, for 
the city belonged to the Canaanites, but desir- 
ed rather to go twenty furlongs farther, and so 
to take their lodgings in some Israelite city. 
Accordingly, he obtained his purpose, and 
came to Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benja- 
min, when it was just dark; and while no one 
that lived in the market-place invited him to 


lodge with him, there came an old man out of © 


the field, one that was indeed of the tribe of 
Ephraim, but resided in Gibeah, and met him, 
and asked him, who he was? and for what 
reason he came thither so late? and why he 
was looking out for provisions for supper when 
it was dark? ‘To which he replied, that he was 
a Levite, and was bringing his wife from her 
parents, and was going home, but he told aim 
his habitation was in the tribe of Ephraim: so 
the old man, as well because of their kindred, 
as because they lived in the same tribe, and 
also because they had thus accidentally met 
together, took him in to lodge with him. Now 


* Josephus’s early date of this history, before the begin 
ning of the judges, or when there was no king in Israel 
Judges xix. 1, is strongly confirmed by the large number of 
Benjamites both in the days of Asaand Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 
xiv. 8, and xvi. 17, who yet were here reduced to 600 men; 
nor can those numbers be at all supposed genuine, if they 
were reduced so late as the end of the judges, where our 
other copies place this reduction. 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER IL. 


eerta’n young men, v) the inhabitants of Gi- 
oeah, having seen the woman in the market- 
place, and admiring her beauty, when they un- 
derstood that she lodged with the old man, 
came to the doors, as contemning the weak- 
ness and fewness of the old man’s family; and 
when the old man desired them to go away, 
and not to offer any violence or abuse there, 
they desired him to yield them up the ‘strange 
woman, and then he should have no harm 
done to him: and when the old man alleged, 
that the Levite was of his kindred, and that 
they would be guilty of horrid wickedness if 
they suffered themselves to be overcome by 
heir pleasures, and so offend against their 
aws, they despised his righteous admonition, 
and laughed him to scorn. They also threat- 
ened to kill him if he became an obstacle to 
their inclinations; whereupon, when he found 
himself in great distress, and yet was not will- 
ing to overlook his guests, and see them abus- 
ed, he produced his own daughter to them; 
and told them, that it was a smaller breach of 
the law to satisfy their lust upon her, than to 
abuse his guests; supposing that he himself 
should by this means prevent any injury to be 
dene to those guests. When they noway abated 
of their earnestness for the strange woman, but 
uisisted absolutely on their desires to have her, 
2 entreated them not to perpetrate any such 
wt of injustice; but they proceeded to take 
wer away by force, and indulging still more 
the violence of their inclinations, they took the 
woman away to their house, and when they 
liad satisfied their lust upon her the wliole 
wight, they let her go about day-break. So she 
ename to the place where she had been enter- 
tained, under great affliction at what had hap- 
pened, and was very sorrowful upon occasion 
of what she had suffered, and durst not look 
lier husband in the face for shame, for she con- 
eluded that he would never forgive her for 
what she had done, so she fell down and gave 
up the ghost; but her husband supposed that his 
wife was only fast asleep, and thinking nothing 
of amore melancholy nature had happened, 
endeavored 10 raise her up, resolving to speak 
comfortably to her, since she did not volunta- 
rily expose herself’ to these men’s lust, but was 
tureed away to their house; but as soon as he 
perceived she was dead, he acted as prudently 
as the gveatness of his misfortunes would ad- 
mit, and laid his dead wife upon the beast, and 
earried her home; and cutting her limb by 
limb into twelve pieces, he sent them to every 
tribe, and gave it in charge to those that carried 
them, to inform the tribes of those that were 
the causes of his wife’s death, and of the vio- 
fence they had offered to her. 

9. Upon this the people were greatly disturb- 
+d at what they saw, and at what they heard, 
as never having had the experience of such a 
thing before: so they gathered themselves to 
Shiloh, out of a prodigious and a justanger, and 
assembling in a great congregation before the 
iabernacle, they tumediately resolved to take 
arins, and to treat the inhabitants of Gibeal as 
euemies; but the senate restrained them trom 





127 


dom so, and persuaded them that they ought 
not so hastily to make war upon people ef the 
same nation with them, before they discoursed 
with them by words concerning the accusation 
laid against them, it being part of their law that 
they should not bring an army against fo- 
reigners themselves when they appear to have 
been injurious, without sending an embassage 
first, aud trying thereby whether they will re- 
pent or not; and accordingly they exhorted 
them to do what they ought to do in obedience 
to their laws, that is, to send to the inhabitants 
of Gibeah, to know whether they would deliv- 
er up the offenders to them, and if they deliver 
them up, to rest satisfied with the punishment 
of those offenders; but if they despised the 
message that was sent them, to punish them, 
by taking up arms against them. According- 
ly, they sent to the inhabitants of Gibeah, and 
accused the young men of the crimes commit- 
ted in the affair of the Levite’s wife, and re- 
quired of them those that had done what was 
contrary to the law, that they might be punish- 
ed, as having justly deserved to die for what 
they had done; but the inhabitants of Gibeah 
would not deliver up the young men, and 
thought it too reproachful to them, out of fear 
of war, to submit to other men’s demands upon 
tem, vaunting themselves to be noway in- 
ferior to any in war, neither in their number, 
nor in courage. The rest of their tribe were 
also making great preparations for war, for 
they were so insolently mad, asalso to resolve 
to repel force by force. 

10. When it was related to the Israelites 
what the inhabitants of Gibeah had resolved 
upon, they took their oath that no one of them 
would give his daughter in inarriage to a Ben- 
jamite, but make war with greater fury against 
them than we have learned our forefathers 
made war against the Canaanites, and sent out 
presently an army of four hundred thousand 
against them, while the Benjamites’ army was 
twenty-five thousand and six hundred; five 
hundred of whom were excellent at slinging 
stones with their left hands, insomuch that 
when the battle was joined at Gibeah, the Ben 
Jamites beat the Israelites, and of them there 
fell two thousand men; and probably more had 
been destroyed had not the night come on and 
prevented it, and broken off the fight; so the 
Benjainites returned to the city with joy, and 
the Israelites returned to their camp in a great 
fright at what had happened. On the next day, 
when they fought again, the Benjamites beat 
them, and eighteen thousand of the Israelites 
were slain, and the rest deserted their camp 
out of fear of a greater slaughter. So they 
came to Bethel,* a city that was near their 
camp, and fasted on the next day; and be 
sought God by Phineas, the high priest, that 
his wrath against them might cease, and that 


* Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, 
when he took the Hebrew word Beth-Fl, which denotes the 
house of God, or the tabernacle, Judg. xx. 18, forthe proper 
name of a place Bethel, it noway appearing that the taberna- 
ele was ever at Bethel; only so far it is true, that Shiloh, the 
place of the tabernacle in the days of the judges, was ne 
far frou; Bethel. f 


128 


and give them the victory and power over their 
enemies. Accordingly, God promised them so 
to do by the prophesying of Phineas, 

11. When, therefore, they had divided the ar- 
my into two parts, they laid the one-half of 
them in ambush about the city of Gibeah by 
night, while the other half attacked the Benja- 
mites, and retiring upon the assault, the Benja 
mites pursued thetn, while the Hebrews retired 
by slow degrees, as very desirous to draw them 
entirely from the city, and the others followed 
them as they retired, till both the old men and 
young men that were left iu the city, as to» 
weak to fight, came running out together with 
them, as willing to bring their enemies under, 
However, when they were a great way from 
the city, the Hebrews ran away no longer, but 


turned back to fight them, and lifted up the sig- | 


nal they had agreed on to those that lay in am 
bush, who rose up, and with a great noise fell 
upon the enemy. Now, as soon as ever they 
perceived themselves to be deceived, they knew 
not what to do, and when they were driven 
into acertain hollow place which was in a val- 
ley, they were shot at by those that encompassed 
them, till they were all destroyed, excepting 
six hundred, which formed themselves into a 
close body of men, and forced their passage 
through the midst of their enemies, and fled to 
the neighboring mountains, and seized upon 
them, remained there; but the rest of them 
being about twenty-five thousand, were slain. 
Then did the Israelites burn Gibeah and slew 
the women, and the males that were under age 
and did the same also to the other cities of the 
Benjamites. And indeed they were enraged 
to that degree, that they sent twelve thousand 
men out of the army, and gave them orders to 
destroy Jabesh Gilead, because it did not join 
with them in fighting against the Benjamites. 
Accordingly, those that were sent slew the men 
of war, with their children and wives, excepting 
four hundred virgins. To such a degree had 
they proceeded in their anger, because they not 
only had the suffering of the Levite’s wife to 
avenge, but the slaughter of their own soldiers. 

12. However, they afterward were sorry for 
the calamity they had brought upon the Benja- 
mites, and appointed a fast on that account, al- 
though they supposed these men had suffered 
justly for their offence against the laws: so they 
recalled, by their ambassadors, those six hun- 
dred which had escaped. 'These had seated 
themselves on a certain rock called ‘Rimmon, 
which was in the wilderness; so the ambassa- 
dors lamented not only the disaster that had 
bef len the Benjamites, but themselves also, 
by this destruction of their kindred, and per- 
suaded them to take it patiently, and to come 
and unite with them, and not, so far as in them 
lay, to give their sufferage to the utter destruc- 
tion of the tribe of Benjamin; and said to thein, 
“We give you leave to take the whole land of 
Benjarun to yourselves, and as much prey as 
you are able to carry away with you.” So these 
men with sorrow confessed, that what had been 
lone was according to the deeree of God, and 


ANTIQUITIES OF ‘Tht (EWS. . 
he would be satisfied with these two defeats, | had happened for their own wickedness, and 








f 


assented to those that invited them. and came 
down to their own tribe. The Israelites alse 
gave them the four hundred virgins of Jebesh 
Gilead for wives; but as to the remaining two 
hundred, they deliberated about it how they 
night compass wives enough for them, and 
that they miglt have children by them; and 
whereas they liad, before the war began, taken 
an oath that no one would give his daughter to” 
wife toa Benjamite, sume advised them to have 
no regard to what they had sworn, because the 
oath had not been taken advisedly and judici- 
ously, but in a passion, aul thought that they 
should do nothing against God, if they were 
able to save a whole tribe which was in dan- 
ger of perishing, and that perjury was then a 
sad and dangerous thing, not when it is done 
out of necessity, but when it is done with 
a wicked intention. But when the senate 
were ffrighted at the very name of perjury, a 
certain person told them, that he could show 
them a way whereby they might procure the 
Benjamites wives enough, and yet keep their 
oath. "They asked him what his proposal was? 
He said, “that three times in a year when we 
meet in Shiloh, our wives and our daughters 
accompany us; let then the Benjamites be al- 
lowed to steal away, and marry such woman as 
they can catch, while we will neither incite 
them nor forbid them; and when their parents 
take it ill, and desire us to inflict punishment 
upon them, we will tell them, that they were 
themselves the cause of what had happened, 
by neglecting to guard their daughters, and that 
they ought not to be over angry at the Benja- 
mites, since that anger was permitted to rise tuo 
high already.” So the Israelites were persuad- 
ed to follow this advice, and decreed, that the 
Benjamites should be allowed thus to steal 
themselves wives. So when the festival was 
coming on, these two hundred Benjamites lay 
in ambush before the city, by two and three 
together, and waited for the coming of the vir- 
gins, in the vineyards and other places where 
they could lie concealed. Accordingly, the vir- 
gins came along playing, and suspected nothing 
of what was coming upon them, and walked 
after an unguarded manner, so those that lay 
scattered in the road rose up and caught hold 
of them; by this means these Benjamites got 
them wives, and fell to agriculture, and took 
good care to recover their former happy state. 
And thus was this tribe of the Benjamites, after 
they had been in danger of entirely perishing, 
saved in the manner forementioned, by the wis 
dom of the Israelites, and accordingly it pre) 
sently flourished, and soon increased to be & 
multitude, and came to enjoy all other degrees 
of happiness. And such was the conclusion 
of this war. ‘ 
CHAPTER III. 
How the Israelites, after this misfortune, 


\ 
oy 


wicked, and served the Assyrians, and how 
God delivered them by Olhniet, who ruled over 
them forty years. ‘’ 


§ 1. Now ithappened that the trive of Dan suf 
fered in like manner with the tribe of Benja_ 


pe 


ihe BOOK V.—CHAPTER IV. 


~nin; and it came to do soon the occasion fol- 


towing: when the Israelites had already left off 


- the exercise of their arms for war, and were 
intent upon their husbandry, the Canaanites 
despised them, and brought together an army, 
not because they expected to suffer by them, 
out because they had a mind to have a sure 
prospect of treating the Hebrews ill-when they 
pleased, and might thereby, for the time to come, 
dwell in their own cities the more securely; they 
prepared, therefore, their chariots, and gathered 
their soldiery together, their cities also com- 
bined together, and drew over to them Askelon 
and Ekron, which were within the tribe of Ju- 
dah, and many more of those that lay in the 
plain. They also forced the Danites to fly into 
the mountainous country, and left them not the 
least portion of the plain country to set their 
foot on. Since then these Danites were not 
able to fight them, and had not land enough to 
sustain them, they sent five of their men into 
the midland country to see for a land to which 
they might remove their habitation: so these 
men went as far as the neighborhood of mount 
Libanus and the fountains of the lesser Jor- 
dan; at the great plain of Sidon, a day’s jour- 
ney from the city; and when they had taken a 
view of the land, and found it to be good and 
exceeding fruitful, they acquainted their tribe 
with it, whereupon they made an expedition 
with the army, and built there the city of Dan, 
of the same name with the son of Jacob, and 
of the same name with their own tribe. 
2. The Israelites grew so indolent, and unrea- 
dy of taking pains, that misfortunes came hea- 
vier upon them, which also proceeded in part 
from their contempt of the divine worship; for 
when they had once fallen off from the regu- 
_ larity of their political government they indulg- 
ed themselves farther in living according to 
their own pleasure, and according to their 
own will, till «hey were full of the evil doings 
that were conimon among the Canaanites. God, 
therefore, was angry with them, and they lost 
their happy state, which they had obtained by 
innumerable fabors, by their luxury; for when 
Chushan, king of the Assyrians, had made war 
against them, they lost many of their soldiers 
in the battle, and when they were besieged, they 
were taken by force; nay, there were some, 
who out of fear, voluntarily submitted to him, 
and though the tribute laid upon them was 
more than they could bear, yet did they pay it, 
and underwent all sort of oppression for eight 
years, after which time they were freed from 
hem in the following manner: 
3. There was one whose name was Othniel, 
the son of Kenez, of the tribe of Judah, an ac- 
tive man, and of great courage. He had an ad- 
monition from God not to overlook the Israel- 
_ites in such a distress as they were now in, but 
-to endeavor boldly to gain them their liberty; 
_80 when he had procured some to assist him in 
this dangerous undertaking, (and few they were, 

who either out of shame at their present cir- 
cumstances, or out ofa desire of changing them, 


could be prevailed on to assist him,) he first of 


_all destroyed that garrison which Chushan had 
Z 17 


"i 


129 


set over them; but when it was perceived that 
he had not failed in his first attempt, more of 
the people came to his assistance; so they join- 
ed battle with the Assyrians, and drove thein 
entirely before them, and compelled them to 
pass over Euphrates. Hereupon Othniel, who 
had given such proofs of his valor, received 
from the multitude authority to judge the peo- 
ple; and when he had ruled over thern forty 
years, he died. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How our people served the Moalites eighteen 
years, and were then delivered from slavery 
by one Ehud, who retained the dominion eighty 
years. 


§ 1. When Othniel was dead, the affairs of 
the Israelites fell again into disorder, and while 
they neither paid to God the honor due to him, 
nor were obedient to the laws, their afflictions 
increased, till Eglon, king of the Moabites, dil 
so greatly despise them, on account of the dis- 
orders of their political government, that hs 
made war upon them, and overcame them 31 
several battles, and made the most courageot # 
to submit, and entirely subdued their army, 
and ordered them to pay him tribute. And whon 
he had built him a royal palace at Jericho,* le 
omitted no method whereby he might distress 
them; and indeed he reduced them to poverty 
for eighteen years: but when God had once 
taken pity of the Israelites, on account of their 
afflictions, and was moved to compassion hy 
their supplications put up to him, he freed 
them from the hard usage they had met with 
under the Moabites, This liberty he procured 
for them in the following manner: 

2. There was a young man of the tribe of 
Benjamin, whose name was Ehud, the son of 
Gera, a man of very great courage in bold un- 
dertakings, and of a very strong body, fit for 
hard labor, but best skilled in using his left 
hand, in which was his whole strength; and 
he also dwelt at Jericho. Now this man be- 
came familiar with Eglon, and that by means 
of presents, with which he obtained his favor, 
and insinuated himself imto his good opinion, 
whereby he was also beloved of those that 
were about the king. Now, when on a time 
he was bringing presents to the king, and had 
two servants with him, he put a dagger on his 
right thigh secretly, and went in to him: it was 
then summer time, and the middle of the day, 
when the guards were not strictly on their 
watch, both because of the heat, and becauise 
they were gone to dinner. So the young man, 
when he had offered his presents to the king 
who then resided in a small parlor that stood 
conveniently to avoid the heat, he fell into dis- 
course, with him, for they were now alone, the 


* It appears by the sacred history, Judg. i. 16; iii. 13, thas 
Eglon’s pavilion, or palace, was at the city of palm-trees, 
as the place where Jericho had stood is called after its de 
struction by Joshua, that is, at or near the demolished city. 
Accordingly, Josephus says it was at Jericho, or rather im 
that fine country of palm-trees, upon or near to the same spes 
of ground on which Jericho had formerly stood, and on whick 
it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings xvi. 34. Our other copies tha’ 
avoid its proper name, Jericho, and call it the city of palm 
trees only, speak here more accurately than Josephus. 


130 


«mg having bid his servants that attended him 
to go their ways, because he had a mind to talk 
with Ehud. He was now sitting on his throne; 
and fear seized upon Ehud lest he should miss 
his stroke, and not give him a deadly wound, 
so he raised himself up, and said he had a 
dream to impart to him by the command of 
God; upon which the king leaped out of his 
throne for joy of the dream; so Ehud smote 
him to the heart, and leaving his dagger in his 
body, he went out and shut the door after him. 
Now the king’s servants were very still, as 
supposing that the king had composed himself 
to sleep. 

3. Hereupon Ehud informed the, people of 
Jericho privately of what he had done, and 
exhorted them to recover their liberty; who 
heard him gladly, and went to their arms, and 
sent messengers over the country, that should 
siund trumpets of rams’ horns, for it was our 
custom to call the people together by them. 
Now the attendants of Eglon were ignorant of 
what misfortune had befallen him for a great 
while; but towards the evening, fearing some 
uncommon accident had happened, they en- 
tered into his parlor, and when they found 
him dead, they were in great disorder, and 
knew not what to do; and before the guards 
evuld be got together, the multitude of the 
I:raelites came upon them, so that some of 
tliem were slain immediately, and some were 
put to flight, and ran away toward the country 
of Moab, in order to save themselves. Their 
number was above ten thousand. The Israel- 
ies seized upon the ford of Jordan, and pur- 
sued them, and slew them, and many of them 
they killed at the ford, nor did one of them 
escape out of their hands; and by this means 
it was chat the Hebrews fireed themselves from 
slavery under the Moabites. Ehud also was 
on this account dignified with the government 
over all the multitude, and died after he had 
held the government eighty years.* He was a 
man worthy of commendation, even besides 
what he deserved for the forementioned act of 
his. After him Shamgar, the son of Anath, 
wus elected for their governor, but died in the 
first year of his government. 


CHAPTER V. 


How the Canaanites brought the Israelites under 
slavery for twenty years: after which they were 
delivered by Barak avd Deborah, who ruled 
over them forty years. 


§ 1. And now it was that the Israelites, tak- 
mg no warning by their former misfortunes to 
amend their manners, and neither worshipping 
God, nor submitting to the laws, were brought 
under slavery by Jabin, the king of the Ca- 
naanites, and that before they had a short breath- 
ing time after the slavery under the Moabites; 
for this Jabin came out of Hazor, a city that 
was situate over the lake Semechonitis, and had 

* These 80 years for the government of Ehud are neces- 
sury to Josephus’s usual large numbers between the exodus 
ani the building of the temple, of 592 or 612 years, but not to 
the smallest number of 480 years, 1 Kings vi. 1, which lesser 


aumber Josephus seems sometimes to have followed. And 
suice bi the begivning of the next chapter it is said by Jo- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


I do not reject it.” 


in pay three hundred thousand footmen, ane — 
ten thousand horsemen, with no fewer than — 
three thousand chariots. Sisera was the com- 
mander of all his army, and was the principa 
person in the king’s favor. He so sorely beat 
the Israelites when they fought with him, that 
he ordered them to pay tribute. 

2. So they continued to undergo that herd 
ship for twenty years, as not good enough of 
themselves to grow wise by their misfortunes. ~ 
God was willing also hereby the more to sub- 
due their obstinacy and ingratitude towards 
himself; so when they were at length become 
penitent, and were so wise as to learn that their 
calamities arose from their contempt of the 
laws, they besought Deborah, a certain prophet- 
ess among them, (which name in the Hebrew 
tongue signifies a Bee,) to pray to God to take ~ 
pity on them, and not to overlook them, now — 
they were ruined by the Canaanites. So God 
granted them deliverance, and chose. them a — 
general, Barak, one that was of the tribe of 
Naphtali (now Barak, in the Hebrew tongue, 
signifies Lightning.) 

3. So Deborah sent for Barak, and bid him 
choose him out ten thousand young men, to go 
against the enemy, because God had said, that 
that number was sufficient, and promised them 
victory. But when Barak said, that he would © 
not be the general unless she would also go as 
a general with him, she had indignation at 
what he said, and replied, “Thou, O Barak, de- 
liverest up meanly that authority which God 
hath given thee, into the hand of a woman, and 
So they collected ten thou- 
sand men, and pitched their camp at mount 'Ta- — 
bor, where, at the king’s command, Sisera met 
them, and pitched his camp not far from the ~ 
enemy; whereupon the Israelites and Barak — 
himself were so affrighted at the multitude of 
those enemies, that they were resolved to march ~ 
off, had not Deborah retained them and com- 
manded them to fight the enemy that very day, 
for that they should conquer them, and 
would be their assistance. | 

4, So the battle began; and when they were — 





5a} 


ow SE 


come to a close fight, there came down from — 
heaven a great storm, with a vast quantity of © 
rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in 
the face of the Canaanites, and so darkened 
their eyes, that their arrows and slings were of — 
no advantage to them; nor would the coldness — 
of the air permit the soldiers to make use of 

their swords, while this storm did not so much — 
incommode the Israelites, because it came on — 
their backs. 'They also took such courage, upon — 
the apprehension that God was assisting them, — 
that they fell upon the very midst of their ene- 
mies, and slew a great number of them, so that — 
some of them fell: by the Israelites, some fell by — 
their own horses, which were put into disorder, — 
and nota few were killed by their own chariots. — 
At last Sisera, as soon as he saw himself bear 
sephus, that here was hardly a breathing time for the Israel- 
ites before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly proba- 

ble that some of the copies in his time had here only 8 yeare — 
instead of 80; as had that of Theophilus of Antioch, 4d 4% _ 


toyle, L. iii, and this most probably from his copy of Je 
sephus. ‘ 







en, fled away, and came to a woman whose 
-wame was Jael,a Kenite, who received him, 
when he desired to be concealed; and when he 
asked for somewhat to drink, she gave him 
sour milk, of which he drank so freely that 
he fell asleep; but when he was asleep, Jael 
took an iron nail and drove it through his 
temples with a hammer into the floor: and when 
Barak came, a little afterward, she showed Si- 
sera nailed to the.ground. And thus was this 
‘vietory gained by a woman, as Deborah had 
foretold. Barak also fought with Jabin at Ha- 
zor’ and when he met with him he slew him; 
and when the general was fallen, Barak over- 
threw the city to the foundation, and was com- 
mander of the Israelites for forty years. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How the Midianites and other Nations fought 

_ against the Israelites, and beat them, and afflict- 
ed their country for seven years. How they 
were delivered by Gideon, who ruled over the 
multitude. 


§ 1. Now when Barak and Deborah were 
dead, whose deaths happened about the same 
time, afterward the Midianites called the Ama- 
dekites and Arabians to their assistance, and 
made war against the Israelites, and were too 
hard for those that fought against them; and 
when they had burnt the fruits of the earth, 
they carried off the prey. Now when they 
had done this for three years, the multitude of 
the Israelites retired to the mountains, and for- 
scok the plain country. They also made them- 
selves hollows under ground, and caverns, and 
preserved therein whatsoever had escaped their 
enemies; for the Midianites made expeditions 
in harvest time, but permitted them to plough 
the land in winter, that so when the others had 
taken the pains, they might have fruits for them 
to carry “away. Indeed, there ensued a fa- 
mine, and a scarcity of food, upon which they 
betook themselves to their supplications to God, 
and besought him to save them. 

2. Gideon also, the son of Joash, one of the 
ope persons of the tribe of Manasseh, 

rought his sheaves of corn privately, and 
threshed them at the wine-press, for he was too 
fearful of their enemies, to thresh them openly 
in the threshing-floor. At this time somewhat 
appeared to him in the shape of a young man, 
and told him, “That he was a happy man and 
beloved of God.” To which he immediately 
replied, “A mighty indication of God’s favor 
to me, that I am forced to use this wine-press 
instead of a threshing-floor!” But the appear- 
ance exhorted him to be of good courage, and 
to make an attempt for the recovery of their 
liberty. He answered, that “it was impossible 
for him to recover it, because the tribe to which 
he belonged, was by no means numerous; and 
‘because he was but young himself, and too in- 
considerable to think of such great actions.” 
But the other promised him, that God would 
supply what he was defective in, and would af- 
ford the Israelites victory under his conduct. 


_ 3. Now, therefore, as Gideon was relating 
this to some young men; they believed him, 


po 
ey 
ye 

‘ 


“i 


ee BOOK V.—CHAPTER VI. 


131 


and immediately there was an army of ter thou- 
sand men got ready for fighting. But God 
stood by Gideon in his sleep, and told him, 
“That mankind were too fond of themselves, 
and were enemies to such as excelled in vir 
tue; now, that they might not pass God over 
but ascribe the victory to him, and might not 
fancy it obtained by their own power because 
they were a great army, and able of them- 
selves to fight their enemies, but might confess 
that it was owing to his assistance, he advised 
him to bring his army about noon, in the vio- 
lence of the heat, to the river, and to esteem 
those that bent down on their knees, and so 
drank, tobe men of courage; but for all those 
that drank tumultuously, that he should esteem 
them to do it out of fear, and as in dread of 
their enemies.” And when Gideon had done 
as God had suggested to him, there were found 
three hundred men that took water with their 
hands tumultuously; so God bid him take these 
men, and attack the enemy. Accordingly they 
pitched their camp at the river Jordan, as ready 
the next day to pass over it. 

4, But Gideon was in great fear, for God 
had told him beforehand, that he should set 
upon his enemies in the night time: but God 
being willing to free him from his fear, bid 
him take one of his soldiers, and go near to 
the Midianites’ tents, for that he should from 
that very place have his courage raised, and 
grow bold. So he obeyed, and went and took 
his servant Phurah with him; and as he came 
near to one of the tents, he discovered that 
those that were in it were awake, and that 
one of them was telling to his fellow-soldier a 
dream of his own, and that so plainly, that 
Gideon could hear him. The dream was this: 
he thought he saw a barley-cake, such a one 
as could hardly be eaten by men, it wasso vile, 
rollmg through the camp, and overthrowing 
the royal tent, and the tents of all the soldiers. 
Now the other soldier explained this vision to 
mean the destruction of the army, and told 
him what his reason was which made him so 
to conjecture, viz: that the seed called barley 
was all of it allowed to be of the vilest sort of 
seed, and that the Israelites were known to be 
the vilest of all the people of Asia, agreeably 
to the seed of barley; and that what seemed to 
look big among the Israelites, was this Gideon, 
and the army that was with him: “and since 
thou sayest thou didst see the cake overturning 
our tents, Lam afraid lest God hath granted the 
victory over us to Gideon.” 

3. When Gideon had heard this dream, good 
hope and courage came upon him; and he com- 
manded his soldiers to arm themselves, and told 
them of this vision of their enemies. 'They also 
took courage at what was told them, and were 
ready to perform what he should enjoin them: 
so Gideon divided his army into three parts, and 
brought it out about the fourth watch of the 
night, each part containing a hundred men: they 
‘all bare empty pitchers, and lighted lamps in 
their hands, that their onset might not be dis- 
covered by their enemies. They had also each 
of them aram’s born, in his right. hand, whieb 


132 


he used instead of a trumpet: the enemies’ camp 
took up a large space of ground; for it happened 
they had a great many camels: and as they were 
divided into different nations, so they were all 
contained in one circle. Now when the He- 
brews did as they were ordered beforehand 
upon their approach to their enemies, and on 
the signal given, sounded with their rams’ horns, 
and brake their pitchers, and set upon their ene- 
mies with their lamps, and a great shout, and 
eried, “Victory to Gideon, by God’s assistance,” 
a disorder and a fright seized on the other men 
while they were fast asleep, for it was night- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





CHAPTER VIL 


That the Judges who succeeded Gideon made tom 
with the adjoining nations for a long time. 


§ 1. Now Gideon had seventy sons that were — 
legitimate, for he had many wives, but he had 
also one that was spurious, by his concubine 
Drumah, whose name was Abimelech, who, 
after his father’s death, retired to Shechem to 
his mother’s relations, for they were of that’ 
place: and when he had got money of such of — 
them as were eminent for many instances of — 
injustice, he came with them to his father’s 


time, as God would have it; so that a few of'| house, and slew all his brethren, except Jotham; 


them were slain by their enemies, but the 
greatest part by their own soldiers, on account 
of the diversity of their language; and when 
they were once put into disorder, they killed all 
that they met with, as thinking them to be ene- 
mies also. Thus there wasa great slaughter 
made. And asthe report of Gideon’s victory 
came to the Israelites, they took their weapons 
and pursued their enemies, and overtook them 
in a certain valley, encompassed with torrents, 
a place which these could not get over; so they 
encompassed them and slew them all, with 
their kings, Oreb and Zeeb. But the remain- 
ing captains led those soldiers that were left, 
which were about eighteen thousand, and 
itched their camp a great way off the Israel- 
ites. However, Gideon did not grudge his 
pains, but pursued them with all his army, and 
joining battle with them, cut off the whole ene- 
mies’ army, and took the other leaders, Zebah 
and Zalmunna, and made them captives. Now 
there were slain in this battle of the Midian- 
ites, and of their auxiliaries, the Arabians, about 
ahundred and twenty thousand; and the He- 
brews took a great prey, gold, and silver, and 
rments, and camels, and asses. And when 
ideon was come to his own country of Ophra, 
he slew the kings of the Midianites. 

6. However, the tribe of Ephraim was so 
displeased at the good success of Gideon, that 
they resolved to make war against him, accus- 
ing him because he did not tell them of his 
expedition against their enemies. But Gideon, 
as a man of temper, and that excelled in every 
virtue, pleaded, “That it was not the result of 
his own authority or reasoning that made him 
attack the enemy without them, but that it was 
the command of God, and still the victory be- 
longed to them as well as to those in the army.” 
And by this method of cooling their passions, 
he brought more advantage to the Hebrews 

han by the success he had against these ene- 

mies, for he thereby delivered them from a se- 
dition which was arising among them; yet did 
this tribe afterward suffer the punishment of 
this their injurious treatment of Gideon, of 
which we will give an account in due time. 

7. Hereupon Gideon would have laid down 
the government, but was over-persuaded to 
take it, which he enjoyed forty years, and dis- 
tributed justice to them, as the people came to 
him in their differences; and what he deter- 
mined was esteemed valid by all. And when he 
died, he was buried in hisown country of Ophra. 


for he had the good fortune to escape and be 
preserved; but Abimelech made the govern 
ment tyrannical, and constituted himself a lord, 
to do what he pleased, instead of obeying the — 
laws, and he acted most rigidly against those 
that were the patrons of justice. | 
2. Now, when on a certain time there was a 
public festival at Shechem, and all the multi- 
tude was there gathered together, Jotham his 
brother, whose escape we before related, went 
up tomount Gerizzim, which hangs over the 
city of Shechem, and cried out so as to be heard 
by the multitude, who were attentive to him. 
He desired they would consider what he was 
going to say to them: so when silence was 
made, he said, “That when the trees had a 
human voice, and there was an assembly of 
them gathered together, they desired that that 
fig-tree would rule over them; but when*the 
tree refused so to do, because it was contented 


to enjoy that honor which belonged peculiaily 


to the fruit it bare, and not that which shouJd 
be derived to it from abroad, the trees did not 
leave off their intentions to have a ruler, so 
they thought proper to make the offer of that 
honor to the vine; but when the vine was 
chosen, it made use of the same words which 
the fig-tree had used before, and excused itself 
from accepting the government: and when 
the olive-tree had done the same, the brier, 


whom the trees had desired to take the king _ 
dom, (it is a sort of wood good for firing,) pro- 


mised to take the government, and to be zeal- 
ous in the exercise of it, but that then they 
must sit down under its shadow, and if they 


should plot against it to destroy it, the princi-— : 


; 


ple of fire that was in it should destroy them. _ 


He told them, that what he said was no laugh- 


| 


ing matter: for that when they had experienced | 


many blessings from Gideon, they overlooked 
Abimelech, when he overruled all, and had 
joined with him in slaying his brethren: and 
that he was no better than a fire himself.” Se 
when he had said this, he went away, and lived” 
privately in the mountains for three years, out 
of fear of Abimelech. 







| 


3. A little while after this festival, the She- 









chemites, who had now repented themselves” 
of having slain the sons of Gideon, drove Abi- 
melech away, both from their city and their 
tribe; whereupon he contrived how he might 
distress their city. Now at the season uf vin- 
tage, the people were afraid to go out ‘ 


gather the fruits, for fear Abimelec should 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER VII. 


them soiae mischief. Now it happened that 
there had come to them a man of authority, 
one Gaal, that sojourned with them, having his 
armed men and his kinsmen with him; so the 
Shechemites desired that he would allow them 
a guard during their vintage, whereupon he 
accepted of their desires, and so the people 
went out, and Gaal with them at the head of 
his soldiery; so they gathered their fruit with 
safety, and when they were at supper in several 
companies, they then ventured to curse Abi- 
melech openly, and the magistrates laid am- 
bushes in places about the city,and caught many 
ef Abimelech’s followers, and destroyed them. 

4, Now there was one Zebul, a magistrate of 
the Shechemites, that had entertained Abime- 
lech. He sent messengers, and informed. him 
how much Gaal had irritated the people against 
him, and excited him to lay ambushes before 
the city, for that he would persuade Gaal to go 
out ‘against him, which would leave it in his 
power to be revenged on him, and when that 
was once done, he would bring him to be re- 
conciled to the city. So Abimelech laid am- 
bushes, and himself lay with them. Now 
Gaal abode in the suburbs, taking little care of 
himself; and Zebul was with him. Now, as 
Gaal saw the armed men coming on, he said 
to Zebul, that some armed men were coming; 
Hut the other replied, they were only shadows 
of huge stones; and when they were come 
neirer, Gaal perceived what was the reality, 
and said, they were not shadows, but men 
lying in ambush. Then said Zebul, didst not 
thou reproach Abimelech for cowardice? why 
dost thou not then show how very courageous 
thou art thyself, and go and fight him? So 
Gaal, being in disorder, joined battle with Abi- 
melech, and some of his men fell; whereupon 
he fled into the city, and took his men with 
fim. But Zebul managed his matters so in 
the city, that he procured them to expel Gaal 
out of the city, and this by accusing him of 
cowardice in this action with the soldiers of 
Abimelech. But Abimelech, when he had 
fearned that the Shechemites were again com- 
ing out to gather their grapes, placed ambushes 
before the city, and when they were coming 
out, the third part of his army took possession 
of the gates, to binder the citizens from re- 
curning in again, while the rest pursued those 
that were scattered abroad, and so there was 
slaughter everywhere; and when he had over- 
thrown the city to the very foundations, for it 
was not able to bear a siege, and had sown its 
ruins with salt, he proceeded on with his army, 
till all the Schechemites were slain. As for 
those that were scattered about the country, 
and so escaped the danger, they were gathered 
together unto a certain strong rock, and settled 
themselves upon it, and prepared to build a 
wall about it; and when Abimelech knew their 
intentions, he prevented them, and came upon 
them with his forces, and laid fagots of dry 
wood round the place, he himself bringing 
some of them, and by his example encouraging 
the soldiers to do the same. And when the 
foru was encompassed round about with these 


‘character. 


133 


fagots, they set them on fire, and threw in 
whatsoever by nature caught fire the most 
easily, so a mighty flame was raised, and no- 
body could fly away from the rock, but every 
man perished with their wives and children, in 
all about fifteen hundred men, and the rest 
were a great number also. And such was the 
calamity which fell upon the Shechemites 
and men’s grief on their account had been 
greater than it was, had they not brought so 
much mischief on a person who had so well 
deserved of them, and had they not themselves 
esteemed this as a punishment for the same. 

5. Now Abimelech, when he had affrighted 
the Israelites with the miseries he had brought 
upon the Shechemites, seemed openly to aftect 
greater authority than he now had, and appear- 
ed to set no bounds to his violence, unless it 
were with the destruction of all. According- 
ly, he marched to Thebez, and took the city on 
the sudden; and there being a great tower there- 
in, whereunto the whole multitude fled, he 
made preparation to besiege it. Now as he 
was rushing with violence near the gates, a 
women threw a piece of millstone upon his 
head, upon which Abimelech fell down, and 
desired his armor-bearer to kill him, lest his 
death should be thought to be the work of a 
woman; who did what he was bid to do. So 
he underwent his death as a punishment for 
the wickedness he had perpetrated against his 
brethren, and his insolent barbarity to the She- 
chemites. Now the calamity that happened to 
those Shechemites, was according to the pre- 
diction of Jotham. However, the army that 
was with Abimelech, upon his fall, was scatter- 
ed abroad, and went to their own houses, 

6. Now it was that Jair the Gileadite,* of the 
tribe of Manasseh, took the government. He 
was a man happy in other respects also, but 
particulariy in his children, who were of a good 
They were thirty in number, and 
very skilful in riding on horses, and were in- 
trusted with the government of the cities of Gi- 
lead. He kept the government twenty-two 
years, and died an old man, and he was buried 
in Camon, a city of Gilead. 

7. And now all the affairs of the Hebrews 
were managed uncertainly, and tended to disor- 
der, and to the contempt of God and the laws. 
So the Ammonites and Philistines had them in 
contempt, and laid waste the country with a 
great army; and when they had taken all Perea, 
they were so insolent as to attempt to gain the 
possession of all the rest: but the Hebrews being 
now amended by the calamities '!*« y had under- 
gone, betook themselves to sup; :icaiions to God: 
and brought sacrifices to him, beseeching him 
not to be too severe upon them, but to be moved 
by their prayers to leave off his anger against 
them. So God became more merciful to them, 
and was ready to assist them. 


*Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among 
the judges, thongh the other copies have him next after Abr 
melech, and allot twenty-three years to his administration, 
Judges x. 1, 2; yet do all Josephus’s commentators conclude, 
thatin Josephus’s sum of the years of the judges, his tweaty- 
three years are included; hence we are to confess, th~’ 


| somewhat has been lost bere out of his copies. 


{34 


8. When the Ammonites had made an expe- 
dition into the land of Gilead, the inhabitants 
of the country met them at a certain mountain, 
hut wanted a commander. Now there was one 
whose name was Jephtha, who, both on account 
of his father’s virtue, and-on account of that 
army which he maintained at his own expenses, 
was apotent man: the Israelites, therefore, sent 
to him and entreated him to come to their as- 
sistance, and promised him dominion over them 
all his lifetime. But he did not admit of their 
entreaty; and accused them, that they did not 
rome to his assistance when he was unjustly 
treated, and this in an open manner by his bre- 
thren; for they cast him off, as not having the 
sare mother with the rest, but born of a strange 
mother, that was introduced among them by his 
father’s: fondness, and this they did out of a 
contempt of his inability [to vindicate him- 
self.| So he dwelt in the country of Gilead, as 
it is called, and received all that came to him, 
let them come from what place soever, and paid 
them wages. However when they pressed him 
to accept the dominion, and swore that they 
would grant him the government over them 
all his life, he led them to the war. 

9. And when Jephtha had taken immediate 
care of their affairs, he placed his army at the 
city of Mispeh, and sent a message to the Ammo- 
nite [king,] complaining of his unjust pos- 
session of their land. Butthat king sent a con- 
trary message; and complained of the exodus 
of the Israelites out of Egypt, and desired him 
io go out of the land of the Amorites, and 
yield it up to him, as at first his paternal inheri- 
tance. But Jephtha returned this answer, 
“That he did not justly complain of his ances- 
tors about the land of the Amorites, and ought 
rather to thank them that they left the land of 
the Ammonites to them, since Moses could have 
taken it also; and that neither would he recede 
from that land of their own, which God had ob- 
tained for them, and they had now inhabited 
fabove] three hundred years, but would fight 
with them ahout it.” 

10. And when he had given them this an- 
swer, he sent the ambassadors away. And 
when he had prayed for victory, and had vow- 
ed to perform sacred offices;* and if he came 
home in safety, to offer in sacrifice what living 
creature soever should first meet him, he joined 
battle with the enemy, and gained a great victo- 
ry, and in his pursuit slew the enemies all along 
as far as the city Monnith. Hethen passed over 
tc the land of the Ammonites, and overthrew 
many of their cities, and took their prey, and 
freed his own peopie from that slavery which 
they had undergone for eighteen years. But 
as he came back, he fell into a calamity noway 
correspondent to the great actions he had done; 
for it was his daughter that came to meet him; 
she was also an only child, and a virgin: upon 
this, Jephtha heavily lamented the greatness of 

nis affliction, and blamed his daughter for being 

* Josephus justly condemns Jephtha, as to the Apostol.cal 
Constitutions, b. vii. ch. xxxvii. for his rash vow, whether 
it were for sacrificing his daughter, as Josephus thought, or 


for dedicating her, who was his only child, to perpetual vir- 
ginity, at the tabernacle or elsewhere, which I rather sup- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. - # 







so forward in meeting ‘him, for he had vowed: 
to sacrifice her to God. However, this action 
that was to befall her was not ungrateful to her, — 
since she should die upon occasion of her fath. 
er’s victory, and the liberty of her fellow-citi- 
zens: she only desired her father to give her 
leave for two months, to bewail her youth with — 
her fellow-citizens: and then she agreed, that — 
at the forementioned time, he might do with — 
her according to his vow. Accordingly, when \ 
that time was over, he sacrificed his daughiter — 
as a burnt-offering; offering such an oblation rs 
as was neither conformable to the law, nor ac- — 
ceptable to God, not weighing with himself — 
what opinion the hearers would have of such 
a practice. 
11. Now the tribe of Ephraim fought against 
him because he did not take them along with 
him in his expedition against the Ammonites, — 
but because he alone had the prey, and the — 
glory of what was done, to himself. As to — 
which he said, first, they were not ignorant how 
his country had fought against him, and that — 
when they were invited, they did not come to — 
his assistance, whereas they ought to have come — 
quickly, even before they were invited. And ~ 
in the next place, that they were going to act — 5 
unjustly; for while they had not courage : 
enough to fight their enemies, they came hastily — 
against their own kindred: and he threaten-_ 
ed them, that with God’s assistance he would 4 
inflict a punishment upon them, unless they — 
would grow wiser. But when he could not i 
persuade them, he fought them with those forc- — 
es which he sent for out of Gilead, and he 
made a great slaughter among them; and when _ 
they were beaten, he pursue them, and seized | 
on the passages of Jordan by a part of his ar- 
my which he had sent before, and slew about 
forty-two thousand of them. 
12. So when J ephtha had ruled six years, he’ 
died, and was buried in his own country, Sebee, 
which is a place in the land of Gilead. 7 
13. Now when Jephtha was dead, Ibzan ~ 
took the government, being of the tribe of Ju- 
dah, and of the city Bethlehem. He had six- 
ty children, thirty of them sons, and the rest 
daughters; all of whom he left alive behind 
him, giving the daughters in marriage to hus- _ 
bands, and taking wives for his sons, He dit 
nothing in the seven years of his administra- 
tion that was worth recording or deserved a 
memorial. So he died an old man, and was 
buried in his own country. 
14. When Tbzan was dead after this manner, 





















remarkable; he was of the tribe of Zebulon. — 
15. Abdon, also, the son of Hillel, of the 
tribe of Ephraim, and born at the city Py-— 
rathon, was ordained their supreme governor 
after Helon. He is only recorded to have hee 
happy in his children; for the public affairs 
were then so peaceable, and in such security 
pose. If he had vowed her for a sacrifice she ought to} ave © 
been redeemed, Lev. xxvii. 1—8; but of the sense of ver 22 


29, as relating not to things vowed to God bat devoted to te 
struction, see the note on Antiq. b. v. ch. i sect. & " 




















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































yy 
Lee 





JEPHTHA’s DAUGHTER COMING TO MEET HER FATHER. 


oa 





BOOK V.—CHAPTER VIII. 


_ shat neither aid he perform any glorious action. 
- He had forty sons, and by them left thirty grand- 
children; and he marched in state with these 
seventy, who were all very skilful in riding 
horses, and he left them all alive after him. He 
died an old man; and obtained a magnificent 
burial in Pyrathon. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Concerning the fortitude of Sampson, and what 
mischiefs he brought upon the Philistines. 


§ 1. After Abdon was dead, the Philistines 
overcome the Israelites, and received tribute of 
them for forty years; from which distress they 
were delivered after this manner. 
2. There was one Manoah, a person of such 
great virtue, that he had few men his equals, 
and without dispute the principal person of his 
country. He had a wife celebrated for her 
beauty, and excelling her contemporaries. He 
had no children, and being uneasy at this want 
of posterity, he entreated God to give them 
seed of their own bodies to succeed them; and 
with that intent he came constantly into the 
suburbs,* together with his wife, which suburbs 
were in the great plain. Now, he was fond of 
his wife to the degree of madness, and on that 
account was immeasurably jealous of her. 
Now, when his wife was once alone, an appa- 
rition was seen by her; it was an angel of God, 
and resembled a young man beautiful and tall, 
and brought her the good news that she 
should have a son, born by God’s providence, 
that should be a goodly child of great strength, 
by whom, when he was grown up to man’s 
estate, the Philistines should be afflicted. He 
exhorted her also not to poll his hair, and that 
he should avoid all other kinds of drink, (for 
so had God commanded) and be entirely con- 
tented with water. So the angel, when he had 
delivered that message, went his way, his com- 
‘ing having been by the will of God. 

3. Now the wife informed her husband when 
he came home, of what the angel had said, 
who showed so great an admiration of the 
beauty and tallness of the young man that had 
appeared to her, that her husband was astonish- 
ed, and out of himself for jealousy, and such 
suspicions as are excited by that passion: but 
she was desirous of having her husband’s un- 
reasonable sorrow taken away; accordingly, 
she entreated God to send the angel again, that 
he might be seen by her husband. So the 
angel came again by the favor of God, while 
they were in the suburbs, and appeared to her 
when she was alone, without her husband. 
She desired the angel to stay so long till she 
might bring her husband; and that request 
bemg granted, she goes to call Manoah. When 
lie saw the angel, he was not yet free from 
suspicion, and he desired him to inform him 
_of all that he had told his wife: but when he 
said, it was sufficient that she alone knew what 
ne had said, he then requested of him to tell 


* I can discover no reason why Manoah and his wife came 
_ 8© constantly into these suburbs to pray for children, but be- 
_ eause there was a synagogue or place of devotion in those 
_ suburbs. 





135 


him who he was, that when the child was born 
they might returm him thanks, and give him a 
present. He replied, that he did not want any 
present, for that he did not bring them the 
good news of the birth of a son out of the 
want of any thing. And when Manoah had 
entreated him to stay, and partake of his hos- 
pitality, he did not give his consent. However 
he was persuaded, at the earnest request of 
Manoah, to stay so long as while he brought 
him one mark of his hospitality: so he slew a 
kid of the goats, and bid his wife boil it. When 
all was ready, the angel enjoined him to set 
the loaves and the flesh, but without the ves- 
sels, upon the rock; which, when they had 
done, he touched the flesh with the rod which 
he had in his hand, which, upon the breaking 
out of a flame, was consumed together with 
the loaves. And the angel ascended, openly, 
in their sight up to heaven, by means of the 
smoke, as by a vehicle. Now Manoah was 
afraid that some danger would come to them 
from this sight of God; but his wife bid him to 
be of good courage, for that God appeared to 
them for their benefit. 

4, So the woman proved with child, and was 
careful to observe the injunctions that were 
given her: and they called the child, when he 
was born, ‘Sampson,’ which name signifies one 
that is ‘strong.’ So the child grew apace, and 
it appeared evidently that. he would be a pro- 
phet,* both by the moderation of his diet, and 
the permission of his hair to grow. 

5. Now when he once came with his parents 
to Timnath, a city of the Philistines, when 
there was a great festival, he fell in love with 
a maid of that country, and he desired of his 
parents that they would procure him the damsel 
for his wife: but they refused so to do, because 
she was not of the stock of Israel; yet because 
this marriage was of God, who intended to 
convert it to the benefit of the Hebrews, he 
over-persuaded them to procure her to be 
espoused to him. And as he was continually 
coming to her parents, he met a lion, and 
though he was naked, he received his onset, 
and strangled him with his hands, and cast the 
wild beast into a woody piece of ground on 
the inside of the road. 

6. And when he was going another tin, io 
the damsel, he lighted upon a swarm of bees 
making their combs in the breast of that lion, 
and taking three honeycombs away, he gave 
them, together with the rest of his presents 
to the damsel. *Now the people of Timnath, 
out of a dread of the young man’s strength, 
gave him, during the time of the wedding feast, 
(for he then feasted them all,) thirty of the most 
stout of their youth, in pretence to be his com- 
panions, but in reality to be a guard upon hin, 
that he might not attempt to give them any dis- 
turbance. Now as they were drinking merrily 
and playing, Sampson said, as was usual at such 

* Here by a prophet Josephus seems only to mean one that 
was born by a particular providence, lived after the manner 
of a Nazarite devoted to God, and was to have an extraordi- 
nary commission and strength from God for the judging and 


avenging his people Israel without any proper prophetic re 
velat.on at all. 


136 
times, “Come, if I propose you a riddle, and 
ou can expound it in these seven days’ time, 
i will give you every one a linen shirt and a 
garment, as a reward of your wisdom.” So 
they being very ambitious to obtain the glory 
of wisdom, together with the gains, desired 
him to propose his riddle: he said, “that a great de- 
vourer produced sweet food out of itself, though 
itself were very disagreeable.” And when 
they were not able, in three days’ time, to find out 
the meaning of the riddle, they desired the dam- 
sel to discover it by the means of her husband, 
and tell it them, and they threatened to burn 
her if she did not tell it them. So when the 
damsel entreated Sampson to tell it her, he at 
first refused to do it, but when she lay hard at 
him, and fell into tears, and made his refusal to 
tell it a sign of his unkindness to her; he in- 
formed her of his slaughter of a lion, and how 
he found bees in his breast, and carried away 
three honeycombs, and brought them to her. 
Thus he, suspecting nothing of deceit, informed 
her of all, and she revealed it to those that de- 
sired to know it. Then on the seventh day, 
whereon they were to expound the riddle pro- 
pused to them, they met together before sunset- 
ting, and said, “Nothing is more disagreeable 
than a lion to those that light on it, and nothing 
is sweeter than honey to those that make use 
of it.” To which Sampson made this rejoinder: 
“Nothing is more deceitful than a woman, for 
such was the person that discovered my inter- 
pretation to you.” Accordingly, he gave them 
the presents he had promised them, making 
such Askelonites as he met upon the road his 
rey, who were themselves Philistines also. 
ut he divorced this his wife, and the girl des- 
pised his anger, and was married to his compa- 
nion,who made the former match between them. 
7. At this injurious treatment, Sampson was 
s0 provoked, that he resolved to punish all the 
Philistines, as well as her: so it being then 
summer-time, and the fruits of the land being 
almost ripe enough for reaping, he caught 
three hundred foxes, and joining lighted torches 
to their tails, he sent them into the fields of 
the Philistines, by which means the fruits of 
the fields perished. Now when the Philistines 
knew that this was Sampson’s doing, and knew 
also for what cause he did it, they sent their 
rulers to Timnath, and burnt his former wife, 
and her relations, who had been the occasion 
of their misfortunes. 

8. Now when Sampson had slain many of 
the Philistines in the plain country, he dwelt 
at tam, which is a strong rock of the tribe of 
Judah; for the Philistines at that time made an 
expedition against that tribe. But the people 
of Judah said, that they did not act justly with 
them, in inflicting punishments upon them 
while they paid their tribute, and this only on 
account of Sampson’s offences. 'They answer- 
edi, that in case they would not be blamed them- 
selves, they must deliver up Sampson, and put 
him into their power. So they, being desirous 


ANTIQUITIES OF THB JEWS. 3 


the Philistines, who were men able to bring ca 
lamity upon the whole nation of the Hebrews, 
and they told him they were come to take him, 
and to deliver him up to them, and put him in- 
to their power; so they desired him to bear 
this willingly. Accordingly, when he had re- 
ceived assurance from them upon oath, that 
they would do him no other harm than only te 
deliver him into his enemies’ hands, he came 
down from the rock, and put himself imto the 
power of his countrymen. ‘Then did they 
bind him with two cords, and lead him on, in 
order to deliver him to the Philistines; and 
when they came to a certain place, which is 
now called ‘The Jaw-bone,’ on account of the 
great action there performed by Sampson, 
though of old it had no particular name at all, 
the Philistines, who had pitched their cainp not 
far off, came to meet him with joy, and shout- 
ing, as having done a great thing, and gained 
what they desired, but Sampson broke his bonds 
asunder, and catching up the jaw-bone of ar. 
ass that lay down at his feet, fell upon his ene- 
mies, and smiting them with his jaw-bone, 
slew a thousand of them, and put the rest to 
flight, and into great disorder. 

9. Upon this slaughter Sampson was too 
proud of what he had performed, and said that 
this did not come to pass by the assistance of 
God, but that his success was to be ascribed to 
his own courage; and vaunted himself, “that 
it was out of a dread of him, that some of his 
enemies fell, and the rest ran away upon his 
own use of the jaw-bone.” But when a great 
thirst came upon him, he considered that hu- 
man courage is nothing, and bare his testimo- 
ny that all is to be ascribed to God, and besought 
him that he would not be angry at any thing 
he had said, nor give him up into the hands of 
his enemies, but afford him help under his af- 
fliction, and deliver him from the misfortune 
he was under. Accordingly, God was moved 
with his entreaties, and raised him up a plenti- 
ful fountain of sweet water at a certain rock; 
whence it was that Sampson called the place, 
‘The Jaw-bone™ and so it is called to this day. 

10. After this fight Sampson held the Philis- 
tines in contempt, and came to Gaza, and took 
up his lodgings in a certain inn. When the 
rulers of Gaza were informed of his coming 
thither, they seized upon the gates, and placed 
men in ambush about them, that he might not 






y 


escape without being perceived. But Sampson, 4 


who was acquainted with their contrivances 
against him, arose about midnight, and ran by 
force upon the gates, with their posts and 
beams, and the rest of their wooden furniture, 
and carried them away on his shoulders, and 
bare them to the mountain that is over Hebron, 
and there laid them down. 

11. However, he at length transgressed the 
laws of his country,} and altered his own regu- 


* This fountain, called Lehi, or the Jaw-bone, is still in be- . 


ing as travellers assure us, and was known by this very name 
in the days of Josephus, and has been known by the same 


not to be blamed themselves, came to the rock | name in all the past ages. See Antiq. b. vii. ch. xii. sect, 4. 


with three thousand armed mer, and complained | 
to Sampson of the bold insults he had made upon | jt was 


+ See this justly observed in the Apostolical Constitutions, 
b. vii.ch. xxxvii. that Sampson’s prayer was heard, but thas 
before this his transgression. 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER IX. 


iw «wy of ‘iving, and imitated the strange cus- 
toms .of foreigners, which thing was the begin- 
ning of his miseries; for he fell in love with a 
woinan who was a harlot among the Philistines; 
her name was Delilah, and he lived with her. 
So those that administered the public affairs of 
the Philistines came to her, and with promises 
mduced her to get out of Sampson what wes 
the cause of that his strength, by which he be- 
came unconquerable to his enemies. Accord- 
mygly, when they were drinking, and had the 
like conversation together, she pretended to ad- 
mire the actions he had done, and contrived to 
get out of him, by subtility, by what means he so 
much excelled others in strength. Sampson, 
in order to delude Delilah, for he had not lost 
his senses, replied, that if he were bound with 
seven such green withes of a vine as might 
still be wreathed, he should be weaker than 
any other man. The woman said no more 
then, but told this to the rulers of the Philis- 
tines, and hid certain of the soldiers in am- 
bush within the house, and when he was dis- 
ordered in drink, and asleep, she bound him as 
fast as possible with the withes, and then, upon 
ner awakening him, she told him some of the 
pe »ple were upon him; but he broke the withes 
an 1 endeavored to defend himself, as though 
‘so.ne of the people were upon him. Now 
this woman, in the constant conversation Samp- 
son) had with her, pretended that she took it 
very ill that he had such little confidence in 
her affections to him, that he would not tell 
her what she desired, as if she would not con- 
ceal what she knew it was for his interest to 
buve concealed. However, he deluded her 
again, and told her, that if they bound him 
with seven cords, he should lose his strength. 
And when, upon doing this, she gained noth- 
ing, he told her the third time, that his hair 
should be woven into a web; but, even upon 
doing this, the truth was not discovered. At 
length Sampson upon Delilah’s prayer, (for he 
was doomed to fall into some affliction,) was 
desirous to please her, and told her, that “God 
took care of him, and that he was born by his 
providence; and that thence it is that I suffer 
my hair to grow, God having charged me 
never to poll my head, and thence my strength 
is according to the increase and continuance of 
my hair.” When she had learned thus much, 
and had deprived him of his hair, she deliver- 
ed him up to his enemies, when he was not 
strong enough to defend himself from their 
attempts upon him; so they put out his eyes, 
and bound him, and had him led about among 
them. 
12. But in process of time, Sampson’s hair 
grew again. And there was a public festival 
among the Philistines, when the rulers, and 
those of the most eminent character, were 
feasting together; (now the room wherein they 
were, had its roof supported by two _pillars;) 
%0 they sent for Sampson, and he was brought 
‘o their feast, that they might insult him in 
ther cups. Hereupon he, thinking it one of 
the greatest misfortunes, if he should not be 
able to revenge himself when he was thus in- 
18 


137 


sulted, persuaded the boy that led him by the 
hand, that he was weary and wanted to rest 
himself, and desired that he would bring him 
near the pillars; and as soon as he came te 
them, he rushed with force against them, and 
overthrew the house, by overthrowing its pil- 
lars, with the three thousand men in it, who 
were all slain, and Sampson with them. And 
such was the end of this man, when he had 
ruled over the Israelites twenty years. And 
indeed this man deserves to be admired for his 
courage and strength, and magnanimity at his 
death, and that his wrath against his ene- 
mies went so far as to die himself with them. 
But as for his being ensnared by a woman, 
that is to be ascribed to human nature, which 
is too weak to resist the temptations to that sin; 
but we ought to bear him witness, that in all 
other respects he was one of extraordinary 
virtue. But his kindred took away his body, 
and buried it in Sarasat, his own country, with 
the rest of his family. 


CHAPTER IX. 


How, under Eli’s government of the Israelites, 
Booz married Ruth, from whom came Obed, 
the grandfather of David. 


§ 1. Now after the death of Sampson, Eli the 
high priest was governor of the Israelites. 
Under him, when the country was afflicted 
with a famine, Elimelech of Bethlehem, which 
is a city of the tribe of Judah, being not able 
to support his family under so sore a distress, 
took with him Naomi his wife, and the children 
that were born to him by her, Chilion and 
Mahlon, and removed his habitation into the 
land of Moab; and upon the happy prosperity 
of his affairs there, he took for his sons, wives 
of the Moabites, Orpah for Chilion, and Ruth 
for Mahlon. But in the compass of ten years, 
both Elimelech, and a little while after him, 
the sons, died: and Naomi, being very uneasy 
at these accidents, and not able to bear her 
lonesome condition, now those that were dear- 
est to her were dead, on whose account it was 
that she had gone away from her own country, 
she returned to it again, for she had been in- 
formed it was now in a flourishing condition. 
However, her daughters-in-law were not able 
to think of parting with her, and when they 
had a mind to go out of the country with her, 
she could not dissuade them frem it; but when 
they insisted upon it, she wished them a more 
happy wedlock than they had had with her 
sons, and that they might have prosperity in 
other respects also; and seeing her own af- 
fairs were so low, she exhorted them to stay 
where they were, and not to think of leaving 
their own country, and partaking with her of 
that uncertainty under which she must return. 
Accordingly, Orpah stayed behind, but she 
took Ruth along with her, as not to be persuad- 
ed to stay behind her, but would take her for- 
tune with her, whatsoever it should prove. 

2. When Ruth was come with her mother- 
in-law to Bethlehem, Booz, who was near of 
kin to Elimelech, entertained her: and wher: 
Naomi was so called by her fellow-citizens, 


138 . 


according to her true name, she said, “You 
might more truly call me Mara.” Now Naomi 
signifies in the Hebrew tongue, ‘happiness,’ 
and Mara, ‘sorrow.’ Ii was now reaping time; 
aud Ruth, by the leave of her mother-in-law, 
went out to glean, that they might get a stock 
of corn for their food. Now it happened that 
she came into Booz’s field; and after some time 
Booz zame thither, and when he saw the 
damse, he inquired of his servant that was set 
over the reapers concerning the girl. The 
servant had a little before inquired about all 
ier circumstances, and told them to his master; 


who kindly embraced her, both on account of 


her affection to her mother-in-law, and her 
remembrance of that son of hers, to whom 
she had been married, and wished that she 
might experience a prosperous condition: so 
he desired her not to glean, but to reap what 
she was able, and gave her leave to carry it 
home. He also gave it in charge to that ser- 
vant who was over the reapers, not to hinder 
her when she took it away, and bid him give 
her her dinner, and make her drink, when he 
lid the like to the reapers. Now what corn 
Ruth received of him she kept for her mother- 
in-law, and came to her in the evening, and 
brought the ears of corn with her; and Naomi 
had kept for her a part of such food as her 
neighbors had plentifully bestowed upon her. 
Ruth also told her mother-in-law what Booz 
had said to her: and when the other had in- 
formed her that he was near of kin to them, 
and perhaps was so pious a man as to make 
some provision for them, she went out again 
on the days following, to: gather the gleanings 
with Booz’s maid-servants. ~ 

3. It was not many days before Booz, after 
the barley was winnowed, slept in his thresh- 
ing-floor. When Naomi was informed of this 
circumstance, she contrived it so that Rath 
should lie down by him, for she thought it 
might be for their advantage, that he should 
discourse with the girl. Accordingly, she 
sent the damsel to sleep at his feet, who went 
as she bade her, for she did not think it con- 
sistent with her duty to contradict any com- 
mand of her mother-in-law. And at first she 
lay concealed from Booz, as he was fast asleep; 
but when he awaked about midnight, and per- 
ceived a woman lying by him, he asked who she 
was; and when she told him her name, and 
desired, that he whom she owned for her lord, 
would excuse her; he then said no more, but 
in the morning, before the servants began to 
set about their work, he awaked her, and bid 
her take as much barley as she was able to 
carry, ana go to her mother-in-law, before 
any body there should see that she had lain 
down by him, because it was but prudent to 
avoid any reproach that might arise on that ac- 
count; especially when there had been nothing 
done that was ill. But as to the main point 
she aimed at, the matter should rest here, “He 
that is nearer of kin than I am, shall be asked, 
whether he wants to take thee to wife; if he 
says he does, thou shalt follow him; but if he re- 
fuses it, I will marry thee according to the law.” 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


4, When she had informed her mother-in- — 
law of this, they were very glad of it, out of — 
the hope they had that Booz would make pro- — 
vision for them. Now, about noon, Booz ~ 
went down into the city, and gathered the se- — 
nate together, and when he had sent for Ruth, — 
he called for her kinsmen also; and when he — 
was come, he said, “Dost not thou retain the ~ 
inheritance of Filimelech and his sons?” He — 
confessed that he did retain it, and that he did — 
as he was permitted to do by the laws, because _ 
he was their nearest kinsman. Then said Booz, 
“Thou must not remember the laws by halves, 
but do every thing according to them; for the 
wife of Mahlon is come hither, whom thou ~ 
must marry, according to the laws, in case thou 
wilt retain their fields.” So the man yielded 
up both the field and the wife to Booz, who — 
was himself of kin to those that were dead, as — 
alleging that he had a wife already, and chil- 
dren also; so Booz called the senate to witness, 
and bid the woman to loose his shoe, and spit 
in his face according to the law; and when this 
was done, Booz married Ruth, and they had a 
son within a year’s time. Naomi was herself 
a nurse to this child; and by the advice of the — 
women called him ‘Obed’ as being to be — 
brought up in order to be subservient to her in 
her old age, for Obed, in the Hebrew dialect, | 
signifies aservant. The son of Obed was 
Jesse, and David was his son, who was king, 
and left his dominions to his sons for one-and- 
twenty generations. I was, therefore, obliged 
to relate this history of Ruth, because I had a 
mind to demonstrate the power of God, who 
without difficulty, can raise those that are of 
ordinary parentage to dignity and splendor, to — 
which he advanced David, though he were born ~ 
of such mean parents. 


CHAPTER X. 


Concerning the birth of Samuel; and how he — 
foretold the calamity that befell the Sons of Elx. — 


§ 1. And now upon the ill state of the affairs — 
of the Hebrews, they made war again upon the ~ 
Philistines. The occasion was this; Eli the 
high priest had two sons, Hophni and Phineas, — 
These sons of Eli were guilty of injustice to- — 
wards men and of impiety towards God, and — 
abstained from no sort of wickedness. Some — 
of their gifts they carried off, as belonging to — 
the honorable employment they had, others of © 
them they took away by violence. They also ~ 
were guilty of impurity with the women that 
came to worship God, [at the Pee ob- — 
liging some to submit to their lust by force, 
and enticing others by bribes; nay, the whole — 
course of their life was no better than tyranny. 
Their father, therefore, was angry at them for — 
such their wickedness, and expected that 
God would suddenly inflict his punishments — 
upon them for what they had done. ‘The mul- 
titude took it heinously also. And as soon as 
God had foretold what calamity would befall — 
Eli’s sons, which he did both to Eli himself, ana — 
to Samuel the prophet, who was yet but a child, — 
he openly showed his scrrow for his sons’ de — 
struction. 4 





















































































































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Wie, 





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AM ie 
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= RutH GLEANING IN THE FIELD oF Boaz. 


gees SF 








BOOK V.—CHAPT:R XI. 


2. 1 will first despatch what I have to say 
about the prophet Samuel, and after that will 
proceed to speak of the sons of Eli, and the 
_ miseries they brought on the whole people of 

the Hebrews. Elcanah, a Levite, one of a 
middle condition among his fellow-citizens, and 
one that dwelt at Ramathaim, a city of the tribe 
of Ephraim, married two wives, Hannah and \ 
Peninnah. He had children by the Jatter, but 
he loved the other best, although she were bar- 
ren. Now Elcanah came with his wives to the 
city Shiloh to sacrifice, for there it was that 
the tabernacle of God was fixed, as we have 
formerly said. Now when, after he had sacri- 
ficed, he distributed at that festival portions of 
the flesh to his wives and children, and when 
Hannah saw the other wife’s children sitting 
round about their mother, she fell into tears, 
and lamented herself on account of her barren- 
ness and Jonesomeness; and suffering her grief 
to prevail over her husband’s consolations to 
her, she went to the tabernacle to beseech 
God to give her seed, and to make her a moth- 
er; and to vow to consecrate the first son she 
should bear to the service of God, and this in 
such a way, that his manner of living should 
not be like that of ordinary men. And as she 
continued at her prayers a long time, Eli, the 
high priest, for he sat there before the taber- 
nacle, bidher go away, thinking she had been 
disordered with wine; but when she said 
she had drank water, but was in sorrow for 
want of children, and was beseeching God for 
them, he bid her be of good cheer, and told 
that God would send her children. 

3. So she came to her husband full of hope, 
and ate her meal with gladness: and when they 
had returned to their own country, she found 
herself with child, and they hada son born to 
them, to whom they gave the name of Samuel, 
which may be styled one that was asked of God. 
They, therefore, came to the tabernacle to offer 
sacrifice for the birth of the child, and brought 
their tithes with them; but the woman remem- 
_ bered the vow she had made concerning her 
son, and delivered him to Eli, dedicating him 
to God, that he might become a prophet. Ac- 
cordingly his hair was suffered to grow long, 
and his drink was water. So Samuel dwelt and 
was brought up in the temple. But Elcanah had 
other sons by Hannah, and three daughters. 

4. Now, when Samuel was twelve years old 
he began to prophesy: and when he was once 
asleep, God called to him, by his name, but he, 
supposing he had been called by the high priest, 
came to him: but when the priest said he did 

10t call him, God did so thrice. Eli was then 

so far illy minated, that he said to him, “Indeed, 
Samuel, I was silent now as well as before; it 
is God that calls thee; do thou, therefore, signify 
it to him, and say, I am here ready.” So when 
_he heard God speak again, he desired him to 
speak, and to deliver what oracles he pleased to 
him, for he would not fail to perform any min- 
istration whatsoever he should make use of him 
in; to which God replied, “Since thou art here 

_ ready, learn what miseries are coming upon the 

Israelites, such indeed as words cannot declare, 


138 


nor faith believe: for the sons of Eli shall die 
on one day, and the priesthood shall be trans- 
ferred into the family of Eleazar, for Eli hath 
loved his sons more than he hath loved my 
worship, and to such a degree as is not for their 
advantage.” Which message Eli obliged the 
prophet by oath to tell him, for otherwise he 
had no inelination to afflict him by telling it 
And now Eli had a far more sure expectation 
of the perdition of his sons; but the glory of 
Samuel increased more and more, it being found 
by experience that whatsoever he prophesied 
came to pass accordingly.* 


CHAPTER XI. 
Herewm 1s declared what befell the sons of Eh, 
the Ark, and the People; and how Eli himself 
died miserably. 


§ 1. About this time it was that the Philis 
tines made war against the Israelites, and pitch ° 
ed their camp at the city Aphek. Now when 
the Israelites had expected them a little while, 
the very next day they joined battle, and the 
Philistines were conquerors, and slew above 
four thousand of the Hebrews, and pursued 
the rest of the multitude to their camp. 

2. Sothe Hebrews, being afraid of the worst, 
sent to the senate and to the high priest, and 
desired that they would bring the ark of Gol, 
that by putting themselves in array, when it 
was present with them, they might be too hard 
for their enemies, as not reflecting that he whe 
had condemned them to endure these calami- 
ties was greater than the ark, and for whose 
sake it was that this ark came to be honored. 
So the ark came, and the sons of the high 
priest with it, having received a charge from 
their father, that if they pretended to survive 
the taking of the ark, they should come no 
more into his presence; for Phineas officiated 
already as high priest, his father having re- 
signed the office to him, by reason of his greaz 
age. So the Hebrews were full of courage, as 
supposing that by the coming of the ark they 
should be too hard for their enemies; their ene- 
mies also were greatly concerned, and were 
afraid of the ark’s coming to the Israelites; 
however, the upshot did not prove agreeable 
to the expectations of both sides, but when the 
battle was joined, that victory which the He- 
brews expected, was gained by the Philistines, 
and that defeat the Philistines were afraid 
of, fell to the lot of the Israelites, and thereby 
they found that they put their trust in the ark 
in vain, for they were presently beaten as soon 
as they came to a close fight with their ene- 
mies, and lost about thirty thousand men, 
among whom were the sons of the high priest; 
but the ark was carried away by the enemiss, 

3. When the news of this defeat came to 
Shiloh, with that of the captivity of the ark, 
(for a certain young man, a Benjamite, whe 

* Although there had been a few occasional prophets be-~ 
fore, yet was this Samuel the first of a constant succession 
of prophets in the Jewish nation, as is implied in St. Peter's 
words, Acts iii. 24: “Yea, and all the prophets, from Samuel, 
and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have 
likewise foretold of those days.?? See also Ae's xiii. 20; the 


others were rather sometimes called righte¢@ nen, Matt. x 
Al, xiii. 17. 


140 


was in the action, came as a messenger ee) 
the whole city was full of lamentations. An 
Eli the high priest, who sat upon a high throne 
at one of the gates, heard their mournful cries, 
and supposed that some strange thing had be- 
fallen his family: so he sent for the young 
man; and when he understood what had hap- 
pened in the battle, he was not much uneasy 
as to his sons, or what was told. him withal 
about the army, as having beforehand known 
by divine revelation that these things would 
happen and having himself declared them be- 
forehand, for when sad things come unexpect- 
edly they distress men the most; but as soon as 
the ark was carried captive by their enemies, 
he was very much grieved at it, because it fell 
out quite differently from what he expected; so 
he fell down from his throne, and died, having 
in all lived ninety-eight years, and of them re- 
tained the government forty. 

4. On the same day his son Phineas’s wife 


band’s death as she was in labor. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


died also, as not able to survive the misfortune — 
of her husband; for they told her of her hus- 
However 
she bare a son at seven months, who lived, and — 
to whom they gave the name of ‘Icabod, 
which name signifies ‘disgrace,’ and this be- 
cause the army received a disgrace at this time 

5. Now Eli was the first of the family of 
Ithamar, the other son of Aaron, that had the 
government, for the family of Eleazar officiat- 
ed as high priest at first, the son still receiving 
that honor from the father which Eleazar be 
queathed to his son Phineas; after whom Abi 
ezer his son took the honor, and delivered it 
to his son, whose name was Bukki, from whom 
his son Ozi received it; after whom Eli, of 
whom we have been speaking, had the priest- 
hood, and so had his posterity until the time of 
Solomon’s reign: but then the posterity of Elea- 
zar re-assumed it. 





BOOK VI. 


OONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF ELI TO. THE DEATH 
OF SAUL. 


CHAPTER I. 


Pre destruction that came upon the Philistines, 
and upon their land, by the wrath of God, on 
account of their having carried the Ark awa 
captive; and after what manner they sent it bac 
to the Hebrews. 


§ 1. When the Philistines had taken the ark 
of the Hebrews captive, as I said a little before, 
tleey carried it to the city Ashdod, and put it by 
their own god, who, was called Dagon,*as one 
of their spoils; but when they went into his 
tumple, the next morning, to worship their god, 
they found him paying the same worship to the 
aik; for he lay along, as having fallen down 
from the basis whereon he had stood. So they 
took him up, and set him on his basis again, 
and were much troubled at what had happen- 
ed; and as they frequently came to Dagon, and 
found him still lying along, in a posture of 
adoration to the ark, they were in very great 
distress and confusion. At length God sent a 
very destructive disease upon the city and 
country of Ashdod, for they died of the dysen- 
tery or flux, a sore distemper, that brought 
death upon them very suddenly; for before the 
soul could, as usual in easy deaths, be well 
loosed from the body they brought up their 
entrails, and vomited up what they had eaten, 
which was entirely corrupted by the disease. 
And as to the fruits of their country, a great 
multitude of mice arose out of the earth, and 
hurt them, and spared neither the plants nor 
the fruits. Now while the people of Ashdod 
were under these misfortunes, and were not 
able to support themselves under their calami- 

* Dagon, a famous maritime god or idol, is generally sup- 


@osed to have been like a man above the navel, and like a 
ed beneath it. 


ties, they perceived that they suffered thus be 
cause of the ark, and that the victory they had 
gotten, and their having taken the ark captive, 
had not happened for their good; they there- 
fore sent to the people of Askelon, and desired 
that they would receive the ark among them. 
This desire of the people of Ashdod was not 
disagreeable to those of Askelon, so they t- 
ed them that favor. But when they had got- 
ten the ark, they were in the same miserable 
condition, for the ark carried along with it the 
disasters the people of Ashdod had suffered, to 
those who received it from them. Those of 
Askelon also sent it away from themselves to 
others: nor did it stay among those others nei- 
ther, for since they were pursued by the same 
disasters, they still sent it to the neighboring 
cities; so that the ark went round after this 
manner, to the five cities of the Philistines, as 
though it exacted these disasters as a tribute to 
be paid it for its coming among them. 

2. When those that had experienced these 
miseries were tired out- with them, and when 
those that heard them were taught thereby not 
to admit the ark among them, since they paid 
so dear atribute for it, at length they sought 
for some contrivance and method how they 
might get free from it: so the governors of the 
five cities, Gath, and Ekorn, and Askelon,as also 
of Gaza and Ashdod, met together; and con- 
sidered what was fit to be done; and at the first 
they thought proper to send the ark back to 
its own people, as allowing that God had aveng- 
ed its cause; that the miseries they had under- 
gone came along with it, and that these were 
sent on their cities upon its account, and to~ — 
gether with it. However there were those that — 
said, they should not do so, nor suffer them — 
selves to be deluded, as ascribing the cause of 


iF 


BOOK VI—CHAPTER II. 


their miseries to it, because it could not have 
such a power and force upon them; for had 
God had such a regard to it, it would not have 
been delivered into the hands of men: so they 
exhorted them to be quiet, and to take patiently 
what had befallen them, and to suppose there 
was no other cause of it but nature, which at 
certain revolutions of time produces such mu- 
tations in the bodies of men, in the earth, in 
plants, and in all things that grow out of the 
earth. But the counsel that prevailed over 
those already described, was that of certain 
men, who were believed to have distinguished 
themselves in former times for their under- 
standing and prudence, and who, im their pre- 
sent circumstances, seemed above all the rest 
to speak properly. ‘These men said, it was not 
right either to send the ark away, or to detain 
it, but to dedicate five golden images, one for 
every city, as a thank-offering to God, on ac- 
count of his having taken care of their pre- 
servation, and having kept them alive when 
their lives were likely to be taken away by 
such distempers as they were not able to bear 
up against. They also would have them make 
five golden mice, like to those that devoured 
and destroyed their country,* to put them in a 
bag, and lay them upon the ark; to make them 
a new cart also for it, and to yoke milch kine 
to it,t but to shut up their calves, and keep 
them from them, lest by following after them 
they should prove a hinderance to their dams, 
and that the dams might return the faster out 
of a desire of those calves; then to drive these 
milch kine that carried the ark, and leave it ata 
place where three ways met, and to leave it to 
the kine to go along which of those ways they 
‘ieame that in case they went the way to the 

ebrews, and ascended to their country, they 
should suppose that the ark was the cause of 
their misfortunes; hut if they turned into 


another road, they said, “We will pursue after 


it, and conclude it has no such force in it.” 

3. So they determined that these men spake 
well; and they immediately confirmed their 
opinion by doing accordingly. And when 
they had done as has been already described, 
they brought the cart to a place where three 
ways met, and left it there, and went their 
ways; but the kine went the right way, and as 
if some persons had driven them, while the 
rulers of the Philistines followed after them, 
as desirous to know where they would stand 
still, and to whom they would go. Now there 
was a certain village of the tribe of Judah, 
whose name was ‘Bethshemesh,’ and to that 
village did the kine go; and though there was 
a great and good plain before them to proceed 

* Spanheim informs us here, that upon the coins of Tene- 
dos, and those of other cities, a field mouse is engraven, to- 
gether with .2pollo Smintheus or Apollo the driver away of 

mice, on account of his being supposed to have freed 
certain tracts of ground from those mice: which coins show 
how great a judgment such mice have sometimes been, and 
how the deliverance from them was then esteemed the effect 
of a divine power; which observations are highly suitable to 
this history. 

} This device of the Philistines, of having a yoke of kine 
0 draw this cart into which they put the ark of the Hebrews, 


is greatly illustrated by Sanchoniatho’s account, under his 
_ainth generation that Agrouerus, or Agrotes the husbandman, 


14} 


in, they went no farther, but stopped the cart 
there. This was a sight to those of that vil- 
Jage, and they were very glad; for it being then 
summer-time, and all the inhabitants being 
then in their fields gathering in their fruits, they 
left off the labors of their handr for joy, as 
soon as they saw the ark, and ran to the cart; 
and taking the ark down, and the vessel that 
had the images in it, and the mice, they set 
them upon. a certain rock which was in the 
plain; and when they had. offered a splendid 
sacrifice to God, and feasted, they offered the 
cart and the kine as a burnt-offering; and when 
the lords of the Philistines saw this, they re- 
turned back. 

4, But now it was that the wrath of God 
overtook them, and struck seventy persons 
dead of the village of Bethshemesh,* who, not 
being priests, and so not worthy to touch the 
ark, had approached to it. Those of that vil 
lage wept for these that thus suffered, and 
made such a Jamentation as was naturally to 
be expected on so great a misfortune that was 
sent from God, and every one mourned for his 
own relation. And since they acknowledged 
themselves unworthy of the ark’s abode with 
them, they sent to the public senate of the 
Israelites, and informed them that the ark was 
restored by the Philistines; which when they 
knew, they brought it away to Kirjathjearim, a 
city in the neighborhood of Bethshemesh. In 
this city lived one ‘ Abinadab,’ by birth a Le- 
vite; and who was greatly commended for his 


righteous and religious course of life; so they 


brought the ark to his house, as toa place fit 
for God himself to abide in, since therein did 
abide a righteous man. His sons also minis- 
tered to the divine service of the ark, and 
were the principal curators of it for twenty 
years, for so many years it continued in Kir- 
Jathjearim, having been but four months with 
the Philistines. 


CHAPTER II. 


The Expedition of the Philistines against the He- 
brews, and the Hebrews’ Victory, under the 
conduct of Samuel the Prophet, who was thew 
General. ' 


§ 1. Now while the city of Kirjathjearim 
had the ark with them, the whole body of the 
people betook themselves all that time to offer — 
prayers and sacrifices to God, and appeared 
greatly concerned and zealous about his wor- 
ship. So Samuel the prophet, seemg how 
ready they were to do their duty, thought this 
a proper time to speak to them, while they were 
in this good disposition, about the recovery of 
their liberty, and of the blessings that accom- » 


had a much-worshipped statue and a temple, carried abouts 
by one or more yoke of oxen, or kine, in Pheenicia, in the 
neighborhood of these Philistines. See Cumberland’s Same 
choniatho, p. 27, and 247, and Essay on the Old Testamens, 
Append. p. 172. 

* These 70 men, being not so much as Levites, touched 
the ark in a rash or profane manner, and were slain by the 
hand of God for such their rashness and profaneness, accord- 
ing to the divine threatenings, Numb. iv. 15, 20; but how our 
other copies come toadd such an incredible number as 50,008 
in this one town, or small city, I knownot. See Dr. Wa’ 
critical notes on 1 Sam. vi. 19. 


142 


panied the same. Accordingly, he used such 
words to them as he thought were most likely 
to excite that inclination, and to persuade them 
to attempt it: “O you Israelites,” said he, “to 
whom the Philistines are still grievous enemies, 
but to whom God begins to be gracious, it be- 
hoves you not only to be desirous of liberty, 
but to take the proper methods to obtain it. 
Nor are you to be contented with an inclination 
to get clear of your lords and masters, while you 
do what will still procure your continuance un- 
der them; be righteous then and cast wickedness 
out of your souls, and by your worship suppli- 
cate the divine majesty with all your hearts, and 
persevere in the honor you pay to him; for if 
ou act thus, you will enjoy prosperity; you will 
e freed from your slavery, and will get the vic- 
tory over your enemies; which blessings it is not 
possible you should attain, neither by weapons 
of war nor by the strength of your bodies, nor by 
the multitude of your assistance; for God has 
not promised to grant these blessings by those 
means, but by being good and righteous men; 
and if you will be such, I will be security to you 
for the performance of God’s promises.” When 
Samuel had said thus, the multitude applauded 
his discourse, and were pleased with his exhor- 
tation to them, and gave their consent to resign 
themselves up to do what was pleasing to God. 
So Samuel gathered them together to a certain 
city called Mizpeh, which signifies in the He- 
srew tongue, a ‘watch tower;’ there they drew 
water and poured it out to God, and fasted all 
day, and betook themselves to their prayers. 
2. This their assembly did not escape the no- 
tice of the Philistines: so when they had learn- 
ed that so large a company had met together, 
they fell upon the Hebrews with a great army 
and mighty forces, as hoping to assault them 
when they did not expect it, nor were prepared 
for it. This thing affrighted the Hebrews, and 
put them into disorder and terror: so they came 
running to Samuel, and said, “that their souls 
were sunk by their fears, and by the former de- 
feat they had received, and that thence it was 
that we lay still, lest we should excite the power 
of our enemies against us. Now while thou hast 
brought us hither to offer up our prayers and 
sacrifices, and take oaths, [to be obedient,] our 
enemies are making an expedition against us, 
while we are naked and unarmed; wherefore 
we have no other hope of deliverance but that 
by thy means, and by the assistance God shall 
afford us upon thy prayers te him, we shall ob- 
tain deliverance from the Philistines.” Here- 
upon Samuel bid them be of good cheer, and 
promised them that God would assist thei; 
and taking a sucking lamb, he sacrificed it for 
the multitude, and besought 'God to hold his 
protecting hand over them when they should 
fight with the Philistines, and not to overlook 
them, nor suffer them to come under a second 
misfortune. Accordingly, God hearkened to 
his prayers, and accepting their sacrifice with 
-& gracious intention, and such as was disposed 
to assist them, he granted them victory and 
power over their enemies. Now while the al- 
wr hal the sacrifice of God upon it, and had 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. . 


not yet consumed it wholly by its sacred fire, 


the enemy’s army marched out of their camp, 


and was put in order of battle, and shis in hope 
that they should be conquerors, since the Jews* 
were caught in distressed circumstances, as 
neither having their weapons with them, nor 
being assembled there in order to fight. But 
things so fell out, that they would hardly have 
been credited though they had been foretold by 
any body; for in the first place, God disturbed 
the enemies with an earthquake, and moved the 


ground under them to such a degree, that he 


caused it to tremble, and made them to shake, 
insomuch that, by its trembling, he made some 
unable to keep their feet, and made them fall 
down, and by opening its chasms, he caused 
that others should be hurried down into them; 
after which he caused such a noise of thunder to 
come among them, and made fiery lightning 
shine so terribly round about them, that it was 
ready to burn their faces; and he so suddenly 
shook their weapons out of their hands, that 
he made them fly and return home naked. So 
Samuel with the multitude pursued them to 
Bethcar, a place so called; and there he set u 
a stone as a boundary of their victory, and their 
enemies’ flight, and called it the ‘Stone of 
Power, as a signal of that power God had giv- ~ 
en them against their enemies. 

3. So the Philistines after this stroke, made 
no more expeditions against the Israelites but 
lay still out of fear, and out of remembrance of 
what had befallen them; and what courage the 
Philistines had formerly against the Hebrews, 
that, after this victory, was transferred to the 
Hebrews. Samuel also made an expedition 
against the Philistines, and slew many of them, 
and entirely humbled their proud hearts, and 
took from them that country, which, when 
they were formerly conquerors in battle, they 
had cut off from the Jews, which was ‘the 
country that extended from the borders of 
Gath to the city Ekron: but the remains of the 
Canaanites were at this time in friendship with 
the Israelites, 


CHAPTER IIL 
How Samuel, when he was so infirm with old- 
age, that he could not take care of the publie 
affawrs, intrusted them to his sons; and how, up- 
on the evil administration of the government 
by them, the multitude were so angry, that 
they required to have a King to govern them, 
although Samuel was much displeased thereat. 


§ 1. But Samuel the prophet, when he had 
ordered the affairs of the people after a con- 
venient manner, and had appointed a city for 
every district of them, he commanded them te 
come to such cities, to have the controversies 
that they had one with another determined in 
them, he himself going over those cities twice 
a year, and doing them justice: and by that 
means he kept them in very good order for a 
long time. | 

* This is the first place, so far as I remember, in these An- 
tiquities, where Josephus begins to call his nation Jews, he 
having hitherto usually, if not constantly, called them * ther 


Hebrews or Israelites. The second e soon follows 
chap. iii. sect. & 


i) : ary 
ig 
2. but afterward he found himself oppress- 
ed with old age, and not able to do what he 
used to do, so he committed the government 
and the care of the multitude to his sons; the 
elder of whom was called Joel, and the name 
of the younger was Abiah. He also enjoined 
them to reside, and judge the people, the one 
at the city Bethel, and the other at Beersheba, 
and divided the people into districts that should 
be under the jurisdiction of each of them. 
Now these men afford us an evident example 
and demonstration, how some children are not 
ef the like dispositions with their parents, but 
so 2etimes perhaps good and moderate, though 
born of wicked parents, and sometimes show- 
ing themselves to be wicked, though born of 
od parents; for these men, turning aside 
om their father’s good courses, and taking a 
course that was contrary to them, perverted 
justice for the filthy lucre of gifts and bribes, 
and made their determinations not according 
to truth, but according to bribery, and turned 
aside to luxury, and a costly way of living, so 
that, as in the first place they practised what 
was contrary to the will of God, so did they, 
in the second place what was contrary to the 
will of the prophet their father, who had taken 
a great deal of care, and made a very careful 
provision that the multitude should be righ- 
eous. 
_ 3. But the people, upon these injuries offer- 
ed to their former constitution and government 
by the prophet’s sons, were very uneasy at their 
actions, and came running to the prophet, who 
then lived at the city Ramah, and informed 
him of the transgressions of his sons; and said, 
“that as he was himself old already, and too 
infirm by that age of his to oversee their af- 
fairs in the manner he used to do, so they beg- 
ged of him, and entreated him to appoint some 
person to be king over them, who might rule 
over the nation, and avenge them of the Phi- 
listines, who ougut to be punished for their 
former opprevsioz3.” These words greatly 
afflicted Samuel, on account of his innate love 
of justice, and his hatred to kingly govern- 
ment, for he was very fond of an aristocracy, as 
what made the men that used it of a divine and 


‘1appy dispos:tion: nor could he either think of | 


tating or sleeping, out of his concern and tor- 
nent of mind at«.nat they had said, but all 
he night iong di¢ he continue awake, and re- 
solved these notioys in his mind. 

4, While ne was thus disposed, God appear- 
3d to him. ed comforted him, saying, “That 
‘3 ougnt net to pe uneasy at what the multi- 
fide desired, because it was not he, but Him- 
‘self whom they so insolently despised, and 
would not have to be alone their king; that 

they had been contriving these things from the 
very day that they came out of Egypt; that, 
however, in no long time they would sorely 
repent of what they did, which repentance yet 
could not undo what was thus done for futuri- 
a that they would be sufficiently rebuked for 

eir contempt, and the ungrateful conduct 
they had used towards me, and towards thy 
Prophetic office. So 1 command thee to or- 


My a 
bs 
we 


f 


BOOK Vi—CHAPTER II. 


‘148 


dain them such a one as J shall name before- 
hand to be their king, when thou hast first de- 
scribed what mischiefs kingly government 
will bring upon them, and openly testify before 
them unto what a great change of affairs they 
are hasting.” 

5. When Samuel had heard this, he callea 
the Jews early in the morning, and confessed 
to them that he was to ordain them a king; but 
he said that he was first to describe to them 
what would follow, what treatment they would 
receive from their kings, and with how many 
mischiefs they must struggle: “For know ye, 
said he, that, im the first place, they will take 
your sons away from you, and they will com- 
mand some of them to be drivers of their cha- 
riots, and some to be their horsemen, and the 
guards of their body, and others of them to be 
runners before them, and captains of thou- 
sands, and captains of hundreds; they will also 
make them their artificers, makers of armor, 
and of chariots, and of instruments; they will 
make them their husbandmen also, and the 
curators of their own fields, and the diggers of 
their own vineyards; nor will there be any 
thing which they will not do at the com- 
mands, as if they were slaves bought with 
money. ‘They will also appoint your daugh- 
ters to be confectioners, and cooks, and bakers; 
and these will be obliged to do all sorts of 
work, which women slaves, that are in fear of 
stripes and torments, submit to. They will, 
besides this, take away your possessions, and 
bestow them upon their eunuchs, and the 
guards of their bodies, and will give the herds 
of your cattle to their own servants; and to 
say briefly all at oncé, you, and all that is yours, 
will be servants to your king, and will become 
noway superior to his slaves; and when you 
suffer thus, you will thereby be put in mind of 
what I now say. And when you repent of 
what you have done, you will beseech God te 
have mercy upon you, and to grant you a 
quick deliverance from your kings; but he will 
not accept your prayers, but will neglect you, 
and permit you to suffer the punishment your 
evil conduct has deserved.” 

6. But the multitude was still so foolish as 
to be deaf to these predictions of what would 
befall them: and too peevish to suffer a deter- 
mination which they had injudiciously once 
made, to be taken out’of their mind, for they 
could not be turned from their purpose: nor 
did they regard the words of Samuel, but 
peremptorily insisted on their resolution, and 
desired him to ordain them a king immediate- 
ly, and not to trouble himself with fears of 
what would happen hereafter; for that it was 
necessary they should have with them one te 
fight their battles, and to avenge them of their 
enemies, and that it was noway absurd, when 
their neighbors were under kingly govern- 
ment, that they should have the same form of 
government also. So when Samuel saw that 
what he had said had not diverted them from 
their purpose, but that they continued resolute, 
he said, “Go you every one home for the pre- 
sent; when it is fit, I will send for you, as soom 


144 


as I shall have learned from God who it is that 
he will give you for your king.” 


CHAPTER IV. 
The appointment of a King over the Israelites, 
whose name was Saul; and this by the Com- 
mand of trod. 


§ 1. There was one of the tribe of Benja- 
min, a man of good family, and of a virtuous 
disposition; hisname was Kish. He had a son, 
a young man of comely countenance, and of a 
tall body, but his understanding and his mind 
were preferable to what was visible in him; 
they called him Saul. Now this Kish had some 
fine she-asses that were wandered out of the 
peas wherein they fed, for he was more de- 
ighted with these than with any other cattle he 
had; so he sent out his son, and one servant 
with him, to search for the beasts; but when he 
had gone over his own tribe in search after the 
asses, he went to other tribes, and when he 
found them not there neither, he determined to 
go his way home, lest he should occasion any 
concern to his father about himself. But when 
his servant that followed him, told him, as they 
were near the city of Ramah, that there was a 
true prophet in that city, and advised him to go 
to him, for that by him they would know the 
upshot of the affair of their asses, he replied, 
that if they should go to him, they had noth- 
ing to give him as a reward for his prophecy, 
for their subsistence money was spent. ‘The 
servant answered that he had still the fourth 
part of a shekel, and he would present him 
with that; for they were mistaken out of ig- 
norance, as not knowing that the prophet re- 
ceived nosuch reward.* So they went to him, 
and when they were before the gates, they lit 
upon certain maidens that were going to fetch 
water; and they asked them which was the pro- 
phet’s house? They showed them which it was; 
and bid them make haste before he sat down to 
supper, for he had invited many guests to a feast 
and that he used to sit down before those that 
were invited. Now Samuel had gathered many 
together to feast with him on this very account; 
for while he every day prayed to God to tell him 
beforehand, whom he would make king, he 
had informed him of this man the day before, 
for that he would send him a certain young 
man out of the tribe of Benjamin, about this 
hour of the day; and he sat on the top of the 
house in expectation of that time being come. 
And when the time was completed, he came 
down and went to supper; so he met with Saul, 
and God discovered to him that this was he who 
should rule over them. Then Saul went up 
to Samuel and saluted him, and desired him to 
inform him which was the prophet’s house? for 
he said he was a stranger, and did not know it. 
When Samuel had told him that he was him- 
self the person, he led him in to supper, and 
assured him that the asses were found which 
he had been to seek, and that the greatest of 
good things were assured to him; he replied, 

* Of this great mistake of Saul and his servant, as if a 
true prophet of God would accept of a gift or present, for 


fbretelling what was desired of him; see the note op b. iv. 
eh. vi. sect. 3. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 






“Sir, I am too inconsiderable to hope for any 
such thing, and of a tribe too small to have 
kings made out of it, and of a family smaller — 
than several other families; but thou tellest me — 
this in jest, and makest me an object of laugh — 
ter, when thou discoursest with me of greater 
matters than what I stand in need of.” How- 
ever, the prophet led him in to the feast, and 
made him sit down, him and his servant that — 
followed him, above the other guests that were } 
invited, which were seventy in number;* and he 
gave orders tc. the servants to set the royal por- 
tion before Saul. But when the time of going 
to bed was come, the rest rose up, and every 
one of them went home, but Saul stayed with 
the prophet, he and his servant, and slept witb 
him. 

2. But as soon as it was day, Samuel raised up 
Saul out of his bed, and conducted him home- — 
ward: and when he was out of the city, he de- 
sired him to cause his servant to go before, but 
to stay behind himself, for that he had some- 
what to say to him, when nobody else was 
present. Accordingly Saul sent away his ser- 
vant that followed him: then did the prophet 
take a vessel of oil, and poured it upon the 
head of the young man, and kissed him, and 
said, “Be thou a king, by the ordination of God, 
against the Philistines, and for avenging the 
Hebrews for what they have suffered by them; 
of this thou shalt have a sign, which I would 
have thee take notice of; as soon as thou art de- 
parted hence, thou wilt find three men upon the 
road, going to worship God at Bethel, the first 
of whom thou wilt see carrying three loaves of 
bread, the second carrying a kid of the goats, 
and the third will follow them, carrying a bottle 
of wine. These three men will salute thee, and — 
speak kindly to thee, and will give thee two 
of their loaves; which thou shalt accept of 
And thence thou shalt come to a place called — 
Rachel’s Monument, where thou shalt meet 
with those that will tell thee thy asses are 
found; after this, when thou comest to Gaba- 
tha, thou shalt overtake a company of prophets, 
and thou shalt be seized with the divine Spirit} _ 
and prophecy along with them, till every one 
that sees thee shall be astonished, and wonder, 
and say, ‘Whence is it that the son of Kish has _ 
arrived at this degree of happiness?” And when 
these signs have happened to thee, know that _ 
God is with thee; then do thou salute thy father, _ 
and thy kindred. Thou shalt alsocome when F 
send for thee to Gilgal, that we may offer thank- _ 
offerings to God for these blessings.” When | 
Samuel had said this, and foretold these things, 
he sent the young man away. Now all things © 
fell out to Saul according to the prophecy of _ 
Samuel. : 


y 


* It seems to me not improbable, that these 70 guests of 
Samuel, as here with himself at the head of them, were & 
Jewish Sanhedrim, and that hereby Samuel intimated *) 
Saul that these 71 were to be his constant counsellors, and 
that he was to act not like a sole monarch, but with the ad-— 
vice and direction of these 71 members of the Jewish 
hedrim upon all occasions, which yet we never read that he 
consulted afterward. a 
+ An instance of this divine uy we have after this 
Saul chap. v. sect 2, 3; 1 Sam. xi.6 See the like, Judg. i 
10; vi. 34; xi. 29; xili. 25; and xiv 6. a’, 





BOOK VI.—CHAPTER V. 


_ 3. But as soon as Saul came into the house 
ef his kinsman Abner, whom indeed he loved 
better than any other of his relations, he was 

asked by him concerning his journey, and what 
accidents happened to him therein: and he 

concealed none of the other things from him, 
no, not his coming to Samuel the prophet, nor 
how he told him the asses were found; but he 
said nothing to him about the kingdom, and 
what belonged thereto, which he thought would 
procure him envy; and when such things are 
heard, they are not easily believed; nor did he 
think it prudent to tell those things to him, al- 
though he appeared very friendly to him, and 
one whom he loved above the rest of his rela- 
tions, considering, I suppose, what human na- 
ture really is, that no one is a firm friend, neith- 
ér among our intimates, nor of our kindred, 
nor do they preserve that kind disposition when 
God advances men to great prosperity, but they 
are still ill-natured and envious at those that 
are in eminent stations, 

4. Then Samuel called the people together to 
the city Mizpeh, and spoke to them in the 
words following, which he said he was to speak 
by the command of God: That “when he had 
granted them a state of liberty, and brought 
their enemies into subjection, they were become 
unmindful of his benefits, and rejected God that 
he should not be their King, as not consider- 

ing that it would be most for their advantage 
to be presided over by the best of beings; for 

God is the best of beings, and they chose to 

have a man for their king; while kings will use 

their subjects as beasts, according to the vio- 
tence of their own wills and inclinations, and 
other passions, as wholly carried away with the 
lust of power, but will not endeavor to preserve 

the race of mankind as his own workmanship 
and creation, which, for that very reason, God 
would take care of. But since you have come 
to a fixed resolution, and this injurious treat- 
ment of God has quite prevailed over you, dis- 
pose yourselves by your tribes and sceptres, 
and cast lots.” 

5. When the Hebrews had so done, the lot 
fell upon the tribe of Benjamin; and when the 
lot was cast for the families of this tribe, that 
which was called Matri was taken; and when 
the lot was cast for the single persons of that 
fainily, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken for 
their king. When the young man knew this, 
he prevented [their sending for him,] and im- 
mediately went away, and hid himself. Isup- 
pose that it was because he would not have it 

thought that he willingly took the government 
upon him; nay, he showed such a degree of 

command over himself, and of modesty, that 
while the greatest part are not able to contain 
sheir joy, even in the gaining of small advanta- 
ges, but presently show themselves publicly 
to all men, this man did not only show nothing 
of that nature, when he was appointed to be 
the lord of so many and so great tribes, but 

_erept away and concealed himself out of the 

might of those he was to reign over, and made 


them seek him, and that with a good deal of 


when the people were at a loss, 


trouble. So 
: 19 


3 
se 


1. 


and solicitous hecause Saul disappeared, the 
prophet besought God te show where the 
young man was, and to produce him before 
them. So when they had learned of God the 
place where Saul was hidden, they sent men 
to bring him, and when he was come they set 
him in the midst of the multitude. Now he 
was taller than any of them, and his stature waa 
very majestic. 

6. Then said the prophet, God gives you this 
man to be your king: see how he is higher 
than any of the people, and worthy of thisdo- 
minion. So as soon as the people had made 
acclamation, God save the king! the prophet 
wrote down what would come to pass in a book, 
and read it in the hearing of the king, and laid 
up the book in the tabernacle of God, to be a 
witness to future generations of what he had 
foretold. So when Samuel had finished this 
matter, he dismissed the multitude, and carne 
himself to the city Ramah, for it was his own 
country. Saul also went away to Gibeah where 
he was born: and many good men there weis 
who paid him the respect that was due to hina; 
but the greater part were ill men, who despise«! 
him, and derided the others, who neither di 
bring him presents, nor did they in affection, 
or even in words, regard to please him. 


CHAPTER V. 


Saul’s Expedition against the Nation ie the Az- 
monites, and victory over them, and the sporls 
he took from them. 


§ 1. After one month, the war which Saui 
had with Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, 
obtaimed him respect from all the people; for this 
Nahash had done a great deal of mischief to the 
Jews that lived beyond Jordan, by the expedi- 
tion he had made against them with a grvat 
and warlikearmy. Healso reduced their cities 
imto slavery, and that not only by subduing 
them for the present, which he did by force and 
violence; but weakening them by subtility and 
cunning, that they might not be able after- 
ward to getclear of the slavery they were un- 
der to him; for he put out the right eyes of those 
that either delivered the:mselves to him upen 
terms, or were taken by him in war;* and this 
he did, that when their left eyes were cover- 
ed by their shields, they might be wholly use- 
less in war. Now when the king of the Am- 
monites had served those beyond Jordan in 
this manner, he led his army against those that 
were called Gileadites; and having pitched his 
camp at the metropolis of his enemies, which 
was the city Jabesh, he sent ambassadors to 
them, commanding them either to deliver them- 
selves up, on condition to have their right eyes 
plucked out, or to undergo a siege, and to have 
their cities overthrown. He gave them their 
choice, whether they would cut off a small 
member of their body, or universally perisi. 
However, the “Gileadites were so affrighted at 
these offers, that they, had not courage to say 

*Take here Theodoret’s note, cited by Dr. Hudson, “He 
that exposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, there 
by hides his left eye, and looks at the enemy with his righy 


eye: he, therefore. that plucks out that eye make men wen 
less in war.”’ 


146 


any thing to either of tnem, neither that they 
would deliver themselves up, nor that they 
would fight him. But they desired that he 
would give them seven days’ respite, that they 
might send ambassadors to their countrymen, 
and entreat their assistance; and if they came 
to assist them, they would fight, but if that as- 
sistance were impossible to be obtained from 
them, they said they would deliver themselves 
up to suffer whatever he pleased to inflict upon 
them. 

2. So Nahash, contemning the multitude of 
the Gileadites, and the answer they gave, allow- 
ed them a respite, and gave them leave to send 
to whomsoever they pleased for assistanve. So 
they immediately sent to the Israelites, city by 
city,and informed them what Nahash had threat- 
ened to do to them, and what great distress they 
were in. Now the people fell into tears and 
grief, at the hearing of what the ambassadors 
from Jabesh said; and the terror they were in 
permitted them to do nothing more. But when 
uli messengers were come to the city of king 
Saul, and declared the dangers in which the 
inliabitants of Jabesh were, the people were 
inthe same affliction as those in the other 
cities, for they lamented the calamity of those 
related to them. And when Saul was returned 
from his husbandry into the city, he found his 
f-llow-citizens weeping; and when, upon in- 
quiry, he had learned the cause of the confu- 
sicn and sadness they were in, he was seized 
with a divine fury, and sent away the ambassa- 
ders from the inhabitants of Jabesh, and pro- 
mised them to come to their assistance on the 
third day, and to beat their enemies before sun- 
rixing, that the sun, upon its rising, might see 
that they had already conquered, and were 
freed from the fears they were under: but he 
bid some of them stay to conduct them the right 
way to Jabesh. 

3. So being desirous to turn the people to 
this war against the Ammonites by fear of the 
losses they should otherwise undergo, and that 
they might the more suddenly be gathered to- 
gether, he cut the sinews of his oxen, and 
threatened to do the same to all such as did not 
come with their armor to Jordan the next day, 
and follow him and Samuel the prophet whith- 
ersoever they should lead them. So they 
came together, out of fear of the losses they 
were threatened with, at the appointed time. 
And the multitude were numbered at the city 
Bezek. And he found the number of those 
that were gathered together, besides that of the 
tribe of Judah, to be seven hundred thousand, 
while those of that tribe were seventy thousand, 
So he passed over Jordan, and proceeded in 
marching all that night, thirty furlongs, and 
came to Jabesh before sun-rising. So he di- 
vided the army into three companies, and fell 
upon their enemies on every side on the sud- 
den, and when they expected no such thing and 
joining battle with them, they slew a great 
many of the Ammonites; as also their king 
Nahash. This glorious action was done by 
Saul, and was related with great commendation 
of him to all the Hebrews; and he thence gain- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ed a wonderful reputation for his valor; fon — 
although there were some of them that con-— 
temned him before, they now changed their — 
minds, and honored him, and esteemed him 
as the best of men; for he did not content — 
himself with having saved the inhabitants 
of Jabesh only, but he made an expedition 
into the country of the Ammonites, and laid 
it all waste, and took a large prey, and so 
returned to his own country most gloriously: 
so the people were greatly pleased at these 
excellent performances of Saul, and rejoic- 
ed that they had constituted him their king. 
They also made a clamor against those that 
pretended he would be of no advantage to 
their affairs; and they said, “Where now are 
these men, let them be brought to punishment,” 
with all the like things that multitudes do 
usually say, when they are elevated with pros- 
perity, against those that lately had despised 
the authors of it. But Saul, although he took’ 
the good will and affection of these men very 
kindly, yet did he swear that he would not see 
any of his countrymen slain that day, since it 
was absurd to mix this victory, which God had 
given them, with the blood and slaughter of 
those that were of the same image with them- 
selves; and that it was more agreeable to be 
men of a friendly disposition, and so to betake 
themselves to feasting. 

4. And when Samuel had told them that he 
ought to confirm the kingdom to Saul by a se- 
coud ordination of him, they all came together 
to the city Gilgal, for thither did he command 
them to come. So the prophet anointed Saul 
with the holy oil, in the sight of the multitude, 
and declared him to be king the second time. 
And so the government of the Hebrews was’ 
changed into a regal government; for in the 
days of Moses, and his disciple Joshua, who was 
their general, they continued under an aristo- 
cracy; but after the death of Joshua, for eight- 
een years in all, the multitude had no settled 
form of government; but were in an anarchy; 
after which they returned to their former gov- 
ernment, they then permitting themselves to be 
Judged by him who appeared to be the best 
warrior, and most courageous, whence it was 
that they called this interval of their govern- 
ment; the Judges. 

d. Then did Samuel the prophet call another 
assembly also, and said to them, “I solemnly 
adjure you by God Almighty, who brought 
those excellent brethren, I mean Moses and 
Aaron, into the world, and delivered our fathers 
from the Egyptians, and fromthe slavery they 
endured under them, that you will not speak 
what you say to gratify me, nor suppress any 
thing out of fear of me, nor be overborne by — 
any other passion, but say, what have I ever 
done that was cruel or unjust; or what have I | 
done out of lucre or covetousness, or to gratify 
others? Bear witness against me, if P hava 
taken an ox ora sheep, or any such thing, which 
yet, when they are taken to support men, it is” 
esteemed blameless, or have I taken an ass for _ 
mine own use cf any one to his grief? Lay 
sume one sucn crime to my charge, now 
ia 
a 


ae. 


q 


BOOK VI—CHAPTER VI. 


we are in you) king’s presence.” But they cried 
eut, that “no such thing had been done by him, 
but that he had presided over the nation after 
» holy and mghteous manner.” 

_~ 6. Hereupon Samuel, when such a testimony 
nad been given him by them all, said, “Since 
you grant that you are not able to lay. any ill 
thing to my charge hitherto, come on now, and 
do you hearken while I speak with great free- 
dom to you. You have been guilty of great 
impiety against God in asking youaking. It 
behoves you to remember, that our grandfather 
Jacob came down into Egypt, by reason of a 
famine, with seventy souls only of our family, 
and that their posterity multiplied there to many 
tun thousands, whom the Egyptians brought 
mto slavery and hard oppression; that God 
himself, upon the prayers of our fathers, sent 
Moses and Aaron, who were brethren, and 
gave them power to deliver the multitude out 
of their distress, and this without a king. 
These brought us into this very land which 
you now possess: and when you enjoyed these 
advantages from God, you betrayed his worship 
and religion; nay, moreover, when you were 
brought under the hands of your enemies, he 
delivered you, first by rendering you superior 
to the Assyrians and their forces; he then made 
you to overcome the Ammonites and Moabites, 
and last of all, the Philistines: and these things 

‘have been achieved under the conduct of 
Jephtha and Gideon. What madness, there- 
fore, possessed you to fly from God, and to 
desire to be under a king; yet have I ordained 
him for king whom he chose for you. How- 
ever, that I may make it plain to you, that God 
is angry and displeased at your choice of kingly 
government, I will so dispose him that he shall 
declare this very plainly to you by strange sig- 
nals; for what none of you ever saw here be- 
fore. I mean a winter storm in the midst of 
harvest,* I will entreat of God, and will make 
it visible to you.” Now, as soon as he had 
said this, God gave such great signals by thun- 
der and lightning, and the descent of hail, as 
attested the truth of all that the prophet had 
said, insomuch that they were amazed and 
terrified, and confessed they had sinned, and 
had fallen into the sin through ignorance; and 
besought the prophet, as one that was a tender 
and gentle father to them, to render God so 
merciful asto forgive this their sin, which they 
had added to those other offences whereby they 
had affronted him and transgressed against 
‘him. So he promised them that he would be- 
seech God, and persuade him to forgive them 
their sins. However, he advised them to be 
righteous, and to be good, and ever to remem- 
ber the miseries that had befallen them on ac- 
‘count of their departure from virtue: as also, 
to remember the strange signs God had shew- 
ed them and the body of laws that Moses had 
‘given them, if they had any desire of being 


* Mr. Reland observes here, and proves elsewhere, in his 
sote on Antiq. b. iii. ch. i. sect. 6; that although thunder and 
lightning with us happen usually in summef, yet in Pal- 
e@sune and Syria they are chiefly confined to winter, Josephus 

_ akes notice of the same thing again, Of the War, b. iv. ch. 
wy. sect. 5& 


» 


147 


preserved and made happy with their king 
But he said, that if they should grow careless 
of these things, great judgments would come 
from God upon them, and upon their king. 
And when Samuel had thus prophesied to the 
Hebrews, he dismissed them to their ow 
homes, having confirmed the kingdom to Saul 
the second time. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How the Philistines made another expedition 
against the Hebrews, anu were beaten. 


§ 1. Now Saul chose out of the multitude 
about three thousand men, and he took two 
thousand of them to be the guards of his own 
body, and abode in the city of Bethel; but he 
gave the rest of them to Jonathan his son to be 
the guards of his body, and sent him to Gibeah, 
where he besieged and took a certain garrison 
of the Philistines, not far from Gilgal, for the 
Philistines of Gibeah had beaten the Jews, and 
taken their weapons away, and had put garri- 
sons into the strongest places of the country, and 
had forbidden them to carry any instrument of 
iron, or at all to make use of any iron in any 
case whatsoever. And on account of this pro- 
hibition it was, that the husbandmen, if they 
had occasion to sharpen any of their tools, 
whether it were the coulter or the spade, or any 
instrument of husbandry, they came to tha 
Philistines to do it. owas soon as the Philis- 
tines heard of this slaughter of their garrison, 
they were in arage about it, and looking on this 
contempt as a terrible affront offered them, they 
made war against the Jews, with three hun- 
dred thousand footmen, and thirty thousand 
chariots, and six thousand horses, and they 
pitched their camp at the city of Michmash. 
When Saul, the king of the Hebrews, was in- 
formed of this, he went down to the city of Gil- 
gal, and made proclamation over all the country, 
that they should try to regain their liberty; and 
called them to the war against the Philistines, 
diminishing their forces, and despising them as 
not very considerable, and as not so great but 
that they might hazard a battle withthem. But 
when the people about Saul observed how nu- 
merous the Philistines were, they were under 
a great consternation; and some of them hid 
themselves in caverns, and in dens’ under 
ground, but the greater part fled into the land 
beyond Jordan, which belonged to Gad and 
Reubel. 

2. But Saul sent to the prophet, and called 
him to consult with him about the war, and the 
public affairs: so he commanded him to stay 
there for him, and to prepare sacrifices, for he 
would come to him within seven days, that 
they might offer sacrifices on the seventh day, 
and might then join battle with their enemies. 
So he waited,* as the prophet sent to him te 


* Saul seems to have stayed till near the time of the eve 
ning sacrifice, on the seventh day, which Samuel the pre- 
phet of God had appointed him, but not till the end of that 
day, as he ought to have done; and Samuel appears, by de- 
laying to come till the full time of the evening sacrifice, om 
that seventh day, to have tried him; (who seems to have beer 
already for some time declining from his strict and boundex 
subordination to God and his prophet, to have taken life- 


guards forhimself and his son, wb th was entirelya new. 


i48 


do, yet did not he, however, observe the com- 
mand that was given him; but when he saw 
that the prophet tarried longer than he expect- 
ed, and that he was deserted by the soldiers, 
he took the sacrifices and offered them; and 
when he heard that Samuel was come, he 
went out to meet him. But the prophet said 
he had not done well in disobeying the injunc- 
tions he had sent to him, and had not stayed 
ull his coming, which being appointed accord- 
ing to the will of God, he had prevented him 
in offering up those prayers, and those sacri- 
fices, that he should have made for the multi- 
tude, and that he, therefore, had performed di- 
vine offices in an ill manner, and had heen 
rash in performing them. Hereupon Saul 
made an apology for himself, and said, “That 
he had waited as many days as Samuel had 
appointed him; that he had been so quick in 
offering his sacrifices, upon account of the ne- 
cessity he was in, and because his soldiers were 
departing from him, out of their fear of the 
enemy’s camp at Michmash, the report being 
one abroad that they were coming down upon 
ae to Gilgal.” To which Samuel replied, 
“Nay, certainly, if thou hadst been a righteous 
man,* and hadst not disobeyed me, nor slight- 
ed the commands which God suggested to me 
concerning the present state of affairs, and 
hadst not acted more hastily than the present 
circumstances required, thou wouldst have 
been permitted to reign a long time, and thy 
posterity after thee.” So Samuel, being grieved 


thingin Israel, and savored ofa distrust of God’s providence, 
and to have affected more than heought, that independent 
authority which the Pagan kings took to themselves;) Sa- 
muel, I say, seems to have here tried Saul, whether he would 
stay till the priest came who alone could lawfully offer the 
sacrifices, or would boldly and profanely usurp the priest’s of- 
fice; which he venturing upon, was justly rejected for his 
profaneness. See Constit. Apost. b. li. ch. xxvii. And in- 
deed since Saul had accepted kingly power, which naturally 
becomes ungovernable and tyrannical, asGod forctold, and 
the experience of all ages has shown, the divine settiement 
by Moses had soon been laid aside under the kings, had not 
God, by keeping strictly to his laws, and severely executing 
the threatenings therein contained, restrained Saul and other 
kings in some degree of obedience to himself. Nor was 
even this severity sufficient to restrain most of the future 
kings of Israel and Judah from the grossest idolatry and im- 
iety. Of the advantage of which strictness in the observ- 
ing divine laws and inflicting their threatened penalties, see 
Antig. b. vi. ch. xii. seet. 7,and contra Apion, b. ii. sect. 30, 
where Josephus speaks of that matter; though it must be 
noted, that it seems, at least in three instances, that good 
men did not always iinmediately approve of such divine se- 
verity. There seems to be one instance, 1 Sam. vi. 19, 20; 
another, 1 Sam. xv. 11; and a third, 2 Sam. vi. 8, 9; Antiq. 
b. vi. ch. vii. sect. 2, though they all at last acquiesced in the 
divine conduct, as kuowing that God is wiser than men. 

* By utis answer of Samuel, and that from a divine com- 
mission, which is fuller in 1 Sam. xiii. 14; and by that par- 
alle] note in the Apostolical Constitutions just now quoted, 
conceming the great wickedness of Saul in venturing, even 
wnder a seeming necessity of affhirs, to usurp the priest’s of- 
fice, and offer sacrifices without the priest, we are in some 
degree able to answer that question, which I have ever 
thought a very hard one, viz. Whether, if there were a city 
or country of lay Christians without any clergyman, it were 
iawful for the laity alone to baptize, or celebrate the eucharist, 
&c. or indeed whether they alone could ordain themselves 
either bishops, priests, or deacons, for the due performance 
ef such sacerdotal ministration? or, whether they ought not 
rather, till they procure clergymen to come among them, to 
confine themselves within those bounds of piety and Chris- 
tianity which belong alone to the laity? such particularly as 
are recommended in the first book of the Apostolical Con- 
stitutions, which peculiarly concer the laity, and are inti- 
mated in Clement’s undoubted epistle, sect. 40; to which lat- 
ter opinion | incline. 


ANTIQUITIES OF TITE JEWS. 





at what had happened, returned home; but 
Saul came to the city Gibeah, with his son 
Jonathan, having only six hundred men with 
him; and of these the greater part had no 
weapons, because cf the scarcity of iron in 
that country, as well as of those that could 
make such weapons; for, as we showed a little 
before, the Philistines had not suffered them 
to have such iron, or such workmen. Now 
the Philistines divided their army into three 
companies, and took as many roads, and laid 
waste the country of the Hebrews, while king 
Saul and his son Jonathan saw what was done, 
but were not able to defend the land, as no 
more than six hundred men were with them, 
But as he and his son, and Abiah the high 
priest, who was of the posterity of Eli the high 
priest, were sitting upon a pretty high hill, and 
seeing the land laid waste, they were mightil 
disturbed at it. Now Saul’s son agreed wi 
his armor-bearer, that they would go pri- 
vately to the enemy’s camp, and make a tu- 
mult and a disturbance among them. And 
when the armor-bearer had readily promised 
to fellow him whithersoever he should lead 
him, though he should be obliged to die in 
the attempt, Jonathan made use of the youn 
man’s assistance, and descended from the hill 
and went to their enemies. Now the enemy’s 
camp was upon a precipice, which had three 
tops, that ended in a small but sharp and lorg 
extremity, while there was a rock that su: 
rounded them, like lines made to prevent the 
attacks of an enemy. There it so happene:t, 
that the out-guards of the camp were neglect- 
ed, because of the security that here arose from 
the situation of the place, and because they 
thought it altogether impossible, not only to as 
cend up to the camp on that quarter, but so 
much as to come near it. As soon, therefo 
as they came to the camp, Jonathan encourag' 
his armor-bearer, and said to him, “Let us at- 
tack our enemies; and if, when they see us, 
they bid us come up to them, take that for @ 
signal of victory; but if they say nothing, as 
not intending to invite us to come up, let us re- 
turn back again.” So when they were approach 
ing tothe enemy’s camp, just after break of 
day, and the Philistines saw them, they said 
one to another, “Ihe Hebrews come out of 
their dens and -caves;” and they said to Jona- 
than and to his armor-bearer, “Come on, ascend 
up to us, that we may inflict a just punishment 
upon you for your rash attempt upon us.” Se 
Saul’s son accepted of that invitation, as what 
signified to him victory, and he immediately 
came out of the place whence they were seen 
by their enemies; so he changed his place, and 
came to the rock which had none to guard it, 
because of its own strength: from thence they 
crept up with great labor and difficulty, and se 
far overcame by force the nature of place, 
tillthey were able to fight with their entiuies 
So they felhupon them as they were asleep .and 
slew about twenty of them, and thereby fi..¢ 





them with disorder and surprise, insomuch 
that soméj@f them threw away their entire ar 


mor an? fled, but the greatest part not knowing 


h ha a 


- 


oe 
zw 4 
| ie 


» tions, suspected one another to be enemies, (for 
, they did not imagine there were only two of 
the Hebrews that came up,) and so they fought 
| one against another; and some of them died in 
‘battle, and some, as they were flying away, 


J 
| 


- were thrown down from the rock headlong. 


3. Now Saul’s watchmen told the king, that 
‘he camp of the Philistines was in confusion; 
then he inquired whether any body was gone 
‘away from the army? and when he heard that 


his son, and with him his armor-bearer, were 
absent, he bid the high priest take the garments 


one another. 


of his high priesthood, and prophesy to him 
what success they should have; who said, “That 
they should get the victory, and prevail against 
their enemies.” So he went out after the Phi- 
jistines, and set upon thei as they were slaying 
Those also came running to him, 


who had fled to dens and caves, upon hearing 


that Saul was gaining a victory. When there- 


fore the number of the Hebrews that came to 


Saul amounted to about ten thousand, he pur- 


sued the enemy, who were scattered all over 
the country; but then he fell into an action, 
which was a very unhappy one, and liable to 
be very much blamed; for whether out of igno- 


rance, or whether out of joy fora victory gained 
£0 strangely, for it frequently happens that per- 


sons so fortunate are not then able to use their 
_ reason consistently, as he was desirous to avenge 


himself, and to exact a due punishment of the 


Philistines, he denounced a curse on the He- 


brews,* “That ifany one put astop to his slaugh- 
ter of the enemy, and fell on eating, and left off 
the slaughter or the pursuit before the night 
came on,and obliged them so to do, he should be 
accursed.” Now after Saul had denounced this 
curse, since they were now in a wood belong- 
ing to the tribe of Ephraim, which was thick 
and full of bees, Saul’s son, who did not hear 
his father denounce that curse, nor hear of the 
approbation the multitude gave to it, broke off 
‘apiece of a honeycomb, and eat part of it. 
But, in the mean time, he was informed with 
what a curse his father had forbidden them to 
taste any thing before sun-setting; so he left off 
“eating, and said, “His father had not done well 
in this prohibition, because, had they taken 
‘some food, they had pursued the enemy with 
greater vigor and alacrity, and had both taken 
and slain many more of their enemies.” 
_ 4, When, therefore, they had slain many ten 
thousands of the Philistines, they fell upon 
spoiling the camp of the Philistines, but not till 
late in the evening. They also took a great 
deal of prey, and cattle, and killed them, and 
ate then: with their blood. This was told to 
the king by the scribes, that the multitude were 


* This rash vow or curse of Saul’s, which Josephus says 


_ was confirmed by the people, and yet not executed, I sup- 


pose principally because Jonathan did not know of it, is 
_ very remarkable, being of the essence of the obligation of 
_ all laws, that they be sufficiently known and promulgated; 
_ otherwise’the conduct of providence, as to the sacredness 
~ of solemn oaths and vows, in God’s refusing to answer by 
_ Urin, till the breach of Saul’s vow or curse was understood 
and set right, and God propitiated by public prayer, is here 


gery remarkable, ar indeed it is everywhere else in se Old 


ta 


_ Testament. 


; BOOK VI—CHAPTER V1. 
i “ene another, because they were of different na- 


143 


‘sinning against God, a_ they sacrificed, and 


were eating before the blood was well washed 
away, and the flesh made clean. Then did 
Saul give order that a great stone should be roll- 
ed into the midst of them, and he made pro- 
clamation that they should kill their sacrifices 
upon it, and not feed upon the flesh with the 
blood, for that was not acceptable to God. And 
when all the people did as the king command- 
ed them, Saul erected an altar there* and offer- 
ed burnt-offerings upon it to God. This was 
the first altar that Saul built. 

5. So when Saul was desirous of leading his 
men to the enemy’s camp before it was day, in 
order to plunder it, and when the soldiers were 
not unwilling to follow him, but indeed showed 
great readiness to do as he commanded them, 
the king called Ahitub the high priest, and en- 
joined him to know of God, whether he would 
grant him the favor and permission to go 
against the enemy’s camp, in order to destroy 
those that were in it. And when the priest, 
said, that God did not give any answer; “And 
not without some cause;” said Saul, “does God 
refuse to answer what we inquire of him, while 
yet a little while ago he declared to us all that 
we desired beforehand, and even prevented us 
in his answer. To be sure there is some sin 
against him, that is concealed from us, which 
is the occasion of his silence. Now I swear by 
Him himself, that though he that hath commit- 
ted this sin should prove to be my own son Jon- 
athan, I will slay him, and by that means will 
appease the anger of God against us, and that in 
the very same manner as if I were to punish 
a stranger, and one not at all related to me, for 
the same offence.” So when the multitude 
cried out to him so to do, he presently set all 
the rest on one side, and he and his son stood 
on the other side, and he sought to discover the 
offender by lot. Now the lot appeared to fall 
upon Jonathan himself. So when he was ask- 
ed by his father what sin he had been guilty of? 
and what he was conscious of in the course of 
his life that might be esteemed instances of guilt 
or profaneness? his answer was this: “O father, 
I have done nothing more than that yesterday, 
without knowing of the curse and oath thou 
hadst denounced, while I was in pursuit of the 
enemy, I tasted of a honeycomb.” But Saul 
swore that he would slay him, and _ prefer 
the observation of his oath before all the ties 
of birth and of nature. And Jonathan was 
not dismayed at this threatening of death, but 
offering himself to it generously, and undaunt- 
edly, he said, “Nor do I desire you, father, te 
spare me: death will be to me very acceptable, 
when it proceeds from thy piety, and after a 
glorious victory; for it is the greatest consolation 
to me, that I leave the Hebrews victorious over 
the Philistines.” Hereupon all the people were 
very sorry, and greatly afflicted for Jonathan, 

* Here we have still more indications of Saul’s affection 
of despotic power, and of his entrenching upon the priesé- 
hood, and making and endeavoring to execute arash vow or 
curse without consulting Samuel, or the Sanhedrim. In 
this view it is also that [ look upon this erection of a new 
altar by Saul, and his offering of burnt-offerings himself 


upon it, aud not as any proper instance of devotion or re- 
ligion, with other commentators. 


150 
and they swore that they would not overlook 
Jonathan, and see him die, who was the author 
of their victory. By which means they snatch- 
ed him out of the danger he was in from his 
father’s curse, while they made their prayers to 
God also for the young man, that he would 
remit his sin. 

6. So Saul, having slain about sixty thou- 
sand of the enemy, returned home to his own 
_eity, and reigned happily: and he also fought 
wainst the neighboring nations, and subdued 
the Ammonites, and Moabites, and Philistines, 
end Edomites, and Amalekites, as also the 
ing of Zobah. He had three male children, 
Jonathan, and Isui, and Melchishua; with Me- 
rab and Michal his daughters. He had also 
Abner, his uncle’s son, for the captain of his 
host; that uncle’s name was Ner. Now Ner 
and Kish, the father of Saul, were brothers. 
Saul had also a great many chariots and horse- 
men: against whomsoever he made war, he 
returned conqueror, and advanced the affairs 
of the, Hebrews to a great degree of success 
and prosperity, and made them superior to 
other nations: and he made such of the young 
men that were remarkable for tallness and come- 
liness, the guards of his body. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Sauls War with the Amalekites, and conquest 
of them. 


§ 1. Now Samuel came unto Saul, and said 
to him, “That he was sent by God to put him 
in mind that God had preferred him above all 
others, and ordained him king; that he there- 
fore oughtto be obedient to him, and to sub- 
mit to his authority, as considering that though 
he had the dominion over the other tribes, yet 
that God had the dominion over him, and over 
all things. That accordingly, God said to him, 
that because the Amalekites did the Hebrews a 
great deal of mischief while they were in the 
wilderness, and when, upon their coming out 
of Egypt, they were making their way to that 
country which is now their own, I enjoin thee 
to punish the Amalekites, by making war upon 
them, and when thou hast subdued them, to 
leave none of them alive, but to pursue them 
through every age, and to slay them, beginning 
with the women and the infants, and to require 
this asa punishment to be inflicted upon them 
for the mischief they did to our forefathers. 
To spare nothing, neither asses nor other beasts, 
nor to reserve any of them for your own ad- 
vantage and possession, but to devote them uni- 
versally to God, and, in obedience to the com- 
mands of Moses, to blot out the name of Ama- 
jek* entirely.” 

2. So Saul promised to do what he was com- 
manded; and supposing that his obedience to 
God vould be shown, not only in making war 
against the Amalekites, but more fully in the 
readiness and quickness of his proceedings, he 
made no delay, but immediately gathered to- 

* The reason of this severity is distinctly given, 1 Sam. 
xv. 18; “Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalek- 
\tes.’? Nor indeed do we ever meet with these Amalekites 


but as very cruel and bloody people, and particularly seek- 
ing to injure and utterly to destroy the nation of Israel. See 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWs. _ man. a 


gether all his forces; and when he had number — 
ed them in Gilgal, he found them to be about F 
four hundred thousand of the Israelites, besides _ 
the tribe of Judah; for that tribe contained by — 
itself thirty thousand., Accordingly, Sau. made — 
an irruption into the country of the Amalek- 
ites, and set many men in several parties in 
ambush at the river, that so he might not only 
do them a mischief by open fighting, but might 
fall upon them unexpectedly in the ways, and 
might thereby compass them round about, and 
kill them. And when he had joined battle with 
the enemy, he beat them, and, pursuing them 
as they fled, he destroyed them all. And when 
that undertaking had succeeded, according as 
God had foretold, he set upon the cities of the 
Amalekites: he besieged them, and took them by 
force, partly by warlike machines, partly by 
mines dug under ground, and partly by building 
walls on the outsides. Some they starved out 
with famine, and some they gained by other me- 
thods, and after all, he betook himself to slay the 
women and the children, and thought he did not 
act therein either barbarously or inhumanly, 
first because they were enemies whom he thus 
treated, and, in the next place, because it was 
done by the command of God, whom it was 
dangerous not to obey. He also took Aga 
the enemy’s king, captive; the beauty and tall. 
ness of whose body he admired so much, that he 
thought him worthy of preservation; yet was 
not this done, however, according to the will of 
God, but by giving way to human passions, 
and suffering himself to be moved with an un- 
seasonable commiseration, in a point where it 
was not safe for him to indulge it, for God hated 
the nation of the Amalekites to such a de- 
gree, that he commanded Saul to have no Pity 
on even those infants which we by nature chief- 
ly compassionate: but Saul preserved their 
king and governor from the miseries which the 
Hebrews brought on the people, as if he prefer- 
red the fine appearance of the enemy to the 
memory of what God had sent him about 
The multitude were also guilty, together with 
Saul, for they spared the herds and the flocks, 
and took them fora prey, when God had com- 
manded they should not spare them. They 
also carried off with them the rest of their wealth 
and riches, but if there were any thing that 
was not worthy of regard, that they destroyed. 

3. But when Saul had conquered all those 
Amalekites that reached from Pelusium of 
Egypt to the Red Sea, he laid waste all the rest 
of the enemy’s country: but for the nation of 
the Shechemites, he did not touch them, ak 
though they dwelt in the very middle of the 
country of Midian: for before the battle, Saul 
had sent to them, and charged them to depart 
thence, lest they should be partakers of the mF 
series of the Amalekites, for he had a just o6- 
casion for saving them, since they were of ths” 
kindred of Raguel, Moses’s father-in-law. 

4, Hereupon Saul returned home with joy, 
Exod. xvii. 8—16; Numb. xiv. 45; Deut. xxv. 17—19; Judg. 
vi. 3—6; 1 Sam. xv. 33; Psalm Ixxxiii. 7, and above all, the 
most barbarous of all cruelties, that of Haman the 


or one of the posterity of Agag, the old king of the Kk 
ites, Esth. iii. 1—15. : rs | 


my 
\~ 


an 
if for the glorious things he had done, and for the 





BOOK V1.—CLMAPTER VIII. 


» conquest of his enemies, as though he had not 


av a 


_ that was a king, would not bear it. 


his own. inclination. 


neglected any thing which the prophet had en- 
_ joined him to do, when he was going to make 


war with the Amalekites, and as though he had 
exactly observed all that he ought to have done. 
But God was grieved that the king of the Am- 
alekites was preserved alive, and that the mul- 


' gtude had seized on the cattle for a prey, be- 


gause these things were done without his per- 


mission; for he thought it an intolerable thing, 
that they should conquer and overcome their 
enemies by that power which he gave them, 
and then that he himself should be so grossly de- 
spised and disobeyed by them, that a mere man, 
He there- 


_ fore told Samuel the prophet, that he repented 
_ that he had made Saul king, while he did noth- 


ing that he had commanded him, but indulged 
When Samuel heard 
that, he was in confusion; and began to beseech 
God all that night to be reconciled to Saul, and 


not to be angry at him; but he did not grant 


that forgiveness to Saul which the prophet 


asked for, and not deeming it a fit thing to 


grant forgiveness of [such] sins at his entreaties, 
since injuries do not otherwise grow so great 


_ as by the easy tempers of those that are injured: 
_ for while they hunt after the glory of being 
thought gentle and good natured, before they 


are aware they produce other sins. 


~ 


As soon, 
therefore, as God had rejected the intercession 


_ of the prophet, and it plainly appeared he would 


notchange his mind, at break of day Samuel 
came to Saul at Gilgal. 
him, he ranto him, and embraced him, and 
said “I return thanks to God, who hath given 
me the victory, for I have performed every 
thing that he hath commanded me.” To which 
Samuel replied, “How is it then that I hear the 
bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the 


_ greater cattle in the camp?” Saul made answer, 


should be done with him.” 


that, “the people had reserved them for sacri- 
fices; but that, as to the mation of the Amalek- 
ites, it was entirely destroyed, as he had receiv- 
ed it in command to see done, and that no one 
man was left, but that he had saved alive the 
king alone, and brought him to him, concerning 
whom he said they would advise together what 
But the prophet 
said, “God is not delighted with sacrifices, but 
with good and righteous men, who are such as 
follow his will and his laws, and never think 


that any thing is well done by them, but when 


they do it as God hath commanded them: that 


he then looks upon himself as affronted, not 


_ when any one does not sacrifice, but when any 


‘one appears to be disobedient to him. 


But 
that from those who do not obey him, nor pay 


_ him that duty which is the alone true and ac- 
_ ceptable worship, he will not kindly accept 
_ their oblations, be those they offer never so 


many and so fat, and be the presents they make 


him never so ornamental, nay, though they 


_ were made of gold and silver themselves, but 


he will reject them, and esteem them instances 
» +f wicsedness, and not of piety. And that he 
_ Wdelighted with those that still bear in mind] § 1. Now San] being sensible of the misera 





When the king saw 


151 


this one thing, and this.on]) ~--~ to do that, 
whatsoever it be, which Gv. , .vnounces or 
commands, for them to do, and to choose rather 
to die than to transgress any of those com- 
mands; nor does he require so much as a sa~ 
crifice fromthem. And when these do sacrifice, 
though it be a mean oblation, he better accept 
of it as the honor of poverty, than such ob- 
lations as come from the richest men that offer 
them to him. Wherefore take notice, that 
thou art under the wrath of God, for thou 
hast despised and neglected what he command- 
ed thee. How dost thou then suppose that he 
will accept a sacrifice outof such things as he 
hath doomed to destruction? unless, perhaps, 
thou dost imagine that it is almost all one to 
offer it in sacrifice to God as to destroy it. Do 
thou, therefore, expect that thy kingdom will be 
taken from thee, and that authority which 
thou hast abused by such insolent behavior, ° 
as to neglect that God who bestowed it upon 
thee.” ‘Then did Saul confess that he had acted 
unjustly, and did not deny that he had sinned, 
because he had transgressed the injunctions 
of the prophet; but he said, that it was out of 
a dread and fear of the soldiers, that he did 
not prohibit and restrain them when they seiz- 
ed on the prey. But forgive me, said he, and 
be merciful to me, for I will be cautious how J 
offend for the time to come. He also entreat 
ed the prophet to go back with him, that he 
might offer his thank-offerings to God; but 
Samuel went home, because he saw that God 
would not be reconciled to him. 

d. But then Saul was so desirous to retain 
Samuel, that he took hold of his cloak, and 
because the vehemence of Samuel’s departure 
made the motion to be violent, the cloak was 
rent. Upon which the prophet said, that after 
the same manner should the kingdom be rent 
from him, and that a good and a just man 
should take it; that God persevered in what he 
had decreed about him; that to be muta :e and 
changeable in what is determined, is agr-ealle 
to human passions only, but is not agreealu. to 
the divine power. Hereupon Saul said, that 
he had been wicked, but that what was done 
could not be undone: he, therefore, desired him 
to honor him so far, that the multitude might 
see that he would accompany him in worship- 
ping God. So Samuel granted him that favor, 
and went with him and worshipped God. 
Agag, also, the king of the Amalekites, was 
brought to him; and when the king asked, 
How bitter death was? Samuel said: “As thou 
hast made many of the Hebrew mothers to la- 
ment and bewail their children, so shalt thou 
by thy death cause thy mother to lament thee 
also.” Accordingly, he gave order to slay him 
immediately at Gilgal, and then went away to 
the city Ramah. 


CHAPTER VIII 


How, upon Saut’s cransgression of the Prophet's 
commands, Samuel ordained another person to 
be King privately, whose name was David, as 
God commanded him. 


Be 


pie condition he had brought himself into, and 
that he had made God to be his enemy, he 
went up to his royal palace at Gibeah, which 
narne denotes a ‘hill,’ and after that day he 
came no more ito the presence of the pro- 
phet. And when Samuel mourned for him, 
God bid him leave off his concern for him, 
and to take the holy oil, and go to Bethlehem 
to Jesse, the son of Obed, and to anoint such 
ef his sons as he should ’ show him, for their 
future king. But Samuel said, he was afraid 
.es, saul, when he came to know of it, should 
kil him, either by some private method, or 
even openly. But upon God’s suggesting to 
him a safe way of going thither, he came to 
the forementioned city; and when they all sa- 
luted him, and asked, “What was the occasion 
of his comingr” he told them, he came to sa- 
crifice to God. When, therefore, he had gotten 
the sacrifice ready, he called Jesse and his sons 
to partake of those sacrifices; and when he 
saw his eldest son to be a tall ‘and handsome 
man, he guessed by his comeliness that he was 
the person who was to be their future king. 
But he was mistaken in judging about God’s 
providence, for when Samuel inquired of God, 
whether he should anoint this youth, whom 
he so admired, and esteemed worthy of the 
kingdom? God said, “Men do not see as 
God seeth. Thou indeed hast respect to the 
fine appearance of this youth, and thence es- 
teemest him worthy of the kingdom, while I 

ropose the kingdom as a reward, not of the 
Seinty of bodies, but of the virtue of souls, 
and I inquire after one that is perfectly comely 
in thac respect. I mean oné who is beautiful 
in piety, and righteousness, and fortitude, and 
obedience, for in therm consists the comeliness 
of the soul.” When God had said this, Sa- 
muel bade Jesse to show him all his sons. So 
he made five others of his sons to come to 
him; of al] of whom Eliab was the eldest, 
Aminadub the second, Shammah the third, 
Nathaniel the fourth, Rael the fifth, and Asam 
the sixth. And when the prophet saw that 
these were no way inferior to the eldest in 
their countenances, he inquired of God which 
of them it was whom he chose for their king? 
And when God said it was none of them, he 
asked Jesse, whether he had not some other 
sons besides these? and when he said that he 
had one more named David, but that he was a 
shepherd, and took care of the flocks, Samuel 
bid them call him immediately, for that till he 
was come they could not possibly sit down to 
the feast. Now as soon as his father had sent 
for David, and he was come, he appeared to 
be of a yellow complexion, of a sharp sight, 
and a comely person in other respects also. 
This is he, said Samuel privately to himself, 
whom it pleases God to make our king, So 
he sat down to the feast, and placed the: youth 
under him, and Jesse also, with his other sons; 
after which he took oil,-in the presence of 
David, and anointed him, and whispered him 
in the’ ear, and acquainted him, that God chose 
him to be their king: and exhorted him to be 
riyliutcous, and obedient ta his commands, for 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. Rae 





that by this means his kingdom would contin 
for a long time, and that his house should be: 
great splendor, and celebrated in the world: 
that he should overthrow the Philistines; and 
that against what nation soever he should make 
war, he should be the conqueror, and survive 
the ‘fight; and that while he lived he should — 
enjoy a glorious name, and leave such a name 
to his posterity also. 

2. So Samuel, when he had given him thea . 
admonitions, went away: but the divine power 
departed from Saul, and removed to David; 
who, upon this removal of the Divine Spirit tc 
him, began to prophesy. But as for Saul, some 
strange and demoniacal disorders came upon 
him, and brought upon him such suffocations — 
as were ready to choke him; for which the 
physicians could find no other remedy but this, 
that if any person could charm these passions 
by singing, and playing upon the harp, they — 
advised him to inquire for such a one, and to 
observe when these demons came upon him 
and disturbed him, and to take care that such 
a person might stand over him and play on 
the harp,* and recite hymns to him. Accord- 
ingly Saul did not delay, but commanded them 
to seek out such aman. And when a certain 
stander-by said that he had seen in the city of — 
Bethlehem a son of Jesse, who wus yet no 
more than a child in age, but comely and 
beautiful, and in other respects one that was 
deserving of great regard, who was skilful in 
playing on the harp, and in singing of hymna, — 
and an excellent soldier in war, he sent to Jesse 
and desired him to take David away from the 
flocks, and send him to him, for he had a mind — 
to see him, as having heard an advantageous 
character of his comeliness and his valor. So 
Jesse sent his son, and gave him presents to 
carry to Saul. And when he was come, Saul 
was pleased with him, and made him his armor- 
bearer, and had him in very great esteem, for 
he charmed his passion, and was the only phy- 
sician against the trouble he had from the de- _ 
mon, whensoever it was that it came upon 
him, and this by reciting of hymns, and play= 
ing upon the harp, and bringing Saul to his — 
right mind again. However, he sent to Jesse 
the father of the child, and desired him to 
permit David to stay with him, for that he was 
delighted with his sight and company; which 
stay, that he might not contradict Saul, i : 
granted. 


ce 


CHAPTER IX. 


How the Philistines made another expedition 
against the Hebrews, under the reign of Saul 
and how ther y were overcome by Davids slaying 
Goliath in a single combat. 7S 
§ 1. Now the Philistines gathered themselves 

together again no very long time after Ms 

and having gotten together a great amy ele 
made war against the Israelites; and having — 
seized a place between Shoecoh and Azekah, 


* Spanheim takes notice here, that the Greeks had 
singers of hymns, and that usually children or youth 
picked out for that service; as also that those called sin 
to the harp, did the same that David did here, i, e. oin | 
own vocal and instrumental music together. 









ut his army to oppose them; and by pitching 
_ his own camp on a certain hill, he forced the 
Philistines to leave their former camp, and to 
‘encamp themselves upon such another hill, 
|| over against that on which Saul’s army lay, so 
| that a valley, which was between the two hills 
en which they lay, divided their camps asun- 
‘der Now there came down a man out of the 
‘eamp of the Philistines, whose name was 
- *4Goliath, of the city of Gath, a man of vast 
bulk, for he was of four cubits and a span in 
tallness, and had about him weapons suitable to 
the largeness of his body, for he had a breast- 
a og on that weighed five thousand shekels; he 
had also a helmet and greaves of brass as large 
8s you would naturally suppose might cover the 
| limbs of so vast a body. His spear was also 
_ such as was not carried like a light thing in 
his right hand, but he carried it as lying on his 
shoulders. He had also a lance of six hundred 
skekels: and many followed him to carry his 
‘armor. Wherefore this Goliath stood between 
_ the two armies, as they were in battle array, 
and sent outa loud voice, and said to Saul, 
and to the Hebrews, “I will free you from 
fighting and from dangers; for what necessity 
is there that your army should fall and be af- 
flicted? Give me a man of you that will fight 
_ with me, and he that conquers shall have the 
_ reward of the conqueror, and determine the 
_ war; for these shall serve those others to whom 
‘the conqueror shall belong: and certainly it is 
much better, and more prudeut, to gain what 
yu desire by the hazard of one man than of 
al.” When he said this, he retired to his own 
etmp; but the next day he came again, and 
ued the same words, and did not leave off 
_ fcrty days together, to challenge the enemy in 
tLe same words, till Saul and his army were 
therewith terrified, while they put themselves 
in array as if they would fight, but did not 
tone to a close battle. 

2. Now while this war between the Hebrews 
‘and the Philistines was going on, Saul sent 
away David to his father Jesse, and contented 

himself with those three sons of his whom he 
“had sent to his assistance, and to be partners 
in the dangers of the war: and at first David 
returned to feed his sheep and his flocks; but 
‘after no long time he came to the camp of the 
‘Hebrews, as sent by his father to carry provi- 
sions to his brethren, and to know what they 
were doing. While Goliath came again, and 
‘challenged them, and reproached them, that 
they had no man of valor among them that 
‘durst come down to fight him; and as David 
_ was talking with his brethren about the busi- 
ness for which his father had sent him, he 
heard the Philistine reproaching and abusing 
_ the ariny, and had indignation at it, and said to 
his brethren, I am ready to fight a single com- 
_ bat with this adversary. Whereupon Eliab, 
his eldest brother, reproved him, and said that 
he spoke too rashly and improperly for one of 
his age, and bid him go to his flocks, and to his 
father. So he was abashed at his brother’s 








+ 







g . BUOK VI—CHAPTER IX. 
_ they there pitched their camp. Saul also drew | some of the soldiers, that he was willing to 


158 


fight with him that challenged them. And 
when they had informed Saul what was the re- 
solution of the young man, the king sent for 
him to come tohim. And when the king askea 
what he had to say, he replied, “O king, be 
not cast down nor afraid, for I will depress the 
insolence of this adversary, and will go down 
and fight with him, and willbring him under 
me, as tall and as great as he is, till he shall be 
sufficiently laughed at, and thy army shall get 
great glory, when he shall be slain by one that 
is not yet of man’s estate, neither fit for fight- 
ing,nor capable of being intrusted with the 
marshalling an army, or ordering a battle, but 
by one that looks like a child, and is really no 
older in age than a child.” 

3. Now Saul wondered at the boldness and 
alacrity of David, but durst not presume on 
his ability, by reason of his age: but said he 
must on that account be too weak to fight with 
one that was skilful in the art of war. “I under- 
take this enterprise,” said David, “in depend- 
ence on God’s being with me, for I have had 
experience already of his assistance; for I once 
pursued after and caught a lion that assaulted 
my flocks, and took away a lamb from them, 
and I snatched the lamb out of the wild beast’s 
mouth, and when he leaped upon me with vio- 
lence, Itook him by the tail,and dashed him 
against the ground. In the same manner did I 
avenge myself on a bear also; and let this ad- 
versary of ours be esteemed like one of these 
wild beasts, since he has along while reproach- 
ed our army, and blasphemed our God, whe 
yet will reduce him under my power.” 

4. However, Saul prayed that the end might 
be, by God’s assistance, not disagreeable to the 
alacrity and boldness of the child; and said, 
“Go thy way to the fight.” So he put about 
him his breastplate, and girded on his sword, 
and fitted the helmet to his head, and sent him 
away. But David was burdened with his ar- 
mor, for he had not been exercised to it, nor 
had he learned to walk with it; so he said, “Let 
this armor be thine, O king, who art able to 
bear it, but give me leave to fight as thy servant, 
and as I myself desire.” Accordingly he laid 
by the armor, and taking his staff with him, and 
putting five stones out of the brook into a 
shepherd’s bag, and having a sling in his right 
hand, he went towards Goliath. But the ad- 
versary seeing him in such a manner, disdain- 
ed him, and jested upon him, as if he had not 
such weapons with him as are usual when one 
man fights against another, but such as are used 
in driving away and avoiding of dogs: and aa 
“Dost thou take me not for a man, but a dog: 
To which he replied, “No, not for a dog, but 
for a creature worse than a dog.” This pro- 
voked Goliath to anger, who thereupon cursed 
him by the name of God, and threatened to 
give his flesh to the beasts of the earth, and to 
the fowls of the air, to be torn in pieces by 
them. To whom David answered, “Thou 
comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, 
and with a breastplate, but I have God for my 


words, and went away, but still he spoke to | armor, in coming against thee, who will destroy 


1M 


thee and al] thy army by my hands; for I will 
this day cut off thy head, and cast the other 
parts of thy body to the dogs, and all men shall 
iearn that God is the protector of the Hebrews, 
and that our armor and our strength is in his 
providence, and that without God’s assistance, 
all other warlike preparations and power are 
useless.” So the Philistine, being retarded by 
the weight of his armor, when he attempted to 
meet David in haste, came on but slowly, as 
despising him, and depending upon it that he 
should slay him, who was both unarmed, anda 
child also, without any trouble at all. 

5. But the youth met his antagonist, being 
accompanied with an invisible assistant, who 
was no other than God himself. And taking 
one of the stones that he had out of the brook, 
and had put into his shepherd’s bag, and fitting 
it to his sling, he slung it against the Philistine. 
This stone fell upon his forehead, and sunk in- 
to his brain, insomuch that Goliath was stun- 
ned, and fell upon his face. So David ran, and 
stood upon his adversary as he lay down and 
cut off his head with his own sword; for he 
had no sword himself. And upon the fall of 
Goliath, the Philistines were beaten, and fled: 
for when they saw their champion prostrate on 
the ground, they were afraid of the entire is- 
sue of their affairs, and resolved not to stay any 
longer, but committed themselves to an igno- 
minious and indecent flight, and thereby en- 
deavored to save themselves from the dangers 
they were in. But Saul and the entire army 
of the Hebrews made a shout, and rushed upon 
them, and slew a great number of them, and 
pursued the rest to the borders of Gath, and to 
the gates of Ekron; so that there were slain of 
the Philistines thirty thousand, and twice as 
many wounded. But Saul returned to their 
camp, and pulled their fortification to pieces, 
and burnt it; but David carried the head of 
Goliath into his own tent; but dedicated his 
sword to God [at the tabernacle.] 


CHAPTER X. 


Saul envies David for his glorious success, and 
takes an occasion of entrapping him, from the 
promise he made him of giving him his daugh- 
ter in marriage, but this upon condition of his 
bringing six hundred heads of the Philistines. 
§ 1. Now the women were an occasion of 

Saul’s envy and hatred to David; for they came 

to meet their victorious army with cymbals, 

and drums, and all demonstrations of joy, and 
sung thus: the wives said, that “Saul had slain 
his many thousands of the Philistines.” The 
virgins replied, that “David had slain his ten 
thousands.” Now, when the king heard them 
singing thus, and that he had himself the 
smallest snare in their commendations, and 
that the greater number, the ten thousands, 
were ascribed to the young man; and when he 
considered with himself that there was noth- 

ing more wanting to David, after such a 

mighty applause, but the kingdom, he began to 

be afraid and suspicious of David. Accord- 
ingly, he removed him from the station he was 

*n before, for he was his armor-bearer, which 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ¢ 





out of fear seemed to him much too near e 
station for him; and so he made him capta.n 
over a thousand, and bestowed on him a pose 
better indeed in itself, but as he thought, more 
for his own security; for he had a mind to send 
him against the enemy, and into battles, as 
hoping he would be slain in such dangerous 
conflicts, 

2. But David had God going along with him 
whithersoever he went, and accordingly he 
greatly prospered in his undertakings, and it 
was visible that he had mighty success, mso- 
much that Saul’s daughter, who was still a vir- 
gin, fell in love with him; and her affection so 
far prevailed over her that it could not be con- 
cealed, and her father became acquainted with 
it. Now Saul heard this gladly, as intendin 
to make use of it for a snare against Davi, 
and he hoped that it would prove the cause o 
destruction and of hazard to him; so he told 
those that informed him of his daughter’s af- 
fection, that he would willingly give David the 
virgin in marriage, and said, “I engage myself 
to marry my daughter to him, if he will bring 
me six hundred heads of my enemies,* (sup- 
posing that when a reward so ample was pro- 
posed to him, and when he should aim to get 
him great glory, by undertaking a thing so 
dangerous and incredible, he would imme 
diately set about it, and so perish by the Phi 
listines,) and my designs about him will suc- 
ceed finely to my mind, for I shall be freed 
from him and get him slain, not by myself, but 
by another man.” So he gave order to his ser- 
vants to try how David would relish this pro-— 
posal of marrying the damsel. Accordingly, 
they began to speak thus to him, that king 
Saul loved him,.as well as did all the people, 
and that he was desirous of his affinity by the 
marriage of this damsel. To which he gave 
this answer: “Seemeth it to you a light thing 
to be made the king’s son-in-law? It does not 
seem so to me, especially when I am one of @ 
family that is low, and without any glory or 
honor.” Now when Saul was informed by 
his servants what answer David had made, he 
said, “Tell him, that I do not want any money 
nor dowry from him, which would be rather 
to set my daughter to sale than to give her m 
marriage, but I desire only such a son-in-law 
as hath in him fortitude, and all other kinds of 
virtue, (of which he saw David was possessed, } 
and that his desire was to receive of him, on 
account of his marrying his daughter, neither 
gold, nor silver, nor that he should bring such 
wealth out of his father’s house, but only some 
revenge on the Philistines, and indeed six hun- 
dred of their heads, than which a more desira- 
ble or a more glorious present could not be — 
brought him, and that he had much rather ob- 


* Josephus says thrice in this chapter, and twice after- 
ward, chap. xi. sect. 2, and b. vii. chap. i. sect. 4, i. e. five 
times in all, that Saul required not a bare berets the 
foreskins of the Philistines, but siz hundred of their heads, 
The Septuagint have 100 foreskins, but the Syriac and 
Arabic 200. Now that these were not foreskins with our — 
other copies, but heads with Josephus’s copy, seems somée-— 
what probable, from 1 Sam. xxix. 4, where all copies i 
that it was with the heads of such Philistines that Davie 
might reconcile himself to his master Saul. ni: 





Mm: 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER XI. 


tain this than any of the accustomed dowries 
for his daughter, viz. that she should be mar- 
‘ried to a man of that character, and to one 
who had a testimony as having conquered his 
enemies.” 
_ 3. When these words of Saul were brought 
to David, he was pleased with them, and sup- 
_ posed that Saul was really desirous of this af- 
finity with him; so that without bearing to de- 
liberate any longer, or casting about in his 
mind whether what was proposed was possi- 
le, or was difficult or not, he and his compa- 
ions immediately set upon the enemy, and went 
about doing what was proposed as the condi- 
tion of the marriage. Accordingly, because it 
was God who made all things easy and_possi- 
ble to David, he slew many, [of the Philistines, ] 
and cut off the heads of six hundred of them, 
and came to the king, and by showing him 
these heads of the Philistines, required that he 
might have his daughter in marriage. Accord- 
ngly, Saul, having no way of getting off his 
engagements, as thinking it a base thing either 
to seem a liar when he promised him this mar- 
riage; or to appear to have acted treacherously 
by him, in putting him upon what was in a 
manner impossible, in order to have him slain, 
gave him his daughter in marriage: her name 
was Michal. 


CHAPTER XL 


How David, upon Saul’s laying snares for him, 
did yet escape the dangers he was in, by the 
affection and care of Jonathan, and the con- 
trwvances of his wife Michal: and how he came 
to Samuel the Prophet. 


§ 1. However, Saul was not disposed to per- 
wevere long in the state wherein he was; for 
when he saw that David was in great esteem, 

‘both with God and with the multitude, he was 
afraid: and being not able to conceal his fear 
@s concerning great things, his kingdom, and 
his life, to be deprived of either of which was 
a pti calamity, he resolved to have Da- 

_ vid slain, and commanded his son Jonathan and 

his most faithful servants to kill him: but Jona- 
than wondered at his father’s change with rela- 
tion to David, that it should be made to so great 

a degree, from showing him no small good will, to 

contrive how to have him killed. Now, because 
he loved the young man, and reverenced him 
for his virtue, he informed him of the secret 
charge his father had given, and what his in- 
tentions were concerning him. However, he 
advised him to take care and be absent the next 
day, for that he would salute his father, and, if 

€ met with a favorable opportunity, he would 

Iscourse with him about him, and learn the 
cause of his disgust, and show how little ground 
there was for it, and that for it he ought notto kill 
a man that had done so many good things to 
the multitude, and had been a benefactor to him- 
_ self; en account of which he ought in reason 

_ to obtain pardon, had he been guilty of the 
greatest crimes; and I will then inform thee of 

‘my father’s resolution. Accordingly, David 

complied with such advantageous advice, and 

_ Kept himself then out of the king’s sight. 


& 


158 


2. On the next day Jonathan came to Saw 
as soon as he saw him in a cheerful and joy- 
ful disposition, and began to introduce a dis- 
course about David: “What unjust action, O 
father, either little or great, hast thou found so 
exceptionable in David, as to induce thee to 
order us to slay a man who hath been of great 
advantage to thy own preservation, and of still 
greater to the punishments to the Philistines?P— 
a man who hath delivered the people of the 
Hebrews from reproach and derision, which 
they underwent for forty days together, when 
he alone had courage enough to sustain the 
challenge of the adversary, and after that 
brought as many heads of our enemies as he 
was appointed to bring, and had, as a reward 
for the same, my sister in marriage; insomuch 
that his death would be very sorrowful to us, 
not only on account of his virtue, but on ac- 
count of the nearness of our relation, for thy 
daughter must be injured at the same time 
that he is slain, and must be obliged to experi- 
ence widowhood, before she can come to en- 
joy any advantage from their mutual conver- 
sation. Consider these things, and change 
your mind to a more merciful temper, and ds 
no mischief to a man, who, in the first place, 
hath done us the greatest kindness of pro- 
serving thee; fer when an evil spirit and du- 
mon had seized upon thee, he cast them out 
and procured rest to thy soul from their incus- 
sions: and in the second place, hath avengerl 
us of our enemies; for it is a base thing to for- 
get such benefits.” So Saul was pacified with 
these words; and swore to his son that he 
would do David no harm; for a righteous dis- 
course proved too hard for the king’s anger and 
fear. So Jonathan sent for David, and brought 
him good news from his father, that he was to 
be preserved. He also brought him to hie 
father; and David continued with the king as 
formerly. 

3. About this time it was, that, upon the Phi 
listines making a new expedition against the 
Hebrews, Saul sent David with an army to 
fight with them: and joining battle with them, 
he slew many of them, and after his victory he 
returned to the king. But his reception by Saul 
was not as he expected upon such success, for 
he was grieved at his prosperity, because he 
thought he would be more dangerous to him 
by having acted so gloriously: but when the 
demoniacal spirit came upon him, and put him 
into disorder, and disturbed hiin, he called for 
David into his bed-chamber wherein he lay, 
and having a spear in his hand, he ordered him 
to charm him with playing >n his harp, and | 
with singing hymns; which, when David did 
at his command, he with great force threw the 
spear at him, but David was aware of it be- 
fore it came, and avoided it, and fled to his own 
house, and abode there all that day. 

4.. But at night the king sent officers, and 
commanded that he should be watchec till the 
morning, lest he. should get quite away, that he 
might come to the judgment-hall, and so might 
be delivered up, and condemned and slain 
But when Michal, David’s wite, the ki g’s 


256 


daughter, understood what her father designed, 
she came to her husband, as having small hopes 
of his deliverance, and as greatly concerned 
about her own life also, for she could not bear 
to live in case she were deprived of him; and 
she said, “Let not the sun find thee here when 
it rises, for if it do, that will be the last time it 
will see thee: fly away then while the night 
may afford thee opportunity; and may God 
jengthen it for thy sake! for know this, that if 
my father find thee, thou art a dead man.” So 
she let him down by a cord out of the window, 
and saved him: and after she had done so, she 
fitted up a bed for him as if he were sick, and 
put under the bed-clothes a goat’s liver:* and 
when her father, as soon as it was day, sent to 
seize David, she said to those that were there, 
that he had not been well that night, and show- 
ed them the bed covered, and made them be- 
lieve by the leaping of the liver, which caused 
the bed-:lothes to move also, that David 
breathed like one that was asthmatic. So when 
those that were sent told Saul that David had 
not been well in the night, he ordered him to 
be brought in that condition, for he intended to 
kill him. Now when they came, and uncov- 
ered the bed, and found out the woman’s con- 
trivance, they told it to the king; and when her 
father complained of her, that she had saved 
hrs enemy, and had puta trick upon himself, 
she invented this plausible defence for herself, 
ard said, “That when he threatened to kill her, 
she lent him her assistance for his preservation, 
out of fear, for which her assistance she ought 
to be forgiven, because it was not done of her 
own free choice, but out of necessity; for, said 
she, I do not suppose that thou wast so zeal- 
«1s to kill thy enemy as thou wast that I should 
hs saved.” Accordingly Saul forgave the dam- 
acl; but David, when he had escaped this dan- 
#/2r, came to the prophet Samuel to Ramah, and 
tld him what snares the king had laid for him, 
«ad how he was very near to death by Saul’s 
throwing a spear at him, although he had been 
noway guilty with relation to him, nor had he 
teen cowardly in his battles with his enemies, 
bat had succeeded well in them all, by God’s 
wssistance; which thing was indeed the cause 
of Saul’s hatred to David. 

5. When the prophet was made acquainted 
with the unjust proceedings of the king, he 
left the city Ramah, and took David with 
him, to a certain place called Naioth, and 
there he abode with him. But when it was 
told Saul that David was with the prophet, he 
sent soldiers to him, and ordered them to take 
him, and bring him to him: and when they 
came to Samuel, and found there a congrega- 
tion of prophets, they became partakers of the 
Divine Spirit, and began to prophesy; which, 
when Saul heard of, he sent others to David, 
who prophesying in like manner as did the 


* Since the modern Jews have lost the signification of 
the Hebrew word here used, Cebir; and since the LXXII 
as well as Josephus, render it the liver of the goat, and 
wines this rendering, and Josephus’s account, are here so 
mach more clear and probable than those of others, it is 
almvust unaccountable that our commentators should so 
mauch as hesitate about its true interpretation. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ‘ome 


went thither in great haste himself; and when — 







‘ 


first, he again sent others; which third son 


ie, 


Nv 
‘Fe 


prophesying also, at last he was angry, and 
he was just by the place, Samuel, before he 
saw him, made him prophesy also. And 
when Saul came to him, he was disordered in 
mind,* and under the vehement agitation of a — 
spirit, and putting off his garments,} he fell 
down, and lay on the ground all that day and 
night, in the presence of Samuel and David. 

6. And David went thence, and came te 
Jonathan, the son of Saul, and lamented to 
him what snares were laid for him by his father; 
and said, that “though he had been guilty of 
no evil, nor had offended against him, yet he 
was very zealous to get him killed.” Here- 
upon Jonathan exhorted him not to give cre- — 
dit to his own suspicions, nor to the calumnies 
of those that raised those reports, if there were 
any that did so, but to depend on him, and 
take courage; for that his father had no such 
intention, since he would have acquainted him 
with that matter, and taken his advice, had it 
been so, as he used to consult with him in 
common, when he acted in other affairs. But 
David swore to him, that so it was; and he de- 
sired him rather to believe him, and to provide 
for his safety, than to despise what he, with 
great sincerity, told him: that he would believe 
what he said, when he should either see hina 
killed himself, or learn it upon inquiry from 
others: and that the reason why his father did 
not tell him of these things, was this, that he 
knew of the friendship and affection that he 
bore towards him. 

7. Hereupon, when Jonathan found that this 
intention of Saul’s was so well attested, he 
asked him, “What he would have him do for 
him.” 'To which David replied, “I am sensit- 
ble that thou art willing to gratify me in every 
thing, and procure me what I desire. Now, to- 
morrow is the new moon, and I was accus- 
tomed to sit down then with the king at sup- 
per; now if it seem good to thee, I will go out 
of the city, and conceal myself privately there: 
and if Saul inquire why I am absent, tell him 
that lam gone to my own city Bethlehem, to 
keep a festival with my own tribe; and add 
this also, that thou gavest me leave so to do. 


* These violent and wild agitations of Saul seem to me 
to have been no other than demoniacal; and that the same 
demon which used to seize him since he was forsaken of — 
God, and which the divine hymns and psalms which were 
stung to the harp by David, used to expel, was now in & 
judicial way brought upon him, not only in order to disap 
point his intentions against innocent David, but to expose 
him to the laughter and contempt of all that saw him, ov — 
heard of those his agitations, such violent and wild agita- 
tions being never observed in true prephets, when they were 
under the inspiration of the Spirit of Ged. Our other copies, 
which say the Spirit of God came upon him, seem not s@ — 
right here as Josephus’s copy, which mentions nothing of — 
God atall. Nor does Josephus seem to ascribe this impulse — 
and ecstasy of Saul’s to any other than to his old demonia- — 
cal spirit, which on all accounts appears the most probable. _ 
Nor does the former description of Saul’s real inspiration by — 
the Divine Spirit, 1 Sam. x. 9—12; Antiq. b. vi. chap.iv. _ 
sect. 2; which was before he was become wicked, well — 
agree with the description before us. ae 4 

+ What is meant by Saul’s lying down naked all thatday 
and all that night, 1 Sam. xix. 24, and whether any more 
than laying aside his royal apparel, or upper garments, a 
Josephus seems to understand it, is by no means certaim 
See the note on Antiq. b. viii. ch. xiv. sect. 3. ; 








4 


And if he say, as is usually said in the case of 
friends that are gone abroad, ‘It is well that he 
went,’ then assure thyself that no latent mis- 
chief or enmity may be feared at his hands: 
but if he answer otherwise, that will be a sure 
sign that he hath some designs against me. 
Accordingly, thou shalt inform me of thy fath- 
er’s inclinations; and that out of pity to my case, 
and out of thy friendship for me, as instances 
of which friendship thou hast vouchsafed to 
acce}'t of the assurances of my love to thee, 
and to give the like assurances to me, that is, 
those of a master to his servant; but if thou 
discoverest any wickedness in me, do thou pre- 
vent thy father, and kill me thyself.” 

8. But Jonathan heard these last words with 
indignation, and promised to do what he de- 
sired of him, and to inform him if his father’s 
answers implied any thing of a melancholy 
nature, and any eninity against him. And that 
he might the more firmly depend upon him, he 
tock him out into the open field, into the pure 
air, and swore that he would neglect nothing 
that might tend to the preservation of David: 
and he said, “I appeal to that God, who, as thou 
seest, is diffused everywhere, and knoweth 
this intention of mine, before I explain it in 
words, as the witness of this my covenant with 
thee, that I will not leave off to make frequent 
trials of the purpose of my father, till I learn 
whether there be any lurking distemper in the 
secretest parts of his soul; and when I have 
learnt it, I will not conceal it from thee, but 
will discover it to thee, whether he be gently 
or peevishly disposed; for this God himself 
knows, that I pray he may always be with thee, 
for he is with thee now, and will not forsake 
thee, and will make thee superior tu thine ene- 
mies, whether my father be one of them, or 
whether I myself be such. Do thou only re- 
member what we now de: and if it fall out that 
[ die, preserve my children alive, and requite 
what kindnesses thou hast now received, to 
them.” When he had thus sworn, he dismiss- 
ed David, bidding him go to a certain place of 
that plain wherein he used to perform his ex- 
ercises, for that as soon as he knew the mind of 
his father, he would come thither to him, with 
one servant only: and “if, says he, I shoot three 
darts at the mark, and then bid my servant to 
carry these three darts away, for they are be- 
fore him, know thou that there is no mischief 
to be feared from my father; but if thou hear- 
est me say the contrary, expect the contrary 
froin the king: however, thou shalt gain securi- 
ty by my means, and shalt by no means suffer 
any harm; but see thou dost not forget what I 
have desired of thee, in the time of thy pros- 

rity, and be serviceable to my children.” 
Now David, when he had received these as- 
surances from Jonathan, went his way to the 
place appointed. 

9. But on the next day, which was the new 
moon, the king, when he had purified himself, 
as the custom was, came to supper; and when 
there sat by him his son Jonathan on his right 


BOOK. VI--CHAPTER XI. 


15? 


but said nothing, supposing that he had not 
purified himself since he had accompanied 
with his wife, and so could not be present, but 
when he saw that he was not there the second 
day of the month neither, he inquired of his 
son Jonathan why the son of Jesse did not 
come to the supper and the feast, neither the 
day before nor that day. So Jonathan said, 
that “he was gone, according to the agreement 
between them, to his own city, where his tribe 
kept a festival, and that by his permission: that 
he also invited him to come to their sacrifice; 
and, says Jonathan, if thou wilt give me leave, 
1 will go thither, for thou knowest the good 
will that I bear him.” And then it was that 
Jonathan understood his father’s hatred to Da- 
vid, and plainly saw his entire disposition; for 
Saul could not restrain his anger, but repraach- 
ed Jonathan, and called him the son of a cuna- 
gate, and an enemy; and said, “He was a part- 
ner with David, and his assistant, and that by 
his behavior he shewed he had no regard te 
himself, or to his mother, and would not be 
persuaded of this, that while David is alive, 
their kingdom was not secure to them: yet did 
he bid him send for him, that he might be pun- 
ished.” And when Jonathan said, in answer. 
“What hath he done, that thou wilt punish 
him?” Saul no longer contented himself to ex- 
press his anger in bare words, but snatched up 
his spear, and leaped upon him, and was de- 
sirous to kill him. He did not indeed do what 
he intended, because he was hindered by his 
friends, but it appeared plainly to his son 
that he hated David, and greatly desired to 
despatch him, insomuch that he had almost 
slain his son with his own hands on his ae 
count. 

10. And then it was that the king’s son rcae 
hastily from supper; and being not able to ad- 
mit any thing into his mouth for grief, he wept 
all night, both because he had himself been 
near to destruction, and because the death of 
David was determined; but as soon as it was 
day, he went out into the plain that was before 
the city, as going to perform his exercises, but 
in reality to inform his friend what disposition 
his father was in towards him, as he had agreed 
with himtodo. And when Jonathan had done 
what had been thus agreed, he dismissed his 
servant that followed him, to return to the city, 
but he himself went into the desert, and came 
into his presence, and communed with him. 
So David appeared, and fell at Jonathan’s feet, 
and bowed down to him, and called him the 
preserver of his soul: but he lifted him up from 
the earth, and they mutually embraced one 
another, and made a long greeting, and that 
not without tears. They also lamented their 
age, and that familiarity which envy would 
deprive them of, and that separation which 
must now be expected, which seemed to them 
no better than death itself. So, recollecting 
themselves at length from their lamentations, 
and exhorting one another to be mindful of the 
oaths they had sworn to each other, they part 


hand, and Abner, the captain of his host, on | ed asunder. 


the other hand, he saw David’s seat was empty, 


158 
CHAPTER XII. 


How Davia fled to Ahimelech, and afterward to 
the kings of the Philistines, and of the Moab- 
ites; and how Saul slew Ahimelech and his 
Samily. 

§ 1. But David fled from the king, and that 
death he was in danger of by him, ayd came 
wo the city of Nob, to Ahimelech the priest, 
who, when he saw him coming all alone, and 
neither a friend nor a servant with him, he 
wondered at it, and desired to learn of him the 
cause why there was nobody with him? To 
which David answered, “That the king had 
commanded him to do a certain thing that was 
to be kept secret, to which, if he had a mind to 
xnow so much, he had no occasion for any one 
to accompany him; however, I have ordered 
my servants to meet me at such and such a 
place.” So he desired him to let him have 
@omewhat to eat; and that in case he would 
supply him, he would act the part of a friend, 
and be assisting to the business he was now 
about: and when he had obtained what he de- 
sired, he also asked him whether he had any 
weapons with him, either sword or spear? Now 
there was at Nob a servant of Saul’s, by birth 
a Syrian, whose name was Doeg, one that kept 
the king’s mules. The high priest said, that 
he had no such weapons, but he added, “Here 
is the sword of Goliath, which, when thou 
hadst slain the Philistine, thou didst dedicate 
to God.” 

2. When David had received the sword, he 
fled out of the country of the Hebrews into 
that of the Philistines, over which Achish 
reigned: and when the king’s servants knew 
him, and he was made known to the king him- 
self, the servants informing him that he was 
that David who had killed many ten thousands 
of the Philistines, David was afraid lest the 
king should put him to death, and that he 
should experience that danger from him which 
he had escaped from Saul; so he pretended to 
be distracted and mad, so that his spittle ran 
out of his mouth, and he did other the like ac- 
tions before the king of Gath, which might 
make him believe that they proceeded from 
such a distemper. Accordingly the king was 
very angry with his servants that they had 
brought him a madman; and he gave orders 
that they should eject David immediately [out 
of the city.] 

3. So when David had escaped in this man- 
uer out of Gath, he came to the tribe of Judah 
and abode in a cave by the city of Adullam. 
Then it was that he sent to his brethren, and 
iaformed them where he was, who then came 
to him with all their kindred; and as many 
others as were either in want, or in fear of 
king Saul, came and made a body together, 
and told him they were ready to obey his or- 
ders: they were in all about four hundred. 
Whereupon he took courage, now such a force 
and assistance was come to him: so he re- 
moved thence, and came to the king of the 
Moabites, and desired him to. entertain his 
parents in this country, while the issue of his 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


oe oa 
oe 


affairs were in such an uncertain condition, 
The king granted him this favor, and paid great _ 
respect to David’s parents all the time they 
were with him. | 

4. As for himself, upon the prophet’s com- 
manding him to leave the desert, and to go into 
the portion of the tribe of Judah, and abide 
there, he complied therewith; and coming to 
the city of Hareth, which was in that tribe, he — 
remained there. Now when Saul heard that 
David had been seen with a multitude about 
him, he fell into no small disturbance and 
trouble; but as he knew that David was a bold 
and courageous man, he suspected that some- 
what extraordinary would appear from him, 
and that openly also, which would make him 
weep, and put him into distress; so he called 
together to him his friends and his command- 
ers, and the tribe from which he was himself 
derived, to the hill where his palace was; and 
sitting upon a place called Aroura, his court- 
iers that were in dignities, and the guards of 
his body being with him, he spoke thus to 
them: “You that are men of my own tribe, I 
conclude that you remember the benefits that 
I have bestowed upon you; and that I have 
made some of you owners of land, and made 
you commanders, and bestowed posts of honor 
upon you, and set some of you over the com- 
mon people, and others over the soldiers; I ask 
you, therefore, whether you expect greater and 
more donations from the son of Jesse? For I 
know that you are all inclinable to him, even 
my own son Jonathan himself is of that opi- 
nion, and persuades you to be of the same; for 
I am not unacquainted with the oaths and the 
covenants that are between him and David, 
and that Jonathan is a counsellor and an assist- 
ant to those that conspire against me; and 
none of you are concerned about these things, 
but you keep silence, and watch to see what 
will be the upshot of these things.” When 
the king had done his speech, not one of the 
rest of those that were present :nade any answer; 
but Doeg the Syrian, who fed his rnutes, said, 
that he saw David when he came to the city 
of Nob to Ahimelech the high priest, and that 
he had learned future eveuts by his prophesy- 
ing; that he received food from him, and the 
sword of Goliath, and was conducted by him 
with security to such as he desired to go to. 

5. Saul therefore sent for the high priest, and 
for all his kindred, and said to them, “What 
terrible or ungrateful thing hast thou suffered 
from me, that thou hast received the son of 
Jesse, and hast bestowed on him both food and 
weapons, when he was contriving to get the 
kingdom? And further, why didst thou de- 
liver oracles to him concerning futurities? For 
thou couldst not be unacquainted that he was 
fled away from me, and that he hated my fami- 
ly.” But the high priest did not betake him- 
self to deny what he had done, but confessed 
boldly that he had supplied him with these — 
things, not to gratify David, but Saul himself 
and he said, “I did not know that he wus thy 
adversary, but a servant of thine, who was very 
faithful to thee, and a captain over a thousand 


eg 


cla 


BOOh V1.—CHAPTER XII 


eft ttiy soldiers, and, what is more than these, 
thy son-in-law and kinsman. Men do not use 
to confer such favors on their adversaries, but on 
those who are esteemed to bear the highest good 
will and respect to them. Nor is this the first 
time that I prophesied for him, but I have done 
it often, and at other times, as well as now. 
And when he told me that he was sent by thee 
m great haste to do somewhat, if I had furnish- 
ed him with nothing that he desired, I should 
have thought that it was rather in contradic- 
tion to thee than to him: wherefore, do not 
thou entertain any ill opinion of me, nor do thou 
have a suspicion of what I then thought an act 
of humanity, from what is now told thee of 
David’s attempts against thee, for I did then to 
him as to thy friend and son-in-law, and captain 
of a thousand, and not as to thine adversary.” 

6. When the high priest had spoken thus, 
he did not persuade Saul; his fear was so pre- 
valent, that he could not give credit to an apo- 
logy that was very just. Sohe commanded 
his armed men that stood about him to kill him, 
and all his kindred; but as they durst not touch 
the high priest, but were more afraid of dis- 
obeying God than the king, he ordered Doeg 
the Syrian to kill them. Accordingly, he took 
to his assistance such wicked men as were like 
himself, and slew Ahimelech and his family, 
who were in all three hundred and eighty-five; 
Saul also sent to Nob,* the city of the priests, 

and slew all that were there, without sparing 
either women or children, or any other age, 
and burnt it; only there was one son of Ahim- 
elech, whose name was Abiathar, who escaped. 
However, these things came to pass as God 
had foretold to Eli the high priest, when he 
said that his posterity should be destroyed, on 
account of the transgressions of his two sons. 

7. Now this king Saul,} by perpetrating so 
barbarous a crime, and murdering the whole 
family of the high priestly dignity, by having 
no pity of the infants, nor reverence for the 
aged, and by overthrowing the city which God 
had chosen for the property, and for the sup- 
port of the priests and prophets which were 


* This city of Nob was not a city allotted to the priests, 
nor had the prophets, that we know of, any particular cities 
allotted to them. It seems the tabernacle was now at Nob, 
and probably a school of the prophets was here also. It 
was full two days’ journey on foot from Jerusalem, 1 Sam. 
xxi. 5. The number of priests here slain in Josephus is 
three hundred and eighty-five, and but eighty-five in our 

| Hebrew copies, yct are they three hundred and five in the 
_ Septuagint. I prefer Josephus’s number, the Hebrew having, 
I suppose, only dropped the hundreds, the other the tens. 
This city of Nob seems to have been the chief, or perhaps 
' the only seat of the family of Ithaimar, which here perished, 
wecording to God’s former terrible threatenings to Eli. 1 
Bam. ii. 27—36; iii. 11—18. See chap. xiv. sect. 9, here- 
r. 
_¥ This section contains an admirable reflection of Jose- 
| Bhus concerning the general wickedness of men in great 
guthority, and the danger they are in of rejecting that regard 
* # justice and humanity, to divine providence and the fear 
_ @f God, which they either really had, or pretended to have, 
| avhile they were in a lower condition. It can never be too 
. Often perused by kings and great men, nor by those who 
‘ @xpect to obtain such elevated dignities among mankind. 
| See the like reflections of our Josephus, Antiq. b. vii. ch. i. 
- *ect. 5, at the end, and b. viii. ch. x. sect. 2, at the begin- 
' ming. They are to the like purport with one branch of 
Agur’s prayer. ‘One thing have | required of thee, deny it 
me not before I die; give me no riches, lest I be full and 
 @emy thee, and say, whois the Lord?’ Prov. xxx. 7—9, 





133 


there, and had ordained as the only city allot- 
ted for the education of such men, gives all to 
understand and consider the disposition of 
men, that while they are private persons, and 
in a low condition, because it is not in their 
power to indulge nature, nor to venture upor 
what they wished for, they are equitable »:a 
moderate, and pursue nothing but what is just, 
and bend their whole minds and labors, that 
way; then it is that they have this belief about 
God, that he is present to all the actions of their 
lives, and that he does not only see the actions 
that are done, but clearly knows those their 
thoughts also, whence those actions do arise: 
but when once they are advanced into power 
and authority, then they put off all such notions; 
and as if they were no other than actors upon 
a theatre, they lay aside their disguised parts 
and manners, and take up boldness, insolence, 
and a contempt of both human and divine laws; 
and this at a time when they especially stand 
in need of piety and righteousness, because 
they are then most of all exposed to envy, and 
all they think, and all they say, are in the view 
of all men; then it is that they become so in- 
solent in their actions, as though God saw 
them no longer, or were afraid of them be- 
cause of their power: and whatsoever it is that 
they either are afraid of by the rumors they 
hear, or they hate by inclination, or they love 
without reason, these seem to them to be au- 
thentic, and firm, and true, and pleasing both to 
men and to God; but as to what will come here- 
after, they have not the least regard toit. They 
raise those to honor indeed who had been at a 
great deal of pains for them, and after that ho- 
nor they envy them; and when they have 
brought them into high dignity, they do not on- 
ly deprive them of what they had obtained, 
but also, on that very account, of their lives 
also, and that on wicked accusations, and such 
as, on account of their extravagant nature, are 
incredible. They also punish men for their 
actions, not such as deserve condemnation, but 
from calumnies and accusations without exam- 
ination; and this extends not only to such as 
deserve to be punished, but to as many as they 
are able to kill. ‘This reflection is openly con- 
firmed to us fromthe example of Saul, the son of 
Kish, who was the first king who reigned after 
our aristocracy and government under the 


judges were over; and that by his slaughter of 


three hundred priests and prophets, on occa- 
sion of his suspicions about Ahimelech, and by 
the additional wickedness of the overthrow of 
their city; and this as if he were endeavoring 
in some sort to render the temple [tabernacle] 
destitute, both of priests and prophets, whic 
endeavor he showed by slaying so many of 
them, and not suffering the very city belong- 
ing to them to remain, that so others might 
succeed them. 

8. But Abiathar the son of Ahimelech, whe 
alone could be saved out of the family of 
priests slain by Saul, fled to David, and inform- 
ed him of the calamity that had befallen their 
family, and of the slaughter of his father, who 
hereupon said, “He was not unapprised of what 


160 


would xllow with relation to them when he 
saw Doeg there; for he had then a suspicion 
that the high priest would be falsely accused by 
him to the king, and he blamed himself as hav- 
mg been the cause of this misfortune.” But he 
desired 4im to stay there and abide with him 
as in a place where he might be better conceal- 
ad than anywhere else. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


How David, when he had twice the opportunity 
of killing Saul, did not kill him. Also, con- 
cerning the death of Samuel and Nabal. 


§ 1. About this time it was that David heard 
how the Philistines had made an inroad into 
the country of Keilah, and robbed it; so he of- 
fered himself to fight against them, if God, 
when he should be consulted by the prophet, 
would grant him the victory. And when the 
prophet said, that God gave a signal of victory, 
he made a sudden onset upon the Philistines 
with his companions, and he shed a great deal 
of their blood, and carried off their prey, and 
stayed with the inhabitants of Keilah, till they 
had securely gathered in their corn and their 
fruits. However, it was told Saul the king, 
that David was with the men of Keilah; for 
what had been done, and the great success 
that had attended him, were not confined 
among the people where the things were done, 
but the fame of it went all abroad, and came 
to the hearing of others, and both the fact as 
it stood, and the author of the fact, were car- 
ried to the king’s ears. Then was Saul glad 
when he heard that David was in Keilah; and 
he said, “God hath now put him into my hands, 
since he hath obliged him to come into a city 
that hath walls, and gates, and bars.” So he 
commanded all the people to set upon Keilah 
suddenly, and when they had besieged and 
taken it, to kill David. But when David per- 
ceived this, and learned of God, that if he 
stayed there, the men of Keilah would deliver 
him up to Saul, he took his four hundred men 
and retired into a desert that was over against 
a city called Engedi. So when the king heard 
that he was fled away from the men of Keilah, 
he left off his expedition against him. 

2. Then David removed thence, and came 
to a certain place called the New Place, be- 
longing to Ziph; where Jonathan, the son of 
Saul, came to him, and saluted him, and ex- 
horted him to be of good courage, and to hope 
well as to his condition hereafter, and not to 
despond at his present circumstances, for that 
he should be king, and have all the forces of 
the Hebrews under him; but told him, that 
such happiness uses to come with great labor 
and pains; they also took oaths, that they would 
all their lives long continue in good will and 
fidelity one to another; and he called God to 
witness, as to what execrations he made upon 
himself, if he should transgress his covenant, 
and should change to a contrary behavior. So 
Jonathan left him there, having rendered his 
cares and fears somewhat lighter, and returned 
home. Now the men of Ziph, to gratify Saul, 
wnfonned him that David abode with them, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 









and [assured him] that if he wouid come % 
them, they would deliver him up, so that if the 
king could seize on the straits of Ziph, David — 
could not escape to any other people. So the 
king commended them, and confessed that he 
had reason to thank them, because they had 
given him information of his enemy; and hy — 
promised them that it should not be long er 
he would requite their kindness. He also sen 
men to seek for David, and to search the wil \ 
derness wherein he was; and he answered 
that he himself would follow them. Accord 
ingly, they went before the king, to hunt for 
and to catch David, and used endeavors, not 
only to show their good will to Saul, by in- 
forming him where his enemy was, but to evi- 
dence the same more plainly by delivering bim 
up into his power. But these men failed of 
those their unjust and wicked desires, who, 
while they underwent no hazard by not dis- 
covering such an ambition of revealing this to 
Saul, yet did they falsely accuse, and promise 
to deliver up, a man beloved of God, and one 
that was unjustly sought for to be put to death, 
and .one that might otherwise have lain con- 
cealed, and this out of flattery, and expectation 
of gain from the king; for when David was 
apprized of the malignant intention of the men 
of Ziph, and of the approach of Saul, he left 
the straits of that country, and fled to the great 
rock that was in the wilderness of Maon. 

3. Hereupon, Saul made haste to pursue him 
thither; for as he was marching, he learned that 
David was gone away from the straits of Ziph, 
and Saul removed to the other side of the rock. 
But the report that the Philistines had again ~ 
inade an incursion into the country of the He- 
brews, called Saul another way from the pur- 
suit of David, when he was ready to be caught 
for he returned back again to oppose those 
Philistines, who were naturally their enemies, 
as judging it more necessary to avenge himself 
of them, than to take a great deal of pains to” 
catch an enemy of his own, and to overlook the 
ravage that was made in the land. 3 

4, And by this means David unexpectedly 
escaped out of the danger he was in, and came 
to the straits of Engedi. And when Saul had 
driven tne Philistines out of the land, there 
came some messengers, who told him thai Da- 
vid abode within the bounds of Engedi: so he 
took three thousand chosen men that were arm-— 
ed, and made haste to him, and when he was 
not far from those places, he saw a deep and 
hollow cave by the way side; it was open to a 
great length and breadth, and there it was that _ 
David with his four hundred men were conceal- _ 
ed. When, therefore, he had occasion to ease 
nature, he entered into it by himself alone; and _ 
being seen by one of David’s companions, and 
he that saw him, saying to him that, “he had 
now, by God’s providence, an opportunity of - 
avenging himself of his adversary; and vise 
ing him to cut off his head and so deliver him- 
self out of that tedious wandering condition. 
and the distress he was in,” he rose up, and only 
cut off the skirt of that garment which Saul | 
had on. But soon he repented of what he 


. 





LS vee 
fa 


BOOK VI—CHAPTER XIII. 


nad done; and said it was not right to, kill him 
that was his master, and one whom God had 
thought worthy of the kmgdom; “for that al- 
though he were wickedly disposed towards us: 
yet does it not behove me to be so disposed to- 
wards him.” But when Saul had left, the cave, 
David came near, and cried out aloud, and de- 
sired Saul to hear him; whereupon the king 
tummed his face back, and David, according to 
custom, fell down on his face before the king, 
and bowed to him; and said, “O king, thou 
oughtest not to hearken to wicked men; nor to 
such as forge calumnies, nor to gratify them so 
far as to believe what they say, nor to entertain 
suspicions of such as are your best friends, but 
to judge of the disposition of all men by their 
actions, for calumny deludes men, but men’s 
own actions are a clear demonstration of their 
kindness. Words indeed in their own nature, 
may be either true or false, but men’s actions 
expose their intentions nakedly to our view. 
By these, therefore, it will be well for thee to 
believe me, as to my regard to thee and to thy 
house, and not to believe those that frame such 
accusations against me as never came into my 
mind, nor are possible to be executed, and do 
this farther by pursuing after my life, and have 
no concern either day or night, but how to 
compass my life and to murder me, which 
thing I think thou dost unjustly prosecute. For 
how comes it about, that thou hast embraced 
this false opinion about me, as if I had a desire 
to kill thee? Or how canst thou escape the 
crime of impiety towards God; when thou wish- 
est thou couldst kill, and deemest thine adver- 
sary, a man who had it in his power this day to 
avenge himself, and to punish thee, but would 
not do it, nor make use of such an opportuni- 
ty, which, if it had fallen out to thee against 
me, thou hadst not let it slip; for when I cut 
off the skirt of thy garment, I could have done 
the same to thy head?” So he showed him the 
piece of his garment, and thereby made him 
agree to what he said to be true; and added, “I, 
for certain, have abstained from taking a just 
revenge upon thee,* yet art thou not ashamed 
to prosecute me with unjust hatred. May God 
do justice, and determine about each of our 
dispositions.” But Saul was amazed at the 
oe delivery he had received; and being 
greatly affected with the moderation and dis- 
position of the young man, he groaned: and 
when David had done the same, the king an- 
‘swered, that “he had the justest occasion to 
groan, for thou hast been the author of good to 
‘me, as I have been the author of calamity to thee. 
And thou hast demonstrated this day, that thou 
possessest the righteousness of the ancients, 
who determined that men ought to save their 
enemies though they caught them in a desert 
‘place. I am now persuaded that God reserves 
‘the kingdom for thee, and that thou wilt ob- 
‘tain the dominion over all the Hebrews, Give 


~ * The phrase in David’s speech to Saul, asset down in Jo- 

| sephus, that he had abstained from just revenge, puts me in 

mind of the like words in the Apostolical Constitutions, b. 
wu. chap. ii. that ‘revenge is not evil, but that patience is 

' more honorabie.’ 

| an 23 


ios 


me then assurances upon oath, that thou wilt 
not root out my family nor, out of remem- 
brance of what evil I have done thee, destroy 
my posterity, but save and preserve my house. 

So David swore as he desired, and sent back 
Saul to his own kingdom, but he, and those that 
were with him, went up to the straits of Mas 
theroth. 

5. About this time Samuel the prophet died. 
He wasa man whom the Hebrews honored 
in an extraordinary degree; for that lamenta- 
tion which the people made for him, and this 
during a long time, manifested his virtue, and 
the affection which the people bore for him; 
as also did the solemnity and concern that ap~ 
peared about his funeral, and about the com 
plete observation of all his funeral rites. They 
buried him in his own city Ramah; and wept 
for him a very great number of days, not lock- 
ing on it as a sorrow for the death of another 
man, but as that in which they were every one 
themselves concerned. He was a righteous 
man, and gentle in his nature, and on that aa- 
count he was very dear to God. Now he ga- 
verned and presided over the people alonr, 
after the death of Eli the high priest, twelve 
years, and eighteen years together with Saud 
the king: and thus we have finished the history 
of Samuel. 

6. There was a man that was a Ziphite of the 
city of Maon, who was rich, and had a vat 
number of cattle: for he fed a flock of three 
thousand sheep, and another flock of a thou- 
sand goats. Now David had charged his as 
sociates to keep these flocks without hurt and 
without damage, and to do them no mischief, 
neither out of coveteousness nor becaure they 
were in want, nor because they were in the 
wilderness, and so could not easily be disco- 
vered: but to esteem freedom from injustice 
above all other motives, and to look upon the 
touching of what belonged to another man se 
a horrible crime, and contrary to the will of 
God. These were the instructions he gave, 
thinking that the favors he granted this min 
were granted toa good man, and one that «.e- 
served to have such care taken of his affars, 
This man was Nabal, for that was his namic, a 
harsh man, and of a very wicked life, being 
like a cynic in the course of his behavior, but 
still had obtained for his wife a woman of a 
good character, wise and handsome. To this 
Nabal, therefore, David sent ten men of his at- 
tendants at the time when he sheared his sheep 
and by them saluted him: and also wished he 
might do what he now did for many years to 
come, but desired him to make him a present 
of what he was able to give him, since he had, 
to be sure, learned from his shepherds, thet he 
had done them no injury, but had been their 
guardian along time together, while they con- 
tinued in the wilderness; and he assured him 
he should never repent of giving any thing to 
David. When the messengers had carried 
this message to Nabal, he accosted them after 
an inhuman and rough manner; for he asked 
them, who David was? and when he heard 
that he was the son of Jesse, “Now is the tima, 


iff2 
aaid he, that fugitives grow insolent and make 
a figure, and leave their masters.” When they 
told David this, he was wroth, and command- 
ed four hundred armed men to follow nim; 
and left two hundred to take care of the stuff, 
(for he had already six hundred,)* and went 
against Nabal: he also swore, that he would 
that night utterly destroy the whole house and 
and possessions of Nabal: for that he was griev- 
ed, not only that he had proved ungrateful! to 
them, without making any return for the hu- 
manity they had shown him, but that he had 
also reproached them, and used ill language to 
them, when he had received no cause of dis- 
gust from them. 

7. Hlereupon, one of those. that kept the 
flocks of Nabal, said to his mistress, Nabal’s 
wife, that “when David sent to her husband, he 
had received no civil answer at all from him, 
but that her husband had moreover added very 
reproachful language, while yet David had ta- 
ken extraordinary care to keep his flocks from 
harm, and that what had passed would prove 
very pernicious to his master.” When the ser- 
vant had said this, Abigail, for that was the 
wife’s name, saddled her asses, and loaded 
them with all sorts of presents, and without 
telling her husband any thing of what she was 
about, (for he was not sensible, on account of 
his drunkenness,)she went to David. She was 
then met by David as she was descending a 
hill, who was coming against Nabal with four 
hundred men. When the woman saw David, 
she leaped down from her ass, and fell on her 
face, and bowed down tothe ground; and in- 
treated him not to bear in-mind the words of 
Nabal, since he knew that he resembled his 
name: now Nabal, in the Hebrew tongue, sig- 
nifies ‘folly... So she made her apology, “That 
she did not see the messengers whom he sent: 
forgive me, therefore, said she, and thank 
God who hath hindered thee from shedding 
human blood; for so long as thou keepest thy- 
self innocent,t he will avenge thee of wicked 
men, for what miseries await Nabal, they will 
fall upon the heads of thine enemies. Be thou 
gracious to me, and think me so far worthy as 
to accept these presents from me; and out of 
regard to me, remit that wrath and that anger 
which thou hast against my husband and his 
house, for mildness and humanity become thee 
especially as thou art to be our king.” Accord- 
ingly David accepted her presents, and said, 
“Nay but O woman, it was no other than God’s 
mercy which brought thee to us to day, for 


* The numberof men that came first to David, are dis- 
tincuy in Josephus, and in our common copies, but four hun- 
dred. When he was at Keilah, still but four hundred, both 
bs Jusephus and inthe LX XII; but six hundred in our He- 
brew copies; 1 Sam. xxiii. 13; xxx.9,10. Now the six hun- 
dred, there mentioned, are here intimated by Josephus to 
have been so many, only by an augmentation of two hun- 
dred afterward, which I suppose, is the true solution of this 
seemiug disagreement. 

t [u this and the two next sections, we may perceive how 
Josephus, nay, Abigail herself would understand the ‘not 
avenging Ourselves, but heaping coals of fire on the head 
of whe injurious.’ Prov. xxv. 22; Rom. xii. 20: not as we 
commonly do now, of melting them into kindness, but of 
leavuig them to the judgment of God, to whom vengeance 
selongeth, Deut. xxxii. 35; Psalm xciv. 1; Heb. x. 30; and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





otherwise thou hadst not seen another day, 
having sworn to destroy Nabal’s house this 
very night,* and to leave alive not one of you 
who belonged to a man that was wicked and 
ungrateful to me and my companions; but now 
hast thou prevented me, and seasonably moll — 
fied my anger, as being thyself under the care 
of God’s providence; but as for Nabal, alu.ough 
for thy sake he now escape punishment, 
will not always avoid justice, for his evil con-— 
duct on some other occasion will be his ruin” 

8. When David had said this, he dismissed 
the woman. But when she came home and 
found her husband feasting with a great com- 
pany, and oppressed with wine. she said noth- 
mg then to him about what had happened; but 
on the next day, when he was sober, she told 
him all the particulars, and made his whole 
body to appear like that of a dead man by her 
words, and by that grief which arose from 
them: so Nabal survived ten days, and no 
more, and then died. And when David heard 
of his death, he said, that “God had justly 
avenged him of this man, for that Nabal died 
by his own wickedness, and had suffered pun- 
ishment on his account, while he had kept his 
own hands clean.” At which time he under 
stood, that the wicked are prosecuted by God; 
that he does not overlook any man, but be- 
stows on the good what is suitable to them, 
and inflicts a deserved punishment on the 
wicked. So he sent to Nabal’s wife, and in- 
vited her to come to him, to live with him, and 
to be his wife. Whereupon she replied to 
those that came, that she was not worthy to 
touch his feet; however, she came with all her 
servants, and became his wife; having receiv- 
ed that honor on account of her wise and 
righteous course of life. She also obtained 
the same honor, partly on account of her 
beauty. Now David had a wife before, whom 
he married from the city of Abesar; for as to 
Michal, the daughter of king Saul, who had 
been David’s wife, her father had given her in 
marriage to Phalti the son of Laish, who was 
of the city of Gallim. 

9. After this came certain of the Ziphites, 
and told Saul, that David was come again into 
their country; and if he would afford them his 
assistance, they could catch him. So he came 
to them with three thousand armed men; and 
upon the approach of night, he pitched his 
camp at a certain place called Hachilah. But) 
when David heard that Saul was coming 
against him, he sent spies, and bid them let 
him know to what place of the country Saw 
was already come; and when they told him 
that he was at Hachilah, he concealed his going 


who will take vengeance on the wicked. And since al) 
judgments are just, and all fit to be executed, and all at 
length for the good of the persons punished, I incline 2 
think that to be the meaning of this phrase, of heaping coak 
of fire on their heads. 

* We may note here, that how sacred scever an oath was. 
esteemed among the people of God in old times, they 
not think it obligatory where the action was plainly unlaw- 
ful; for so we see it was in this case of David, who, alth 
he had sworn to destroy Nabal and his family, yet does I 
here, and 1 Sam. xxv. 32—34, bless God for preventing 
fc ar his oath, and from shedding of blood, as he had r 
to d>, A 








' 
Ni 
x ui 
\ ne; 
AN 
i 
i} 
Davip Sparinc Savu’s Lire. 








Hittite. 
“men, with Abner their commander, Jay round 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER XIV. 


away from Lis own companions, and came to 
Saul’s camp, having taken with him Abishai, 
his sister Zeruiah’s son, and Ahimelech the 
Now Saul was asleep, and the armed 


about him in a circle. Hereupon David en- 
tered into tLe king’s tent: but he did neither 
kill Saul, though he knew where he lay, by the 
spear that was struck down by him, nor did 
he give leave to Abishai, who would have 
kided him, and was earnestly bent upon it, so 
to do: for he said “It was a horrid crime to 
kill one that was ordained king by God, al- 
though he was a wicked man: for that he who 
gave him the dominion, would in time inflict 
punishment upon him.” So he restrained his 
eagerness: but that it might appear to have 
been in his power to have killed him when he 
refrained from it, he took his spear and the 
cruse of water which stood by Saul as he lay 
asleep, without being perceived by any of the 


‘camp, who were all asleep, and went securely 


away, having performed every thing among 
the king’s attendants that the opportunity af- 
forded, and his boldness encouraged him to do. 
So when he had passed over a brook, and was 
ee up to the top of a hill, whence he might 

sufficiently heard, he cried aloud to Saul’s 
soldiers, and to Abner their commander, and 


awakened them out of their sleep, and called 
both to him and to the people. 


Hereupon the 
commander heard him, and asked who it 
was that called him? 'To whom David replied, 
“Jt is I, the son of Jesse, whom you make a 
vagabond. But what is the matter? Dost 
thou, that art a man of so great dignity, and of 
the first rauk in the king’s court, take so little 
care of thy master’s body? and is a sleep of 
more consequence to thee than his preservation 
and thy care of him? This negligence of 
yours deserves death, and punishment to be in- 
flieted on you, who never perceived when a 
little while ago some of us entered into your 
camp, nay, as far as to the king himself, and all 
the rest of you. If thou look for the king’s 
gpear, and his cruse of water, thou wilt learn 
what a mighty misfortune was ready to over- 
take you in your very camp without your 
knowing of it.” Now, when Saul knew Da- 
vid’s voice, and understood that when he had 
him in his power while he was asleep, and his 
oe took no care of him, yet did not he kill 

im, but spared him when he might justly 
have cut him off, he said, that “he owed him 
thanks for his preservation; and exhorted him 


to be of good courage, and not to be afraid of 
suffering any mischief from him any more, 
and to return to his own home, for he was now 


persuaded, that he did not love himself so well 
as he was beloved by him: that he had driven 


away him that could guard him, and had given 


' 


‘many demonstrations of his good will to him: 


that he had forced him to live so long in a state 


of banishment, and in great fears of his life, 
' destitute of his friends and his kindred, while 


still he was often saved by him, and frequently 
received his life again when it was evidently 
tm danger of perishing.” So David bade them 


163 


send for the spear and the cruse of water, and 
take them back; adding this withal, that “God 
would be the judge of both their dispositions 
and of the actions that flowed from the same, 
who knows that when it was this day in my 
power to have killed thee, I abstained from it.” 

10. Thus Saul, having escaped the hands of 
David twice, he went his way to his royal pae 
lace, and his own city: but David was afraid, 
that if he stayed there he should be caught by 
Saul, so he thought it better to go up into the 
land of the Philistines and abide there. Ac- 
cordingly, he came, with the six hundred men 
that were with him, to Achish, the king of Gath, 
which was one of their five cities. Now the king 
received both him and his men, and gave them 
a place to inhabit in. He had with him also 
his two wives, Ahinoamand Abigail, and he 
dwelt in Gath. But when Saul heard this, he 
took no farther care about sending to him, or go- 
ing after him, because he had been twice, in a 
manner, caught by him, while he was himself 
endeavoring to catch him. However, David 
had no mind to continue in the city of Gath, 
but desired the king, that since he had received 
him with such humanity, that he would grant 
him another favor, and bestow upon him some 
place of that country for his habitation, for he 
was ashamed, by living in the city, to be griev- 
ous and burdensome to him. So Achish gave 
hima certain village called Ziklag; which place 
David and his sons were fond of when he was 
king, and reckoned it to be their pevuliar in- 
heritance. But about those matters we shall 
Re the reader farther information elsewhere. 

ow the time that David dwelt in Ziklag, in 
the Jand of the Philistines, was four months and 
twenty days. And now he privately attacked 
those Geshurites and Amalekites that were 
neighbors to the Philistines, and laid waste 
their country, and took much prey of their 
beasts and camels, and then returned home; 
but David abstained from the men,as fearing 
they should discover him to king Achish, yet 
did he send part of the prey to him asa free 
gift. And when the king inquired whom they 
had attacked when they brought away the prey, 
he said, those that lay on the south of the Jews, 
and inhabited in the plain; whereby he per- 
suaded Achish to approve of what he had done, 
for he hoped that David had fought against his 
own nation, and that now he should have him 
for his servant all his life long and that he would 
stay in his country. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


How Saul, upon God’s not answering him con 
cerning the fight with the Philistines, desire 
a@ necromantic woman to ratse up the soul of 
Samuel to him; and how he died, with his sons, 
upon the overthrow of the Hebrews in batile. 


§ 1. About the same time the Philistines re- 
solved to make war against the Israelites, and 
sent to all their confederates that they would 
go along with them to the war to Reggen, [near 
the city Shunem,] whence they might gather 
themselves together, and suddenly attack the 
Hebrews. Then did Achish, the king of Gath 


64 


desire David to assist them with his armed 
men against the Hebrews. This he readily 
promised, and said, that the time was now 
come wherein he might requite him for his 
kindness and hospitality: so the king promised 
to make him the keeper of his body after the 
victory, supposing that the battle with the ene- 
my succeeded to their mind; which promise 
of honor and confidence he made on purpose 
#0 increase his zeal for his service. 

2. Now Saul, the king of the Hebrews, had 
east out of the country the fortune-tellers, and 
the necromancers, and all such as exercised 
the like arts, excepting the prophets. But 
when he heard that the Philistines were already 
come, and had pitched their camp near the 
city Shunem, situate in the plain, he made haste 
to oppose them with his forces; and when he 
was come to a certain mountain called Gilboa, 
he pitched his camp over against the enemy, 
but when he saw the enemy’s army, he was 
greatly troubled, because it appeared to him 
to be numerous, and superior to his own; and 
he inquired of God by the prophets concerning 
the battle, that he might know beforehand what 
would be the event of it. And when God did 
not answer him, Saul was under a still greater 
dread and his courage fell, foreseeing, as was 
but reasonable to suppose, that mischief would 
befal him, now God was not there to assist him; 
yet did he bid his servants to inquire out for 

im some woman that was a necromancer, and 
called up the souls of the dead, that so he 
might know whether his affairs would succeed 
to his mind; for this sort of necromantic women 
that brings up the souls of the dead, do by them 
foretell future events to such as desire them. 
And one of his servants told him, that there 
was such a woman in the city of Endor, but 
was known to nobody in the camp: hereupon 
Saul put off his royal apparel, and took two of 
those his servants with him, whom he knew to 
be most faithful to him, and came to Endor to 
the woman, and entreated her to act the part of 
a fortune-teller, and to bring up such a soul to 
him as he should nameto her. But when the 
woman opposed his motion and said, she did 
not despise the king, who had banished this 
sort of fortune-tellers, and that he did not do 
well himself, when she had done him no harm, 
to endeavor to lay a snare for her, and to dis- 
cover that she exercised a forbidden art, in or- 
der to procure her to be punished, he swore 
that nobody should know what she did; and 
that he would not tell any one else what she 
fretold, but that she should incur no danger. 
As soon as he had induced her by this oath to 
fear no harm, he bade her bring up to him the 
soul of Samuel. She not knowing who Sa- 
muel was, called him out of Hades. When he 
appeared, and the woman saw one that was 
venerable, and of a divine form, she was in 
disorder; and being astonished at the sight, she 
said, “Art not thou king Saul?” for Samuel 
had informed her who he was. When he 
had owned that to be true, and had asked her 
whence her disorder arose, she said, that “she 
vy acertain person ascend, who in his form 


ANTIQUITIES UF THE JEWS. 





was like to a god.” And when he bade nex 
tell him what he resembled; in what habit he 
appeared, and of what age he was, she told 
him, “He was an old man already, and of a 
glorious personage, and had ona sacerdotal 
mantle.” So the king discoverd by these signs 
that he was Samuel; and he fell down u 
the ground, and saluted, and worshipped him 
And when the soul of Samuel asked him, wh, 
he had disturbed him, and caused him to b 
brought up, he lamented the necessity he was 
under; for he said, “That his enemies pressed 
heavily upon him; that he was in distress what 
to do in his present circumstances; that he was 
forsaken of God, and could obtain no predic- 
tion of what was coming, neither by prophets 
nor dreams, and that these were the reasons 
why I have recourse to thee, who always tookest 
care of me.” But Samuel, seeing that the end of 
Saul’s life was come,* said, “It is vain for thee 
to desire to learn of me any thing farther, when 
God hath forsaken thee; however, hear what 
I say, that David is to be king, and to finish 
this war with good success; and thou art to 
lose thy dominion and thy life, because thou 
didst not obey God in the war with the Amalek- 
ites, and hast not kept his commandments, as I 
foretold thee while I wasalive. Know, therefore, 
that the people shall be made subject to their 
enemies, and that thou, with thy sons, shall fall 
in the battle to-morrow, and thou shalt then be 
with me [in Hades.]” 

3. When Saul had heard this, he could not 
speak for grief, and fell down on the floor, 
whether it were from the sorrow that arose 
upon what Samuel had said, or from his emptt 
ness, for he had taken no food the foregoin 
day nor night, he easily fell quite down: an 
when with difficulty he had recovered himself, 
the woman would force him to eat, begging 
this of him as a favor on account of her con- 
cern in that dangerous instance of fortune-tell- 
ing, which it was not lawful for her to have 
done, because of the fear she was under of the 
king, while she knew not who he was, yet did 
she undertake it, and go through with it, on 
which account she entreated him to admit that 
a table and food might be set before him, that 
he might recover his strength, and so get safe 
to his own camp. And when he opposed her 
motion, and entirely rejected it, by reason of 
his anxiety, she forced him, and at last p 
suaded him to it. Now she had one calf that 
she was very fond of, and one that she took a 
great deal of care of, and fed it herself, for she 
was a woman that got her living by the labor 
of her own hands, and had no other possession 


* This history of Saul’s consultation, not with a witch, as 
we render the Hebrew word here, but with a 
as the whole history shows, is easily understood, especial 
if we consult the recognitions of Clement, b. i. chap. v. at 
large, and more briefly, and nearer the days of Samuel, Eo 
cles. xIvi. 20, “Samuel prophesied after his death, and show i 
ed the king his end, and lifted up his voice from the earth im 
prophesy, to blot out the wickedness of the people.”? Nor 
does the exactness of the accomplishment of this predic” 
tion, the very next day, permit us to suppose any bagi 
upon Saul in the present history; for as to all modern hype 
thesis against the natural sense of such ancient and auther- — 
tig histories, I take them to be of very small value or comme — 

eration. 


| 


wa ts 


: 


ss 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER XIV. 


Sut that one calf; this she killed, and made 
ready its flesh, and set it before his servants 
and himself. So Saul came to the camp while 
it yet was night. 
4, Now it is but just to recommend the 
enerosity of the woman,* because when the 
Bae had forbidden her to use that art whence 
her circumstances were bettered and improv- 
ed, and when she had never seen the king be- 
fore, she still did not remember to his disad- 
vantage that he had condemned her sort of 
_ learning, and did not refuse him as a stranger, 
and one that she had no acquaintance with; 
but she had compassion upon hin, and com- 
forted him, and exhorted him to do what he 
was greatly averse to, and offered him the only 
creature she had, as a poor woman, and that 
earnestly and with great humanity, while she 
had no requital made to her for her kindness, 
nor hunted after any future favor from him, 
for she knew he was to die; whereas men are 
naturally either ambitious to please those that 
bestow henefits upon them, or are very ready 
to serve those from whom they may receive 
some advantage. It would be well, therefore, 
to imitate the example of this woman, and to 
do kindness to all such as are in want; and to 
think that nothing is better, nor more becom- 
ing mankind, than such a general beneficence, 
nor what will sooner render God favorable, 
end ready to bestow good things upon us. 
Aud so far may suffice to have spoken con- 
cerning this woman. But J shall speak further 
upon another subject, which will afford me an 
opportunity of discoursing on what is for the 
advantage of cities, and people, and nations, 
and suited to the taste of good men, and will 
encourage them all in the prosecution of virtue, 
and is capable of showing them the method of 
acquiring glory, and an everlasting fame; and 
of imprinting in the kings of nations, and the 
rulers of cities, great inclination and diligence 
of doing well; as also of encouraging them to 
undergo dangers, and to die for their countries, 
und of instructing them how to despise all the 
most terrible adversities; and I have a fair oc- 
casion offered me to enter on such a discourse, 
by Saui, king of the Hebrews: for although 
he knew what was coming upon him, and that 
he was to die immediately, by the prediction 
of the prophet, he did not resolve to fly from 
death, nor so far to indulge the love of life, as 
to betray his own people to the enemy, or to 
bring a disgrace on his royal dignity; but ex- 
posing himself, as well as all his family and 
children to dangers, he thought it a brave thing 
to fall together with them, as he was fighting 
for his subjects, and that it was better his sons 
should die thus, showing their courage, than 
to leave them to their uncertain conduct after- 
ward, while, instead of succession and posteri- 
ty, they gained commendation and a lasting 
nar.c. Such a one alone seems to me.to be a 
just, a courageous, and a prudent man; and 


* These great commendations of this necromantic woman 
ef Endor, andof Saul’s martial courage, when yet he knew 
‘be should die in the battle, are somewhat unusual digressions 
® Josephus. They seem to be extracted from some speeches 


165 


when any one has arrived at these dispositions, 
or shall hereafter arrive at them, he is the man 
that ought to be by all honored with the testi 
mony of a virtuous or courageous man; for ag 
to those that go out to war with hopes of sue 
cess, and that they shall return safe, supposing 
they have performed some glorious action, I 
think those do not do well who call these yva- 
liant men, as so many historians and other 
writers who treat of them are wont to do, al- 
though I confess those do justly deserve some 
commendation also; but those only may be 
styled courageous and bold in great undertak- 
ings, and despisers of adversities, who imitate 
Saul; for as for those who do not know what 
the event of war will be as to themselves, and 
though they do not faint in it, but deliver them- 
selves up to uncertain futurity, and are tossed 
this way and that way, this is not so very emi- 
nent an instance of a generous mind, although 
they happen to perform many great exploits 
but when men’s minds expect no good event, 
but they know beforehand they must die, and 
that they must undergo that death in the battle 
also, after this neither to be affrighted, nor to 
be astonished at the terrible fate that is coming, 
but to go directly upon it, when they know it 
beforehand, this it is that I esteem the charac- 
ter of a man truly courageous. Accordingly, 
this Saul did, and thereby demonstrated thai 
all men who desire fame after. they are dead, 
are so to act as they may obtain the same: this 
especially concerns kings, who ought not to 
think it enough in their high station that they 
are not wicked in the government of their sub- 
jects, but to be more than moderately good to 
them. I could say more than this about Sau! 
and his courage, the subject affording matter 
sufficient; but that I may not appear to run 
out improperly in his commendation, I return 
again to that history from which I made this 
digression. 

»o. Now when the Philistines, as I said be- 
fore, had pitched their camp, and had taken an 
account of their forces, according to their na- 
tions, and kingdoms, and governments, king 
Achish came last of all with his own army: 
after whom came David with his six hundred 
armed men. And when the commanders of 
the Philistines saw him, they asked the king 
whence these Hebrews came, and at whose in- 
vitation. He answered, that “It was David, 
who was fled away from his master Saul, and 
that he had entertained him when he came to 
him, and that now he was willing to make him 
a requital for his favors, and to avenge him- 
self upon Saul, and so was become his con- 
federate.” The commanders complained of 
this, that he had taken him for a confederate 
who was anenemy; and gave him counsel to 
send him away, lest he should unawares do his 
friends a great deal of mischief by entertain- 
ing him, for that he afforded him an opportu- 
nity of being reconciled to his master by do- 


or declamations of his, composed formerly in the way of aa 
atory, that lay by him, and which he thought fit to insert upom 
this occasion. See before on Antig. b. ii. ch vi. sect 8. 

4 


166 


ing mischief to our army. They, thereupon, 
desired him, out of a prudent foresight of this, 
to send him away, with hissix hundred armed 
men, to the place he had given hitn for his habi- 
tation; that this was that David whom the vir- 
gins celebrated in their hymns, as having de- 
stroyed many ten thousands of the Philistines. 
When the king of Gath heard this, he thought 
they spoke well; so he called David, and said to 
him, “As for myself, 1 can bear witness that 
thou bast shown great diligence and kindness 
about me, and on that account it was that I took 
thee for my confederate; however, what I have 
done does not please the commanders of the 
Philistines; go, therefore, within a day’s time to 
the place [have given thee, without suspecting 
any. harm, and there keep my country, lest any 
of our enemies should make an incursion upon 
it, which will be one part of that assistance 
which I expect from thee.” So David came to 
Ziklag, as the king of Gath bid him; but it hap- 
pened, that while he was gone to the assistance 
of the Philistines, the Amalekites had made an 
incursion, and taken Ziklag before, and had 
burnt it: and when they had taken a great deal of 
other prey out of that place, and out of the 
ther parts of the Philistines’ country, they de- 
parted. 

6. Now when David found that Ziklag was 
laid waste, and that it was all spoiled, and that 
as well as his own wives, who were two, as the 
wives of his companions, with their children, 
were made captives, he presently rent his 
clothes, weeping and lamenting, together with 
his friends: and indeed he was so cast down 
with these misfortunes, that at length tears 
themselves failed him. He was also in dan- 
ger of beingstoned to death by his compa- 
nions, who were greatly afflicted at the captivity 
of their wives and children, for they laid the 
blame upon him of what had happened. But 
when he had recovered himself out of his grief, 
and had raised up his mind to God, he desired 
the high priest Abiathar to put on his sacerdo- 
tal garments, and to inquire of God, and to 
prophesy to him, “Whether God would grant, 
that if he pursued after the Amalekites, he 
should overtake them, and save their wives and 
their children, and avenge himself on the ene- 
mies.” And when the high priest bade him 
pursue after them, he marched apace, with his 
six hundred men, after the enemy; and when 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. -, 


out the Amalekites; and when he had overtaken 
them, as they lay scattered about on the ground, 
some at diuner, some disordered, and entirely 
drunk with wine, and in the fruition of their 
spoils and their prey, he fell upon them on the 
sudden, and made a great slaughter among 
them, for they were naked, and expected no 
such thing, but had betaken themselves to drink 
ing and feasting, and so they were all easily de 
stroyed. Now some of them that were overtak 
en as they lay at the table, were slain in that 
posture, and their blood brought up with it their | 
meat and their drink. They slew others of them 
as they were drinking to one another in their 
cups, and some of them when their full bel- 
lies had made them fall asleep; and for so many 
as had time to put on all their armor, they slew 
them with the sword with no less ease than 
they did those that were naked; and for the 
partisans of David, they continued also the 
slaughter from the first hour of the day to the 
evening, so that there were not above four hun- 
dred of the Amalekites left, and they only es- 
caped by getting upon their dromedaries and 
camels. Accordingly, David recovered not 
only all the spoils which the enemy had car- 
ried away, but his wives also, and the wives of 
his companions. But when they were come 
to the place where they had left the two hun- 
dred men, which were not able to follow them, 
but were left to take care of the stuff; the four 
hundred men did not think fit to divide 
among them any other parts of what they 
had gotten, or of the prey, since they did not 
accompany them, but pretended to be feeble, 
and did not follow them in the pursuit of the 
enemy, but said, they should be contented 
to have safely recovered their wives; yet did 
David pronounce, that this opinion of theirs 
was evil and unjust, and that when God had 
granted them such a favor, that they had 
avenged themselves on their enemies, and 
had recovered all that belonged to themselves, 
they should make an equal distribution of 
what they had gotten to all, because the rest 
had tarried behind to guard their stuff, and 
from that time this law obtained among them, ~ 
that those who guarded the stuffshould receive ~ 
an equal share with those that fought in the 
battle. Now when David was come to Ziklag, 
he sent portions of the spoils to all that had 
been familiar with him, and to his friends in~ 


the tribe of Judah. And thus ended the affair 
of the plundering of Ziklag, and of theslaugh 
ter of the Amalekites. 
7. Now upon the Philistines joining battle, 
there followed a sharp engagement, and the — 
Philistines became the conquerors, and slew — 
a great number of their enemies; but Saul the — 
king of Israel, and his sons, fought coura-— 
geously, and with the utmost alacrity, as know- t 
ing that their entire glory lay in nothing else — 
but dying honorably, and exposing them- — 
selves to the utmost danger from the enemy, — 
(for they had nothing else to hope for,) so they — 
brought upon themselves the whole power of 
the enemy, till they were uncompassed round, 
and slain, but not before tiey had killed many — 


he was come to a certain brook called Besor, 
and had lit upon one that was wandering about, 
an Egyptian by birth, who was almost dead 
with want and famine, (for he had continued 
wandering about without food in the wilder- 
ness three days,) he first of all gave him suste- 
nance, both meat and drink, and thereby re- 
freshed him. He then asked him to whom he 
belonged, and whence he came? Whereupon 
the man told him he was an Egyptian by birth, 
and was left behind by his master, because he 
was so sick and weak that he could not follow 
nim. Healso informed him, that he was one 
of those that had burnt and plundered, not 
only other parts of Judea, but Ziklag itself also. 
So David made use of him as a guide to find 







ot the Philistines. Now the sons of Saul 
were Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchisua; 
and when these were slain, the multitude of 
the Hebrews were put to fight, and all was dis- 
order and confusion, and slaughter, upon the 
Philistines pressing in upon them. But Saul 
himself fled, having a strong body of soldiers 
abouthim; and upon the Philistines sending 
after him those that threw javelins and shot ar- 
rows, he lost all his company except a few; as 
for himself, he fought with great bravery, and 
when he had received so many wounds, that 
he was not able to bear up, nor to oppose any 
longer, and yet was not able to kill himself, he 
bid his armor-bearer draw his sword, and run 
him through, before the enemy should take 
him alive. But his armor-bearer not daring 
to kill his master, he drew his own sword, and 
pes himself over against its point, he threw 

imself upon it, and when he could neither run 
it through him; nor by leaning against it, make 
the sword pass through him, he turned him 
round, and asked a certain young man that stood 
by, who he was? and when he understood that 
he was an Amalekite, he desired him to force 
the sword through him, because be was not 
able to do it with his own hands, and thereby 
to procure him such a death as he desired. 
This the young man did accordingly; and he 
took the golden bracelet that was on Saul’s 
arm, and his royal crown that was on his head, 
and ran away. And when Saul’s armor- 
bearer saw that he was slain, he killed himself; 
nor did any of the king’s guards escape, but 
they all fell upon the mountain called Gilboa. 
But when those Hebrews that dwelt in the val- 
ley beyond Jordan, and those who had _ their 
cities in the plain, heard that Saul and his sons 
were fallen, and that the multitude about them 
were destroyed, they left their own cities, and 
fled to such as were the best fortified and fenc- 
ed; and the Philistines finding those cities de- 
serted; came and dwelt in them. 

8. On the next day, when the Philistines 
came to strip their enemies that were slain, 
they got the bodies of Saul and of his sons, 
and stripped them, and cut off their heads; and 


they sent messengers all about their country, to | 


acquaint them that their enemies were fallen; 





BOOK VII.—CHAPTER I. ie 


and they dedicated their armor in the temple 
of Astarte, but hung their bodies on crosses at 
the walls of the city of Bethshan, which is now 
called Scythopolis. But when the inhabitants 
of Jabesh Gilead heard that they had dismem- 
bered the dead bodies of Saul and of his sens, 
they deemed it so horrid a thing to overlook 
this barbarity, and to-suffer them to be without 
funeral rites, that the most courageous and har- 
dy among them (and indeed that city had in ®t 
men that were very stout, both in mind and ia 
body) journeyed all night, and came to Beth- 
shan, and approached to the enemy’s walls, and 
taking down the bodies of Saul and of his sona, 
they carried them to Jabesh, while the enemy 
were not able enough nor bold enough to hin- 
der them, because of their great courage. So 
the people of Jabesh wept all in general, and 
buried their bodies in the best place of their 
country; which was named Aroura; and they 
observed a public mourning for them seven 
days, with their wives and children, beating 
their breasts, and lamenting the king and his 
sons, without either tasting meat or drink [tll 
the evening.*] 

9. To this his sad end did Saul come, accord- 
ing to the prophecy of Samuel, because he 
disobeyed the commands of God about the 
Amalekites, and on the account of his destroy- 
ing the family of Ahimelech the high priest, 
with Ahimelech himself, and the city of the 
high priests... Now Saul, when he had reigned 
eighteen years, while Samuel was alive, and 
after his death [two and twenty,] ended his life 
in this manner. 


* This way of speaking in Josephus, of fasting seven days 
without meat or drink, is almost like that of St. Paul’s, Acts 
xxvii. 33, “‘This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tar- 
ried and continued fasting, having taken nothing;” and ae 
the nature of the thing, and the impossibility of strictly fast- 
ing so long, require us here to understand both Josephus and 
the sacred author of this history, 1 Sam. xxxi. 13, from 
whence he took it, of only fasting till the evening; so must 
we understand St. Paul, either that this was really the four- 
teenth day of their tempestuous weather in the Adriatic Se 
as ver. 27, and that on this fourteenth day alone they ha 
continued fasting, and had taken nothing before the evening. 
The mention of their long abstinence, ver. 21, inclines me to 
believe the former explication to be the truth, and that the 
case was then for a fortnight what it was here for a week, 
that they kept all those days entirely as fasts till the evening 
but not longer. See Judg. xx. 26; xxi. 2; 1 Sam. xiv. 24, i 
Sam. i. 12; Antiq. b. vii. chap. vii. sect. 4. 





BOOK VII. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF FORTY YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF SAUL [TO THE DEATH 
OF DAVID. 





CHAPTER I. 


_ How David reigned over one tribe at Hebron, 
while the son of Saul reigned over the rest of 
the multitude; and how in the civil war, which 
then arose, Asahel and Abner were slain. 


§ 1. Tus fight proved to be on the same 
day whereon David was come back to Ziklag, 
after he had overcome the Amalekites. Now 
when he had been already two days at Ziklag, 
' there came to him the man who slew Saul, 


‘Be 


which was the third day after the fight. He 
had escaped out of the battle, which the Israel- 
ites had with the Philistines, and had his clothes 
rent, and ashes upon his head. And when he 
had made his obeisance to David, he inquired 
of him whence he came. He replied, from 
the battle of the Israelites: and he informed 
him, that the end of it was unfortunate, many 
ten thousands of the Israelites having been cut 
off, and Saul, together with his sons, slain. He 
also said, that he could well give him this ur 


168 


formation, because he was present at the vic- 
tory geined over the Hebrews, and was with 
the king when he fled. Nor did he deny that 
he had himself slain the king, when he was 
ready to be taken by the enemy, and he him- 
self exhorted him to do it, because, when he 
was fallen or his sword, his great wounds had 
made him sc weak that he was not able to kill 
himself. He also produced demonstrations 
that the king was slain, which were the golden 
bracelets that had been on the king’s arms, and 
his crown, which he had taken away from 
Saul’s dead body, and had brought them to 
him. So David having no longer any room 
to call in question the truth of what he said, 
but seeing most evident marks that- Saul was 
dead, he rent his garments, and continued all 
that day with his companions, in weeping and 
lamentation. This grief was augmented by 
the consideration of Jonathan, the son of Saul, 
who had been his most faithful friend, and the 
occasion of his own deliverance. He also de- 
monstrated himself to have such great virtue, 
and such great kindness for Saul, as not only 
to take his death to heart, though he had been 
frequently in danger of losing his life by his 
means, but to punish him that slew him: for 
when David had said to him that he was be- 
come his own accuser, as the very man who 
had slain the king, and. when he had under- 
stood that he was the son of an Amalekite, he 
commanded him to be slain. He also commit- 
ted to writing some lamentations and funeral 
commendations of Saul and Jonathan, which 
have continued to my own age. 

2. Now when David had “paid these honors 
to the king, he left off his mourning; and in- 
quired of God by the prophet, which of the 
cities of the tribe of Judah he would bestow 
upon him to dwell in? Who answered, that 
he bestowed upon him Hebron. So he left 
Ziklag, and came to Hebron, and took with 
him his wives, who were in number two, and 
his armed men; whereupon all the people of 
the forementioned tribe came to him, and or- 
dained him their king. But when he heard 
that the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead had bu- 
ried Saul and his sons, [honorably,] he sent to 
them and commended them, and took what 
they had done kindly, and promised to make 
them amends for their care of those that were 
dead; and at the same time he informed them, 
that the tribe of Judah had chosen him for 
their king. 

3. But as soon as Abner, the son of Ner, who 
was general of Saul’s army, and a very active 
man, and good natured, knew that the king, 
and Jonathan, and his two other sons, were fall. 
en in the battle, he made haste into the camp; 
and taking away with him the remaining son of 
Saul, whose name was Ishbosheth,he passed 
over to the land beyond Jordan, and ordained 
him the king of the whole multitude, excepting 
the tribe of Judah: and made his royal seat ina 
gg called in our own language Mahanaim, 

ut in the language of the Grecians, the 
Camps; from whence Abner made haste with 
a select body of soldiers, to fight with such of 


We 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


the tribe of Judah as were disposed to it, for 
he was angry that this tribe had set up David 
for their king. But Joab, whose father was 
Suri, and his mother Zeruiah, David’s sister — 
who was general of David’s army, met him, 
according to David’s appointment. He had 
with him his brethren Abishai and Asahel, as 
also all David’s armed men. Now when he 
met Abner at a certain fountain, in thecity of | 
Gibeon, he prepared to fight. And when Ab- 
ner said to him, that he had a mind to know 
which of them had the most valiant soldiers, 
it was agreed between them, that twelve soldiers 
of each side should fight together. So those 
that were chosen out by both the generals for 
this fight, came between the two armies, and 
throwing their lances one against the other, 
they drew their swords, and catching one 
another by the head, they held one another fast, 
and ran each other’s swords into their sides and 
groins, until they all, as it were by mutual 
agreement, perished together. When these 
were fallen down dead, the rest of the army 
came to a sore battle, and Abner’s men were 
beaten; and when they were beaten, Joab did 
not leave off pursuing them, but he pressed 
upon them, and excited the soldiers to follow 
them close, and not to grow weary of killing 
them. His brethren also pursued them with 


.great alacrity, and especially the younger, Asa- 


hel, who was the most eminent of them. He 
was very famous for his swiftness of foot, for 
he could not only be too hard for men, but is 
reported to have overrun a horse, when they 
had arace together. This Asahel ran violent- 
ly after Abner, and would not turn in the least 
out of the straight way, either to the one side 
or tothe other. Hereupon Abner turned back, 
and attempted artfully to avoid his violence, 
Sometimes he bade him leave off the pursuit, 
and take the armor of one of his soldiers; and 
sometimes, when he could not persuade him 
so to do, he exhorted him to restrain himself, 
and not to pursue him any longer, lest he should 
force him to kill him, and he should then not be 
able to look his brother in the face. But when 
Asahel would not admit of any persuasion, but 
still continued to pursue him, Abner smote him — 
with his spear, as he held it in his flight, and 
that by a back stroke, and gave him a deadly 
wound, so that he died immediately; but those 
that were with him pursuing Abner, when they 
came to the place were Asahel lay, they stood 
round about the dead body, and left off the 
pursuit of the enemy. However, both Joab 
himself and his brother Abishai ran past the 
dead corpse,* and making their anger at the 
death of Asahel an occasion of greater zeal 
against Abner, they went on with incredible 
haste and alacrity, and pursued Abner to a cer- 
tain place called Ammak: it was about sun-set 
Then did Joab ascend a certain hill,as he stood 
at that place, having the tribe of Benjamin with 
[before] him, whence he took a view of them 


*Itought here to be noted, that Joab, and Abishai, and — 
Asahel, were all three David’s nephews, the sons of his si 
ter Zeruiah, as 1 Chron. ii. 6; and that Amasa was also bw 
nephew by his other sister Abigail, ver 17. ae 


BOON VIL—CHAPTER 1. 


aud of Avner aso. Hereupon Abner cried 
aloud, and said, “That it was not fit that they 
should irritate men of the same nation to fight 
so bitterly one against another; that as for Asa- 
hel his brother, he was himself in the wrong, 
when he would not be advised by him not to 
pursue him any further, which was the occa- 
sion of his wounding and death.” So Joab con- 
sented to what he said, and accepted these his 
words as an excuse about [Asahel,] and called 
the soldiers back with the sound of the trum- 
pet, asa signal for their retreat, and thereby put 
a stop to any further pursuit. After which, 
Joab pitched his camp there that night: but 
Abner marched all that night, and passed over 
the river Jordan, and came to Ishbosheth, 
Saul’s son, to Mahanaim. On the next day 
Joab counted the dead men, and took care of 
all their funerals. Now there were slain of 
Abner’s soldiers about three hundred and sixty, 
but of those of David nineteen, and Asahel, 
whose body Joab and Abishai carried to Beth- 
seem; and when they had buried him in the 
sepulchre of their fathers, they came to David 
to Hebron. From this time, therefore, there 
began an intestine war, which lasted a great 
while, in which the followers of David grew 
stronger in the dangers they underwent, and 
the servants and subjects of Saul’s son did al- 
mest every day become weaker. 

4. About this time David was become the 
father of six sons born of as many mothers. 
The eldest was by Ahinoam, and he was called 
Ainnon; the second was Daniel, by his wife 
Abigail; the name of the third was Absalom, 
by Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of 
Geshur; the fourth he named Adoniyah, by his 
wife Haggith; the fifth was Shephatia, by Abi- 
tal; the sixth he called Ithream, by Eglah. 
Now while this intestine war went on, and the 
subjects of the two kings came frequently to 
action and to fighting, it was Abner the gene- 
ra of the host of Saul’s son, who, by his pru- 
dence, and the great interest he had among the 
m iltitude; made them all continue with Ishho- 
sheth: and indeed it was a considerable time 
that they continued of his party: but afterward 
Abner was blamed, and an accusation was Iaid 
against him, that he went into Saul’s concu- 
bine; her name was Rispah, the daughter of 
Aiah. So when he was complained of by Ish- 
bosheth, he was very uneasy and angry at it 
bevause he had not justice done him by Ishbo- 
sheth, to whom he had shown the greatest 
kindness; whereupon he threatened that he 
would transfer the kingdom to David, and de- 
monstrate that he did not rule over the peo- 
ple beyond Jordan by his own abilities and 
wisdom, but by his warlike conduct and fideli- 
ty, in leading his army. So he sent ambassa- 
dors to Hebron to David, and desired that he 
would give him security upon oath, that he 
would esteem him his companion and his friend, 
npon condition that he should persuade the 
Lene to leave Saul’s son, and choose him 

ing of the whole country. And when David 
had made that league with Abner, for he was 
pleased with his message to him, he desired 


169 


that he would give this as the first mark of per- 
formance of the present league, that he might 
have his wife Michal restored to him, as her 
whom he had purchased with great hazard, 
and with those six hundred heads of the Phi- 
listines which he had brought to Saul her father. 
So Abner took Michal from Phaltiel, who waa 
then her husband, and sent her to David, Ish- 
bosheth himself affording him his assistance, 
for David had written to him that of right he 
ought to have this his wife restored to him. 
Abner also called together the elders of the 
multitude, the commanders, and captains of 
thousands, and spake thus to them: that, “he 
had formerly dissuaded them from their own 
resolution when they were ready to forsake 
Ishbosheth, and to join themselves to David; 
that, however, he now gave them leave so to 
do, if they had a mind to it, for they knew that 
God had appointed David to be king of all the 
Hebrews, by Samuel the prophet: and had fore- 
told that he should punish the Philistines, and 
overcome them, and bring them under.” Now 
when the elders and rulers heard this, and un- 
derstood that Abner was come over to those 
sentuuments about the public affairs which they 
were of before, they changed their measures, 
and came in to David. When these men had 
agreed to Abner’s proposal, he called together 
the tribe of Benjamin, for all of that tribe were 
the guards of Ishbosheth’s body, and he spoke 
to them to the same purpose. And when he 
saw that they did not in the least oppose what he 
said, but resigned themselves up to his opinion, 
he took about twenty of his friends, and came 
to David in order to receive himself security 
upon oath from him; for we may justly esteem 
those things to be firmer, which every one of 
us do by ourselves, than those which we do by 
another. Efe also gave him an account of 
what he had said to the rulers, and to the whole 
tribe of Benjamin. And when David had re- 
ceived him in a courteous manner, and had 
treated him with great hospitality for many 
days, Abner, when he was dismissed, desired 
him to permit him to bring the multitude with 
him, that he might deliver up the government 
to lim, when David himself was present, and a 
spectator of what was done. 

5. When David had sent Abner away, Joab 
the general of his army, came immediately to 
Hebron, and when he had understood that Ab- 
ner had been with David, and had parted with 
him a little before, under leagues and agree 
ments that the governinent should be delivered 
up to David, he feared lest David should place 
Abner, who had assisted him to gain the king 
dom, in the first rank of dignity, especially 
since he was a shrewd man in other respects, 
in understanding affairs, and in managing them 
artfully, as proper seasons should require and 
that he should himself be put lower, and be de- 
prived of the command of the army; so he 
took aknavish and wicked course. In the first 
place, he endeavored to calumniate Abner to 
the king, exhorting him to have a care of him, 
and not to give attention to what he had ex 
gaged to do for him, because all he did, tended 


170 


to confirm the govcrnment to Saul’s son; that 
he came to him deceitfully and with guile, and 
was gone away in hopes of gaining his pur- 
pose by this management. But when he could 
not thus persuade David, nor saw him at all 
exasperated, lic betook himself to a project bold- 
er than the former. He determined to kill 
Abner; and in order thereto he sent some mes- 
sengers a‘ter him, to whom he gave in charge, 
that wher. they should overtake him, they should 
recall him in David’s name, and tel] him that he 
had somewhat to say to him about his affairs, 
which he had not remembered to speak of 
when he was with him. Now when Abner 
heard what the messengers said, (for they over- 
took him in a certain place called Besira, which 
was distant from Hebron twenty furlongs,) he 
suspected none of tle mischief which was be- 
falling him, and came back. Hereupon Joab 
met him in the gate, and received him in the 
kindest manner, as if he were Abner’s most 
benevolent acquaintance and friend; for such 
as undertake the vilest actions, in order to pre- 
vent the suspicion of any private mischief in- 
tended, do frequently make the greatest pre- 
tences to what really good men sincerely do. 
So he took him aside from his own followers, 
as if he would speak with him in private, and 
brought him to a void place of the gate, hav- 
ing himself nobody with him but his brother 
Abishai; then he drew his sword, and smote 
him in the groin; upon which Abner died by 
this treachery of Joab’s, which, as he said him- 
self, was in the way of punishment for his 
brother Asahel, whom Abner .smote and slew 
as he was pursuing after him in the battle of 
Hebron, but as the truth was, out of his fear 
of losing his command of the army, and his 
dignity with the king, and lest he should be 
deprived of those advantages, and Abner should 
obtain the first rank in David’scourt. By these 
examples any one may learn, how many and 
how great instances of wickedness men will 
venture upon, for the sake of getting money 
and authority, and that they may not fail of 
either of them: for as when they are desirous 
of obtaining the same, they acquire them by 
ten thousand evil practices, so when they are 
afraid of losing them, they get them confirmed 
to them by practices much worse than the form- 
er, as if [no] other calamity so terrible could 
befall them as the failure of acquiring so exalt- 
ed an authority, and when they have acquired 
it, and by long custom found the sweetness of 
it, the losing it again; and since this last would 
be the heaviest of a.l afflictions, they all of 
them contrive and venture upon the most dif- 
ficult actions, out of the fear of losing the same. 
But let it suffice that I have made these short 
reflections upon that subject. 

6. When David heard that Abner was slain, 
it grieved his soul; and he called all men to 
witness, with stretching out his hands to God, 
and ey'Pe out, that he was not partaker in the 
murder of Abner, and that his death was not 
procured by his command or approbation. He 
also wished the heaviest curses might light 
upen him that slew him, and upon his whole 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS . 


house; and he devoted those who ad assisted 
him in this murder to the same penalties on its 
account; for he took care not to appear to have 
had any hand im this murder, contrary to the 
assurances he had given, and the oaths he had 
taken to Abner. However, he commanded all 
the people to weep and lament this man, and 
to honor his dead body with the usual solemni- 
ties; that is, by rending their garments, and 
putting on sackcloth, and that this should be 
the habit in which they should go before tne 
bier, after which he followed it himself, with 
the elders and those that were rulers, lament- 
ing Abner, and by his tears demonstrating his 
good will to him while he was alive, and his 
sorrow for him now he was dead, and that he 
was not taken off with his consent. So he 
buried him at Hebron, in a magnificent man- 
ner, and indited funeral elegies for him: he 
also stood first over the monument weeping, 
and caused others to do the same; nay, so 
deeply did the death of Abner disorder him, 
that his companions could by no means force 
him to’take any food, for he affirmed with an 
oath that he would taste nothing till the sun 
was set. This procedure gained him the good 
will of the multitude; for such as had an af- 
fection for Abner, were mightily satisfied with 
the respect he paid him when he was dead, 
and the observation of that faith he had plight- 
ed to him, which was showed in his youch- 
safing him all the usual ceremonies, as if he 
had been his kinsman and his friend, and not 
suffering him to be neglected and injured with 
a dishonorable burial, as if he had been his 
enemy; insomuch that the entire nation 1e- 
joiced at the king’s gentleness and milduess of 
disposition, every one being ready to suppuse 
that the king would have taken the sane care 
of them in the like circumstances, which they 
saw he showed in the burial of the dead body 
of Abner. And indeed David principally in- 
tended to gain a good reputation, and therefore 
he took care to do what was proper in this 


case; whence none had any suspicion that he —— 


was the author of Abner’s death. He also 
said this to the multitude, that “he was greatly 
troubled at the death of so good a man; and 
that the affairs of the Hebrews had suffered 
great detriment by being deprived of him, whe 
was of so great abilities to preserve them by 
his excellent advice, and by the strength of his 
hands in war. But he added, that God, who 
hath a regard to all men’s actions, will not 
suffer this man [Joab] to go off unrevenged, 
but know ye, that I am not able to do any 
thing to these sons of Zeruiah, Joab and Abi- 
shai, who have more power than J have, but 


God will requite their insolent attempts upon — 


their own heads:” and this was the fatal con 


clusion of the life of Abner. 


CHAPTER II. 


That upon the slaughter of Ishbosheth 
treachery of his friends, David received 
whole kingdom. 

§ 1. When Ishbosheth the son of Saul 
heard of the death of Abner, he took it 


ae 


4 a 
Cd gil eee s 


‘ 


bad 
eu 
4 






rae 


BOOK VIL— CHAPTER Ii. 


neart to be deprived of a man that was of his 
‘kindred, and had indeed given him the king- 
dom, but was greatly afflicted, and Abner’s 
death very much troubled him; nor did he 
umself outlive any long time, but was treach- 
erously set upon by the sons of Rimmon, 
{Baanah and Rechab were their names,) and 
was slain by them; for these being of a fami- 
ly of the Benjamites, and of the first rank 
among them, thought that if they should slay 
isbbosheth, they should obtain large presents 
from David, and be made commanders by him; 
or however, should have some other trust 
committed tothem. So when they once found 
him alone, asleep at noon, in an upper room, 
when none of his guards were there, and when 


the woman that kept the door was not watcli- | 


ing, but was fallen asleep also, partly on ac- 
count of the labor she had undergone, and 
partly on account of the heat of the day, these 
men went into the room in which Ishbosheth, 
Saul’s son, lay asleep, and slew him; they also 
cut off his head, and took their journey all that 
night, and the next day, as supposing them- 
selves flying away from those they had injured, 
to one that would accept of this action as a 
favor, and would afford them security. So 
they came to Hebron and showed David the 
head of Ishbosheth, and presented themselves 
to him as his well-wishers, and such as had 
killed one that was his enemy and antagonist. 
Yet David did not relish what they had done 
as they expected, but said to them, “You vile 
wretches, you shall immediately receive the 
punishment you deserve. Did not you know 
what vengeance I executed on him that mur- 
dered Saul, and brought me his crown of gold, 
and this while he who made this slaughter did 
it as a favor to him, that he might not be 
caught by his enemies? Or do you imagine 
that [am altered in my disposition, and sup- 
pose that I am not the same man I then was, 
“but am pleased with men that are wicked 
doers, and esteem your vile actions, when you 
are become murderers of your master, as grate- 
ful to me, when you have slain a righteous 
‘man upon his bed, who never did evil to any 
body, and treated you with great good will and 
respect? Wherefore, you shall suffer the pun- 
ishment due on his account, and the vengeance 
{ ought to inflict upon you for killing Ishbo- 
sheth, and for supposing that I should take his 
death kindly at your hands; for you could not 
lay a greater blot on my honor, than by mak- 
ing such a supposal.” When David had said 
this, he tormented them with all sorts of tor- 
ments, and then put them to death; and he be- 
stowed all accustomed rites on the burial of 
the head of Ishbosheth, and laid it in the grave 
of Abner. 
2. When these things were brought to this 
conclusion, all the principal men of the Hebrew 
ple came to David to Hebron, with the 
eads of thousands, and other rulers; and de- 
livered themselves up to him, putting him in 
mind of the good will they had borne to him 
in Saul’s lifetime, and the respect they then had 
~ got ceased to pay him when he was captain of 


17] 


a thousand, as also that he was chosen of God 
by Samuel the prophet, he and his sons;* and 
declaring besides, how God had given him 
power to save the land of the Hebrews, and 
to overcome the Philistines. Whereupon he 
received kindly this their alacrity on his account 
and exhorted them to continue in it, for that 
they should have no reason to repent of being 
thus disposed tohim. So when he had feasted 
them, and treated them kindly, he sent them 
out to bring all the people to him, upon which 
there came to him about six thousand and eigh 
hundred armed men of the tribe of Judah 
who bore shields and spears for their weapons, 
for these had [till now] continued with Saul's 
son, when the rest of the tribe of Judah had 
ordained David for their king. There came 
also seven thousand and one hundred out of 
the tribe of Simeon. Out of the tribe of Le- 
vi came four thousand and seven hundred, 
having Jehoiada for their leader. After these 
came Zadok, the high priest, with twenty-two 
captains of his kindred. Out of the tribe of 
Benjamin the armed men were four thousand, 
but the rest of the tribe continued, still expect- 
ing that some one of the house of Saul shoulc 
reign over them. ‘Those of the tribe of' 
Ephraim were twenty thousand and eight 
hundred, and these mighty men of valor, antl 
eminent for their strength. Out of the half 
tribe of Manasseh came eighteen thousand of 
the most potent men. Out of the tribe of Is 
sachar came two hundred, who foreknew what 
was to come hereafter,+ but of armed men 
twenty thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulon fif- 
ty thousand chosen men. This was the only 
tribe that came universally in to David, and all 
these had the same weapons with the tribe of 
Gad. Out of the tribe of Naphtali the emi- 
nent men and rulers were one thousand, whose 
weapons were shields and spears, and the tribe 
itself followed after, being, in a manner, innu- 
merable, [thirty-seven thousand.] Out of the 
tribe of Dan there were of chosen men twenty- 
seven thousand and six hundred. Out of the 
tribe of Asher were forty thousand. Out of 
the two tribes that were beyond Jordan, and 
the rest of the tribe of Manasseh, such as used 
shields, and spears, and head pieces, and swords, 
were a hundred and twenty thousand. The 
rest of the tribes also made use of swords. 
This multitude came together to Hebron to Da- 
vid, with a great quantity of corn, and wine, 
and all other sorts of food, and established 
David in his kingdom with oneconsent. And 
when the people had rejoiced for three days in 
Hebron, David and all the people removed and 
came to Jerusalem. 


* This may be a true observation of Josephts, that S- 
muel, by command from God, entailed the crown on Tavis 
and his posterity, for no farther did that entail ever reach, 
Solomon himself having never had any promise made hive 
that his posterity should always have the right to it. 

+ These words of Josephus concerning the tribe of Isea- 
char, ‘who foreknew what was to come hereafter,”? are beat 
paraphrased by the parallel text, 1 Chron. xii. 32; ‘Whe 
had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought 
todo;” that is, who had so much knowledge in astronumy 
as to make calendars for the Israelites, that they might keep 
their festivals, and plough and sow, and gather in their har 
vests and vintage in due season. 


172 
CHAPTER III. 


How David lard Siege to Jerusalem; and when 
he had taken the City, he cast the Canaanites 
out of tt,and brought in the Jews to wmhalit 
therein. 

§ 1. Now the Jebusites, who were the in- 
habitants of Jerusalem, and were by extraction 
Canaanites, shut their gates, and placed the 
blind, and the lame, and all their maimed per- 
sons, upon the wall,in way of derision of the 
king; and said, that the very lame themselves 
would hinder his entrance into it. This they 
didout of contempt of his power, and as de- 
pending on the strength of their walls. David 
was hereby enraged, and began the siege of 
Jerusalem, and employed his utmost diligence 
and alacrity therein, as intending by the taking 
of this place to demonstrate his power, and to 
intimidate all others that might be of the like 
Fated disposition towards him: so he took the 
ower city by force, but the citadel held out 
atill;* whence it was that the king, knowing 
thet the proposal of dignities and rewards 
would encourage the soldiers to greater actions, 
premised that he who should first go over the 
ditches that were beneath the citadel, and should 
ascend to the citadel itself and take it, should 
have the command of the entire people con- 
ferred upon him. So they all were ambitious to 
ascend, and thought no pains too great in order 
to ascend thither; out of their desire of the chief 
command. However, Joab, the son of Ze- 
ru.ah, prevented the rest; and as soon as he was 
got up to the citadel, cried out to the king, and 
claimed the chief command. 

2. When David had cast the Jebusites out of 
the citadel, he also rebuilt Jerusalem, and nam- 
ed] it ‘The City of David,’ and abode there 
ail the time of his reign: but for the time that 
he reigned over the tribe of Judah only in He- 
bron, It was seven years and six months. Now 
whien he had chosen Jerusalem to be his royal 
city, his affairs did more and more prosper, by 
the providence of God, who took care that they 
should improve and be augmented. Hiram also, 
the king of the Tyrians, sent ambassadors to 
him, and made a league of mutual friendship 
and assistance with him. He also sent him 
pesents, cedar trees and mechanics, and men 
_ skilful in building and architecture, that they 

* What our other copies say of mount Sion, as alone pro- 
perly called the cityof David, 2 Sam. v. 6—9, and of this its 
siege and conquest now by David, Josephus applies to the 
whole city of Jerusalem, though including the citadel also: 
by what authority we do not know; perhaps after David had 
united them together, or joined the citadel to the lower city, 
es sect. 2, Josephus esteemed them as one city. However, 
this notion seems to be confirmed by what Josephus says’ 
concerning David’s and many other kings of Judah’s sepul- 
¢chres, which, as the authors of the books of Kings and Chroni- 
cies say, were in the city of David, so does Josephus still 
say they were in Jerusalem. The sepulchre of David seems 
to have been also a known place in the several days of Hyr- 
canus, of Herod, and St. Peter; Antiq. b. xiii. ch. viii. sect. 4; 
b. xvi. ch. vii. sect. 1; Acts ii. 29. Now no such royal sepul- 
ehres have been found about mount Sion, but are found close 
by the north wall of Jerusalem, which I suspect therefore to 
be these very sepulchres. See the note on chap. xv. sect. 3. 
In the meantime, Josephus’s explication of the lame, and 
the blind, and the maimed, as set to keep this city or citadel, 
seems to be the truth, and gives the best light to that history 


in our Bible. Mr. Ottius truly observes, upp. Havercamp, 
p 405, that Josephus never mentions mount Sion by that 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


might build him a royal palace at Jerusalem 
Now David made buildings round about the 
lower city: he also joined the citadel to it, ana 
made it one body: and when he had encompass- 
ed all with walls, he appointed Joab to take 
care of them. It was David, therefore, who 
first cast the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and 
called it by his own name, the City of David: 
for under our forefather Abraham it was called 
{Salem or] Solyma;* but after that time some 
say that Homer mentions it by that name of 
Solyma, [[for he named the temple Solyma, 
according to the Hebrew language, which de- 
notes eae Now the whole time from 
the warfare under Joshua our general against 
the Canaanites, and from that war in which he 
overcame them, and distributed the land among 
the Hebrews, (nor could the Israelites ever cast 
the Canaanites out of Jerusalem until this time, 
when David took it by siege,) this whole time 
was five hundred and fifteen years. 

3. I shall now make mention of Araunah, 
who was a wealthy man among the Jebusites, 
but was not slain by David in the siege of Je- 
rusalem, because of the good will he bore to 
the Hebrews, and a particular benignity and 
affection which he had to the king himself, 
which I shall take a more seasonable (a 
tunity to speak of a little afterward. Now Da- 
vid married other wives over and above those . 
which he had before: he had also concubines. 
The sons whom he had were in number eleven, 
whose names were Amnon, Emnos, Eban, Na- 
than, Solomon, Jeban, Elien, Phalna, Enna- 
phen, Jenae, Eliphale; and a daughter, Tamar. 
Nine of these were born of legitimate wives, 
but the two last named of concubines: and T'a- 
mar had the same mother with Absalom. 


CHAPTER IV. 


That when David had conquered the Philistunes, 
who made war against him at Jerusalem, he 
removed the Ark to Jerusalem, and had a mina 
to build a temple. 


§ 1. When the Philistines understood that 
David was made king of the Hebrews, they 
made war against him at Jerusalem; and when — 
they had seized upon that valley which is call- 
ed the valley of the Giants, and is a place not 
far from the city, they pitched their camp there- 
in. But the king of the Jews, who never per- 


name, as taking it for an appellative, as I suppose, and not 
for a proper name: he still either styles it the citadel or the 
upper city; nor do I see any reason for Mr. Ottius’s evil sus- 
picions about this procedure of Josephus. : 

*Some copies of Josephus have here Solyma or Salem, 
and others Hierosolyma or Jerusalem. The latter best agree 
to what Josephus says elsewhere, Of the War, b..vi. ch. x. 
that this city was called Solyma or Salem before the days of 
Melchisedec, but was by him called Hierosolyma or Jerusa- 
lem. I rather suppose it tohave been so called after Abra- — 
ham had received that oracle Jehovah Jireh, ‘“The Lord will 
see or provide,” Gen. xxii. 14. The latter word Jireh, with 
a little alteration, prefixed to the old name Salem, Peace, wil — 
be Jerusalem. And since that exprcssion, “‘God will see,” _ 
or rather “‘God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offer 
ing,’’ ver. 8, 14, is there said to have been proverbiat till the 
days of Moses, this seems to me the most probable deriva- 
tion of that name, which will then denote, that “God would — 
provide peace by that Lamb of God, which was to take away 
the sins of the world.”? However that which is put inte 
double brackets can hardly be supposed the genuine wonds 
of Josephus, as Dr. Hudson well judges. 


BOOK VIIL—CHAPTER IV. 178 


mitted himself to do any thing without pro- 
_ pheey,* and the command of God, and without 
depending on him as a security for the time to 
come, bade the high priest foretell to him what 
was the will of God, and what would be the 
event of this battle. And when he foretold 
that he should gain the victory, and the domi- 
nion, he led his army out against the Philis- 
tines; and when the battle was joined, he came 
himself behind, and fell upon the enemy on 
the sudden, and slew some of them, and put 
he rest to flight. And let no one suppose that 
t was a sinall army of the Philistines that 
came against the Hebrews, as guessing so from 
the suddenness of their defeat, and from their 
having performed no great action, or that was 
worth recording, fromm the slowness of their 
march, and want of courage; but let him know 
that all Syria and Pheenicia, with many other 
nations besides them, and those warlike nations 
also, came to their assistance, and had a share 
in this war. Which thing was the only cause 
why, when they had been so often conquered, 
and- had lost so many ten thousands of their 
men, they still came upon the Hebrews with 
greater armies; nay, indeed, when they had so 
often failed of their purpose in these battles, 
they came upon David with an army three 
times as numerous as before, and pitched their 
camp on the same spot of ground as before. 
The king of Israel, therefore, inquired of God 
again concerning the event of the battle; and 
the high priest prophesied to him, that he 
should keep his army in the groves, called the 
Groves of Weeping, which were not far from 
the enemy’s camp, and that he should not 
‘move, nor begin to fight, till the trees of the 
ove should be in motion without the wind’s 
lowing; but as these trees moved, and the 
time foretold to him by God was come, he 
should without delay go out to gain, what was 
already prepared, an evident victory; for the 
several ranks of the enemy’s army did not sus- 
tain him, but retreated at the first onset, whom 
he closely followed, and slew them as he went 
along, and pursued them to the city of Gaza, 
pee is the limit of their country;) after this, 
e spoiled their camp, in which he f und great 
riches; and he destroyed their gods. 

2. When this had proved the event of the 
battle, David thought it proper, upon a consul- 
tation with the elders, and rulers, and captains 
of thousands, to send for those that were in the 
flower of their age, out of all his countrymen, 
and out of the whole land, and withal for the 
priests and the Levites, in order to their going 
to Kirjathjearim, to bring up the ark of God 
out of that city, and to carry it to Jerusalem, 

_and there to keep it, and offer before it those 

* It deserves here to be remarked, that Saul very rarely, 
and David very frequently, consulted God by Urim; and that 
David aimed always to depend, not on his own prudence or 
abilities, but on the divine direction, contrary to Saul’s prac- 
tice; see sect. 2, and the note on Antiq. b. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9. 
And when Saul’s daughter, (but David’s wife,) Michal, 
laughed at David’s dancing before the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 
16, &c. and here, sect. 1, 2, 3; it is probable she did so, be- 
cause her father Saul did not use to pay such regard to the 
‘ark, to the Urim there inquired by, or to God’s worship. be- 


fore it, and because she thought it beneath the dignity ef a 
king to be so religious. 


sacrifices, and those cther honors, with whica 
God used to be well pleased: for had they 
done thus in the reign of Saul, they had not 
undergone any great misfortunes at all. So 
when the whole body of the people were come 
together, as they had resolved to do, the king 
came to the ark, which the priests brought out 
of the house of Aminadab, and laid it upon a 
new cart, and permitted their brethren and 
their children to draw it, together with the 
oxen. Before it went, the king and the whole 
multitude of the people with him, singin 
hymns to God, and making use of all sorts of 
songs usual among them, with variety of the 
sounds of musical instruments, and with danc- 
ing and singing of psalms, as also with the 
sound of trumpets and of cymbals, and so 
brought the ark to Jerusalem. But as they 
were come to the threshing-floor of Chidon, a 
place so called, Uzzah was slain by the anger 
of God; for as the oxen shook the ark, he 
stretched out his hand, and would needs take 
hold of it. Now because he was not a priest, 
and yet touched the ark, God struck him dead.* 
Hereupon both the king and the people were 
displeased at the death of Uzzah, and the place 
where he died is still called the Breach of Uz- 
zah unto this day. ‘So David was afraid, anid 
supposing that if he received the ark to him- 
self into the city, he might suffer m the like 
manner as Uzzah had suffered, who, upon his 
bare putting out his hand to the ark, died in 
the manner already mentioned, he did not re- 
ceive it to himself into the city, but he took 
it aside unto a certain place belonging to a 
righteous man, whose name was Obededor1, 
who was by his family a Levite, and deposit :d 
the ark with him; and it remained there three 
entire months. This augmented the house 0f 
Obededom, and conferred many blessings up»n 
it. And when the king heard what had be- 
fallen Obededom, how he was become, of a 
poor man in a low estate, exceedingly happy, 
and the object of envy to all those that saw or 
inquired after his house, he took courage, and 
hoping that he should meet with no misfortune 
thereby, he transferred the ark to his own 
house, the priests carrying it, while seven com- 
panies of singers, who were set in that order 
by the king, went before it, and while he him 
self played upon the harp, and joined in the 
music, msomuch, that when his wife Michal, 
the daughter of Saul, who was our first king, 
saw him so doing, she laughed at him. But 
when they had brought in the ark, they placed 
it under the tabernacle which David had pitch- 
ed for it, and he offered costly sacrifices and 
peace-offerings, and treated the whole multi- 
tude, and dealt both to the women and the 
* Josephus seems to be partly in the right, when he ob 
serves here, that Uzzah was no priest, (though perhaps he 
might be a Levite,) and was therefore struck dead for touch- 
ing the ark, contrary to the law, and for which profane rash- 
ness, death was the penalty by the law, Numb. iv. 15—2iy 
see the like before, Antiq. b. vi. ch. i. sect.4. Itis not im- 
probable that the putting the ark in a cart, when it ought te 
have been carried by the priests or Levites, as it was presems 
ly here in Josephus so carried from Obededom’s house te 


David’s, might be also an) occasion of the anger of God om 
that breach of hislaw. See numb. iv. 15; 1 Chron. xv. 1% 


he’ 


474 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


and should be called Solomon, whom he pro- 
mised to provide for, as a father provides for 
his* son, by preserving the kingdom for his 
son’s posterity, and delivering it to them; but 
that he would still punish him if he sinned, 
with diseases and barrenness of land.” When 
David understood this from the prophet, and 
was overjoyful at this knowledge of the sure 
continuance of the dominion to his posterity, 
and that his house should be splendid, and 
very famous, he came to the ark, and fell down 
on his face, and began to adore God, and to re- 
turn thanks to him for all his benefits, as well 
for those that he had already bestowed upon 
him in raising him from a low state, and from 
the employment of a shepherd, to so great dig- 
nity of dominion and glory; as for those alse 
which he had promised to his posterity; and 
besides, for that providence which he had ex- 
ercised over the Hebrews in procuring them 
the liberty they enjoyed: and when he had said 
thus, and had sung a hymn of praise to God, 
he went his way. 


CHAPTER V. 


How David brought under the Philistines, and 
the Moabites, and the kings of Sophene, and 
of Damascus, and of the Syrians, as also the 
Idumeans, in War; and how he made a le 
with the king of Hamath; and was mind- 
Sul of the friendship that Jonathan, the son of 
Saul, had borne to him. 


§ 1. A little while after this, he considered 
that he ought to make war against the Philis 
tines, and not to see any idleness or laziness per 
mitted in his management, that so it might 
prove, as God had foretold to him, that when 
he had overthrown his enemies, he should leave 
his posterity to reign in peace afterward: so he 
called together his army again,and when he had 
charged them to be ready and prepared for war, 
and when he thought that all things in his army 
were in a good state, he removed from Jerusa 
lem, and came against the Philistines; and when 
he had overcome them in battle, and had cut 
offa great part of their country and adjoined it 
to the country of the Hebrews, he transferred 
the war to the Moabites; and when he had over- 
come two parts of their army in the battle, he 
took the remaining part captive, and imposed 
tribute upon them, to be paid annually. He then 
made war against Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, 
king of Sophene; and when he had joined bat- 
tle with him at the river Euphrates, he destroy- 


men, and the infants, a loaf of bread and 
another cake baked in a pan, with a portion of 
the sacrifice. So when he had thus feasted 
the people, he sent them away, and he himself 
returned to his own house. 

3. But when Michal his wife, the daughter 
ef Saul, came and stood by him, she wished 
him all other happiness; and entreated. that 
whatsoever he should farther desire, to the ut- 
most possibility, might be given him by God, 
and that he might be favorable to him, yet did 
ehe blame him, that so great a king as he was 
should dance after an unseemly manner, and in 
Eis dancing uncover himself among the ser- 
vants and the handmaidens. But he replied, 
“That he was not ashamed to do what was ac- 
ceptable to God, who had preferred him before 
her father, and before all others; that he would 
pray frequently, and dance, without any regard 
to what the handmaidens and she herself 
thought of it.” So this Michal had no chil- 
dren; however, when she was afterward mar- 
ried to him to whom Saul her father had given 
her, (for at this time David had taken her away 
from him, and had her himself,) she bore five 
children. But concerning those matters I shall 
discourse in a proper place. 

4, Now, when the king éaw that his affairs 

w better almost every day, by the will of 
God, he thought he should offend him, if while 
he himself continued in houses made of cedar, 
such as were of a great height, and had the 
most curious works of architecture in them, he 
should overlook the ark while it was laid in a 
tabernacle; and was desirous to build a temple 
to God, as Moses had predicted such a temple 
should be built.* And when he had discours- 
ed with Nathan the prophet about these things, 
and been encouraged by him to do whatsoever 
he had a mind to do, as having God with him, 
and his helper in all things, he was thereupon 
the more ready to set about that building, 
But God appeared to Nathan that very night, 
and commanded him to say to David,} that “he 
took his purpose and his desires kindly, since 
nobody had before now taken it into their head 
to build him a temple, although upon his hav- 
ing such a notion he would not permit him to 
build him that temple, because he had made 
many wars, and was defiled with the slaughter 
of his enemies: that, however, after his death, 
in his old age, and when he had lived a long 
life, there should be a temple built by a son of 
his, who should take the kingdom after him, 

* Josephus here informs us, that, according to his under- 
standing of the sense of his copy of the Pentateuch, Moses 
had himself foretold the building of the temple, which yet 
ie newhere that I know of in our present copies; and that 
this is not a mistake set down by him unwarily, appears by 
what he observed before, Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 46, how 
Moses foretold, that upon the Jews’ future disobedience, 
their temple should be burnt and rebuilt, and that not once 
only, but several times afterwards. See also Josephus’s 
mention of God’s former commands to build sucha temple 
ery, ch. xiv. sect 2, contrary to our other copies, or at 

ast to our translation of the Hebrew. 2 Sam. vii 6, 731 
Chron. xvii. 5, 6. 

t Josephus seems, in this place, with our modern interpret- 
ers to confound the two distinct predictions which God made 
to David and to Nathan, concerning the building him a tem- 
pie by one of David’s posterity, the one belonging to Solo- 


mon, the other to the Messiah; the distinction between 
which is of the greatest consequence to the Christian relighw. 





























seven thousand of his horsemen. Healso took 
about a thousand of his chariots and destroyed 


more than one hundred should be kept.* 
2. Now when Hadad,t king of Damascus 
and of Syria, heard that David fought against 


* David’s reserving only 100 chariots for himself out of 
1000 he had taken from Hadadezer, was most probably done 
in compliance with the law of Moses, which forbade a 
of Israel to multiply horses to himself, Deut. xvii. 16; one 


drawing their chariots. See Joshua, xii. 6, and Antiq. b. ¥. 
ch. i. sect. 18, 7 

t It deserves here to be remarked, that this Hadad, being 
& very great king, was conquered by D 


the greatest part of them, and ordered that no 


the principle uses of horses in Judea at that time being for 


avid, whose posterity — 


ed twenty thousand of his footmen, and about — 


BOOK VIL—CHAPTER V. 


iladaaezer who was his friend, he came to his 
assistance with a powerful army, in hopes to 
rescue him; and when he had joined battle 
with David at the river Euphrates, he failed of 
his purpose, and lost in the battle a great num- 
ber of his soldiers; for there were slain of the 
army of Hadad twenty thousand, and all the 
rest fled. Nicolaus also [of ape bale 
mention of this king, in the fourth book of his 
histories; where he speaks thus: “A great while 
after these things had happened, there was one 
of that country whose name was Hadad, who 
was become very potent; he reigned over Da- 
n.ascus, and the other parts of Syria, excepting 
Phenicia. He made war against David, the 
king of Judea, and tried his fortune in many 
battles, and particularly in the last battle at 
Euphrates, wherein he was beaten. He seem- 
ed to have been the most excellent of all their 
kings in strength and manhood.” Nay, besides 
this, he says of his posterity, that “after his 
death they succeeded one another in his king- 
dom, and in his name;” where he thus speaks: 
“When Hadad was dead, his posterity reigned 
for ten generations, each of his successors re- 
ceiving from his father that his dominion, and 
this his name; as did the Ptolemies in Egypt. 
But the third was the most powerful of them 
all, and was willing to avenge the defeat his 
forefathers had received; so he made an expe- 
dition against the Jews, and laid waste the city 
which is now called Samaria.” Nor did he 
err from the truth; for this is that Hadad who 
made the expedition against Samaria, in the 
reign of Ahab, king of Israel; concerning 
whom we shall speak in due place hereafter. 
3. Now when David had made an expedi- 
tion against Damascus, and the other parts of 
Syria, and had brought it into subjection, and 
had placed garrisons in the country, and ap- 
pointed that they should pay tribute, he return- 
ed home. He also dedicated to God at Jeru- 
salem, the golden quivers, the entire armor 
which the guards of Hadad used to wear, 
which Shishak the king of Egypt took away 
when he fought with David’s grandson Reho- 
boam, with a great deal of other wealth which 
he carried out of Jerusalem. However, these 
things will come to be explained in their pro- 
per places hereafter. Now as for the king of 
‘tthe Hebrews, lie was assisted by God, who 
gave him great success in his wars, and made 
an expedition against the best cities of Hada- 
dezer, Betah, and Machon; so he took them 
by force, and laid them waste. Therein was 
found a very great quantity of gold and silver, 
besides that sort of brass which is said to be 
more valuable than gold, of which brass Solo- 
mon made that large vessel which was called 
the [brazen] sea, and those most curious lavers, 
when he built the temple for God. 
yet for several generations were called Benhadad, or the son 
of Hadad till the days of Hazael, whose son Adar or Ader 
4g also in our Hebrew copy, 2 Kings xiii. 24, written Benha- 
dad, but in Josephus dad or Adar. And strange it is, that 
the son of Hazael, said to be such in the same text, and in 
Josephus, Antiq. b. ix. chap. viii. sect. 7, should still be call- 


_ ed the sonof Hadad: I would, therefore, here correct our He- 
| brew copy from Josephus’s, which seems to have the true 


173 

4, But when the king of Hamath was in- 
formed of the ill success of Hadadezer, and 
had heard of the ruin of his army, he was 
afraid on his own account, and resolved te 
make a league of friendship and fidelity with 
David before he should come against him; so 
he sent to him his son Joram, and professed 
that he owed him thanks for his fighting against 
Hadadezer, who was his enemy, and made a 
league with him of mutual assistance and 
friendship. He also sent him presents, vessels 
of ancient workmanship, both of gold, of silver, 
and of brass. So when David had made this 
league of mutual assistance with Toi, (for that 
was the name of the king of Hamath,) and had 
received the presents he sent him, he dismiss- 
ed his son with that respect which was due on 
both sides. But then David brought those 
presents that were sent by him, as also the rest 
of the gold and silver which he had taken of 
the cities whom he had conquered, and dedi- 
cated them to God. Nor did God give victory 
and success to him only when he went to the 
battle himself, and led his own army, but he 
gave victory to Abishai, the brother of Joab, 
general of his forces, over the Idumeans,* and 
by him to David, when he sent him with an 
army into [dumea; for Abishai destroyed eigh- 
teen thousand of them in the battle; where- 
upon the king [of Israel] placed garrisons 
through all [Idumea, and received the tribute of 
the country, and of every head among them. 
Now David was in his nature just, and made 
his determination with regard to truth. He had 
for the general of his whole army Joab; and 
he made Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, re- 
corder. He also appointed Zadok, of the fa- 


‘mily of Phineas, to be high priest, together 


with Abiathar, for he was his friend. He also 
made Seisan the scribe; and committed the 
command over the guards of his body to Be-- 
naiah, the son of Jehoiada. His elder sons 
were near his body, and had the care of it also, 
5. He also called to mind the covenants and 
the oaths he had made with Jonathan the son 
of Saul, and the friendship and affection Jona- 
than had for him: for besides all the rest of his 
excellent qualities with which he was endowed, 
he was also exceeding mindful of such as had 
at other times bestowed benefits upon him, 
He therefore gave order that inquiry should be 
made, whether any of Jonathan’s lineage were 
living, to whom he might make return of that 
familiar acquaintance which Jonathan had had 
with him, and for which he was still debtor, 
And when one of Saul’s freemen was brought 
to him, who was acquainted with those of hia 
family that were still living, he asked him, 
“Whether he could tell him of any one belong- 
ing to Jonathan that was now alive, and capa- 
ble of a requital of the benefits which he had 
* By this great victory over the Idumeans or Edomites, 
the posterity of Esau, and by the consequent tribute paid by 
that nation to the Jews, were the prophecies delivered te 
Rebecca before Jacob and Esau were born, and by old Isaae 
before his death, that the elder, Esau or the Edomites, should 
serve the younger, Jacob or the Israelites; and Jacob or the 
Israelites, should be Esau’s or the Edomites’ lord, Niger sie 


fulfilled. See Antiq. b. viii. ch. vii. sect. 6; Gen. xxv. B, 
and the notes on Antiq. b i. ch. xviii. sect. 5,6. 


{76 
ceceived from Jonathan?” And when he said, 
“Thatason of his was remaining, whose name 
was Mephibosheth, but that he was lame of his 
feet; for that when his nurse heard that the 
father and grandfather of the child were fall- 
en in the battle, she snatched him up, and fled 
away, and let him fall from her shoulders, and 
his feet were lamed.” So when he had learn- 
ed where and by whom he was brought up, he 
sent messengers to Machir, to the city of Lode- 
bar, for with him was the son of Jonathan 
brought up, and sent for him to come to him. 
So when Mephibosheth came to the king, he 
fell on his face and worshipped him; but David 
encouraged him, and bid liim be of-good cheer, 
and expect better times. So he gave him his 
father’s house, and all the estate which his 
grandfather Saul was in possession of, and bade 
him come and diet with him at his own table, 
and never to be absent one day from that table. 
And when the youth had worshipped him on 
account of his words and gifts given to him, he 
called for Ziba, and told him, that he had given 
the youth his father’s house, and all Saul’s es- 
tate. He also ordered that Ziba should culti- 
vate his land, and take care of it, and bring him 
the profits of all to Jerusalem. Accordingly, 
David brought him to his table every day, and 
bestowed upon the youth Ziba and his sons, 
who were in number fifteen, and his servants, 
who were in nuinber twenty. When the king 
had made these appointments, and Ziba had 
worshipped him, and promised to do all that he 
had bidden him, he went his way; so that this 
von of Jonathan dwelt at Jerusalem, and diet- 
ed at the king’s table, and had the same care 
taken of him that a soncould claim. He also 
had himself ason, whom he named Micha. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How the war was waged against the Ammonites, 
and happily concluded. 


§ 1. These were the honors that such as 
were left of Saul’s and Jonathan’s lineage re- 
ceived from David. About this time died Na- 
hash, the king of the Ammonites, who was a 
friend of David; and when his son had suc- 
ceeded his father in the kingdom, David sent 
ambassadors to him to comfort him; and ex- 
horted him to take his father’s death patiently, 
and to expect that he would continue the same 
kindness to himself which he had showed to 
his father. But the princess of the Ammonites 
took this message in evil part, and not as Da- 
vid’s kind dispositions gave reasons to take it; 
and they excited the king to resent it, and said, 
that David had sent men to spy out the coun- 
try, and what strength it had under the pre- 
tence of humanity and kindness, They farther 
advised him to havea care, and not to give 
heed to David’s words, lest he should be delud- 
ed by him; and so fall into an inconsolable 
calamity. Accordingly, Nahash’s [son,] the 
king of the Ammonites, thought these princes 
spoke what was more probable than the truth 
would admit, and so abused the ambassadors 
after a very harsh manner; for he shaved the 
one-half of their beards, and cut off one-half 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


of their garments, and sent his answer not mm 
words but in deeds. When the king of Israe} 
saw this, he had indignation at it, and showed 
openly that he would not ovelook this injuri- 
ous and contumelious treatment, but would 
make war with the Ammonites, and would 
avenge this wicked treatment of his ambassa- 
dors on their king. So that king’s intimate 
friends and commanders, understanding that 
they had violated their league, and were liable 
to be punished for the same, made preparations 
for war; they also sent a thousand talents to the 
Syrian king of Mesopotamia, and endeavored 
to prevail with him to assist them for that pay 
and Shobach. Now these kings had twenty 
thousand footmen. They also hired the king 
of the country, called Macah, and a fourth king, 
by name Ishtob; which last had twelve thou- 
sand armed men. 

2. But David was under no consternation at 
this confederacy, nor at the forces of the Arn- 
monites; and putting his trust in God, because 
he was going to war in a just cause, on account 
of the injurious treatment he had met with, he 
immediately sent Joab, the captain of his host, 
against them, and gave him the flower of his 
army, who pitched his camp by Rabbah, the 
metropolis of the Ammonites; whereupon the 
enemy came out, and set themselves in array, 
not all of them together, but in two bodies; for 
the auxiliaries were set in array in the plain Ivy 
themselves, but the army of the Ammonites 
at the gates over against the Hebrews. When. 
Joab saw this, he opposed one stratagem 
against another, and chose out the most hariy 
part of his men, and set them in opposition to 
the king of Syria, and the kings that were with 
him, and gave the other part to his brother 
Abishai, and bade him set them in opposition 
to the Ammonites; and said to him, “That in 
case he should see that the Syrians distressed 
him, and were too hard for him, he should or- 
der his troops to turn about and assist hims” 
and he said, that “he himself would do the 
same to him, if he saw him in the like distress 
from the Ammonites.” So he sent his brother 
before, and encouraged him to do every thin 
courageously and with alacrity, which woul 
teach them to be afraid of disgrace, and to fight 
manfully; and so he dismissed him to fight with 
the Ammonites, while he fell upon the Sy-— 
rians. And though they made a strong oppo- 
sition fora while, Joab slew many of them, 
and compelled the rest to betake themselves to — 
flight; which, when the Ammonites saw, and 
were withal afraid of Abishai and his army, 
they staid no longer, but imitated their auxilia- 
ries, and fled to the city. So Joab, when he 
had thus overcome the enemy, returned with — 
great joy to Jerusalem to the king. : 

3. Still this defeat did not induce the Ame — 
monites to be quiet, nor to acknowledge as su- 
perior to them those who were so, but they sent — 
to Chalaman the king of the Syrians, beyond — 
Euphrates, and hired him for an auxiliary. — 
He had Shobach for the captain of his host, — 
with eighty thousand footmen, and ten thow — 
sand horsemen. Now, when the king of the — 


| BOOK VII.—CHAPTER VIL 
_ itebrews understood that the Ammonites had 


again gathered so great an army together, he 
determined to make war with them no longer 
by his generals, but he passed over the river 
Jordan himself with all his army; and when 


_he met them he joined battle with them, and 


_ horsemen. 


overcame them, and slew forty thousand of 
their footmen, and seven thousand of their 
He also wounded Shobach, the 
general of Chalaman’s forces, who died of that 


stroke; but the people of Mesopotamia, upon 
such a conclusion of the battle, delivered them- 


_ selves up to David, and sent him presents, who 
_at winter-time returned to Jerusalem. 


But at 
the beginning of the spring he sent Joab, the 
captain of his host, to fight against the Ammon- 
ites; who overran all their country, and laid it 
waste, and shut them up in their metropolis 


Rabbah, and besieged them therein. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How David fell in love with Bathsheba, and 


slew her husband Uriah, for which he 1s re- 
proved by Nathan. 


§ 1. But David fell now into a very grievous 
sin, though he were otherwise naturally a 
righteous and a religious man, and one that 
firmly observed the laws of our fathers: for 


_when late in an evening he took a view round 


him from the roof of his royal palace, where 
he used to walk at that hour, he saw a woman 
washing herself in her own house; she was 
one of extraordinary beauty, and therein. sur- 
passed all other women; her name was Bath- 
shehba. §: he was overcome by that woman’s 
beauty, ant was not able to restrain his desires, 
but sent for her, and lay with her. Hereupon 
she conceived with child, and sent to the king, 
that he should contrive some way for conceal- 
ing her sin, (for according to the laws of their 
fathers, she, who had been guilty of adultery, 
ought to be put to death.) So the king sent 
for Joab’s armor-bearer from the siege, who 
was the woman’s husband; and his name was 
Uriah: and when he was come, the king in- 
quired of him about the army, and about the 
siege, and when he had made answer, that all 
their affairs went according to their wishes, 
the king took some portions of meat from his 


supper and gave them to him, and bade him 


go home to his wife, and take his rest with her. 
Uriah did not do so, but slept near the king, 
with the rest of his armor-bearers. When the 
king was informed of this, he asked him why 
he did not go home to his house, and to his 
wife, after so long an absence? which is the 
natural custom of all men, when they come 
from a long journey. He replied, that it was 
not right, while his fellow-soldiers, and the 
general of the army, slept upon the ground, in 
the camp, and in an enemy’s country, that he 
snould go and take his rest, and solace himself 
with his wife. So when he had thus replied, 


the king ordered him to stay there that night, 


plied him with drink at supper, ull 


that he might dismiss him the next day to the 
general. So the king invited Uriah to the sup- 


177 


thereby disordered; yet did he nevertheless 
sleep at the king’s gates, without any inclina~ 
tion to go to his wife. Upon this the king was 
very angry at him; and wrote to Joab, and 
commanded him to punish Uriah, for he told 
him that he had offended him; and he suggest- 
ed to him the manner in which he would have 
him punished, that it might not be discovered 
that he was himself the author of this his pu- 
nishment; for he charged him to set him over 
against that part of the enemy’s army where the 
attack would be most hazardous, and where 
he might be deserted, and be in the greatest 
jeopardy, for he bade him order his fellow- 
soldiers to retire out of the fight. When he 
had written this to him, and sealed the letter 
with his own seal, he gave it to Uriah to carry 
it to Joab. When Joab had received it, and 
upon reading it, understood the king’s purpose, 
he set Uriah in that place where he knew the 
enemy would be most troublesome to them: 
and gave him for his partners some of the best 
soldiers in the army; and said, that he would 
also come to their assistance with the whole 
army, that if possible they might break down 
some part of the wall, and enter the city. And 
he desired him to be glad of the opportunity 
of exposing himself to such pains, and not te 
be displeased at it, since he was a valiant sol- 
dier, and had a great reputation for his valor, 
both with the king and with his countrymen. 
And when Uriah undertook the work he was 
set upon with alacrity, he gave private orders 
to those who were to be his companions, that 
when they saw the enemy make 2 sally, they 
should leave him. When, therefore, the He- 
brews made an attack upon the city, the Am- 
monites were afraid that the enemy might pre- 
vent them, and get up into the city, and this at 
the very place whither Uriah was ordered, so 
they exposed their best soldiers to be in the 
forefront, and opened their gates suddenly, 
and fell upon the enemy with great vehemence, 
and ran violently upon them. When those 
that were with Uriah saw this, they all retreat- 
ed backward, as Joab had directed them before- 
hand; but Uriah, as ashamed to run away and 
leave his post, sustained the enemy, and receiy- 
ing the violence of their onset, he slew many of 
them, but being encompassed around, and 
caught in the midst of them, he was slain, and 
some other of his companions were slain with 
him. 

2. When this was done Joab sent messen- 
gers to the king, and ordered them to tell him, 
that “he did what he could to take the city 
soon, but that, as they made an assault on the 
wall, they had been forced to retire with great 
loss.” And bid them, if they saw the. king 
was angry at it, to add this, that “Uriah wes 
slain also.” When the king had heard this of 
the messengers, he took it heinousty, and said, 
that “they did wrong when they assaulted the 
wall, whereas they ought, by undermiming and 
other stratagems of war, to erleavor the tak- 
ing of the city, especially when they had be- 


per, and after a cunning and dexterous manner | fore their eyes the example of Abimelech, the 


23 


De 
ay 


ive 


he wes | gon of Gideon, who would needs take the tower 


{78 
of Thebes by force, and was killed by a large 
stone thrown at himby an old woman; and 
although he was a man of great prowess, he 
died ignominiously by the dangerous manner 
of his assault: that they should remember this 
accident, and not come near the enemy’s wall, 
for that the best method of making war with 
success was to call to mind the accidents of 
former wars, and what good or bad success 
hai attended them in the like dangerous cases, 
thatso they might imitate the one, and avoid 
the other.” But,when the king was in this 
disposition, the messenger told him, that Uriah 
was slain also; whereupon he was pacified. 
So he bid the messenger go back to Joab and 
tell him, that “this misfortune is no other than 
what is common among mankind, and that such 
is the nature and such the accidents of war; in- 
somuch, that sometimes the enemy will have 
success therein, and sometimes others; but that 
he ordered him to go on still in his care about 
the siege, that no ill accident might befall him 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


punishments, and that by his own sentence, ana 
that it was he who perpetrated this great and 
horrid crime.” He also revealed to him, and 
laid before him, the anger of God against him, 
who had made him king over the army of the 
Hebrews, and lord of all the nations, and those 
many and great nations round about him; who 
had formerly delivered him out of the hands 
of Saul, and had given him such wives as he 
had justly and legally married; and now this 
God was despised by him, and affronted by his 
impiety, when he had married, and now had 
another man’s wife; and by exposing her hus- 
band to the enemy, liad really slain him; that 
God would inflict punishments upon him on 
account of those instances of wickedness; that 
his own wives should be forced by one of his 
sons and that he should be treacherously sup- 
planted by the same son; and that although he 
had perpetrated his wickedness secretly, yet 
should that punishment which he was to un- 
dergo be inflicted publicly upon him; that 


in it hereafter : that they should raise bulwarks, | moreover, said he, the child which was born to 


and use machines in besieging the city ; and | 


when they; had gotten it, to overturn its very 
foundations and to destroy all those that are in 
it.” Accordingly the messenger carried the 
king’s message with which he was charged, and 
made haste to Joab. But Bathsheba, the wife 
of Uriah, when she was informed of the death 
of her husband, mourned for his death many 
days, and when her mourning was over, and 
the tears which she shed for Uriah were dried 
up, the king took her to wife presently, and a 
son was born to him by her. 


3. With this marriage God was not well pleas- 
ed, but was thereupon angry at David; and he 
appeared to Nathan the prophet in his sleep, and ; 
complained of the king. Now Nathan was a, 
fair and prudent man; and considering that. 
kings, when they fall into a passion, are guided | 
more by that passion than they are by justice, 
he resolved to conceal the threatenings that pro- 
ceeded from God, and made a good natured 
discourse to him, and this after the manner fole 
lowing: He desired that the king would give 
hin his opinion in the following case: “There 
were, said he, two men inhabiting the same 
city, the one of them was rich, and [the other 
poor;| the rich man had a great many flocks of 
cattle, of sheep, and of kine, but the poor man 
bad but one ewe lamb; this he brought up with 
his children, and let her eat her food with them, 
and he had the same natural affection for her 
which any one might have fora daughter. Now 
upon the coming of a stranger to the rich 
man, he would not vouchsafe to kill any of his 
ewn flocks, and thence feast his friend, but he 
sent for the poor man’s lamb, and took her 
away from him, and made her ready for food, 
and thence feasted the stranger.” This discourse 
troubled the king exceedingly; and he denounc- 
ed to Nathan that “this man was a wicked man, 
who could dare to do such a thing; and that it 
was but just that he should restore the lamb 
& irfold, and be punished with death for it also.” 
Upon this Nathan immediately said, that “he 
wus himself the man who ought to suffer those 


thee of her, shall soon die.” When the king 
was troubled at these messages, and sufficient- 
ly confounded, and said with tears and sorrow, 
that he had sinned, (for he was without contro- 
versy a pious man, and guilty of no sin at all 
in his whole life, excepting those in the matter 
of Uriah,)God had compassion on him, and 
was reconciled to him, and promised that he 
would preserve to him both his life and his 
kingdom: for he said, that “seeing he repented 
of the things he had done, he was no longer 
displeased with him.” So Nathan, when he had 
delivered this prophecy to the king, returned 
home. 

4. However, God sent a dangerous distem- 
per upon the child that was born to David of 
the wife of Uriah; at which the king was trou- 
bled, and did not take any food for seven days, 
although his servants almost forced him to take 
it; but he clothed himself in a black garment, 


‘ 


and fell down, and lay upon the ground in 


sackcloth, entreating God for the recovery of 
the child, for he vehemently loved the child’s 
mother. But when on the seventh day, the 


child was dead, the king’s servants durst not 
that when he 
it of food, and 


tell him of it, as supposin 
knew it he would still less a 
other care of himself, by reason of his grief at 
the death of his son, since, when the child waa 
only sick, he so greatly afflicted himself, and 
grieved for him. But when the king perceived 
that his servants were in disorder, and seemed 
to be affected, as those are who are very desi- 
rous to conceal something, he understood that 
the child was dead; and when he had called 
one of his servants to him, and discovered 
that so it was, he arose up and washed himself, 
and took a white garment, and came into the 
tabernacle of ne He also Figtitiar them 
to set supper before him, and there th 

surprised his kindred and servants, y hile ru 
did nothing of this when the child was sick, 
but did it all when he was dead. Whereupon 

having first begged leave to ask hima aes 


thev besought him to tell them the reason of © 


Le" 


BOOK VII—CHAPTER VIII 


fhis his conduct. He shen called them unskil- 
ful people; and instructed them how he had 
hopes of the recovery of the child while it was 
alive, and accordingly “did all that was proper 
for him to do, as thinking by such means to 
render God propitious to him, but that when 
the child was dead, there was no longer any 
occasion for grief, which was then to no pur- 
pose.” When he had said this, they commended 
the king’s wisdom and understanding. He then 
went unto Bathsheba his wife, and she conceiv- 
ed and bore a son, and, by the command of 
Nathan the prophet, called his name Solomon. 

3. But Joab sorely distressed the Ammon- 
ites in the siege, by cutting off their waters, 
and depriving them of other means of subsist- 
ence; till they were in the greatest want of 
meat and drink for they depended only on one 
small well of water, and this they durst not 
drink of too freely, lest the fountain should en- 
tively fail them. So he wrote to the king, and 
informed him thereof; and persuaded him to 
ccme himself to take the city, that he might 
have the honor of the victory. Upon this let- 
ter of Joab’s, the king accepted of his good 
will and fidelity, and took with him his army, 
aid came to the destruction of Rabbah, and 
when he had taken it by force, he gave it to his 
scldiers to plunder it; but he himself took the 
king of the Ammonites’ crown, whose weight 
was a talent of gold,* and it had in its middle 
& precious stone called a sardonyx; which 
crown David ever after wore on his own head. 
He also found many other vessels in the city, 
ai.d those both splendid and of great price; but 
as for the men, he tormented them,t and then 
destroyed them: and when he had taken the 
other cities of the Ammonites by force he 
teated them after the same manner. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How Absalom murdered Amnon, who had forced 
his own sister; and how he was banished, and 
afterwards recalled by David. 


§ 1. When the king was returned to Jerusa- 
lem, a sad misfortune befell his house, on the 
occasion following: “He had a daughter, who 
was yet a virgin, and very handsome, insomuch 
that she surpassed all the most beautiful wo- 
men; her name was Tamar; she had the same 
mother with Absalom. Now Amnon, David’s 
eldest son, fell in love with her, and being not 
able to obtain his desires, on account of her 
virginity, and the custody she was under, was 
much out of order; nay, his grief so ate up bis 
body, that he grew lean, and his color was 
changed. Now there was one Jonadab, a 
kinsman and friend of his, who discovered 
this his passion, for he was an extraordinary 

* That a talent of gold was about 7ib. weight, see the de- 
scription of the temple, ch. xiii. Nor could Josephus well 
estimate it higher, since he here says that David wore it on 
fais head perpetually. ‘ 

} Whether Josephus saw the words of our copies, 2 Sam. 
rii. 31, and 1 Chron, xx. 3, that David put the inhabitants, 
or, at least, the garrison of Rabbah, and the other Ainmon- 
ite cities which he besieged and took, ‘under, or cut them 
with saws: and under, or with harrows of iron; and under, 
er with axes of iron: and made them pass through the brick- 


kiln;’ is not here directly expressed. If he saw them, as it 
most probable he did, he certainlv «,pouunded them ot 


179 
wise man, and of great sagacity of mund, 
When, therefore, he saw that every morning 
Amnon was not in body as he ought to be, he 
came to him, and desired him to tell him whas 
was the cause of it: however, he said, that he 
guessed that it arose from the passion of love. 
Amnon confessed his passion, that he was im 
love with a sister of his, who had the same 
father with himself. So Jonadab suggested 
to him by what method and conti vance he 
might obtain his desires; for he persuaded him 
to pretend sickness, and bade him, when his 
father should come to him, to beg of him tha 

his sister might come and minister to him, for 
if that were done, he should be better, and 
should quickly recover from his distemper. 
So Amnon lay down on his bed, and _ pretend- 
ed to be sick, as Jonadab had suggested. When 
his father came, and inquired how he did, he 
begged of him to send his sister to him, Ac- 
cordingly he presently ordered her to be brought 
to him; and when she was come, Amnon bade 
her make cakes for him, and fry them in a 
pan, and do it all with her own hands, because 
he should take them better from her hand [than 
from any one’s else.]__ So she kneaded the flour 
in the sight of her brother, and made him 
cakes, and baked them in a pan, and brought 
them to him; but at that time he would not 
taste them, but gave order to his servants to 
send all that were there out of his chamber, 
because he had a mind to repose himself, free 
from tumult and disturbance. As soon as what 
he had commanded was done, he desired his 
sister to bring his supper to him into the inner 
parlor; which, when the damsel had done, he 
took hold of her, and endeavored to persuade 
her to lie with him. Whereupon the damsel 
cried out, and said “Nay, brother, do not force 
me, nor be so wicked as to transgress the laws, 
and bring upon thyself the utmost confusion. 
Curb this thy unrighteous and impure lust, 
from which our house will get nothing but re 

proach and disgrace.” She also advised him 
to speak to his father about this affair, for he 
would permit him [to marry her.] This she 
said, as desirous*to avoid her brother’s violent 
passion at present. But he would not yield to 
her, but, inflamed with love, and blinded with 
the vehemency of his passion, he forced his 
sister; but as soon as Amnon had satisfied his 
lust, he hated her immediately, and giving her 
reproachful words, bade her rise up and be 
gone. And when she said, that “this was e 
more injurious treatment than the former, if, 
now he had forced her, he would not let her 
stay with him till the evening, but bid her ge 
away in the day-time, and while it was light, 
that she might meet with people that would be 
tormenting these Ammonites to death, who were none of 
those seven nations of Canaan, whose wickedness had ren- 
dered them incapable of mercy; otherwise I should be im- 


clinable to think, that the meaning, at least as the words are 
in Samuel, might only be this, that they were made the low- 
est slaves, to work in sawing timber or stone, in harrowi 
the fields, in hewing timber, in making and burning bricks, 
and the like hard services, but without taking away their 
lives. We never elsewhere, that I remember, meet witl 
such methods of cruelty in putting men to death in all the 
bible, or in any other ancient history whatsnevor: tor do lie 
words ti Samuel seem naturally to peter to any such Ung. 


180 


witnesses of her shame,” he commanded his 
servant to turn her out of his house. Where- 
upon she was sorely grieved at the injury and 
violence that had been offered to her, and rent 
her loose coat, [for the virgins of old time wore 
such Joose coats tied at the hands, and let down 
to the ankles, that the inner coats might not be 
seen,] and sprinkled ashes on her head; and 
went up the middle of the. city, crying out, and 
famenting, for the violence that had been offer- 
ed her. Now Absalom her brother happened 
to meet her, and asked her, what sad thing had 
befallen her, that she was in that plight? and 
when she had told him what injury had been 
offered her, he comforted her, and desired her 
to be quiet, and to take all patienfly, and not to 
esteem her being corrupted by her brother as 
an inju.y. So she yielded to his advice, and 
left off her crying out, and discovering the 
force offered her to the multitude: and she 
continued as a widow with her brother Absa- 
lom a long time. 

2. When David his father knew this, he was 

ieved at the actions of Amnon; but because 

e had an extraordinary affection for him, for 
he was his eldest son, he was compelled not to 
afflict him: but Absalom watched for a fit op- 
portunity of revenging this crime upon him, 
for he thoroughly hated him. Now the second 
year after this wicked affair about his sister 
was over, and Absalom was about to go to shear 
his own sheepat Baalhazor, which is a city in 
the portion of Ephraim, he besought his father, 
as wellas his brethren, to come and feast with 
him: But when David excused himself, as not 
being willing to be burdensome to him, Absa- 
fom desired he would however send his breth- 
ren; whom he did send accordingly. Then 
Absaloia charged his own servants, that when 
they should see Amnon disordered and drowsy 
with wine, and he should give them a signal, 
they should fear nobody, but kill him. 

3. When they had done as they were com- 
manded, the rest of his brethren were astonish- 
ed and disturbed, and were afraid for them- 
selves, so they immediately got on horseback, 
and rode away to their fathex; but somebody 
there was who prevented them, and told their 
father they were all slain by Absalom; where- 
upon he was overcome with sorrow, as for so 
many of his sons that were destroyed at once, 
and that by their brother also; and by this con- 
sideration, that it was their brother that ap- 
peared to have slain them, he aggravated his 
sorrow for them. So he neither inquired what 
was the cause of this slaughter, nor stayed to 
near any ‘hing else, which yet it was but rea- 
sonable to have done, when so very great, and 
by that greatness so incredible a misfortune 
was related to him, but rent his clothes, and 
threw himself upon the ground, and there lay, 
lamenting the loss of all his sons, both those 
who, as he was informed, were slain, and of 
him who slew them. But Jonadab, the son of 
his brother Shimeah, entreated him not to m- 
dulge his sorrow so far, for as to the rest of his 
gons, he did not believe that they were slain, 
for he found no cause for such a suspicion; but 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


he said it might deserve inquiry as to Amnon, 


for it was not unlikely that Absalom might ven- 
ture to kill him on account of the injury he had 
offered to Tamar. In the mean time, a great 
noise of horses, and a tumult of some people 
that were coming, turned their attention to them 
they were the king’s sons, who were fled away 
from the feast. So their father met them as 
they were in their grief, and he himself griev 
ed with them; but it was more than he expect 
ed to see those his sons again, whom he ha, 
alittle before heard to have perished. How- 
ever, there were tears on both sides: they la- 
menting their brother who was killed, and the 
king lamenting his son, who was killed, also: but 
Absalom fled to Geshur, to his grandfather by 
his mother’s side, who was king of that country 
and he remained with him three whole years. 
4. Now David had a design to send to Absa 
lom, not that he should come to be punished, 
but that he might be with him, for the effects’ 
of his anger were abated by length of time. 
It was Joab, the captain of his host, that chief- 
ly persuaded him so to do; for he suborned an 
ordinary woman, that was stricken in age, to go 
to the king in mourning apparel, who said thus 
to him: “That two of her sons, in a coarse way, 
had some difference betweer them, and that 
in the progress of that difference they came to 
an open quarrel, and that one was smitten by 
the other, and was dead; and she desired him 
to interpose in this case, and to do her the favor 
to save this her son from her kindred, who were 
very zealous to have him that had slain his 
brother put to death; that so she might not be 
farther deprived of the hopes she had of being 
taken care of in her old age by him; and that 
if he would hinder this slaughter of her son by 
those that wished for it, he would do her a great 
favor, because the kindred would not be re 
strained from their purpose by any thing else 
than by the fear of him.” And when the kin 
had given his consent to what the woman had 
begged of him, she made this reply to him: “I 
owe thee thanks for thy benignity to me in pity- 


ing my old age, and preventing the loss of my 


only remaining child; but in order to assure me 
of this thy kindness, be first reconciled to thine 
own son, and cease to be angry with him; for 
how shall | persuade myself that thou hast— 
really bestowed this favor upon me, while thou 


thyself continuest after the like manner in thy” 


wrath to thine own son? for it isa foolish thing _ 
to add willully another to thy dead son, while _ 
the death of the other was brought about with- _ 


out thy own consent.” And now the king per- 


ceived that this pretended story was a subord _ 


nation derived from Joab, and was of his cun- 
trivance; and when, upon inquiry of the old 
woman, he understood it to be so in reality, he 
what he requested according to nis own mind; 
and he bade him bring Absalom back, for 4 
was not now displeased, but had already ceased 
to be angry with him. So Joab bowed hime 
self down to the king, and took his words kind=- 


called for Joab, and told him he had obtained — 


1 


ly, and went immediately to Geshur, and took 






Absalom with him, and came to Jerusalem. oe 


. 





; oy 


t 


BOOK VII.—CHAPTER IX. 


5. However, the king sent a message to his 
son beforehand, as he was coming, and com- 
manded him to retire to his own house, for he 
was not yet in such a disposition as to think fit 
at present to see him. Accordingly, upon his 
father’s command, he avoided coming into his 
presence, and contented himself with the re- 
spects paid him by his family only. Now his 
beauty was not impaired, either by the grief he 
had been under, or by the want of such care 
aS was proper to be taken of a king’s son, for 
he still surpassed and excelled all men in the 
tallness of his body, and was more eminent [in 
a fine appearance] than those that dieted the 
most luxuriously; and indeed such was the 
thickness of the hair of his head, that it was 
with diffizulty that he was polled every eighth 
day: and his hair weighed two hundred shekels,* 
which are five pounds. However, he dwelt in 


Jerusalem two years, and became the father of 


three sons, and one daughter; which daughter 
was of very great beauty, and whom Rehobo- 
am, the son of Solomon, took to wife afterward, 
and had by her ason named Abijah. But Ab- 
salom sent to Joab, and desired him to pacify 
his father entirely towards him; and to beseech 
him to give him leave to come to him to see 
him, and speak with him. But when Joab 
neglected to do so, he sent some of his own ser- 
gaits, and set fire to the field adjoining to him; 
w.1ich, when Joab understood, he came to Ab- 
salom, and accused him of what he had done; 
an 1 asked him the reason why he did so? To 
w.1ich Absalom replied, “I have found out this 
stratagem that might bring thee to us while 
thou hast taken no care to perform the injunc- 
dcn I laid. upon thee, which was this, to recon- 
cile my father to me: and I really beg it of thee, 
nc w thou art here, to pacify my father as to me, 
si.ce I esteem my coming hither to be more 
‘grievous than my banishment, while my father’s 
w.ath against me continues.” Hereby Joab was 
persuaded, and pitied the distress that Absalom 
Wiis in, and became an intercessor with the king 
for him. And when he had discoursed with 
his father, he soon brought him to that amica- 
ble disposition towards Absalom, that he pre- 
gently sent for him to come to him; and when 
he had cast himself down upon the ground, and 
had begged for the forgiveness of his offences, 
the king raised him up, and promised him to 
forget what he had formerly done. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Concerning the Insurrection of Absalom against 
David; and concerning Ahithophel and Hu- 
shai; and concerning Ziba and Shimei; and 
how Ahithophel hanged himself. 


§ . Now Absalom, upon this success with 
the king, procured to himself a great many 


* Of this weight of Absalom’s hair, how in 20 or 30 years 

it might well amount to 200 shekels, or to somewhat above 
 @ib. avoirdupois, see the Literal Accomplishments of Pro- 
_phecies, p. 77,78. Butalate very judicious author thinks 


that the LXXII. meant not its weight, but its value was 200 


_ ghekels. Dr. Wall's critical notes on the Old Testament upon 


$Sam. xiv. 26. It does not appear what was Josephus’s 


Opinion: he sets the text down honestly as he found it in his 


eopies: only he thought, diat at the endof days, when Absa- 
‘om polled or weighed his hair was once a week. 


18} 


horses, and many chariots, and that in a little 
time also. He had moreover fifty armor-bear- 
ers that were about him; and he came early 
every day to the king’s palace, and spoke what 
was agreeable to such as came for justice, and 
lost their causes, as if that happened for want 
of good counsellors about the king, or perhaps 
because the judges mistook in that unjust sen 

tence they gave; whereby he gained the good 
will of them all. He told them, that had he but 
such authority committed to him, he would 
distribute justice to them in a most equitable 
manner. When he had made himself so popu 

lar among the multitude, he thought he had 
already the good will of the people secured to 
him, but when four years had passed since his 
father’s reconciliation to him,* he came to him, 
and besought him to give him leave to go to 
Hebron, and pay a sacrifice to God, because he 
vowed it tohim when he fled out of the coun 

try. So when David had granted his request, 
he went thither, and great multitudes came 
running together to him, for he had sent to a 
great number so to do. 

2. Among them came Ahithophel the Gilo- 
nite, a counsellor of David, and two hundred 
men out of Jerusalem itself, who knew not his 
intentions, but were sent for as to a sacrifice. 
So he was appointed king by all of them, 
which he obtained by this stratagem. As soon 
as this news was brought to David, and he was 
informed of what he did not expect from his son, 
he was affrighted at this his impious and bold 
undertaking, and wondered that he was so far 
from remembering how his offence had been 
so lately forgiven him, that he undertook much 
worse and more wicked enterprises; first to 
deprive him of that kingdoin which was given 
him of God; and secondly, to take away his own 
father’s life. He, therefore, resolved to fly to 
the parts beyond Jordan: so he called his most 
intimate friends together, and communicated to 
them all that he had heard of his son’s mad- 
ness. He committed himself to God, t- juage 
between them about all their actions; and left 
the care of his royal palace to his ten concubines, 
and went away from Jerusalem, being willing- 
ly accompanied by the rest of the multitude; 
who went hastily away with him, and par- 
ticularly by those six hundred armed men, who 
had been with him from his first flight in the 
days of Saul. But he persuaded Abiathar and 
Zadok, the high priests, who had determined 
to go away with him, as also all the Levites, 
who were with the ark, to stay behind, as hoping 
that God would deliver him without its re- 
moval; but he charged them to let him know 
privately how all things went on; and he had 
their sons, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, and 
Jonathan the son of Abiathar, for faithful minis- 


* This is one of the best corrections that Josephus’s copy 
affords us of a text that in our ordinary copies is grossly cor- 
rupted. They say, that this rebellion of Absalom was 40 
years after what went before, (of his reconciliation to his 
father,) whereas the series of the history shows it could not 
be more than four years after it, as here in Josephus; whose 
number is directly confirmed by that copy of the Septuaging 
version whence the Armenian translation was made, whick 
gives us the same small number of four years. 


¥ 


182 


ters in all things; but Ittai the Gittite went out 
with him whether David would let him or not, 
for he would have persuaded him to stay, and 
on that account he appeared the most friendly 
to him. But as he was ascending the mount 
of Olives barefooted, and all his company were 
in tears, 1t was told him that Ahithophel was 
with Absalom, and was of his side. 'This hear- 
ing augmented his grief: and he besought God 
earnestly to alienate the mind of Absalom from 
Ahithophel, for he was afraid that he should 
persuade him to follow his pernicious counsel; 
for he was a prudent man, and very sharp in 
seeing what was advantageous. When David 
was gotten upon the top of the mountain he 
took a view of the city; and prayed to God 
with abundance of tears, as having already 
lost his kingdom: and _ here it was that a faith- 
ful friend of his, whose name was Hushai, 
met him. When David saw him with his 
clothes rent, and having ashes all over his head, 
and in lamentation for the great change of af- 
fairs, he comforted him, and exhorted him to 
leave off grieving; nay, at length he besought 
him to go back to Absalom, and appear as one 
of his party, and to fish out.the secretest coun- 
sels of his mind, and to contradict the coun- 
sels of Ahithophel, for that he could not do 
himself so much good by being with him as 
he might by being with Absalom. So he was 
prevailed on by David, and left him, and came 
to Jerusalem, whither Absalom himself came 
also a little while afterward. 

3. When David was gone a little farther, 
there met him Ziba, the servant of Mephibo- 
sheth, (whom he had sent to take care of the 
possessions which had been given him, as the 
son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,) with a couple 
of asses laden with provisions, and desired 
him to take as much of them as he and his fol- 
lowers stood in need of. And when the kin 
asked him where he had lelt Mephibosheth: 
he said, “He had left him in Jerusalem, expect- 
ing to be chosen king in the present confu- 
sions, in remembrance of the benefits Saul had 
conferred upon them.” At this the king had 

at indignation, and gave to Ziba all that he 

ad formerly bestowed on Mephibosheth; for 

he determined that it was much fitter that he 

should have them than the other; at which 
Ziba greatly rejoiced. 

4. When David was at Bahurim, a place so 
called, there came outa kinsman of Saul’s, 
whose name was Shimei, and threw stones at 
him, and gave him reproachful words: and as 
his friends stood about the king and protected 
him, he persevered still more in his reproaches, 
and called him a bloody man, and the author 
of all sorts of mischief. He bade him also 
*go out of the land as an impure and accursed 

_wretch, and he thanked God for depriving him 
of his kingdom, and causing him to be punish- 
ed for what injuries he had done to his master, 

Saul,] and this by the means of his own son.” 
ow when they were all provoked against him, 
and angry at him, and particularly Abishai, 
who hada mind to kill Shimei, David re- 
strained his anger: “Let us not, said he, bring 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


, 





upon ourselves another fresh misfortune te 
those we have already, for truly I have not the 
least regard or concern for this dog that raves 
at me: I submit myself to God, by whose per-— 
mission this man treats me in such a wild man- 
ner; nor is it any wonder that I am obliged to 
undergo these abuses from him, while I ex-— 
perience the like from an impious son of my 
own; but perhaps God will have some com- 
miseration upon us, if it be his will we shall 
overcome them.” So he went on his way 
without troubling himself with Shimei, who 
ran along the other side of the mountain, and 
threw out his abusive language plentifully — 
But when David was come to Jordan, he al — 
lowed those that were with him to refresh them- 
selves, for they were weary. 

5. But when Absalom, and Ahithophel his 
counsellor, were come to Jerusalem, with all 
the people, David’s friend, Hushai, came to 
them; and when he had worshipped Absalom, 
he withall wished that his kingdom might last 
a long time, and continue for all ages. But 
when Absalom said to him, “How comes this, 
that he who was so intimate a friend of m 
father’s, and appeared faithful to him in 
things, is not with him new, but hath left him, 
and is come over to me?” Hushai’s answer 
was very pertinent and prudent; for he said, 
“We ought to follow God and the multitude of 
the people; while these, therefore, my lord and 
master, are with thee, it is fit that I should fcl- 
low them, for thou hast received the kingdom 
from God. I will, therefore, if thou believest 
me to be thy friend, show the same fidelity and 
kindness to thee, which thou knowest I have 
showed to thy father: nor is there any reason” 
to be in thé least dissatisfied with the present 
state of affairs, for the kingdom is not trans 
ferred unto another, but remains still in the 
same family, by the son’s receiving it after his _ 
father.” This speech persuaded Absalom, — 
who before suspected Hushai. And now he 
called Ahithophel, and consulted with him | 
what he ought to do: he persuaded him to go | 
in unto his father’s concubines; for he said, _ 
that “by this action the people will believe that — 
thy difference with thy father is irreconcilable | 
and will thence fight with great alacrity against 
thy father, for hitherto they are afraid of taking 7 
up open enmity against him, out of an expec- 
tation that you will be reconciled again.” Ac- 
cordingly, Absalom was prevailed on by this 
advice, and commanded his servants to pitch | 
him a tent upon the top of the royal palace, in 
the sight of the multitude; and he went in and 
lay with his father’s concubines. Now this | 
came to pass according to the prediction of 
Nathan, when he prophesied and signified to . 
him, that his son would rise up in rebellion ~ 
against him. re 

6. And when Absalom had done what ne _ 
was advised to by Ahithophel, he desired his — 
advice, in the second place, about the war” 
against his father. Now, Ahithophel only — 
asked him to let him have ten thousand chosen 
men, and he promised he would slay his father 
and bring the soldiers back again in safety; and 










BOOK VII—CHAPTER IX. 


he eaid, that “then the kingdom would be firm 
to him when David was dead, [but not other- 
wise.”] Absalom was pleased with this advice; 
and called for Hushai, David’s friend, (for so 
did he style him,) and informing him of the 
opinion of Ahithophel, he asked farther, what 
was his opinion concerning that matter? Now, 
he was sensible that if Ahithophel’s counsel 
was followed, David would be in danger of 
being seized on, and slain; so he attempted to 
introduce a contrary opinion, and said, “Thou 
art not unacquainted, O king, with the valor of 
thy father, and of those that are now with him: 
that he hath made many wars, and hath always 
come off with victory; though probably he 
now abides in the camp, for he is very skilful 
in stratagems, and in foreseeing the deceitful 
tricks of his enemies, yet will he leave his own 
soldiers in the evening, and will either hide 
himself in some valley, or will place an am- 
bush at some rock: so that when our army 
joins battle with him, his soldiers will retire for 
a little while, but will come upon us again, as 
encouraged by the king’s being near them; and 
in the mean time your father will show him- 
self suddenly in the time of the battle, and 
will infuse courage into his own people when 
they are in danger, but bring consternation to 
thine. Consider, therefore, my advice, and 
reason upon it, and if thou canst not but ac- 
knowledge it to be the best, reject the opinion 
of Ahithophel. Send to the entire country of 
the Hebrews, and order them to come and 
fight with thy father; and do thou thyself take 
the army, and be thine own general in this 
war, and do not trust its management to another; 
then expect to conquer him with ease, when 
thou overtakest him openly with his few parti- 
sans, but hast thyself many ten thousands, who 
will be desirous to demonstrate to thee their 
diligence and alacrity. And if thy father shall 
shut himself up in some city and bear.a siege, 
we will overthrow that city with machines of 
war, and by undermining it.”,» When Hushai 
had said this, he obtained his point against 
Ahithophel, for his opinion was preferred by 
Absalom before the other’s: however, it was 
no other than God who made the counsel of 
_ Hushai appear best to the mind of Absalom.* 
7. So Hushai made haste to the high priests, 
Radok and Abiathar, and told them the opinion 
of Ahithophel, and his own, and that the resolu- 
tion was taken to follow this latter advice. He, 
therefore, bade them send to David, and tell him 
of it, and to inform him of the counsels that 
had been taken; and to desire him farther to 
pass quickly over Jordan, lest his son should 
ehange his mind, and make haste to pursue him, 
and so prevent him, and seize upon him before 


* This reflection of Josephus’s, that God brought to nought 
the dangerous counsel of Ahithophel, and directly ‘infatuat- 
ed@? wicked Absalom to reject it, (which ‘infatuation’ is what 
the scripture styles the judicial ‘hardening the hearts and 
blinding the eyes’ of men, who, by their former voluntary 
wickedness, have justly deserved to be destroyed, and are 
thereby brought to destruction,) is a very just one, and in 
him not unfrequent. Nor does Josephus ever puzzle him- 
self, or perplex his readers, with subtile hypothesis as to the 
manner of such judicial infatuations by God, while the 
fustice of them is generally so obvious. That peculiar manner 


7. 


ive 


he be in safety. Now, the high priests nad 
their sons concealed in a proper place out of 
the city, that they might carry news to Davia 
of what was transacted. Accordingly, they sent 
a maid-servant whom they could trust, to carry 
them the news of Absalom’s counsels, and or- 
dered them to signify the same to David with 
all speed. So they made no excuse or delay, 
but taking along with them their father’s in- 
junctions, became pious and faithful ministers: 
and judging that quickness and suddenness was 
the best mark of faithfui service, they made haste 
to meet with David: but certain horsemen saw 
them when they were two furlongs from the 
city, and informed Absalom of them, who im- 
mediately sent some to take them: but when the 
sons of the high priests perceived this, they 
went out of the road, and betook themselves to 
a certain village; that village was called Bahu- 
rim; there they desired a certain woman to hide 
them, and afford them security. Accordingly, 
she let the young men down by a rope, into 
a well, and laid fleeces of wool over them: and 
when those that pursued them came to her, and 
asked her whether she saw them? she did not de- 
ny that she had seen them, for that they staid with 
her some time, but she said they then went their 
ways; and she foretold, that, however, if they 
would follow them directly, they would catch 
them. But when after a long pursuit they 
could not catch them, they came back again 
and when the woman saw those men were re- 
turned, and that there was no longer any fear 
of the young men’s being caught by them, 
she drew them up by the rope, and bade them 
go on their journey. Accordingly, they used 
great diligence in the prosecution of that jour- 
ney, and came to David and informed him ac- 
curately of all the counsels of Absalom. So 
he commanded those that were with him to 
pass over Jordan while it was night, and not to 
delay at all on that account. | 
8. But Ahithophel, on rejection of his advice, 
got upon his ass, and rode away to his own 
country Gilon; and calling his family together, 
he told them distinctly what advice he had giv- 
en Absalom; and since he had not been pur- 
suaded by it, he said he would evidently perish 
and this in no long time, and that David would 
overcome him, and return to his kingdom 
again: so he said it was better that he should 
take his own life away with freedom and mag- 
nanimity, than expose himself to be punished 
by David, in opposition to whom he had acted 
entirely for Absalom. When he had discours- 
ed thus to them, he went into the inmost room 
of his house, and hanged himself; and thus 
was the death of Ahithophel, who was self 
condemned: and when his relations had taken 


of the divine operations, or permissions, or the means God 
makes use of in such cases, is often impenetrable by ua 
“Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things 
that are revealed belong to us, and to our children, forever, 
that we may do all the words of this law.””? Deut. xxix. 29. 
Nor have all the subtilities of the moderns, so far as I see, 
given any considerable light in this, and many other the like 
points of difficulty relating either to divine or human opera- 
tions. See the notes on Antig. b. v. chap. i. sect. 2, and 
Antiq. b. ix. chap. iv. sect. 3. 


@ 


od 


him down from the halter, they took care of 
his funeral. Now,as for David, he passed over 
Jordan, ‘as we have said already, and came to 
Mahanaim, a very fine and very strong city; and 
all the chief men of the country received him 
with great pieasure, both out of the shame 
they had that he should be forced to flee away, 
from Jerusalem,] and out of the respect they 
re him while he was in bis former prosperity. 
These were Barzillai the Gileadite, and Siphar 
the ruler among the Ammonites, and Machir 
the principal man of Gilead; and these fur- 
wished him with plentiful provisions for himself 
and his followers, insomuch that they wanted 
no beds nor blankets for them, nor loaves of 
bread, nor wine; nay, they brought them a 
great muny cattle for slaughter, and ‘offered 
them: what furniture they wanted for their re- 
freshment whien they were weary, and for food, 
with plenty of other necessaries. 


CHAPTER X. 


How, when Absalom was beaten, he was caught 
in a tree by his hair, and was slain. 


§ 1. And this was the state of David and his 
followers. But Absalom got together a vast 
army of the Hebrews to oppose his father, 
and passed therewith over the river Jordan, 
and sat down not far off Mahanaim, in the 
country of Gilead. He appointed Amasa to 
be captain of all his host, instead of Joab his 
kinsman: his father was Ithra, and his mother 
Abigail; now she and Zeruiah, the mother of 
Joab, were David's sisters. But when David 
had numbered his followers, and found them 
to be about four thousand, he resolved not to 
tarry till Absalom attacked him, but set over 
his men captains of thousands, and captains of 
hundreds, and divided his army into three 
parts: the one part he committed to Joab, the 
next to Abishai, Jorb’s brother, and the third 
to Ittai, David’s companion and friend, but one 
that came from the city of Gath. And when 
he was desirous of fighting himself among 
them, his friends would not let him; and this 
refusal of theirs was founded upon very wise 
reasons: “For, said they, if we be conquered 
when he is with us, we have lost all good hopes 
of recovering ourselves; but if we should be 
peaten in one part of ourarmy, the other parts 
inay retire to him, and may thereby prepare a 
greater force, while the enemy will naturally 
suppose that he hath another army with him. 
So David was pleased with this their advice, 
and resolved himself to tarry at Mahanaim. 
And as he sent his friends and commanders to 

. the battle, he desired them to show all possible 
alnerity and fidelity, and to bear in mind what 
advantages they received from hith, which 
though they had not been very great, yet had 
they not been quite inconsiderable; and he 
begged of them to spare the young man, Ab- 
ealom, lest some mischief should befall himself 
if he should be killed. And thus did he send 
out his army to the battle, and wished them a 
victory therein. 

2, "Then did Joab put his army in battle array 
vyer against the enemy in the great plain, where 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


he had a wood behind lim. Absalom alse 
brought his army into the field to oppose him. 
Upon the joining of the battle, both sides show- 
ed great actions with their hands and their bold- 
ness; the one side exposing themselves to the 
greatest hazards,and using their utmost alacri- 
ty, that David might recover his kingdom; and 
the other being noway deficient, either in do- 
ing or suffering that Absalom might not be 
deprived of that kmgdom, and be brought to 
punishinent by his father, for his impudent at- 
tempt against him. ‘Those also that were the 
most numerous were solicitous that they might 
not be conquered by those few that were with 
Joab, and with the other commanders, because 
that would be the greatest disgrace to them, 
while David’s soldiers strove greatly to over- 
come so many ten thousands [as the enemy 
had with them.] Now David’s men were con- 
querors, as superior in strength and skill in war; 
so they followed the others as they fled away 
through the forests and valleys; some they took 
prisoners, and many they slew, and more in 
the flight than in the battle, for there fell about 
twenty thousand that day. But all David’s 
men ran violently upon Absalom, for he was 
easily known by his beauty and tallness. He 
was himself also afraid lest his enemies should 
seize on him, so he got upon the king’s mule 
and fled; but as he was carried with violence, 
and noise, and a great motion, as being himself 
light, he entangled his hair greatly in the large 
boughs of a knotty tree that spread a great 
way, and there he hung after a surprising man- 
ner; and as for the beast, it went on farther 
and that swiftly, as if his master had been still 
upon his back; but he hanging in the air upon 
the boughs, was taken by his enemies. Now 
when one of David’s soldiers saw this, he in- 
formed Joab of it; and when the general said, 
that “if he had shot at and killed Absalom, he 
would have given him fifty shekels,” he replied 

“J would not have killed my master’s son if 

thou wouldst have given me athousand she- 

kels, especially when he desired that the young 
man might be spared, in the hearing of us all.” 
But Joab bade him show him where it was that 
he saw Absalom hang, whereupon he shot him 
to the heart, and slew him, and Joab’s armor- 
bearers stood round about the tree, and pulled 
down his dead body, and cast it into a great 


chasm that was out of sight, and laid a heap — 


of stones upon him till the cavity was filled 


up, and had both the appearance and the big- — 


ness of a grave. Then Joab sounded a retreat, 
and recalled his own soldiers from pursuing 
the enemy’s army, in order to spare their coun- 
trymen. 


3. Now Absalom had erected for himself a 


marble pillar in the king’s dale, two furlon 
distant from Jerusalem, which he named A 
salom’s Hand, saying, that if his children were 


killed, his name would remain by that pillar: : 


for he had three sons, and one daughiter, nam- 
ed Tamar, as we said before, who, when sne 


was married to David’s grandson, Rehoboam, — 


bore a son, Abijah by name, who succeeded — 


his father in the kingdom: but of these we — 


A, 


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BOOK VIT--CHAPTER XI. 


shall speak in a part of our history which will 
be more proper. After the death of Absalom, 
they returned every one to their own homes 


ee 


But now Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, the 
high priest, went to Joab, and desired he would 
permit him to go and tell David of this victory, 
and to bring him the good news that God had 


_ afforded his assistance and his providence to 


him. However, he did not grant his request; 
but said to him, “Wilt thou, who hast always 
been the messenger of good news, now go and 
acquaint the king that his son is dead?” So 
he desired him to desist. He then called 


_ Cushi, and committed the business to him, that 


he should tell the king what he had seen. But 
when Ahimaaz again desired him to let him 
go asa messenger, and assured him that he 
would only relate what concerned the victory, 
but not concerning the death of Absalom, he 
gave him leave to go to David. Now he took 
a nearer road than the former did, for nobody 
knew it but himself, and he came before Cushi. 
Now as David was sitting between the gates,* 
and waiting to see when somebody would 
come to him from the battle, and tell him how 
it went, one of the watchmen saw Ahimaaz 
running, and before he could discern who he 
was, he told David that he saw somebody com- 
ing to him, who said, he was a good messenger. 
A little while after he informed him that 
ar other messenger followed him; whereupon 
the king said that he was also a good messen- 

r: but when the watchman saw Ahimaaz, 
er d that he was already very near, he gave the 
king notice that it was the son of Zadok the 
hgh priest, who came running. So David 
was very glad, and said, “He was a messenger 
of good tidings, and brought him some such 
news from the battle as he desired to hear.” 

5. While the king was saying thus, Ahimaaz 
aypeared, and worshipped the king. And when 
the king inquired of him about the battle, he 
said, “He brought him the good news of vic- 
tory and dominion.” And when he inquired 
what he had to say concerning his son, he said, 
that “he came away on the sudden as soon as 
the enemy was defeated, but that he heard a 
great noise of those that pursued Absalom, and 
that he could learn no more, because of the 
haste he made when Joab sent him to in- 
form him of the victory.” But when Cushi 
was come, and had worshipped him, and 
informed him of the victory, he asked him 
about his son; who replied, “May the like mis- 
fortune befall thine enemies as hath befallen 
Absalom.” That word did not permit either 
himself or his soldiers to rejoice for the victory, 
though it was a very great one; but David 
went up to the highest part of the city,t and 


*The reader need not be surprised at this account of 
David’s throne, both here, and 2 Sam. xviii. 24, that it was 
between two gates or portals, gates being in cities, as well 
at the temple, large open places with a portal at the 
entrance, and another at the exit, between which judicial 
éauses were heard, and public consultations taken, as it is 
well known from several places of Scripture, 2 Chron. xxxi. 
®& Psal ix. 14; exxii. 5; Prov. i. 21; viii. 3, 34; xxxi. 23; and 


- Sten elsewhere. 
- Since David a now in Mahanaim, and in the open 


~. 


185 
wept for his son, and beat his oreast, vearin 
[the hair of] his head, and tormenting himsel 
all manner of ways, and crying out, “O my 
son! I wish that I had died myself, and ended 
my days with thee!” For he was of a tender na- 
tural affection, and had extraordinary compas- 
sion for this son in particular. But when the 
army and Joab heard that the king mourned 
for this son, they were ashamed to enter the 
city in the habit of conquerors, but they all 
came in as cast down, and in tears, as if they 
had been beaten, Now while the king cover- 
ed himself, and grievously lamented his son, 
Joab went in to him, and comforted him, and 
said, “O my lord the king, thou art not aware 
that thou layest a blot on thyself by what thou 
now doest: for thou seemest to hate those that 
love thee, and undergo dangers for thee; nay, to 
hate thyself and thy family, and to love those 
that are thy bitter enemies, and to desire the 
company of those that are no more, and who 
have been justly slain; for had Absalom gotten 
the victory, and firmly settled himself in the 
kingdom, there had been none of us left alive 
but all of us, beginning with thyself and thy 
children, had miserably perished, while our 
enemies had not wept over us, but rejoiced 
over us, and punished even those that pitied 
us In our misfortunes; and thou art not asham- 
ed to do this in the case of one that has been 
thy bitter. enemy, who, while he was thine own 
son, hath proved so wicked to thee. Leave 
off, therefore, thy unreasonable grief, and come 
abroad and be seen by thy soldiers, and return 
them thanks for the alacrity they showed in 
the fight; for I myself will this day persuade 
the people to leave thee, and to give the king- 
dom to another, if thou continuest to do thus; 
and then I shall make thee to grieve bitterly, 
and in earnest.” Upon Joab’s speaking thus 
to him, he made the king leave off his sorrow, 
and brought him to the consideration of his 
affairs. So David changed his habit, and ex- 
posed himself in a manner fit to be seen by 
the multitude, and sat at the gates; whereupon 
all the people heard of it, and ran together to 
him, and saluted him. And this was the pre- 
sent state of David’s affairs. 


CHAPTER XI. 


How David, when he had recovered his kingdvin, 
was reconciled to Shimei, and to Ziba; and 
showed a great affection to Barzillai: and how, 
upon the rise of a sedition, he made masa, 
captain of his host, in e- der io nursue Sheba, 
which Amasa was slain by Joab. 

§ 1. Now those Hebrews that had been with 
Absaloin, and had retired out of the battle, 
when they were all returned home sent mes- 
sengers to every city to put them an mind of 


place of that city gate, which seems still tc nave been built 
the highest of any part of the wall, and since our other copies 
say, he ‘went up to the chamber over the gate.’ 2 Sam. 
XViii. 33, I think we ought to correct our present reading In 
Josephus, and for city should read gate i. e. instead of the 
highest part of the city, should say the highest part of the 
gate. Accordingly we find David presently in Josephus, as 
well as in our other copies, 2 Sam. xix. 8, sitting as before 
in the gate of the city. 


Ha. 


what benefits David had bestowed upon them, 
and of that liberty which he had procured them, 
iy delivering them from many and great wars. 
But they complained, that whereas they had 
ejected him out of his kingdom, and committed 
it to another governor, which other governor, 
whom they had set up, was already dead, they 
did not now beseech David to leave off his an- 
ger at them, and to become friends, with them, 
and, as he used to do, to resume the care of 
their affairs, and take the kingdom again. ‘This 
was often told to David. And, this notwith- 
standing, David sent to Zadok and Abiathar 
the high priests, that they should speak to the 
rulers of the tribe of Judah after the manner 
following: that “it would be a reproach upon 
them to permit the other tribes to choose David 
for their king before their tribe, and this, said he, 
while you are akin to him, and of the same com- 
mon blood.” He commanded them also to say 
the same to Amasa the captain of their forces, 
that “whereas he was his sister’s son, he had 
not persuaded the multitude to restore the king- 
dom of David: that he might expect from him 
not only a reconciliation, for that was already 
granted, but that supreme command of the 
army also which Absalom had bestowed upon 
him.” Accordingly the high priests, when they 
had discoursed with the rulers of the tribe, and 
said what the king had ordered them, persuad- 
ed Amasa to undertake the care of his affairs. 
So he persuaded that tribe to send immediately 
ambassadors to him, to beseech him to return 
to his kingdom. The same did all the Israel- 
ites, at the like persuasion of Amasa. 

2. When the ambassadors came to him, he 
came to Jerusalem; and the tribe of Judah was 
the first that came to meet the king at the river 
Jordan. And Shimei, the son of Gera, came 
with athousand men, which he brought with 
him out of the tribe of Benjamin; and Ziba, 
the freedman of Saul, with his sons, fifteen in 
number, and with his twenty servants. All 
these, as well as the tribe of Judah, laid a bridge 
{of boats] over the river, that the king and 
those that were with him, might with ease pass 
over it. Now as soon as he was come to Jor- 
dan, the tribe of Judah saluted him. Shimei 
also came upon the bridge, and took hold of his 
feet, and prayed him, “to forgive him what he 
nad offended, and not to be too bitter against 
nim nor to think fit to make him the first ex- 
ample of severity, under his new authority; but 

o consider that he had repented of his failure 
of duty, and had taken care to come first ofall to 
him.” While he was thus entreating the king, 
and moving him to compassion, Abishai, Joab’s 
bro her, said, “And shall not this man die for 
this, that he hath cursed that king whom God 
hath appointed to reign over us?” But David’ 
tarned himself to him, and said, “Will ye never 
leave off, ye sens of Zeruiah? Do not you, I 
pray, raise new troubles and seditions among 
us, now the former are over; for I would not 
have you ignorant that I this day begin my 
reign, and therefore swear to remit all offend- 
ers their punishments, and not to animadvert 
on any one that has sinned. Be thou, therefore, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


said he, O Shimei, of good courage, and do nos : 
at all fear being put to death.” So he worship-_ 
ped him, and went on before him. 

3. Mephibosheth also, Saul’s grandson, met — 
David, clothed in a sordid garment, and having — 
his hair thick and neglected: for after David | 
was fled away, he was in such grief that he had — 
not polled his head, nor had he washed his 
clothes, as dooming himself to undergo such — 
hardships upon occasion of the change of the 
king’s affairs. Now he had been unjustly ca- ~ 
lumniated to the king by Ziba his steward, 
When he had saluted the king, and worship- 
ped him, the king began to ask him,“Why he — 
did not go out of Jerusalem with him, and ac- 
company him during his flight?” He replied, 
that “this piece of injustice was owing to Zi- 
ba; because when he was ordered to get things 
ready for his going out with him, he took no 
care of it, but regarded him no more than if he 
had been a slave; and indeed had I had my feet — 
sound and strong, I had not deserted thee, for 
I could then have made use of them in my 
flight: but this is not all the injury that Ziba 
has done me, as to my duty to thee, my lord 
and my master, but he hath calumniated me 
besides, and told lies about me of his own im 
vention: but I know thy mind will not edmit of 
such calumnies, but is righteously dispozed, and 
a lover of truth, which it is also the will of | 
God should prevail. For when thou wast in — 
the greatest danger of suffering by my grayul- 
father, and when on that account, our whale 
family might justly have been destroyed, thou 
wast moderate and merciful, and didst then 
especially forget all those injuries, when, if — 
thou hadst remembered them, thou hadst the 
power of punishing us for them; but thou hast — 
judged me to be thy friend, and hast set me 
every day at thine own table, nor have I want — 
ed any thing which one of thine own kinsmen, ~ 
of greatest esteem with thee, could have ex- — 
pected.” When he said this, David resolved — 
neither to punish Mephibosheth,* nor to con- — 
demn Ziba, as having belied his master; but 
said to him, that as he had [before] granted all © 
his estate to Ziba because he did not come — 
along with him, so he [now] promised to for-— 
give him, and ordered that the one half of his_ 
estate should be restored to him. Whereupon — 
Mephibosheth said, “Nay, let Ziba take all; it 
suffices me that thou hast recovered thy king- , 
dom.” | 

4, But David desired Barzillai, the Gileadite — 
that great and good man, and one that had~ 
made a plentiful provision for him at Mahana- 
im, and conducted him as far as Jordan, to ac-— 
company him to Jerusalem, for he promised 


Vio 


} 
* By David’s disposal of half Mephibosheth’s estate te 
Ziba, one would imagine that he was a good deal per 
and doubtful whether Mephibosheth’s story were entirely 
true or not. Nor does David now invite him to diet 
him, as he did before, but only forgives him, if he had been 
at all guilty. Nor is this odd way of mourning that Mephi- 
bosheth made use of here, and 2 Sam. xix. 24, wholly free 
from suspicion of hypecrisy. If Ziba neglected or refused 
to bring Mephibosheth an ass of his own, on which he migh 
ride to David, it is hard to suppose that so great a man as 
was should not be able to procure some other beast for 
saine purpose. 


0 | 





BOOK VIL—CHAPTER XI. 


to treat him in his old age with all manner of 
respect; to take care of him, and provide for 
him. But Barzillai was so desirous to live at 
home, that he entreated him to excuse him 
from attendance on him; and said, that “his age 
was too great to enjoy the pleasures [of a court,] 
since he was fourscore years old, and was, 
therefore, making provision for his death and 
burial; so he desired him to gratify him in this 
request, and dismiss him, for he had no relish 
for his meat or his drink, by reason of his age; 
and that his ears were too much shut up to 
hear the sound of pipes, or the melody of other 
musical instruments, such as those that live 
with kings delightin.” When he entreated 
for this so earnestly, the king said, “I dismiss 
thee, but thou shalt grant me thy son Chim- 
ham, and upon him [ will bestow all sorts of 
good things.” So Barzillai left his son with 
him, and worshipped the king, and wished him 
& prosperous conclusion of all his affairs accord- 
ing to his own mind, and then returned home; 
but David came to Gilgal, having about him 
half the people [of Israel,] and the [whole] 
tribe of Judah. 

5. Now the principal men of the country 
came to Gilgal to him with a great multitude, 
and complained of the tribe of Judah, that they 
had come to him in a private manner, whereas 
they ought all conjointly, and with one and the 
same intention, to have given him the meeting. 
But the rulers of the tribe of Judah desired 
them not to be displeased, if they had been pre- 
vented by them; for said they, “We are David’s 
kinsmen, and on that account we the rather 
took care of him, and loved him, and so came 
first to him; yet had they not,by their early 
coming, received any gifts from him, which 
might give them whocame last any uneasiness.” 
When the rulers of the tribe of Judah had 
said this, the rulers of the other tribes were 
not quiet, but said farther, “O brethren, we 
cannot but wonder at you, when you call the 
king your kinsman alone, whereas he that hath 
received from God the power over all of usin 
common, ought to be esteemeda kinsman to 
us all; for which reason the whole people have 
eleven parts in him,* and you but one part: we 
also are elder than you; wherefore you have 
not done justly in coming to the king in this 
private and concealed manner.” 

6. While these rulers were thus disputing 
one with another, a certain wicked man who 
took a pleasure in seditious practices, (his name 
was Sheba, the son of Bichri, of the tribe of 
Benjamin,) stood up in the midst of the multi- 

ude, and cried aloud, and spoke thus to them: 
We have no part in David, nor inheritance in 
the son of Jesse.’ And when he had used 
those words, he blew with a trumpet, and de- 
_clared war against the king, and they all left 
David, and followed him; the tribe of Judah 
alone staid with him, and settled him in his royal 
palace at Jerusalam. But as for his concu- 


*I clearly prefer Josephus’s reading here, when it sup- 
poses eleven tribes, including Benjamin, to be on the one 
aide, and the tribe of Judah alone on the other; since Ben- 
jamin in general had been still fonder of the house of Saul, 


187 


bines, with whom Absalom his son had accom 
panied, truly he removed them to another house: 
and ordered those that had the care of them to 
make a plentiful provision for them, but he came 
not near them any more. He also appointed 
Amasa for the captain of his .forces, and gave 
him the same high office which Joab before 
had; and commanded him to gather together 
out of the tribe of Judah as great an army as 
he could, and to come to him within three days, 
that he might deliver to him his entire army, 
and might send him to fight against [Sheba] 
the son of Bichri. Now while Amasa was 
gone out, and made some delay in gathering 
the army together, and so was not yet returned, 
on the third day the king said to Joab, “It is 
not fit we should make any delay in this affair 
of Sheba, lest he get a numerous army about 
him, and be the occasion of greater mischief, 
and hurt our affairs more than did Absalom 
himself; do not thou, therefore, wait any long- 
er, but take such forces as thou hast at hand, 
and that [old body] of six hundred men, and 
thy brother Abishai with thee, and pursue after 
our enemy, and endeavor to fight him where- 
soever thou canst overtake him. Make haste 
to prevent him, lest he seize upon some fenced 
cities, and cause us great labor and pains be- 
fore we take him.” 

7. So Joab resolved to make no delay, but 
taking with him his brother, and those six hun- 
dred men, and giving orders that the rest of tlre 
army which was at Jerusalem should follow 
him, he marched with great speed against She- 
ba; and when he was come to Gibeon, which 
is a village forty furlongs distant from Jerusa- 
lem, Amasa brought a great army with him, 
and met Joab. Now Joab was girded with a 
sword and his breast-plate on; and when Ama- 
sa, came near him to salute him, he took par- 
ticular care that his sword should fall out as it 
were of its own accord: so he took it up from 
the ground, and while he approached Amasa, 
who was then near him, as though he would 
kiss him, he took hold of Amasa’s beard with 
his other hand, and he smote him in his belly 
when he did not foresee it, andslewhim. This 
impious and altogether profane action, Joab did 
to a good young man, and his kinsman, and one 
that had done him no injury, and this out of 
jealousy that he would obtain the chief com- 
mand of the army, and be in equal dignity with 
himself about the king: and for the same cause 
it was that he killed Abner. But as to that 
former wicked action, the death of his brother 
Asahel, which he seemed to revenge, afforded 
him a decent pretence, and made that crime a _ 
pardonable one; but in this murder of Amasa © 
there was no such covering for it. Now when 
Joab had killed this general he pursued after 
Sheba, having left a man with the dead body, 
who was ordered to proclaim aloud to the army, 
that Amasa was justly slain, and deservedly 
punished. “But, said he, if you be for the king, 


and less firm to David hitherto than any of the rest, and se 
cannot be supposed to be joined with Judah at this time 
make it double, especially when the following rebellion wa 
headed by a Benjamite, see sect. 6 and 2 Sam. xx. 2, 4. 


188 


follow Joab his general, and Abishai, Joab’s 
prother.” But because the body lay on the road, 
and all the multitude came running to it, and, 
gs is usual with the multitude, wondering a 
reat while at it, he that guarded it removed 
it thence, and carried it to a certain place that 
was very remote from the road, and there laid 
it, and covered it with his garment. When this 
was done, all the people followed Joab. Now 
as he pursued Sheba through all the country 
of Israel, one told him that he was in a strong 
city called Abel-beth-maachah; hereupon Joab 
went thither, and set about it with his army, 
and cast up a bank round it, and ordered his sol- 
diers to undermine the walls, and to overthrow 
them; and since the people in the city did not 
admit him, he was greatly displeased at them. 
8. Now there was a woman of small ac- 
count, and yet both wise and intelligent, who 
seeing her native city lying at the last extremi- 
ty, ascended upon the wall, and by means of 
the armed men called for Joab; and when he 
came near her, she began to say, that “God or- 
dained kings and generals of armies that they 
might cut off the enemies of the Hebrews, and 
introduce a universal peace among them; but 
thou art endeavoring to overthrow and depopu- 
lat2 a metropolis of the Israelites, which hath 
been guilty of no offence.” But he replied, 
“God continue to be merciful unto me: I am 
disposed to avoid killing any one of the people, 
much less would I destroy such a city as this: 
and if they will deliver me up Sheba, the son 
of Bichri, who hath rebelled against the king, 
I will leave off the siege, and withdraw the ar- 
my from the place.” Now as soon as the wo- 
num heard what Joab said, she desired him to 
itermit the siege for a little while, for that he 
siould have the head of his enemy thrown 
cut to him presently. So she went down to 
the citizens, and said to them, “Will you beso 
wicked as to perish miserably, with your chil- 
dren and wives, for the sake of a vile fellow, 
aid one woom nobody knows who he is? And 
will you have him for your king instead of Da- 
vid, who hath been so great a benefactor to 
you, and oppose your city alone to such a 
mighty and strong army?” So she prevailed 
with them, and they cut off the head of Sheba, 
and threw it into Joab’s army. When this was 
done, the king’s general sounded a retreat, and 
raised the siege: and when he was come to Je- 
rusalem, he was again appointed to be general 
of all the people. The king also constituted 
Benaiah captain of the guards and of the six 
hundred men. He also set Adoram over the 
tribute, and Sabathes and Achilaus over the re- 
cords. He made Sheva the scribe, and ap- 
pointed Zadok and Abiathar the high priests. 


CHAPTER XII. 


How the Hebrews were delivered from a famine, 
when the Gibeonites had caused punishment to 
be inflicted for those of them that had been 
slain; as also what great actions were per- 
Sormed against the Philistines by David, and 
the men of valor about hum. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


afflicted with a famine, David besought God 
to have mercy on the people, and to discover 
to him what was the cause of it, and hows 
remedy might be found for that distemper. 
And then the prophets answered, that God 
would have the Gibeonites avenged, whom 
Saul the king was so wicked as to betray to 
slaughter, and had not observed the oath which 
Joshua the general and the senate had sworn 
to them. If, therefore, said God, the king 
would permit such vengeance to be taken for 
those that were slain, as the Gibeonites should 
desire, he promised that he would be recon- 
ciled to them, and free the multitude from their 
miseries. As soon, therefore, as the king un- 
derstood that this it was which God sought, he 
sent for the Gibeonites, and asked them, what 
it was they would have? and when they desir- 
ed to have seven sons of Saul delivered to 
them, to be punished, he delivered them up, 
but spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan. 
So when the Gibeonites had received the men, 
they punished them as they pleased; upon 
which God began to send rain, and to recover 
the earth to bring forth its fruits as usual, and 
to free it from the foregoing drought, so that 
the country of the Hebrews flourished again. 
A little afterward the king made war against 
the Philistines; and when he had joined battle 
with them, and put them to flight, he was left 
alone as he was in pursuit of them; and when 
he was quite tired down, he was seen by one 
of the enemy, his name was Achmon, the son 
of Araph; he was one of the sons of the giants. 
He had a spear, the handle of which weighed 
three hundred shekels, and a breast-plate of 
chain work and a sword. He turned back, 
and ran violently to slay [David] their enemies’ 
king, for he was quite tired out with labor; but 
Abishai, Joab’s brother, appeared on the sud- 
den, protected the king with his shield as he 
lay down, and slew the enemy. Nowthe mul- 
titude were very uneasy at these dangers of the 
king, and that he was very near to be slain: 
and the rulers made him swear that he would 
no more go out with them to battle, lest he 
should come to some great misfortune by his 
courage and boldness, and thereby deprive the 
people of the benefits they now enjoyed by his 
means, and of those that they might hereafter 
enjoy by his living a long time among them. 
2. When the king heard that the Philistines 
were gathered together at the city Gazara, he 
sent an army against them, when Sibbechai, 


the Hittite, one of David’s most courageous. 


men, behaved himself so as to deserve great 
commendation; for he slew many of those that 
bragged they were the posterity of the giants, 
and vaunted themselves highly on that account, 


| and thereby was the occasion of victory to the 
After which defeat the Philistines — 


Hebrews. 
made war again: and when David had sent an 
army against them, Nephan, his kinsm 
fought in a single combat with the stoutest o 


all the Philistines, and slew him, and put the — 


rest to flight. 


Many of them also were slam 
in the fight. 


Now a little while after this, the — 
§ 1. After this, when tl:e country was greatly | Philistines pitched their camp at a city which — 


5 


BOOK VII—CHAPTER XII. 


lay not far off the bounds of the country of 
the Hebrews. They had a man who was six 
cubits tall, and had on each of his feet and 
hands one more toe and finger than men na- 
trally have. Now the person who was sent 
against him by David out of his army was 
Jonathan, the son of Shimea, who fought this 
man in a single combat, and slew him; and as 
he was the person who gave the turn to the 
battle, he gained the greatest reputation for 
courage therein. This man also vaunted him- 
self’ to be of the sons of the giants. But after 
his flight, the Philistines made war no more 
against the Israelites. 

3. And now David, being freed from wars 
and dangers, and enjoying for the future a pro- 
found peace, composed songs and hymns to 
God of several sorts of metre;* some of those 
which he made were trimeters, and some were 
pentameters; he also made instruments of mu- 
sic, and taught the Levites to sing hymns to 
God, both on that called the Sabbath-day, and 
on the other festivals. Now the construction 
of the instruments was thus: The viol was an 
istrument of ten strings, it was played upon 
with a bow; the psaltery had twelve musical 
notes, and was played upon by the fingers; the 
cymbals were broad and large instruments, 
and were made of brass. And so much shall 
suffice to be spoken by us about these instru- 
ments, that the readers may not be wholly un- 
acquainted with their nature. 

. Now all the men that were about David, 
were men of courage. ‘Those that were most 
illustrious and famous of them for their actions 
were thirty-eight; of five of whoin I will only 
relate the performances, for these will suffice 
to make manifest the virtues of the others also; 
for these were powerful enough to subdue coun- 
tries, and conquer great nations, First, there- 
fore, was Jessai, the son of Achimaas, who fre- 
quently leaped upon the troops of the enemy, 
and did not leave off fighting till he overthrew 
nine hundred of them. After him was Elea- 
zar, the son of Dodo, who was with the king at 
Arasam. This manu, when once the Israelites 
were under a consternation at the multitude of 
the Philistines, and were running away, stood 
alone, and fell upon the enemy, and slew many 
of them, till his sword clung to his hand by the 
blood he had shed, and till the Israelites, seeing 

* This section is a very remarkable one, and shows that, in 

2 opinion of Josephus, David composed the book of Psalms, 
not at several times before, as their present inscriptions fre- 
quently imply, but generally at the latter end of his life, or 
after his wars were over. Nor does Josephus, nor the aal- 
thors of the known books of the Old and New Testament, nor 
the Apestolical Constitutions, seem to have ascribed any of 
them tc any other author than to David himself. See Essay 
on the Old Test. p. 174, 175. Of these metres of the Psalins, 
see the note on Antiq. b. ii. chap. xvi. sect. 4. However, we 
must observe here; that as Josephus says, Antiq. b. ii. chap. 
KVi. sect. 4, that the song at the Red Sea, Exod. xv. 1—21, 
was composed by Moses in the hexameter tune or metre, as 
also Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 44, that the song of Moses, 
Deut. xxxii. 1—43 was an hexameter poem, so does he say, 
that the Psalms of David were of various kinds of metre, and 
particularly that they contained trimeters and pentameters, 
Antiaq. b. vii. ch. xii. sect. 3, all which implies, that he thought 
these Hebrew prems might be best described to the Greeks 

and Romans ¥. der those names and characters of hexame- 
ters, trimet+ # and pentameters. Now, it appears that the 


instruments of music that were originally used by the com- 
wand of king David and Solomon and were carried at Babv- 


189 


the Philistines retire by his means, came down 
from the mountains and pursued them, and ai 
that time won a surprising and a famous vic 

tory, while Eleazar slew the men, and the mul 

titude followed and spoiled their dead bodies 
The third was Sheba, the son of Ilus. Now this 
man, when, » the wars against the Philistines, 
they pitched \eir camp at a place called Lehi, 
and when the “febrews were again afraid of 
their enemy, aul did not stay, he stood stil} 
alone, as an army anda body of men, and some 
of then he overthrew, and some, who were 
not able to abide his strength and force, he pur- 
sued. These are the works of the hands, and 
of fighting, which these three performed. 
Now at the time when the king was once at 
Jerusalem, and the army of the Philistines 
came upon him to fight him, David went up 
to the top of the citadel, as we have already 
said, to inquire of God concerning the battle, 
while the enemy’s camp lay in the valley that 
extends to the city Bethlehem, which is twenty 
furlongs distant from Jerusalem. Now Davil 
said to his companions, “We have excellert 
water in ny own city, especially that which gs 
in the pit near the gate,” wondering if any 
one would bring him some of it to drink: bit 
he said, that “he would rather have it than a 
great deal of money.” When these three men 
heard what he said, they ran away immediatels, 
and burst through the midst of their enemy’s 
camp, and came to Bethlehem; and when they 
had drawn the water, they returned again 
through the enemy’s camp to the king, inso- 
much that the Philistines were so surprised at 
their boldness and alacrity, that they were quiet, 
and did nothing against them, as if they co- 
spised their small number. But when the v a- 
ter was brought to the king, he would ot 
drink it, saying that “it was brought by the 
danger and the blood of men, and that it was not 
proper on that account to drink it.” But he 
poured it out to God, and gave him thanks for 
the salvation of the men. Next to these were 
Abishai, Joab’s brother; for he in one day slew 
six hundred. The fifth of these was Benaiah, 
by lineage a priest; for being challenged by 
[two] eminent men in the country of Moab, 
he overcame them by his valor. Moreover, 
there was a man, by nation an Egyptian, whe 
was of a vast bulk, and challenged him; yet 
lon at the captivity of the two tribes, were orough back 
after that captivity; as also, that the singers and musicians, 
who outlived that captivity, came back with those instru- 
ments, Ezra ii. 41; vii. 24; Neh. vii. 44; Antiq. b. xi. ch. ith 
sect. 8, and ch. iv. sect. ii. and that this music and these 
instruments at the temple could not but be well known to Je- 
sephus, a priest belonging to that temple: who accordingly 
gives us a short description of three of the instruments, An- 
tiq. b. vii. ch. xii. sect 3, and gives us a distinct account, thet 
such psalms and hymns were sungin his days at that templa, 
Antiq. b. xx. ch. ix. sect. 6: so that Josephns’s authority f# 
beyond exception in these matters. Nor can any hypothesia 
of the moderns, that does not agree with Josephus’s charac- 

ters, be justly supposed the true metre of the ancient He- 
brews; nor indeed is there, J think, any other original authori 

ty now extant, hereto relating, to be opposed to these testa 

monies before us. That the ancient music of the Hebrewe 
was very complete also, and had in it great variety of tunes 

is evident by the number of their musical instruments, an. 
by the testimony of another most authentic witness, Jesus 
the son of Sirach, Ecclus. i. 18, who says, that at the tem- 


ple, in his days, ““The singers sung praises with their voice 
with great variety of sounds was there made sweet melody,’ 


190 


did he, when he was unarmed, kill him with 
his own spear, wich he threw at him, for he 
caught him by force, and took away his wea- 
pons, while he was alive and fighting, and 
slew him with his own weapons. One may 
also add this to the forementioned actions of 
the same man, either as the principal of them 
in alacrity or as resembling the rest. When 
God sent a snow, there was a lion who slipped 
and fell into a certain pit, and because the pit’s 
mouth was narrow, it was evident he would 

erish, being enclosed with the snow; so when 
fre saw no way to get out and save himself, he 
roared. When Benaiah heard the wild beast, 
he went towards him, and coming at the noise 
he made, he went down into the mouth of the 
pit, and smote him, as he struggled, with a 
stake that lay there, and immediately slew him. 
The other thirty-three were like these in valor 


CHAPTER XIII. 


That when David had numbered the people, they 
were punished; and how the Divine compas- 
sion restrained that punishment. 


§ 1. Now king David was desirous to know 
how many ten thousands there were of the 
people, but forgot the commands of Moses,* 
who told them beforehand, that if the multi- 
tude were numbered, they should pay half a 
ghekel to God for every head. Accordingly, 
the king commanded Joab, the captain of his 
host, to go and number the whole multitude: 
but when he said there was no necessity for 
such a numeration, he was not persuaded [to 
countermand it,} but he enjoined him to make 
no delay, but to go about the numbering of the 
Hebrews immediately. So Joab took with 
him the heads of the tribes, and the scribes, 
and went over the country of the Israelites, 
and took notice how numerous the multitude 
were, and returned to Jerusalem to the king, 
after nine months and twenty days; and he 
gave in to the king the number of the people, 
without the tribe of Benjamin, for he had not 
yet numbered that tribe, no more than the tribe 
of Levi; for the king repented of his having 
sinned against God. Now the number of the 
rest of the Israelites was nine hundred thou- 
sand men, who were able to bear arms and go 
to war; but the tribe of Judah, by itself, was 
four hundred thousand men. 

2. Now when the prophets had signified to 


* The words of God by Moses, Exod. xxx. 12, sufficiently 
ustify the reason here given by Josephus for the great plague 
mentioned in this chapter: “When thou takest the sum of 
the children of Israel, after their number, then shall they 
give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when 
thou numberest them, that there be no plague amongst them 
when thou numberest them.” Nor indeed could David’s or 
the Sanhedrim’s neglect of executing this law at this nu- 
meration excuse the people, who ought still to have brought 
their bounden oblation of half a shekel a piece with them, 
when they came to be numbered. The great reason why 
nations are so constantly punished by and with their wicked 
kings and governors is this, that they almost constantly com- 
y with them in their neglect of, or disobedience to the di- 
vine laws, and suffer those divine laws to go into disuse or 
contempt, in order to please those wicked kings and gover- 
nors; and that they submit to severa)] wicked political laws 
and commands of those kings and governors, instead of the 
righteous laws of God, which all mankind ought ever to 
obey, let thes Kings and ygoveriors say what they please to 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


David that God was angry at him, ae began te 
entreat him, and to desire he would be merci- 
ful to him, and forgive his sin. But God sent 
Nathan the prophet to him, to propose to him 
the election of three things, that he might 
choose which he liked best: “Whether he 
would have a famine come upon the country 
for seven years? or would have a war, and be 
subdued three months by his enemies? or 
whether God should send a pestilence and a 
distemper upon the Hebrews for three days?” 
But as he was fallen to a fatal choice of great 
miseries, he was in trouble, and sorely con- 
founded; and when the prophet had said that 
he must of necessity make his choice, and had 
ordered him to answer quickly, that he might 
declare what he had chosen to God, the kin 
reasoned with himself, that in case he shoul 
ask for famine, he would appear to do it for 
others, and without danger to himself, since he 
had a great deal of corn hoarded up, but to the 
harm of others; that in case he should choose 
to be overcome [by his enemies] for three 
months, he would appear to have chosen war, 
because he had valiant men about him, and 
strong holds, and that, therefore, he feared 
nothing therefrom: so he chose that affliction 
which is common to kings and to their sub- 
jects, and in which the fear was equal on al 
sides; and said this, beforehand, that “it was 
much better to fall into the hands of God than 
into those of his enemies.” 

3. When the prophet had heard this, he de- 
clared it to God; who thereupon sent a pesti- 
lence and a mortality upon the Hebrews; nor 
did they die after one and the same manner 
nor so that it was easy to know what the dis- 
temper was. Now, the miserable disease was 
one indeed, but it carried them off by ten thou- 
sand causes and occasions, which those that 
were afflicted could not understand; for one 
died upon the neck of another, and the terrible 
malady seized them before they were aware; 
and brought them to their end suddenly; some 
giving up the ghost immediately with very 
great pains and bitter grief, and some were 
worn away by their distempers, and had noth- 
ing remaining to be buried, but as soon as ever 
they fell, were entirely macerated; some were 
choked, and greatly lamented their case, as be- 
ing also stricken with a sudden darkness; some 
there were, who as they were burying a rela- 
tion, fell down dead,* without finishing the 


the contrary: this preference of human before Divine laws 
seeming to me the principal character of idolatrous or anti- 
Christian nations. Accordingly, Josephus well observes An- 
tiq. b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 17, that it was the duty of the people 
of Israel to take care that their kings, when they should 
have them, did not exceed their proper limits of power, and 
prove ungovernable by the laws of God, which would cer- 
tainly be a most pernicious thing to their Divine settlement. 
Nor do I think that negligence peculiar to the Jews; those 
nations which are called Christians are sometimes indeed 
very solicitous to restrain their kings and governors from 
breaking the human laws of their several kingdoms, but 
without the like care for restraining them from breaking the 
laws of God. ‘Whether it be right in the sight of God, te 
hearken unto men more than unto God, judge ye,” Acts iv. 
19. ‘We ought to obey God rather than men,”’ ver. 29. 

* Whence Josephus took these his distinct and melancho- 
ly accounts of the particular symptoms, and most miserable 
methods of dying in this terrible pestilence, we cannot now 
tell, our other copies affording us no such accounts, 


BOOK VIL—CHAPTER XIV. 


rites of the funeral. Now there perished of 
this disease, which began with the morning and 
lasted till the hour of dimer, seventy thousand. 
Nay, the angel stretched out his hand over 
Jerusalem, as sending this terrible judgment 
upon it. But David had put on sackcloth, and 
lay upon the ground, eutreating God, and beg- 
ging that the distemper might now cease, and 
that he would be satisfied with those that had 
already perished. And when the king looked 
up into the air, and saw the angel carried along 
thereby unto Jerusalem, with his sword drawn, 
be said to God, that “he might justly be pun- 
ished, who was their shepierd, but that the 
sheep ought to be preserved, as not having sin- 
ned at all; and he implored God that he would 
send his wrath upon Inim, and upon all his 
Yainily, but spare the people.” 

4. When God heard his supplication, he 
caused the pestilence to cease; and sent Gad 
tne prophet to hitn, and commanded him to go 
up immediately to the threshing-floor of Arau- 
nah the Jebusite, aid build an altar there to 
God, and offer sacrifices. When David heard 
that, he did not neglect his duty; but made 
haste to the place appointed him. Now Arau- 
nah was threshing wheat; and when he saw 
tl e. king and all his servants coming to him, he 
rin before, and came to him, and worshipped 
him: he was by his lineaye a Jebusite, but a 

articular friend of David: and for that cause 
i wus, that when he overthrew the city he did 
him no harm, as we informed the reader a lit- 
the before. Now Araunah inquired, “Where- 
fcre is my lord come to his servant?” He an- 
swered, “To buy of him the threshing-floor, 
that he might therein build an altar to God, and 
offer a sacrifice.” He replied that “he freely 
give him both the threshitng-floor, and the 
eouels, and the oxen for a burnt-offering; and 

e besought God graciously to accept his sa- 
erifice.” But the king made answer, that he 
took his generosity and miagnanimity kindly, 
and accepted his good will, but he desired hin 
to take the price of them all, fur it was not just 
to offer a sacrifice that cost nothing. And 
when Araunah said, he would do as he pleased, 
he bought the threshing-floor of him for fifty 
shekels, And when he had built an altar, he 
performed divine service, and! brought a burnt- 
offering, and offered peace-offerings also.— 
With these God was pacified, and became gra- 
cious to them again. Now it happened that 
Abraham came and offered jiis son Isaac for a 
burnt-offering at that very place;* and when 
the youth was ready to have his throat cut, a 
ram appeared on a sudden, standing by the al- 
tar, Which Abraham sacrificed in the stead of 
his son, as we have before related. Now when 
king David saw that God had heard his prayer, 
and had graciously accepted of his sacrifices, 
he resolyed to call that entire place the altar of 
all the people, and to build a temple to God 


* What Josephus adds here is very remarkable, that this 
mount Moriah was not only the very place where Abraham 
efered up Isaac long ago, but that God had foretold to Da- 
vid Dy a prophet, that here his son should build him a tem- 
Me, which is not directly iu any of our vier copies, though 


“ 


191 


there. Which words he uttered very apposite- 
ly to what was to be done afterward; for God 
sent the prophet to him and told him, that there 
should his son build him an altar, that son 
who was to take the kingdom after him. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


That David made great preparations for the 
House of God: and that upon Adonijah’s at- 
tempt to gain the kingdom, he appointea Sols 
mon to reign. 


§ 1. After the delivery of this prophecy, the 
king commanded the strangers to be number- 
ed; and they were found to be one hundred 
and eighty thousand: of these he appointed 
fourscore thousand to be hewers of stone, and 
the rest of the multitude to carry the stones, 
and of them he set over the workmen three 
thousand and five hundred. He also prepared 
a great quantity of iron and brass for the work, 
with many (and those exceeding large) cedar 
trees; the T'yrians and Sidonians sending them 
to him, for he had sent to them for a supply of 
those trees. And he told his friends that these 
things were now prepared, that he might leave 
materials ready for the building of the temple 
to his son, who was to reign after him, and 
that he might not have them to seek then, when 
he was very young, and by reason of his age, 
unskilful in such matters, but might have them 
lying by him, and so might the more readily 
complete the work. 

2. So David called his son Solomon, and 
charged him, when he had_ received the king- 
dom, to build atemple to God; and said, “I was 
willing to build God a temple myself, but he 
prohibited me because I was polluted with 
blood and wars: but he hath foretold, that Solo- 
mon, my youngest son, should build him a tem- 
ple, and should be called by that name; over 
whom he hath promised to take the like care, as 
a father takes over his son: and that he would 
make the country of the Hebrews happy under 
him, and that, not only in other respects, but by 
giving it peace and freedom from wars, and 
from internal seditions, which are the greatest 
of all blessings. Since, therefore, says he, thou 
wast ordained by God himself before thou wast 
born, endeavor to render thyself worthy of this 
his providence, as in other instances, so particu- 
larly in being religious, and righteous, and cou- 
rageous. Keep thou also his commands, and 
his laws, which he hath given us by Moses, 
and do not permit others to break them. Be 
zealous also to dedicate to God a temple, which 
he hath chosen to be built under thy reign; aor 
be thou affrighted by the vastness of the work, 
nor set about it timorously for I will make all 
things ready before I die: and take notice, thar 
there are already ten thousand talents of gold, 
and a hundred thousand talents of silver, col- 
lected together.* I have also laid together brass 
and iron without number, and an immense 


very agreeable to what is in them, particularly in ] Chron. 
xxi. 26—28; and xxii. 1: to which places I refer the reader. 
_ * Of the quantity of gold and silver expended in the builé- 


ing of Solomon’s temple, and whence it arose, see the De 
scription of the Temple, chap. xiii. 


1B2 


uantity of timber and of stones. Moreover, 
day hast many ten thousand stone-cutters and 
carpenters; and if thou shalt want any thing 
farther, do thou add somewhat of thine own. 
Wherefore, if thou performest this work, thou 
wilt be acceptable to God, and have him for thy 
patron.” David also farther exhorted the rulers 
of the people to assist his son im this building, 
and to attend to the divine service, when they 
should be free from all their misfortunes, for 
that they by this means should enjoy, instead 
of them, peace, and a happy settlement, with 
which blessings God rewards such as are re- 
‘igious and righteous. He also gave orders, 
that when the temple should be once built, they 
should put the ark therein, with the holy ves- 
sels; and he assured them, that they ought to 
have had atemple long ago, if their fathers 
had not been negligent of God’s commands, 
who had given it in charge that when they had 
got the possession of this land, they should 
build hima temple. Thus did David discourse 
to the governors and to his son. 

3. David was now in years, and his body, 
by length of time, was become cold,and_be- 
numbed, insomuch that he could get no heat 
by covering himself with many clothes: and 
when the physicians came together, they agreed 
to this advice, that a beautiful virgin, chosen 
out of the whole country, should sleep by the 
king’s side, and that this dainsel would com- 
municate heat to him, and be a remedy against 
his numbness. Now there was found in the 


city one woman of a superior beauty to all | 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, that Adonijah 
was king, and that David knew nothing of i; 
and he advised her to save herself,and her son 
Solomon, and to go by herself to David, and 
say to him, that “he had indeed sworn that 
Solomon should reign after him, but that in 
the mean time, Adonijah had already taken the 
kingdom.” He said, that he, the prophet him- 
self; would come after her, and when she had 
spoken thus to the king, would confirm what 
she had said. Accordingly, Bathsheba agreed 
with Nathan, and went in to the king, and wor- 
shipped him, and when she had desired leave 
to speak with him, she told him all things m 
the manner that Nathan had suggested to her; 
and related what a supper Adoniyah had made, 
and who they were whom he had invited; 
Abiathar, the high priest, and Joab the general, 
and David’s sons, excepting Solomon and his 
intimate friends. She also said, “That all the 
people had their eyes upon him, to know whom 
he would choose for their king.” She desired 
him also to consider how, after his departure, 
Adonijah, if he were king, would slay her and 
her son Solomon. 

5. Now as Bathsheba was speaking, the keep- 
er of the king’s chambers told him, that Na- 
than desired to see him. And when the kin 
had commanded. that he should be SpE 
he came in, and asked him, whether he had or- 
dained Adonijah to be king, and delivered the 
government to him or not? for that he had mate 
a splendid supper, and invited all his sons, ex- 
cept Solomon, as also that he had invited Joab 


other women, (her name was Abishag,) who, | the captain of his host, [and Abiathar the high 


sleeping with the king, did no more than com- 


priest,] who are feasting with applauses, and 


municate warmth to him, for he was so old | many joyful sounds of instruments, and wish 
that he could not know her asa husband knows | that his kingdom may last forever: but he hath 


his wife. But of this woman we shall 
more presently. 

4. Now the fourth son of David was a beau- 
tiful young man, and tall, born to him of Hag- 
gith his wife. He was named Adonijah, and 
was in his disposition like to Absalom; and 
exalted himself as hoping to be king; and told 
his friends that he ought to take the govern- 
ment upon him. He also prepared many cha- 
riots and horses, and fifty men to run before 
him. When his father saw this, he did not re- 
prove him, nor restrain him from his purpose, 
nor did he go so far as to ask wherefore he did 
so? Now Adonijah had for his assistants, Joab 
the captain of the army, and Abiathar the 
high priest; and the only persons that opposed 
him were Zadok the high priest, and the pro- 
phet Nathan, and Benaiah, who was captain of 
the guards, and Shimei, David’s friend, with 
all the other most mighty men. Now Adoni- 
jah had prepared a supper out of the city, near 
the fountain that was in the king’s paradise, 
and had invited all his brethren except Solo- 
non, and had taken with him Joab the captain 
of the army, and Abiathar, and the rulers of the 
tnive of Judah; but had not invited to this feast 
neither Zadok the high priest, nor Nathan the 
provhet, nor Benaiah the captain of the guards, 
oz any of those of the contrary party. This 
natter was told by Nathan the prophet to 


speak | 


not invited me, nor Zadok the high priest, nor 
Benaiah the captain of the guards: and it is 
but fit that all should know whether this be done 
by thy approbation or not. When Nathan had 
said thus, the king commanded that they shouid 
cal] Bathsheba to him, for she had gone out of 
the room when the prophet came. And when 
3athsheba was come, David said, “I swear by 
Almighty God, that thy son Solomon shall cer- 
tainly be king, as I formerly swore, and 
that he shall sit upon my throne, and that 
this very day also.” So Bathsheba worship- 
ped him, and wished hima long life: and the 
king sent for Zadok the high priest and Bens- 
iah the captain of the guards; and when they 
were come, he ordered them to take with them 
Nathan the prophet, and all the armed men 
about the palace, and to set his son Solomon 
upon the king’s mule, and to carry him out of 
the city to the fountain called Gihon, and to 
anoint him there with the holy oil, andto make. 
him king. ‘This he charged Zadok the high 
priest, and Nathan the prophet, to do, and 
commanded them to follow Solomon through 
the midst of the city, and to sound the trun+ 
pets, and to wish aloud, “That Solomon the 
king may sit upon the royal throne forever;” 
that so all the people may know that he is or- 
dained king by his father. He also gave Sole- 
mon a charge concerning his government, #@ 


BOOK VIL—CHAPTER XIV. 


rule the whole nation of the Hebrews, and par- 
ticularly the tribe of Judah, religiously and 
righteously. And when Benaiah had prayed 
to God to be favorable to Solomon, without 
any delay they set Solomon upon the mule, and 
brought him out of the city to the fountain, 
and anointed him with oil, and brought him 
into the city again, with acclamations and 
wishes that his kingdom might continue along 
time; and when they had introduced him into 
the king’s house they set him upon the throne. 
Whereupon all the people betook themselves 
to make merry, and to celebrate a festival, 
dancing, and delighting themselves with mu- 
sical pipes, till both the earth and the air echo- 
ed with the multitude of the instruments of 
music. 

6. Now when Adonijah and his guests per- 
ceived this noise, they were in disorder, and 
Joab the captain of the host said, “He was not 
pleased with these echoes, and the sound of 

these trumpets.” And when supper was set 
before them, nobody tasted of it, but they were 
all very thoughtful what would be the matter. 
Then Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the high 
priest, came running to them; and when Ado- 
nijah saw the young man gladly, and said to 
‘him that he was a good messenger, he declar- 
ed to them the whole matter about Solomon, 
and the determination of king David; here- 
upon both Adonijah and all his guests rose hasti- 
ly from the feast; and every one fled to their 
own homes; Adonijah also as afraid of the king 
for what he had done, became a supplicant to 
God, and took hold of the horns of the altar, 
which were prominent. It was also told Solo- 
mon that he had so done; and that he desired to 
receive assurances from him that he would not 
remember the injury he had done, and not inflict 
any severe punishment for it. Solomon an- 
swered very mildly and prudently, that “he for- 
gave him this his offence;” but said withall, that 
“if he were found out in any attempt for new 
innovations, that he would be the author of his 
own punishment.” So he sent to him and 
raised him up from the place of his supplica- 
tion. And when he was come to the king, and 
had worshipped him, the king bade him go 
away to his own home, and have no suspicion 
of any harm; and desired him to show bimself 
a worthy man, as what would tend to his own 
ailvantage. 

7. But David being desirous of ordaining 
his son king of all the people, called together 
their rulers to Jerusalem, with the priests and 
the Levites; and having first numbered the Le- 
vites, he found them to be thirty-eight thou- 
wand, from thirty years old to fifty: out of 
which he appointed twenty-three thousand to 
take care of the building of the temple, and 
out of the same six thousand to be judges of 

| the people and scribes, four thousand for por- 
_ ters to the house of God, and as many for sing- 
era, to sing to the instruments which David 
had prepared, as we have said already. He 





iS8 


of the house of Eleazar, and eight of that of 
Ithamar: and he ordained that one course 
should minister to God eight days, from Sab- 
bath to Sabbath. And thus were the courses 
distributed by lot, in the presence of rior 
and Zadok and Abiathar the high priests, an 
of all the rulers: and that course which came 
up first was written down as the first, and ac- 
cordingly the second, and so on to the twenty- 
fourth; and this partition hath remained to thia 
day. He also made twenty-four parts of the 
tribe of Levi; and when they cast lots, they 
came up in the same manner for their courses 
of eight days. He also honored the posterity 
of Moses, and made them the keepers of the 
treasures of God, and of the donations which 
the kings dedicated. He also ordained, that 
all the tribe of Levi, as well as the priests 
should serve God night and day, as Moses had 
enjoined them. 

8. After this, he parted the eutire army into 
twelve parts, with their leaders, (and captaina 
of hundreds,) and commanders. Now every 
part had twenty-four thousand, which were 
ordered to wait on Solomon, by thirty days ut 
a time, from the first day till the last, with the 
captains of thousands, and captains of hue 
dreds. He also set rulers ‘over every part, such 
as he knew to be good and righteous mex 
He set others also to take charge of the trea- 
sures, and of the villages, and of the fields, and 
of the beasts, whose names I do not think it 
necessary to mention. When David had or 
dered all these offices after the manner befcre 
mentioned, he called the rulers of the Hebrews, 
and their heads of tribes, and the officers over 
the several divisions, and those that were ap- 
pointed over every work, and every possessic.ns 
and standing upon a high pulpit, he said to ta 
multitude as follows: “My brethren and nay 
people, I would have you know, that I intended 
to build a house for God, and prepared a large 
quantity of gold, and a hundred thousand ta- 
lents of silver, but God prohibited me by the 
prophet Nathan, because of the wars I had on 
your account, and because my right hand was 
polluted with the slaughter of our enemies; 
but he commanded that my son, who was to 
succeed me in the kingdom, should build a 
temple for him. Now, therefore, since you 
know that of the twelve sons whom Jacob our 
forefather had, Judah was appointed to be king 
and that I was preferred before my six breth- 
ren, and received the government from God, 
and that none of them were uneasy at it, so do 
I also desire that my sons be not seditious one 
against another, now Solomon has received 
the kingdom, but to bear him cheerfully for 
their lord, as knowing that God hath chosen 
him: for it is not a grievous thing to obey even 
a foreigner as a ruler, if it be God’s will, but it 
is fit to rejoice when a brother hath obtainea 
that dignity, since the rest partake of it with 
him. And I pray that the promises of Goa 
may be fulfilled; and that this happiness which 


- divided them also into courses; and when he| he hath promised to bestow upon king Sote- 

' had separated the priests from them, he found | mon, over all the country, may continue there- 
‘ef these priests twenty-four courses, sixteen! in for all time to come. And ‘hese promises, 
et r) en " 


25 


Fe 


194 


O son, will ve firm, and come to a happy end, 
if thou shuwest thyself to be a religious and a 
righteous man, and an observer of the laws of 
thy country; but if not, expect adversity upon 
thy disobedience to them.” 

9. Now when the king had said this, he left 
off, but gave the description and pattern of the 
building of the temple in the sight of them all, 
to Solomon: of the foundations and of the 
chambers, inferior and superior, how many 
they were to be, and how large in height and 
in breadth; as also he determined the weight 
of the golden and silver vessels; moreover, he 
earnestly excited them with his words, to use 
the utmost alacrity about the work; he exhort- 
ed the rulers also, and particularly the tribe of 
Levi, to assist him, both because of his youth, 
and because God had chosen him to take care 
of the building of the temple, and of the go- 
vernment of the kingdom. He also declared 
to them that the work would be easy, and not 
very laborious to them, because he had pre- 
pared for it many talenis of gold, and more of 
silver, with timber, and a great many carpen- 
ters and stone-cutters, and a large quantity of 
erneralds, and all sorts of precious stones; and 
he said, that even now he would give of the 
p~oper goods of his own dominion two hun- 
dred talents, and three hundred other talents of 
pure gold, for the most holy place, and for the 
ctariot of God, the cherubims, which are to 
stund over and cover the ark. Now when 
I)avid had done speaking, there appeared great 
alucrity among the rulers, and the priests, and 
the Levites, who now contributed, and made 
great and splendid promises for a future con- 
tiibution; for they undertook to bring of gold 
five thousand talents, and ten thousand drachms, 
and of silver ten thousand talents, and many 
ten thousand talents of iron; and if any one 
had a precious stone he brought it, and be- 
queathed it to be put among the treasures; of 
which Jachiel, one of the posterity of Moses, 
had the care. 

10. Upon this occasion all the people re- 
joiced, as in particular did David, when he saw 
the zeal and forward ambition of the rulers 
aid the priests, and of all the rest; and he be- 
gan to bless God with a loud voice; calling him 
“the Father and Parent of the universe, and 
the Author of human and divine things, with 
which he had adorned Solomon, the patron 
and guardian of the Hebrew nation, and of its 
happiness, and of that kingdom which he hath 
given his son. Besides this, he prayed for 
happiness to all the people; and to Solomon 
his son, a sound and a righteous inind, and 
eonfirmed in all sorts of virtues” and then he 
commanded the multitude to blessGod. Upon 
which they all fell down upon the ground, and 
worshipped him. 'They also gave thanks to 
David, on account of all the blessings which 
chey had received ever since he had taken the 
kingdom. On the next day he presented sa- 
¢rifices to God, a thousand bullocks, and as 
eany lambs, which they offered for burnt- 
offerings. They also offered peace-offerings, 
aud slew many ten thousand sacrifices; and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


the king feasted all day, together with all tae 
people; and they anointed Solomon a secoud 
time with the oil, and appointed him to be king, 
and Zadok to be the high priest of the whote 
multitude. And when they had brought So- 
lomon to the royal palace, and had set him 
upon his father’s throne, they were obedient te 
him from that day. 


CHAPTER XV. 


What charge David bag to his son Solomon, at 
the approach of his death; and how many 
things he left him for the Building of the 
Temple. 


§ 1. A little afterward David also fell inte 
a distemper, by reason of his age; and perceiv- 
ing that he was near to death, he called hisson 
Solomon, and discoursed to him thus: “I am 
now, O my son, going to my grave and to m 
fathers, which is the common way which a 
men that now are, or shall be hereafter, must 
go, from which way it is no longer possible to re- 
turn, and to know any thing that 1s done in this 
world. On which account I exhort thee, while 
I am still alive, though already very near to 
death, in the same manner as I have formerly 
said in my advice to thee, to be righteous to- 


wards thy subjects, and religious towards God, 


that hath given thee thy kingdom; to observe 
his commands and his laws, which he hath 
sent us by Moses; and neither do thou out of 
favor nor flattery allow any lust or other pas- 
sion to weigh with thee, to disregard them; 
for if thou transgressest his laws, thou wilt lose 
the favor of God, and thou wilt turn away 
his providence from thee in all things; but if 
thou behave thyself so as it behooves thee, and 
as I exhort thee, thou wilt preserve our king- 
dom to our family, and no other house will 
bear rule over the Hebrews, but we ourselves, 
for allages. Be thou also mindful of the trans- 
gressions of Joab,* the captain of the host, 
who hath slain two generals out of envy, and 
those righteous and good men, Abner the son cf 
Ner, and Amasa the son of Jether, whose death 
do thou avenge as shall seem good to thee, 
since Joab hath been too hard for me, and 
more potent than myself, and so hath escaped 
punishment hitherto. I also commit to thee 


* David is here greatly blamed by some for Phat ta 
Joab and Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find — 
a proper occasion, after he had borne with the first a long 
while, and seemed to have pardoned the other entirely, 
which Solomon executed accordingly: yet I cannot discern’ 
any fault either in David or Solomon in these cases. Juab’s 
murder of Abner and Amasa were very barbarous, and could — 
not properly be forgiven either by David or Solomon; for 
dispensing power in kings for the crime of wilful mu:der is 
warranted by no law of God, nay, is directly me pee it every-_ 
where; nor is it, for certain, in the power of men to grant 
such a prerogative to any of their kings. Though Joab was 
so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army under 
a warlike administration, that David durst not himself put 
him to death, 2 Sam. iii. 39, and xix. 7. Shimei’s cursing the 
Lord’s anointed, and this without any just cause, was the 
highest act of treason against God and his anointed > 
and justly deserved death; and though David could forgive _ 
treason against himself, yet had he done no more in the case — 
of Shimei than promised him that he would not then, on 

day of his return and re-inauguration, himself put him te 
death, 2 Sam. xix. 22, and he swore to him no farther, v. 23, © 
as the words are in Josephus, than that he would not 5 
put him to death, which he performed; nor was t 
under any obligation to spare such a traiter. er 


BOOK VIIL—CHAPTER I. 


the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, whom in or- 
der to gratify me, thou shalt have in great honor 
and take great care of; for we have not done 
good to him first, but we only repay that debt 
which we owe to his father, for what he did 
to me in my flight. There is also Shimei, the 
son of Gera, of the tribe of Benjamin, who, 
after he had cast many reproaches upon me, 
when, in my flight, I was going to Mahanaim, 
met me at Jordan, and received assurances that 
he should then suffer nothing. Do thou now 
seek out for some just occasion, and punish 
him.” 

2. When David had given these admonitions 
to his son about public affairs, and about his 
friends, and about those whom he knew to de- 
serve punishment, he died, having lived seventy 
years, and reigned seven years and six months 
in Hebron, over the tribe of Judah, and thirty- 
three years in Jerusalem, over all the country. 
This man was of an excellent character, and 
was endowed with all virtues that were desira- 
ble ina king, and in one that had the preservation 
of so many tribes committed to him; for he was 
a man of valor in a very extraordinary degree, 
and went readily and first of all into dangers, 
when he was to fight for his subjects, as excit- 
ing the soldiers to action by his own labors, 
and fighting for them, and not by command- 
ing them ina despotic way. He was also of 
very great abilities in understanding, and ap- 
prehension of present and future circumstances, 
when he was to manage any affairs. He was 
prudent and moderate, and kind to such as 
were under any calamities: he was righteous 


198 


and humane; which are good qualities, pecu- 
liarly fit for kings: nor was guilty of any offence 
in the exercise of so great an authority, but in 
the business of the wife of Uriah. He aso 
left behind him greater wealt} than any other 
king, either of the Hebrews, or of other nations, 
ever clid. 

3. He was buried by his son Solomon, in Je- 
rusalem, with great magnificence, and with all 
the other funeral pomp which kings use to be 
buried with: moreover, he had great and im- 
mense wealth buried with him; the vastness of 
which may be easily conjectured at by what I 
shall now say; for a thousand and three hun- 
dred years afterward, Hyrcanus the high priest, 
when he was besieged by Antiochus, that was 
called the Pious, the son of Demetrius, and 
was desirous of giving him money to get him 
to raise the siege, and draw off his army; and 
having no other method of compassing the 
money, opened one room of David’s sepulchre, 
and took out three thousand talents, and gave 
part of that sum to Antiochus and by this 
means caused the siege to be raised, as we have 
informed the reader elsewhere. Nay, after him, 
and that many years, Herod the king opened 
another room, and took away a great deal of 
money, and yet neither of them came at the 
coffins of the kings themselves; for their bo- 
dies were buried under the earth so artfully, 
that they did not appear even to those that 
entered into their monuments, But so much 
shall suffice us to have said concerning these 
matters. 


BOOK VIII. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH 
; OF DAVID TO THE DEATH OF AHAB. 


CHAPTER I. 


How Solomon, when he had recewed the kingdom, 
took off his enemies. 


§ 1. Ws have already treated of David, and 
his virtue; and of the benefits he was the author 
of to his countrymen; of his wars also, and bat- 
tles which he managed with success, and then 
died an old man, in the foregoing book. And 
when Solomon his son, who was but a youth in 
age, had taken the kingdom, and whom David 
had declared, while he was alive, the lord of that 
people, according to God’s will: when he sat 
upon the throne, the whole body of the people 
made joyful acclamations to him, as is usual at 
the beginning of a reign; and wished that all his 
affairs might come to a blessed conclusion; and 
that he might arrive at a great age, and at the 
most happy state of affairs possible. 5 

2. But Adonijah, who, while his father was 
living, attempted to gain possession of the go- 
vernment, came to the king’s mother Bathsheba, 
and saluted her with great civility; and when 
she asked him, whether he came to her as de- 
siring her assistance m any thing or not? and 


bade him tell her if that were the case, for that 
she would cheerfully afford it him; he began to 
say, that “she knew herself that the kingdom 
was his, both on account of his elder age, and of 
the disposition of the multitude, and that yet it 
was transferred to Solomon her son, according 
to the will of God. He also said, that he was 
contented to be a servant under him, and was 
pleased with the present settlement, but he 
desired her to be a means of obtaining a favor 
from his brother to him, and to persuade him to 
bestow on him in marriage Abishag, who had 
indeed slept by his father, but because his father 
was too old, he did not lie with her, and she was 
still a virgin.” So Bathsheba promised him to 
afford him her assistance very earnestly, and to 
bring this marriage about; because the king 
would be willing to gratify him mn such a thing, 
and because she would press it to him very ear- 
nestly. Accordingly he went away in hopes of 
succeeding in this match. So Solomon’s mother 
went presently to her son, to speak to him about 
what she had promised, upon Adonijah’s suppli- 
cation to her. And when her son came forward 
to meet her, and embraced her, and when he 


i936 


nad brought her into the nouse where the royal 
throne was set, he sat thereon, and bade them 
set another throne on the right hand for his mo- 
ther. When Bathsheba was set down, she said, 
‘O my son, grant me one request that I desire 
of thee, and do not any thing to me that is dis- 
agreeable or ungrateful; which thou wilt do, if 
thou deniest me.” And when Solomon bade 
her to lay her commands upon him, because it 
was agreeable to bis duty to grant her every 
thing she should ask, and complained that she 
did not begin her discourse with a firm expec- 
tation of obtaining what she desired, but had 
some suspicion of a denial, she entreated him 
to grant that his brother Adonijah might marry 
Abishag. 

3. But the king was greatly offended at these 
words, and sent away his mother, and said, that 
“Adonijah aimed at great things, and that he 
wondered that she did not desire him to yield 
up the kingdom to him, as to his elder brother, 
since she desired that he might marry Abishag, 
and that he had potent friends, Joab the cap- 
tain of the host, and Abiathar the priest.” So 
he called for Benaiah, the captain of the guards, 
and ordered him to slay his brother Adonijah. 
He also called for Abiathar the priest, and said 
to him,,“I will not prt thee to death, because of 
those other hardships which thou hast endured 
with my father, and because of the ark which 
thou hast borne along with me, but I inflict this 
following punishment upon thee, because thou 
wast among Adonijah’s followers, and wast of 
his party. Do not thou continue here, nor come 
any more into my sight, but go to thine own 
town, and live on thy own fields, and there abide 
all thy life; for thou hast offended so greatly, 
that it is not just that thou shouldest retain thy 
dignity any longer.” For the forementioned 
eause, therefore, it was, that the house of Itha- 
mar was deprived of the sacerdotal dignity, as 
God had foretold to Eli, the grandfather, of 
Abiathar. So it was transferred to the family 
of Phineas, to Zadok. Now those that were 
of the family of Phineas, but lived privately 
during the time that the high priesthood was 
transferred to the house of Ithamar, (of which 
family Eli was the first that received it,) were 
these that follow Bukki, the son of Abishua the 
high priest; his son was Jonatham; Jonatham’s 
son was Meraioth; Meraioth’s son was Aro- 
pheus; Arophzus’s son was Ahitub; and Ahi- 
tub’s son was Zadok, who was first made high 
priest in the reign of David. 

4, Now when Joab the captain of the host 
neard of the slaughter of Adonijah, he was 

atly afraid, for he was a greater friend to 
Finn than to Solomon; and suspecting, not with- 
out reason, that he was in danger on account of 
his favor to Adonijah, he fled to the altar, and 
supposed he might procure safety thereby to 
himself, because of the king’s piety towards 
God. But when some told the king what Joab’s 
supposal was, he sent Benaiah, and command- 
ed him to raise him up from the altar, and bring 
him to the judgment-seat, in order to make his 
defence. However, Joab said, he would not 
eave the altar bet would die there, rather than 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


in another place. And when Benaiah had re- 
ported his answer to the king, Solomon com- 
manded him to cut off his head there,* and let 
him take that as a punishment for those two 
captains of the host whom he ‘had wickedly 
slain, and to bury his body, that his sins might 
never leave his family, but that himself and 
his father, by Joab’s death, might be guiltless, 
And when Benaiah had done what he was 
commanded to do, he was himself appointed to 
be captain of the whole army. The king also 
made Zadok to be alone the high priest, in the 
room of Abiathar, whom he had removed. 

». But as to Shimei, Solomon commanded 
that he should build him a house, and stay at 
Jerusalem, and attend upon him, and should 
not have authority to go over the brook Ce- 
dron; and that if he disobeyed that command, 
death should be his punishment. He also 
threatened him so terribly, that he compelled 
him to take an oath that he would obey. Ac- 
cordingly, Shimei said, that “he had reason to 
thank Solomon for giving him such an injunc- 
tion; and added an oath, that he would do as 
he bade him;” and leaving his own country, 
he made his abode in Jerusalem. But three 
years afterward, when he heard that two of his 
servants were run away from him, and were 
in Gath, he went for his servants in haste; and 
when he was come back with them, the king 
perceived it, and was much displeased that he 
had contemned his commands, and what was 
more, had no regard to the oaths he had sworn 
to God; so he called him, and said to him, 
“Didst thou not swear never to leave me, nor 
to go out of this city to another? thou shalt 
not, therefore, escape punishment for thy per- 
jury; but I will punish thee, thou wicked 
wretch, both for this crime, and for those 
wherewith thou didst abuse my father when 
he was in his flight, that thou mayest know 
that wicked men gain nothing at last, although 
they be not punished immediately upon thei 
unjust practices, but that in all the time where- 
in they think themselves secure, because they 
have yet suffered nothing, their punishment 
increases, and is heavier upon them, and that 
to a greater degree than if they had been 
punished immediately upon the commission of 
their crimes.” So Benaiah, on the king’s com- 
mand, slew Shimei. 


CHAPTER II. , 
Concerning the wife of Solomon; concerning his 
wisdom and riches, and concerning what he 
obtained of Hiram for the building of the 
temple. 


§ 1. Solomon having already settled himself 
firmly in the kingdom, and having brought 
his enemies to punishment, he married the 
daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and built 
the walls of Jerusalem,t much larger and 


* This execution upon Joab, as a murderer, by slaying him, 
even when he had taken sanctuary at God’s altar, is perfectly 
agreeable to the law of Moses, which enjoins, that “If a 
man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him 
with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he die.” 
Exod, xxi. 14. t 

{ This building of the walls of Jerusalem, soon after Da 
vid’s death, illustrates the conclusion of the 5lst Psalm, 


r 


BOOK VIN.—CHAPTER IL. 


stronger than those that had been before, and 
thenceforward he managed public affairs very 
peaceably; nor was his youth any hinderance in 
the exercise of justice, or in the observation of 
the laws, or in the remembrance of what charges 
his father had given him at his death, but he 
discharged every duty with great accuracy, that 
might have been expected from such as are aged, 
and of the greatest prudence. He now resolved 
to go to Hebron, and sacrifice to God upon the 
brazen altar that was built by Moses. Accord- 
imgly, he offered there burnt-offerings, in num- 
ber a thousand; and when he had done this, he 
thought he had paid great honor to God, for as 
he was asleep that very night, God appeared to 
him, and commanded him to ask of him some 
gifts which he was ready to give him, asareward 
for his piety. So Solomon asked of God what 
was most excellent, and of the greatest worth 
in itself, what God would bestow with the 
greatest joy, and what it was most profitable 
for man to receive; for he did not desire to 
have bestowed upon him either gold or silver, 
or any other riches, as a man anda youth 
might naturally have done, for these are the 
things that are generally esteemed by most 
men, as alone of the greatest worth, and the 
best gifts of God; “but,” said he, “give me, O 
Lord, a sound mind, and a good understand- 
ing, whereby I may speak and judge the peo- 
a according to truth and _ righteousness.” 
With these petitions God was well pleased; 
and promised to give him all those things that 
he had not mentioned in his option, riches, 
(slory, victory.over his enemies: and, in the 
first place, understanding and wisdom, and this 
in such a degree as no other mortal man, 
neither kings nor ordinary persons, ever had. 
He also promised to preserve the kingdom to 
his posterity for a very long time, if he con- 
tinued righteous, and obedient to him, and 
imitated his father in those things wherein he 
excelled. When Solomon heard this from 
God, he presently leaped out of his bed; and 
when he had worshipped him he returned to 
Jerusalem; and after he had offered great sa- 
crifices before the tabernacle, he feasted all his 
own family. 

2. In these days a hard cause came _ before 
him in judgment, which it was very difficult to 
find any end of; and I think it necessary to ex- 
plain the fact, about which the contest was, 
that such as light upon my writings may know 
what a difficult cause Solomon was to deter- 
mine, and those that are concerned in such 
matters may take this sagacity of the king for 


- @ pattern, that they may the more easily give 


sentence about such questions:—There were 
two women, who were harlots in the course 
of their lives, that came to him; of: whom she 
that seemed to be injured began to speak first, 
and said, “O king, I and this other woman 
iwell together ‘n one room: now it came to 
pass that we both bore a son at the same hour 
of the same day, and on the third day this wo- 


where David prays, build thou the walls of Jerusalem, they 
eeing, it seems, unfinished or imperfect at that time; see chap. 
ei. seet. 1; and ch. vii. sect. 7; also 1 Kings ix. 15. 


197 


man overlaid her son, and killed it, and then 
took my son out of my bosom, and removed 
him to herself, and as I was asleep she laid her 
dead son in my arms. Now, when in the 
morning, I was desirous to give the breast te 
the child, I did not find my own, but saw the 
woman’s dead child lying by me, for I consi- 
dered it exactly, and found it soto be. Henca 
it was that I demanded my son; and when 
could not obtain him, I have recourse, my lord, 
to thy assistance; for since we were alone, and 
there was nobody there that could convict her 
she cares for nothing, but perseveres in th 
stout denial of the fact.” When this woman’ 
had told this her story, the king asked the other 
woman what she had to say in contradiction 
to this story? But when she denied that she 
had done what was charged upon her, and 
said, that it was her child that was living, and 
that it was her antagonist’s child that was dead, 
and when no one could devise what judgment 
could be given, and the whole court were blind 
in their understanding and could not tell how 
to find out this riddle, the king alone invented 
the following way how to discover it: He bade 
them bring in both the dead child and the liv- 
ing child; and sent one of his guards, and com- 
manded him to fetch a sword, and draw it, 
and to cut both the children into two pieces, 
that each of the women might have half the 
living, and half the dead child. Hereupon all 
the people privately laughed at the king, as no 
more than a youth. Butin the mean time, she 
that was the real mother of the living child, 
cried out, that he should not do so, but deliver 
the child to the other woman as her own, for 
she would be satisfied with the life of the child, 
and with the sight of it, although it were es- 
teemed the other’s child: but the other woman 
was ready to see the child divided, and was de- 
sirous moreover that the first woman should be 
tormented. When the king understood that 
both their words proceeded from the truth of 
their passions, he adjudged the child to her that 
cried out to save it, for that she was the real 
mother of it, and he condemned the other asa 
wicked woman, who had not only killed her 
own child, but was endeavoring to see her 
friend’s child destroyed also. Now the multi- 
tude looked on this determination as a great 
sign and demonstration of the king’s sagacity 
and wisdom, and after that day, attended te 
him as to one that had a divine mind. 

3. Now the captains of his armies, and offi- 
cers appointed over the whole country, were 
these: over the lot of Ephraim was Ures; over 
the toparchy of Bethlehem, was Dioclerus; 
Abinadab, who married Solomon’s daughter, 
had the region of Dora, and the sea-coast, un- 
der him; the great plain was under Benaiah 
the son of Achilus; he also governed all the 
country as far as Jordan: Gabarius ruled over 
Gilead and Gaulanitis, and hed under him the 
sixty great and fenced cities [of OF Achina- 
dab managed the affairs of all Galilee, as fax 
as Sidon, and had himself also married a 
daughter of Solomon, whose name was Basi 
ma: Banacates had the sea-coast about Arce - 


198 


as had Sharhat mount Tabor, and Carmel, and 
{the Lower! Galilee, as far as the river Jordan; 
one man was appointed over all this country: 
Shimei was intrusted with the lot of Benja- 
min; and Gabares had the country beyond 
Jordan over whom there was again one gov- 
ernor appointed. Now the people of the He- 
brews, and particularly the tribe of Judah, re- 
ceived a wonderful increase when they betook 
themselves to husbandry, and the cultivation of 
their grounds: for as they enjoyed peace, and 
were not distracted with wars and troubles, 
and having besides an abundant fruition of 
the most desirable liberty, every one was busy 
in augmenting the product of their own lands, 
and making them worth more than they had 
formerly been. 

4. The king had also other rulers, who were 
over the land of Syria, and of the Philistines, 
which reached frem the river Euphrates to 
Egypt, and these collected his tributes of the 
nations. Now these contributed to the king’s 
table, and to his supper every day,* thirty cori 
of fine flour, and sixty of meal; as also ten fat 
oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and 
a hundred fat Jambs; all these were besides 
what were taken by hunting, harts and buffa- 
loes, and birds and fishes, which were brought 
to the king by foreigners day by day. Solo- 
mon had also so great a number of chariots, 
that the stalls of his horses for those chariots 
were forty thousand; and besides these he had 
twelve thousand horsemen, the one-half of 
whom waited upon the king in Jerusalem, and 
the rest were dispersed abroad, and dwelt in 
the royal villages; but the same officer who 
provided for the king’s expenses, supplied also 
the fodder for the horses, and still carried 
it to the place where the king abode at that 
time. 

5. Now the sagacity and wisdom which God 
had bestowed on Solomon was so great, that he 
exceeded the ancients; insomuch that he was 
no way inferior to the Egyptians, who are said 
to have been beyond all men in understanding; 
nay, indeed, it is evident that their sagacity was 
very much inferior to that of the king’s. He 
also excelled and distinguished himself in wis- 
dom above those who were most eminent 
among the Hebrews at that time for shrewd- 
ness; those I mean were Ethan, and Heman, 
and Chalecol, and Dada, the son of Mahol. 
He also composed books of odes and songs, a 


* Tt may not be amiss to compare the daily furniture of 
king Solomon’s table, here set down, and J Kings iv. 22, 23, 
with the like daily furniture of Nehemiah the governor’s 
table, after the Jews were come back from Babylon; and to 
remember withal!, that Nehemiab was now building the 
walls of Jerusalem, and maintained more than usual, above 


one hundred and fifty considerable men every day, and that’ 


because the nation was then very poor, at his own charges 
also, without laying any burden upon the people at all. 
“Now that which was prepared for me daily was one ox 
and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me; and 
once in ten days, stores of all sorts of wine: and yet for all 
this, | required not the bread of the governor, because the 
bondage was heavy upon this people,’? Neh. v.18. See the 
whole context, ver. 14—19. Nor did the governor’s usual 
allowance of forty shekels of silver a day, ver. 15, amount 
to £5a day, nor to £1800 a year. Nor does it indeed ap- 
pear, that under the judges or under Samuel the prophet, 
there was any such public allowance to those governors at 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


thousand and five; of parables and similitudes 
three thousand; for he spoke a parable upon 
every sort of tree, from the hyssop to the 
cedar; and in like manner also about beasts, 
about all sorts of living creatures, whether 
upon the earth, or in the seas, or in the air; 
for he was not unacquainted with any of their 
nature, nor omitted inquiries about them, but 
described them all like a philosopher, and de- 
monstrated his exquisite knowledge of their 
several properties. God also enabled him to 
learn that skill which expels demons,* which is 
a science useful and sanative tomen. He com- 
posed such incantations also by which distem- 
pers are alleviated. And he left behind him 
the manner of using exorcisms, by which they 
drive away demons, so that they never return; 
and this method of cure is of great force unto 
this day: for I have seen a certain man of my 
own country, whose name was Eleazar, releas- 
ing people that were demoniacal, in the pre- 
sence of Vespasian, and his sons, and his cap- 
tains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers, 
The manner of the cure was this; he put a 
ring that had a root of one of those sorts men- 
tioned by Solomon, to the nostrils of the demo- 
niac, after which he drew out the demon 
through his nostrils: and when the man fell 
down immediately, he adjured him to return 
into him no more, making still mention of So- 
lomon, and reciting the incantations which he 
composed. And when Eleazar would per- 
suade and demonstrate to the spectators that he 
had such a power, he set a little way off a cap 
or basin full of water, and commanded the de- 
mon, as he went out of the man, to overturn it, 
and thereby to let the spectators know that he 
had left the man: and when this was done, the 
skill and wisdom of Solomon was showed very 
manifestly; for which reason it is that all men 
may know the vastness of Solomon’s abilities, 
and how he was beloved of God, and that the 
extraordinary virtues of every kind with which 
this king was endowed, may not be unknown 
to any people under the sun; for this reason, I ° 
say, it is that we have proceeded to speak so 
largely of these matters. 

6. Moreover, Hiram, king of Tyre, when hie 
had heard that Solomon succeeded to his 
father’s kingdom, was very glad of it, for he was 
a friend of David. So he sent ambassadors to 
him, and saluted him, and congratulated him 
on the present happy state of his affairs. Upor — 


all. Those great charges upon the public for maintainm 
courts, came in with kings, as God foretold they eeaidse 
Sam. viii. 11—18. 

* Some pretended fragments of these books of conjuration 
of Solomon are sti)l extant in Fabricius’s Cod. Pseudepigr. 
Vet. Test. p. 1054, though I entirely differ from Josephus in 
this his supposal, that such books and arts of Solomon were 
parts of that wisdom which was imparted to him by God in 
his younger days; they must rather have belonged to such 
profane but curious arts as we find mentioned, Acts xix. 
13—20, and had been derived from the idolatry and super- 
stition of his heathen wives and concubines in his old age 
when he had forsaken God, and God had forsaken him, an 
given him up to demoniacal delusions. Nordoes Josephus’s — 
strange account of his root Baara, (Of the War, b. viii. ch. 
vi. sect. 3,) seem to be other than that of its magical use in 
such conjurations. As for the following history, it confirma — 
what Christ says, Matt. xii.27, “If I by Beelzebub cast ow 
demons, by whom do your sons cast the m out.?? y 


A 


BOOK VIII—CHAPTER II. 


_ which Solomon sent -him an epistle, the con- 
_ tents of which here follow: 
Sotomon To Kine Hiram. 

“Know thou that my father would have built 
a temple to God,* but was hindered by wars 
and continual expeditions; for he did not leave 
off to overthrow his enemies till he made them 
ail subject to tribute: but I give thanks to God 
for the peace I at present enjoy, and on that 
account I am at leisure, and design to build a 
house tu God, for God foretold to my father 
that such a house should be built by me; where- 
fore I desire thee to send some of thy subjects 
with mine to mount Lebanon to cut down tim- 
ber, for the Sidonians are more skilful than our 
people in cutting of wood. As for wages to 
the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever 
price thou shalt determine.” 

7. When Hiram had read this epistle, he 
was pleased with it, and wrote back this an- 
swer to Solomon. 

Hiram To Kine Soromon. 

“It is fit to bless God that he hath committed 
thy father’s government to thee, who art a wise 
man, and endowed with all virtues. As for 
myself, I rejoice at the condition thou art in, 
and will be subservient to thee in all that thou 
sendest to me about; for when by my subjects 
I have cut down many and large trees of ce- 

‘dar, and cypress wood, I will send them to sea, 
and will order my subjects to make floats of 
them, and to sail to what place soever of thy 
country thou shalt desire, and leave them there, 
after which thy subjects may carry them to 
Jerusalem: but do thou take care to procure us 
corn for this timber, which we stand in need 
of, because we inhabit in an island.”+ 

8. The copies of these epistles remain at this 
day, and are preserved not only in our books, 
but among the Tyrians also, insomuch that if 
any one would know the certainty about them, 
he may desire of the keepers of the public re- 
cords of Tyre to show him them; and he will 
find what is there set down to agree with what 
we have said. I have said so much out of a 
desire that my readers may know that we 
speak nothing but the truth, and do not com- 

‘pose a history out of some plausible relations 


* These epistles of Solomon and Hiram are those in 1 
Kings v. 3—9; and as enlarged, in 2 Chron. ii. 3—16; but 
nere given us by Josephus in his own words. 

+ What Josephus here puts into his copy of Hiram’s 
epistle to Solomon, and repeats afterward, chap. v. sect. 3; 
that Tyre was now an island, is not in any of the three other 
copies, viz. that of the Kings, Chronicles, or Eusebius; nor 
is it any other, I suppose, than his own conjectural para- 
oe for when I many years ago inquired into this matter, 
‘{ found the state of this famous city, and of the island 
whereupon it stood, to have been very different at different 
times. Th? result of my inquiries in this matter, with the 
zddition of some later improvements, stands thus:—That 

- the best testimonies hereto relating, imply that Paletyrus, 
or oldest Tyre, was no other than that most ancient smaller 
fort or city Tyre, situated on the continent, and mentioned 
in Josh. xix. 29, out of which the Canaanite or Pheenician 

_inhabitants were driven into a large island that lay not far 
aff in the sea by Joshua; that this island was then joined to 
he continent at the present remains of Paietyrus, by a neck 

of land over against Solomon’s cisterns, still so called, and 
the city’s fresh water probably was carried along in pipes by 
that neck of land, and that this island was, therefore, in 

_ strictness no other than a peninsula, having villages in its 
fields, Ezek. xxvi.6, and a wall about it, Amosi. 10; and the 
gity was not of so great reputation as Sidon for some ages; 
‘Rat it was attacked both by sea and land by Salmanasser 


i 


ay 


19% 


which deceive men and please them at the same 
time, nor attempt to avoid examination, nor 
desire men to believe us immediately; nor are 
we at liberty to depart from speaking truth 
which is the proper commendation of a histo- 
rian, and yet be blameless. But we insist upon 
no admission of what we say, unless we be 
able to manifest its truth by demonstration and 
the strongest vouchers, 

9. Now king Solomon, as soon as this epis- 
tle from the king of Tyre was trought him, 
commended the readiness and good will he 
declared therein, and repaid him in what he 
desired, and sent him yearly twenty thousand 
cori of wheat, and as many baths of oil; now 
the bath is able to contain seventy-two sexta- 
ries. He also sent him the same measure of 
wine. So the friendship between Hiram and 
Solomon hereby increased more and more: and 
they swore to continue it forever. And the 
king appointed a tribute to be laid on all the 
people, of thirty thousand laborers, whose work 
he rendered easy to them by prudently divid- 
ing it among them: for he made ten thousand 
cut timber in mount Lebanon for one month, 
and then to come home; and the rest two 
months until the time when the other twenty 
thousand had finished their task at the appoirt- 
ed time; and so afterward it came to pass that 
the first ten thousand returned to their work 
every fourth month: and it was Adoram who 
was over this tribute. There were also of the 
strangers who were left by David, who were 
to carry the stones, and other materials, seven- 
ty thousand; and of those that cut the stones, 
eighty thousand. Of these, three thousard 
and three hundred were rulers over the rest. 
He also enjoined them to cut out large stonws 
for the foundations of the temple, and that they 
should fit them and unite them together in tlie 
mountain, and so bring them to the city. his 
was done not only by our own country work- 
men, but by those workmen whom Hiram sent 


also. 
CHAPTER III. 
Of the Building of the Temple. 
§ 1. Solomon began to build the temple in 
the fourth year of his reign, on the second 


as Josephus informs us, Antiq. b. ix. chap. xiv. sect. 2; and 
afterward came to be the metropolis of Phcenicia, and after- 
ward taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, according to 
the numerous scripture prophecies thereto relating, Isa. 
xxiii. Jer. xxv. 22; xxvii. 3; xlvii. 4; Ezek. xxvi. xxvii. 
xxviii. That seventy years after that destruction by Ne- 
buchadnezzar this city was in some measure revived and 
rebuilt, Isaiah xxiii. 17, 18; but that, as the prophet Ezekiel 
had foretold, xxvi. 3, 4, 5, 145 xxvii. 34; the sea arose higher 
than before, till at last it overflowed not only the neck of 
land,-but the main island or peninsula itself, and destroyed 
that old and famous city forever; that, however, there still 
remained an adjoining smaller island, once connected to old 
Tyre itself by Hiram, which was afterward inhabited; te 
which Alexander the Great, with incredible pains, raised a 
new bank or causeway; and that it plainly appears, 
Maundrell, a most authentic eye-witness, that the old large 
and famous city, on the original large island, is now laid se 
generally under water, that scarce more than forty acres of 
it, or rather of that adjoining small island, remain at thie 
day; so that perhaps not apove a hundredth part of the first 
island and city is now above water. This was foretold in 
the same prophecies of Ezekiel; and, according to them, ee 
Mr. Maundrell distinctly observes, these poor remains of old 
Tyre are now “become like the top of a rock, a place tor 
the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea ”” 


20. 


month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius, 
and the Hebrews Jar, five hundred and ninety- 
two years after the exodus out of Egypt, but 
after one thousand and twenty years from 
Abraham’s coming out of Mesopotamia into 
Canaan. and after the deluge one thousand 
four hundred and forty years; and from Adam, 
the first man who was created, until Solomon 
built the temple, there had passed in all three 
thousand one hundred and two years. Now, 
that year on which the temple began to be 
built, was already the eleventh year of the reign 
of Hiram; but from the building of Tyre to 
the building of the temple, there had passed 
two hundred and forty years, 

2. Now, therefore, the king laid the founda- 
tions of the temple very deep in the ground,* 
and the materials were strong stones, and such 
as would resist the force of time; these were 
to unite taemselves with the earth, and become 
a basis anda sure foundation for that super- 
structure which was to be erected over it: they 
were to be so strong, in order to sustain with 
ease those vast superstructures, and precious 
ornaments, whose own weight was not to be 
less than the weight of those other high and 
heavy buildings which the king designed to be 
very ornamental and magnificent; they erected 
its entire body, quite up to the roof, of white 
stone: its height was sixty cubits, and its length 
wis the same, and its breadth twenty. There 
wus another building erected over it, equal to 
it in its measures: so that the entire altitude of 
the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits. 
Its front was tothe east. As to the porch, they 
built it before the temple; its length was twenty 
cubits, and it was so ordered that it might 
agree with the breadth of the house: and it 
had twelve cubits in latitude, and its height 
was raised as high as a hundred and twenty 
cubits. He also built round about the temple 
thirty small rooms, which might include the 
whole temple, by their closeness one to another, 
and by their number, and outward position 
round it. He also made passages through 
them, that they might come into one through 
another. Every one of these rooms had five 
cubits in breadth,} and the same in length, but 
in height twenty. Above these there were 
other rooms, and others above them, equal 
both in their measures and number; so that 
these reached to a height equal to the lower 
pa of the house; for the upper part had no 

uildings about it. The roof that was over 
the house was of cedar; and truly every one 
of these rooms had a roof of their own, that 
was not connected with the other rooms; but 
for the other parts, there was a covered roof 
common to them all, and built with very long 
beams, that passed through the rest, and 
through the whole building, so that the middle 


* Of the temple of Solomon, here described by Josephus 
fm this and the following sections of this chapter, see my 
Description of the ‘Temples belonging to this work, chap. 
rill. 

t These small rooms, or side chambers, seem to have been, 


by Josephus’s description, no Jess than twenty cubits high 
apiece, otherwise there must have been a large interval be- 
‘ween one and the other that was over it and this with 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


walls being strengthened by the sai.se beams 
of timber, might be thereby made firmer; but 
as for that part of the roof that was under 
the beams, it was made of the same materials, 
and was all made smooth, and had ornaments 
proper for roofs, and plates of gold nailed 
upon them. And as he enclosed the walls 
with boards of cedar, so he fixed on them 
plates of gold, which had sculptures on them, 
so that the whole temple shined, and dazzled 
the eyes of such as entered, by the splendoi 
of the gold that was on every side of them. 
Now the whole structure of the temple was 
made with great skill, of polished stones, and 
those laid together so very harmoniously and 
smoothly, that there appeared te the spectators 
no sign of any hammer, or other instruments 
of architecture, but as if, without any use of 
them, the entire materials had oxturally united 
themselves together, that the ag-eement of one 
part with another seemed rather to have been 
natural, than to have arisen frem the force of 
tools uponthem. The king also had a fine con- 
trivance for an ascent to the upper room over 
the temple, and that was by steps in the thick- 
ness of its wall; for it had no large door on the 
east end, as the lower house had, but the en- 
trance were by the sides, through very small 
doors. He also overlaid the temple, both 
within and without, with boards of cedar, thar 
were kept close together by thick chains, sc 
that this contrivance was in the nature of a 
support and a strength to the building. 

3. Now when the king had divided the tem- 
ple into two parts, he made the inner house of 
twenty cubits [every way,] to be the most se- 
cret chamber, but he appointed that of forty 
cubits to be the sanctuary; and when he had 
cut a door-place out of the wall, he put there- 
in doors of cedar, and overlaid them with a 
great deal of gold, that had sculptures upon it. 
He also had vails of blue and purple, and 
scarlet, and the brightest and softest linen, with 
the most curious flowers wrought upon them, 
which were to be drawn before those doors. He 
also dedicated for the most secret place, whose 
breadth was twenty cubits, and len the 
same, two cherubims of solid gold,* the height 
of each of them was five cubits; they had 
each of them two wings stretched out as far as 
five cubits; wherefore Solomon set them up 
not far from each other, that with one wing 
they might touch the southern wall of the se- 
cret place, and with another the northern: their 
other wings, which joined to each other, were 
a covering to the ark, which was set between 
them: but nobody can tell, or even conjecture 
what was the shape of these cherubims. He 
also laid the floor of the temple with plates of 
gold; and he added doors to the gate of the 
temple, agreeably to the measure of the height 


double floors, the one of six cubits distance from the floor 
beneath it, as 1 Kings vi. 5. 

* Josephus says here that the cherubims were of solid gold, ‘ 
and only five cubits high, while our Hebrew copies, 1 Ki 
vi, 23—28, say they were of the olive-tree, and the LXXIL 
of the cyprus tree, and only overlaid with gold; and both 
agree they were ten cubits high. . I suppose the number here 
is falsely transcribed, and that Josephus wrc ¢e ten cubits alsa 


BOOK VIiL--CHAPTER III. 


ef the wall, out in breadth twenty cubits, and 
on them he glued gold plates. And, to say all 
in one word, he left no part of the temple, nei- 
ther internal nor external, but what was covered 
with gold. He also had curtains drawn over 
these doors in like manner as they were drawn 
over the inner doors of the most holy place; 
but the porch of the temple had nothing of 
that sort. 

4, Now Solomon sent for an artificer out of 
Tyre, whose name was Hiram: he was by birth 
of the tribe of Naphtali, on the mother’s side, 

for she was of that tribe,) but his father was 

r, of the stock of the Israelites. This man 
was skilful in all sorts of work; but his chief 
skill lay in working in gold, in silver, and brass, 
by whom were made all the mechanical works 
about the temple, according to the will of 
Solomon. Moreover, this Hiram made two 
[{iollow] pillars, whose outsides were of brass; 
and the thickness of the brass was four fing- 
ers’ breadth, and the height of the pillars was 
eighteen cubits,*and their circumference twelve 
cubits, but there was cast with each of their 
chapiters lily-work that stood upon the pillar, 
and it was elevated five cubits, round about 
which there was net-work interwoven with 
sn all palms, made of brass, and covered the 
lily-work. 'To this also were hung two hun- 
dred pomegranates, in two rows: the one of 
these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch 
on the right hand, and called it Jachin, and the 
other at the left hand, and called it Booz. 

5. Solomon also cast a brazen sea, whose 
figure was that of a hemisphere: this brazen 
vessel was called a sea, for its largeness, for the 
laver was ten feet in diameter, and cast of the 
thickness of a palm: its middle part rested on 
a short pillar, that had ten spirals round it and 
that pillar was ten cubits in diameter. There 
st.0d round about it twelve oxen, that looked to 
the four winds of heaven, three to each wind, 
having their hinder parts depressed, that so 
tte hemispherical vessel might rest upon them, 
which itself was also depressed round about 
inwardly. Now thissea contained three thou- 
sand baths. 

6. He also made ten brazen bases for so many 
quadrangular lavers; the length of every one 
of these bases was five cubits, and the breadth 
four cubits, and the height six cubits. This 
vessel was partly turned, and was thus contriv- 
ed, there were four small quadrangular pillars 
that stood one at each corner, these had the 
aides of the base fitted to them on each quar- 
ter: they were parted into three parts: every in- 
terval had a border fitted to support [the laver, ] 
upon which was engraven, in one place a lion, 
and in another plecea bull and an eagle. The 
small pillars had the same animals engraven 
that were engravea on the sides. ‘The whole 
work was elevated, and stood upon four wheels, 
which were also cast, which had also naves 
and felloes, and were a foot and a half in diame- 

* As for these two famous pillars, Jachin and Booz, their 
height could be no more than 18 cubits, as here, and 1 Kings 
vii. 15; 2 Kings xxv. 17. Jer. lii, 21; those 35 cubits in 2 


Chron. iii. 15, being contrary to all the rules of architecture 
te the woria. 
26 


03 


ter. Any one who saw the spokes of the 
wheels how exactly they were turned, and 
united to the sides of the bases, and with what 
harmony they agreed to the felloes, would 
wonder at them. However, their structure 
was this: certain shoulders of hands stretched 
out held the corners above, upon which rest- 
ed a short spiral pillar, that lay under the hol- 
low part of the laver, resting upon the fore- 
part of the eagle and the lion, which were 
adapted to them, insomuch, that those who 
viewed them would think they were of one 
piece: between these were engravings of palm- 
trees. ‘This was the construction of the ten 
bases. He also made ten large round trass 
vessels, which were the lavers themselves, each 
of which contained forty baths;* for it had its 
height four cubits, and its edges were as much 
distant from each other. He also placed these 
lavers upon the ten bases that were called 
Mechonoth; and he set five of the lavers on 
the left side of the temple,t which was the side 
towards the north wind, and as many on the 
right side, towards the south, but looking to- 
wards the east: the same [eastern] way he also 
set the sea. Now, he appointed the sea to be 
for washing the hands and the feet of the 
priests, when they entered into the temple, and 
were to ascend the altar, but the lavers to cleanse 
the entrails of the beasts that were to be burnt- 
offerings, with their feet also. 

7. He also made a brazen altar, whose length 
was twenty cubits, and its breadth the same, 
and its height ten, for the burnt-offerings. He 
also made all its vessels of brass, the pots, and 
the shovels, and the basins, and besides these, 
the snuffers and the tongs, and all its other ves- 
sels, he made of brass, and such brass as was 
in splendor and beauty like gold. The king also 
dedicated a great number of tables, but one 
that was large and made of gold, upon which 
they set the loaves of God; and he made ten 
thousand more that resembled them, but were 
done after another manner, upon which lay the 
vials and the cups; those of gold were twenty 
thousand; those of silver were forty thousand. 
He also made ten thousand candlesticks, accord- 
ing to the command of Moses, one of which he 
dedicated for the temple, that it might burn in 
the day-time, according to the law; and one ta- 
ble with loaves upon it, on the north side of the 
temple, over against the candlesticks; for this he 


* The round or cylindrical lavers of four cubits in diameter, 
and four in height, both in our copies, 1 Kings vii. 38, 39, 
and here in Josephus, must have contained a great deal more 
than these forty baths, which are always assigned them. 
Where the error lies is hard to say. Perhaps Josephus 
honestly followed his copies here, though they had been 
corrupted, and he was not able to restore the true reading 
In the, mean time, these forty baths are probably the true 
quantity contained in each laver, since they went upon 
wheels, and were to be drawn by the Levites about the 
courts of the priests, for the washings they were designed 
for; and had they held much more, they would have beex 
too heavy to have been so drawn. 

+ Here Josephus gives us a key to his own language, o: 
right and left hand, in the tabernacle and temple, that by the 
right hand he means what is against our left, when we sup- 
pose ourselves going up from the east gates of the courts 
towards the tabernacle or temple themselves, and so vice 
versa; Whence it follows, that the pillar Jachin, om the right 
hand of the temple, was on the south, against our left hand 
and Booz on the north, against our right hand. 


202 


vet on the south side, but the golden altar stood 
between them. All these vessels were contained 
in that part of the holy house which was forty 
cubits long, and were before the vail of that 
most secret place wherein the ark was to be set. 

8. The king also made pouring vessels, in 
number eighty thousand, and a hundred thou- 
sant golden vials, and twice as many silver 
vials, of golden dishes, in order therein to offer 
kneaded fine flour at the altar, there were eighty 
thousand, and twice as many of silver. Of 
large basins also, wherein they mixed fine flour 
with oil, sixty thousand of gold, and twice as 
many of silver. Of the measures like those 
which Moses called the Hinand the Assaron, 
[a tenth deal,] there were twenty thousand of 
gold, and twice as many of silver. The golden 
censers, in which they carried the incense to 
the altar, were twenty thousand: the other cen- 
sers, in which they carried fire from the great 
altar to the little altar, within the temple, were 
fifty thousand. The sacerdotal garments which 
belonged to the high priest, with the long robes, 
and the oracle, and the precious stones, were 
athousand. But the crown upon which Moses 
wrote [the name of] God* was only one, and 
hath remained to this very day. He also made 
ten thousand sacerdotal garments of fine linen, 
with purple girdles, tor every priest, and two 
hundred thousand trumpets, according to the 
command of Moses: also, two hundred thou- 
sand garments of fine linen, for the singers that 
were Levites. And he made musical instru- 
ments, and such as were invented for singing 
of hymns, called Nable and Cinyre, [psalter- 
ies and harps,] which were made of electrum, 
[the finest brass,] forty thousand. 

9. Solomon made all these things for the ho- 
nor of God, with great variety and magnifi- 
cence, sparing no cost, but using all possible 
liberality in adorning the temple; and these 
things he dedicated to the treasures of God. 
He also placed a partition round about the tem- 
ple, which in our tongue we call Gison, but it 
is called Thringcos by the Greeks and he raised 
it up to the height of three cubits; and it was 
for the exclusion of the multitude from com- 
ing into the temple, and showing that it was a 
place that was free and open only for the priests. 
He also built beyond this court a temple, whose 
figure was that of a quadrangle, and erected 
for it great and broad cloisters: this was enter- 
ed into by very high gates, each of which had 
its front exposed to one of the pene winds, 
and were shut by golden doors. Into this tem- 
ple all the people entered that were distinguish- 
ed from the rest by being pure, and observant 
of the laws. But he made that temple which 
was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and 
such as exceeds all description in words; nay, 
if I may so say, is hardly believed upon sight; 
for when he had filled up great valleys with 
earth, which, on account of their immense 
depth, could net be iooked on, when you bend- 
ed down to see them, without pain, and had 


* Of the golden plate on the high priest’s forehead, that 
_was in being in the days of Josephus, and a century or two 
at least later, see the note on Antiq. b. iii. ch. vii. sect. 6. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. Z 


elevated the ground four hundred cubits, he 
made it to be on a level with the top of the 
mountain, on which the temple was built, and 
by this means the outmost temple, which was 
exposed to the air, was even with the temple 
itself.* He encompassed this also with a build- 
ing of a double row of cloisters, which stood 
on high pillars of native stone, while the roofs 
were of cedar, and were polished in a manner 
proper for such high roofs; but he made all the 
doors of this temple of’ silver. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Solomon removed the ark wnto the temples 
how he made supplication to God, and offered 
public sacrifices to him. 


§ 1. When king Solomon had finished these 
works, these large and beautiful buildings, and 
had laid up his donations in the temple, and 
all this in the interval of seven years,t and had 
given a demonstration of his riches and alacri- 
ty therein, insomuch that any one who saw it 
would have thought it must have been an im- 
mense time ere it could have been finished; 
and [would be surprised] that so much should 
be finished in so short a time; short, I mean, if 
compared with the greatness of the work; he 
also wrote to the rulers and elders of the He- 
brews, and ordered all the people to gather 
themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see 
the temple which he had built, and to remove 
the ark of God into it; and when this invitation 
of the whole body of the people to come to Jeru- 
salem was everywhere carried abroad, it was 
the seventh month before they came together, 
which month is by our countrymen called 
Thisri, but by the Macedonians Hyperberetzus, 
The feast of tabernacles happened to fall at 
the same time, which was celebrated by the 
Hebrews as a most holy and most eminent 
feast. So they carried the ark and the taber- 
nacle which Moses had pitched, and all the 
vessels that were for ministration to the sacri- 
fices of God, and removed them to the temple.t 
The king himself, and all the people and the 
Levites went before, rendering the ground 
moist with sacrifices and drink-offerings, and 
the blood of a great number of oblations, and 


* When Josephus here says, that the floor of the outmost 
temple, or court of the Gentiles, was with vast labor raised 
to be even, or of equal height, with the floor of the inner, or 
court of the priests, he must mean this in a gross estimation 
only, for he and all others agree, that the inner temple, or 


court of the priests, was a few cubits more elevated than the ~ 


middle court, the court of Israel, and much more was the 
court of the priests elevated several cubits above the ou 
most court, since the court of Israel was lower than the ona 
and higher than the other. 

t The Septuagint says, “that they prepared timber and 
stones to build the temple for three years,” 1 Kings v. 18 
and although neither our present Hebrew copy nor Jose- 
phus directly name that number of years, yet do they bow: 
say the building itself did not begin till Solomon’s Jowrth 
year; and both speak of the preparation of materizk be- 
vorehand, 1 Kings v. 18; Antiq. b. viii. chap. v. sect. L 
There is no reason, therefore, to alter the Septuagint’s num 
ber, but we are to suppose three years to have been the just 
time of preparation, as I have done in my computation of 
the expense in building the temple. 

{ This solemn removal of the ark from mount Sion te 
mount Moriah, at the disvance of almost three-quarters of a 
mile, confutes that notion of the modern Jews, and followed 
by many Christians also, as if those two were after a soe? 


one and the same mountain, for which there is, I th « k, very 


litue foundation. 


a 


= 


_ BOOK VIII—CHAPTER IV. 


-purning an immense quantity of incense, and 
this till the very air itself everywhere round 
' about was so full of these odors that it met, in 
a most agreeable manner, persons at a great 
distance, and was an indication of God’s pre- 
_ sence, and, as men’s opinions were, of his ha- 
_ bitation with them in this newly built and con- 
_ secrated place, for they did not grow weary, 
either of singing hymns or of dancing, until 
they came to the temple; and in this manner 
did they carry the ark. But when they should 
transfer it into the most secret place, the rest of 
the multitude went away, and only those priests 
that carried it set it between the two cheru- 
dims, which, embracing it with their wings, 
(for so were they framed by the artificer,) they 
covered it as under a tent oracupola. Now 
the ark coutained nothing else but those two 
tables of stone that preserved the ten com- 
-mandments, which God spoke to Moses in 
mount Sinai, and which were engraved upon 
them; but they set the candlestick, and table, 
and the golden altar, in the temple, before the 
most sacred place, in the very same places 
wherein they stood till that time in the taberna- 
cle. So they offered up the daily sacrifices; 
but for the brazen altar, Solomon set it before 
the temple, over against the door, that when 
the door was opened, it might be exposed to 
sight, and the sacred solemnities, and the rich- 
ness of the sacrifices, might be thence seen; 
_and all the rest of the vessels they gathered 
together, and put them within the temple. 

2. Now, as soon as the priests had put all 
things in order about the ark, and were gone 
out, there came down a thick cloud, and stood 
there, and spread itself after a gentle manner 
into the temple; such a cloud it was, as was 
diffused, and temperate, not such a rough one 
as we see full of rain in the winter season. 
This cloud so darkened the place, that one 
priest could not discern another, but it afford- 
ed to the minds of all a visible image, and glo- 
rious appearance of God’s having descended 
‘into this temple, and of his having gladly 
pitched his tabernacle therein. So these men 
were intent upon this thought. But Solo- 
mon rose up, (for he was sitting before,) and 
ased such words to God as he thought agreea- 
ble to the divine nature to receive, and fit for 
nim to give: for he said, “Thou hast an eternal 
house, O Lord, and such a one as thou hast 
created for thyself out of thine own works; we 
know it to be the heaven, and the air, and the 
earth, and the sea, which thou pervadest; nor 
art thou contained within their limits. I[ have 
ndeed built this temple to thee, and thy name, 

hat from thence, when we sacrifice, and per- 
form sacred operations, we may send our 
oo up into the air, and may constantly be- 
ieve that thou art present, and art not remote 
from what is thine own; for neither when thou 
seest a! things, and hearest all things, nor now 
when 1 pleases thee to dwell here, dost thou 
leave the care of all men, but rather thou art 
very near to them all, but especially thou art 
present to those that address themselves to 
‘thee, whether by night or by day.” When he 


203 
had thus solemnly addressed nimself to God, — 
he converted his discourse to the multitude, 
and strongly represented the power and provi- 
dence of God to them; how he had showed 
all things that were come to pass to David his 
father, as many of those things had already 
come to pass, and the rest would certainly come 
to pass hereafter; and how he had given him 
his name, and told to David what he should be 
called before he was born; and foretold, tha: 
when he should be king after his father’s death 
he should build him a temple, which, sinc 
they saw accomplished according to his pre 
diction, he required them to bless God, and by 
believing him, from the sight of what they had 
seen accomplished, never to despair of any 
thing that he had promised for the future, in 
order to their happiness, or suspect that it 
would not come to pass. 

3. When the king had thus discoursed to the 
multitude, he looked again towards the temple, 
aid, lifting up his right hand to the multitude, 
he said, “It is not possible by what men can do 
to return sufficient thanks to God for his bene- 
fits bestowed upon them, for the Deity stands in 
need of nothing, and is above any such requi- 
tal; but so far as we have been made superior, 
O Lord, to other animals by thee, it becomes us 
to bless thy majesty, and it is necessary for us 
to return thee thanks for what thou hast bestow- 
ed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people; 
for with what other instrument can we better 
appease thee, when thou art angry at us, or more 
properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice; 
which, as we have it from the air, so do we 
know that by that air it ascends upwards [to- 
wards thee.] I therefore ought myself to return 
thee thanks thereby in the first place, concern- 
ing my father, whom thou hast raised from ol- 
scurity into so great joy; and in the next place, 
concerning myself, since thou hast performed 
all that thou hast promised unto this very day. 
And I beseech thee, for the time to come, to 
afford us whatsoever thou, O God, hast power to 
bestow on such as thou dost esteem; and to aug- 
ment our house for all ages, as thou hast pro- 
mised to David my father to do, both in his life- 
time and at his death, that our kingdom shall 
continue, and that his posterity should succes- 
sively receive it to ten thousand generations. Do 
not thou, therefore, fail to give us these blessings, 
and to bestow on my children that virtue in 
which thou delightest. And besides all this, 
I humbly beseech thee, that thou wilt let some 
portion of thy Spirit come down and inhabit in 
this temple, that thou mayest appear to be with 
us upon earth. As to thyself, the entire hea- 
vens, and the immensity of the things that are 
therein, are but a small habitation for thee, much 
more is this poor temple so; but I entreat thes 
to keep it, as thine own house, from being de- 
stroyed by our enemies forever, and to take care 
of it as thine own possession: but if this peo- 
ple be found to have sinned, and be thereupon 
afflicted by thee with any plague because of 
their sin, as with dearth, or pestilence, or any 
other affliction which thou usest to inflict om 
those that transgress any of thy holy laws. and 


£04 


if they fly all of them to this temple, beseech- 
ing thee, and begging of thee to deliver them, 
then do thou hear their prayers, as being with- 
mm thine house, and have mercy upon them; and 
deliver them from their afflictions; nay, more- 
over, this help is what I implore of thee, not 
for the Hebrews only, when they are in distress, 
but when any shall come hither from any ends 
of the world whatsoever, and shall return from 
their sins and implore thy pardon, do thou then 

ardon them, and hear their prayer. For here- 
by all shall learn that thou thyself wast pleased 
with the building of this house for thee, and 
that we are not ourselves of an unsocial nature, 
oor behave ourselves like enemies to such as 
ere not of our own people; but are willing that 
thy assistance should be communicated by thee 
to ail mer jin common, and that they have 
the enjvyment of thy benefits bestowed upon 
them.” 

4. When Solomon had said this, and had 
cast himself upon the ground, and worshipped 
a long time, he rose up, and brought sacrifices 
to the altar; and when he had filled it with un- 
blemished victims, he most evidently discover- 
ed that God had with pleasure accepted of all 
that he had sacrificed to him, for there came a 
fire running out of the air, and rushed with vi- 
olence upon the altar, in the sight of all, and 
caught hold of and consumed the sacrifices. 
Now, when this divine appearance was seen, 
the people supposed it to be a demonstration of 
God’s abode in the temple, and were pleased 
with it, and fell down upon the ground and 
worshipped. Upon which the king began to 
bless God, and exhorted the multitude to do the 
sane, as now having sufficient indications of 
{fod’s favorable disposition to them; and to pray 
that they might always have the like indications 
from him, and that he would preserve in them 
« mind pure from all wickedness, in righteous- 
mess and religious worship, and that they might 
continue in the observation of those precepts 
which God had given them by Moses, because 
by that means the Hebrewnation would be hap- 
py, and indeed the most blessed of all nations 
among all mankind. He exhorted them also to 
be mindful, that by what methods they had at- 
tained their present good things, by the same 
they must preserve them sure to themselves, 
and make them greater, and more than they 
were at present; for that it was not sufficient 
for them to suppose they had received them on 
account of their piety and righteousness, but 
that they had no other way of preserving them 
for the time to come, for that it is not so great 
a thing for men to acquire somewhat which 
they want, as to preserve what they have ac- 
quired, and to be guilty of no sin, whereby it 
may be hurt. 

5. So when the king had spoken thus to the 
multitude, he dissolved the congregation, but 
not till he had completed his oblations, both 
for himself and for the Hebrews, insomuch 
that he sacrificed twenty and two thousand 
oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand 
sheep; for then it was that the temple did first 





ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


of all taste of the victims, and all the Hebrews. 
with their wives and children, feasted therein; 
nay, besides this, the king then observed splen 

didly and magnificently the feast which is call 

ed the Feast of Tabernacles, before the temple 
for twice seven days; and he then feasted to- 
gether with all the people. 

6. When all these solemnities were abun- 
dantly satisfied, and nothing was omitted that 
concerned the divine worship, the king dis- 
missed them; and they every one went to thei’ 
own homes, giving thanks to the king for th 
care he had taken of them, and the works he 
had done for them; and praying to God to pre- 
serve Solomon to be their king for a long time. 
They also took their journey home with re- 
joicing, and making merry, and singing hymns 
to God: and inde the pleasure they enjoyed 
took away the sense of the pains they all un- 
derwent in their journey home. So when 
they had brought the ark into the temple, and 
had seen its greatness, and how fine it was, and 
had been partakers of the many sacrifices that 
had been offered, and of the festivals that had 
been solemnized, they every one returned to 
their own cities. Buta dream that appeared 
to the king in his sleep, informed him, that 
“God had heard his prayers; and that he would 
not only preserve the temple, but would always 
abide in it, that is, in case his posterity and the 
whole multitude would be righteous. And for 
himself, it said, that if he continued according 
to the admonitions of his father, he would ad- 
vance him to an immense degree of dignity 
and happiness, and that then his posterity 
should be kings of that country, of the tribe of 
Judah, forever; but that still if he should be 
found a betrayer of the ordinances of the law, 
and forget them, and turn away to the worship 
of strange gods, he would cut him off by the 
roots, and would neither suffer any remainder 
of his family to continue, nor would overlook 
the temple of Israel, or preserve them any 
longer from afflictions, but would utterly de- 
stroy them with ten thousand wars and mis- 
fortunes; would cast them out of the land 
which he had given their fathers, and make 
them sojourners in strange lands; and deliver 
that temple, which was now built, to be burnt 
and spoiled by their enemies; and that city to 
be utterly overthrown by the hands of their 
enemies: and make their miseries deserve to 
be a proverb, and such as should very hardly 
be credited for their stupendous magnitud 
till their neighbors, when they ities 0 
them, should wonder at their calamities, and 
very earnestly inquire for the occasion, why 
the Hebrews, who had been so far advanced 
by God to such glory and wealth, should be 
then so hated by him? And that the answer 
that should be made by the remainder of the 
people, should be, by confessing their sins, and 
their transgression of the laws of their coun’ 
try.” Accordingly, we haye it transmitted te 
us in writing, that taus did God speak to Solo 
mon in his sleep. | 


BOOK VIII.—CHAPTER V. 


CHAPTER V. 


Zow Solomon built himself a royal Palace, very 
costly and splendid; and how he solved the 
riddles which were sent him by Hiram. 


§ 1. After the building of the temple, which, 
we have before said, was finished in seven 
gears, the king laid the foundation of his palace, 
which he did not finish under thirteen years, 
for he was not equally zealous in the building 
ef this palace as he hed been about the temple; 
for as to that, though it was a great work, and 
required wonderful and surprising application, 
yet God, for whom it was made, so far co- 
operated therewith, that it was finished in the 
forementioned number of years; but the pa- 
lace, which was a building much inferior in 
dignity to the temple, both on account that its 
materials had not been so long beforehand got- 
ten ready, nor had been so zealously prepared, 
and on account that this was only a habitation 
for kings, and not for God, it was longer in 
finishing. _ However, this building was raised 
so magnificently, as suited the happy state of 
the Hebrews, and of the king thereof: but it is 
necessary that I describe the entire structure 
and disposition of the parts, that so those that 
light upon this book, may thereby make a con- 
jecture, and, as it were, have a prospect of its 
magnitude. 

2. This house was a large and curious build- 
ing, and was supported by many pillars, which 
Solomon built to contain a multitude for hear- 
ing causes and taking cognizance of suits. It 
was sufficiently capacious to contain a great 
body of men, who would come together to 
thave causes determined. It was a hundred 
cubits long, and fifty broad, and thirty high, 
supported by quadrangular pillars, which were 
all of cedar, but its roof was according to the 
Corinthian order,* with folding doors, and their 
adjoining pillars of equal magnitude; each flut- 
ed with three cavities: which building was at 
once firm, and very ornamental. There was 
also another house, so ordered, that its entire 
breadth was placed in the middle: it was quad- 
rangular, and its breadth was thirty cubits, 
having a temple over against it, raised upon 
massy pillars; in which temple there was a 
large and very glorious room, wherein the 
king sat in judgment. To this was joined 
another house, that was built for his queen. 
There were other smaller edifices for diet, and 
for sleep, after public matters were over; and 
these were all floored with boards of cedar. 
Some of these Solomon built with stones of 
ten cubits, and wainscoted the walls with other 
stones that were sawed, and were of great 
value, such as are dug out of the earth for the 
‘ornaments of temples, and to make fine pros- 


* This mention of the Corinthian ornaments of architec- 
_ ture in Solomon’s palace by Josephus, seems to be here set 
dow 1 by way of prolepsis; for although it appears to me that 
the Grecian and Roman most ancient orders of architecture 
were taken from Solomon’s temple, as from their original 
patterns, yet it is not so clear that the last and most orna- 
' mental order of the Corinthian was so ancient, although 
what the same Josephus says, Of the War, b. v. ch. v. sect. 
8, that one of the gates of Herod’s temple was built accord- 
‘ing to the rules of this Corinthian order, is no way improba- 

’ 


ue". 


208 


pects in royal palaces, and which make the 
mines whence they are dug famous. Now the 
contexture of the curious workmanship of 
these stones was in three rows, but the fourth 
row would make one admire its sculptures, 
whereby were represented trees, and all sorta 
of plants, with the shades that arose from theit 
branches, and leaves that hung down from 
them. Those trees and plants covered the 
stone that was beneath them, and their leaves 
were wrought so prodigious thin and subtile, 
that you would think they were in motion: but 
the other part up to the roof was plastered 
Over, and as it were, embroidered with colors 
and pictures. He moreover built other edifices 
for pleasure; as also very long cloisters, and 
those situate in an agreeable place of the pa- 
lace; and among them a most glorious dining- 
room, for feastings and compotations, and fil} 
of gold, and such other furniture as so fine a 
room ought to have for the conveniency of the 
guests, and where all the vessels were made of 
gold. Now it is very hard to reckon up the 
magnitude and the variety of the royal apait- 
ments; how many rooms there were of thie 
largest sort; how many of a bigness infericr to 
those; and how many that were subterraneo.1s 
and invisible; the curiosity of those that en- 
joyed the fresh air; and the groves of the must 
delightful prospect, for the avoiding the hent, 
and covering of their bodies. And to say nll 
in brief, Solomon made the whole building en- 
tirely of white stone, and cedar-wood, and gold 
and silver. He also adorned the roofs aid 
walls with stones set in gold, and beautified 
them thereby in the same manner as he had 
beautified the temple of God with the like 
stones. He also made himself a throne of 
prodigious bigness of ivory, constructed as a 
seat of justice, and having six steps to it; on 
every one of which stood, on each end of the 
step, two lions, two other lions standing above 
also; but, at the sitting-place of the thronte, 
hands came out, and received the king; and 
when he sat backward, he rested on hal. a 
bullock, that looked towards his back, but still 
all was fastened together with gold. 

3. When Solomon had completed all this in 
twenty years’ time, because Hiram king of Tyre 
had contributed a great deal of gold,and more 
silver to these buildings, as also cedar-wood 
and pine-wood, he also rewarded Hiram with 
rich presents: corn he sent him also year by 
year, and wine and oil, which were the princi- 
pal things that he stood in need of, because he 
inhabited an island, as we have already said. 
And besides these, he granted him certain 
cities of Galilee, twenty in number, that lay not 
far from Tyre; which when Hiram wen to, 
and viewed, and did not like the gift, he sens 


ble, that order being, without dispute, much older than the 
reign of Herod. However, upon some trial, I confess I have 
not hitherto been able fully to understand the structure of 
this palace of Solomon, either as described in our Bibles, 0% 
even with the additional help of this description here hy 
Josephus; only the reader may easily observe with me, that 
the measures of this first building in Josephus, 100 cubits 
long, and 50 cubits broad, are the very same with the area 
of the court of the tabernace of Moses, and just half am 
Egyptian ‘aroura,’ or acre. 


206 


word to Solomon, that he did not want ‘such 
cities as they were; and after that time those 
cities were called the land of Cabul, which 
name, if it be interpreted according to the lan- 
guage of the Phoenicians, denotes, what does 
not please. Moreover, the king of Tyre sent 
sophisms and enigmatical sayings to Solomon, 
and desired he would solve them, and free 
them from the ambiguity that was in them. 
Now so sagacious and understanding was So- 
lomon, that none of these problems were too 
hard for him, but he conquered them all by 
his reasonings, and discovered their hidden 
meaning, and brought it to light. Menander 
also, one who translated the Tyrian archives 
out of the dialect of the Phoenicians into the 
Greek Janguage, makes mention of these two 
kings, where he says thus: “When Abibalus 
was dead, his son Hiram received the kingdom 
from him, who, when he had lived fifty-three 
ears, reigned thirty-four. He raised a bank 
m the large place, and dedicated the golden 
piilar which is in Jupiter’s temple. He also 
went and cut down materials of timber out of 
the mountain called Libanus, for the roofs of 
temples; and when he had pulled down the 
ancient temples, he both built the temple of 
Hercules and that of Astarte: and he first set 
u)) the temple of Hercules in the month Peri- 
tins; he also made an expedition against the 
Euchii [or ct Bae did not pay their tribute, 
and when he had subdued them to himself, he 
returned. Under this king, there was Abde- 
mon, a very youth in age, who always conquer- 
ed the difficult problems which Solomon, king 
of Jerusalem, commanded him to explain.” 
Dius also makes mention of him, where he 
says thus; “When Abibalus was dead, his son 
Hiram reigned. He raised the eastern parts 
of the city higher, and made the city itself 
larger. He also joined the temple of Jupiter, 
which before stood by itself, to the city, by 
raising a bank in the middle between them 
and he adorned it with donations of gold. 
Moreover, he went up to mount Libanus, and 
cut down maierials of wood for the building 
of the temples.” He says also, that “Solomon, 
who was then king of Jerusalem, sent riddles 
to Hiram; and desired to receive the like from 
him, but that he who could not solve them 
should pay money to him that did solve them, 
and that Hiram accepted the conditions; and 
when he was not able to solve the riddles [pro- 
posed by Solomon,] he paid a great deal of 
money for his fine: but that he afterward did 
solve the proposed riddles by means of Abde- 
mon, a man of Tyre; and that Hiram proposed 
other riddles, which, when Solomon could not 
solve, he paid back a great deal of money to 
Hiram.” This it is which Dius wrote. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How Solomon fortified the city of Jerusalem, and. 


built great cities; and how he brought some 

of the Canaanites into subjection, and enter- 

tained the queen of Egypt and of Ethiopia. 

§ 1. Now when the king saw that the walls 
of Jerusalem stood in need of being better se- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


cured, and made stronger, (for he thought the 
walls that encompassed Jerusalem ought to 
correspond to the dignity of the city,) he both 
repaired them, and made them higher, with 
great towers upon them; he also built cities 
which might be counted among the strongest, 
Hazor and Megiddo, and the third Gezer 
which had indeed belonged to the Philistines; 
but Pharaoh the king of Egypt had made an 
expeditior against, and besieged it, and taken it 
by force, and when he had slain all its inhabi- 
tants, he utterly overthrew it, and gave it as a 
present to his daughter, who had been married 
to Solomon; for which reason the king rebuilt 
it as a city that was naturally strong, and might 
be useful in wars, and the mutations of affairs 
that sometimes happen. Moreover, he built 
two other cities not far from it; Beth-horon 
was the name of one of them, and Baalath of 
the other. He also built other cities that lay 
conveniently for these, in order to the enjoy- 
ment of pleasures and delicacies in them, such 
as were naturally of a good temperature of the 
air, and agreeable for fruits ripe in their proper 
seasons, and well watered with springs. Nay, 
Solomon went as far as the desert above Syri 
and possessed himself of it, and built there a 
very great city, which was distant two days’ 
journey from Upper Syria, ané one day’s jour- 
ney from Euphrates, and sir fong days’ jour- 
ney from Babylon the great Now, the reason 
why this city lay so remot from the parts of 
Syria that are inhabited is this, that below 
there is no water to be had, and that it is in 
that place only that there are springs and pits 
of water. When he ha, therefore, built this 
city, and encompassed it with very strong walls, 
he gave itthe name of Tadmor, and that is the 
name it is still called by at this day among the 
Syrians; but the Grecian name is Palmyra. 

2. Now Solomon the king was at this tims 
engaged in building these cities. But if any 
inquire why all the kings of Egypt from Me- 
nes, who built Memphis, and was many yeam 
earlier than our forefather Abraham, until So- 
lomon, where the interval was more than ona 
thousand three hundred years, were callea 
Pharaohs, and took it from one Pharaoh that 
lived after the kings of that interval, I think i 
necessary to inform them of it, in order to cure 
their ignorance, and to make the occasion of 
that name manifest. Pharaoh, in the Egyptian 
tongue, signifies a king,* but I suppose they 
made use of other names from their childhood 
but when they were made kings, they changed 


* This signification of the name Pharaoh appears to be 
true. But what Josephus adds, presently, that no king of — 
Egypt was called Pharaoh after Solomon’s farther-i 
does hardly agree to our copies, which have long afterwaal ? 
the names of Pharaoh Necho and Pharaoh Hophru, 2 Kings — 
xxiii. 29; Jer. xliv. 30, besides the frequent mextion of that 
name Pharaoh in the prophets. However, Jusevhus himself, 
in his own speech to the Jews, Of the Was. b. v. ch. ix. 
sect. 4, speaks of Nechao, who was also called Pharaoh, as 
the name of that king of Egypt with whom Abraham was 
concerned; of which name Nechao yet we have elsewhere - 
no mention till the days of Josiah, but only of Pharaoh 
And indeed it must be confessed, that here and sect. 5, we 
have more mistakes made by Josephus, and those relating 
to the kings of Egypt, and to. that queen of ons 
Ethiopia, whom he supposes to have come to see 
than almost anywhere else in all his Antiquities. “™ 


BOOK VHII—CHAPTER VI. 


them into the name which in their own tongue 
denoted their authority; for thus it was also 
that the kings of Alexandria, who were 
called formerly by other names, when they 
took the kingdom were named Ptolemies, from 
their first king. The Roman emperors also 
were from their nativity called by other names, 
but are all styled Cesars, their empire and their 
dignity imposing that name upon them, and 
not suffering them to continue in those names 
which their fathers gave them. I suppose also 
that Herodotus of Halicanassus, when he 
said there were three hundred and thirty kings 
of Egypt after Menes, who built Memphis, did, 
therefore, not tell us their names, because they 
were in common called Pharaohs; for when 
after their death there was a queen reigned, he 
calls her by her name Nicaule, as thereby de- 
claring that while the kings were of the male 
line, and so admitted of the same name, while 
a woman did not admit the same, he did, there- 
fore, set down that her name which she could 
not naturally have. As for myself, I have dis- 
covered from our own books, that after Pharaoh 
the father-in-law of Solomon, no other king of 
Egypt did any longer use that name; and that 
it was after that time when the forementioned 
queen of Egypt and Ethiopia came to Solo- 
mon, concerning whom we shall inform the 
reader presently; but I have now made men- 
tion of these things, that I may prove that our 
books and those of the Egyptians agree togeth- 
er in many things. 

3. But king Solomon subdued to himself the 
remnant of the Canaanites that had not before 
submitted to him; those I mean that dwelt in 
mount Lebanon, and as far as the city of Ha- 
math; and ordered them to pay tribute. He 
also chose out of them every year such as were 
to serve him in the meanest offices, and to do 
his domestic works, and to follow husbandry: 
for none of the Hebrews were servants [in such 
low employments;] nor was it reasonable, that 
when God had brought so many nations under 
their power, they should depress their own 
people to such mean offices of life, rather than 
those nations; while all the Israelites were con- 
cerned in warlike affairs, and were in armor; 
and were set over the chariots and the horses, 
rather than leading the life of slaves. He ap- 
pointed also five hundred and fifty rulers over 
those Canaanites who were reduced to such 
domestic slavery, who received the entire care 
of them from the king and instructed them in 
those labors and operations, wherein he want- 
ed their assistance. 

4. Moreover, the king built many ships in the 
Egyptian Bay of the Red Sea, in a certain 
place called Ezion-Geber: it is now called Be- 
~enice, and is not far from the city of Eloth. 
Yhis country belonged formerly to the Jews, 
-and became useful for shipping, from the 

donations of Hiram king of Tyre: for he sent 
a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, 
and such as were skilful in navigation, to whom 
Solomon gavethis command, that they should 
go along with his own stewards to the land that 
was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea 


20" 


Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch 
him gold. And when they had gathered four 
hundred talents together, they returned to the 
king again. 

d. There wasthen a woman queen of Egypt 
and Ethiopia:* she was inquisitive into philoso- 
phy, and one that on other accounts also was to 
be admired. When this queen heard of the 
virtue and prudence of Solomon, she had a 
great mind to see him, and the reports that 
went every day abroad, induced her to come 
to him, she being desirous to be satisfied by 
her own experience, and not by a bare hearing; 
(for reports thus heard are likely enough to 
comply with a false opinion, while they wholly 
depend on the credit of the relaters;) so she 
resolved to come to him and that especially in 
order to have a trial of his wisdom, while she 
proposed questions of very great difficulty, and 
entreated that he would solve their hidden 
meaning. Accordingly, she came to Jerusalem 
with great splendor, and rich furniture; for she 
brought with her camels laden with gold, with 
several sorts of sweet spices, and with precious 
stones. Now, upon the king’s kind reception 
of her, he both showed a great desire to please 
her, and easily comprehending in his mind the 
meaning of the curious questions she propound- 
ed to him, he resolved them sooner than any 
body could have expected. So she was amazed 
at the wisdom of Solomon, and discovered that 
it was more excellent upon trial than what she 
had heard by report beforehand; and especial- 
ly she was surprised at the fineness and large- 
ness of his royal palace, and not less at the good 
order of the apartments, for she observed that 
the king had therein shown great wisdom; but 
she was beyond measure astonished at the 
house which was called the Forest of Leba- 
non, as also at the magnificence of his daily 
table, and the circumstances of its preparation 
and ministration, with the apparel of his ser- 
vants, that waited, and the skilful and decent 
management of their attendance: nor was she 
less affected with those daily sacrifices which 
were offered to God, and the careful manage- 
ment which the priests and Levites used about 
them. When she saw this done every day, she 
was in the greatest admiration imaginable, in- 
somuch that she was not able to contain the sur- 
prise she was in, but openly confessed how 
wonderfully she was affected: for she proceeded 
to discourse with the king, and thereby owned 
that she was overcome with admiration at the 
things before related; and said, “All things in 
deed, O king, that came to our knowledge by 
report, came with uncertainty as to our belief 
of them; but as to those good things that to 
thee appertain, both such as thou thyself pos- 
sessest, I mean wisdom and prudence, and the 


* That this queen of Sheba was a queen of Sabea im 
South Arabia, and not of Egypt and Ethiopia, as Josephus 
here asserts, is, [ suppose, now generally agreed. And since 
Sabeza is well known to be a country near the sea in the 
south of Arabia Felix, which lay south from Judea also; and 
since our Savior calls this queen the queen of the south, and 
says she came from the utmost parts of the earth, Matt. xii 
42; Luke xi. 31; which descriptions agree better to this 
Arabia than to Egypt and Ethiopia, there is little occasion 
for doubting in this matter. 


208 
happiiess thou hast from thy kingdom, certain- 
ly the farne that came to us was no falsity; it 
was not only a true report, but it related thy hap- 
piness after a much lower manner than I now 
see it to be before my eyes. For, as for the re- 
pers it only attempted to persuade our hearing, 

ut did not so make known the dignity of the 
things themselves as does the sight of them, 
and being present among them. I indeed, who 
did not believe what was reported, by reason of 
the multitude and grandeur of the things I in- 
quired about, do see them to be much more nu- 
merous than they were reported to be. Ac- 
cordingly, I esteem the Hebrew people, as well 
us thy servants and friends, to be happy, who 
ejoy thy presence, and hear thy wisdom every 
dsy continually. One would, therefore, bless 
God who hath so loved this country, and those 
that inhabit therein, as to make thee king over 
thern.” 

6 Now when the queen had thus demon- 
strated in words how deeply the king had af- 
fected her, her disposition was known by cer- 
tain presents, for she gave him twenty talents 
of gold and an immense quantity of spices, and 
precious stones. (They say also that we pos- 
sess the root of that balsam which our coun- 
try still bears by this woman’s gift.*) Solomon 
also repaid her with many good things, and prin- 
cipally by bestowing upon her what she chose 
of her own inclination, for there was nothing 
that she desired which he denied her; and as he 
was very generous and liberal in his own tem- 
per, so did he show the greatness of his soul in 
bestowirg on her what she herself desired of 
him. §S.» when this queen of Ethiopia had ob- 
tained what we have already given an account 
of, and had again communicated to the king 
what she brought with her, she returned to her 
own kingdom. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How Selomon grew rich, and fell erately wm 
love tvith women; and how God, being incens- 
ed at tt, raised up Ader and Jeroboam against 
him. Concerning the death of Solomon. 


§ 1. About the same time there were brought 
to the king from the Aurea Chersonesus, a 
county so called, precious stones, and pine- 
trees; and these trees ie made use of for sup- 
porting the temple and the palace, as also for 
the materials of musical instruments, the harps 
and the psalteries, that the Levites might make 
use of them in their hymns to God. The 
wood which was brought to him at this time 
was larger and finer than any that had ever 
been brought before; but let no one imagine 
that these pine-trees were like those which are 
HOw so named, and which take that their de- 


“ Some b ame Josephus for supposing, that the balsam- 
tree might be first brought out of Arabia, or Egypt, or 
Ethiopia, into Judea, by this queen of Sheba, since several 
aave said that of old no country bore this precious balsam 
but Judea; yet it is notoriously false that this balsam was 
peculiar to Judea, for both Egypt and Arabia, and par- 
ticularly Sabea had it; which last was that very country 
whence Josephus, if understood not of Ethiopia but of 
Arabia, intimates this queen might bring it first into Judea. 
Nor are we to suppose that the queen of Sabza could well 
emit such a present as this balsam-tree weuld be esteemed 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


nomination from the merchants, who so cafi 
them, that they may procure them to be ad- 
mired by those that purchase them; for those 
we speak of were to the sight like the wood of 
the fig-tree, but were whiter and more shining. 
Now we have said thus much, that nobody 
may be ignorant of the difference between 
these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the 
nature of the genuine pine-tree; and we thought 
it both a seasonable and humane thing when 
we mentioned it, and the uses the king made of 
it, to explain this difference so far as we have 
done. 

2. Now the weight of gold that was brought 
him was six hundred and sixty-six talents, not 
including in that sum what was brought by 
the merchants, nor what the toparchs and 
kings of Arabia gave him in presents. He also 
cast two hundred targets of gold, each of them 
weighing six hundred shekels. He also made 
three hundred shields, every one weighing three 
pounds of gold, and he had them carried, and 
put into that house which was called the Forest 
of Lebanon. He also made cups of gold, and 
of [precious] stones, for the entertainment of 


-his guests, and had them adorned in the most 


artificial manner; and he contrived that all his 
other furniture of vessels should be of gold, 
for there was nothing then to be sold or bought 
for silver, for the king had many ships which 
lay upon the sea of Tarsus; these he comman4- 
ed to carry out all sorts of merchandize unto 
the remotest nations, by the sale of which sil- 
ver and gold were brought to the king, and a 
great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and 
apes, and they finished their voyage, going and 
returning, in three years’ time. 

3. Accordingly, there went a great fame all 
around the neighboring countries, which pro- 
claimed the virtue and wisdom of Solomen, 
insomuch that all the kings everywhere were 
desirous to see him, as not giving credit to 
what was reported, on account of its being al- 
most incredible; they also demonstrated the :e- 
gard they had for him, by the presents they 
made him; for they sent him vessels of gold, 
and silver, and purple garments, and many 
sorts of spices, and horses, and chariots, and 
as many mules for his carriages as they could 
find proper to please the king’s eyes, by their 
strength and beauty. This addition that he 
made to those chariots and horses which he 


had before from those that were sent him, 


augmented the number of his chariots by above 
four hundred, for he had a thousand before, 


and augmented the number of his horses by — 
two thousand, for he had twenty thousand be- © 


fore. 


These horses also were so much exer- — 


cised, in order to their making a fine appear- 


* 


by Pe, in case it were then almost peculiar to her own 


country. Nor is the mention of balm or balsam, as carried 
by merchants, and sent as a present out of Judea, by Jacob, 
to the governor of Egypt, Gen. xxxvii. 25, and xliii. 11, to 
be alleged to the contrary, since what we there render 5 

or balsam, denotes rather that turpentine which we now 

turpentine of Chio, or Cyprus, the juice of the 
tree, than this precious balsam. This last is also the same 
word that we elsewhere render by the same mistake baler 


of Gilead; it should be rendered the turpentine of Gileae, — 
er. Viii. 2; « q i 
| 


is 


; 


P 


> 
. 


4 
] 
ft 


| 
\ 


' Canticles, he compares his spouse to a “gar 


_ but may very probably be conjectured. 


BOOK VUL—CHAPTER VIL 


ance, and running swift.y, that no others could, 


208 


going history of him. He grew mad in hm 


upon the comparison, appear either finer or | love of women, and laid no restraint on him- 


swifter; but they were at once the most beau- 
tiful of all others, and their swiftness was in- 
comparable also. Their riders also were a 
further ornament to them, being in the first 
place young men in the most delightful flower 


_ of their age, and being eminent for their large- 
_ ness, and tar taller than other men. 


They had 
also very long heads of hair hanging down, 


_and were clothed in garments of Tyrian pur- 


ple. They had also dust of gold every day 
sprinkled on their hair, so that their heads 
sparkled with the reflection of the sunbeams 
from the gold. The king himself rode upon 
a chariot in the midst of these men, who were 
still im armor, and had their bows fitted to 
them. He had ona white garment, and used 
to take his progress out of the city in the 
morning. ‘There was a certain place about 
fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalern, which is 
called Etham;* vevy pleasant it is in fine gar- 
dens, and abounding in rivulets of water, thither 
did he use to go out in the morning, sitting on 
high [in his chariot. 

4, Now Solomon had divine sagacity in all 
things, and was very diligent and studious to 
have things done after an elegant manner: so 
he did not neglect the care of the ways, but he 
laid a causeway of black stone along the road 
that led to Jerusalem, which was the royal city, 
both to render them easy for travellers, and to 
manifest the grandeur of his riches and go- 
vernment. Healso parted his chariots, and set 
them in a regular order, that acertain number 
of them should be in every city, still keeping 
a few about him; and those cities he called the 
cities of his chariots. And the king made sil- 
ver so plentiful in Jerusalem as stones in the 
street; and so multiplied cedar-trees in the 
plains of Judea, which did not grow there be- 
fore, that they were like the multitude of com- 
mon sycamore-trees. He also ordained the 
Egyptian merchants that brought him their 
merchandise to sell hima chariot, with a pair 
of horses, for six hundred drachme of silver, 
and he sent them to the kings of Syria, and to 
those kings that were beyond Euphrates. 

_ 5. But although Solomon was become the 
“most glorious of kings, and the best beloved 
of God, and hai exceeded in wisdom and 
riches those that had been rulers of the He- 
brews before him, yet did he not persevere in 
this happy state til! he died. Nay, he for- 
sook the observation of the law of his fathers 
and came to an end noway suitable to our fore- 


* Whether these fine gardens and rivulets of Etham, 
about six miles from Jerusalem, whither Solomon rode so 
often in state, be not those alluded to Eccles. ii. 5, 6, where 

he says, “He made him gardens and orchards, and planted 


- trees in them of all kinds of fruits, he made him pools of 


water, to water the wood that bringeth forth trees:”? and to 
the finest part whereof he seems to allude, when, in the 
den enclosed,”’ 
toa “spring shut up,” to a “fountain sealed,” ch. iv. 12, 
(part of which fountains are still extant, as Mr. Maundrell 
informs us, p. 87, 88;) cannot now be certainly determined, 
But whether this 
_Etham has any relation to those rivers of Etham, which 
“rovidence once dried up in a miraculous manner Psal. 
‘xxiv. 15, and es Septuagint, 1 canaot say. 
ob ; 27 


self im his lust: nor was he satisfied with the 
women of his country alone; but he married 
many wives out of foreign nations, Sidonians, 
and Tyrians, and Ammonites, and Edomites, 
and he transgressed the laws of Moses, which 
forbade Jews to marry any but those that were 
of their own people. He also began to wor: 
ship their gods, which he did to the gratifica- 
tion of his wives, and out of his affection for 
them. ‘This very thing our legislator suspect- 
ed, and so admonished us beforehand, that we 
should not marry women of other countries, 
lest we should be entangled with foreign cus- 
toms, and apostatize from our own; lest we 
should leave off to honor our own God, and 
should worship their gods. But Solomon was 
fallen headlong into unseasonable pleasures, and 
regarded not these admonitions. For wien 
he had married seven hundred wives,* ‘he 
daughters of princes, and of eminent persons, 
and three hundred concubines, and these |.«- 
sides the king of Egypt’s daughter, he scon 
was governed by them till he came to imitae 
their practices. He was forced to give thei 
this demonstration of his kindness and affee- 
tion to them, to live according to the laws oi 

their countries. And as he grew into year: 

and his reason became weaker by length o° 
time, it was not sufficient to recaii to his min: 
the institutions of his own country, so he stili 
more and more contemned his own God, anil 
continued to regard the gods that his mat- 
riages had introduced: nay, before this hap- 
pened, he sinned, and fell into an error abort 
the observation of the law, when he made the 
images of brazen oxen that supported the bra- 
zen sea,t and the images of lions about his 
own throne: for these he made, although it 
was not agreeable to piety so to do; and this 
he did, notwithstanding that he had his father 
as a most excellent and domestic pattern cf vir- 
tue, and knew what a glorious character he had 
left behind him, because of his piety towards 
God: nor did he imitate David, although God 
had twice appeared to him in his sleep, and 
exhorted him to imitate his father; so he died 
ingloriously. ‘There came, therefore, a prophe 

to him who was sent by God, and told him, that 


* These seven hundred wives, or the daughters of great 
men, and the three hundred concubines, the daughters of 
the ignoble, make one thousand in all; and are, I suppose, 
those very one thousand women intimated elsewhere by So- 
Jomon himself, when he speaks of his not having found one 
{good] woman among that very number. Ecclus. vii. 28. 

{ Josephus is here certainly too severe upon Solomon, whs 
in making the cherubims, and these twelve brazen oxen, 
seems to have done no more than imitate the patterns left 
him by David; which were all given David by Divine inspi- 
ration. See my Description of the Temples, chap. x. And al- 
though God gave no direction for the lions that adomed his 
throne, yet does not Solomon seem therein to have broken 
any law of Moses; for although the Pharisees, and latter 
rabbins, have extended the second commandnient, to forbid 
the very making of any image, though without any intention 
to have worshipped it, yet do not I suppose that Solomon se 
understood it, nor that it ought to be so understood. The 
making any other altar for worship but that at the taberna 
cle, was equally forbiden by Moses, Antiq. b. iv. ch. vii. 
sect. 5; yet did not the two tribes and a half offend, whex 
they made an‘altar for a memorial only, Josh. xxii. Antiq. b, 
v. ch. i, sect. 26, 27. 


210 


“his wicked actions were not concealed from 
God; and threatened him that he should not 
tong rejoice in what he had done: that indeed the 
kingdom should not be taken from him while he 
was alive, because God had promised to his 
father David that he would make him his succes- 
sor, but that he would take care that this should 
befall his son when he was dead; not that he 
would withdraw all the people from him, but 
that he would give ten tribes to a servant of his, 
and leave only two tribes to David’s grand- 
son, for his sake, because he loved God, and 
for the sake of the city of Jerusalem, where- 
‘in he would have a temple.” 

6. When Solomon heard this, he was griev- 
ed, and greatly confounded, upon this change 
of almost all that happiness which had made 
him to be admired, into so bad a state; nor had 
there much time passed after the prophet had 
foretold what was coming, before God raised 
upyan enemy against him, whose name was 
Ader, who took the following occasion of his 
eunity to him: he was a child of the stock of 
the Edomites, and of the blood royal; and 
when Joab, the captain of David’s host, laid 
wi ste the landof Edom, and destroyed all that 
were men grown, and able to bear arms, for 
six months’ time, this Hadad fled away and 
eae to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, who re- 
esived him kindly, and assigned him a house to 
dwell in, and a country to supply him with food: 
aid when he was grown up, be loved him ex- 
ceedingly, insomuch that he gave him his wife’s 
sister, whose name was Tahpenes, to wife, by 
whom he had a son, who was brought up 
with the king’s children. When Hadad heard 
in Egypt that both David and Joab were dead, 
he came to Pharaoh, and desired that he would 
permit him to go to his own country: upon 
which the king asked what it was that he want- 
ed, and what hardships he had met with, that he 
was so desirous to leave him? And when he 
was often troublesome to him, and entreated 
himn to dismiss him, he did not then do it; but 
at the time when Solonion’s affairs began to 
grow worse,* on account of his forementioned 
transgressions, and God’s anger against him for 
the same, Hadad, by Pharaoh’s permission, 
came to Edom; and when he was not able to 
make the people forsake Solomon, for it was 
kept under by many garrisons, and an innova- 
tio Was not to be made with safety, le re:mov- 
ed thence, and came into Syria; there he lit up- 
on one Rezon, who had run away from Hada- 
dezar, king of Zobah, his master, and was be- 
come a robber in that country, and joined 
friendship with him, who had already a band 
of robbers about him. So he went up, and 
seized upon that part of Syria, and was made 
king thereof. He also made incursions into the 
land of Israel. and did it no small mischief, and 
spoiled it, and that in the lifetime of Solomon. 


* Since the beginning of Solomon’s evil life and adversity 
wus the time when Hadad, or Ader, who was born at least 
twenty oy thirty years before Solomon came to the crown, in 
the days of David, began to give him disturbance; this im- 

ies that Solomon’s evil life began early and continued very 
Saag which the multitude of his wives and concubines does 
tmply also [ suppose when he was not fifty vears of age. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


And this was the calamity which the Hebrews 
suffered by Hadad. 

7. There was also one of Solomon’s own na 
tion that made an attempt against him, Jerobo 
am the son of Nebat, who kad an expectation 
of rising from a prophecy that had been made 
to him long before. He was left a child by his 
father, and. brought up by his mother; aud 
when Solomon saw that he was of an active 
and bold disposition, he made him the curator 
of the walls which he built round about Jeru- 
salem; and he took such care of those works, 
that the king approved of his behavior, and 
gave him, as a reward for the same, the charge 
over the tribe of Joseph. And when about 
that time Jeroboam was once going out of Je- 
rusalem, a prophet of the city Shiloh, whose 
name was Ahijah, met him and saluted him, 
and when he had taken him a little aside, to a 
place out of the way, where there was not one 
other person present, he rent the garment he 
had on into twelve pieces, and bade Jeroboam 
take ten of them: and told him beforehand, 
that “This is the will of God;. he will part the 
dominion of Solomon, and give one tribe, with 
that which is next it, to his son, because of the 
promise made to David for his succession, and 
will give ten tribes to thee, because Solomon 
hath sinned against him, and delivered up 
himself to women, and to their gods, Seeing, 
therefore, thou knowest the cause for which 
God hath changed his mind, and is alienated 
fromm Solomon, be thou righteous, and keep 
the laws, because he hath proposed ‘to thee 
the greatest of all rewards for thy piety, and 
the honor thou shalt pay to God, namely, to be 
as greatly exalted as thou knowest David to 
have been.” 

8. So Jeroboam was elevated by these 
words of the prophet; and being a young man 
of a warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, 
he could not be quiet:* and when he had so 
great a charge in the government, and called to 
mind what had been revealed to him by Ahi- 
jah he endeavored to persuade the people to 
forsake Solomon, to make a disturbance, and to 
bring the government over to himself. But 
when Solomon understood his intention and 
treachery, he sought to catch and kill him; but 
Jeroboam was informed of it beforehand, and 
fled to Shishak, the king of Egypt, and there 
abode till the death of Solomon, by which 
means he gained these two advantages, to suf- 
fer no harm from Solomon, and to be preserved 
for the kingdom. So Selomon died when he 
was already an old man, having reigned eighty 
years, and lived ninety-four. He was buried 
in Jerusalem, having been superior to all other 
kings in happiness, and riches, and wisdom, 
excepting that when he was growing into y 
he was deluded by women, and tran 


* This youth of Jeroboam, when Solomon built the walls 
of Jerusalem, not very long after he had finished his twenty 
years’ building of the temple, and his own palace, or not 
very long after the twenty-fourth year of his reign, 1 Kings” 
ix. 24; 2 Chron. viii. 11; and his youth here still mentioned, 
when Solomon’s wickedness was become more intolerable 
fully confirmed my former observation, that such his wick — 
edness begar early and continued very tong. See Ecclus 
xbew , 


hs 


= 4 


BOOK VIII.—CHAPTER VIII. 


the Jaw; concerning which transgressions, and 
the miseries which befell the Hebrews thereby, 
{ think proper to discourse at another oppor- 
tunity. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How, upon the death of Solomon, the A ie Sor- 
890k his son Rehoboam, and ordained Jeroboam 
king over the ten Tribes. 


§ 1. Now when Solomon was dead, and his 
—~son Rehoboam, (who was born of an Ammo- 
nite wife, whose name was Naamabh,) had suc- 
ceeded him in the kingdom, the rulers of the 
multitude sent immediately into Egypt, and 
ealled back Jeroboam; and when he was come 
to them, to the city Shechem. Rehoboam 
came to it also, for he had resolved to declare 
himself king to the Israelites, while they were 
there gathered together. So the rulers of the 
eople, as well as Jeroboam, came to him, and 
ought him, and said, “That he ought to re- 
lax, and to be gentler than his father, in the ser- 
vitude he had imposed on them, because they 
had borne a heavy yoke, and that then they 


should be better affected to him, and be well | 


contented to serve him under his moderate 
government, and should do it more out of love 
than fear.” But Rehoboam told them they 
should come to him again in three days’ time, 
when he would give an answer to their request. 
This delay gave occasion to a present suspi- 
cion, since he had not given them a favorable 
answer to their mind immediately, for they 
thought that he should have given them a hu- 
mane answer off-hand, especially since he was 
bit young. However, they thought that his 
consultation about it, and that he did not pre- 
sently give them a denial, afforded them some 
gcod hopes of success. 

2. Rehoboam now called his father’s friends, 
ard advised with them what sort of answer he 
ought to give to the multitude: upon which 
they gave him the advice which became friends, 
and those that knew the temper of such a 
multitude. They advised him, “to speak in a 
way more popular than suited the grandeur of 
a king, because he would thereby oblige them 
to submit to him with good will, it being the 
most agreeable to subjects, that their kings 
should be almost upon a level with them.” 
But Rehoboam rejected this so good, and in 

eneral so profitable advice; (it was such, at 
least, at that time, when he was to be made 
king;) God himself, I suppose, causing what 
was most advantageous to be condemned by 
him. So he called for the young men, who 
were brought up with him, and told them 
what advice the-elders had given him, and bade 
them speak what they thought he ought to do. 
They advised him to give the following answer 
to the people, (for neither their youth, nor God 
himself, suffered them to discern what was 
best,) “that his littie finger should be thicker 
than his father’s loins; and if they had met 
with hard usage from his father, they should 
experience much rougher treatment from him; 
and if his father had chastised them with 
whips, they must expect that he would do it 


211 


with scorpions.”* |The king was pleased with 
this advice, and thought it agreeable to the 
dignity of his government to give them such 
an answer. Accordingly, when the multitude 
was come together to hear his answer on the 
third day, all the people were in great expee 

tation, and very intent to hear what the kin 

would say to them, and supposed they shoul 

hear something of a kind nature; but he pase 
ed by his friends and answered as the young 
men had given him counsel. Now this was 
done according to the will of God, that what 
Ahijah had foretold might come to pass. 

3. By these words the people were struck as 
it were by an iron hammer, and were so 
grieved at the words, as if they had already 
felt the effects of them, and they had great in- 
dignation at the king: and all cried out aloud 
and said, “We will have no longer any relation 
to David or his posterity after this day.” And 
they said farther, “We only leave to Rehoboam 
the temple which his father built;” and they 
threatened to forsake him. Nay, they were so 
bitter, and retained their wrath so long, that 
when he sent Adoram, who was over the tri- 
bute, that he might pacify them, and render 
them milder, and persuade them to forgive 
him if he had said any thing that was rash or 
grievous to them in his youth, they would not 
hear it, but threw stones at him and killed him. 
When Rehoboam saw this, he thought himself 
aimed at by those stones with which they had 
killed his servant, and feared lest he should un- 
dergo the last of punishments in earnest, so he 
got immediately into his chariot, and fled to 
Jerusalem, where the tribe of Judah and that 
of Benjamin ordained him king: but the rest 
of the multitude forsook the sons of David 
from that day, and appointed Jeroboam to be 
the ruler of their public affairs. Upon this, 
Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, assembled a great 
congregation of those two tribes that submitted 
to him, and was ready to take a hundred and 
eighty thousand chosen men out of the army, 
to make an expedition against Jeroboam and 
his people, that he might force them by war to 
be his servants; but he was forbidden of God 
by the prophet [Shemaiah] to go to war, for 
that it was not just that brethren of the same 
country should fight one against another. He 
also said, that this defection of the multitude 
was according to the purpose of God. So he 
did not proceed in this expedition. And now 
I will relate first the actions of Jeroboam the 
king of Israel, after which we will relate what 
are therewith connected, the actions of Reho- 
boam, the king of the two tribes; by this means 
we shall preserve the good order of the history 
entire. 

4. When, therefore, Jeroboam had built him 


a palace in the city Shechem, he dwelt there. 


He also’ built him another at Penuel, a city se 
called. And now the feast of tabernacles was 
approaching in a little time, Jeroboam consid- 


* That by scorpions is not here meant that small animal 
so called, which was never used in corrections; but either a 
shrub, with sharp prickles like the stings of sconpions, suek 
as our furze bush, or else some terrible sort of whip of the 
like nature; see Hudson’s and Spanheim/’s notes here 


— 


212 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ered, that if he should permit the multitude to 
go to worship God at Jerusalem, and there to 
celebrate the festivals, they would probably re- 
pent of what they had done, and be enticed by 
the temple, and by the worship of God there 
performed, and would leave him, and return to 
their first king; and if so, he should run the 
tisk of loosing his own life: so he invented this 
contrivance; he made two golden heifers, and 
built two little temples for them, the one in the 
sity Bethel, and the other in Dan, which last 
was at the fountains of the lesser Jordan,* and 
he put the heifers into both the little temples, in 
the forementioned cities. And when he had 
called those ten tribes together, over whom he 
ruled, he made a speech to the people in these 
words: “I suppose, my countryinen, that you 
know this, that every place hath God in it, nor 
is there any one determinate place in which he 
is, but he everywhere hears and sees those that 
worship him; on which account I do not think 
it right for you to go so long a journey to Jeru- 
salem, which is an enemy’s city, to worship him. 
It wasa man that built the temple: I have also 
roade two golden heifers, dedicated to the same 
God, and the one of them I have consecrated 
in the city Bethel, and the other in Dan, to the 
end that those of you that dwell nearest those 
cities, may go to them, and worship God there; 
and I will ordain for you certain priests and 
Levites from among yourselves, that you may 
have no want of the tribe of Levi, or of the 
sons of Aaron; but let him that is desirous 
among you of being a priest, bring to God a 
bullock and a ram, which they say Aaron the 
first priest brought also.” When Jeroboam had 
said this, he deluded the people, and made 
them to-revolt from the worship of their fore- 
fathers, and to transgress their laws. 'This was 
the beginning of miseries to the Hebrews, and 
the cause why they were overcome in war by 
foreigners, and so fell into captivity. But we 
shall relate those things in their proper places 
hereafter. 

5. When the feast [of tabernacles] was just 
approaching, Jeroboam was desirous to cele- 
brate it himself in Bethel, as did the two tribes 
celebrate it in Jerusalem. Accordingly he 
built an altar before the heifer, and undertook 
to be high priest himself. So he went up to 
the altar, with his own priests about him; but 
when he was going to offer the sacrifices, and 
the burnt-offerings, in the sight of all the peo- 
ple, a prophet, whose name was Jadon, was 
sent by God, and came to him from Jerusalem, 
who stood in the midst of the multitude, and 
n the hearing of the king, and directing his 
discourse to the altar, said thus, “God foretells 
that there shall be a certain man of the family 
of David, Josiah by name, who shall slay upon 
thee those false priests that shall live at that 
time, and upon thee shall burn the bones of 


* Whether these fountains of the lesser Jordan were near 
a placecalled Dan, and the fountains of the greater near a 
place called Jor, before their conjunctions: or whether there 
was only one fountain, arising at the lake Phiala, at first 
sinking under ground, and then arising near the mountain Pa- 
meum, and thence running through the lake Semochonitis to 
the sea of Galilee, and so far called the lesser Jerdan % hard- 


those deceivers of the people, those imposters 
and wicked wretches. However, that this peo- 
ple may believe that these things shall so come 
to pass, I foretell a sign to them that shall also 
come to pass: This altar shall be broken to 
pieces immediately, and all the fat of the sacri- 
fices that is upon it, shall be poured upon the 
ground.” When the prophet had said this, 
Jeroboam fell into a passion, and stretched out 
his hand, and bade them lay hold of him; but 
that hand which he stretched out was enfee- 
bled, and he was not able to pull it in again to 
him, for it was become withered, and hung 
down, as if it were a dead hand. The altar 
also was broken to pieces, and all that was 
upon it was poured out, as the prophet has 
foretold should come to pass. So the king un- 
derstood that he was a man of veracity, and 
had a divine foreknowledge, and entreated 
him to pray to God that he would restore his 
right hand. Accordingly, the prophet did pray 
to God to grant him that request. So the king 
having his hand recovered to its natural state, 
rejoiced at it, and invited the prophet to sup 
with him; but Jadon said, that “he could not 
endure to come into his house, nor to taste of 
bread or water in this city, for that was a thing 
God had forbidden him to do; as also to go 
back by the same way which he came, but he 
said he was to return by another way.” So the 
king wondered at the abstinence of the man, 
but was himself in fear, as suspecting a change 
of his affairs for the worse, from what had 
been said to him. 


CHAPTER IX. 


How Jadon the Prophet was persuaded Yy another 
lying Prophet, and returned [to Bethel,| and 
was afterward slain by a Inon. As also what 
words the wicked Prophet made use of to per- 
swade the King, and thereby alienated his mind 
Srom God. | 


§ 1. Now there was acertain wicked man 
in that city who was a false prophet, whom 
Jeroboam had in great esteem, but was deceiv- 
ed by him, and his flattering words, This man 
was bed-rid by reason of the infirmities of old— 
age: however, he was informed by his sons 
concerning the prophet that was come from 
Jerusalem, and concerning the signs done by — 
him; and how, when Jeroboam’s right hand 
had been enfeebled, at the prophet’s prayer he~ 
had it revived again. Whereupon he wag 
afraid that this stranger and prophet should be_ 
in better esteem with the king than himself 
and obtain greater honor from him, and he 
gave order to his sons to saddle his ass present- 
ly, and make all ready that he might go out — 
Accordingly they made haste to do what the a] 
were commanded, and he got upon the ass, and 
followed after the prophet, and when he had 
overtaken him, as he was resting himself under 










ly certain even in Josephus himself, though the latter ac- 
count be the most probable. However, the northern idol- 
atrous calf, set up by Jeroboam, was where Little Jordan fell” 
into Great Jordan, near a place called Da , as Jozephud 
elsewhere informs us, Of the War, b. iv. ch. i. sect.1 See tha 
note there. Se, 


—_ Oe an 


BOOK VIU—CHAPTER X. 


a very large oak-tree that was thick and shady, 
ne at first saluted hin, but presently he com- 

laimed of him, because he had not come into 
fis house, and partaken of his hospitality. 
And when the other said, that “God had for- 
bidden him to taste of any one’s provision in 
that city,” he replied that, “for certain God had 
not forbidden that I should set food before thee, 
for | am a prophet as thou art, and worship 
God in the same manner that thou dost; and I 
am now come as sent by him, in order to bring 
thee into my house, and make thee my guest.” 
Now Jadon gave credit to this lying prophet, 
and returned back with him. But when they 
were at dinner, and were merry together, God 
appeared to Jadon, and said, that “he should 
suffer punishment for transgressing his com- 
mands, and he told him what that punishment 
should be; for he said that he should meet with 
a lion as he was going on his way, by which 
lion he should be torn in pieces, and be depriv- 
ed of burial in the .sepulchres of his fathers.” 
Which things care to pass, as I suppose, ac- 


cording to the will of God, that so Jeroboam 


might not give heed to the words of Jadon, as 
of one that had been convicted of lying. How- 
ever, as Jadon wasagain going to Jerusalem, a 


lion assaulted him, and pulled him off the beast 


he rode on, and slew him, yet did he not at all 
hurt the ass, but sat by him, and kept him, as 
also the prophet’s body. This continued till 
some travellers that saw it came and told it in 


the city to the false prophet, who sent his sons, 


and brought the bedy into the city, and made 
a funeral for him at great expense. He also 
charged his sons to bury himself with him; and 
said, that all which he had foretold against that 
city, and the altar, and priests, and false pro- 
“ais would prove true: and that if he were 

uried with him, he should receive no injurious 
treatment after his death, the bones not being 
then to be distinguished asunder.” But now, 
when he had performed those funeral rites to 
the prophet, and had given that charge to his 


sons, as he was a wicked and an impious man, 


he goes to Jeroboam, and says to him, “And 
wherefore is it now that thou art disturbed at 
the words of this silly fellow?” And when 
the king had related to him what had happen- 
ed about the altar, and about his own hand, 
and gave him the name ofa divine man, and an 
excellent prophet, he endeavored, by a wicked 
trick, to weaken that his opinion, and by using 
plausible words concerning what had hap- 
pened, he aimed to injure the truth that was in 
them; for he attempted to persuade him, that 
“his hand was enfeebled by the labor it had 
undergone in supporting the sacrifices, and that 
Bpon its resting awhile, it returned to its form- 
er nature again; and that as to the altar, it was 


‘but new, aiid had borne abundance of sacri- 


‘fices, and those large ones too, and was accord- 


‘ingly broken to pieces, and fallen down by the 


weight of what had been laid upon it.” He 


‘also informed him of the death of him that 
bad foretold those things, and how he perished; 


[whence he concluded that] he had not any 


nin 


eh 
t y J 
ed 


hing in him of a prophet; nor spoke any 


alg 


thing like one. When he had thus spoken, he 
persuaded the king, and entirely alienated his 
mind from God; and from doing works that 
were righteous and holy, and encouraged him 
to go on in his impious practices;* and accord- 
ingly, he was to that degree injurious to God, 
and so great a transgressor, that he sought for 
nothing else every day, but how he might be 
guilty of some new instances of wickedness, 
and such as should be more detestable thaa 
what he had been so insolent as to do before. 
And so much shall at present suffice to hav 
said concerning Jeroboam. 


CHAPTER X. 

Concerning Rehoboam, and how God inflicted 
punishment upon him, for his impiety, by Sha- 
shak, [King of Egypt.| 
§ 1. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, 

who, as we said before, was king of the twe 

tribes, built strong and large cities, Bethlehem, 
and Etam, and T'ekoa, and Bethzur, and Sho- 
co, and Adullam, and Ipan, and Maresha, and 

Ziph, and Adoram, and Lachish, and Azekah 

and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron; these he 

built first of all in the tribe of Judah. He also 
built other large cities in the tribe of Benja- 
min, and walled them about, and put garrisons 
in them all, and captains, and a great deal of 
corn, and wine, and oil, and he furnished every 
one of them plentifully with other provisions 
that were necessary for sustenance; moreover 
he put therein shields and spears, for many ten 
thousand men. The priests also that were in all 
Israel, and the Levites, and if there were any 
of the multitude that were good and righteous 
men, they gathered themselves together to him, 
having left their own cities, that they might 
worship God in Jerusalem; for they were not 
willing to be forced to worship the heifers 
which Jeroboam had made; and they augment- 
ed the kingdom of Rehoboain for three years. 

And after he had married a woman of his own 

kindred, and had by her three children born to 

him, he married also another of his own kin- 
dred, who was daughter of Absalom by Ta- 
mar, whose name was Maachah, and by her he 
had a son, whom he named Abijah. He had 
moreover many other children by other wives; 
but he loved Maachah above them all. Now 
he had eighteen legitimate wives, and thirty 
concubines; and he had born to him twenty 

eight sons and threescore daughters; but he 
appointed Abijah, whom he had by Maachah, 
to be his successor in the kingdom; and intrust- 
ed him already with the treasures, and the 
strongest cities. 

* How much larger and better copy Josephus had in this 
remarkable history of the true prophet of Judea, and his con 
cern with Jeroboam, and with the false prophet of Bethel, 
than our other copies have, is evident at first sight. The pro- 
phet’s very name, Jadon, or as the Constitutions call hima 
Adonias, is wanting in our other copies; and it is there with 
no little absurdity said, that God revealed Jadon,the true pro- 
phet’s death, not to himself, as here, but to the false prophet. 
Whether the particular account of the arguments made use 
of after all, by the false prophet against his own belief, amd 
his own conscience, in order to persuade Jeroboam to per 
severe in his idolatry and wickedness, than which more plaw- 
sible could not be invented, was intimated in Josephus’s copy 


or in some other ancient book, cannot now be determines, 
our other copies say not one word of it. 


214 


2. Now] cannot but think, that the greatness 
of a kisgdom, and its change into prosperity, 
often becomes the occasion of mischief and of 
transgression to men; for when Rehoboam 
gaw this his kingdom so much increased, he 
went out of the right way, and to unrighteous 
and irreligious practices; and he despised the 
worship of God, till the people themselves imi- 
tated his wicked actions; for so it usually hap- 
pens, that the manners of subjects are corrupt- 
ed at the same time with those of their gov- 
ernors, which subjects then lay aside their 
own sober way of living, as a reproof of their 
governors’ intemperate courses, and follow 
their wickedness, as if it were virtue, for it is 
not possible to show that men approve of the 
actions of their kings, unless they do the same 
actions with them. Agreeably whereto it now 
happened to the subjects of Rehoboam; for 
when he was grown impious, and a transgress- 
or himself, they endeavored not to offend him 
by resolving still to be righteous. But God 
sent Shishak, king of Egpyt, to punish them 
for their unjust behavior towards him, concern- 
ing whom Herodotus was mistaken, and appli- 
ed his actions to Sesostris: for this Shishak,* 
in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, 
made an expedition [into Judea] with many ten 
thousand men, for he had one thousand two 
hundred chariots in number that followed him, 
and threescore thousand horsemen, and four 
hundred thousand footmen. These he brought 
with him, and they were the greatest part of 
them Libyans and Ethiopians. Now, therefore, 
when he fell upon the country of the Hebrews, 
he took the strongest cities of Rehoboam’s 
kingdom without fighting; dnd when he had 

ut garrisons in them, he came last of all to 
erusalem. 

3. Now when Rehoboam, and the multitude 
with him, were shut up in Jerusalem by the 
means of the army of Shishak, and when they 
besought God to give them victory and de- 
liverance, they could not persuade God to be 
on their side: but Shemaiah the prophet told 
them, that God threatened to forsake them, as 
they had forsaken his worship. When they 
heard this, they were immediately in a con- 
sternation of mind, and seeing no way of de- 
liverance, they all earnestly set themselves to 
confess that God might justly overlook them, 
since they had been guilty of impiety towards 
him and had let his laws lie in confusion. So 
when God saw them in that disposition, and 
that they acknowledged their sins, he told the 
prophet, that he would not destroy them, but 
that he would however make them servants to 
the Egyptians, that they may learn whether 
tey will suffer less by serving men or God. 
So when Shishak had taken the city without 
fighting, because Rehoboam was afraid, and 
received him into it, yet did not Shishak stand 
to the covérant he had made, but he spoiled 


* Thatthis Shishak was not this same person with the 
famous Sesostris, as some have very lately, in contradiction 
%0 all antiquity, supposed, and that our Josephus did not take 
nim to be the same as they pretend, but that Sesostris, was 
many centuries 64rlier than Shishak, see Authent. Records, 
part ii. p. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





the temple, and emptied the treasures of God 

and those of the king, and carried off innu-— 
merable ten thousands of gold and silver, and 

left nothing at all behind him. He also took 

away the bucklers of gold, and the shields, 

which Solomon the king had made; nay, he 

did not leave the golden quivers which David 

had taken from the king of Zobah, and had de- 

dicated to God. And when he had thus done, 

he returned to his own kingdom. Now Hero- 

dotus of Halicarnassus mentions this expedi- 

tion, having only mistaken the king’s name; 
and [in saying that] he made war upon many 

other nations also, and brought Syria of Pales- 

tine into subjection, and took the men that 

were therein prisoners without fighting. Now 

it is manifest, that he intended to declare that 

o«r nation was subdued by him: for he saith, 

that “he left behind him pillars in the land of 

those that delivered themselves up to him 
without fighting, and engraved upon them the 
secret parts of women.” Now our king Re- 
hoboam delivered up our city without fighting. 
He says withall,* that “the Ethiopians learned 

to circumcise their privy parts from the Egyp- 
tians, with this addition, that the Phoenicians 
and Syrians that live in Palestine confess that 
they learned it of the Egyptians.” Yet it is 
evident that no other of the Syrians that live in 
Palestine besides us alone are circumcised; but 
as to such matters, let every one speak what is 
agreeable to his own opinion. 

4. When Shishak was gone away, king Re- 
hoboam made bucklers and shields of brass, 
instead of those of gold, and delivered the 
same number of them to the keepers of the 
king’s palace: so, instead of warlike expedi- 
tions, and that glory which results from those 
public actions, he reigned in great quietness, — 
though not without fear, as being always an 
enemy to Jeroboam, and he died when he had 
lived fifty-seven years, and reigned seventeen. — 
He was in his disposition a proud and a foolish — 
man, and lost [part of his] dominions by not — 
hearkening to his father’s friends. He was bu- — 
ried in Jerusalem, in the sepulchres of the — 
kings; and his son Abijah succeeded him in— 
the kingdom, and this in the eighteenth year — 
of Jeroboam’s reign over the ten tribes: and — 
this was the conclusion of these affairs. It : 
must be now our business to relate the affairs — 


* Herodotus, as here quoted by Josephus, and as this pas- ; 
sage still stands in his present copies, b. ii. chap. civ. affirms, — 
that “the Pheenicians and Syrians in Palestine [which last ¢ 
are generally supposed to denote the Jews] owned their re- } 
ceiving circumcision from the Egyptians;?? whereas it is Z 
abundantly evident, that the Jews received their circumci- 
sion from the patriarch Abraham, Gen. xvii. 9—14, John vi, © 
22,23, as I conclude the Egyptian priests themselves did also. — 
It is not, therefore, very unlikely that Herodotus, because the _ 
Jews had lived long in Egypt, and came out of it cireumcis- 
ed, did thereupon think they had learned that circumcision - 
in Egypt, and had itnot before. Manctho, the famous Egypt-— 
ian chronologer and historian, who knew the history of hie 
own country inuch better than Herodotus, compiains fre- 
quently of his mistakes about their affairs, as does Josephus 
more than once in this chapter; nor indeed does Herodotus 
seem at all acquainted with the affairs of the Jews; for as 
he never names them, so little or nothing of what he says 
about them, their country, or maritime cities, two of which 
he alone mentions, Cadytus and Jenysus, proves true; nor 
indeed do there appear to have ever been any such cities op 
their coast, ; a 












BOOK VIIL—CHAPTER XI. 


of Jeroboam, and how ne ended his life, for 
he ceased not, nor rested to be injurious to 
God, but every day raised up altars upon high 
mountains, and went on making priests out of 
the multitude. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Concerning the death of a son of Jeroboam. 
How Jeroboam was beaten by Abyah, who died 
a little afterward, and was succeeded in has 
kingdom by Asa. And also how, after the 
death 3f Jeroboam, Baasha destroyed his son 
Nadab, and all the house of Jerobqam. 


§ 1. However, God was in no long time 
ready to return Jeroboam’s wicked actions, and 
_ the punishment they deserved, upon his own 
head, and upon the heads of all his house. And 
whereas a son of his lay sick at tnat time, who 
was called Abijah, he enjoined his wife to lay 
aside her robes, and to take the garments be- 
longing to a private person, and to go to Ahi- 
jah the prophet, for that he was a wonderful 
man in fortelling futurities, it having been he 
who “told me that I should be king.” He also 
enjoined her when she came to him, to inquire. 
toncerning the child, as if she were a strang- 
er, whether he should escape this distemper. 
So she did as her husband bade her, and chang- 
ed her habit, and came to the city Shiloh, for 
there did Ahijah live: and as she was going 
into his house, his eyes being then dim with 
age, God appeared to him, and informed him 
of two things, that the wife of Jeroboam was 
come to him; and what answer he should make 
to her inquiry. Accordingly, as the woman was 
coming into the house like a private person, 
and a stranger, he cried out, “Come in, O thou 
wife of Jeroboam! Why concealest thou thy- 
self? Thou art not concealed from God, who 
hath appeared to me, and informed me that 
thou wast coming, and hath given me in com- 
mand what I shall say to thee.” So he said, 
“That she should go away to her husband, and 
speak to him thus: since I made thee a great 
man when thou wast little, or rather wast noth- 
ing, and rent the kingdom from the house of 
David, and gave it to thee,and thou hast been 
unmindful of these benefits, hast left off my 
worship, hast made thee molten gods and 
honored them; I will in like manner cast thee 
down again, and will destroy all thy house, and 
make them food for the dogs and the fowls; for 
a certain king is rising up, by appointment, over 
all this people, who shall leave none of the 
family of Jeroboam remaining. 'The multi- 
tude also shall themselves partake of the same 

nishment, and shall be cast out of this good 

nd, and shall be scattered into the places be- 
yond Euphrates, because they followed the 
wicked practices of their king, and have wor- 
_ shipped the gods that he made, and forsaken my 
sacrifices. But dothou, O woman, make haste 
- back to thy husband, and tell him this message; 
but thou shalt then find thy son dead, for as 
_ thou enterest the city he shall depart this life: 
_ yet shall he be buried with the lamentation of 


212 


ness of Jeroboam’s family.” When the pro 
phet had foretold these events, the woman went 
hastily away with a disordered mind, and great 
ly grieved at the death of the forenamed child. 
so she was in lamentation as she went along 
the road, and mourned for the death of her 
son, that wast justathand. She was indeed in 
a miserable condition at the unavoidable misery 
of his death, and went apace, but in circum- 
stances very unfortunate, because of her son; 
for the greater haste she made, she would the 
sooner see her son dead, yet was she forced to 
make such haste on account of her husband. 
Accordingly, when she was come back, she 
found that the child had given up the ghost, as 
the prophet had said; and she related all the 
circumstances to the king. 

2. Yet did not Jeroboam lay any of these 
things to heart, but he brought together a very 
numerous army, and made a warlike expedition 
againgst Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, who had 
succeeded his father in the kingdom of the 
two tribes, for he despised him because of his 
age. But when he heard of the expedition of 
Jeroboam, he was not affrighted at it, but prov- 
ed of a courageous temper of mind, superior 
both to his youth, and to the hopes of his ene- 
my; so he chose him an army out of the two 
tribes, and met Jeroboam at a place called 
mount Zemaraim, and pitched his camp near 
the other, and prepared every thing necessary 
for the fight. His. army consisted of four hun- 
dred thousand, but the army of Jeroboam was 
double to it. Now, as the armies stood in ar- 
ray, ready for action and dangers, and were 
just going to fight, Abijah stood upon an eleva- 
ted place, and beckoning with his hand, he de- 
sired the multitude and Jeroboam himself to 
hear first with silence what he had to say. 
And when silence was made, he began to speak, 
and told them, “God had consented that David 
and his posterity should be their rulers for al! 
tine to come, and this you yourselves are not 
unacquainted with; but I cannot but wonder 
how you should forsake my father, and join 
yourselves to his servant Jeroboam, and are 
now here with him to fight against those, who, 
by God’s own determination, are to reign, and 
to deprive them of that dominion which they 
have still retained; for as to the greater part of 
it, Jeroboam is unjustly in possession of it. 
However, I do not suppose he will enjoy it any 
longer, but when he hath suffered that punish- 
ment which God thinks due to him for what is 
past, he will leave off the transgressions he hath 
been guilty of, and the injuries he hath offered 
tu him, and which he hath still continued to of- 
fer, and hath persuaded you to do the same 
yet when you were not any farther unjustly 
treated by my father than that he did not speak 
to you so as to please you, and this only in 
compliance with the advice of wicked men, 
you in anger forsook him, as you pretended, 
but in reality you withdrew yourselves from 
God, and from his laws, although it had been 
right for you to have forgiven a man that was 


all the multitude, and honored with a general | young in age, and not used to govern people 
_ mourning, for he is the only person of good-| not only some disagreeable words, but if bis 


gst =" ‘sg 
* 


#16 ANTIQUITIES 


‘outh and his unskilfulness in affairs had lea 
Bie into some unfortunate actions, and that for 
the sake of his father Solomon, and the bene- 
fits you received from him, for men ought to 
excuse tlie sins of posterity on account of the 
benefactions or parents: but you considered 
nothing of all this then, neither do you consid- 
er it now, but come with so great an army 
against us. And what is it you depend upon 
for victory? is it upon the golden heifers, and 
the altars that you have on high places, which 
are demonstrations of your impiety, and not of 
religious worship? Or is it the exceeding mul- 
titude of your army which gives you such 
good hopes? Yet certainly there is no strength 
et allin an army of many ten thousands, when 
the war is unjust: for we ought to place our 
surest hopes of succees aguinst our enemies in 
righteousness alone, and in piety towards God 
which hope we justly have, since we have kept 
the laws from the beginning, and have wor- 
shipped our own God, who was not made by 
bands out of corruptible matter, nor was he 
formed by a wicked king, in order to deceive 
the multitude; but who is his own workman- 
ship,* and the beginning and end of all things. 
I, therefore, give you counsel even now to re- 
pent, and to take better advice, and to leave off 
the prosecution of the war; and to call to mind 
the laws of your country, and to reflect what 
it hath been that hath advanced you to so hap- 
py a state as you are now in.” 

3. This was the speech which Abijah made 
to the multitude. But while he was still speak- 
ing, Jeroboam sent some of his soldiers pri- 
vately to encompass Abijah round about, on 
certain parts of the camp that were not taken 
notice of; and when he was thus within the 
compass of the enemy, his army was affrighted 
and their courage failed them; but Abijah er 
couraged them, and exhorted them to place 
their hopes on God, for that he was not en- 
compassed by the enemy. So they all at once 
implored the divine assistance, while the priests 
sounded with the trumpet, and they made a 
shout, and fell upon their enemies, and God 
broke the courage and cast down the force of 
their enemies, and made Abijah’s army supe- 
rior to them: for God vouchsafed to grant them 
a wonderful and very famous victory: and such 
a slaughter was now made of Jeroboam’s 
army, as is never recorded to have happened 
in any other war,t} whether it were of the 
Greeks, or of the Barbarians, for they over- 
threw [and slew] five hundred thousand of 
their enemies, and they took their strongest 
cities by force, and spoiled them; and besides 
those, they did the same to Bethel and her 
towns, and Jeshanah and her towns. And 
after tais defeat Jeroboam never recovered 
himself during the life of Abijah, who yet did 

* This 18 a strange expression in Josephus, that God is his 
own workmanship, or that he made himself, edntrary to com- 
mon sense, and to Catholic Christianity. Perhaps he only 
means that he was made by none, but was unoriginated. 

t By this terrible and perfectly unparalleled slaughter of 
fave hundred thousand men of the newly idolatrous and re- 
bellious ten tribes, God’s high displeasure and indignation 


against that idolatry and rebellion fully appeared; the re- 
wainder were therehy scriously cautioned not to versist i 


kindred that died in the city were torn to pieces 
and devoured by dogs, and that others of them - 
that died in the fields were torn and devoured 
by the fowls. So the house of Jeroboam suf- 
fered the just punishment of his impiety and 
of ‘*s wicked actions. 


CHAPTER XII. . 

How Zerah, king of the Ethiopians, was beaten 
by Asa; and how Asa, upon Baasha’s maki 
war against him, invited the king of the Da- 
mascens to assist him; and how, on the destrue- 
tion of the house of Baasha, Omri got the 
‘“ingdom, as did his son Ahab after him. 


OF THE JEWS. nt 
not long survive, for he reigned but three years, 
and was buried in Jerusalem, in the seplchres 
of his forefathers. He left behird him twenty- 
two sons and sixteen daughters; and he had 
these children by fourteen wives; and Asa his 
son succeeded to the kingdom; and the young 
man’s mother was Micaiah. Under his rei 
the country of the Israelites enjoyed peace for 
ten years. | 
4, And so far corcerning Abijah, the son of 
Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, as his history 
hath come down to us: but Jeroboam, the kin 
of the ten tribes, died when he had ened 
them two-and-twenty years; whose son Nadab 
succeeded him, in the second year of the reign 
of Asa. Now Jeroboam’s son governed two 
years, and resembled his father in impiety and 
wickedness. In these two years he made an 
expedition against Gibbethon, a city of the 
Philistines, and continued the siege in order to 
take it; but he was conspired against while he 
was there, by a friend of his, whose name was 
Baasha, the son of Ahijah, and was slain; 
which Baasha took the kingdom after the 
other’s death, and destroyed the whole house 
of Jeroboam. It also came to pass, according 
as God had foretold, that some of Jeroboam’s 
$1. Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was 
of an excellent character, and had a regard to 
God, and neither did nor designed any thing 
‘but what had relation to the observation of the 
Jaws. He made a reformation of his kingdom 
and cut off whatsoever was wicked therein, 
and purified it from every impurity. Now he 
| had an army of chosen men that were armed 
with targets and spears; out of the tribe of 
Judah three hundred thousand; and out of the 
tribe of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew 
‘bows, two hundred and fifty thousand. But 
| . d 
| when he had already reigned ten years, Zerah 
king of Ethiopia made an expedition against 
‘him,* with a great army of nine hundred thou- 
sand footmen, and one hundred thousand horse- 
men, and three hundred chariots, and came as 
| far as Mareshah, a city that belonged to the 
tribe of Judah. Now when Zerah had 
so far with his own army, Asa met him, and 
them, and a kind of balance or equilibrium was made be- 
tween the ten and the two tribes for the time tocome; whi — 
otherwise the perpetually idolatrous and rebellious ten tribes 
would naturally have been two powerful for the two tribes, 
which were prety frequently free both from 3uch idolatry and 
rebellion. or is there any reason to doutt of the truth of 
this prodigious number slain upon so signa. an occasion. 
* The reader is to remember that Cusn is not Ethiopia, bat 
‘wabia. See Bochart, b. iv. chap. ii. ‘ 








1" 


BUOK VIIL—CHAPTER XII. 


put his army in array over against him, in a 
valley called Zephathah, not far from the city; 
and when he saw the multitude of the Ethio- 
“epipe he cried out, and besought God to give 

im the victory, and that he might kill many 
ten thousands of the enemy: “For,” said he, 
*T depend on nothing else but that assistance 
which I expect from thee, which is able to 
make the fewer superior to the more numerous, 
and the weaker to the stronger; and thence it 
is alone that I venture to meet Zerah, and 
fight him.” 

2. While Asa was saying this, God gave him 
a signal of victory, and joining battle cheer- 
fully on account of what God had foretold 


about it, heslew a great many of the Ethio- 


pians,and when he had put them to flight, he 
pursued them to the country of Gerar; and 
when they left off killing their enemies, they 
betook themselves to spoiling them, (for the city 
Gerar was already taken,) and to spoiling their 
~amp, so that they carried off much gold, and 
much silver, and a great deal of fone prey, 
and camels, and great cattle, and flocks of sheep. 


Accordingly, when Asa and his army had _ ob- 


tained such a victory, and such wealth from 
God, they returned to Jerusalem. Now as they 
were coming, a prophet, whose name was Aza- 
riah, met them on the road, and bade them stop 
their journey a little; and began to say to them 
thus: that “The reason why they had obtain- 
ei this victory from God was this, that they 
nad shown themselves righteous and religious 
men, and had done every thing according to 
the will of God; that, therefore, he said, if they 
persevered therein, God would grant that they 
s}:ould always overcome their enemies, and 
live happily: but that if they left off his wor- 
ship,.all things shall fall out on the contrary; 
and a time should come,* wherein no true pro- 
phet shall be left in your whole multitude, nor 
a priest who shall deliver you atrue answer 
from the oracle; but your cities shall be over- 
thrown, and your nation scattered over the 
whole earth, and live the life of strangers 
end wanderers.” So he advised them, while 
they had time, to be good, and not to deprive 
themselves of the favor of God. When the 


king and the people heard this they rejoiced: 


and all in common, and every one in particu- 
lar, took great care to behave themselves righte- 
ously. The king also sent some to take care 
that those in the country should observe the 
laws also. 

3. And this was the state of Asa, king of the 
two tribes. I now return to Baasha, the king 
of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Na- 
dab, the son of Jeroboam, and retained the go- 


vernment. He dwelt in the city Tirzah, hav- 


ing made that his habitation, and reigned twen- 
ty-four years. He became more wicked and 
mnpious than Jeroboam or his son. He did a 


great deal of mischief to the multitude, and 


‘Was injurious to Ged, who sent the prophet 


__*Here is avery great error in our Hebrew copy in this 


Place, 2 Chron. xvi. 3—6, as applying what follows to times 


_ past, and not to times future; whence thai text is quite mia- 


: 


_ Spplied by sir Isaac Newton. 
ay 28 


Uy) 


vy. 


217 


Jehu and told him beforehand, that “his whole 
family should be destroyed, and tha. ae would 
bring the same miseries on his house which had 
brought that of Jeroboam to ruin: because, 
when he had been made king by him, he had 
not requited his kindness by governing the 
inultitude righteously and religiously; which 
things, in the first place, tended to their own 
liappiness, and in the next place were pleasing 
to God; that he had imitated this very wicked 
king Jeroboam: and although that man’s soul 
had perished, yet did he express to the last his 
wickedness; and he said, that he should there- 
fore justly experience the like calamity with 
him, since he had been guilty of the like wick- 
edness.” But Baasha, though he heard before- 
hand what miseries would befall him and_ his 
whole family for their insolent behavior, yet did 
not he leave off his wicked practices for the time 
to come, nor did he care to appear to be other 
than worse and worse till he died; nor did he 
then repent of his past actions, nor endeavor te 
obtain pardon of God for them, but did as those 
do who have rewards proposed to them when 
they have once in earnest set about their work, 
they do not leave off their labors, for thus did 
Baasha, when the prophet foretold to him what 
would come to pass, grow worse, as if what 
were threatened, the perdition of his family and 
the destruction of his house,(which are really 
among the greatest of evils,) were good things; 
and as if he were a combatant for wickedness, 
he every day took more and more pains for it; 
and at last he took his army, and assaulted a cer- 
tain considerable city called Ramah, which 
was forty furlongs distant from Jerusalem; and 
when he had taken it, he fortified it, having 
determined beforehand to leave a garrison in it, 
that they might thence make excursions and 
do mischief to the kingdon of Asa. 

4. Whereupon Asa was afraid of the at- 
tempts the enemy might make upon him, and 
considering with himself how many mischiefs 
this army that was left in Ramah might do to 
the country over which he reigned, he sent 
ambassadors to the king of the Damascens, with 
gold and silver, desiring his assistance, and pu! 
ting him in mind that we have had a friend 
ship together from the times of our forefathers 
So he gladly received the sum of money, and 
made a league with him, and broke the frien? 
ship he had with Baasha, and sent the ev. 
manders of his own forces into the cities that 
were under Baasha’s dominion, and ordered 
them to do them mischief. So they went and 
burnt some of them, and spoiled others, Ijon, 
and Dan, and Abelmain,* and many others, 


* This Abelmain, or, in Josephus’s copy, Abellane, that be- 
longed to the land of Israel, and bordered on the country @« 
Damascus, is supposed both by Hudson and Spanheim to be 
the same with Abel or Abila, whence came Abilene. This 
may be that city so denominated from Abel the righteous, 
there buried, concerning the shedding of whose blood within 
the compass of the land of Israel, 1 understand our Savior’s 
words about the fatal war and overthrow of Judea by Titus 
and his Roman army, “That upon you may come all the 
righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righte- 
ous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom 
ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto 
yon, all these things shall come upon this generation.” Matt. 
xxiil. 35, 36, Luke xi. 15. 


tis 


Now when the king of Israel heard this, he 
teft off building and fortifying Ramah, and re- 
turned presently to assist his own people un- 
der the distresses they were in; but Asa made 
use of the materials that were prepared for 
building that city, for building in the same 
place two strong cities, the one of which was 
called Gebah, and the other Mizpah; so that 
after this Baasha had no leisure to make expe- 
ditions against Asa, for he was prevented by 
death, and was buried in the city Tirzah; and 
Elah his son took the kingdom, who, when he 
had reigned two years, died, being treacher- 
ously slain by Zimri, the captain of half his 
army; for when he was at Arza, his steward’s 
aouse, he persuaded some of the horsemen 
that were under him to assault Elah, and by 
that means he slew him, when he was without 
his armed men and his captains, for they were 
all busied in the siege of Gibbethon, a city of 
the Philistines. 

5. When Zimri, the captain of the army, 
had killed Elah, he took the kingdom himself, 
and according to Jehu’s prophecy, slew all the 
house of Baasha; for it came to pass that Baa- 
sha’s house utterly perished, on account of his 
impiety, in the same manner as we have al- 
ready described the destruction of the house of 
Jeroboam; but the army that was besieging 
Gibbethon, when they heard what had befallen 
the king, and that when Zimri had killed him, 
he had gained the kingdom, they made Omri, 
their general, king, who drew off his army 
from Gibbethon, and came to Tirzah where 
the royal palace was, and assaulted the city, 
and took it by force. But when Zimri saw 
that the city had none to defend it, he fled into 
the inmost part of the palace, and set it on fire, 
and burnt himself with it, when he had reigned 
only seven days. Upon which the people of 
Israel were presently divided, and part of them 
would have Tibni to be king, and part Omri; 
but when those that were for Omri’s ruling 
had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over all the 
multitude. Now it was in the thirtieth year of 
the reign of Asa that Omri reigned, (for twelve 
years,) six of these years he reigned in the city 
of Tirzah, and the rest in the city called Se- 
mareon, but named by the Greeks Samaria; 
but he himself called it Semareon, from Se- 
mer, who sold him the mountain whereon 
he built it. Now Omri was noway different 
from those kings that reigned before him, but 
that he grew worse than they; for they all 
sought how they might turn the people away 
from God, by their daily wicked practices; and 
on that account it was that God made one of 
them to be slain by another, and that no one 
person of their families should remain. This 
Omri also died at Samaria: and Ahab his son 
succeeded him. 

6. Now by these events we may learn what 
concern God hath for the affairs of mankind, 
and how he loves good men, and _ hates the 
wicked, and destroys them root and branch: 
for many of these kings of Israel, they and 
their families, were miserably destroyed and 
taken away one by another, in a short time, for 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


their transgression and wickedness; put Ase 
who was king of Jerusalem, and of the twe 
tribes, attained, by God’s blessing, a long and 
blessed old age, for his piety and righteousness, 
and died happily, when he had reigned forty 
and one years: and when he was dead, his son 
Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the government. 
He was born of Asa’s wife Azubah. And all 
men allowed that he followed the works of 
David his forefather, and this both in courage 
and piety; but we are not obliged now to 
speak any more of the affairs of this king. 


CHAPTER XIIL 


How Ahab, when he had taken Jezebel to wife, 
became more wicked than all the kings that had 
been before him. Of the actions of the pro- 
phet Elijah; and what befell Naboth. 


§ 1. Now Ahab, the king of Israel, dwelt in 
Samaria, and held the government for twenty- 
two yéars; and made no alteration in the con- 
duct of the kings that were his predecessors, 
but only in such things as were of his own in- 
vention for the worse, and in his most gross 
wickedness. He imitated them in their wicked 
courses, and in their injurious behavior towards 
God, and more especially he imitated the trans- 
gression of Jeroboam; for he worshipped the 
heifers that he had made; and he contrived 
other absurd objects of worship besides those 
heifers: he also took to wife the daughter of 
Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, 


whose name was Jezebel, of whom he learned © 
to worship her own gods. This woman was — 


active and bold, and fell into so great a degree 


of impurity and madness, that she built a tem- — 
ple to the God of the Tyrians, which they call 


Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts of trees; 


# 
: 


she also appointed priests and false prophets to _ 


this god. The king also himself had many 
such about him, and so exceeded in madness 
and wickedness all [the kings] that went be- 
fore him. | 


i 


in Spey 


2. There was now a prophet of God Al 
mighty, of Thesbon, a country in Gilead, that — 
came to Ahab, and said to him, that “God fore- 4 


told he would not send rain nor dew in those — 
years upon the country but when he should 


an oath, he departed into the southern parts, 


appear.” And when he had confirmed this a 


and made his abode by a brook, out of which - 
he had water to drink; for as for his food, ravens” 
brought it to him every day: but when that 
river was dried up for want of rain, he came 
to Zarephath, a city not far from Sidon and~ 
Tyre, for it lay between them, and this at the 
command of God, for [God told him] that he 
should there find a woman who was a widow — 
that should give him sustenance: so when he 
was not far off the city, he saw a woman that 
labored with her own hands gathering of sticks; 
so God informed him that this was the woman 
who was to give him sustenance: so he came 
and saluted her, and desired her to bring hink 

some water to drink; but as she was going se 
to do, he called to her, and would have her 
bring him a loaf of bread also: whereupon she 
affirmed on oath that she had at home nothing 















aad 


. 


BOOK VII—CHAPTER XM1. 


more than one handful of meal and a little oil, 
and that she was going to gather some sticks, 
that she might knead it, and make bread for 
herself and her son; after which, she said, they 
must perish, and be consumed by the famine, 
for they had nothing for themselves any longer. 
Hereupon, he said, “Go on with good courage, 
and hope for better things; and first of all make 
me 4 litue cake, and bring it to me, for I fore- 
tell to thee that this vessel of meal and this 
gruse of oil shall not fail, until God send rain.” 
When the prophet had said this, she came to 
im, and made him the beforenamed cake; of 
which she had part for herself, and gave the 
rest to ner son, and to the prophet also; nor did 
any thing of this fail until the drought ceased. 
Now Menander mentions this drought in his 
account of the acts of Ethbaal, king of the 
Tyrians; where he says thus: “Under him there 
was a want of rain from the month Hyperbere- 
teeus till the month Hyperbereteeus of the year 
following; but when he made supplications, 
there came great thunders. This Ethbaal built 
the city of Botrys in Pheenicia, and the city of 
Auza in Libya.” By these words he designed 
this want of rain that was in the days of Ahab, 
for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned 
over the Tyrians, as Menander informs us. 

3. Now this woman, of whom we spoke be- 
fore, that sustained the prophet, when her son 
was fallen into a distemper till he gave up the 
ghost, and appeared to be dead, came to the 
pronnes weeping, and beating her breast with 

er hands, and sending out such expressions 
as her passions dictated to her, and complained 
to him, that he had come to her to reproach 
her for her sins, and that on this account it was 
that her son was dead. But he bade her be 
of good cheer, and deliver her son to him, for 
that he would deliver him again to her alive. 
So when she had delivered her son up to him, 
he carried him into an upper room, where he 
himself lodged, and laid him down upon the 
bed, and cried unto God, and said, that “God 


hac not done well in rewarding the woman 


wlio had entertained him, and sustained him, 
by taking away her son; and he prayed that 
he would send again the soul of the child into 
him, and bring him to life again.” Accord- 
ingly, God took pity on the mother, and was 
willing to gratify the prophet, that he might 
not seem to have come tv her to do her a mis- 
chief; and the child, beyond all expectation, 
came to life again. So tne mother returned 
the prophet thanks, and said she was then 
Beans satisfied that God did converse with 


4, After a little while, Elijah came to king 
Ahab,* according to God’s will, to inform him 
that rain was coming. Now the famine had 
seized upon the whole country, and there was 

* Josephus in his present copies, says, that a little while af- 


ter the recovery of the widow’s son of Sarepta, God sent 
rain upon the earth: whereas, in our other copies, it is after 


“many days, 1 Kings xviii. 1. Several years are also intimated 


Pi 
i 


; 


an 


there, and in Josephus, sect. 2, as belonging to this drought 
famine; nay, we have the express mention of the third 

7, which I suppose was reckoned from the recovery of 
@ wide w’s son, and the ceasing of this drought in Pheeni- 


_ @ia, which ‘as Menander informs us here) lasted« + whole 


219 
a great want of what was necessary“ for suste- 
nance; insomuch, that it was not ly men’ 
that wanted it, but the earth itself ao, which 
did not produce enough for the horses and the 
other beasts, of what was useful for them to 
feed on, by reason of the drought. So the 
king called for Obadiah, who was steward over 
his cattle, and said to him, “That he would 
have him go to the fountains of water, and to 
the brooks, that if any herbs could be found 
for them, they might mow it down, and reserve 
it for the beasts.” And when he had sent per 
sons all over the habitable earth,* to discover 
the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, 
he bade Obadiah accompany him: so it was 
resolved they should make a progress, and di- 
vide the ways between them, and Obadiah took 
one road and the king another. Now it hap- 
pened, that the same time when queen Jezebel 
slew the prophets, that this Obadiah had _ hid- 
den a hundred prophets, and had fed them 
with nothing but bread and water. But when 
Obadiah was alone and absent from the king, 
the prophet Elijah met him: and Obadiah 
asked- him who he was; and when he had 
learned it from him, he worshipped him. Eli- 
jah then bade him go to the king, and “tell 
him that I am here ready to wait on him;” put 
Obadiah replied, “What evil have I done to 
thee, that thou sendest me to one who seeke th 
to kill thee, and hath sought over all the ea1th 
for thee? Or, was he so ignorant as not to 
know that the king had left no place untoucn- 
ed unto which he had not sent persons to bring 
him back, in order, if they could take him, to 
have him put to death?” For he told him he 
was afraid lest God should appear to him again, 
and he should go away into another place, and 
that when the king should send him for Eli- 
jah, and he should miss of him, and not be 
able to find him anywhere upon earth, he 
should be put to death. He desired him, theve- 
fore, to take care of his preservation; and told 
him how diligently he had provided for these 
of his own profession, and had saved a hun- 
dred prophets, when Jezebel slew the rest of 
them, and had kept them concealed, and that 
they had been sustained by him. But Elijah 
bade him fear nothing, but go to the king; and 
he assured him upon oath, that he would cer- 
tainly show himself to Ahab that very day. 

5. So when Obadiah had informed the king 
that Elijah was there, Ahab met him, and ask- 
ed him, in anger, “If he were the man that af 
flicted the people of the Hebrews, and was the 
occasion of the drought they lay under. But 
Elijah, without any flattery, said, “That he was 
himself the man, he and his house, which had 
brought such sad afflictions upon them, and 
that by introducing strange gods into their 
country, and worshipping them, and by leay- 
year, And both our Savior and St. James affirm, that this 
drought lasted in all three years and six months, as their co 
pies of the Old Testament then informed them, Luke iv. 2% 
James v. 17. 

* Josephus here seems to meen, that this drought affecteg 
all the habitable earth, and pres:rdly all the earth, as our Sa 
vior says it was upon all the earth, Luke iv. 25. They whe 


restrain these expressions to the land of Judea alone, gr 
without sufficient authority or exampler. 


220 


ing uneir own, who was the only true God, and 
baving no manner of regard to him.” How- 
ever, he bade him go his way, and gather to- 
gether all the people to him, to mount Carmel, 
with his-own prophets, and those of his wife, 
telling him how many there were of them, as 
also the prophets of the groves, about four hun- 
dred in number. And as all the men whom 
Ahab sent for, ran away tothe forenamed moun- 


tain, the prophet Elijah stood in the midst of 


them, and said, “How long will you live thus 
im uncertainty of mind and opinion?” He also 
exhorted them, that in case they esteemed their 
ewn country God to be the true and only God, 
they would follow him and his commandments; 
but in case they esteemed him to be nothing, 
but had an opinion of the strange gods, and 
that they ought to worship them, his counsel 
was, that they should follow them. And when 
the multitude made no answer to what he said, 


Elijah desired, that fora trial of the power of 


the strange gods, and of their own God, he, 
who was his only prophet, while they had four 
hundred, might take a heifer, and kill it as a 
sacrifice, and lay it upon pieces of wood, and 
net kindle any fire, and that they should do the 
sa.ne things, and call upon their own gods to 
se! the wood on fire, for if that were done, they 
wuld thence learn the nature of the trve God. 
Tisis proposal pleased the people. So Elijah 
bsile the prophets to choose out a heifer first, 
wii kill it, and to call on their gods; but when 
tliere appeared no effect of the prayer or invo- 
¢ition of the prophets upon their sacrifice, Eli- 
jsh derided them, and bade them call upon 
their gods with a loud voice, for they might 
either be on a journey, or asleep; and when 
tliese prophets had done so from morning till 
00n, and cut themselves with swords and 
luncets,* according to the customs of their coun- 
ty, and he was about to offer his sacrifice, he 
tede [the prophets] go away, but bade [the peo- 
ye] come near and observe what he did, lest 
17 Should privately hide fire among the pieces 
of wood. Soupon the approach of the mul- 
tide, he took twelve stones, one for each 
tribe of the people of the Hebrews, and built 
an altar with them, and dug a very deep trench; 
and when he had laid the pieces of wood upon 
tie altar, and upon them, had laid the pieces 
of the sacrifices, he ordered them to fill four 
barrels with the water of the fountain, and to 
pour it upon the altar, till it ran over it, and till 
the trench was filled with the water poured 
into it. When he had done this, he began to 
pray to God, and to invocate him to make mani- 
fest his power to a people that had already been 
in an error along time: upon which words a 
fire came on a sudden from heaven in the sight 
ef the multitude, and fell upon the altar, and 
consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was 
set on fire, and the place was become dry. 
6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they 
fell down upon the ground and worshipped one 


*Mr. Spanheim takes notice here, that in the worship of 
Mithra (the god of the Persians,) the priests cut themselves 
im the same manner as did these priests in their invocation 
w Baal (the god of the Phoenicians.) 


of 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


God, and called him the great and the only true 
God, but they called the others mere names, 
framed by the evil and vile opinions of men, 
So they caught their prophets, and, at the 
command of Elijah, slew them. Elijah alse 
said to the king, that he should go to dinner 
without any further concern, for that in a little 
time he would see God send them rain. Ac- 
cordingly, Ahab went his way: but Elijah went 
up into the highest top of mount Carmel, and 
sat down upon the ground, and leaned his head 
upon his knees, and bade his servant go up to 
a certain elevated place, and look towards the 
sea, and when he should see a cloud rising any- 
where, he should give him notice of it, for till 
that time the air had been clear. When the 
servant had gone up, and had said many times 
that he saw nothing, at the seventh time of his 
going up, he said that he saw a small black 
thing in the sky, not larger than a man’s foot. 
When Elijah heard that, he sent to Ahab, and 
desired him to go away to the city before the 
rain came down. So he came to the city Jex 
reel; and in a little time the air wasall obscur- 
ed, and covered with clouds, and a vehement 
storm of wind came upon the earth, and with 
ita great deal of rain; and the prophet was 
under a divine fury, and ran along with the 
king's chariot unto Jezreel, a city of Izar [Isa- 
char.]* 

7. When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, under- 
stood what signs Elijah had wrought, and how 
he had slain her prophets, she was angry, and 
sent messengers to him, and by them theaten- 
ed to kill him, as he had.destroyed her pro- 
phets. At this Elijah was affrighted, and fled 
to the city called Beersheba, which is situate 
at the utmost limits of the country belongin 
to the tribe of Judah, towards the land of 
Edom; and there he left his servant, and went 
away into the desert. He prayed also that he 
might die, for that he was not better than his 
fathers, nor need he be very desirous to live, 
when they were dead: and he lay and slept under 
a certain tree; and when somebody awaked him, 
and he wasrisen up, he found food set by him, 
and water; so when he had eaten and recover- 
ed his strength by that his food, he came to 
that mountain which is called Sinai, where it 
is related that Moses received his laws from 
God; and finding there a certain hollow cave, 
he entered into it, and continued to make his 
abode in it. But when a certian voice came te 
him, but from whence he knew not and asked 
him, “Why he was come thither, and had left 
the city?” he said, that “because he had slain 
the prophets of the foreign gods, and had per- 
suaded the people that he alone whom the 
had worshipped from the beginning was G 
he was sought for by the king’s wife to be 
punished for so doing.” And when he had — 
heard another voice, telling him that he should 
come out the next day into the open air, and — 

* For Izar we may here read [with Cocceius] Isachar, 1. @ i 
of the tribe of Isachar, for to that tribe did Jezreel belong: i 
and presently at the beginning of sect. 8, as a.so ch. xv. sect. _ 
4, we may read for Izar, with one MS. fergie! Mes the 


Seri we Jazreel; for that was the city meant in the histery — 
aboth. ‘ 
ra] 


BOOK VII.—CHAPTER XIV@ 


should thereby know what he was to do, he 
came out of the cave the next day according- 
ly, when he both heard an earthquake, and 
saw the bright splendor of a fire; and after a 
silence made, a divine noise exhorted him not 
to be disturbed with the circumstances he was 
in, for that none of his enemies should have 
ower over him. The voice also commanded 
im to, return home, and to ordain Jehu, the 
gon of Nimshi, to be king over their own 
multitude; and Hazael of Damascus, to be 
over the Syrians; and Elisha, of the city cf 
Abel, to be a prophet in his stead; and that of 
he impious multitude, some should be slain by 
Hazael, and others by Jehu. So Elijah, upon 
hearing this charge, returned into the land of 
the Hebrews. And when he found Elisha, the 
son of Shaphat, ploughing, and certain others 
with him, driving twelve yoke of oxen, he 
eame to him and cast his own garments upon 
him: upon which Elisha began to prophecy 
presently, and leaving his oxen, he followed 
Elijah. And when he desired leave to salute 
his parents, Elijah gave him leave so to do: 
and when he had taken his leave of them, he 
followed him, and became the disciple and the 
servant of Elijah, all the days of his life. And 
thus have I despatched the affairs in which this 
prophet was concerned. 

8. Now there was one Naboth of the city 
Izar [Jezreel,] who had a field adjoining to 
that of the king: the king would have persuad- 
ed him to sell him that his field, which lay so 
near to his own lands, at what price he pleas- 
ed, that he might join them together, and make 
them one farm; and if he would not accept of 
money for it, he gave him leave to choose any 
of his other fields in its stead. But Naboth 
said, he would not do so, but would keep the 
possession of that land of his own which he 
had by inheritance from his father. Upon this, 
the king was grieved, as if he had received an 
injury, when he could not get another man’s 
possessions, and he would neither wash him- 
self, nor take any.food: and when Jezebel asked 
him, what it was that troubled him? and why 
he would neither wash himself, nor eat either 
dinner nor supper? he related to her the per- 
verseness of Naboth, and how, when he had 
made use of gentle words to him, and such as 
were beneath the royal authority, he had been 
affronted, and had not obtained what he desir- 
ed. However, she persuaded him not to be 
cast down at this accident, but to leave off his 

ief, and return to the usual care of his body, 

r that she would take care to have Naboth 

nished: and she immediately sent letters to 
the rulers of the Israelites [Jezreelites] in 
Ahab’s name, and commanded them to fast, 

_and to assemble a congregation, and to set Na- 
both at the head of them, because he was of an 
illustrious family, and to have three bold men 
ready to bear witness that he had blasphemed 
God and the king, and then to stone him, and 
slay him in that manner. Accordingly, when 
Naboth had been thus testified against, as the 
queen had written to them, that he had blas- 
phemed against God and Ahab the king, she 


‘ale 
f 
uy 


221 


desired him to take possession of Naboth’s 
vineyard on free cost. So Abab was glad at 
what had been done, and rose up immediately 
from the bed whereon he lay, to go to see Na- 
both’s vineyard; but God had great indignation 
at it, and sent [lijah the prophet to the field of 
Naboth, to speak to Ahab, and to say to him, that 
“he had slain the true owner of that field un- 
justly.” And as soon as he came to him, and 
the king had said, that he might do with him 
what he pleased, (for he thought it a repruach 
to him to be thus caught in his sin,) Elijah said, 
that “in that very place in which the dead body 
of Naboth was eaten by dogs, both his own 
blood and that of his wife should be shed, and 
that all his family should perish, because he 
had been so insolently wicked, and had slain a 
citizen unjustly, and contrary to the laws of 
the country.” Hereupon Ahab began to be 
sorry for the things he had done, and to repent 
of them, and he put on sackcloth, and went 
barefoot, and would not touch any food:* he 
also confessed his sins, and endeavored thus to 
appease God. But God said to the prophet, 
that “while-Ahab was living he would put off 
the punishment of his family, because he re 
pented of those insolent crimes he had been 
guilty of, but that stil] he would fulfil his three. 
ening under Ahab’s son.” Which message tlie 
prophet delivered to the king. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


How Hadad, king of Damascus: and of 
made two expeditions against Ahab, and was 
beaten. 


§ 1. When the affairs of Ahab were thus, at 
that very time the son of Hadad [Benhadail,} 
who was king of the Syrians and of Damas- 
cus, got together an army out of all his coun- 
try, and procured thirty-two kings beyond Eiu- 
phrates to be his auxiliaries: so he made an 
expedition against Ahab; but because Ahal’s 
army was not like that of Benhadad’s, he did 
not set it in array to fight him, but having shut 
up every thing that was in the country, in the 
strongest cities he had, he abode in Samaria 
himself, for the walls about it were very strong, 
and it appeared to be not easily to be taken in 
other respects also. So the king of Syria took 
his army with him, and came to Samaria, and 
placed his army round about the city, and be- 
sieged it. Healso sent a herald to Ahab, aud 
desired he would admit the ambassadors he 
would send him, by whom he would let him 
know his pleasure. So upon the king of 
Israel’s permission for him to send, those am- 
bassadors came, and, by their king’s command, 
spoke thus: that “Abab’s riches, and his chil- 
dren, and his wives, were Benhadad’s, and if 
he would make an agreement, and give him 
leave to take as much of what he had as he 
pleased, he would withdraw his army, ana 
leave off the siege.” Upon this, Ahab bade 


* “The Jews weep to this day, (says Jerome, here cited 
by Reland,) and roll themselves upon sackcloth in ashes, 
barefoot, upon such occasions.’? To which Spanheim adda, 
“that after the same manner Bernice, when her life was m 
danger, stood at the tribu“al of Florus barefoot ” Of tha 
War, b. ii. ch. xv. sect. * rf 


222 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


persons. So when he was informed that the 
king of Syria had betaken himself to feasting 
and repose, he opened the gates, and sent out 
the princes’ sons. Now when the sentinels had 
told Benhadad of it, he sent some to meet them, 
and commanded them, that if these men were 
come out for fighting, they should bind them 
and bring them to him; and that if they came 
out peaceably, they should dothe same. Now 
Ahab had another army ready within the walls, 
but the sons of the princes fell upon the out- 
guard, and slew many of them, and pursued 
the rest of them to the camp, and when the 
king of Israel saw that these had the upper 
hand, he sent out all the rest of his army, which 
falling suddenly upon the Syrians, beat them, 
for they did not think they would have come 
out; on which account it was that they assault- 
ed them when they were naked* and drunk, 
insomuch that they left all their armor behind 
them when they fled out of the camp, and the 
king himself escaped with difficulty, by flying 
away on horseback: but Ahab went a great 
way in pursuit of the Syrians: and when they 
had spoiled their camp, which contained a great 
deal of wealth, and moreover a large quantity 
of gold and silver, he took Benhadad’s chariots 
and horses, and returned to the city; butas the 
prophettold him, he ought to have his army 
ready, because the Syrian king would make ano- 
ther expedition against him the next year, Ahab 
was busy in making provision for it accordingly. 
3. Now Benhadad, when he had saved him- 
self and as much of his army as he could, out of 
the battle, he consulted with his friends how he 
might make another expedition against the Is- 
raelites. Now those friends advised him not to 
fight with them on the hills, because their God 
was potent in such places, and thence it had 
come to pass that they had very lately been 
beaten; but they said, that if they joined battle 
with them in the plain, they should beat them. 
They also gave him this farther advice, to send 
home those kings whom he had brought as his 
auxiliaries, but to retain their‘army, and to set 
captains over it instead of the kings, and to 
raise an army out of their country, and let 
them be jn the place of the former who per- 
ished in the battle, together with horses and 


the ambassadors to go back, and tell their king 
that both he himself, and all that he had, were 
nis possessions. And when these ambassadors 
nad told this to Benhadad, he sent to him again, 
and desired, since he confessed that all he had 
was his, that he would admit those servants of 
his which he should send the next day; and he 
conimanded him to deliver to those whom he 
should send, whatsoever, upon their searching 
his palace, and the houses of his friends and 
kindred, they should find to be excellent in its 
kind, but what did not please them they should 
ave to him. At this second embassage of 
the king of Syria, Ahab was surprised, and 
gathered together the multitude to a congrega- 
tion, and told them, “That for himself he was 
ready, for their safety and peace to give up his 
own wives and children to the enemy, and to 
yield to him all his own possessions, for that 
was what the Syrian king required at his ‘first 
embassage; but that now he desires to send his 
servants to search all their houses, and in them 
to leave nothing that is excellent in its kind, 
seeking an occasion of fighting against him, as 
knowing that I would not spare what is mine 
own for your sakes, but taking a handle from 
the disagreeable terms he offers concerning 
you to bring a war upon us; however, I will do 
what you shall resolve is fit to be done.” But 
the multitude advised him to hearken to none 
of his proposals, but to despise him, and be in 
readiness to fight him. Accordingly, when he 
had given the ambassadors this answer to be 
reported, that “he still continued in the mind 
to comply with what terms he at first desired, 
for the safety of the citizens; but as for his se- 
cond desires, he cannot submit to them,” he 
dismissed them. 

2. Now when Benhadad heard this, he had 
indignation, and sent ambassadors to Ahab the 
third time, and threatened that hisarmy “would 
raise a bank higher than those walls, in confi- 
dence of whose strength he despised him, and 
that by only each man of his army taking a 
handful of earth;” hereby making a show of 
the great number of his army, and aiming to 
affright him. Ahab answered, that “he ought 
not to vaunt himself when he had only put on 
his armor, but when he should have conquered 
his enemies in the battle.” So the ambassadors 
came back, and found the king at supper with 
his thirty-two kings, and informed him of Ahab’s 
answer; who then immediately gave order for 
proceeding thus: To make lines round the 
city, and raise a bulwark, and to prosecute the 
siege all manner of ways. Now as this was 
doing, Ahab, wasin a great agony, and all his 
people with him; but he took courage, and was 
freed from his fears, upon a certain prophet’s 
coming to him, and saying to him, that “God 
had promised to subdue so many ten thousands 
of his enemies under him.” “And when he 
inquired by whose means the victory wasto be 
obtained, he said, “By the sons of the princes, 
but under thy conduct as their leader, by rea- 
son of their unskilfilness [in war.”] Upon 
which he called for the sons of the princes, and 
found them to be two hundred thirty and two 


















































*Mr. Reland notes here very truly, that the word naked 
does not always signify entirely naked, but sometimes with- — 
out men’s usual armor, without their usual robes or upper — 
garinents: as when Virgil bids the husbandman plough nak- 
ed and sow naked; when Josephus says, Antiq. b. iv. ch. iii 
sect. 2, that God had given the Jews the security of armor 
when they were naked; and when he here says, that Ahab 
fell on the Syrians when they were both naked and drunk; 
when, Antiq. b. xi. chap. v. sec. 8, he says, that Nehemiah — 
commanded those Jews that were building the walls of Jeru 
salem, to take care to have their armor on upon occasion, — 
that the enemy might not fall upon them naked. I may add, 
that the case seems to be the same in the Scripture, when it — 
says, that Saul laid down naked among the prophets, 1 Sam. — 
xix. 245 when it says, that Isaiah walked naked and barefoot, — 
Isaiah xx. 2, 3; and when it says that Peter, before he girt 
his fisher’s coat to him, was naked, John xxi. 7. What is 
said of David also gives light to this, who was reproacted by — 
Michal for dancing before the ark and uncovering Meee in 
the eyes of the handmaids, as one of the vain fellows shame — 
lessly uncovereth himself 9 Sam. vi. 14—20: yetitis there ex- — 
pressly said, ver. 14, that David was girded with a linen ephod, 4 
i. e. he had laid aside his robes of state, and put on the se 
cerdotal, Levitical, or sacred garments, proper for such @ 
solemnity, 





BOOh VIU- 


e@haniots. So he judged their counsel to be 
good, and acted according to it in the manage- 
ment of the army. 

4. At the beginning of the spring, Benhadad 
took his army with him, and led it against the 
Hebrews; and when he was come to a certain 
eity which was called Aphek, he pitched his 
cainp in the great plain, Ahab also went to 
meet him with his army, and pitched his camp 
ever against him, although his army was a 
very smal! ne, in comparison to that of the 
enemy but the prophet came again to him, and 
told him, that “Giod would give him the victo- 
ry, that he might demonstrate his own power 
4 be, not only on the mountains, but on the 
plains also;” which it seems was contrary to the 
opinion of the Syrians. So they lay quiet in 
their camp seven days, but on the last of those 
days, when the enemies came out of their 
camp, and put themselves in array in order to 
fight, Ahab also brought out his own army, 
and when the battle was joined, and they fought 
valiantly, he put the enemy to flight, and pur- 
sved them, and pressed upon them, and slew 
them; nay, they were destroyed by their own 
chariots, and by one another; nor could any 
more than a few of them escape to their own 
city Aphek, who were also killed by the walls 
falling upon them, being in number twenty- 
seven thousand.* Now there were slain in this 
battle a hundred thousand more: but Benha- 
dad, the king of the Syrians, fled away, with 
certain others of his most faithful servants, and 
hil himself in a cellar under ground: and when 
these told him that the kings of Israel were hu- 
mine and merciful men, and that they might 
make use of the usual manner of supplication, 
and obtain deliverance from Ahab, in case he 
would give them leave to go to him, he gave 
them leave accordingly. So they came to 
Aliab, clothed in sackcloth, with. ropes about 
their heads,t (for this was the ancient manner 
of supplication among the Syrians,) and said, 
that “Benhadad desired he would save him, 
and that he would ever be aservant to him for 
that favor.” Ahab replied, “he was glad that 
he was alive and not hurt in the battle.” And 
he further promised him the same honor and 
kindness that aman would show to his brother. 
So they received assurances upon oath from 
him, that when he came to him, he should re- 
ceive no harm froin him, and then went and 
brought him out of the cellar wherein he was 


* Josephus’s number, two myriads and seven thousand, 
égrees here with that in our other copies, as those that were 
slain by the falling down of the walls of Aphek: but I sus- 
pected at first that thisuumberin Josephus’s present copies 
could not be his original number, because he calls them 
‘oligoi,? a few, which could hardly be said of so many as 
twenty-seven thousand, and because of the improbabiity ef 
the fall of a particular wall killmg so many; yet, when 
eonsider Josephus’s next words, how the rest which were 
slain in the battle were ten other myriads, that twenty-seven 
‘shousand are but a few in comparison of one hundred thou- 
wand; and that it was not a wall, as in our English version, 
but the wall, or the entire walls of the city, that fell down, as 
fa all the originals. 

+ This manner of supplication for men’s lives among the 

8, with ropes or halters about their heads or necks, is, 
suppose, no straug? thing in latter ages, even im our owi 
aN 


CHAPTER XV. 223 


hid, and brought him to Anao as he sat in his 
chariot. So Benhadad worshipped him; ana 

| Ahab gave him his hand, and bade hiin come 
up to him in his chariot and kissed him, and 
bade him be of good cheer, and not to expect 
that any mischief was to be done to him. So 
Benhadad returned him thanks, and professed 
that he would remember his kindness to him 
all the days of his life; and promised he would 
restore those cities of the Israelites which the 
former kings had taken from them, and grant 
that he should have leave to come to Damas- 
cus, as his forefathers had come to Samaria, 
So they confirmed their covenant by oaths and 
Ahab made him many presents, and sent hins 
back to his own kingdom. And this was the 
conclusion of that war that Benhadad made 
against Ahab and the Israelites. 

o. But a certain prophet, whose name was 
Micaiah,* came to one of the Israelites, and 
bade him smite him on the head, for by so do- 
ing he would please God; but when he would 
not do so he foretold to him, that since he dis- 
obeyed the commands of God he should meet 
with a lion and be destroyed by him. When 
this sad accident had befallen the man, the 
prophet came again to another, and gave him 
the same injunction, so he smote him, and 
wounded his skull; upon which he bound up 
his head; and came to the king, and told him, 
that he had béena soldier of his and had the 
custody of one of the prisoners. committed to 
him by an officer, and that the prisoner being 
run away, he was in danger of losing his own 
life hy the means of that officer, who had threat- 
ened him, that if the prisoner escaped, he 
would kill him. And when Ahab had said, 
that he would justly die, he took off the bind- 
ing about his head, and was known by the king 
to be Micaiah the prophet, who made use of 
this artifice as a prelude to his following words; 
for he said, that “God would punish him, who 
had suffered Benhadad, a blasphemer against 
him, to escape punishment; and that he would 
so bring it about, that he should die by the 
other’s means, and his people by the other’s 
army.”+ Upon which Ahab was very angry 
at the prophet, and gave commandment that 
he should be put in prison, and there kept; but 
for himself, he was in confusion at the words 
of Micaiah, and returned to his own house. 


* It is here remarkable, that in Josephus’s copy this pro- 
phet, whose severe denunciation of a disobedient person’s 
slaughter by a lion had lately come to pass, was no other than 
Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who, as he now denounced God’s 
judgment on disobedient Ahab, seems directly to have been 
that very prophet whom the same Ahab in 1 Kings xxii. 8—18, 
complains of, as one whom he hated, because he did not pro- 
phecy good concerning him, but evil, and who in that chapter 
openly repeats his denunciations against him; all which came 
to pass accordingly: nor is there any reason to doubt but this 
and the former were the very same prophet. 

¢ What is most remarkable in this history, and in many 
histories on other occasions in the Old Testament, is this, 
that during the Jewish theocracy God acted entirely as the 
supreme king of Israel, and the supreme general of their ar- 
mies, and always expected that the Israelites should be im 

! such absolute subjection to him, their supreme and heavenly 
king, and general of their armies, as subjects and soldiers are 
| to their earthly kings and generals, and that usually withous 
, knowing the parti>ular reasons of their injunctions. 


724 
CHAPTER XV. 


Concerning Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem; 
and how Ahab made an expedition against the 
Syrians, and was assisted therein by Jehosha- 
phat, but was himself overcome m battle, and 
perished therein. 


§ 1. And these were the circumstances in 
which Ahab was. ButI now return to Jeho- 
shaphat, the king of Jerusalem, who, when he 
had augmented his kingdom, and had set gar- 
risons in the cities of the countries belonging 
to his subjects, and had put such garrisons no 
less into those cities which were taken out of 
the tribe of Ephraim, by his grandfather Abi- 
jah, when Jeroboam reigned over the ten tribes, 
than he did into the other:] but then he had 
x0d favorable and assisting to him, as being 
both righteous and religious, and seeking to do 
somewhat every day, that should be agreeable 
and acceptable to God. The kings also that 
were round about him, honored him with the 
presents they made him, till the riches that he 
had acquired were immensely great, and the 
glory he had gained was of a most exalted ua- 
ture. 

2. Now in the third year of his reign, he 
called together the rulers of the country, and 
the priests, and commanded them to go round 
the land, and teach ali the people that were un- 
der him, city by city, the laws of Moses, and 
to keep them, and to be diligent in the worship 
of God. With this the whole multitude were 
so pleased, that they were not so eagerly set 
upon, or affected with any thing so much as 
the observation of the laws. The neighboring 
nations also continued to love Jehoshaphat, and 
to be at peace with him. ‘The Philistines paid 
their appointed tribute; and the Arabians, sup- 
plied him every year with three hundred and 
sixty lambs, and as many kids of the goats. He 
also fortified the great cities, which were many 
in number, and of great consequence. He 
prepared al3o a mighty army of soldiers and 
weapons against their enemies. Now the army 
of men that wore their armor, were three hun- 
dred thousand of the tribe of Judah, of whom 
Adnah was a chief; but John was chief of two 
hundred thousand; the same man was chief 
of the tribe of Benjamin, and had two hun- 
dred thousand archers under him. There 
was another chief, whose name was Jehozabad 
who had a hundred and fourscore thousand 
armed men. ‘This multitude was distributed 
to be ready for the king’s service, besides those 
whom he sent to the best fortified cities. 

3. Jehoshaphat took for his son Jehoram to 
wife, the daughter of Ahab, the king of the ten 
tribes, whose name was Athaliah, And when, 
after some time, lie went to Samaria, Ahab re- 
ceived him courteously, and treated the army 
that followed him in a splendid manner, with 

eat plenty of corn and wine, and of slain 
pupal and desired that he would join with 
him in his war against the king of Syria, that 
he might recover from him the city Ramoth, 
m Gilead; for though it had belonged to his 
tather, yet had the king of Syria’s father taken 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


‘ 
; 


“= 


it away from him; and upon Jehoshaphat’s pre- 
mise to afford him assistance, (1or indeed bis 
army was notinferior to the other’s,) and his 
sending for his army-from Jerusalem to Sama — 
ria, the two kings went out of the city, and 
each of them sat on his own throne, and eack 
gave their orders to their several armies. Now 
Jehoshaphat bade them call some of the pro- 
phets, if there were any there, and inquire of 
them concerning this expedition against the 
king of Syria, whether they would give them 
counsel to make that expedition at this time, for 
there was peace at that time between Ahab 
and the king of Syria, which had lasted three 
years, from the time he had taken him captive 
till that day. 

4. So Ahab called his own prophets, being 
in number about four hundred, and bade them 
inquire of God whether he would grant hina 
the victory, if he made an expedition against 
Benhadad, and enable him to overthrow that 
city, for whose sake it was that he was going 
to war. Now these prophets gave their coun- 
sel for making this expedition; and said, that 
“he would beat the king of Syria, and, as for-— 
merly, would reduce him under his power.” 
But Jehoshaphat, understanding by their words 
that they were false prophets, asked Ahab, 
whether there were not some other prophet, — 
and he belonging to the true God, that we may 
have surer information concerning futurities? 
Hereupen Ahab said, “there was indeed such — 
a one, but that he hated him, as having pro-— 
phesied evil to him, and having foretold that 
he should be overcome, and slain by the king 
of Syria, and that for this cause he had him — 
now in prison, and that his name was Micaiah, — 
the son of Imlah.” But upon Jehoshaphat’s — 
desire that he might be produced, Ahab sent a 
eunuch, who brought Micaiah to him. Now — 
the eunuch had informed him by the way, that — 
all the other prophets had foretold that the king — 
should gain the victory; but he said, that “it — 
was not lawful for him to lie against God, but — 
that he must speak what he should-say to him — 
about the king, whatsoever it were.” When 
he came to Ahab, and he had adjured him 
upon oath to speak the truth to him, he said, — 
that “God had showed to him the Israelites 
running away, and pursued by the Syrians, 
and dispersed upon th mountains by them, as — 
are flocks of sheep dispersed when their shep- — 
herd is slain.” He said farther, that “God sig-— 
nified to him, that those Israelites should re- { 
turn in peace to their own home, and that he 
only should fall in battle.’ When Micaiah 
had thus spoken, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I _ 
told thee a little while ago the disposition of 
the man with regard to me, and that he uses to 
prophesy evil to me.” Upon which Micaiah — 
replied, that “he ought to hear all, whatsoever 
it be, that God foretells; and that in particular, 
they were false prophets that encouraged him 
to make this war in hope of victory, whereas — 
he must fight and be killed.” Whereupon the ~ 
king was in suspense with himselfi but Zede- 
kiah, one of those false prophets, came net 
and exhorted him not to hearken to Mic: 










- BOOK VII—CHAPTER XV. 


for he did not at all speak truth; as a demon- 
stration of which, he instanced in what Elijah 
had said, who was a better prophet in foretell- 
ing futurities than Micaiah;* for he foretold, 
that “the dogs should lick his blood in the city 
of Jezreel, in the field of Naboth, as they lick- 
ed the blood of Naboth, who by his means was 
there stoned to death by the multitude;” that, 
therefore, it was plain that this Micaiah was a 
liar, as contradicting a greater prophet than 
himself, and saying, that he would be slain at 
three days’ journey distance. And [said he] 
you shall know whether he be a true prophet, 
and hath the power of the divine Spirit; for I 
will smite him, and let him then hurt my hand, 
as Jadon caused the hand of Jeroboam the king 
to wither when he would have caught him; for 
J suppose thou hast certainly heard of that ac- 
cident.” So when, upon his smiting Micaiah, 
no harm happened to him, Ahab took courage, 


and readily led his army against the king of 


Syria, for, as I suppose, fate was too hard for 
him, and made him believe that the false pro- 
phets spoke truer than the true one, that it 
might take an occasion of bringing him to his 
end. However, Zedekiah made horns of iron, 
and said to Ahab, that “God made those horns 
signals, that by them he should overthrow all 
Syria.” But Micaiah replied, that “Zedekiah 
in a few days should go from one secret cham- 
ber to another, to hide himself, that he might 
escape the punishment of his lying.” Then 
did the king give orders that they should take 
Micaiah away, and guard him to Amon, the 
Ngee of the city, and to give him nothing 
ut bread and water. 

5. Then did Ahab, and Jehoshaphat, the king 
of Jerusalem, take their forces, and marched to 
Ramoth, a city of Gilead; and when the king 
of Syria heard of this expedition, he brought 
out his army to oppose them, and pitched his 
camp not far from Ramoth. Now Ahab and 
Jehoshaphat had agreed, that Ahab should lay 
aside his royal robes, but that the king of Je- 
rusalem should put on his [Ahab’s] proper ha- 
bit, and stand before the army, in order to dis- 
prove, by this artifice, what Micaiah had fore- 
told; but Ahab’s fate found him out without his 

robes; for Benhadad, the king of Syria, had 
charged his army, by the means of their com- 
manders, to kill nobody else but only the king 
of Israel. So when the Syrians, upon their 
joining battle with the Israelites, saw Jehosha- 
hat stand before the army, and conjectured 
that he was Ahab, they fell violently upon him, 


_ * These reasonings of Zedekiah, the false prophet, in or- 

der to persuade Ahab not to believe Micaiah, the true pro- 

' phet, are plausible, but being omitted in our other copies, we 

-eannot now tell whence Josephus had them, whether from 

his own temple copy, from some other original author, or from 

-eertain ancient notes. That some such plausible objection 

_ Was now raised against Micaiah is very likely, otherwise Je- 

hoshaphat, who used to disbelieve all such false prophets, 

_ could never have been induced to accompany Ahab in these 
- desperate circumstances. 

__ + This reading of Josephus, that Jehoshaphat put on, not 

his own, but Ahab’s robes, in order to appear to be Ahab, 

| while Ahab was without any robeg at all, and hoped thereby 

- escape his own evil fate, and disprove Micaiah’s prophecy 

st him, is exceeding probable. It gives great light also 

® this whole history, and shows, that although Ahab hoped 


. 29 


eet 


225 


and encompassed him round; but when they 
were near, and knew that it was not he, they 
all returned back; and while the fight lasted 
from the morning-light till late in the evening, 
and the Syrians were conquerors, they killed 
nobody, as their king had commanded them. 
And when they sought to kill Ahab alone, bu 
could not find him, there was a young noble 
man belonging to king Benhadad, whose name 
was Naaman; he drew his bow against the 
enemy, and wounded the king through his 
breastplate, in his lungs. Upon this Ahab re- 
solved not to make his mischance known to 
his army, lest they should run away, but he 
bade the driver of his chariot to turn it back, 
and carry him out of the battle, because he 
was sorely and mortally wounded ; however, 
he sat in his chariot and endured the pain till 
sun-set, and then he fainted away and died. 


6. And now the Syrian army, upon the come 
ing of the night, retired to their camp; and 
when the herald belonging to the camp gave 
notice that Ahab was dead, they returned 
home; and they took the dead body of Ahab- 
to Samaria, and buried it there; but when they 
had washed his chariot, in the fountain of Jez~ 
reel, which was bloody with the dead body of 
the king, they acknowledged that the prophecy 
of Elijah was true, for the dogs licked his 
blood, and the harlots continued afterward to 
wash themselves in that fountain; but still he 
died at Ramoth, as Micaiah had foretold. And 
as what things were foretold should happen to 
Ahab, by the two prophets, came to pass, we 
ought thence to have high notions of God, and 
everywhere to honor and worship him,:and 
never to suppose that what is pleasant and 
agreeable is worthy of belief before what is 
true, and to esteem nothing more advantageous 
than the gift of prophecy,* and that foreknow- 
ledge of future events which is derived from 
it, since God shows men thereby what we ought 
to avoid. We may also guess, from what hap- 
pened to this king, and have reason to consider 
the power of fate, that there is no way of 
avoiding it, even when we know it. It creeps 
upon human souls, and flatters them with 
pleasing hopes, till it leads them about to the 
place where it will be too hard for them. Ac- 
cordingly, Ahab appears to have been deceived 
thereby, till he disbelieved those that foretold 
his defeat, but by giving credit to such as fore- 
told what was grateful to him, was slain: and 
his son Ahaziah succeeded him. 


Jehoshaphat would be mistaken for him, and run the only 
risk of being slain in the battle, yet was he entirely disap- 
pointed, while still the escape of th» good man Jehoshaphat, 
and the slaughter of the bad man Ahab, demonstrated the 
great distinction that divine Providence made betwixt them, 

* We have here a very wise reflection of Josephus about 
divine Providence, and what is described from it, prophecy, 
and the inevitable certainty of its accomplishment; and that 
when wicked men think they take proper methods to elude 
what is denounced against them, and to escape the divine 
judgments thereby threatened them, without repentance, 


‘they are ever by Providence infatuated to bring about theis 


own destruction, and thereby withall to demonstrate the per 
fect veracity of that God whose predictions they in vain en- 
deavor to elude. 


226 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


BOOK IX. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH 
OF AHAB TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES. 





CHAPTER I. 
Concerning Jehoshaphat again; how he consti- 
tuted judges, and by God’s assistance, overcame 
his enemies. 


§ 1. Wuen Jehoshaphat the king was come 
bo Jerusalem, from the assistance he had afford- 
ei Ahab, the king of Israel, when he fought 
with Benhadad king of Syria, the prophet Je- 
hu met him, and accused him for assisting 
Ahab, a man both impious and wicked; and 
said to him, that “God was displeased with him 
for so doing, but that he delivered him from 
the enemy, notwithstanding he had sinned, be- 
cause of his own proper disposition, which was 
good.” Whereupon the king betook himself 
to thanksgivings and sacrifices to God: after 
which he presently went over all that country 
which he ruled round about, and taught the 
people, as well the laws which God gave 
tiem by Moses, as that religious worship that 
wus due to him. He also constituted judges 
in every one of the cities of his kingdom; and 
charged them “to have regard to nothing so 
much in judging the multitude as to do justice, 
and not to be moved by bribes, nor by the dig- 
nity of men eminent for either their riches or 
their high birth, but to distribute justice equally 
t all, as knowing that God is conscious of 
every secret action of theirs.” When he had 
himself instructed them thus, and gone over 
every city of the two tribes, he returned to Je- 
risalem. He there also constituted judges out 
ef the priests and the Levites,* and principal 
persons of the multitude, and admonished 
them to pass all their sentences with care and 
justice. And that if any of the people of his 
country had differences of great consequence, 
they should send them out of the other cities 
to these judges, who would be obliged to give 
righteous sentences concerning such causes; 
and this with the greater care, because it is pro- 
per that the sentences which are given in that 
city wherein the temple of God is, and where- 
m the king dwells, be given with great care, 
and the utmost justice. Now he set over them 
Amariah the priest, and Zebadiah, [both] of the 
tribe of Judah: and after this manner it was 
that the king ordered these affairs. 

2. About this time the Moabites and Ammo- 
nites made an expedition against Jehoshaphat, 
. and took with them a great body of Arabians, 
and pitched their camp at Engedi, acity that is 
situate at the lake Asphaltitis, and distant three 
hundred furlongs from Jerusalem. In that 
place grows the best kind of palm-trees, and 
the opobalsamum.t _ Now Jehoshaphat heard 


* These judges constituted by Jehoshaphat, were a kind 
ef Jerusalem Sanhedrim, out of the priests, the Levites, and 
the principal of the people both here and 2 Chron. xix. 8, 
much like the old Christian judicatures of the bishop, the 
presbyters, the deacons, and the people. 

¢ Concerning this precious balsam; see the note on Antiq. 
b. viii. ch. vi. sect 6. 


that the enemies had passed over the lake, and 
had made an irruption into that country which 
belonged to his kingdom; at which news he 
was affrighted, and called the people of Jeru- 
salem to a congregation in the temple, and — 
standing over against the temple itself, he 
called upon God “to afford him power and 
strength, so as to inflict punishment on those 
that made this expedition against them, (for 
that those who built this his temple, had pray- 
ed that he would protect that city, and take 
vengeance on those that were so bold as to 
come against it,) for they come to take from us — 
that land which thou hast given us for a pos- 
session.” When he had prayed thus, he fell 
into tears; and the whole multitude, together 
with their wives and children, made their sup- 
plications also: upon which a certain prophet, 
Jahaziel by name, came into the midst of the ~ 
assembly, and cried out, and spoke both to the 
multitude and to the king, that God heard their 
prayers, and promised to fight against their 
enemies. He also gave order that the king 
should draw his forces out the next day, for 
that he should find them between Jerusalem 
and the ascent of Engedi, at a place called the 
Eminence, and that he should not fight against 
them, but only stand still, and see how God 
would fight against them. When the prophet 
had said this, both the king and the multitude 
fell upon their faces, and gave thanks to God, 
and worshipped him; and the Levites contin- — 
ued singing hymns to God with their instru- 
ments of music. 

3. As soon as it was day, and the king was — 
come into that wilderness which is under the 
city of Tekoa, he said to the multitude, that, — 
“they ought to give credit to what the prophet © 
had said, and not to set themselves in array for 
fighting, but to set the priests with their trum-— 
pets, and the Levites, with the singers of hymns, 
to give thanks to God, as having already deliv-— 
ered our country from our enemies.” This — 
opinion of the king pleased [the people,] and — 
they did what he advised them to do. So 
God caused a terror and commotion to arise 
among the Ammonites, who thought one 
another to be enemies, and slew.one another, 
insomuch that not one man out of so great an- 
army escaped; and when Jehoshaphat looked 
upon that valley wherein their enemies had— 
been encamped, and saw it full of dead men, 
he rejoiced at so surprising an event, as was this — 
assistance of God, while he himself, by his ov 
power, and without their labor, had given them — 
the victory. He also gave his army leave to 
take the prey of the enemies’ camp, and to spoil 
their dead bodies; and indeed so they did for 
three days together, till they were weary, #0 
great was the number of the sla; and on th 
fourth day, all the people were gathered to : 
unto a certain hollow place or valley, and bless- 





BOOK IX.—CHAPTER IL 


ed God for his powe) and assistance, from 
which the place had tlis name given it, the 
Valley of [Berachah, or] Blessing. 

4. And when the king had brought his army 
back to Jerusalem, he betook himself to cele- 
brate festivals, and offer sacrifices, and this for 
many days. And, indeed, after this destruc- 
tion of their enemies, and when it came to the 
ears of the foreign nations, they were all great- 
ly affrighted, as supposing that God would 
openly fight for him hereafter. So Jehosha- 
phat from that time, lived in great glory and 
splendor, on account of his righteousness and 
his piety towards God. He was also in friend- 
ship with Ahab’s son, who was king of Israel: 
and he joined with him in the building of ships 
that were to sail to Pontus,* and the traffic ci- 
ties of Thrace; but he failed of his gains, for 
the ships were destroyed by being so great 
a unwieldy;] on which account he was no 

nger concerned about shipping. And this is 
the history of Jehoshaphat the king of Jerusa- 
lem. 


CHAPTER II. 


Concerning Ahaziah, the king of Israel, and 
again concerning the prophet Elyah. 


§ 1. And now Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, 
reigned over Israel, and made his abode in Sa- 
maria. He was a wicked man, and, in all re- 
spects, like to both his parents, and to Jero- 
beam, who first of all transgressed, and began 
tv deceive the people. On the second year of 
his reign, the king of Moab fell off from his 
ehedience, and left off paying those tributes 
which he before paid to his father Ahab. Now 
it happened that Ahaziah, as he was coming 


_ down from the top of his house, fell down from 


_ were broken at Eziongeber, 


it, and in his sickness sent to the Fly,t which 
was the God of Ekron, for that was this god’s 
name, to inquire about his recovery: but the 
God of the Hebrews appeared to Elijah the 
prophet, and commanded him to go and meet 
the messengers that were sent, and to ask them, 
“Whether the people of Israel had not a God 
of their own, that the king sent to a foreign 
god to inquire about his recovery? and to bid 
them return, and tell the king, that he would 
not escape this disease.” And when Elijah 
had performed what God had commanded 
him, and the messengers had heard what he 
said, they returned to the king immediately; 
and when the king wondered how they could 
return so soon, and asked them the reason of 
it, they said, that “a certain man met them, 


* What are here Pontus and Thrace, as the place whither 
Jehoshaphat’s fleet sailed, are in our other copies Ophir and 
Tarshish, and the place whence it sailed is in them Riciglive: 
ber, which lay on the Red Sea, whence it was impossible 
for any ships to sail to Pontus or Thrace; so that Josephus’s 
copy differed from our other copies, as is farther plain from 
his own words, which render what we read, that the ships 
rom their unwieldy greatness. 
But so far we may conclude, that Josephus thought one 
Ophir to be somewhere in the Mediterranean, and not in the 
South Sea, though perhaps there might be another Ophir in 
‘that South Sea also, and that fleets might then sail both from 
‘Pheenicia, and from the Red Sea, to fetch the gold of Ophir. 

+ This god of flies seems to have been s0 called, as was 


_ the like god among the Greeks, from his supposed power over 


lies in driving them away from the flesh of their sacrifices, 


227 


and forbade mem to go any farther; Lut to re- 
turn and tell thee, from the command of the 
God of Israel, that this disease will have a bad 
end.” And when the king bade them describe 
the man that said this to them, they replied, 
“that he was a hairy man, and was girt about 
with a girdle of leather.” So the king under- 
stood by this that the man who was described 
by the messengers was Elijah; whereupon he 
sent a captain to him, with fifty soldiers, and 
commanded them to bring Elijah to him; and 
when the captain that was sent found Elijah 
sitting upon the top of a hill, he commanded 
him to come down, and to come to the king, for 
so he had enjoined; but that in case he refused 
they would carry him by force. Elijah said to 
him, “that you may have a trial whether I be 
a true prophet, I will pray that fire may fal 
from heaven,* and destroy both the soldiers 
and yourself.” So he prayed, and a whirlwind 
of fire fell [from heaven,] and destroyed the 
captain, and those that were with him. And 
when the king was informed of the destruction 
of these men, he was very angry, and sent 
another captain with the like number of armed 
men that were sent before. And when this 
captain also threatened the prophet, that unless 
he came down of his own accord, he would 
take him and carry him away; upon his prayer 
against him, the fire [from heaven} slew this 
captain as well as the other. And when, upon 
inquiry, the king was informed of what had 
happened to him, he sent out a third captain. 
But when this captain, who was a wise man, 
and of a mild disposition, came to the place 
where Elijah happened to be, and spoke civilly 
to him; and said, that “he knew that it was 
without his own consent, and only in submis- 
sion to the king’s command, that he came unto 
him; and that those that came before did not 
come willingly, but on the same account: he 
therefore desired him to have pity on those 
armed men that were with him; and that he 
would come down and follow him to the king.” 
So Elijah accepted of his discreet words and 
courteous behavior, and came down and fol- 
lowed him. And when he came to the king, 
he prophesied to him, and told him, that “God 
said, since thou hast despised him as not being 


* [tis commonly esteemed a very cruel action of Elijah, 
when he called for a fire from heaven, and consumed ne 
fewer than two captains and a hundred soldiers, and this 
for no other crime than obeying the orders of their king, in 
attempting to seize him; and it is owned by our Savior that 
it was an instance of greater severity than the spirit of the 
New Testament allows, Luke ix. 54. But then we must 
consider, that it is not unlikely that these captains and sol- 
diers believed that they were sent to fetch the prophet, that 
he might be put to death for foretelling the death of the king, 
and this while they knew him to be the prophet of the true 
God, the supreme king of Israel, (for they were still under 
the theocracy,) which was no less than impiety, rebellio 
and treason in the highest degree. Nor would the comman 
of a subaltern, or inferior captain, contradicting the com- 
mands of the general, when the captain and soldiers both 
knew it to be so, as [ suppose, justify or excuse such gross 
rebellion and disobedience in soldiers at this day. Accord- 
ingly, when Saul commanded his guards to slay Ahimelech 
and the priests at Nob, they knew it to be an unlawful com- 
mand, and would not obey it, 1 Sam. xxii. 17. From whieh 
cases both officers and soldiers may learn, that the comr 
mands of their leaders or kings cannot justify or excuse them 
in doing what is wicked in the sight of God, or in fighting 


‘which otherwise would have been very troublesome to them. | an unjust cause when they Know itso to be. 


228 


God, and so unable to foretell the truth about 
thy distemper, but hast sent to the god of 
Ekron to inquire of him what will be the end 
of this thy distemper, know this, that thou 
shalt die.” 

2. Accordingly, the king in a very little time 
died, as Elijah had foretold; but Jehoram his 
brother succeeded him in the kingdom, for he 
died without children: but for this Jehoram, 
he was like his father Ahab in wickedness, and 
reigned twelve years, indulging himself’ in all 
sorts of wickedness and impiety towards God; 
for, leaving off his worship, he worshipped fo- 
reign gods: but in other respects he*was an ac- 
tive man. Now at this time it-was that Elijah 
disappeared from among men, and no one 
knows of his death to this very day; but he 
left behind him his disciple Elisha, as we have 
formerly declared. And indeed, as to Elijah, 
and as to Enoch, who was before the deluge, it 
iS written in the sacred books that they disap- 
peared, but so that nobody knew that they died. 


CHAPTER III. 


How Joram and Jehoshaphat made an expedition 
against the Moabites; as also concerning the 
wonders of Elisha; and the death of Jehosha- 
phat. 


§ 1. When Joram had taken upon him the 
kingdom, he determined to make an expedition 
against the king of Moab, whose name was 

eshah; for as we told you before, he was de- 
parted from his obedience to his brother [ Aha- 
ziah,| while he paid to his father Ahab two 
hundred thousand sheep with their fleeces of 
wool. When, therefore, he had gathered his 
own army together, he sent also to Jehosha- 
phat, and entreated him, that since he had from 
the beginning been a friend to his father, he 
would assist him in the war that he was enter- 
ing into against the Moabites, who had depart- 
ed from their obedience; who not only him- 
self promised to assist him, but would also ob- 
lige the king of Edom, who was under his 
authority, to make the same expedition also. 
When Joram had received these assurances of 
assistance from Jehoshaphat, he took his army 
with him, and came to Jerusalem; and when 
he had been sumptuously entertained by the 
king of Jerusalem, it was resolved upon by 
them to take their march against their enemies 
through the wilderness of Edom, and when 
they had taken a compass of seven days’ jour- 
ney, they were in distress for want of water for 
the cattle, and for the army, from the mistake 
of their roads by the guides that conducted 
them, insomuch that they were all in an agony, 
especially Joram; and cried to God by reason 
of their sorrow, and [desired to know] what 
wickedness had been committed by them, that 
induced him to deliver three kings together, 
without fighting, unto the king of Moab. But 
Jehoshaphat, who was a righteous man, en- 
couraged him, and bade him send to the camp, 
and know whether any prophet of God was 
come along with them, that we might by him 
learn from God what we should do. And when 
ene of the servants of Joram said, that he had 


el 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


seen there Elisha, the son of Shay hat, the disci- 
ple of Elijah, the three kings went to him, at 
the entreaty of Jehoshaphat; and when they 
were come at the prophet’s tent, which tent 
was pitched out of the camp, they asked him, 
“What would become of the army?” And Jo- 
ram was particularly very pressing with him 
about it. And when he replied to him, that 
“he should not trouble him, but go to his 
father’s and mother’s prophets, for they [te 
be sure] were true prophets,” he still desirea 
him to prophesy, and to save them. So he 
swore by God, that he would not answer 
him unless it were on account of Jehosha- 
phat, who was a holy and righteous man; 
and when, at his desire, they brought him a 
man that could play on the psaltery, the divine 
Spirit came upon him as the music played, and 
he commanded them to dig many trenches in 
the valley; for, said he, “Though there appear 
neither cloud, nor wind, nor storm of rain, ye 
shall see this valley full of water, till the army and 
the cattle be saved for you by drinking of it: nor 
will this be all the favor that you shall receive 
from God, but you shall also overcome your 
enemies, and take the best and strongest cities 
of the Moabites, and you shall cut down their 
fruit-trees,* and lay waste their country, and 
stop up their fountains and rivers.” 

2. When the prophet had said this, the next 
day, before the sun-rising, a great torrent ran 
strongly; for God had caused it to rain very 
plentifully at the distance of three days’ jour- 
ney into Edom: so that the army and the cattle 
found water to drink in abundance. But when 
the Moabites heard that the three kings were 
coming upon them, and made their approach 
through the wilderness, the king of Moab 
gathered his army together presently, and com- 
manded them to pitch their camp upon the 
mountains, that when the enemies should at- 
tempt to enter their country, they might not be 
concealed from them. But when at the rising 
of the sun they saw the water in the torrent, 
for it was not far from the land of Moab, and 
that it was of the color of blood, for at such a 
time the water especially looks red, by the shin- 
ing of the sun upon it, they formed a false notion 
of the state of their enemies, as if they had 
slain one another for thirst, and that the river 
ran with their blood. However, supposing 
that this was the case, they desired their king — 
would send them out to spoil their enemies; 
whereupon they al] went in haste, as to an ad- 
vantage already gained, and came to the ene — 
my’s cainp, as supposing them destroyed al- — 
ready. But their hope deceived them, for as _ 
their enemies stood round about them, someof — 
them were cut to pieces, and others of thein — 
were dispersed, and fled to their own country. — 

LM 


a2 


* This practice of cutting down or plucking up by the roots — 
the fruit-trees, was forbidden, even in ordinary wars, by the 
law of Moses, Deut. xx. 19, 20, and only allowed by Godin 
this particular case, when the Moabites were to be punished 
and cut off in an extraordinary manner for their wickedness. 
See Jer. xlviii. 11, 12,13, and many the like prophecies — 
againstthem. Nothing could, therefore, justify this practice — 
but a particular commission from God by his prophet, as im 
the present case, which was ever a sufficient warrant fer 
breaking any such ritual or ceremonial law whetsoever.  —__ 










BOOK [X.—CHAPTER IV 


And when the kings entered the land of Moab, 
they overthrew the cities that were in it, and 
spoiled their fields, and marred them, filling 
them with stones out of the brooks, and cut 
down the best of their trees, and stopped up their 
fountains of water, and overthrew their walls 
to their foundations. But the king of Moab, 
when he was pursued, endured a siege, and 
seeing his city in danger of being overthrown 
by force, made a sally, and went out with sev- 
en hundred men, in order to break through the 
enemy’s camp with his horsemen, on that side 
where the watch seemed to be kept most negli- 
gently: and when, upon trial, he could not get 
away, for he lit upon a place that was careful- 
ly watched, he returned into the city, and did 
a thing that showed despair and the utmost 
distress; for he took his eldest son, who was to 
reign after him, and lifting him up upon the 
wall that he might be visible to all the ene- 
mies, he offered him as a whole burnt-offering 
to God, whom, when the kings saw, they com- 
miserated the distress that was the occasion of 
it, and were so affected, in way of humanity 
and pity, that they raised the siege and every 
one returned to his own house. So Jehoshia- 
phat came to Jerusalem, and continued in 
peace there, and outlived this expedition but 
a little time, and then died, having lived in all 
sixty years, and of them reigned twenty-five. 
He was buried ina magnificent n.inner in Je- 
rusalem, for he had imitated the actions of Da- 
vid 
CHAPTER IV. 

Jehoram succeeds Jehoshaphat; huw Joram, his 

namesake, king of Israel, fought with the Sy- 

rians; and what wonders were done by the 


prophet Elisha. 


§ 1. Jehoshaphat had a good number of chil- 
dren; but he appointed his eldest son Jehoram 
to be his successor, who had the same name 
with his mother’s brother, that was king of Is- 
racl,and the son of Ahab. Now when the 
king of Israel was come out of the land of 
Moab to Samaria, he had with him Elisha the 
prophet, whose acts J have a mind to go over 
particularly, for they were illustrious and wor- 
thy to be related, as we have them set down in 
the sacred books. 

2. For they say that the widow of Obadiah,* 
Ahab’s steward, came to him, and said, that “he 
was not ignorant how her husband had preserv- 
ed the prophets that were to be slain by Jeze- 
bel, the wife of Ahab; for she said that he hid 
a hundred of them; and had borrowed money 
for their maintenance; and that after her hus- 


* That this woman whocried to Elisha, and who in our 
Bible is styled the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, 2 
Kings iv. 1, was no other than the widow of Obadiah, the 
good steward of Ahab, is confirmed by the Chaldee para- 
phrast, and by the Rabbins and others. Nor is that unlike- 
y which Josephus here adds, that these debts were con- 
tracted by her husband for the support of those hundred of 
the Lord’sprophets whom he maintained by fifty in a cave, in 
the days of Ahab ard Jezebel, 1 Kings xviii. 4, which circum- 
stance rendered ¢ highly fit that the prophet Elisha should 

ovide her a remedy, and enable ner to redeem herself and 

ersons from the fear of that slavery which insolvent debtors 
were liable to by the law of Moses, Levit. xxv. 39; Matt. 
€viii. 25; which he did accordingly, with God’s help, at the 
@xpense of a miracle. 


223 
band’s death, she and her children were car. 
ried away to be made slaves by the creditors 
and she desired of him to have mercy upon 
her on account of what her husband did, and 
afford her some assistance.” And when he 
asked her what she had in the house, she said, 
nothing but avery small quantity of oil in a 
cruse. So the prophet bade her go away and 
borrow a great many empty vessels of her 
neighbors, and when she had shut her cham- 
ber-door, to pour the oil into them all; for God 
would fill them full. And when the woma ; 
had done what she was commanded to do, an 
bade her children bring every one of the ves 
sels, and all were filled, and not one left empty, 
she came to the prophet, and told him that they 
were all full: upon which he advised her to go 
away, and sell the oil, and pay the creditors 
what was owing to them, for that there would 
be some surplus of the price of the oil, which 
she might make use of for the maintenance of 
her children. And thus did Elisha discharge 
the woman’s debts, and free her from the vexa- 
tion of her creditors. 

3. Elisha also sent a hasty message to Joram,* 
and exhorted him to take care of that place, 
for that therein were some Syrians lying in 
ambush to kill him. So the king did as the 
prophet exhorted him, and avoided his going 
a hunting. And when Benhadad missed of 
the success of his lying in ambush, he was 
wroth with his own servants,as if they had 
betrayed his ambushment to Joram, and sent 
for them, and said they were the betrayers of 
his secret counsels; and he threatened that he 
would put them to death, since such their prac- 
tice was evident, because he had intrusted this 
secret to none but them, and yet it was made 
known to his enemy. And when one that was 
present said, that “he should not mistake him- 
self, nor suspect that they had discovered to his 
enemy his sending men to kill him, but that he 
ought to know that it was Elisha the prophet, 
who discovered all to him, and laid open all his 


*Dr. Hudson, with very good reason, suspects that there 
is no small defect in our present copies of Josephus, just be- 
fore the beginning of this section, and that chiefly as to that 
distinet account which he had given us reason to expect In 
the first section, and to which he seems to refer, ch. viii. 
sect. 6, concerning the glorious miracles which Elisha 
wrought, which indeed in our Bibles are not a few, 2 Kings 
iv.—ix. but of which we have several omitted in Josephus’s 
present copies. One of those histories, omitted at presen 
was evidently in his Bible, I mean that of the curing 0 
Naaman’s leprosy, 2 Kings v.. for he plainly alludes to it, b. 
iii. ch. xi. sect. 4, where he observes, “that there were le- 
pers in many nations who yet have been in honor, and not 
only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been 
great captains of armies, and been intrusted with high offices 
in the commonwealth, and have had the privileges of enter- 
ing into holy places and temples.”? But what makes me most 
regret the want of that history in our present copies of Joseph- 
us is this, that we have here, as it is commonly understo: a 
one of the greatest difficulties in all the Bible, that in 2 Kings 
v. 18, 19, where Naaman after he had been miraculously 
eured by a prophet of the true God, and had thereupon pro- 
mised, v. 17, that “he would henceforth offer neither burnt- 
offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord,” 
adds, “In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that wher 
my master goeth into the house of Rummon to worship there, 
and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house 
of Rimmon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rin 
mon; the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And Elisha 
said go in peace.”? This looks like a prophet’s permission fos 
being partaker in idolatry itself out of compliance with a& 
idel-trous court. 


230 


counsels.” So he gave order that they should 
send some to learn in what city Elisha dwelt. 
Accordingly, those that were sent brought word, 
that he was in Dothan: wherefore Benhadad 
sent to that city a great army, with horses and 
chariots, to take Elisha; so they encompassed 
the city round about by night,and kept him 
therein confined; but when the prophet’s ser- 
vant in the morning perceived this, and that 
his enemies sought to take Elisha, he came run- 
ning, and crying out aftera disordered man- 
mer to him, and told him of it, but he encou- 
raged him, and bid him not be afraid, and to 
despise the enemy, and trust in the assistance 
ot God, and was himself without fear; and he 
besought God to make manifest to his servant 
his power and presence, so far as was possible, 
in order to the inspiring him with hope and cou- 
rage. Accordingly God heard the prayer of 
the prophet, and made the servant seea mul- 
titude of chariots and horses encompassing Eli- 
sha, till he laid aside his fear, and his courage 
revived at the sight of what he supposed was 
come to their assistance. After this Elisha 
did farther entreat God that he would dim the 
eyes of their enemies, and cast a mist before 
them, whereby they might not discern him. 
When this was done, he went into the midst of 
his enemies, and asked them who it was that 
they came to seek; and when they replied, the 

rophet Elisha, he promised he would deliver 
ts to them, if they would follow him to the 
city where he was. So these men were so 
darkened by God in their sight and in their 
mind, that they followed him very diligently, 
and when Elisha had brought them to Sama- 
ria, he ordered Joram the king to shut the gates, 


aud to place his own army round about them; | 


and prayed to God to clear the eyes of these 
their enemies, and take the mist from before 
them. Accordingly, when they were freed 
from the obscurity they had been in, they saw 
themselves in the midst of their enemies; and 
as the Syrians were strangely amazed and dis- 
tressed, as was but reasonable, at an action so 
divine and surprising; and as king Joram asked 
the prophet, if he would give him leave to shoot 
at them, Elisha forbade him so to do, and said, 
that “it is just to kill those that are taken in bat- 
Ue, but that these men had done the country 
no harm, but, without knowing it, were come 
thither by the divine power.” So that his coun- 
sel was to treat them in a hospitable manner at 
nis table, and then send them away without 
hurting them.* Wherefore Joram obeyed the 

rophet; and when he had feasted the Syrians 
in a splendid and magnificent manner, he let 
them go to Benhadad, their king. 

4. Now when these men were come back, 
and had showed Benhadad how strange an ac- 
cident had befallen them, and what an appear- 
ance and power they had experienced of the 

* Upon occasion of this stratagem of Elisha’s in Josephus, 
we may take notice, that although Josephus was one of the 
greatest lovers of truth in the world, yetin a just war he 
seems to have had no manner of scruple upon him by all 
such stratagems possible to deceive public enemies. See 
also Josephus’s account of Jeremiah’s imposition on the 


@eat men of the Jews in somewhat a like case, Antiq. b. 
«.ch. vii. sect.6 and 2 Sam. xvi. 16, &c. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


God of Israel, he wondereu at it, as also at that 
prophet with whom God was so evidently pre- 
sent: so he determined to make no more secret 
attempts upon the king of Israel, out of fear of 
Elisha, but resolved to make open war with 
them, as supposing he could be too hard for his 
enemies by the multitude of his army and pow- 
er. So he made an expedition with a grea. 
army against Joram, who, not thinking himself 
a match for him, shut himself up in Samaria, 
and depended on the strength of its walls; but 
Benhadad supposed he should take the city, if 
not by his engines of war, yet that he should 
overcome the Samaritans by famine, and the 
want of necessaries, and brought his army upon 
them and besieged the city: and the plenty of 
necessaries was brought so low with Joram, 
that from the extremity of want an ass’s head 
was sold in Samaria for forescore pieces of 
silver, and the Hebrews bought a sextary of 
dove’s dung, instead of salt, for five pieces of 
silver. Now Joram was in fear lest somebody. 
should betray the city to the enemy by reason 
of the famine, and went every day round the 
walls and the guards, to see whether any such 
were concealed among them; and by being thus 
seen. and taking such care, he deprived them 
of the opportunity of contriving any such thing, 
and if they had a mind to do it, he, by this means, 
prevented them; but upon a certain woman’s 
crying out, “Have pity on me my lord,” while 
he thought that she was about to ask for some- 
what to eat, he imprecated God’s curse upon 
her, and said, “he had neither threshing- 
floor nor wine-press, whence he might give 
her any thing at her petition.” Upon which she 
said, “She did not desire his aid in any such 
thing, nor trouble him about food, but desired 
that he would do her justice as to another wo- 
man.” And when he bade her say on, and let 
him know what she desired, she said, “She 
had made an agreement with the other woman, 
who was her neighbor and her friend, that be- 
cause the famine and want was intolerable, they 
should kill their children, each of them having 
a son of her own, and we will live upon them 
ourselves for two days, the one day upon one 
son, and the other day upon the other: and, said 
she, | have killed my son the first day, and we 
lived upon my son yesterday, but this other wo- 
man will not do the same thing, but hath brok- 
en her agreement, and hath hid her son.” This 
story mightily grieved Joram when he heard it; — 
so he rent his garment and cried out with @ 
loud voice, and conceived great wrath against 
[lisha the prophet, and set himself eagerly to 


have him slain, because he did not pray te — 
God to provide them some exit and way of es- — 


cape out of the miseries with which they were 
surrounded, and sent one away immediately 


to cut off his head, who made haste to kill — 


the prophet; but Elisha was not unacquainted — 
with the wrath of the king a 

he sat in his house by himself with none but 
his disciples about him, he told them, that Jo- 
ram, who was the son of a murderer,* had sent 


* This son of a murderer was Joram 
which Ahab slew, or permitted his wife J 


inst him; for as 
| 


the son of Ahaby 
ezebe) to say tha 


wa 


‘ 


BOOK 14 —CHAPTER [fv 


yne to take away his head; but, said he, “when 
he that is commanded to do this comes, take 
care thet you do no let him come in, but press 
the door against him, and hold him fast there, 
for the king himself will follow him, and come 
to me, having altered his mind.” Accordingly, 
they did as they were bidden, when he that was 
sent by the king to kill Elisha came; but Jo- 
ram repented of his wrath against the prophet, 
and for fear he that was commanded to kill 
him should have done it before he came, he 
made haste to hinder his slaughter, and to save 
the prophet, and when he came to him, he ac- 
cused him that he did not pray to God for their 
deliverance from the miseries they now lay 
under, but saw them so sadly destroyed by 
them. Hereupon Elisha promised, that the 
very next day, at the very same hour in which 
the king came to him, they should have great 
plenty of food, and that two seahs of barley 
should be sold in the market for a shekel, and 
a seah of fine flour should be sold for ashekel. 
This prediction made Joram, and those that 
were present, very joyful, for they did not scru- 
ple believing what the prophet said, on account 
of the experience they had of the truth of his 
former prediction; and the expectation of plen- 
ty made the want they were in that day, with 
the uneasiness that accompanied it, appear a 
light thing to them: but the captain of the third 
band who was a friend of the king, and on 
whose hand the king leaned, said, “Thou talk- 
est of incredible things, O prophet! for as it is 
impossible for God to pour down torrents of 
barley, or fine flour, out of heaven, so it is im- 
possible that what thou sayest should come to 
_ass.” To which the prophet made this reply, 
‘'Thou shalt see these things come to pass, but 
tiiou shalt not be in the least a partaker of them.” 
5. Now what Elisha had thus foretold, came 
to pass in the manner following: there was a 
law at Samaria,* that those that had the leprosy, 
and whose bodies were not cleansed from it, 
should abide without the city; and there were 
four men that on this account abode before the 
gates, while nobody gave them any food, by 
reason of the extremity of the famine: and as 
they were prohibited from entering into the 
city by the law, and they considered that if 
they were permitted to enter, they should 
miserably perish by the famine; as also, that if 
they staid where they were, they should suffer 
in the same manner, they resolved to deliver 
themselves up to the enemy, that in case they 
should spare them, they should live, but if they 
should be killed, that would be an easy death. 
So when they had confirmed this their resolu- 
tion, they came by night to the enemy’s camp. 
Now God had begun to affright and disturb 
the Syrians, and to bring the noise of chariots 
and armor to their ears, as though an army 
Lord’s prophets, and Naboth, | Kings xviii. 4; xxi. 19: and he 
is here called by this name, I suppose, because he had now 
also himself sent an officer to murder him; yet is Jose- 
us’s account of Joram’s coming himself at last, as repent- 

g of his intended cruelty, much more probable than that in 
eur copies, 2 Kings vi. 33, which rather implies the contrary. 
* This law of the Jews, for the exclusion of lepers out 


@# the cainp in the wilderness, and out of cities in Judea, 
is ® Well known one, Lev. xiii. 46; and Numb. v. 1—4. 


ee | 


were coming upon them, and had made them 
suspect that it was coming nearer and nearer 
to them. Inshort, they were in such a dread 
of this army, that they left their tents, and ran 
together to Benhadad, and said, that “Joram. 
the king of Israel, had hired for auxiliaries, 
both the king of Egypt and the king of the 
islands, and led them against them, for they 
heard the noise of them as they were coming.” 
And Benhadad believed what they said, (for 
there came the same noise to his ears as well 
as it did to theirs,) so they fell into a mighty 
disorder and tumult, and left their horses and 
beasts in their camp, with immense riches also, 
and betook themselves to flight. And those 
lepers who had departed from Samaria, and 
were gone to the camp of the Syrians, of 
whom we made mention a little before, when 
they were in the camp, saw nothing but great 
quietness and silence: accordingly, they enter- 
ed into it, and went hastily into one of their 
tents, and when they saw nobody there, they 
ate and drank, and carried garments and a 
great quantity of gold, and hid it out of the 
camp; after which they went into another tent, 
and carried off what was in it, as they did at 
the former, and this did they for several times, 
without the least interruption from any body. 
So they gathered thereby that the enemies 
were’ departed, whereupon they reproached 
themselves that they did not inform Joram 
and the citizens of it. So they came to the 
walls of Samaria, and called «aloud to the 
watchmen, and told them m what state the eme- 
mies were, as did these tell the king’s guards, 
by whose means Joram came to know of it; 
who then sent for his friends, and the captains 
of his host, and said to them, that “he suspect- 
ed that this departure of the king of Syria was 
by way of ambush and treachery, and that out 
of despair of ruining you by famine, when you 
imagine them to ba fled away, you may come 
out of the city to spoil their camp, atid he may 
then fall upon you on a sudden, and may both 
kili you, and take the city without fighting: 
whence it is that I exhort you to guard the city 
carefully, and by no means to go out of it, or 
proudly to despise your enemies, as though 
they were really gone away.” And when a 
certain person said, that “he did very well and 
wisely to admit such a suspicion, but that he 
still advised him to send a couple of horsemen 
to search all the country, as far as Jordan, that 
if they were seized by an ambush of the ene- 
my, they might be a security to your army, 
that they may not go out as if they suspected 
nothing, nor undergo the like misfortune: and, 
said he, those horsemen may be numbered 
among those that have died by the famine, 
supposing they be caught and destroyed by the 
enemy.” So the king was pleased with his 
opinion, and sent such as might search out the 
truth, who performed their journey over a road 
that was without any enemies, but found it 
full of provisions, and of weapons, that they 
had, therefore, thrown away, and left behind 
them, in order to their being light and expedi- 
tious in their flight. When the king heard 


a2 


this, he sent ont the multitude to take the spoils 
of the camp; which gains of theirs were not 
of things of small value, but they took a great 
quantity of gold, and a great quantity of silver, 
and flocks of all kinds of cattle. They also 
possessed themselves of [so many] ten thou- 
gand measures of wheat and barley, as they 
never in the least dreamed of; and were not 
only freed from their former miseries, but had 
such plenty, that two seahs of barley were 
bought for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour 


for a shekel, according to the prophecy of 


Elisha. Now a seah is equal to an Italian 
modius and a halt’ The captain of the third 
band was the only man that received no benefit 
by this plenty; for as he was appointed by the 
King to oversee the gate, that he might prevent 
too great a crowd of the multitude, that they 
might not endanger one another and perish, 
by treading on one another in the press, he 
suffered himself in that very way, and died in 
that very manner, as Elisha had foretold such 
his death, when he alone of them all disbeliev- 
ed what he said concerning that plenty of pro- 
visions which they should soon have. 


6. Hereupon, when Benhadad, the king of 


Syria, had escaped to Damascus, and under- 
stood that it was God himself that cast all his 
army into this fear and disorder, and that it did 
not arise from the invasion of enemies, he was 
mightily cast down at his having God so greatly 
for his enemy, and fell into adistemper. Now 
it happened that Elisha the prophet, at that 
time, was gone out of his own country to Da- 
mascus, of which Benhadad was informed; he 
sent Hazael the most faithful of all his servants, 
to meet him, and to carry him presents, and 
bade him inquire of him about his distemper, 
and whether he should escape the danger that 
it threatened. So Hazael came to Elisha with 
forty camels, that carried the best and most 
precious fruits that the country of Damascus 
afforded, as well as those which the king’s pa- 
lace supplied. He saluted him kindly, and 
said, that “he was sent to him by king Benhadad, 
and brought presents with him, in order to in- 
quire concerning his distemper, whether he 
should recover from it or not?” Whereupon 
the prophet bade him tell the king no melan- 
choly news, but still he said he would die. So 
the king’s servant was troubled to hear it; and 
Elisha wept also, and his tears ran down plen- 
teously at his foresight of what miseries his 

eople would undergo after the death of Ben- 

adad. And when Hazael asked him, what 
was the occasion of this confusion he was in? 
he said,that “he wept out of commiseration 
for the multitude of the Israelites, and what 
terrible miseries they will suffer by thee; for 
thou wilt slay the strongest of them, and wilt 
burn their strongest cities, and wilt destroy 
their children, and dash them against the stones, 
and wilt rip up their women with child.” And 
when Hazael said, “How can it be that I should 
have power enough to do such things?” The 
prophet replied, “That God had informed him 
that he should be king of Syria.” So when 
Hazael was come to Penhadad he told him 





NTIQUITIES OF THE J&WS. 4 


good news concerning his distemper,* but om 
the next day he spread a wet cloth in the na 
ture of a net over him, and strangled him, and 
took his dominion. He was an active man, 
and had the good will of the Syrians, and of 
the people of Damascus, to a great degree; by 
whom both Benhadad himself, and Hazaei, 
who ruled after him, are honored to this day 
as gods by reason of their benefactions, aad 
their building them temples, by which they 
adorned the city of the Damascenes. They 
also every day do with great pomp pay their 
worship to these kingst and value themselves 
upon their antiquity; nor do they know that 
these kings are much later than they imagine, 
and that they are not yet eleven hundred years 
old. Now when Joram, the king of Israel 
heard that Benhadad was dead, he recovered 
out of the terror and dread he had been in on 
his account, and was very glad to live in peace. 


CHAPTER V. 


Concerning the wickedness of Jehoram king of 
Jerusalem. His defeat and death. . 


§ 1. Now Jehoram, the king of Jerusalem, 
for we have said before that he had the same 
name with the king of Israel, as soon as he 
had taken the government upon him, betook © 
himself to the slaughter of his brethren, and 
his father’s friends, who were governors under 
him, and thence made a beginning, and a de- 
monstration of his wickedness; nor was he at all 
better than those kings of Israel who at first 
transgressed against the laws of their country 
and of the Hebrews, and against God’s worship, 
And it was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, 
whom he had married, who taught him to be 
a bad man in other respects, and also to wor- 
ship foreign gods. Now God would not quite 
root out this family, because of the promise he 
had made to David. However, Jehoram did — 
not leave off the introduction of new sorts of 
customs, to the propagation of impiety, and to 
the ruin of the customs of his own country. 
And when the Edemites about that time had 
revolted from him, and slain their former king, 
who was in subjection to his father, and had — 
set up one of his own choosing, Jehoram fell 


* Since Elijah did not live to anoint Hazael king of Syria — 
himself, as he was empowered to do, 1 Kings xix. 15, it was 
most probably now done, in his name, by his servant and 
successor Elisha; nor does it seem to me otherwise, bu 
that Benhadad immediately recovered of his disease, as the 
prophet foretold; and that Hazael, upon his being anointed 
to succee. him, though he ought to have staid till he died hy _ 
the course of nature, or some other way of divine punish — 
ment, as did David for many years in the like case, was too — 
impatient, and the very next day smothered or strangled him, 
in order to come directly to the succession. 

t What M. LeClere pretends here, that it is more probable 
that Hazael and his son were worshipped by the Syrians, 
and people of Damascus, till the days of Josephus, than 
Benhadad and Hazael, because under Benhadad they had 
greatly suffered, and because it is almost incredible, that — 
both a king, and that king’s murderer should be worshipped 
by the same Syrians, is of little force against those records — 
out of which Josephus drew this history, especially when 
it is likely that they thought Benhadad died of the distem 
per he labored under, and not by Hazael’s treachery. Be _ 
sides, the reason that Josephus gives for this adoration, thaf 
these two kings had been great benefactors to theinhabitants 
of Damascus, and had built them temples, is too remote from | 
the political suspicions of LeClerc, nor ought such weak — 
suspicions to be deemed of any force against authentic tee 


timomes of antiquity. i | 


BOOK I[X.—CHAPTER VI. 


“pon the land of Edom with the horsemen 
that were about him, and the chariots by night, 
and destroyed those that lay near to his own 
kingdom, but did not proceed further. How- 
ever, this expedition did him no service, for 
they all revolted from him, with those that 
dwelt in the country of Libnah. He was in- 
deed so mad, as to compel the people to go up 
to the high places of the mountains, and wor- 
ship foreign gods. 

2, And as he was doing this, and had entire- 
y cast his own country laws out of his mind, 
there was brought him an epistle from Elijah 
_ the prophet,* which declared that “God would 

execute great judgments upon him, because he 
had not imitated his own fathers, but had fol- 
lowed the wicked courses of the kings of Israel; 
and had compelled the tribe of Judah, and the 
citizens of Jerusalem, to leave the holy wor- 
ship of their own God, and to worship idols, as 
Ahab had compelled the Israelites to do, and 
_ because he had slain his brethren, and the men 
that were good and righteous.” And the pro- 

het gave him notice in this epistle, what pun- 
ishment he should undergo for these crimes, 
namely, “the destruction of his people, with 
the corruption of the king’s own wives and 
eliildren, and that he should himself die of a 
distemper in his bowels, with long torments, 
those his bowels falling out by the violence of 
the inward rottenness of the parts, insomuch, 
that though he see his own misery, he shall 
net be able at all to help himself, but shall die 
in that manner.” This it was which Elijah 
denounced to him in that epistle. 

3. It was not long after this that an army of 
those Arabians that lived near to Ethiopia, and 
of the Philistines, fell upon the kingdom of 
Jchoram, and spoiled the country and the king’s 
house; moreover, they slew his sons and his 
wives: one only of his sons was left him, who 
escaped the enemy; his name was Ahaziah: af- 
ter which calamity, he himself fell into that 
disease which was foretold by the prophet, and 
lasted a great while, (for God inflicted this 
punishment upon him in his belly, out of his 
wrath against him,) and so he died miserably, 
and saw his own bowels fall out. The people 
also abused his dead body: I suppose it was 
because they thought that such his death came 
upon him by the wrath of God, and that there- 
fore he was not worthy to partake of such a 
funeral as became kings. Accordingly, they 
neither buried him in the sepulchres of his 
fathers, nor vouchsafed him any honors, but 
buried him like a private man, and this when 
he had lived forty years, and reigned eight: 
and the people of Jerusalem delivered the go- 
vernment to his son Ahaziah. 


CHAPTER VI. 


“How Jehu was anointed king, and slew both Jo- 
ram and Ahaziah; as also what he did for the 
pumshment of the wicked. 

1. Now Joram the king of Israel, after the 
death of Benhadad, hoped that he might now 


* This epistle, in some copies of Josephus, is said to come 
#® Joram from Elijah, with this addition, for he was yet upon 


. 


carte 
take Ramoth, a city of Gilead, from the Syrians 

Accordingly, he made an expedition against it, 
with a great army: but as he was besieging it, 
an arrow was shot at him by one of the Sy- 
rians, but the wound was not mortal: so he re- 
turned to have his wound healed in Jezreel, 
but left his whole army in Ramoth, and Jehu 
the son of Nimshi for their general, for he had 
already taken the city by force; and he pro- 
posed, after he was healed, to make war with 
the Syrians; but Elisha the prophet sent one of 
his disciples to Ramoth, and gave him holy oil 
to anoint Jehu, and to tell him, that God had 
chosen him to be their king. Healso sent him 
to say other things to him, and bade him take 
his journey as if he fled, that when he came 
away, he might escape the knowledge ofall men. 
So when he was come to the city, he found Jehu 
sitting in the midst of the captains of the army, 
as Elisha had foretold he should find him. So 
he came up to him and said, that he desired to 
speak with him about certain matters; and when 
he was arisen, and had followed him into an in- 
ward chamber, the young man took the oil, 
and poured it on his head, and said, that “God 
ordained him to be king, in order to his de 

stroying the house of Ahab, and that he might 
revenge the blood of the prophets, that were 
unjustly slain by Jezebel, that so their house 
might utterly perish, as those of Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, and of Baasha, had perished 
for their wickedness, and no seed might re- 
main of Ahab’s family.” So when he had said 
this, he went away hastily out of the chamber, 
and endeavored not to be seen by any of the 
army. 

2. But Jehu came out, and went to the place 
where he before sat with the captains: and 
when they asked him, and desired him to tell 
them, wherefore it was that this young man 
came to him; and added withall that he was 
mad; he replied, “You guess right, for the words 
he spoke were the words of a madman:” and 
when they were eager about the matter, and 
desired he would tell them, he answered, that 
God had said, “he had chosen him to be king 
over the multitude.” When he had said this, 
every one of them put off his garment,* and 
strewed it under him, and blew with trumpets, 
and gave notice that Jehu was king. So when 
he had gotten the army together, he was pre- 
paring to set out immediately against Joram 
at the city of Jezreel, in which city, as we said 
before, he was healing of the wound which 
he had received in the siege of Ramoth. It 
happened also that Ahaziah, king of Jerusa- 
lem, was now come to Joram, for he was his 
sister’s son, as we have said already, to see how 
he did after his wound, and this upon account 
of their kindred; but as Jehu was desirous to 
fall upon Joram and those with him on the 
earth, which could not be true of Elijah, who, as all agre 
was gone from the earth about four years before, and couh 
only be true of Elisha; nor perhaps is there any more mys- 
tery here, than that the name of Elijah has very anciently 
crept into the text instead of Elisha, by the copiers, there be- 
ing nothing in any copy of that epistle peculiar to Elijah. 

* Spanheim here notes, that this putting off men’s gar 


ments, and strew ing them under a king, was an eastein cus 
tom which he had elsewhere explained. 


ANTIQUITLES OF THE JEWS 1 
Jehu to Megiddo, and though he vas under — 


cure, ina little time he died of that wound, and 
was carried to Jerusalem, and buried there, af- _ 


54 


sudden, ne desired that none of the soldiers 
night run away and tell to Joram what had 


yappened, for that this would be an evident 
demonstration of their kindness to him, and 
would show that their real inclinations were 
to make him king. 

3. So they were pleased with what he did, 
and guarded the roads, lest somebody should 
privately tell the thing to those that were at 
Jezreel. Now Jehu took his choice horsemen, 
and sat upon his chariot, and went on for Jez- 
reel; and when he was come near, the watch- 
man whom Joram had set there to spy out such 
as c71me to the city, saw Jehu marching on, and 
told Joram that he saw a troop of horsemen 
marching on. Upon which he immediately 
gave orders, that one of his horsemen should 
be sent out to meet them, and to know who it 
was that was coming. So when the horse- 
man came up to Jehu, he asked him, in what 
condition the army was? for that the king want- 
ed to know it; but Jehu bade him not at all to 
meddle with such matters, but to follow him. 
When the watchman saw this, he told Jorain 
that the horseman had mingled himself among 
the company, and came along with them. And 
when the king had sent a second messenger, 
Jehu commanded him to do as the former 
did; assoon as the watchman told this also to 
Joram, he at last got upon his chariot himself, 
together with Ahaziah, the king of Jerusalem; 
for, as we said before, he was there to see how 
Joram did, after he had been wounded, as be- 
ing his relation. So he went out to meet Jehu, 
who marched slowly,* and in good order; and 
when Joram met him in the field of Naboth, 
he asked him if all things were well in the 
camp? but Jehu reproached him bitterly, and 
ventured to call his mother a witch and a har- 
lot. Upon this the king, fearing what he in- 
tended, and suspecting he had no good mean- 
ing, turned his chariot about as soon as he 
could, and said to Ahaziah, “We are fought 
against by deceit and treachery:” but Jehu drew 
his bow, and smote him, the arrow going 
through his heart; so Joram fell down immedi- 
ately on his knee, and gave upthe ghost. Jehu 
also gave orders to Bidkar, the captain of the 
third part of his army, to cast the dead body 
of Joram into the field of Naboth, putting him 
in mind of the prophecy which Elijah prophe- 
sied to Ahab his father, when he had slain Na- 
both, that both he and _ his family should per- 
ish in that place, for that as they sat behind 
Ahab’s chariot, they heard the prophet say so, 
aud that it was now come to pass according to 
his prophecy. Upon the fall of Joram, Aha- 
ziah was afraid of his own life, and turned his 
ehariot into another road, supposing he should 
not be seen by Jehu; but he followed after him, 
and overtook him at a certain acclivity, and 


ter he had reigned one year, and had proved # 
wicked man, and worse than his father. 

4. Now when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Je 
zebel adorned herself, and stood upon a tower 
and said, “he was a fine servant that had killea 
his master.” And when he looked up to her 
he asked who she was, and commanded her to © 
come down to him. At last he ordered the 
eunuchs tothrow her down from the tower, 
and being thrown down she besprinkled the 
wall with her blood, and was trodden upon by 
the horses, and so died. When this was done, 
Jehu came to the palace with his friends, and 
took some refreshment after his journey, both 
with other things, and by eating a meal. He 
also bade his servants to take up Jezebel and 
bury her, because of the nobility of her blood, 
for she was descended from kings; but those 
that were appointed to bury her feund nothing 
else remaining but the extreme parts of her 
body, for all the rest were eaten by dogs. When 
Jehu heard this, he admired the prophecy of 
Elijah, for he foretold that she should perish in 
this manner at Jezreel. 

©. Now Ahab had seventy sons brought up 
in Samaria. So Jehu sent two epistles, the 
one to them that brought up the children, the 
other to the rulers of Samaria, which said, that 
“they should set up the most valiant of Ahab’s 
sons for king, for that they had abundance of 
chariots, and horses, and armor, and a great 
army, and fenced cities, and that by so doing 
they might avenge the murder of Ahab.” This 
he wrote to try the intentions of those of Sa- 
maria. Now when the rulers, and those that 
had brought up the children, had read the let- 
ter, they were afraid, and considering that they 
were not at all able to oppose him, and that he 
had already subdued two very great kings, they 
returned him this answer, that “they owned 
him for their lord, and would do whatsoever 
he bade them.” So he wrote back to them 
such a reply as enjoined them to obey what hie 
gave order for, and to cut off the heads of 
Ahab’s sons, and send them to him. Accord- 
ingly, the rulers sent for those that brought up — 
the sons of Ahab, and commanded them to 
slay them, to cut off their heads, and send them 
to Jehu. So they did whatsoever they were 
commanded, without omitting any thing at all, 
and put them up in wicker baskets, and sent 
them to Jezreel. And when Jehu, as he was 
at supper with his friends, was informed thar — 
the heads of Ahab’s sons were brought, he or- 
dered them to make two heaps of them, one — 
before each of the gates, and in the morning 
he went out to take a view of them, and when 
he saw them, he began to say to the people 


drew his bow and wounded him, so he left his 
chariot, and got upon his horse, and fled from 


that were present, that “he did himself make — 
an expedition against his master [Joram,] and — 


horsemen, one after another, to Jehu, and at length to go owt 
with king Ahaziah to meet him, and all this after he was — 
furiously ’>2 Kings ix. 2U; whereas Josephus’s copy, as he | come within sight of the watchman, and before he was come — 
understood it, was this, that, on the contrary, Jehu marched | to Jezreel, the probability is greatly on the side of Josephus’s — 
elowly, and in good order. Nor can it be denied, that since | copy or interpretation. ss 
there was interval eiough for king Joram to send vut two ; 7 3 


* Our copies say, that this “driving of the chariots was 
ke the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth 


BOOK IX.— CHAPTER VIL. 


slew him, but that it was not he that. slew all 
these: and he desired them to take notice, that 
as tc Ahab’s family, all things had come to 
pe according to God’s prophecy, and _ his 

ouse was perished, according as Elijah had 
foretold.” And when he had further destroyed 
all the kindred of Ahab that were found in 
Jezreel, he went to Samaria; and as he was 
upon the road, he met the relations of Ahaziah 
king of Jerusalem, and asked them, whither 
they were going? tney replied, that they came 
to salute Joram, and their own king Ahaziah; 
for they knew not that he had slain them both: 
so Jehu gave orders that they should catch 
these, and kill them, being in number forty- 
two persons. 

6. After these, there met him a good and a 
righteous man, whose name was Jehonadab, 
and who had been his friend of old. He sa- 
luted Jehu, and began to commend him, be- 
cause he had done every thing according to 
the will of God, in extirpating the house of 
Ahab. So Jehu desired him to come up into 
his chariot, and make his entry with him into 
Samaria; and told him, that “he would not 
spare one wicked man, but would punish the 
false prophets, and false priests, and those that 
deceived the multitude, and persuaded thein to 
leave the worship of God Almighty, and to 
worship foreign gods; and that it was a most 
excellent and a most pleasing sight to a good 
and righteous man to see the wicked punished.” 
So0 Jehonadab was persuaded by these argu- 
ments, and came up into Jehu’s chariot, and 
came to Samaria. And Jehu sought out for all 
Ahab’s kindred, and slew them. And being 
desirous that none of the false prophets, nor 
the priests of Ahab’s god, might escape punish- 
ment, he caught them deceitfully by this wile: 
for he gathered all the people together and 
said, that “he would worship twice as many 
gods as Ahab worshipped, and desired that his 
priests, and prophets, and servants might be 


present, because he would offer costly and great 


sacrifices to Ahab’s god, and that if any of his 
priests were wanting, they should be punished 
with death.” Now Ahab’s god was called 
Baal. And when he had appointed a day on 
Which he would offer these sacrifices, he sent 
messengers through all the country of the 
Israelites, that they might bring the priests of 
Baal to him. So Jehu commanded to give all 
the priests vestments; and when they had re- 
ceived them, he went into the house [of Baal, ] 
with his friend Jehonadab, and gave orders to 
make search whether there were not any fo- 
eigner or stranger among them, for he would 
mave no one of a different religion to mix 
among their sacred offices. And when they 
said that there was no stranger there, and they 
Were beginning their sacrifices, he set four- 
score men without, they being such of his sol- 
diers as he knew to be most faithful to him, 
and bade them slay the prophets, and now 
vindicate the laws of their country, which had 
been a long time in disesteem. He also threat- 
ened, that if any one of them escaped, their 
own lives should go for them. So they slew 





235; 
them all with the sword, and burnt the house 
of Baal; and by that means purged Samaria of 
foreign customs, [idolatrous worship.] Now 
this Baal was the god of the Tyrians; and 
Ahab, in order to gratify his father-in-law, 
Ethbaal, who was the king of Tyre and Sidon, 
built a temple for him in Samaria, and appoint- 
ed him prophets, and worshipped him with all 
sorts of worship, although, when this god was 
demolished, Jehu permitted the Israelites to 
worship the golden heifers. However, because 
he had done thus, and taken care to punish 
the wicked, God foretold by his prophet, that 
his sons should reign over Israel for four 
generations: and in this condition was Jehu at 
this time. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How Athaliah reigned over Jerusalem for five 
[six] years, when Jehowada, the high priest 
slew her, and made Jehoash, the son of Ahazr- 
ah king. 

§ 1. Now when Athaliah, the daughter of 
Ahab, heard of the death of her brother Jo- 
ram, and of her son Ahaziah, and of the royal 
family, she endeavored that none of the house 
of David might be left alive, but that the whole 
family might be exterminated, that no king 
might arise out of it afterward; and, as she 
thought she had actually done it; but one of 
Ahaziah’s sons was preserved who escaped 
death after the manner following: Ahaziah had 
a sister by the same father, whose name was 
Jehosheba, and she was married to the high 
priest, Jehoiada. She went into the king’s pa- 
lace, and found Jehoash for that was the little 
child’s name, who was not above a year oli, 
among those that were slain, but concealed 
with his nurse; so she took him with her into 
a secret bedchamber, and shut him up there, 
and she and her husband, Jehoiada, brought 
him up privately, in the temple six years, du- 
ring which time Athaliah reigned over Jerusa- 
Jem, and the two tribes, 

2, Now, on the seventh year, Jehoiada cont 
municated the matter to certain of the captains 
of hundreds, five in number, and persuaded 
them to be assisting to what attempts he was 
making against Athaliah, and to join with him 
in asserting the kingdom to the child. He also 
received such oaths from them as are proper 
to secure those that assist one another from the 
fear of discovery; and he was then of good 
hope that they should depose Athaliah. Now 
those men whom Jehoiada, the priest, had ta- 
ken to be his partners, went into all the coun- 
try, and gathered together the priests and the 
Levites, and’ the heads of the tribes out of it, 
and came and brought them to Jerusalem, te 
the high priest. So le demanded the security 
of anoath of them, to keep private whatsoever 
he should discover to them, which required 
both their silence and their assistance. Se 
when they had taken the oath, and had thereby 
made it safe for him to speak, he produced the 
child that he had brought up of the family of 
David, and said to them, “this is your king, of 
that house which you know God hath foretole 


236 


should reign over you for all time to come: I 
exhort you, therefore, that one-third part of 
you guard him in the temple, and that a fourth 
part keep watch at all the gates of the temple, 
and that the next part of you keep guard at the 
gate which opens and leads to the king’s pa- 
pe and let the rest of the multitude be unarm- 
ed in the temple, and let no armed person go 
into the temple but the priest only.” He also 
gave them this order besides, that a part of the 
pa and the Levites should be about the 

ing himself, and be a guard to him, with their 
drawn swords, and to kill that man immediate- 
ly, whoever he be, that should be so bold as to 
enter armed into the temple, and bade them be 
afraid of nobody, but persevere in guarding the 
king.” So these men obeyed what the high 
priest, advised them to, and declared the reali- 
ty of their resolution by their actions. Jehoi- 
ada also opened that armory which David had 
made in the temple, and distributed to the cap- 
tains of hundreds, as also to the priests and 
Levites, all the spears and quivers, and what 
kind of weapons soever it contained, and set 
them armed in acircle round about the temple, 
so as to touch one another’s hands, and by that 
means excluding those from entering that 
ought not to enter. So they brought the child 
ito the midst of them, and put on him the roy- 
al crown, and Jehoiada anointed him with the 
oil, and made him king; and the multitude re- 
joiced, and made a noise, and cried “God save 
the king!” 

3. When Atnaliah unexpectedly heard the 
tumult and the acclamations, she was greatly 
disturbed in her mind, and suddenly issued out 
of the royal palace with her own army; and 
when she was come to the temple, the priests 
riceived her, but as for those that stood round 
alout the temple, as they were ordered by the 
high priest to do, they hindered the armed men 
that followed her from going in. But when 
Athaliah saw the child standing upon a pillar, 
with the royal crown upon his head, she rent 
hur clothes, and cried out vehemently, and com- 
n anded [her guards] to kill him that had laid 
siiares for her, and endeavored to deprive her 
oj the government: but Jehoiada called for the 
captains of hundreds, and commanded them 
to bring Athaliah to the valley of Cedron, and 
slay her there, for he would not have the tem- 
ple defiled with the punishment of this perni- 
cious woman; and he gave order, that if any 
one came near to help her, he should be slain 
also; wherefore those that had the charge of 
her slaughter, took hold of her, and led her to 
the gate of the king’s mules, and slew her 
there. 

4. Now as soon as what concerned Athaliah 
was by this stratagem, after this manner des- 
patched, Jehoiada called together the people 
and the armed men into the temple, and made 
them take an oath that they would be obedient 
to the king, and take care of his safety, and of 
the safety of his government; after’ which he 
obliged the king to give security [upon oath] that 
he would worship God, and not transgress the 
‘aws 0° Moses. Thev then ran to the house of 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


Baal, which Athaliah and her husband Jehoraza 
had built, to the dishonor of the God of tne 
fathers, and to the honor of Ahab, and demo- 
lished it, and slew Matan, that had his priest 
hood. But Jehoiada intrusted the care and cus- 
tody of the temple to the priests and Levites, ac- 
cording to the appointment of king David, and 
enjoined them to bring their regular burnt-offer- 
ings twice a day, and to offer incense according 
to thelaw. He also ordained some of the Le- 
vites, with the porters, to be a guard to the tem 

ple, that no one that was defiled might come 
there. 

5. And when Jehoiada had set these thm 
in order, he, with the captains of hundreds, 
and the rulers, and all the people, took Jehoash 
out of the temple into the king’s palace, and 
when he had set him upon the king’s throne, 
the people shouted for joy, and betook them- 
selves to feasting, and kept a festival for many 
days; but the city was quiet upon the death of 
Athaliah. Now Jehoash was seven years old 
when he took the kingdom: his mother’s name 
was Zibiah, of the city Beersheba. And all the 
time that Jehoiada lived, Jehoash was careful 
that the laws should be kept, and very zealous 
in the worship of God; and when he was of 
age, he married two wives, who were given to 
to him by the high priest, by whom were born 
to him both sons and daughters. And thus 
much shall suffice to have related concerning 
king Jehoash, how he escaped the treachery 
of Athaliah, and how he received the kingdom, 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Hazael makes an expedition against the people 
of Israel, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem 
Jehu dies, and Jehoahaz succeeds in the go- 


vernment. Jehoash, the king of Jerusalem, at 


Jirst is careful about the worship of God, but 
afterward becomes impious, and commands Za- 
chariah to be stoned. When Jehoash [king o 
Judah] was dead, Amaziah succeeds him in t 
kingdom. 

§ 1. Now Hazael, king of Syria, fought 
against the Israelites and their king Jehu, and 
spoiled the eastern parts of the country beyond 
Jordan, which belonged to the Reubenites and 


Gadites, and to [the half tribe of ] Manassites: — 
as also Gilead and Bashan, burning and spoil — 


ing, and offering violence to all that he laid his 
hands on; and this without impeachment from 


Jehu, who made no haste to defend the coun- — 


try when it was under this distress: nay, he 
was become a contemner of religion, and a_ 
despiser of holiness, and of the laws; and died 
when he had reigned over the Israelites twenty- 


! 
; 


seven years. He was buried in Samaria; and © 


left Jehoahaz, his son, his successor in the go- _ 


vernment. 


2. Now Jehoash, king of Jerusalem, had an — 


inclination to repair the temple of God; so he 
called Jehoiada, and bade him send the Levites 


and priests through all the country, to require — 


half'a shekel of silver for every head, towards 


the rebuilding and repairing of the toma aI 


which was brought to decay by Jehoram, an 


Athaliah, and her sons. But the high priest _ 







| 
j 


a Bl 


BOOK IX.—CHAPTER VIIL 


did not do this, as conciuding that no one would 
willingly pay that money; but on the twenty- 
third year of Jehoash’s reign, when the king 
sent for him and the Levites, and complained 
that they had not obeyed what he enjoined 
them, and still commanded them to take care 
of the rebuilding the temple, he used this stra- 
tagem for collecting the money, with which the 
multitude was pleased. He made a wooden 
chest, and closed it up fast on all sides, but open- 
ed one hole in it; he then set it in the temple 
beside the altar, and desired every one to cast 
into it, through the hole, what he pleased, for 
the repair of the temple. ‘This contrivance 
was acceptable to the people, and they strove 
one with another, and brought injointly large 
quantities of silver and gold: and when the 
scribe and the priest that were over the trea- 
suries had emptied the chest, and counted the 
money in the king’s presence, they then set it 
in its former place, and thus did they every day. 
But when the multitude appeared to have cast 
ijn as much as was wanted, the high priest Je- 
hoiada, and king Jehoash, sent to hire masons 
and carpenters, and to buy large pieces of tim- 
ber, and of the most curious sort; and when 
they had repaired the temple, they made use of 
the remaining gold and silver, which was not a 
little, for bowls, and basins, and cups, and other 
vessels, and they went on to make the altar 
every day fat with sacrifices of great value. 
And these things were taken suitable care of, 
as long as Jehoiada lived. 

3. But as soon as he was dead, which was 
when he had lived one hundred and thirty years, 
having been a righteous, and in every respecta 
very good man, he was buried in the king’s se- 
pulchre at Jerusalem, (because he had recover- 
ed the kingdom to the family of David,) king 
Jehoash betrayed at of | care about God. 
The principal men of the people were corrupt- 
ed also together with him, and offended against 
their duty, and what their constitution deter- 
mined to be most for their good. Hereupon 
God was displeased with the change that was 
made on the king, and on the rest of the people; 
and sent prophets to testify to them what their 
actions were, and to bring them to leave off their 
wickedness: but they had gotten such a strong 
affection and so violent an inclination to it; that 
neither could the examples of those that had of- 
fered affronts to the laws, and had been so se- 


-verely punished, they and their entire families, 
norcould the fear of what the prophets now 


foretold, bring them to repentance, and turn 


‘them back from their course of transgression 


i 


 Jehoiada, should be stoned to death in the tem- 


to their former duty. But the king command- 
ed that Zachariah, the son of the high priest 


pie, and forgot the kindnesses he had received 
from his father; for when God had appointed 
‘him to prophesy, he stood in the midst of the 


multitude, and gave this counsel to them and 
and foretold to them, that if they would not 


to the king, that they should act righteously, 


hearken to his admonitions, they should suffer 


‘a heavy punishment: but as Zachariah was 


rf 
ee 


237 


of what he suffered, for the gvod counsel he 
had given them, and how he perished after a 
most severe and violent manner for the good 
deeds his father had done to Jehoash. 

4, However, it was not long before the king 
suffered punishment for his transgression: for 
when Hazael, king of Syrit, made an irrup- 
tion into his country, and when he had over- 
thrown Gath, and spoiled it, he made an expe- 
dition against Jerusalem: upon which Jehoash 
was afraid, and emptied all the treasures of 
God, and of the kings [before him,] and took 
down the gifts that had been dedicated, [in the, 
temple,] and sent them to the king of Syria, 
and procured so much by them, that he was 
not besieged, nor his kingdom quite endanger- 
ed, but Hazael was induced by the greatness of 
the sum of money not to bring his army against 
Jerusalem: yet Jehoash fell into a severe dis- 
temper, and was set upon by his friends, in or- 
der to revenge the death of Zachariah the son 
of Jehoiada. These laid snares for the king, and 
slew him. He was indeed buried in Jerusa- 
lem, but not in the royal sepulchres of his fore- 
fathers, because of hisimpiety. He lived forty 
seven years, and Amaziah his son succeeded 
him in the kingdom. 

5. In the one-and-twentieth year of the reign 
of Jehoash, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, took 
the government of the Israelites in Samaria, 
and held it seventeen years. He did not [pro- 
perly] imitate his father, but was guilty of as 
wicked practices as those that first had Ged in 
contempt: but the king of Syria brought him 
low, and by an expedition against him, did so 
greatly reduce his forces, that there remained 
no more of so great an army than ten thousand 
armed men, and fifty horsemen. He also teok 
away from him his great cities, and many of 
them also, and destroyed his army. And these 
were the things that the people of Israel suffer- 
ed, according to the prophecy of Elisha, when 
he foretold that Hazael should kill his master, 
and reign over the Syrians and Damascenes. 
But when Jehoahaz was under such unavoida- 
ble miseries, he had recourse to prayer and 
supplication to God, and besought him to de- 
liver him out of the hands of Hazael, and not 
overlook him, and give him up into his hands. 
Accordingly, God accepted of his repentance 
instead of virtue, and being desirous rather to 
admonish those that might repent, and not to 
determine that they should be utterly destroy 
ed, he granted him deliverance from war and 
dangers. So the country, having obtained 
peace, returned again to its former condition, 
and flourished as before. 

6. Now, after the death of Jehoahaz, his son 
Joash took the kingdom, in the thirty-seventh 
year of Jehoash, the king of the tribe of Ju- 
dah. This Joash then took the kingdom of 
Israel in Samaria, for he had the same name 
with the king of Jerusalem, and he retained the 
kingdom sixteen years. He was a good man, 
and in his disposition not at all like his father.* 


* This character of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, that “he 
was a good man, and in his disposition not at all like his 


( ready todie, he appealed to God, asa witness | father, seems a direct contradiction to our ordinary copies; 
¥ ’ PP ) 


238 


_ Now at this time it was, that when Elisha the 
prophet, who was already very old, and was 
now fallen into a disease, the king of Israel 
came to visit him; and when he found him 
very near death, he began to weep in his sight, 
and Jament, to call him his father, and his wea- 
pons, because it was by his means that he never 
made use of his weapons against his enemies, 
but that he overcame his own adversaries by 
his prophecies, without fighting; and that he 
was now departing this life, and leaving him 
to the Syrians, that were already armed, and 
to other enemies of his that were under their 
ower: so he said it was not safe for him to 
ive any longer, but that it would be well for 
him to hasten to his end, and depart out of 
this life with him. As the king was thus be- 
moaning himself, Elisha comforted him, and 
oade the king bend a_ bow that was brought 
him, and when the king had fitted the bow for 
shooting, Elisha took hold of his hands and 
bade him shoot; and when he had shot three 
arrows, and then left off, Elisha said, “If thou 
hadst shot more arrows, thou hadst cut the 
kingdom of Syria up by the roots, but since 
thou hast been satisfied with shooting three 
times only, thou shalt fight and beat the Sy- 
rinns no more times than three, that thou mayest 
recover that country which they cut off from 
thy kingdom in the reign of thy father.” So 
when the king had heard that, he departed, 
and a little while after, the prophet died. He 
was a man celebrated for righteousness; and 
in eminent favor with God. He also perform- 
ed wonderful and surprising works by pro- 
phecy, and such as were gloriously preserved 
in memory among the Hebrews. He also ob- 
tained a magnificent funeral, such a one in- 
deed as it was fit a person so beloved of God 
should have. It also happened, that at that 
time certain robbers cast a man whom they 
had slain into: Elisha’s grave, and, upon his 
dead body coming close to Elisha’s body, it 
revived again. And thus far have we en- 
larged about the actions of Elisha the pro- 
phet, both such as he did while he was alive, 
and how he had a divine power after his death 
also. 

7. Now upon the death of Hazael, the king 
of Syria, that kingdom came to Adad his son, 
with whom Joash king of Israel made war, and 
when he had beaten him in three battles, he 
took from him all that country, and all those ci- 
ties and villages which his father Hazael had 
taken from the kingdom of Israel, which came 
to pass, however, according to the prophecy of 
Elisha. But when Joash happened to die, he 
was buried in Samaria, and the government de- 
volved on his son Jeroboam. 


which say, 2 Kings xiii. 11, that “he did evil in the sight 
2f the Lord; and that he departed not from all the sins of 
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, he walk- 
ed therein.”? Which copies are here the truest it is hard pos- 
itively to determine. If Josephus’s be true, this Joash is the 
single instance of a good king over the ten tribes: if the 
other be true, wé have not one suchexample. The account 
that follows, in all copies, of Elisha the prophet’s concern for 
kim and his concern for Elisha, greatly favor Josephus’s co- 
pies, and suppose this king to have been then a good man, and 
no idolater, with whom God’s prophet used not to be so fa- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


CHAPTER IX. q 


Hew Amaziah made an expedition against the 
Edomites and Amvalebioa and conquered them, — 
but when he afterward made war against Jo- 
ash, he was beaten, and not long after was 
slain, and Uzziah succeeded in the government, 


§ 1. Now in the second year of the reign of ° 
Joash over Israel, Amaziah reigned over the \ 
tribe of Judah at Jerusalem. His mother’s 
name was Jehohaddan, who was born at Je- 
rusalem. He was exceedingly careful in do-— 
ing what was right, and this when he was very - 
young; but when he came to the management of 
affairs, and to the government, he resolved tha 
he ought first of all to avenge his father Jeho- 
ash, and to punish those his friends that had 
laid violent hands upon him; so he seized 
upon them all, and put them to death, yet did 
he execute no severity upon their children, but 
acted therein according to the laws of Moses, 
who did not think it just to punish children for 
the sins of their fathers. After this he chose 
him an army out of the tribe of Judah and 
Benjamin, of such as were in the flower of 
their age, and about twenty years old; and 
when he had collected about three hundred 
thousand of them together, he set captains of © 
hundreds over them. He also sent to the king 
of Israel, and hired a hundred thousand of his 
soldiers for a hundred talents of silver, for he 
had resolved to make an expedition against the - 
nations of the Amalekites and Edomites, and — 
Gebalites: but as he was preparing for his expe- 
dition, and ready to go out to the war, a prophet 
gave him counsel to dismiss the army of the 
Israelites, because they were bad men, and be- 
cause God foretold that he should be beaten, it 
he made use of them as auxiliaries; but that he 
should overcome his enemies, though he had 
but a few soldiers, when it so pleased God. 
And when the king grudged at his having al- 
ready paid the hire of the Israelites, the pro-— 
phet exhorted him to do what God would have — 
him, because he should thereby obtain much — 
wealth from God. So he dismissed them, and — 
said, that he still freely gave them their pay — 
and went himself with his own army, and — 
made war with the nations before mentioned, — 
and when he had beaten them in battle, he slew — 
of them ten thousand, and took as many pré — 
soners alive, whom he brought to the great rock ~ 
which is in Arabia, and threw them down — 
from it headlong. He also brought away a_ 
great deal of prey, and vast riches, from those 
nations. But while Amaziah was engaged mm 
this expedition, those Israelites whom he hadi 
hired, and then dismissed, were very uneasy at — 
it, and taking their dismission for an affront, as 


miliar. Upon the whole, since it appears, even by Josephus’ 
own account, that Amaziah, the good king of Judah, while 
he was a good king, was forbidden to make use of the 400,008 
auxiliaries he had hired of this Joash, the king of Israel as — 
if he and they were then idolaters, 2 Chron. xxv. , ithe 
most likely that these different characters of Joash suited — 
the different parts of his reign, and that, according to our 
common copies, he was at first a wicked king; and afterward 
was reclaimed, and became a good one, according to Jose 
phus. 





sage AA 
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aia | MY : 
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its 








oes 


Sill 































































































































































































BOOK IX.—CHAPTER X. 


supposing that this would not have been done 
to them but out of contempt, they fell upon his 
kingdom, and proceeded to spoil the country 
a8 far as Bethhoron, and took much cattle, and 
slew three thousand men. 

2. Now, upon the victory which Amaziah 
had gotten, and the great acts he had done, he 
was puffed up, and began to overlook God, 
who had given him the victory, and proceeded 
to worship the gods he had brought out of the 
country of the Amalekites. So a prophet 
came to him and said, that “he wondered how 
he could esteem these to be gods, who had 
been of no advantage to their own people, who 

aid them honors; nor had delivered them from 
is hand, but had overlooked the destruction 
of many of them, and had suffered themselves 
to be carried captive; for that they had been 
carried to Jerusalem, in the same manner as 
any one might have taken some of the enemy 
alive, and led them thither.” This reproof 
provoked the king to anger, and he command- 
ed the prophet to hold his peace, and threaten- 
ed to punish him if he meddled with his con- 
duct. So he replied, “That he should indeed 
hold his peace; but foreto)d withall, that God 
would not overlook his attempts for innovation.” 
But Amaziah was not able to contain himself 
under that prosperity which God had given 
nim, although he had affronted God thereupon; 
ut in a vein of insolence he wrote to Joash, 
the king of Israel, and “commanded that he 
and all his people should be obedient to him, 
as they had formerly been obedient to his pro- 
genitors, David and Solomon; and he let him 
now, that if he would not be so wise as to do 
what he commanded him, he must fight for his 
dominion.” ‘To which message Joash return- 
ed this answer in writing: “King Joash to king 
Amaziah. There was a vastly tall cypress- 
tree in mount Lebanon, as also a thistle: this 
thistle sent to the cypress-tree, to give the cy- 
press tree’s daughter in marriage to the thistle’s 
gon, but as the thistle was saying this, there 
came a wild beast, and trod down the thistle: 
and this may be a lesson to thee not to be so am- 
bitious, and to have a care, lest, upon thy good 
success in the fight against the Amalekites, 
thou growest so proud as to bring dangers upon 
thyself and upon thy kingdom.” 
3. When Amaziah had read this letter, he 
was more eager upon this expedition, which, I 
Buppose, was by the impulse of God, that he 
might be punished for his offence against him. 
But as soon as he led out his army against 
Joash, and they were going to join battle with 
him, there came such a fear and consternation 
upon the army of Amaziah, as God, when he 
is displeased, sends upon men, and discomfitted 
them, even before they came to a close fight. 
' Now it happened, that as they were scattered 
‘about by the terror that was upon them, Ama- 


239 


such fear of his life, that he maze his enemy te 
be received into the city. So Joash overthrew a 
part of the wall, of the length of four hundred 
cubits, and drove his chariot through the breact 
into Jerusalem, and led Amaziah captive along 
with him: by which means he became master 
of Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of 
God, and carried off all the gold and silver that 
was in the king’s palace, and then freed the 
king from captivity, and returned to Samaris. 
Now these things happened to the people of 
Jerusalem in the fourteenth year of the reign 
of Amaziah, who after this had a conspiracy 
made against him by his friends, and fled to the 
city of Lachish, and was there slain by the 
conspirators, who sent men thither to kill him, 
So they took up his dead body, and carried it 
to Jerusalem, and made a royal funeral for 
him. ‘This was the end of the life of Ama- 
ziah, because of his innovations in religion, and 
his contempt of God, when he had lived fifty- 
four years, and had reigned twenty-nine. He 
was succeeded by his son, whose name was 


Uzziah. 

* CHAPTER X. 

Concerning Jeroboam, king of Israel, and Jonah 
the prophet; and how, after the death of Jero- 
boam, his son Zachariah took the government. 
How Uzziah, king of Jerusalem, subdued the 
nations that were round about him; and what 
befeli him when he attempted to offer incense to 
God. 


§ 1. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Ama- 
ziah, Jeroboam the son of Joash reigned over 
Israel and Samaria forty years. The king was 
guilty of contumely against God,* and became 
very wicked in worshipping of idols, and in 
many undertakings that were absurd and fo- 
reign. He was also the cause of ten thousand 
misfortunes to the people of Israel. Now one 
Jonah, a prophet, foretold to him, that he 
should make war with the Syrians, and con- 
quer their army, and enlarge the bounds of 
his kingdom on the northern parts, to the city 
Hamath, and on the southern, to the lake As- 
phaltitis, for the bounds of the Caananites 
originally were these, as Joshua their general 
had determined them. So Jeroboam made an 
expedition against the Syrians, and overran all 
their country, as Jonah had foretold. 

2. Now I cannot but think it necessary for 
me, who have promised to give an accurate 
account of our affairs, to describe the actions 
of this prophet, so far as I have found them 
written down in the Hebrew books. Jonah 
had been commanded by God to go to the 
kingdom of Nineveh; and when he was there, 
to publish in that city, how it should lose the 

* What I have above noted concerning Jehoash, seems to 
me to have been true also concerning his son Jeroboam II.viz. 
that although he began wickedly, as Josephus agrees with our 


other copies, and as he adds, ‘was the cause of a vast num- 
ber of misfortunes to the Israelites,’? in those his first years, 


 Ziah was left alone, and was taken prisoner by 
‘the enemy; whereupon, Joash threatened to 
- kill him, unless he wouid persuade the people 
of Jerusalem to open their gates to him, and 

receive him and his army into the city. Ac- 
| Serdingly, Amaziah was so distressed, and in 


(the particulars of which are unhappily wanting both in Jo- 
sephus and in all our copies,) so does it seem to me that he 
was afterward reclaimed, and became a good king, and se 
was encouraged by the prophet Jonah, and had great sue- 
cesses afterward, when ‘God saved the Israelites by the hand 
of Jeroboam, the son of Joash,?’? 2 Kings xiv. 27; which en- 
couragement by Jonah, and great successes, are equally ob 
servable in Josephus and in the other copies. 


i, 
¥ 


240 
agominion it had over the nations. But he 
went not, out of fear; nay, he ran away from 
God to the city of Joppa, and finding a ship 
there, he went into it, and sailed to Tarsus, in 
Cilicia,* and upon the rise of a most terrible 
storm, which was so great that the ship was in 
danger of sinking, the mariners, the master, 
ant the pilot himself, made prayers and vows 
in case they escaped the sea: but Jonah lay 
still and covered [in the ship] without initat- 
ing any thing that the others did: but as the 
waves grew greater, and the sea became more 
violent by the winds, they suspected, as is usual 
in such cases, that some one of the persons 
that sailed with them was the occasion of this 
storm, and agreed to discover by lot which of 
them it was. When they had cast lots, the lot 
fell upon the prophet;+ and when they asked 
him, whence he came? and what he had done? 
he replied that he was a Hebrew by nation, 
and a prophet of Almighty God; and he per- 
suaded them to cast him into the sea, if they 
would escape the danger they were in, for that 
he was the occasion of the storm which was 
upon them. Now at the first they durst not 
do so, as esteeming it a wicked thing to cast a 
man who was a stranger, and who had com- 
mitted his life to them, into such manifest per- 
dition; but at last, when their misfortunes over- 
bore them, and the ship was just going to be 
drowned, and when they were animated to do 
it by the prophet himself, and by the fear con- 
terning their own safety, they cast him into 
the sea; upon which the sea became -calm. It 
is also related, that Jonah was swallowed down 
by a whale, and that when hé had been there 
three days, and as many nights, he was vomit- 
ed out upon the Euxine Sea, and this alive, 
and without any hurt upon his body; and 
there, on his prayer to God, he obtained pardon 
for his sins, and went to the city Nineveh, 
where he stood so as to be heard, and preached 
that “in a very little time they should lose the 
dominion of Asia.” And when he had pub- 
lished this, he returned. Now, I have given 
the account about him, as I found it written 
{in our books.] 

3. When Jeroboam the king had passed his 


* When Jonah is said in our Bibles to have gone to Tar- 
shish, Jonah i. 3, Josephus understood it that he went to 
Tarsus in Cilicia, or to the Mediterranean Sea, upon which 
Tarsus lay; so that he does not appear to have read the text 
1 Kings xxii. 48, as our copies do, that ships of Tarshish could 
lie at Ezion Geber, upon the Red Sea. But asto Josephus’s 
assertion, that Jonah’s fish was carried by the strength of the 
current, upon a storm, as far as the Euxine Sea, it is noway 
impossible; and since the storin might have driven the ship, 
while Jonah was in it, near to that Euxine Sea, and since in 
three more days, while he was in the fish’s belly, that current 
might bring him to the Assyrian coast, and since withall that 
coast could bring him nearer to Nineveh than could any 
goast of the Mediterranean, it is by no means an improbable 
determination in Josephus. 

{ This ancient piece of religion, of supposing there was 
great sin where there was great misery, and of casting lots 
to discover great sinners, not only among the Israelites, but 
among these heathen mariners, seems a remarkable remains 
ef the ancient tradition which prevailed of old over all man- 
kind, that Providence used to interpose visibly in all human 
affairs, and never to bring, or at least not long to continue, 
sotorious judgments but for notorious sins, which the most 
wncient book of Job shows to have been the state of man- 
tind for about the former 3000 years of the world, till the 
fays of Job and Moses 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. | ‘ 


ey 


life in great happiness, and had ruled forty years, 
he died, and was buried in Samaria, and his son 
Zechariah took the kingdom. After the same 
manner did Uzziah, the son of Amaziah, begin 
to reign over the two tribes in Jerusalem, in the 
fourteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam. He 
was born of Jecoliah, his mother, who was 4 
citizen of Jerusalem. He wasa good man, and 
by nature righteous and magnanimous, ani la- . 
borious in taking care of the affairs of his king- 
dom. He made an expedition also against tiie 
Philistines, and overcome them in battle, and 
took the cities of Gath and Jabneh, and broke 
down their walls: after which expedition, he 
assaulted those Arabs that adjoined to Egypt. 
He also built a city upon the Red Sea, and put 
a garrison into it. He after this overthrew the 
Ammonites, and appointed that they should pay 
tribute. He also overcome all the countries as 
far as the bounds of Egypt, and then began to 
take care of Jerusalem itself for the rest of his 
life, for he rebuilt and repaired all those parte 
of the wall which had either fallen down by 
length of time, or by the carelessness of the 
kings his predecessors, as well as all that part 
which had been thrown down by the king of 
Israel, when he took his father Amaziah prison- 
er, and entered with him into the city. More-— 
over he built a great many towers, of one hun- 
dred and fifty cubits high, and built walled 
towns in desert places, and put garrisons into 
them, and dug many channels for conveyance 
of water. He had also many beasts for labor 
and an immense number of cattle: for his coun- 
try was fit for pasturage. He was also given 
to husbandry, and took care to cultivate the 
ground, and planted it with all sorts of plants, 
and sowed it with all sorts of seeds. He had 
also about him an army composed of chosen 
men, in number three hundred and eho 
thousand, who were governed by general offi- 
cers and captains of thousands, who were men 
of valor and of unconquerable strength, in 
number two thousand. He also divided his 
whole army into bands, and armed them, giv- 
ing every one a sword, with brazen bucklers 
and breastplates, with bows and slings; and 
besides these, he made for them many engines — 
of war, for besieging of cities, such as cast 
stones and darts, with grapplers, and other in- 
struments of that sort. ‘g 
4. While Uzziah was in this state, and ma-— 
king preparation [for futurity,] he was corrupt- — 
ed in his mind by pride, and became insolent, — 
and this on account of that abundance which — 
he had of things that will soon perish, and de- 
spised that power which is of eternal duration, — 
(which consisted in piety towards God, and in — 
the observation of his laws,)so he fell by occa- 
sion of the good success of his affairs, and was 
carried headlong into those sins of his fathers’ 
which the splendor of that prosperity he enjoy-_ 
ed, and the glorious actions he had done, led 
him into, while he was not able to govern him-~ 
self wellabout them. Accordingly when a re 
markable day was come, and a general festival 
was to be celebrated, he put on the holy fe ' 







ment, and went into the temple to o 


BOOK IX.—CHAPTER XL 


eense to God upon the golden altar, which he 
was prohibited to do by Azariah the high 
priest, who had fourscore priests with him, and 
who told him that it was not lawful for him to 
offer sacrifice, and that “none besides the pos- 
terity of Aaron were permitted so to do.” And 
when they cried out, that he must go out of the 
temple, and not transgress against God, he was 


-wroth at them, and threatened to kill them, 


‘struction. 


unless they would hold their peace. In the 
mean time, a great earthquake shook the 
ground,* and a rent was inade in the temple, 
and the bright rays of the sun shone through 
it, and fell upon the king’s face, insomuch that 
the leprosy seized upon him immediately. And 
before the city, at a place called Eroge, half 
the mountain broke off from the rest on the 
west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood 
still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well 
as the king’s gardens, were spoiled by the ob- 
Now, as soon as the priests saw that 
the king’s face was infected with the leprosy, 
they told him of the calamity he was under, 


“and commanded that he should go out of the 


city as a polluted person. Hereupon, he was 


so confounded at the sad distemper, and sensi- 


ble that he was not at liberty to contradict, 
that he did as he was commanded, and under- 
went this miserable and terrible punishment 
for an intention beyond what befitted a man to 
have, and for that impiety against God which 
was implied therein. So he abode out of the 
city for some time, and lived a private life, 
while his son Jotham took the government; 
after which he died with grief and anxiety at 
what had happened to him, when he had lived 
sixty-eight years, and reigned of them fifty- 
two; and was buried by himself in his own 


gardens. 
CHAPTER XI. 


How Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, 
and Pekah, took the government over the Israel- 
wes; and how Pul and Tiglath-Pileser made 
an expedition against the Israelites. How Jo- 
tham, the son of Uzziah, reigned over the tribe 
of Judah: and what things Nahum prophesied 
against the Assyrians. 


_ §1. Now when Zechariah, the son of Jero- 
foam, had reigned six months over Israel, he 


was slain by the treachery of a certain friend 


of his, whose name was Shallum, the son of 
Jabesh, who took the kingdom afterward, but 
kept it no longer than thirty days; for Menahem, 
the general of his army, who was at that time 
ip the city of Tirzah, and heard of what had 
befallen Zechariah, removed thereupon with 


ail his forces to Samaria, and joining battle 


with Shallum, slew him; and when he had 
made himself king, he went thence, and came 
to the city Tiphsah, but the citizens that were 


* This account of an earthquake at Jerusalem, at the very 
game time when Uzziah usurped the priest’s office, and 
went into the sanctuary to burn incense, and of the conse- 


_ quence of that earthquake, is entirely wanting in our other 
_ eopies, though. it be exceeding like to the prophecy of Jere- 
- miah now in Zech. xiv. 4, 5, in which prophecy mention is 
made of “fleecing from that earthquake, as they fled from this 


earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; so that 


_ there seems to have been some considerable resemblance 





between these oe and prophetical earthquakes. 


ay: 


ar 


241 


in it shut their gates, and barred them agamst 
the king, and would not admit him; but m 
order to be avenged on them, he burnt the 
country round about it, and took the city by 
force, upon a siege; and being very much dis- 
pleased at what the inhabitants of Tiphsah 
had done, he slew them all, and spared not s¢ 
much as the infants, without omitting the ut- 
most instances of cruelty and barbarity; for he 
used such severity upon his own countrymen, 
as would not be pardonable with regard to 
strangers who had been conquered by him. 
And after this manner it was that this Mena- 
hem continued to reign with cruelty and bar- 
barity for ten years: but when Pul, king of 
Assyria, had made an expedition against him, 
he did not think meet to fight or engage in 


sbattle with the Assyrians, but he persuaded 


him to accept of a thousand talents of silver, 
and to go away, and so put an end to the wai 

This sum the multitude collected for Menaher., 
by exacting fifty drachme as poll-money for 
every head:* after which he died, and was bu 

ried in Samaria, and left his son Pekahiah his 
successor in the kingdom, who followed tbe 
barbarity of his father, and so ruled but two 
years only, after which he was slain with his 
friends at a feast, by the treachery of one Pe- 
kah, the general of his horse, and the son of 
Remaliah, who laid snares for him. Now this 
Pekah held the government twenty years, and 
proved a wicked man, and a transgressor. [ut 
the king of Assyria, whose name was Tiglath- 
Pileser, when he had made an expedition 
against the Israelites, and had overrun all the 
land of Gilead, and the region beyond Jordan 
and the adjoining country, which is called 
Galilee, and Kadesh and Hazor, he made the 
inhabitants prisoners, and transplanted them 
into his own kingdom. And so much shal} 
suffice to have related here concerning the 
king of Assyria. 

2. Now Jotham, the son of Uzziah, reigned 
over the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem, being a 
citizen thereof by his mother, whose name was 
Jerusha. This king was not defective in any 
virtue, but was religious towards God, and riglit- 
eous towards men, and careful of the good of 
the city, (for what parts soever wanted to be 
repaired or adorned, he magnificently repaired 
and adorned them.) He also took care of the 
foundations of the cloisters in the temple, and 
repaired the walls that were fallen down, and 
built very great towers, and such as were al- 
most impregnable; and if any thing else in his 
kingdom had been neglected, he took great 
care of it. He also made an expedition against 
the Ammonites, and overcame them in battle, 


* Dr. Wall, in his critical notes on 2 Kings xv. 20, observes, 
“that when this Menahem is said to have exacted the monay 
of Israel, of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty 
shekels of silver, to give Pul, the king of Assyria, one thow- 
sand talents, this is the first public money raised by any [Ie 
raelite] king by a tax on the veople that they used be 
fore to raise it out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, 
or of their own house; that it was a poll-money on the ric 
men [and them only] to raise £353,000, or as others coumt 
a talent £400,000, at the rate ef £6or £7 per head; and 
that God commanded by Ezekiel, ch. xlv. 8, and xlvi. 18, thag 
no such thing should be done [at the Jew’s restoration,} but 
the king should have Jand of his own.”? 


and ordered them to pay tribute, a hundred 
talents and ten thousand cori of wheat, and as 
many of barley, every year, and so augmented 
his kingdom, that his enemies could not de- 
#pise it, and his own people lived happily. 

3. Now there was at that time a prophet, 
whose name was Nahum, who spoke after this 
manner concerning the overthrow of the As- 
syrians, and Nineveh: “Nineveh shall be a pool 
of water in motion;* so shall all her people be 
troubled, and tossed, and go away by flight; 
while they say one to another, stand still, seize 
their gold and silver, for there shall be no one 
to wish them well, for they will rather save their 
lives than their money; for a terrible conten- 
tion shall possess them one with another, and 
lainentation, and loosing of the members, and 
their countenances shall be perfectly black 
with fear. And there will be the den of the 
lions, and the mother of the young lions. God 
says to thee, Nineveh, that they shall deface 
thee, and the lion shall no longer go out from 
thre to give laws to the world.” And indeed 
this prophet prophesied many other things be- 
sides these concerning Nineveh, which I do 
not think necessary to repeat; and I here omit 
thom, that I may not appear troublesome to my 
readers, all which things happened about Ni- 
neveh, a hundred and fifteen years afterward; 
so this may suffice to have spoken of these 
mitters. 


CHAPTER XII. 


elaw, upon the death of Jotham, Ahaz reigned 
in his stead; against whom Rezin, king of 
Syria, and Pekah, king of: Israel, made war; 
and how Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, 
came to the assistance of Ahaz, and laid Syria 
waste, and removing the Damascenes into Me- 
dia, placed other nations in thew room. 


§ 1. Now Jotham died when he had lived 
forty-one years, and of them reigned sixteen, 
and was buried in the sepulchres of the kings; 
and the kingdom came to his son Ahaz, who 
proved most impious towards God, and a trans- 
gressor of the laws of his country. He imi- 
tated the kings of Israel, and reared altars in Je- 
rusalem, and offered sacrifices upon them to 
idols; to which also he offered his own son as 
a burnt-offering, according to the practices of 
the Canaanites. His other actions were also 
of the same sort. Now as he was going on 
in this mad course, Rezin, the king of Syria 
and Damascus, and Pekah the king of Israel, 
who were now at amity with one another, 
made war with him: and when they had dri- 
ven him into Jerusalem, they besieged that 
eity a long while, making but a small progress 
on account of the strength of its walls: and 
when he king of Syria had taken the city Elath, 
upon the Red Sea, and had slain the inhabitants, 
he peopled it with Syrians, and when he had 
alain those in the [other] garrisons, and the 
Jews in their neighborhood, and had driven 

*This passage is taken out of the prophet Nahem, ch. ii. 
8—13, and is the principal, or rather the only one that is 
given us almost verbatim, but a little abridged, in all Jose- 


sephus’s known writings: by which quotation we learn 
what he himself always asserts, viz. that he made use of 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


away much prey, he returned with his army 
back to Damascus. Now when the king ot 
Jerusalem knew that the Syrians were returnea 


home, he, supposing himself a match for the — 


king of Israel, drew out his army against him, 
and, joining battle with him, was beaten; and 
this happened because God was angry with him 
on account of his many and great enormities. 


Accordingly, there were slain by the Israelites — 


one hundred and twenty thousand of his men 
that day, whose general, Amaziah by same, 
slew Zechariah the king’s son in his conflict 
with Ahaz, as well as the governor of the king- 
dom, whose name was Azricam. He also car- 
ried Elkanah, the general of the troops of the 
tribe of Judah, into captivity. They also car- 
ried the women and children of the tribe of 
Benjamin captives; and when they had got- 
ten a great deal of prey, they returned to Sa 
maria. 

2. Now there was one Obed, who wasa pro- 
phet at that time in Samaria: he met the army 
before the city walls, and with a loud voice 
told them, “That they had gotten the victory, 
not by their own strength, but by reason of the 
anger God had against king Ahaz. And he 
complained, that they were not satisfied with 
the good success they had against him, but 
were so bold as to make captives out of their 
kinsmen the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 
He also gave them counsel to let them go home 
without doing them any harm, for that if they 
did not obey God herein they should be pun- 
ished.” So the people of Israel came together 
to their assembly, and considered of these mat- 
ters, when a man whose name was Berechiah, 
and who was one of chief reputation in the 
government, stood up, and three others with 
him, and said, “We will not suffer the citizens 
to bring these prisoners into the city, lest we be 
all destroyed by God: we have sins enough of 
our own that we have committed against him, 
as the prophets assure us: nor ought we there- 
fore to introduce the practice of new crimes.” 
When the soldiers heard that, they permitted 
them to do what they thought best. So the 
forenamed men took the captives and let them 


go, and took care of them, and gave them pro- — 


visions, and sent them to their own country, 
without doing them any harm. However these 
four went along with them, and conducted them 
as far as Jericho, which is not far from Jerusa- 
lem, and returned to Samaria. 

3. Hereupon king Ahaz, having been so tho- 


A! 


roughly beaten by the Israelites, sent to Tig- 


lath-Pileser, king of the Assyrians, and sued 
for assistance from him in his war against the 
Israelites, and Syrians, and Damascenes, with a 


promise to send him much money; he sent him _ 
Now this" 


also great presents at the same time. 
king, upon the reception of those ambassadors, 
came to assist Ahaz, and made war upon the 


Syrians, and laid their country waste, and took _ 
Damascus by force, and slew Rezin their king, — 


the E-ebrew original [and not of the Greek version;] as alae 


wtilearn, wat his Hebrew copy considerably differed from — 


ovrt Se all three texts particularly set down, and 


oa 1 
ed togeths *, in the essay on the Old Testamen page 16/, 


BOOK IX.—-CHAPTER XIII. 


and transplanted the people of Damascus into 
che upper Media, and brough: a colony of As- 
syrians, and planted them in Damascus. He 
also afflicted the land of Israel, and took many 
captives out of it. While he was doing thus 
with the Syrians, the king Ahaz took all the gold 
that was in the king’s treasures, and the silver, 
and what was in the temple of God, and what 
precious gifts were there, and he carried them 
with him, and came to Damascus, and gave it to 
the king of Assyria, according to his agreement. 
So he confessed he owed him thanks for all they 
had done for him, and returned to Jerusalem. 
Now this king wasso sottish, and thoughtless of 
what was for his own good, that he would not 
‘eave off worshipping the Syrian gods when 
he was beaten by them, but he went on in wor- 
shipping them, as though they would procure 
him the victory; and when he was beaten again, 
he began to honor the gods of the Assyrians; 
and he seemed more desirous to honor any 
other gods than his own paternal and true God, 
whose anger was the cause of his defeat; nay, 
he proceeded to such a degree of despite and 
contempt [of God’s worship,] that he shut up 
the temple entirely, and forbade them to bring 
in their appointed sacrifices, and took away the 
pitts that had been given to it. And when he 
ad offered these indignities to God, he died, 
having lived thirty-six years, and of them 
reigned sixteen; and he left his son Hezekiah 
‘for his successor. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


How Pekah died by the treachery of Hoshea, who 
was a little after subdued by Shalmanezer; and 
how Hezekiah reigned instead of Ahaz; and 
what actions of piety and justice he did. 


§ 1. About the same time, Pekah, the king 
of Israel, died, by the treachery of a friend of 
his, whose name was Hoshea, who retained the 
kingdom nine years’ time, but was a wicked man 
and a despiser of the divine worship. And 
Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, made an ex- 
pedition against him, and overcame him, (which 
must have been because he had not God favor- 
able or assistant to him,) and brought him to 
submission, and ordered him to pay an ap- 
pointed tribute. Now in the fourth year of the 
reign of Hoshea, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, 
began to reign in Jerusalem; and his mother’s 
name was Abijah, a citizen of Jerusalem. His 
nature was good, and righteous, and religious; 
for when he came to the kingdom, he thought 
that nothing was prior, or more necessary, or 
more advantageous to himself, and to his sub- 
jects, than to worship God. Accordingly, he 
called the people together, and the priests 
and the Levites, and made a speech to them, 
and said, “You are not ignorant, how by the 
sins of my father, who transgressed that sacred 
honor which was due to God, you have had 
experience of many and great miseries, while 
you were corrupted in your mind by him, and 
were induced to worship those which he sup- 
posed to be gods: I exhort you, therefore, who 
have learned by sad experience how danger- 
ous a thing impiety is, to put that immediately 


248 


out of your memory, and to punfy yourselves 
from your former pollutions, and to open the 
temple to these priests and Levites who are 
here convened, and to cleanse it with the accus 
tomed sacrifices, and to recover all to the an 
cient honor which our fathers paid to it; for 
by this means we may render God favorable, 
and he will remit the anger he hath had to us, 

2. When the king had said this, the priests 
opened the temple; and when they had set iz 
order the vessels of God, and cast out whas 
Was impure, they laid the accustomed sacri- 
fices upon the altar. The king also sent to the 
country that was under him, and called the 
people to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of 
unleavened bread, for it had been intermitted a 
long time, on account of the wickedness of the 
forementioned kings. He also sent to the 
Israelites, and exhorted them to leave off their 
present way of living, and return to their an- 
cient practices, and to worship God, for that 
he gave them leave to come to Jerusalem, and . 
to celebrate, all in one body, the feast of un- 
leavened bread; and this, he said, was by way 
of invitation only, and to be done of their own 
good will, and for their own advantage, and 
not out of obedience to him, because it would 
make them happy. But the Israelites, upon 
the coming of the ambassadors, and upon their 
laying before them what they had in charge 
froin their own king, were so far from com- 
plying therewith, that they laughed the ambas- 
sadors to scorn, and mocked them as fools: ae 
also they aftronted the prophets who gave them 
the same exhortations, and foretold what they 
would suffer if they did not return to the wor- 
ship of God, insomuch that at length they 
caught them, and slew them: nor did this de- 
gree of transgression suffice them, but they 
had more wicked contrivances than what have 
been described: nor did they leave off, before 
God, as a punishment for their impiety, brought 
them under their enemies; but of that, more 
hereafter. However, many there were of the 
tribe of Manasseh, and of Zebulon, and of 
Issachar, who were obedient to what the pro- 
phets exhorted them to do, and returned to the 
worship of God. Now all these came running 
to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah, that they might 
worship God [there.] 

3. When these men were come, king Heze- 
kiah went up into the temple, with the rulers 
and all the people, and offered for himself seven 
bulls, and as many rams, with seven lambs, and 
as many kids of the goats. ‘The king also him- 
self, and the rulers, laid their hands on the heads 
of the sacrifices, and permitted the priests to 
complete the sacred offices about them. So 
they both slew the sacrifices, and burnt the 
burnt-offerings, while the levites stood round 
about them, with their musical instruments, 
and sung hymns to God, and played on their 
psalteries, as they were instructed by David te 
do, and this while the rest of the priests re- 
turned the music, and sounded the trumpets 
which they had in their hands: and when this 
was done, the king and the multitude threw 
themselves down upon their face, and wor 


44 


#hipped God. He also sacrificed seventy bulls, 
one hundred. rains, and two hundred lambs. 
He also granted the multitude sacrifices to feast 
upon, six hundred oxen, and three thousand 
other cattle; and the priests performed all things 
according to the law. Now the king was so 
pleased herewith, that he feasted with the peo- 
ple, and returned thanks to God. But as the 
feast of unleavened bread was now come, 
when they had offered that sacrifice which is 
called the Passover, they after that offered other 
sacrifices for seven days. When the king had 
bestowed on the multitude, besides what they 
sanctified of themselves, two thousand bulls, 
and seven thousand other cattle, the same thing 
was done by the rulers; for they gave them a 
thousand bulls, and a thousand and forty other 
cattle. .Nor had this festival been so well ob- 
served from the days of king Solomon, as it 
was now first observed with great splendor and 
magnificence: and when the festival was end- 
ed, they went out into the country, and purged 
it, and cleansed the city of all the polivtion of 
idols. The king also gave order that the daily 
sacrifice should be offered, at his own charges, 
and according to the law; and appointed that 
the tithes and the first-fruits should be given 
by the multitude to the priests and Levites, 
that they might constantly attend upon divine 
service, and never be taken off from the wor- 
ship of God. Accordingly, the multitude 
brought together all sorts of their fruits to the 
priests and the Levites. ‘The king also made 
garners and receptacles for these fruits, and 
distributed them to every one of the priests 
and Levites, and to their children and wives. 
And thus did they return to their old form of 
divine worship. Now when the king had set- 
tled these matters after the manner already de- 
scribed, he made w. » upon the Philistines, and 
beat them, and pos essed himself of all the 
enemies’ cities from Gaza to Gath; but the king 
of Assyria sent to him, and threatened to over- 
turn al] his dominions, unless he would pay 
him the tribute which his father paid him for- 
merly; but king Hezekiah was not concerned 
at his threatenings, but depended on his piety 
towards God, and upon Isaiah the prophet, by 
whom he inquired, and accurately knew all fu- 
ture events. And thus much shall suffice for 
the present concerning this king Hezekiah. 


CHAPTER XIV. 
f¥ow Shalmanezer took Samaria by ferce, and 
how he transplanted the Ten T'ribes into Me- 
dia, and brought the nations of the Cutheans 

into their country [in their room.] . 

§ 1. When Shalmanezer, the king of Assy- 
ria, had it told him, that [Hoshea,] the king of 
israe] had sent privately to So, the king of 
Egypt, desiring his assistance against him, he 
was very angry, and made an expedition against 
Samaria, in the seventh year of the reign of 
Hoshea; but when he was not admitted [into 
the city] by the king, he besieged Samaria three 
-years,* and took it by force in the ninth year 


* This siege of Samaria, though not given a particular ac- 
gownt of, either in our Hebrew or Greek Bibles, or in Jose- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh 
year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and quite 
demolished the government of the Israelites, and 
transplanted all the people into Media and Per- 
sia, among whom he took king Hoshea alive; 
and when he had removed these people out of 
this their land, he transplanted other nations 
out of Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is 
[still] a river of that name in gti into Sa- 
maria, and into the country of the Israelites 
So the ten tribes of the Israelites were remov- 
ed out of Judea nine hundred and forty-seven 
years after their forefathers were come out of 
the land of Egypt, and possessed themselves 
of this country, but eight hundred years after 
Joshua had been their leader, and,as I have al- 
ready observed, two hundred and forty years, 
seven months, and seven days, after they had 
revolted from Rehoboam the grandson of Da- 
vid, and had given the kingdom to Jeroboam. 
And such a conclusion overtook the Israelites, 
when they had transgressed the laws, and 
would not hearken to the prophets, who fore- 
told that this calamity would come upon them, 
if they would not leave off their evil doings. 
What gave birth to these evil doings was that 
sedition which they raised against Rehoboam, 
the grandson of David, when they set up Jero- 
boam, his servant, to be their king, who by sin- 
ning against God, and bringing them to imitate 
his bad example, made God to be their enemy, 
while Jeroboain underwent that punishment 
which he justly deserved. 

2. And now the king of Assyria invaded al} 
Syria and Pheenicia ina hostile manner. ‘The 
name of this king is also set down in the ar- 
chives of Tyre, for he made an expedition 
against Tyre, in the reign of Eluleus; and Me- 
nander attests to it, who, when he wrote his 
Chronology, and translated the archives of Tyre 
into the Greek language, gives usthe following 


history: “One whose name was Eluleus, reign- — 


ed thirty-six years: this king, upon the revolt 
of the Citteans, sailed to them, and reduced 
them again to submission. Against these did 
the king of Assyria send an army, and in a hos- 
tile manner overran all Phoenicia, but soon 
made peace with them all, and returned back: 


but Sidon and Ace, and Palstyrus, revolted; 


and many other cities there were which de- 


: 


livered themselves up to the king of Assyria. — 


Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not sub- 
mit to him, the king returned, and fell upon 


them again, while the Phoenicians had furnish- — 


ed him with threescore ships, and eight hun- — 
dred men to row them; and when the Tyrians — 


had come upon therm in twelve ships, and the 
enemies’ ships were dispersed, they took five 
hundred men prisoners, and the reputation of 
all the citizens of Tyre was thereby Egan 


but the king of Assyria returned, and p 4 


phus, was so very Jong, no less than three years, that it waa 
noway improbable but that parents, and particularly mothers, — 
might therein be reduced to eat their own children as the law 


of Moses had threatened upon their disobedience, Levit. — 


xxvi. 29; Deut. xxviii. 53—57, and as was accomplished i 
the other shorter sieges of both the capital cities, Jerusalem 
and Samaria, the former mentioned, Jer. xix. 9, Antiq. & iz, 
chap v. sect. 4; and the latter, 2 Kings vi. 26-29. 


ings vi. Bi 


; 
; 
3 









BOOK X.—CHAPTER I. 


guards at their rivers ame aqueducts, who 
should hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. 
This continued for five years, and still the Ty- 
rians bore the siege, and drank of the water 
they had out of the wells they dug.” And this 
is what is written in the Tyrian archives con- 
cerning Shalmanezer the king of Assyria. 

3. But now the Cutheans, who removed into 
Samaria, (for that is the name they have been 
called by to this time, because they were brought 
eut of the country called Cuthah, which is a 
country of Persia, and there is a river of the 
same name in it,) each of them, according to 
their nations, which were in number five, 
brought their own gods into Samaria, and by 
worshipping them, as was the custom of their 
own countries, they provoked Almighty God 
to be angry and displeased at them; fora plague 
seized upon them, by which they were destroy- 
ed; and when they found no cure for their mise- 
ries they learned by the oracle that they ought 
to worship Almighty God, as the method for 
their deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to 


245 
the king of Assyria, and desired him to sene 
them some of those priests of the Israel :tes 
whom he had taken captive. And when he 
thereupon sent them, and the people were by 
them taught the laws, and the holy worship of 
God, they worshipped him ina respectful man. 
ner, and the plague ceased immediately; and 
indeed they continued to make use of the vary 
same customs to this very time, and are called 
in the Hebrew tongue Cutheans, but in the 
Greek tongue Samaritans. And when they 
see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that 
they are changed, and allied to them, and call 
them kinsmen, as though they were derived 
from Joseph, and had by that means an origi- 
nal alliance with them; but when they see them 
falling into a low condition, they say they are 
noway related to them, and that the Jews have 
no right to expect any kindness or marks of 
kindred from them, but they declare that they 
are sojourners, that come from other countries. 
But of th«se we shall have a more seasonable 
opportunity to discourse hereafter. 





BOOK X. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO YEARS AND A HALF.--FROM 
THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES TO THE FIRST OF CYRUS. 


CHAPTER I. 


How Sennacherib made an expedition against 
Hezekiah; what threatenings Rabshakeh made 
to Hezekiah when Sennacherib was gone against 
the Egyptians; how Isaiah the prophet encou- 
raged him; how Sennacherib, having failed of 
success in Egypt, returned thence to Jerusa- 
lem; and how, upon his finding his army de- 
stroyed, he returned home; and what befell him 
a little afterward. 


_ § 1, Ir was now the fourteenth year of the 
government of Hezekiah, king of the two tribes, 
when the king of Assyria, whose name was 
Sennacherib, made an expedition against him 
with a great army, and took all the cities of the 
tribe of Judah and Benjamin by force; and 
when he was ready to bring his army against 
Jerusalem, Hezekiah sent ambassadors to him 
beforehand, and promised to submit, and pay 
what‘ tribute he should appoint. Hereupon 
Sennacherib, when he heard of what offers the 
ambassadors made, resolved not to proceed in 
the war, but to accept of the proposals that 
were made him, and if he might receive three 
nundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of 
gold, he promised that he would depart in a 
friendly manner; and he gave security upon 
oath to the ambassadors that he would then do 
him no harm, but go away as he came. So 
Hezekiah submitted, and emptied his treasures, 
and sent the money, as supposing he should be 
freed from his enemy, and from any further 
listress about his kingdom. Accordingly, the 
rian king took it, and yet had no regard 

10 what he had promised; but while he him- 
_gelf went to the war against the Egyptians and 


A 
: 


SS 
eee 


Ethiopians, he left his general Rabshakeh, and 
two other commanders, with great forces, to 
destroy Jerusalem. The names of the two 
other commanders were Tartan and Rabsaris. 
2. Now, as soon as they were come before 
the walls, they pitched their camp, and sent 
messengers to Hezekiah, and desired that they 
might speak with him; but he did not himself 
come out to them for fear, but he sent three of 
his most intimate friends; the name of one was 
Eliakim, who was over the kingdom and 
Shebna, and Joah the recorder. Sothese men 
came out, and stood over against the command- 
ers of the Assyrian army; and when Rabshakeh 
saw them, he bade them go and speak to Heze- 
kiah in the manner following: that “Senna- 
cherib, the great king,* desires to know of hin. 
on whom it is that he relies and depends in 
flying from his lord, and will not hear him, nor 
admit his army into the city? Is it on account 
of the Egyptians, and in hopes that his army 
would be beaten by them? Whereupon he 
lets him know, that if this be what he expects, 
he is a foolish man, and like one who leans on 
a broken reed, while such a one will not only 
fall down, but will have his hand pierced and 
hurt by it. That he ought to know he makes 
this expedition against him by the will of God, 
who hath granted this favor to him, that he 
shal] overthrow the kingdom of Israel, and 
that in the very same manner he shall destroy 
those that are his subjects also.” When Rab 
shakeh had made this speech in the Hebrew 


* This title of Great King, both in our Bibles, 2 Kings xviti. 
19; Isaiah xxxvi. 4; and here in Josephus, is the very same 
that Herodotus gives this Sennacherib, as Spanheim taket 
notice on this place. 


246 


tor.gue, for he was skilful in that language, 
Eliakim was afraid lest the multitude that 
beard liim should be disturbed, so he desired 
him to speak in the Syrian tongue; but the 
general, understanding what he meant, and 
perceiving the fear that he was in, he made his 
answer with 2 greater and a louder voice, but 
in the Hebrew tongue; and said, that “since 
_ they all heard what were the king’s commands, 
they would consult their own advantage in de- 
livering up themselves to us, for it is plain that 
both you and your king dissuade the people 
from submitting by vain hopes, and so induce 
them to resist: but if you be courageous, and 
think to drive our forces away, I am ready to 
deliver to you two thousand of these horses 
that are with me, for your use, if you can set 
as many horsemen on their backs, and show 
your strength; but what you have not, you 
cannot produce. Why, terefore, do you de- 
lay to deliver up yourselves to a superior force, 
who can take you without your consent? al- 
though it will be safer for you to deliver your- 
selves up voluntarily, while a forcible capture, 
when you are beaten, must appear more dan- 
gerous, and will bring further calamities upon 
you.” 

3. When the people, as well as the ambas- 
sadors, heard what the Assyrian commander 
said, they related it to Hezekiah, who there- 
upon put off his royal apparel, and clothed 
himself with sackcloth, and took the habit of a 
mourner; and, after the manner of his country, 
he fell upon his face, and besought God, and 
entreated him to assist them, now they had no 
other hope of relief. He also sent some of his 
friends, and some of the priests, to the prophet 
Isaiah, and desired that he would pray to God, 
and offer sacrifices for their common deliver- 
ance, and so put up supplications to him, that 
he would have indignation at the expectations 
of their enemies, and have mercy upon his 
people. And when the prophet had done ac- 
cordingly, an oracle came from God to him, 
and encouraged the king and his friends that 
were about him; and foretold, that “their ene- 
mies should be beaten without fighting, and 
should go away in an ignominious manner, 
and not with that insolence which they now 
show, for that God would take care that they 
should be destroyed.” He also foretold, that 
“Sennacherib the king of Assyria should fail of 
his purpose against Egypt, and that when he 
came home he should perish by the sword.” 

4, About the same time also the king of As- 
syria wrote an epistle to Hezekiah, in which he 
said, “He was a foolish man in supposing that 
he should escape from being his servant, since 
he had already brought under many and great 
nations; and he threatened, that when he took 
him, he would utterly destroy him, unless he 
now opened the gates, and willingly received 
his army into Jerusalem.” When he read this 
epistle, he despised it on account of the trust 
that he had in God, but he rolled up the epis- 
tle, and laid it up within the temple. And as 
oe made his farther prayers to God for the city 
and for the preservation of all the people, the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





prophet Isaiah said, that “God had heard hh | 
prayer, and that he should not be besieged at 
this time by the king of Assyria;* and that for” 
the future he might be secure of not being at | 
all disturbed by him; and that the people might | 
go on peaceably, and without fear, with their 
husbandry and other affairs.” But after a little 
while, the king of Assyria, when he had failed - 
of his treacherous designs against the Egypt- 
ians, returned home without success, on the 
following occasion: he spent a long time in the : 
siege of Pelusium; and when the banks that he 
had raised over against the walls were of a 
great height, and when he was ready to make 
an immediate assault upon them, he heard 
that Tirhaka, king of the Ethiopians, was come 
ing, and bringing great forces to aid the Egypt- 
ians, and was resolved to march through the 
desert, and so fall directly upon the Assyrians, 
this king Sennacherib was disturbed at the 
news, and, as I said before, left Pelusium, and 
returned back without success. Now, con- 
cerning this Sennacherib, Herodotus also says, 
in the second book of his histories, “How this 
king came against the Egyptian king, who 
was the priest of Vulcan, and that, as he was 
besieging Pelusium, he broke up the siege on 
the following occasion: this Egyptian p-test 
prayed to God, and God heard his prayer, an 
sent a judgment upon the Arabian King But 
in this Herodotus was mistaken, when he ca.l 
ed this king, not the king of the Assyrians, 
but of the Arabians, for he saith, that “a multi- 
tude of mice gnawed to pieces in one nigat 
both the bows and the rest of the armor of th 
Assyrians, and that it was on that account tha 
the king, when he had no bows left, he drev 
off his army from Pelusium.” And Herodo- 
tus does indeed give ‘us this history; nay, and 
Berosus, who wrote of the affairs of Chaldea, 
makes mention of this king Sennacherib, and 
that he ruled over the Assyrians, and that h 
made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt 
and says thus:} 
5. “Now when Sennacherib was returning 
from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem: he found 
his army under Rabshakeh his general, in dan- 
ger [by a plague,] for God had sent a pestilem 
tial distemper upon his army; and on the ver; 
first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore ant 
five thousand, with their captains and general 
were destroyed. So the king was in-a grea 
dread, and in a terrible agony at this calamity, 
* What Josephus says here, how Isaiah the prophet ass' ar 
ed Hezekiah, that ‘‘at this time he should not be besieg 
by the king of Assyria; that for the future he might be 
cure of being not at all disturbed by him; and that [afterward 
the people might go on peaceably and without fear with the 
husbandry and other affairs,” is more distinct in our other e¢ 
pies, both of the Kings and of Isaiah, and deserves ve 
great consideration. The words are these: “This shall be 
sign unto thee; ye shall eat this year such asgroweth of itse 
and the second year that which spHingets of the same; a! 
in the third year sow ye and reap, and plant vineyards, @ 
eat the fruit thereof,” 2 Kings xix. 20; Isa. xxxvii. 30; whit 
seems to me plainly to design a sabbatic year, a year of J 
bilee next after it, and the succeeding usual labors and frw 
of them on the third and following years. 7 
+ That this terrible calamity of the slaughter of the 185,t 
Assyrians is here delivered in the words of Rerosus the Ch 
dean, and that it was certainly and frequently foretold by! 
Jewish piphele and that it was certainly and undeniably? 
complished, see Authent. Ree. part ii. page 858, oo 


~ ay 



























































eee a i — ik — OH Sa al 


28 
' 
t 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER II. 


and being in great fear for his whole army, he 
fled with the rest of his forces to his own king- 
dom, and to his city Nineveh; and when he 
had abode there a little while, he was treach- 
erously assaulted, and died by the hands of his 
elder sons,* Adrammelech and Seraser, and 
was slain in his own temple, which was called 
Araske. Now these sons of his were driven 
away, on account of the murder of their father, 
by the citizens, and went into Armenia, while 
Assarachoddas took the kingdom of Senna- 
cherib.” And this proved to be the conclusion 
of this Assyrian expedition against the people 
of Jerusalem. 


CHAPTER II. 


How Hezekiah was sick and ready to die; and 
how God bestowed upon him fifteen years longer 
life, {and secured that promise,| by the gong 
back of the shadow ten degrees. 


§ 1. Now king Hezekiah being thus deliver- 
ed, after a surprising manner, from the dread 
he was in, offered thank-offerings to God, with 
all his people, because nothing else had destroy- 
ed some of their enemies, and made the rest so 
fearful of undergoing the same fate, that they 
departed from Jerusalem, but that divine as- 
sistance: yet, while he was very zealous and 
diligent about the worship of God, did he soon 
afterward fall into a severe distemper, insomuch 
that the physicians despaired of him, and ex- 
pected no good issue of his sickness, as neither 
did his friends;} and besides the distemper itself, 

here was a very melancholy circumstance that 
disordered the king, which was the considera- 
tion that he was childless, and was going to die, 
and leave his house and his government with- 
out a successor of his own body: so he was 
troubled at the thoughts of this his condition, 
and lamented himself, and entreated of God 
that he would prolong his life for a little while, 
till he had some children, and not suffer him 
to depart this life before he had become a father. 
Hereupon God had mercy upon him and ac- 
cepted of his supplication, because the trouble 
he was under at his supposed death was not be- 
cause he was soon to leave the advantages he 
enjoyed in the kingdom, nor did he on that ac- 
count pray that he might have a longer life af- 
forded him, but in order to have sons, that 
might receive the government after him. And 
God sent Isaiah the prophet, and commanded 
him to inform Hezekiah, that “Within three 
days’ time he should get clear of his distemper, 


* We are here to take notice, that these two sons of Sen- 
macherib, that ran away into Armenia, became the heads of 
two famous families there, the Arzerunii and Genunii, of 
which see the particular histories in Moses Choronensis, 


4 ¢ Josephus and all our copies place the sickness of Hezekiah 
after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, because it ap- 
pears to have been after his first assault, as he was going into 
Arabia and Egypt, where he pushed his conquests as far as 
they would go, and in order to despatch his story altogether; 
yet does no copy but this of Josephus say it was after that 
destruction, but only that it happened in those days, or about 
that time of Hezekiah’s life. Nor will the fifteen years’ pro- 
longation of his life after his sickness allow that sickness to 
have been later than the former part of the 15th year of his 
reign, since chronology does not allow him in all above 29 
years anda few months, whereas the first assault of Senna- 
cherib was in the 14th year of Hezekiah, but the destruction 
ef Sennacherib’s army was not till his 18th year. 


AZ 
and should survive it fifteen years, and that he 
should have children also.” Now, upon the pro- 
phet’s saying this, as God had commanded ea 
he could hardly believe it, both on account o 
the distemper he was under, which was very 
sore, and by reason of the surprising nature of 
what was told him, so he desired that Isaiah 
would give him some sign or wonder, that 
he might believe him in what he had said, 
and be sensible that he came from God; for 
things that are beyond expectation, and greater 
than our hopes, are made credible by actions of 
like nature. And when Isaiah had asked him 
what sign he desired to be exhibited, he desired 
that he should make the shadow of the sun, 
which he had already made to go down ten 
steps [or degrees] in his house, to return again 
to the same place, and to make as it was before,* 
And when the prophet prayed to God to exhibit 
this sign to the king, he saw what he desired 
to see, and was freed from his distemper, and 
went up to the temple, where he worshipped 
God and made vows to him. 

2. At this time it was that the dominion of 
the Assyrians was overthrown by the Medes,} 
but of these things I shall treatelsewhere. But 
the king of Babylon, whose name was Bala- 
dan, sent ambassadors to Hezekiah, with pre- 
sents, and desired he would be his ally and his 
friend. So he received the ambassadors gladly, 
and made them a feast, and showed them his 
treasures, and his armory, and the other wealth 
he was possessed of, in precious stones, and in 
gold, and gave them presents to be carried to 
Baladan, and sent them back to him. Upon 
which the prophet Isaiah came to him, and in- 
quired of him, “Whence those ambassadors 
came?” ‘To which he replied, that “they came 
from Babylon, from the king; and that he had 
showed them all he had, that by the sight of 
his riches and forces they might thereby guess 
at [the plenty he was in,] and be able to inform 
the king of it.” But the prophet rejoined, and 
said, “Know thou, that, after a little while, these 
riches of thine shall be carried away to Baby- 
lon, and thy posterity shall be made eunuchs 

* As to this regress of the shadow, either upon a sun-dial 
or the steps of the royal palace built by Ahaz, whether it 
were physically done by the real miraculous revolution of 
the earth in its diurnal motion backward from east to west _ 
for a while, and its return again to its old natural revolution 
from west to east, or whether it were not apparent only, and 
performed by an aerial phosphorus, which imitated the sun’s 
motion backward, while a cloud hid the real sun, cannot be 
determined. Philosophers and astronomers will naturally 
incline to the latter hypothesis. However, it must be noted 
that Josephus seems to have understood it otherwise than 
we generally do, that the shadow was accelerated as much 
at first forward as it was made to go backward afterward, and 
so the day was neither longer nor shorter than usual, which, 
it must be confessed, agrees best of all to astronomy, whose 
eclipses older than that time were observed at the same times 
of the day as if this miracle had never happened. After 
this wonderful signal was not, it seems, peculiar to Judea, 
but either seen, or at least heard of, at Babylon also, as ap- 
pears by 2 Chr. xxxii. 31, where we learn that the Bayloniaz 
ambassadors were sent to Hezekiah, among other things, é 
inquire of the wonder that was done in the land. 

+ This expression of Josephus, that the Medes, upon this 
destruction of the Assyrian army, overthrew the Assyrian 
empire, seems to be too strong; for although they immediate- 
ly cast off the Assyrian yoke, and set up Deioces, a king of 
their own, yet it was some time before the Medes and Baby 
Jonians overthrew Nineveh, and some generations ere the 


Medes and Persians, under Cyaxeres and Cyrus, overthrew 
the Assyrian or Babylonian empire and took Babywe. 


348 


there, and lose their manhood, and be servants 
to the king of Babylon, for that God foretold 
such things would come to pass.” Upon which 
words Hezekiah was troubled, and said, that 
“he was himself unwilling that his nation 
should fall into such calamities, yet since it is 
not possible to alter what God had determined, 
he prayed that there might be peace while he 
lived.” Berosus also makes mention of this 
Baladan king of Babylon. Nowas to this pro- 
phet, [Isaiah,] he was by the confession of all 
& divine and wonderful man in speaking truth; 
and out of the assurance that he had never 
written what was false, he wrote down all his 
prophecies, and left them behind him in books, 


that their accomplishment might be judged of 


from the events, by posterity: nor did this pro- 
phet do so alone, but the others, which were 
twelve in number, did the same. And whatso- 
ever is done among us, whether it be good or 
whether it be bad, comes to pass according to 
their prophecies; but of every one of these we 
shall speak hereafter. 


CHAPTER IIL. 


How Manasseh rei, 
how, when he was in captivity, he returned to 
God, and was restored to his kingdom, and left 
it to [his son] Amon. 

§ 1. When king Hezekiah had survived the 
interval of time already mentioned, and had 
dwelt all that time in peace, he died, having 
completed fifty-four years of his life, and reign- 
ed twenty-nine: but when his son Manasseh, 
whose mother’s name was Hephzibah, of Je- 
rusalem, had taken the kingdom, he departed 
from the conduct of his father, and fell into a 
course of life quite contrary thereto, and show- 
ed himself in his manners most wicked in all 
respects, and omitted no sort of impiety, but 
imitated those transgressions of the Israelites, 
by the commission of which against God they 
had been destroyed; for he was so hardy as to 
defile the temple of God, and the city, and the 
whole country; for by setting out from a con- 
tempt of God, he barbarously slew all the 
righteous men who were among the Hebrews; 
nor would he spare the prophets, for he every 
day slew some of them, till Jerusalem was over- 
flown with blood. So God was angry at these 
proceedings, and sent prophets to the king, and 
to the multitude, by whom he threatened the 
very same calamities to them, which their breth- 
ren, the Israelites, upon the like affronts offered 
to God, were now under. But these men 


would not believe their words, by which belief 


they might have reaped the advantage of escap- 
ing all those miseries; yet did they in earnest 
earn that what the prophets had told them was 
true. 

2. And when they persevered in the same 
course of life, God raised up war against them 
from the king of Babylon and Chaldea, who 
sent an army against Judea, and laid waste the 
country, and caught king Manasseh by treache- 
ry, and ordered him to be brought to him, and 
had him under his power to inflict what pun- 
ishment he pleased upon him. But then it 


ed after Hezekvah; and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


was that Manasseh perceived what a miserable — 
condition he was in, and esteeming himself the 
cause of all, he besought God to render his 
enemy humane and merciful to him. 
ingly God heard his prayer, and granted him 
what he prayed for. So Manasseh was released 


Accord 


by the king of Babylon, and escaped the dan- 


ger he was in, and when he was come to Jeru- 
salem, he endeavored, if it were possible, to 


cast out of his memory those his former sins 
against God, of which he now repented, and 
to apply himself to a very religious life. He 
sanctified the temple, and purged the city, and 
for the remainder of his days he was intent on 
nothing but to return his thanks to God; for 
his deliverance, and to preserve him propitious 
to him all his life long. Healso instructed the 
multitude to do the same, as having very near- 
ly experienced what a calamity he was fallen 
into bya contrary conduct. Healso rebuilt the 
altar, and offered the legal sacrifices, as Moses 
commanded. And when he had re-established 
what concerned the divine worship, as it ought 
to be, he took care of the security of Jerusa- 
lem; he did not only repair the old walls with 
great diligence, but added another wall to the 
former. He also built very lofty towers, and 
the garrisoned places before the city he strength- 
ened, not only in other respects, but with pro- 
visions of all sorts that they wanted. And in- 
deed when he had changed his former course, 
he so led his life for the time to come, that, 
from the time of his return to piety towards 
God, he was deemed a happy man and a pat- 
tern for imitation. When, therefore, he had 
lived sixty-seven years he departed this life, 
having reigned fifty-five years, and was buried 
in his own garden, and the kingdom came 
to his son Amon, whose mother’s name was 
Meshulemeth, of the city of Jotbath. 


CHAPTER IV. 

How Amon reigned instead of Manasseh; and 
after Amon reigned Josiah; he was both roghte- 
ous and religious. As also concerning Huldah 
the prophetess. 

§ 1. This Amon imitated those works of his 
father which he insolently did when he was 


young: so he had a conspiracy made against — 


him by his own servants, and was slain in his 
own house, when he had lived twenty-four 
years, and of them had reigned two: but the 


multitude punished those that slew Amon, and _ 
buried him with his father, and gave the king- — 


dom to his son Josiah, who was eight years old. 
His mother was of the city of Boscath; and her 
name was Jedidah. He was of a most excel- 


ent disposition, and naturally virtuous, and 


followed the actions of king David, as a pattern 
and a rule to him in the whole conduct of his 
life. And. when he was twelve years old, he 
gave demonstrations of his religious and right- 
eous behavior; for he brought the people to a 
sober way of living, and exhorted them to 
leave off the opinion they had of their idols, 
because they were not gods, but to worship | 
their own God. And by reflecting on the 
actions of his progenitors, he prudently cor 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER IV. 


eected what they «'d wrong, .ike a very elderly 
man, and like one abundantly able to under- 
stand what was fit to be done; and when he 
found they had well done, he observed all the 
country over, and imitated the same. And 
_ thus he acted in following the wisdom and sa- 
gacity of his own nature, and in compliance 
with the advice and instruction of the elders; 
for by following the laws it was that he suc- 
ceeded so well in the order of his government, 
and in piety with regard to the divine worship. 
And this happened because the transgressions 
of the former kings were seen no more, but 
quite vanished away; for the king went about 
the city, and the whole country, and cut down 
the groves which were devoted to strange gods; 
and overthrew their altars; and if there were 
any gifts, dedicated to them by his forefathers, 
he made them ignominious, and plucked them 
down, and by this means he brought the peo- 
ple back from their opinion about them to the 
worship of God. He also offered his accus- 
toined sacrifices and burnt-offerings upon the 
altar. Moreover, he ordained certain judges 
anil overseers, that they might order the mat- 
teis to them severally belonging, and have re- 
ga’d to justice above all things, and distribute 
it with the same concern they would have 
about theirown soul. He also sent over all 
th» country, and desired such as pleased to 
bring gold and silver for the repairs of the tem- 
pl, according to every one’s inclinations and 
abilities. And when the money was brought 
in, he made one Maaseiah the governor of the 
city, and Shaphan the scribe, and Joah the re- 
corder, and Eliakim the high priest, curators 
of the temple, and of the charges contributed 
th2reto, who made no delay, nor put off the 
wrk at all, but prepared architects, and what- 
Boever was proper for those repairs, and set 
closely about the work. So the temple was re- 
peired by this means, and became a public de- 
monstration of the king’s piety. 

2. But when he was now in the eighteenth 
ycar of his reign, he sent to Kliakim, the high 
pliest, and gave order, that out of what money 
was overplus, he should cast cups, and dishes, 
and vials, for ministration [in the temple,] and 
besides, that they should bring all the gold and 
silver which was among the treasures, and ex- 
pend that also in making cups and the like ves- 
sels, But as the high priest was bringing out 
the gold, he lit upon the holy books of Moses 

that were laid up in the temple; and when he 
liad brought them out, he gave them to Sha- 
phan, the scribe, who, when he had read them, 
eame to the king, and informed him that all 
was finished which he had ordered to be done. 
Hie also read over the books to him, who when 
he had heard them read, rent his garment, and 
‘ealled for Eliakim, the high priest, and for 
{Shaphan] the scribe, and for certain [other] of 
his most particular friends, and sent them to 
‘Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, 
(which Shallum was a man of dignity and of 
an eminent family,) and bade them go to her 
and say, that [he desired] “she would appease 
| God, and enleavor to render him propitious to 
ees. 32 
a 





a9 
them, for that there was cause to fear, lest, upon 
the transgression of the laws of Moses by their 
forefathers, they should be in peril of going 
into captivity, and of being cast out of their 
own country; lest they should be in want of all 
things, and so end their days miserably.” When 
the prophetess had heard this from the mes- 
sengers that were sent to her by the king, she 
bade them go back to the king, and say, that 
“God had already given sentence against ther 
to destroy the people, and cast them out of 
their country, and deprive them of all the hap 
piness they enjoyed, which sentence none could 
set aside by any prayers of theirs, since it was 
passed on account of their transgressions of the 
laws, and of their not having repented in so 
long atime, while the prophets had exhorted 
them to amend, and had foretold the punish- 
ment that would ensue on their impious prac- 
tices; which threatening God would certainly 
execute upon them, that they might be per- 
suaded that he is God, and had not deceived 
them in any respect as to what he had denounc- 
ed by his prophets: that yet, because Josiah 
was a righteous man, he would at present de- 
lay those calamities, but that, after his death, he 
would send on the multitude what miseries he 
had determined for them.” 

3. So these messengers, upon this prophecy 
of the woman, came and told it to the king; 
whereupon he sent to the people everywhere, 
and ordered that the priests and the Levites 
should come together at Jerusalem; and come 
manded that those of every age should be pre- 
sent also. And when they were gathered to- 
gether, he first read to them the holy books 
after which he stood upon a pulpit, in the midst 
of the multitude, and obliged them to make a 
covenant, with an oath, that they would wor- 
ship God, and keep the laws of Moses. Ac- 
cordingly, they gave their assent willingly, and 
undertook to do what the king had recom- 
mended to them. So they immediately offer- 
ed sacrifices, and that after an acceptable man- 
ner, and besought God to be gracious and mer- 
ciful to them. He also enjoined the high phe 
that if there remained in the temple any vesse 
that was dedicated to idols. or to foreign gods, 
they should cast it out. So when a great num- 
ber of such vessels were got together, he burnt 
them, and scattered their ashes abroad, and 
slew the priests of the idols, that were not of 
the family of Aaron. 

4, And when he had done thus in Jerusalem, 
he came into the country, and utterly destroy- 
ed what buildings had been made therein by 
king Jeroboam, in honor of strange gods; and 
he burnt the bones of the false prophets upor 
that altar which Jeroboam first built. And as 
the prophet [Jadon] who came to Jeroboam 
when he was offering sacrifice, and when all 
the yeople heard him, foretold what would 
come to pass, viz. that “a certain man of the 
house of David, Josiah by name, should do 
what is here mentioned.” And it happened 
that those predictions took effect after three 
hundred and sixty-one years. 

5. Aficr these things, Josiah went also to 


250 


such other Israelites as had escaped captivity 

and slavery under tke Assyrians, and persuad- 

ed them to desist frm their impious practices, 
and to leave off the honors they paid to strange 
gods, but to worship rightly their own Almighty 

God, and adhere to him. He also searched 

the houses, and the villages, and the cities, out 

of suspicion that somebody might have one 
idol or other in private; nay, indeed, he took 
away the chariots [of the sun] that were set 
up in his royal palace,* which his predecessors 
had framed, and what thing soever there was 
besides which they worshipped as a God. And 
when he had thus purged all the country, he 
called the people to Jerusalem, and there cele- 
brated the feast of unleavened bread, and that 
called the Passover. He also gave the people, 
for paschal sacrifices, young kids of the goats 
and lambs thirty thousand, and three thousand 
oxen for burnt-offerings. The principal of the 
priests also gave to the priests, against the pass- 
over, two thousand and six hundred lambs; the 
principal of the Levites also gave to the Le- 
vites five thousand lambs and five hundred 
oxen, by which means there was great plenty 
of sacrifices: and they offered those sacrifices 
according to the laws of Moses, while every 
priest explained the matter, and ministered to 
the multitude. And indeed there had been no 
other festival thus celebrated by the Hebrews 
from the times of Samuel the prophet; and the 
plenty of sacrifices now was the occasion that 
all things were performed according to the 
laws, and according to the custom of their 
forefathers. So when Josiah had after this 
lived in peace, nay, in riches and reputation 
also among all men, he ended his life in the 
manner following. 

CHAPTER V. 

How Josiah fought with Neco {king of Egypt,] 
and was wounded and died in a little time af- 
terward; as also, how Neco carried Jehoahaz, 
who had been made king’, into Egypt, and de- 
livered the kingdom to Jehoiakim; and [lastly] 
concerning Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 


§ 1. Now Neco, king of Egypt, raised an 
army, and marched to the river Euphrates, in 
order to fight with the Medes and Babylonians, 
who had overthrown the dominion of the As- 
syrians,} for he had a desire to reign over Asia. 
Now, when he was come to the city Mendes, 
which belonged to the kingdom of Josiah, he 
brought an army to hinder him from passing 
through his own country, in his expedition 


* It is hard to reconcile the account in the second book of 
Kings, ch. xxiii. 11, with this account in Josephus, and to 
translate th.s passage truly in Josephus, whose copies are 
supposed to be here imperfect: however, the general sense 
ef both seems to be this, that there were certain chariots, 
with their horses, dedicated to the idol of the sun, or to Mo- 
loch; which idol might be carried about in procession and 
worshipped by the people, which chariots were now taken 
away, as Josephus says, or, as the book of Kings says, burnt 
with fire by Josiah. 

his is a remarkable passage of chronology in Josephus, 
that about the latter end of the reign of Josiah, the Medes 
and Babylonians overthrew the empire of the Assyrians; or, 
in the words of Tobit’s continuator, that “before Tobias died, 
he heard of the destruction of Nineveh, which was taken by 
Nebuchodonosor the Babylonian, and Assuerus the Mede,”? 
rhics xiv. 15; see Dean Prideaux’s Connexions, at the year 


ANTIQUITIES OF TILE JEWS. Ps Mie 


against the Medes. Now Nece sent a herma 
to Josiah, and told him, that “he did not make 
this expedition against him, but was makin 
haste to Euphrates; and desired that he woul 
not provoke him to fight against him, because 
he obstructed his march to the place whither 
he had resolved to go.” But Josiah did not 
admit of this advice of Neco, but put himself 
into a posture to hinder him from this intended 
march. I suppose it was fate that pushed him 
on to this conduct, that it might take an occa- 
sion against him; for as he was setting his army 
in array,* and rode about in his chariot, from 
one wing of his army to another, one of the 
Egyptians shot an arrow at him, and put au 
end to his eagerness of fighting; for being sorely 
wounded, he commanded a retreat to be sound- 
ed for his army, and returned to Jerusalem, 
and died of that wound; and was magnificently 
buried in the sepulchres of his fathers, when he 
had lived thirty-nine years, and of them had 
reigned thirty-one. But all the people mourn- 
ed greatly for him, lamenting and grieving on 
his account many days: and Jeremiah the pro- 
phet composed an elegy to lament him, which 
is extant till this time also.t Moreover, this 
prophet denounced beforehand, the sad ca- 
lamities that were coming upon the city. He 
also left behind him in writing a description of 
that destruction of our nation which has lately 
happened in our days, and the taking of Baby- 
lon; nor was he the only prophet who delivered 
such predictions beforehand to the multitude, 
but so did Ezekiel also, who was the first per- 
son that wrote, and left behind him in writing, 
two books concerning these events. Now these 
two prophets were priests by birth; but of them 
Jeremiah dwelt in Jerusalem, from the thir 
teenth year of the reign of Josiah, until the 
city and temple were utterly destroyed. How- 
ever, as to what befel] this prophet, we will re’ 
late in its proper place. 
2. Upon the death of Josiah, which we have 
already mentioned, his son, Jehohaz by name, 
took the kingdom; being about twenty-thr 
years old: he reigned in Jerusalem; and his 
mother was Hamutal, of the city Libnah. He 
was an impious man, and impure in his cour 
of life: but as the king of Egypt returned i 






the battle, he sent for Jehoahaz to come to hi 
to the city called Hamath,t which belongs 

Syria; and when he was come, he put him i 
bonds, and delivered the kingdom to a broth 
of his, by the father’s side, whose name 


Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiak 
and laid a tribute upon the land of a huné 















* This battle is justly esteemed the very same that Hers 
dotus, b. ii. sect. 156, mentions, when he says, that “‘Neca 
joined battle with the Syrians [or Jews] at Magdolum, [Me 
giddo] and beat them,’’ as Dr. Hudson here observes. 

t+ Whether Josephus, from 2 Chron. xxxv. 25, here mean 
the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah still extant, whit 
chiefly belongs to the destruction of Jerusalem under N@ 
buchadnezzar, or to any other like melancholy poem now 
lost, but extant in the days of Josephus, belonging peculiarh 
to Josiah, cannot now be determined. | of 

t This ancient city Hamath, which is joined with 
Aradus, and with Damascus, 2 Kings xviii. 34: Isaiah 
19; Jer. xlix. 23; cities of Syria and Phoenicia, near the bor 
ders of Judea, was also itself evidently near the same »0 
ders, though long ago utterly destroyed. 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER VI. 


talents of silver, and a talent of gold, and this 
sum of money Jehoiakim paid by way of tri- 
bute: but Neco carried away Jehoahaz into 
Egypt, where he died when he had reigned 
three months and ten days. Now Jehoiakim’s 
mother was called Zebudah, of the city Ru- 
mah. He was of a wicked disposition, and 
ready to do mischief: nor was he either religious 
towards God or good-natured towards men. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How Nebuchadnezzar, when he had conquered 
the king of Egypt, made an expedition is Mash 
the Jews, and slew Jehoiakim, and made Jehoia- 
chin his son king’. 


§ 1. Now in the fourth year of the reign of 
Jehoiakim, one whose name was Nebuchadnez- 
zar took the government over the Babylonians, 
who at the same time went up witha great 
army to the city Carchemish, which was at 
Euphrates, upon a resolution he had taken to 
fight with Neco king of Egypt, under whom 
all Syria then was. And when Neco under- 
stood the intention of the king of Babylon, and 
that this expedition was made against him, he 
did not despise his attempts, but made _ haste 
with a great band of men to Euphrates, to de- 
fend himself from Nebuchadnezzar; and when 
they had joined battle, he was beaten, and lost 
many ten thousands [of his soldiers] in the bat- 
tle. So the king of Babylon passed over Eu- 
phrates, and took all Syria, as far as Pelusium, 
excepting Judea. But when Nebuchadnezzar 
had already reigned four years, which was the 
eighth of Jehoiakim’s government over the He- 
brews, the king of Babylon made an expedition 
with mighty forces against the Jews, and re- 
quired tribute of Jehoiakim, and threatened on 
his refusal to make war against him. He was 
affrighted at this threatening, and bought his 
peace with money, and brought the tribute he 
was ordered to bring for three years. 

2. But on the third year, upon hearing that 
the king of the Babylonians made an expedi- 
tion against the Egyptians, he did not pay his 
tribute, yet was he disappointed of his hope, 
for the Egyptians durst not fight at this time. 
And indeed the prophet Jeremiah foretold 
every day, how vainly they relied on their hopes 

from Egypt, and how the city would be over- 
thrown by the king of Babylon, and Jehoia- 
_ kim the king would be subdued by him. But 
what he thus spoke proved to be of no advan- 
tage to them, because there was none that should 
escape; for both the multitude, and the rulers, 
when they heard him, had no concern about 
what they heard; but being displeased at what 
was said, as if the prophet were a noe against 
the king, they accused Jeremiah, and bring- 
ing him before the court, they required that a 
sentence and a punishment might be given 
againsthim. Now all the rest gave their votes 
for his condemnation, but the elders refused, 
who prudently sent away the prophet from the 
-- court of [the prison] and persuaded the rest to 
do Jeremiah no harm; for they said, that “He 
was not the only person who foretold what 
would come to the city, but that Micah signifi- 


251 
ed the same befure him, as well as many others, 
none of which suffered any thing of the kings 
that then reigned, but were honored as the pro- 
phets of God.” So they mollified the multi- 
tude with these words, and delivered Jeremiak 
from the punishment to which he was condemn- 
ed. Now when this prophet had written all 
his prophecies, and the people were fasting, and 
assembled at the temple, on the ninth month 
of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, he read the 
book he had composed of his predictions, of 
what was to befall the city, and the temple, and 
the multitude. And when the rulers heard of 
it, they took the book from him, and bade him 
and Baruch, the scribe, to go their ways, lest 
they should be discovered by one or other; but 
they carried the book, and gave it to the king; 
so he gave order, in the presence of his friends, 
that his scribe should take it, and read it. When 
the king heard what it contained, he was an- 
gry, and tore it, and cast it into the fire, where 
it was consumed. He also commanded that 
they should seek for Jeremiah and Baruch, the 
scribe, and bring them to him, that they might 
be punished. However they escaped his anger. 
_ 3. Now, a little time afterward, the king of 
Babylon made an expedition against Jehoiakim, 
whom he received into the city, and this out of 
fear of the foregoing predictions of this pro- 
phet, as supposing that he should suffer nothing 
that was terrible, because he neither shut the 
gates, nor fought against him; yet when he was 
come into the city, he did not observe the cove- 
nants he had made but he slew such as were 
in the flower of their age, and such as were of 
the greatest dignity, together with their king 
Jehoiakin, whom he commanded to be thrown. 
before the walls, without any burial, and made 
his son Jehoiachim king of the country, and of 
the city: he also took the principal persons m 
dignity for captives, three thousand in num- 
ber, and led them away to Babylon; among 
whom was the prophet Ezekiel, who was then 
but young. And this was the end of king Je- 
hoiakim, when he had lived thirty-six years, 
and of them reigned eleven; but Jehoiachin 
succeeded him in the kingdom, whose mother’s 
name was Nehushta: she was a citizen of Je- 
rusalem. He reigned three months and ten 
days. 


CHAPTER VII. 


That the king of Babylon repented of making 
Jehoiachin king, and took him away to Baby- 
lon, and delivered the kingdom to Zedekiah. 
This king would not believe what was prediet- 
ed by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but joined himself 
to the Egyptians; who, when they came inte 
Judea; were vanquished by the king of Baby- 
lon; as also what befell Jeremiah. 


§ 1. But a terror seized on the king of Baby- 
lon, who had given the kingdom to Jehoia- 
chin, and that immediately: he was afraid that 
he should bear him a grudge, because of his 
killing his father, and thereupon should make 
the country revolt from him; wherefore he sent 
an army, and besieged Jehoiachin in Jerusalem, 
but because he was of a gentle and just disposi 


452 


tion, he did not desire te see the city endanger- 
ed on his account, but he took his mother, and 
kindred, and delivered them to the commanders 


sent by the king of Babylon, and accepted of 


their oaths, that neither should they suffer any 
harm, nor the city; which agreement they did 


not observe for a single year, for the king of 


Babylon did not keep it, but gave orders to his 
generals to take all that were in the city cap- 
tives, both the youth and the handicrafismen, 
and bring them bound to him: their number 
was ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-two; 
as also Jehoiachin, and his mother and friends: 
and when these were brought to him, he kept 
them in custody, and appointed Jehoiachin’s 
uncle Zedekiah to be king; and made him take 
an oath that he would certainly keep the king- 
dom for him, and make no innovation, nor have 
any league of friendship with the Egyptians. 
2. Now Zedekiah was twenty and one years 
old when he took the government; and had the 
same mother with his brother Jehoiakim, but 
was a despiser of justice and of his duty, for 
truly those of the same age with him were 
wicked about him, and the whole multitude 
did what unjust and insolent things they pleas- 
ed, for which: reason the prophet Jeremiah 
caine often to him, and protested to him, and 
insisted, that “he must leave off his impieties 
an i transgressions, and take care of what was 
right, and neither give ear to the rulers, (among 
whom were wieked men,) nor give credit to 


their false prophets, who deluded them, as if 
the king of Babylon would make no more war 


against them, and as if the Egyptians would 
wake war against him and conquer him, since 
what they said was not true, and the events 
would not prove such [as they expected.” 
Now, as to Zedekiah himself, while he hear 
tle prophet speak, he believed him, and agreed 


t» every thing as true, and supposed it was for 


his advantage; but then his friends perverted 


hizn, and dissuaded him from what the prophet 


advised, and obliged him to do what they pleas- 
od. Ezekiel also foretold in Babylon what ca- 
Inmities were coming upon the people, which 
wien he heard, he sent accounts of them into 


Jerusalem; but Zedekiah did not believe their 


prophecies, for the reasons following: it hap- 
pened that the two prophets agreed with one 
aiother in what they said, as to all other things, 
that the city should be taken, and Zedekiah 
himself should be taken captive, but Ezekiel 
disagreed with him, and said that “Zedekiah 
should not see Babylon,” while Jeremiah said to 
him, that “the king of Babylon should carry 
him away thither in bonds.” And because 
they did not both say the same thing as te this 
circumstance, he disbelieved what they both 
appeared to agree in, and condemned them as 
not speaking truth therein, although all the 
things foretold him did come to pass according 
to their prophecies, as we shall show upon a 
fitter opportunity. 

Now when Zedekiah preserved the league 
of mutual assistance he had made with the 
Babylonians, for eight years, he broke it, and 
revolted to the Egyptians, in hopes, by their 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


assistance, of overcoming the Babyloniana 
When the king of Babylon knew this, he made 
war against him: he laid his country waste, and 
took his fortified towns, and came to the city 
Jerusalem itself to besiege it: but when the 
king of Egypt heard what circumstances Ze- 
dekiah his ally was in, he took a great army 
with him, and came into Judea, as if he would 
raise the siege: upon which the king of Baby- 
lon icparted from Jerusalem, and met the 
Egyptians, and joined battle with them, and 
beat them,and when he had put them to flight, 
he pursued them, and drove them out of all 
Syria. Now as soon as the king of Babylon 
was departed from Jerusalem, the false pro- 
phets deceived Zedekiah, and said, that “the 
king of Babylon would not any more make 
war against him or his people, nor remove 
them out of their own country into Babylon, 
and that those then in captivity would return, 
with all those vessels of the temple, of which 
the king of Babylon had despoiled that temple.” 
But Jeremiah came among them, and prophe 
sied what contradicted those predictions, and 
what proved to be true, that “they did ill, and 
deluded the king; that the Egyptians would 
be of no advantage to them, but that the king 
of Babylon would renew the war against Je- 
rusalem, and besiege it again, and would de- 
stroy the people by famine, and carry away 
those that remained into captivity, and would 
take away what they had as spoils, and would 
carry off those riches that were in the temple: 
nay, that, besides this, he would burn it, and 
utterly overthrow the city, and that they should 
serve him and his posterity seventy years; that 
then the Persians and the Medes should put an 
end to their servitude, and overthrow the Ba- 
bylonians, and that we shall be dismissed, and 
return to this land, and rebuild the temple and 
restore Jerusalem.”* When Jeremiah said 
this, the greater part believed him, but the 
rulers, and those that were wicked, despised 
him, as one disordered in his senses. Now he — 
had resolved to go elsewhere, to his own coun- _ 
try, which was called Anathoth, and was twenty — 
furlongs distant from Jerusalem; and as he was 
going, one of the rulers met him, and seized 
upon him, and accused him falsely, as though — 
he were going as a deserter to the Babylonians — 
but Jeremiah said, that he accused him falsely 
and added, that he was only going to his own — 
country; but the other would not believe him, 
but seized upon him, and led him away to the 
rulers, and laid an accusation against him, 
under whom he endured all sorts of torments — 
and tortures, and was reserved to be punished; _ 
and this wasythe condition he was in for some — 
time, while he suffered what I have already — 
described, unjustly. a 
4. Now in the ninth year of the reign of Ze- 
dekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, : 
the king of Babylon made a second expedition — 


y 
* Josephus says here, that Jeremiah prophesied not only of 
the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and 
this under the Persians and Medes as in our other co e 
but of their rebuilding the temple, and even the pane erm 
salem, which do not appear in our copies under his name 
see the note on Antigq. b. xi. ch. i. sect. 3. a 
, A % 
Pe 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER VIIL 


against Jerusalem, and lay before it eighteen 
months, and besieged it with the utmost appli- 
cation. There came upon them also two of 
the greatest calamities at the same time that 
Jerusalem was besieged, a famine and pesti- 
Jential distemper, and made great havoc of 
them: and though the prophet Jeremiah was 
in prison, he did not rest, but cried out, and 
proclaimed aloud, and exhorted the multitude 
to open their gates, and admit the king of Ba- 
bylon, for that if they did so, they should be 
preserved, and their whole families; but if they 
did not so, they should be destroyed; and he 
foretold, that if any one stayed in the city, he 
should certainly perish by one of these ways, 
either be consumed by the famine, or slain by 
the enemy’s sword, but that if he would fly to 
the enemy he should escape death: yet did not 
these rulers who heard believe him, even when 
they were in the midst of their sore calamities, 
but they came to the king, and, in their anger, 
informed him what Jeremiah said, and accused 
him, and complained of the prophet as of a 
madman, and one that disheartened their minds, 
and by the denunciation of miseries, weakened 
the alacrity of the multitude, who were other- 
wise ready to expose themselves to dangers for 
him, and for their country, while he, in a way 
of threatening, warned thei to fly to the ene- 
my, and told them that the city should certainly 
be taken, and be utterly destroyed. 

5. But the king himself was not at all irri- 

tated against Jeremiah, such was his gentle and 
righteous disposition; yet that he might not be 
engaged in a quarrel with those rulers at such 
atime, by opposing what they intended, he let 
them do with the prophet whatsoever they 
would: whereupon, when the king had grant- 
ed them such a permission, they presently 
came into the prison and took him, and let him. 
down witha cord into a pit full of mire, that 
he might be suffocated, and die of himself. So 
he stood up tothe neck in the mire, which 
was all about him, and so continued: but there 
was of the king’s servants, who was in esteem 
with him, an Ethiopian by descent, who told 
the king what a state the prophet was in, and 
said, that his friends and his rulers had done 
évil in putting the prophet into the mire, and 
dy that means contriving against him that he 
should suffer a death more bitter than that by 
his bonds only. When the king heard this, he 
repented of his having delivered up the pro- 
phet to the rulers, and bade the Ethiopian take 
hirty men of the king’s guards, and cords with 
them, and whatsoever else they understood to 
be necessary for the prophet’s preservation and 
draw him up immediately. So the Ethiopian 
took the men he was ordered to take, and drew 
up the prophet out of the mire, and left him at 
liberty [in the prison.] 

6. But when the king had sent to call bim 
ivately, and inquired what he could say to 
im from God, which might be suitable to his 

present circumstances, and desired him to in- 

form him of it, Jeremiah replied, that “he had 
somewhat to say;” but he said withall, he 

“should not be believed, nor, if he admonished 

f 


t 
a5? 
P 


wey 


ba 


them, should be hearkened to; for, said he, thy 
friends have determined to destroy me, ag 
though I had been guilty of some wickedness 
and where are now those men who deceived 
us, and said that the king of Babylon would 
not come and fight against us any more; but I 
am afraid now to speak the truth, lest thou 
shouldst condemn me to die.” And when the 
king had assured him upon oath, that he would 
neither himself put him to death, nor deliver 
him up to the rulers, he became bold upon that 
assurance that was given him; and gave him 
this advice, that “he should deliver the city up 
to the Babylonians; and he said, that it was 
God that prophesied this by him, that (he must 
do so) if he would be preserved and escape 
out of the danger he was in, and that then 
neither should the city fall to the ground, nor 
should the temple be burned; but that (if he dis- 
obeyed) he would be the cause of these misc- 
ries coming upon the citizens, and of the cala- 
mity that would befall his whole house.” When 
the king heard this, he said, that “he wou d 
willingly do what he persuaded him to, ard 
what he declared would be to his advantag», 
but that he was afraid of those of his own 
country that had fallen away to the Baby] >- 
nians, lest he should be accused by them to tl:e 
king of Babylon, and be punished.” But tlhe 
prophet encouraged him, and said, “He hed 
no cause to fear such punishment, for that l:e 
should not have the experience of any mis- 
fortunes, if he would deliver all up to tle 
Babylonians, neither himself, nor his children, 
nor his wives, and that the temple should then 
continue unhurt.” So when Jeremiah hrd 
said this, the king let him go, and charged hi n 
to betray what they had resolved on to none 
of the citizens, nor to tell any of the rulers, if 
they should have learned that he had been 
sent for, and what he had said to him; but to 
pretend to them, that he besought him that ise 
might not be kept in bonds and in prison ” 
And indeed he said so to them; for they came 
to the prophet and asked him, what advice it 
was that he came to give the king relating te 
them? And thusI have finished what con- 
cerns this matter. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How the king of Babylon took Jerusalem, and 
burnt the temple, and removed the people of Je- 
rusalem and Zedekiah to Babylon. As alse, 
who they were that had succeeded in the high 
priesthood under the kings. 


§ 1. Now the king of Babylon was very in- 
tent and earnest upon the siege of Jerusalenz; 
and he erected towers upon great banks of 
earth, and from them repelled :hose that stood 
upon the walls: he also madc a great number 
of such banks round about the whole city, 
whose height was equal to those walls. How- 
ever, those that were within bore the siege with 
courage and alacrity, for they were not dis- 
couraged, either by the famine, or by the pes- 
tilential distemper, but were of cheerful minds 
in the prosecution of the war, although those 
miseries within oppressed them also, and they 


254 
did not suffer themselves to be terrified, either 
by te contrivances of the enemy, or by their 
engiaes of war, but contrived still different 
engines to oppose all the other withall, till in- 
deed there seemed to be an entire struggle be- 
tween the Babylonians and the people of Je- 
rusalem, which had the greater sagacity and 
ekill; the former party supposing they should 
be thereby too hard for the other, for the des- 
truction of the city; the latter placing their 
hopes of deliverance in nothing else but in per- 
severing in such inventions in opposition to the 
other, as might demonstrate the enemies’ en- 
gines were useless to them. And this siege they 
endured for eighteen months, until they were 
destroyed by the famine, and by the darts which 
the enemy threw at them from the towers. 

2. Now the city was taken on the ninth day 
of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of 
the reign of Zedekiah. They were indeed 
only generals of the king of Babylon, to whom 
Nebuchadnezzar committed the care of the 
siege, for he abode himself in the city of Rib- 
lal. ‘The names of these generals who ravag- 
ed and subdued Jerusalem, if any one desire 
to know them were these, Nergal Sharezer, 
Semgar Nebo, Rabsaris, Sarsechim, and Rab- 
mig. And when the city was taken about 
m dnight, and the enemies’ generals were en- 
tered into the temple, and when Zedekiah was 
seasible of it, he took his wives, and his chil- 
di2n, and his captains, and his friends, and 
with them fled out of the city, through the for- 
tified ditch, and through the desert; and when 
cectain of the deserters had informed the Ba- 
bylonians of this, at break of day they made 
haste to pursue after Zedekiah, and overtook 
hiin not far from Jericho, and encompassed 
hi:n about; but for those friends and captains 
of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with 
hiin, when they saw their enemies near them, 
they left him, and dispersed themselves some 
one way and some another, and every one re- 
solved to save himself; so the enemy took Ze- 
dekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but 
a few, with his children and his wives, and 
brought him to the king. When he was come, 
Nebuchadnezzar began to “call him a wicked 
wretch, and a covenant-breaker, and one that 
had forgotten his former words, when he pro- 
mised to keep the country for him. He also 
reproached him for his ingratitude, that when 
he had received the kingdom from him, who 
had taken it from Jehoiachin, and given it 
him, he had made use of the power he gave 
him against him that gave it; but, said he, God 
is great, who hateth that conduct of thine, and 
hath brought thee under us.” And when he 
had used these words to Zedekiah, he com- 
manded his sons and his friends to be slain, 
while Zedekiah and the rest of the captains 
ooked on, after which he put out the eyes of 
Zedekiah, and bound him, and carried him to 
Babylon. And these things happened to him,* 


* This observation of Josephus about the seeming disagree- 
ment of Jeremiah, chap. xxxii. 4, and xxxiv. 3, and Ezek. 
mii. 13, but real agreement at last, concerning the fate of 
Yedekian, is very true and very remarkable; see ch. vii. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold to him, 
that he should be caught, and brought before 
the king of Babylon, and should speak to him 
face to face; and should see his eyes with his 
own eyes; and thus far did Jeremiah prophesy; 


-but he was also made blind, and brought to Ba- 


bylon, but he did not see it, according to the 
prediction of Ezekiel. 

3. We have said thus much because it was 
sufficient to show the nature of God to such 
as are ignorant of it, that it is various, and acts 
many different ways, and that all events hap- 
pen after a regular manner, in their proper 
season, and that it foretells what must come to 
pass. It is also sufficient to show the igno- 
rance and incredulity of men, whereby the 
are not permitted to foresee any thing that is 
future, and are, without any guard, exposed to 
calamities, so that it is impossible for them to 
avoid the experience of those calamities. 

4. And after this manner have the kings of 
David’s race ended their lives, being in number 
twenty-one, until the last king; who altogether 
reigned five hundred and fourteen years, and 
six months, and ten days; of whom Saul, who 
was their first king, retained the government 
twenty years, though he was not of the same 
tribe with the rest. 

5. And now it was that the king of Babylon 
sent Nebuzaradan, the general of his army, to 
Jerusalem, to pillage the temple, who had it also 
in command to burn it, and the royal palace, 
and to lay the city even with the ground, and 
to transplant the people into Babylon. Ac- 
cordingly, he came to Jerusalem in the eleventh 


year of king Zedekiah, and pillaged the tem- 


ple, and carried out the vessels of God, both 
gold and silver, and particularly that large laver - 
which Solomon dedicated, as also the pillars 
of brass, and their chapiters, with the golden 
tables and the candlesticks; and when he had 
carried these off, he set fire to the temple in 
the fifth month, the first day of the month, on 
the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, 
and on the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar; 
he also burnt the palace and overthrew the 
city. Nowthe temple was burnt four hundred 
and seventy years, six months, and ten days 
after it was built. It was then one thousano 
and sixty-two years, six months, and ten 
days from the departure out of Egypt; and 
from the deluge to the destruction of the tem- 
ple, the whole interval was one thousand nine 
hundred and fifty-seven years, six months, and 
ten days; but from the generation of Adam 
until this befell the temple, there were three 
thousand five hundred and thirteen years, six” 
months, and ten days; so great was the number 
of years hereto belonging. And what actions 
were done during those years, we have parti- 
cularly related. But the general of the Baby- 
lonian king now overthrew the city to the very 
foundations, and removed all the people, and 
took for prisoners the high priest Seraiah, and 


sect.2. Nor is it at all unlikely that the courtiers and false 
prophets might make use of this seeming contradiction &@ 
dissuade Zedekiah from believing either of those prophets — 
as Josephus here intimates he was dissuaded thereby. 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER LX. 


Ze; haniah the pricst that was next to him, 
and the rulers that guarded the temple, who 
were three in number, and the eunuch who 
was over the armed men, and seven friends of 
Zedekiah, and his scribe, and sixty other rulers; 
all which, together with the vessels which they 
had pillaged, he carried to the king of Babylon 
to Riblah, a city of Syria. So the king com- 
manded the heads of the high priest and of the 
rulers to be cut off there; but he himself led 
all the captives, and Zedekiah, to Babylon. He 
also led Josedek the high priest away bound. 
He was the son of Seraiah, the high priest 
whom the king of Babylon had slain in Rib- 
lah, a city of Syria, as we have just now re- 
lated. 

6. And now, because we have enumerated 
the succession of the kings, and who they were, 
and how long they reigned, I think it necessary 
to set down the names of the high priests, and 
who they were that succeeded one another in 
the high priesthood underthe kings. The first 
high priest then at the temple which Solomon 
bvilt, was Zadoc; after him his son Achimas re- 
ceived that dignity; after Achimas was Azarias; 
his son was Joram, and Joram’s son was Issus; 
after him was Axioramus; hisson was Phideas, 
and Phideas’s son was Sudeas, and Sudeas’s son 
was Juelus, and Juelus’s son was Jotham, and 
Jotham’s son was Urias, and Urias’s son was Ne- 
rias, and Nerias’s son was Odeas, and his son 
was Sallumus, and Sallumus’s son was Elcias, 
anil his son [was Azarias,* and his son] was Sa- 
reus, and his son was Josedek, who was carried 
captive to Babylon. All these received the 
high priesthood by succession, the sons from 
their father. . 

+. When the king was come to Babylon, he 
kept Zedekiah in prison until he died, and bu- 
ried him magnificently, and dedicated the ves- 
sels he had pillaged out of the temple of Jeru- 
salem to his own gods, and planted the people 
in the country of Babylon, but freed the high 
priest from his bonds. 


CHAPTER IX. 


How Nebuzaradan set Gedaliah over the Jews 
that were left in Judea, which Gedaliah was a 
little afterward slain by Ishmael: and how Jo- 
hanan, after Ishmael was driven away went 
down into Egypt with the people, which people, 
Vebuchadnezzar, when he made an expedition 
against the Egyptians, took captive and brought 
them away to Babylon. 


§ 1. Now the general of the army, Nebuza- 
radan when he had carried the people of the 
Jews nto captivity, left the poor, and those 
that had deserted, in the country, and made 
one, whose name was Gedaliah, the son of Ahi- 
kam, a person of a noble family, their govern- 
or; which Gedaliah was of a gentle and righte- 

ous disposition. He also commanded them 
that they should cultivate the ground, and pay 

* I have here inserted in brackets this high priest Azarias, 


though he be omitted in all Josephus’s copies, out of the 
Jewish chronicle, Seder Olam, of how little authority soever 
ft generally esteem such late rabbinical historians; because 


we know from Josephus himself, that the nuinber of the high 


255 


an appointed tribute to the king. He also took 
Jeremiah the prophet out of prison, and would 
have persuaded him to go along with him to 
Babylon, for that he had been enjoinel by the 
king to supply with him whatsoever he wanted: 
and if he did not like to do so, he desired him 
to inform him where he resolved to dwell, that 
he might signify the same to the king: but the 
prophet had no mind to follow him, nor to dweli 
anywhere else, but would gladly live in thé 
ruins of his country, and in the miserable re- 
mains of it. When the general understood 
what his purpose was, he enjoined Gedaliah, 
whom he left behind, to take all possible care 
of him, and to supply him with whatsoever he 
wanted: so when he had given him rich pre- 
sents, he dismissed him. Accordingly, Jere- 
miah abode inacity of that country, which 
was called Mispah; and desired of Nebuzara 
dan, that he would set at liberty his disciple 
Baruch,* the son of Neraiah, one of a very 
eminent family, and exceeding skilful in the 
language of his country. 

2. When Nebuzaradan had done thus, he 
made haste to Babylon: but as to those that fled 
away during the siege of Jerusalem, and had 
been scattered over the country, when they 
heard that the Babylonians were gone away, 
and had Jeft a remnant in the land of Jerusa- 
lem, and those such as were to cultivate the 
same, they came together from all parts to Ge- 
daliah to Mispah. Now the rulers that were 
over them were Johanan, the son of Kareah, 
and Jazeniah, and Seraiah, and others besides 
them. Nowthere was of the royal family one 
Ishmael, a wicked man, and very crafty, who, 
during the siege of Jerusalem, fled to Baalis, 
the king of the Ammonites, and abode with 
him during that time: and Gedaliah persuadea 
them now they were there, to stay with him, 
and to have no fear of the Babylonians, for tha 
if they would cultivate the country, they should 
suffer no harm. This he assured them of by 
oath; and said, that they should have him for 
their patron, and that if any disturbance should 
arise, they should find him ready to defend 
them. He also advised them to dwell in any 
city, as every one of them pleased; and that 
they would send men along with his own ser- 
vants, and rebuild their houses upon the old 
foundations, and dwell there, and he admonish- 
ed them beforehand, that they should make 
preparation, while the season lasted, of corn, 
and wine, and oil, that they might have where- 
on to feed during the winter. When he had 
thus discoursed to them, he dismissed them, that 
every one might dwell in what place of the 
country he pleased. 

3. Now when this report was spread abroad 
as far as the nations that bordered on Judea, 
that Gedaliah kindly entertained those that 
came to him, after they had fled away, upon 
this [only] condition, that they should pay t- 
priests beJonging to this interval was eighteen, Antiq. b. 12. 
ch. x. whereas his copies have here but seventeen. 

* Of this character of Baruch, the son of Neraiah, and the 
genuineness Of his book that stands now in our Apocry- 


pha, and that it is really a canonical book, and an appendix 
to Jeremiah, see Authent, Ree part i. page 1- 11. 


356 


bute to the king of Babylon, they also came 
readily to Gedaliah, and inhabited the country. 
And when Johanan and the rulers that were 
with him observed the country, and the hu- 
manity of Gedaliah, they were exceedingly in 
Jove with him, and told him that Baalis, the 
king of the’ Ammonites, had sent Ishmael to 
kill him by treachery, and secretly, that he 
might have the dominion over the Israelites, 


as being of the royal family, and they said that 


he might deliver himself from this treacher- 
ous design if he would give them leave to slay 
[shmael, and nobody should know it, for they 
told him they were afraid that when he was 
killed by the other, the entire ruin of the re- 
maining strength of the Israelites would ensue: 
Sut he professed, that “he did not believe what 
they said, when they told him of such: a treach- 
erous design, in a man that had been well trcat- 
ed by him; because it was not probable that 
one who, under such a want of all things, had 
failed of nothing that was necessary for him, 
should be found so wicked and ungrateful to- 
wards his benefactor, that then it would be an 
instance of wickedness in him not to save him, 
had he been treacherously assaulted by others, 
to # »deavor and that earnestly, to kill him with 
’ . own hand: that, however, if he ought to 
appose this information to be true, it was bet- 
ter for himself to be slain by the other, than to 
destroy a man who fled to him for refuge, and 
intrusted his own safety to him, and commit- 
ted himself to his disposal.” 

4, So Johanan, and the rulers that were with 
him, not being able to persuade Gedaliah, went 
away; but after the interval ef thirty days was 
over, Ishmael came again tv Gedaliah, to the 
city of Mispah, and ten men with him; and 
when he had feasted Ishmael and those that 
were with him in a splendid manner, at his ta- 
ble, and had given them presents, he became 
disordered in drink, while he endeavored to be 
very merry with them; and when Ishmael saw 
nim in that case, and that he was drowned in 
his cups to the degree of insensibility, and 
fallen asleep, he rose up on a sudden, with his 
ten friends, and slew Gedaliah and those that 
were with him at the feast, and when he had 
slain them, he went out by night, and slew 
all the Jews that were in the city, and those 
soldiers also which were left therein by the Ba- 
bylonians: but the next day fourscore men 
came out of the country with presents to Ge- 
daliah, none of them knowing what had befall- 
en him; when Ishmael saw them, he invited 
them to Gedaliah, and when they were come 
in, he shut up the court, and slew them, and 
cast their dead bodies down into a certain deep 
pit, that they might not be seen; but of these 
fourscore meu Ishmael spared those that en- 
treated him not to kill them: till they had de- 
livered up to him what riches they had con- 
cealed in the fields, consisting of their furni- 
ture, and garments, and corn: but he took cap- 
tive the people that were in Mispah, with their 
wives and children; among whom were the 
daughters of king Zedekiah, whom Nebuzara- 
dan « general of the ar ny of Babylon, had 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ~ f 


to the prophet, that the king of Babylon 
about making an expedition against the Egy 





left with Gedaliah: and when he had done thig 
he came to the king of the Ammonites. 
d. But when Johanan and the rulers with 
him heard of what was done at Mispah by 
Ishmael, and of the death of Gedaliah, they 
had indignation at it, and every one of them 
took his own armed men, and came suddenly 
to fight with Ishmael, and overtook him at the 
fountain in Hebron: and when those that were. 
carried away captives by Ishmael, saw Jo 
hanan and the rulers, they were very glad, and 
looked upon them as coming to their assist- 
ance; so they left him that carried them cap- 
tives, and came over to Johanan: then Ishmael, - 
with eight men, fled to the king of the Ammo- 
nites; but Johanan took those whom he had 
rescued out of the hands of Ishmael, and the 
eunuchs, and their wives and children, and 
came to a certain place called Mandra, and 
there they abode that day, for they had de-— 
termined to remove from thence, and go into 
Egypt, out of fear lest the Babylonians should — 
slay them in case they continued in the coun- — 
try, and that out of anger at the slaughter of — 
Gedaliah, who had been by them set over it 
for governor. ; 
6. Now while they were under this delibera- ; 
tion, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and the rulers - 
that were with him, came to Jeremiah the prv-_ 
phet, and desired that he would pray to God, 
that because they were at an utter loss about 
what they ought to do, he would discover it to 
them, and they swore that they would do whet- 
soever Jeremiah should say to them. Aid 
when the prophet said he would be their m-_ 
tercessor with God, it came to pass, that after 
ten days God appeared to him, and said, “That 
he should inform Johanan and the other ruleis,_ 
and all the people that he would be with them 
while they continued in that country, and take 
care of them, and keep them from being hurs 
by the Babylonians, of whom they were afraid; _ 
but that he would desert them if they went 
into Egypt, and, out of his wrath against thera, — 
would inflict the same punishments upon them — 
which they knew their brethren had already 
endured.” So when the prophet had informed 
Johanan and the people that God had foretold 
these things, he was not believed, when he said _ 
that God commanded them to continue in that _ 
country, but they imagined that he said so to | 
gratify Baruch, his own disciple, and belied 
God, and that he persuaded them to stay there. 
that they might be destroyed by the Babyto. 
nians. Accordingly, both the people and Jo-— 
hanan disobeyed the counsel of God, which 
he gave them by the prophet, and removed int > 
Egypt, and carried Jeremiah and Baruch along 
with them. P 
7. And when they were there, God signified — 






















. 


tians, and commanded him to foretell to 
people that Egypt should be taken, and the 
king of Babylon should slay some of them, 
and should take others captive, and bring thems 
to Babylon; which things came to pass¢ 
ingly: for on the fifth year after the destrue 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER X. 


257 


of Jerusalem, wnich was the twenty-third of) Babylon changed their names, and commanded 


the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, he made an ex- 
pedition against Ceelosyria, and when he had 
possessed himself of it, he made war against 
the Ammonites, and Moabites; and when he 
had brought all those nations under subjection, 
he fell upon Egypt, in order to overthrow it; 
and he slew the king that then reigned,* and 
set up another; and he took those Jews that 
were there captives, and led them away to Ba- 
bylon. And such was the end of the nation of 
the Hebrews, as it hath been delivered down to 
us, it having twice gone beyond Euphrates; for 
the people of the ten tribes were carried out of 
Samaria by the Assyrians, in the days of king 
Hoshea; after which the people of the two 
tribes, that remained after Jerusalem was taken, 
pure carried away] by Nebuchadnezzar, the 

ing of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as to 
Shalmanezer, he removed the Israelites out of 
their country, and placed therein the nation of 
the Cutheans, who had formerly belonged to 
the inner parts of Persia and Media, but were 
then called Samaritans, by taking the name of 


the country to which they were removed; but 


the king of Babylon, who brought out the two 
tribes; placed no other nation in their country, 
by which means all Judea and Jerusalem, and 
the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy 
years: but the entire interval of time which 
passed from the captivity of the Israelites, to 
the carrying away of the two tribes, proved to 


be a hundred and thirty years, six months, and 


ten days. 


CHAPTER X. 


Concerning Daniel, and what befell him at Ba- 
bylon. 


f 1. But now Nebuchadnezzar king of Ba- 
bylon took some of the most noble of the Jews 


that were children, and the kinsmen of Zede- 
kiah, their king, such as were remarkable for | 


the beauty of their bodies, and the comeliness 
of their countenances, and delivered them into 


_ the hands of tutors, and to the improvement to 


he made by them. He also madesome of them 


‘to be eunuchs, which course he took also with 


those of other nations, whom he had taken in 
the flower of their age, and afforded them their 


‘diet from his own table, and had them instruct- 


ed in the institutes of the country, and taught 
the learning of the Chaldeans; and they had 
now exercised themselves sufficiently in that 
wisdom which he had ordered they should ap- 
ply themselves to. Now among these there 


_ were four of the family of Zedekiah, of most 


excellent dispositions; one of whom was called 
Daniel, another was called Ananias, another 
Misael, and the fourth-Azarias: and the king of 


* Herodotus says, this king of Egypt [Pharaoh Hophra, or 
_Apries] was slain by the Egyptians, as Jeremiah foretold his 


_ mMaughter by his enemies, Jer. xliv. 29, 30, and that as asign 


of the destruction of Egypt [by Nebuchadnezzar.] Josephus 
gays, this king was slain by Nebuchadnezzar himself. 
vey We see here that Judea was left in a manner desolate 


_ after the captivity of the two tribes, and was not repeopled 


with foreign colonies, perhaps as an indication of Previdence 


| that the Jews were to repeople it withou: opposition them- 


selves. i also esteem the later and present desojate condi- 
‘Bon of the same country, without being rereopled by foreign 


- Cae 


that they should make use of other names; Da- 
niel he called Baltasar; Ananias, Shadrach ; Mi- 
sael, Meshach, and Azarias, Abednego. ‘These 
the king had in esteem and continued to love, 
because of the very excellent temper they were 
of, and because of their application to learning, 
and the progress they had made in wisdom. 


2. Now Daniel and his kinsmen had resolv- 
ed to use a severe diet, and to abstain from those 
kinds of food which came from the king’s ta- 
ble, and entirely to forbear to eat of all living 
creatures; so he came to Ashpenaz, who was 
that eunuch to whom the care of them was 
committed,* and desired him to take and spend 
what was brought for them from the king, but 
to give them pulse and dates for their food, and 
any thing else, besides the flesh of living crea- 
tures, that he pleased ; for that their inclinations 
were to that sort of food, and that they despis- 
ed the other. He replied, that he was ready to 
serve them in what they desired, but he sus- 
pected that they would be discovered by the 
king, from their meager bodies, and the alter- 
ation of their countenances, because it could 
not be avoided but their bodies and colors must 
be changed with their diet, especially while 
they would be clearly discovered by the finer 
appearance of the other children, who would 
fare better, and thus they should bring him in 

anger, and occasion him to be punished; yet 
| did they persuade Arioch, who was thus fear- 
ful to give them what food they desired for ten 
i days, by way of trial, and in case the habit of 
, their bodies were not altered, to go on in the 
;same way, as expecting that they should not 
\be hurt thereby afterward, but if he saw them 
look meager and worse than the rest, he should 
reduce them to their former diet. Now, when 
it appeared that they were so far from becom- 
ing worse by the use of this food, that they 
grew plumper and fuller in body than the rest, 
insomuch that he thought those who fed on 
| what came from the king’s table, seemed Jess 
| plump and full, while those that were with Da- 
niel looked asif they had lived in plenty, and 
all sorts of luxury; Arioch, from that time, se- 
curely took himself what the king sent every 
day from his supper, according to custom, to 
| 








the children, but gave them the forementioned 
diet, while they had their souls in some mea- 
sure more pure, and less burdened, and so fit 
ter fur learning, and had their bodies in bettes 
tune for hard labor, for they neither had the 
former oppressed and heavy with variety of 
meats, nor were the other effeminate on the 
same account; so they readily understood all 
the learning that was among the Hebrews, and 
among the Chaldeans, as especially did Daniel, 


colonies, to be a like indication that the same Jews are here- 
after to repeople it again themselves, at their so long expect 
ed restoration. 

* That Daniel was made one of those ewnuchs of which 
Isaiah prophesied, Isaiah xxxix. 7, and the three children his 
companions also, seems to me plain, both here in Josephus 
and in our copies of Daniel, Dan. i, 3, 6, 7—11, 18, although 
it must be granted, that some married persons, that had chal- 
dren, were sometimes called eunuchs, in a general accep- 
tation for courtiers, on account that so many of the ancieas 


courtiers were real eunuchs. See Gen. xxxix. 1. 


258 
who being already sufficiently skilled in wis- 
dom, was very busy about the interpretation of 
dreams; and God manifested himself to him. 
3. Now, two years after the destruction of 
Egypt, king Nebuchadnezzar saw a wonder- 
ful dream, the accomplishment of which God 
showed him in his sleep, but when he arose 
out of his bed, he forgot the accomplishment: 
so he sent for the Chaldeans, and magicians, 
and the prophets, and told them, that he had 
seen a dream, and informed them that he had 
forgotten the accomplishment of what he had 
seen, and he enjoined them to tell him, both 
what the dream was, and what was its signifi- 
cation; and they said that this was a thing im- 
possible to be discovered by men, but they pro- 
mised him, that if he would explain to them 
what dream he had seen, they would tell him 
its signification. Hereupon he threatened to 
pn them to death, unless they told him his 
dam: and he gave command to have them 
all put to death, since they confessed they could 
net do what they were commanded to do. 
Now when Daniel heard that the king had 
given a command, that all the wise men should 
be put to death, and that among them himself 
aril his three kinsmen were in danger, he went 
to Arioch, who was captain of the king’s guards, 
aril desired to «now of him what was the rea- 
gon why the king had given command that all 
the wise men, and Chaldeans, and magicians, 
should be slain. So when he had learned that 
the king had had a dream, and had forgotten 
it, and that when they were enjoined to inform 
the king of it, they had said they could not do 
it, and had thereby provoked him to anger; he 
desired of Arioch that he would go in to the 
king, and desire respite for the magicians for 
one night, and to put off their slaughter so long, 
for that he hoped within that time to obtain, 
py prayer to God, the knowledge of the dream. 
Accordingly, Arioch informed the king of 
what Daniel desired: so the king bade them de- 
iay the slaughter of the magicians till he knew 
what Daniel’s promise would come to; but the 
young man retired to his own house, with his 
kinsmen, and besought God that whole night 
to discover the dream, and thereby deliver the 
magicians and Chaldeans, with whom they 
were themselves to perish, from the king’s an- 
ger, by enabling him to declare his vision, and 
to make manifest what the king had seen the 
night before in his sleep, but had forgotten it, 
Accordingly, God, out of pity to those that 
were in danger, and out of regard to the wis- 
dom of Daniel, made known to him the dream 
and its interpretation, that so the king might un- 
derstand by him its signification also. When 
Daniel had obtained this knowledge from God, 
he arose very joyful, and told it to his brethren, 
and made them glad, and to hope well, that 
they should now preserve their lives, of which 
they despaired before, and had their minds full 
of nothing but the thoughtsofdying. So when 
he had with them returned thanks to God who 
had commiserated their youth, when it was 
day he came to Arioch, and desired him to 
bring him to the king, because he would dis- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. | ae 





cover to him that dream which he had seen i 
night before. a 
4, When Daniel was come to the king, ne 
excused himself at first, that he did not pretend — 
to be wiser than the other Chaldeans and ma- — 
gicians, when, upon their entire inability to” 
discover his dream, he was undertaking to in — 
form him of it, for this was not by his c#vn 
skill, or on account of bis having better cu &i- 
vated his understanding than the rest, but he 
said, “God hath had pity upon us, when we 
were in danger of death, and when I prayed 
for the life of myself, and of those of my own 
nation, hath made manifest to me both the 
dream, and the interpretation thereof for I was 
not less concerned for thy glory than for the 
sorrow that we were by thee condemned to die, 
while thou didst so unjustly command men, 
both good and excellent in themselves, to be 
put to death, when thou enjoinedst them to do 
what was entirely above the reach of human— 
wisdom, and requiredst of them what was the 
work only of God. Wherefore, as thou in thy 
sleep wast solicitous concerning those that 
should succeed thee in the government of the 
whole world, God was desirous to show thee 
all those that should reign after thee, and to that 
end exhibited to thee the following dream: 
‘Thou seemedst to see a great image standin 
before thee, the head of which proved to be o 
gold, the shoulders and arms of silver, and the 
belly and the thighs of brass, but the legs and 
the feet of iron; after which thou sawest a stone — 
broken off from a mountain, which fell upon — 
the image, and threw it down, and broke it to— 
pieces, and did not permit any part of it to re — 
main whole; but the gold, the silver, the iron — 
and the brass, became smaller than meal, which, 
upon the blast of a violent wind, was by force 
carried away, and scattered abroad, but the — 
stone did increase to such a degree, that the — 
whole earth beneath it seemed to be filled there- } 
with. This is the dream which thou sawest, — 
and its interpretation is as follows: the head of — 
gold denotes thee, and the kings of Babylon 
that have been before thee; but the two hands 
and arms signify this, that your government 
shall be dissolved by two kings; but another 
king that shall come from the west, armed 
with brass, shall destroy that government; and~ 
another government that shall be like unto iron” 
shall put an end to the power of the former, 
and shall have dominion over all the earth, on 
account of the nature of iron, which is strong-— 
er than that of gold, of silver, and of brass. 
Daniel did also declare the méaning of th 
stone to the king,* but I do not think proper te 
relate it, since | have only undertaken to de 
scribe things past or things present, but not 
things that are future: yet if any one be so ve 


4 
. 
r 


st 






















* Of this most remarkable passage in Josephus conce 
the stone cut out of the mountain, and destroying the 
which he would not explain, but intimated to be a 
of futurity, and probably not safe for him toe n,; 
longing to the destruction of the Roman empire by Jest 
Christ, the true Messiah of the Jews, take the words of He 
vercamp, ch. x. sect. 4, “‘Nor is this to be wondered at, that 
he would not now meddle with things future, for he had ® 
mind to provoke the Romans, by speaking of the destructi@ 
of that city, which they called the eternal city ”? 


BOOK X.—CHAPTER Xt. 


iesirous of knowing truth, as not to waive such 
points of curiosity, and cannot curb his incli- 
nation fur understanding the uncertainties of fu- 
turity, and whether they will happen or not, 
let him be diligent in reading the book of Daniel, 
which he will find among the sacred writings. 

5. When Nebuchadnezzar heard this, and 
recollected his dream, he was astonished at the 
nature of Daniel, and fell upon his face, and 
saluted Daniel in the manner that men worship 
God, and gave command that he should be sa- 
erificed to asa god. And this was not all, for 
he also imposed the name of his own god upon 
him, [Baltasar,] and made him and his kinsmen 


| 258 


his dominion again. When he had seen this 
dream, he called the magicians together again, 
and inquired of them about it, and desired 
them to tell him what it signified; but when 
none of them could find out the meaning 0 
the dream, nor discover it to the king, Danies 
was the only person that explained it: and as 
he foretold, so it came to pass; for after he had 
continued in the wilderness the forementioned 
interval of time, while no one durst attempt te 
seize his kingdom during those seven years, he 
prayed to God that he might recover his king- 
dom, and he returned to it. But let no one 
blame me for writing down every thing of this 


rulers of his whole kingdom; which kinsmen of | nature, as I find it in our ancient books; for as 


his happened to fall into great danger by the 
envy and malice [of their enemies;] for they 
offended the king upon the occasion following: 
he made an image of gold, whose height was 
sixty cubits, and its breadth six cubits, and set 
it in the great plain of Babylon; and when he 
was going to dedicate the image, he invited 
the principal men out of all the earth that was 
under his dominions, and commanded them in 
the first place, that when they should hear the 
sound of the trumpet, they should then fall 
down and worship the image; and he threat- 
ened that those who did not so, should be cast 
into a fiery furnace. When, therefore, all the 
rest, upon the hearing of the sound of the 
trumpet, worshipped the image, they related 
that Daniel’s kinsmen did not do it, because 
they would not transgress the Jaws of their 
country: so these men were convicted and cast 
immediately into the fire, but were saved by 
divine Providence, and after a surprising man- 
ner escaped death, for the fire did not touch 
them: and I suppose that it touched them not, 
as if it reasoned with itself, that they were cast 
into it without any fault of theirs, and that, 
therefore, it was too weak to burn the young 
men when they were in it. This was done by 
the power of God, who made their bodies so 
far superior to the fire, that it could not con- 
sume them. ‘This it was which recommended 
them to the king as righteous men, and men 
beloved of God, on which account they con- 
tinued in great esteem with him. 

6. A little after this the king saw in his sleep 
again another vision; how he should fall from 
his dominion, and feed among the wild beasts, 
and that when he had lived in this manner in 
the desert for seven years,* he should recover 

* Since Josephus here explains the seven prophetic times 
which were to pass over Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 16, tobe 
‘seven years, we thence learn how he most probably must have 
anderstood those other parallel phrases of a time, times, and 
thalf, Antiq. b. vii ch. xxv. of so many prophetic years also, 
hough he withall lets us know, by his hint at the interpreta- 
ion of the seventy weeks, as belonging to the fourth monar- 
thy, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the 
lays of Josephus, chap. ii. sect. 7, that he did not think those 
tears to be bare years, but rather days for years; by which 
‘eckoning, and by which alone, could 70 weeks, or 490 days, 
‘each tothe age of Josephus. But as to the truth of those 
‘even years’? banishment of Nebuchadnezzar from men, and 
lis living so long among the beasts, the very small remains 
‘ve have anywhere else of this Nebuchadnezzar, prevent 
var expectation of any other full account of it. So far we 
tow by Ptolemy’s canon, a contemporary record, as well 


is by Josephus presently, that he reigned in all 43 years, 
‘hat is, eigit years after we meet with any account of his 









f 


to that matter, I have plainly assured those that 
think me defective in any such point, or com- 
plain of my management, and have told them 
in the beginning of this history, that J intended 
to do no more than translate the Hebrew books 
into the Greek language, and promised them to 
explain those facts, without adding any thing 
to them of my own, or taking any thing away 
from them. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Concerning Nebuchadnezzar and his successors; 
and how their government was dissolved by the 
Persians; and what things befell Daniel in 
Media, and what prophecies he delivered there. 


§ 1. Now, when Nebuchadnezzar had reign- 
ed forty-three years,* he ended his life. He was 
an active man, and more fortunate than the 
kings that were before him. Now Berosus 
makes mention of his actions in the third book 
of his Chaldaic history, where he says thus 
“When his father, Nebuchodonosor, [Nabopol- 
lassar,] heard that the governor whom he had 
set over K.gypt, and the places about Ceelosyria 
and Pheenicia, had revolted from him, while 
he was not himself able any longer to undergo 
the hardships [of war,] he committed to his son 
Nebuchadnezzar, who was still but a youth, 
some parts of his army, and sent him against 
them. So when Nebuchadnezzar had given 
battle, and fought with the rebel, he beat him, 
and reduced the country from under his sub- 
jection, and made it a branch of his own king- 
dom; but about that time it happened, that his 
father Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] fell ill, 
and ended his life in the city of Babylon, when 
he had reigned twenty-one years;} and when he 
was made sensible, as he was in a little time, 
Tyre, Antiq. b. xi, ch. xi. where yet the Old Latin has but 
three years and ten months, yet were his actions before se 
remarkable, both in sacred and profane authors, that such 
vacuity of eight years at the least, at the latter end of his 
reign, must be allowed to agree very well with Daniel’s ac 
counts, that after a seven years’ brutal life, he might return te 
his reason, and to the exercise of his royal authority, for one 
whole year at least before his death. 

* These 43 years for the duration of the reign of Nebu- 
chadnezzar are, as I have just now observed, the very same 
number in Ptolemy’s canon. Moses Choronensis does alse 
confirm this captivity of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar 
and adds, what is very remarkable, that one of those Jews 
that were carried by him into captivity got away into Arme- 
nia, and raised the great family of the Bagradite there. 

j These 21 years here ascribed to onenamed Naboulassar im 
the first book against Apion, or to Nabopollassar, the father ef 


the great Nebuchadnezzar, are also the very same with those 
given him in Ptolemy’s canon. And note here, that what Dr. 


etions one ot the last of which was the 13 years’ siege of | Prideaux says, at the year 612, that Nebuchadnezzar must 


260 


that his father Nebuchodonosor [Nabopollassar] 
was dead, and having settled the affairs of Egypt, 
and the other countries, as also those that con- 
cerned the captive Jews, and Pheenicians, and 
Syrians; and those of the Egyptian nations, and 
having committed the conveyance of them to 
Babylon to certain of his friends, together with 
the gross of his army, and the rest of their 
ammunition and provisions, he went himself 
hastily, accompanied with a few others, over the 
desert, and came to Babylon. So he took upon 
aim the management of public affairs, and of 
the kingdom which had been kept for him by 
one that was the principal of the Chaldeans, 
and he received the entire dominions of his 
father, and appointed, that when the captives 
came, they should be placed as colonies, in the 
most proper places of Babylonia: but then he 
adorned the temple of Belus, and the rest of 
the temples, in a magnificent manner, with the 
spoils he had taken in war. He also added 
another city to that which was there of old, and 
rebuilt it, that such as would besiege it hereaf- 
ter might no more turn the course of the river, 
and thereby attack the city itself: he, therefore, 
built three walls round about the inner city, and 
three others about that which was the outer, 
and this he did with burnt brick. And after he 
had, after a becoming manner, walled the city, 
and adorned its gates gloriously, he built ano- 
ther palace before his father’s palace, but so that 
it was joined to it: to describe whose vast height, 
and immense riches, it would perhaps be too 
much for me to attempt; yet as large and lofty 
as they were, they were completed in fifteen 
days.* He also erected elevated places for 
walking, of stone, and made it resemble moun- 
tains, and built it so that it might be planted 
with all sorts of trees. He also erected what 
was called a pensile paradise, because his wife 
was desirous to have things like her own coun- 
try, she having been bred up in the palaces of 
Media.” Megasthenes also, in his fourth book 
of his accounts of India, makes mention of 
these things, and thereby endeavors to show 
that this king [ Nebuchadnezzar] exceeded Her- 
cules in fortitude, and in the greatness of his 
actions; for he saith, that “he conquered a great 
part of Libya and Iberia.” Diocles also, in the 
second book of his accounts of Persia, men- 
tions this king; as does Philostratus, in his ac- 
counts both of India and of Pheenicia, say, 
that “this king besieged Tyre thirteen years, 
while at the same time Ethbaal reigned at Tyre.” 
These are all the histories that I have met with 
concerning this king. 

have been acommon name of other kings of Babylon, be- 
sides the great Nebuchadnezzar himself, is a groundless mis- 
take of some modern chronologers only, and destitute of all 
proper original authority. 

“4 Tere fistecn days for finishing such vast buildings at Ba- 
bylon, in Josephus’s copy of Berosus, would seem too ab- 
surd to be supposed to be the true number, were it not for 
the same testimony extant also in the first book against 
Apion, sect. 19, vol. iv. with the same number. It thence 
indeed appears, that Josephus’s copy of Berosus had this 
gmall number, but that it is the true number I still doubt. 
Josephus assures us that the walls of so mucha smaller city 
as Jerusalem were two years and four months in building by 
Nehemiah, who yet hastened the work all he could, Antiq. 


®. xi. ch. v. sect. 8. I should think 115 days, or a yearand 15 
days, much more proportionable to so great a work. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE J&WS. q 


2. But now, after the deatn of Nebuchaa 
nezzar, Evil-Merodach, his son, succeeded in 
the kingdom, who immediately set Jeconiah 
at liberty, and esteemed him among his most 
intimate friends: he also gave him many pre 
sents, and made him honorable above the reat 
of the kings that were in Babylon; for his fathes 
had not kept his faith with Jeconiah, when he 
voluntarily delivered up himself to him with 
his wives and children, and his whole kindred 
for the sake of his country, that it might not 
be taken by siege, and utterly destroyed, as we 
said before. When Evil-Merodach was dead, 
after a reign of eighteen years, Niglissar, his 
son, took the government, and retained it forty 
years, and then ended his life: and after him, 
the succession in the kingdom came to his son 
Labosordacus, who continued in it in all but 
nine months; and when he was dead it came 
to Baltasar,* who, by the Babylonians, was 
called Naboandelus; against him did Cyrus, 
the king of Persia, and Darius, the king of 
Media, make war; and when he was besieged 
in Babylon, there happened a wonderful and 
prodigious vision. He was sat down at supper 
in a large room, and there were a great many 
vessels of silver, such as were made for royal 
entertainments, and he had with him his con- 
cubines, and his friends; whereupon he came 
to a resolution, and commanded that those ves- 
sels of God which Nebuchadnezzar had plun- 
dered out of Jerusalem, and had not made use 
of, but had put them into his own temple, 
should be brought out of that temple. He also 
grew so haughty as to proceed to use them im 
the midst of his cups, drinking out of them, 
and blaspheming against God. In the mean 
time, he saw a hand proceed out of the wall, 
and writing upon the wall certain syllables: at 
which sight being disturbed, he called the ma- 
gicians and Chaldeans together, and all sort of 
men that are among these Barbarians, and were 
able to interpret signs and dreams, that they 
might explain the writing to him. But when 
the magicians said they could discover nothing, 
nor did understand it, the king was in great 
disorder of mind, and under great trouble at 
this surprising accident; so he caused it to be 
proclaimed through all the country, and pro- 
mised, that to him who could explain the wri- 
ting, and give the signification couched therein, 
he would give him a golden chain for his neck, 


* It is here remarkable, that Josephus, without the know- 
ledge of Ptolemy’s canon, should call the same king, whom 
he himself here, Bar. i. 11; Dan. v. 1, 2, 9, 12, 22, 29, 30, He 
Baltasar or Belshazzar from the Babylonian zod Bel Na- 
boandelus also; and in the first book against Apion, sect. 20, 
from the same citation out of Berosus, Nabonnedus from th 
Babylonian god Nabo or Nebo. This last is not remote from 
the original pronunciation itself in Ptolemy’s canon, Ni 
adius, for both the place of this king in that canon, as 
last of the Assyrian or Babylonian kings, and the number 
years of his reign, seventeen, the same in both, demonstrate 
that itis one and the same king that is meant by them all 
Itis also worth noting, that Josephus knew that Darius, thi 
partner of Cyrus, was the son of Astyages, and was calle 
by another name among the Greeks, though it does not ap 
pear he knew what that name was, as having never seen th 
best history of this period, which is Xenophon’s. But the 
what Josepnus’s present copies say presently, sect. 4, that 
was only within no long time after the hand-writing on th 
wall that Baltasar was slain, does not so well agree with ou 
copies of Daniel, which say it was the same night, Dan. v. Ht 










BOOK X.—CHAPTER XI]. 


and leave to wear a purple garment, as did the 
kings of Chaldea, and would bestow on him 
the third part of his own dominions. When 
this proclamation was made, the magicians ran 
together more earnestly, and were very ambi- 
tious to find out the importance of the writing. 
but still hesitated about it as much as before. 
Now when the king’s grandmother saw him 
cast down at this accident,* she began to en- 
courage him, and to say, that “there was a cer- 
tain captive who came from Judea,a Jew by 
birth, but brought away thence by Nebuchad- 
nezzar, when he had destroyed Jerusalem, 
whose name was Daniel, a wise man, and one 
of great sagacity in finding out what was im- 
ossible for others to discover, and what was 
own to God alone; who brought to light and 
answered such questions to Nebuchadnezzar 
as no one else was able to answer when they 
were consulted. She therefore desired that he 
would send for him, and inquire of him con- 
cerning the writing, and to condemn the un- 
skilfulness of those who could not find their 
meaning, and this, although what God signified 
thereby should be of a melancholy nature.” 

3. When Baltasar heard this, he called for 
Daniel; and when he had discoursed to him 
what he had learned concerning him and his 
wisdom, and how a divine Spirit was with him; 
and that he alone was fully capable of finding 
out what others would never have thought of, 
he desired him to declare to him what this wri- 

‘ting meant: that if he did so, he would give 
him leave to wear purple, and to put a chain of 
gold about his neck, and would bestow on him 
the third part of his dominion, as an honorary 
reward for his wisdom, that thereby he might 
become illustrious to those who saw him, and 
who inquired upon what occasion he obtained 
such honors. But Daniel desired, that “he 
would keep his gifts to himself: for what is the 
effect of wisdom and of divine revelation, ad- 
mits of no gifts, and bestows its advantages on 
petitioners freely, but that still he would explain 
the writing to him; which denoted that he 
should soon die, and this because he had not 
learnt to honor God, and not to admit things 
above human nature, by what punishment his 
progenitors had undergone, for the injuries he 
had offered to God; and because he had quite 
forgotten how Nebuchadnezzar was removed 
to feed among wild beasts, for his impieties, 

and did not recover his former life among men, 
and his kingdom, but upon God’s mercy to hitn, 
after many supplications and prayers; who did 
thereupon praise God all the days of his life, 

—asone of almighty power, and who takes care 
of mankind. [He also put him in mind] how 
he had greatly blasphemed against God, and 
had made use of his vessels amongst his con- 
cubines: that, therefore, God saw this, and was 

angry with him, and declared by this writing 
beforehand, what asad conclusion of life he 
should cometo. And he explained the writing 
thus:—Manen. This, if it be expounded in the 


__* This grandmother or mother of Baltasar, the queen- 
_ &owager of Babylon, (for she is distinguished from his queen, 

. - Vv. 0 23,) seems to have been the famous Nitocris who 
. 


261 


Greek language, may signify a Number, because 
God hath numbered so Jong a time for thy life, 
and for thy government, and that there remains 
but asmall portion. Tuexen. This signifies a 
Weight, and means that God hath weighed thy 
kingdom in a balance, and finds it going down 
already. Puares. This also, in the Greek 
tongue, denotes a Fragment; God will, there- 
fore, break thy kingdom in pieces, and divide it 
among the Medes and Persians. 

4, When Daniel had told the king that the 
writing upon the wall signified these events, 
Baltasar was in great sorrow and affliction, as 
was to be expected, when the interpretation 
was so heavy upon him. However, he did not 
refuse what he had promised Daniel, although 
he were become a foreteller of misfortunes to 
him, but bestowed it all upon him: as reason- 
ing thus, that what he was to reward was pecu- 
liar to himself, and to fate, and did not belong 
to the prophet; but that it was the part of a 
good and a just man to give what he had pro- 
mised, although the events were of a melan- 
choly nature. Accordingly, the king determined 
so todo. Now after a little while, both him- 
self and the city were taken by Cyrus, the 
king of Persia, who fought against him; for it 
was Baltasar under whom Babylon was taken, 
when he had reigned seventeen years. And 
this is the end of the posterity of king Nebu- 
chadnezzar, as history informs us; but when 
Babylon was taken by Darius, and when he, 
with his kinsman Cyrus, had put an end to the 
dominion of the Babylonians, he was sixty-two 
years old. He wasthe son of Astyages, and 
had another name among the Greeks. More- 
over, he took Daniel the prophet, and carried 
him with him into Media, and honored him 
very greatly, and kept him with him; for he 
was one of the three presidents whom he set 
over his three hundred and sixty provinces, for 
into so many did Darius part them. 

5. However, while Daniel was in so great a 
dignity, and in so great favor with Darius, and 
was alone intrusted with every thing by him, 
as having somewhat divine in him, he was en- 
vied by the rest; for those that see others in 
greater honor than themselves with kings, en- 
vy them: and when those that were grieved 
at the great favor Daniel was in with Darius, 
sought for an occasion against him, he afforded 
them no occasion at all, for as he was above all 
the temptations of money, and despised bribe- 
ry, and esteemed it a very base thing to take 
any thing by way of reward, even when it might 
be justly given him, he afforded those that en- 
vied him not the least handle for an accusation. 
So when they could find nothing for whick 
they might calumniate him to the king; noth 
ing that was shameful or reproachful, ana 
thereby deprive him of the honor he was in 
with him, they sought for sone other method 
whereby they might destroy him. When 
therefore, they saw that Daniel prayed to God 
three times a day, they thought they had got 


————————— ee SS 


fortified Babylon against the Medes and Persians, and in all 
probability governed under Baltasar who seems to have bee# 
a weak and effeminate prince. 


262 


ten un occasion by which they might ruin him; 
80 they came to Darius, and told him, that “the 
princes and governors had thought proper to 
allow the multitude a relaxation for thirty days, 
that no one might offer a petition or prayer 
either to himself, or to the gods, but that he 
who shall transgress this decree shall be cast 
into the den of lions, and there perish.’ 

6. Whereupon the king, being not acquaitt- 
ed with their wicked design, nor suspecting 
that it was a contrivance of theirs against Da- 
tulel, said, he was pleased with this decree of 
theirs, and he promised to confirm what they 
desired: he also published an edict to promul- 
gate to the people that decree which the princes 
had made. Accordingly, all the rest took care 
not to transgress those injunctions, and rested 
in quiet; but Daniel had no regard to them, but, 
as he was wont, he stood and prayed to God in 
the sight of them all: but the princes having 
met with the occasion they so earnestly sought 
to find against Daniel, came presently to the 
king, and accused him, that Daniel was the 
only person that transgressed the decree, while 
not one of the rest durst pray to their gods, 
This discovery they made, not because of his 
impiety, but because they had watched him, 
and observed hin out of envy: for supposing 
that Darius did thus out of a greater kindness 
to him than they expected, and that he was 
ready to grant him a pardon for this contempt 
of his injunctions, and envying this very par- 
don to Daniel, they did not become very favor- 
able to him, but desired he might be cast into 
the den of lions, according to the law. So 
Darius, hoping that God would deliver him, and 
that he would undergo nothing that was terri- 
ble by the wild beasts, bade him bear this acci- 
dent cheerfully: and when he was cast into 
-he den, he put his seal to the stone that lay 
4pon the mouth of the den, and went his way; 
but he passed all the night without food, and 
without sleep, being in great distress for Da- 
biel. But when it was day, he got up, and 
came to the den, and found the seal entire, 
which he had left the stone sealed withall; he 
also opened the seal, and cried out, and called 
to Daniel, and asked him, if he were alive? 
And as soon as he heard the king’s voice, and 
said that he had suffered no harm, the king 
gave order that he should be drawn up out of 
the den. Now when his enemies saw that Da- 
niel had suffered nothing which was terrible, 
they would not own that he was preserved by 
God, and by his providence; but they said, 
that the lions had been filled full with food, 
and on that account it was, as they supposed, 
that the lions would not touch Daniel, nor come 
to him; and this they alleged to the king: but 
the king, out of an abhorrence of their wick- 
edness, gave order, that they should throw in a 
great deal of flesh to the lions; and when they 
had filled themselves, he gave further order that 
Daniel’s enemies should be cast into the den, 
that he might learn whether the lions, now they 
were full, would touch them or not. And it 
appeared plain to Darius, after the princes had 
been cast to the wild beasts, that it was God 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


who preserved Daniel, for the lions spared aone 
of them,* but tore them all to pieces, as if they 
had been very hungry, and wanted food. I sup- 
pose, therefore, it was not their hunger, whick 
had been a little before satisfied with abundance 
of flesh, but the wickedness of these men, that 
provoked them [to destroy the princes;] for if 
it so please God, that wickedness might ever 
by those irrational creatures, be esteemed 
plain foundation for their punishment. 

7. When, therefore, those that had intended 
thus to destroy Daniel by treachery, were thein 
selves destroyed, king Darius sent [letters] over 
all the country, and praised that God whom 
Daniel worshipped; and said, that “he was the 
only true God, and had all power.” He had 
also Daniel in very great esteem, and made him 
the principal of his friends. Now when Da- 
niel was become so illustrious, and famous, on 
account of the opinion men had that he was 
beloved of God, he built a tower at Echatana 
in Media; it was a most elegant building, and 
wonderfully made, and it is still remaining, and 
preserved to this day; and to such as see it, it 
appears to have been lately built, and to have 
been no older than that very day; when any 
one looks upon it, it is so fresh, flourishing, an@ 
beautiful, and noway grown old in so long 
time;t for buildings suffer the same as men do, 
they grow old as well as they, and by numbers 
of years their strength is dissolved, and their 
beauty withered. Now they bury the kings of 
Media, of Persia, and Parthia, in this tower to 
this day; and he who was intrusted with the 
care of it, was a Jewish priest; which thing is 
also observed to this day: but it is fit to give an 
account of what this man did, which is most 
admirable to hear, for he was so happy as to 
have strange revelations made to him, and 
those as to one of the greatest of the prophets, 
insomuch that while he was alive he had the 
esteem and applause both of the kings and of 
the multitude, and now he is dead, he retains 
a remembrance that will never fail, for the 
several books that he wrote and left behind 
him are still read by us till this time, and from! 
them we believe that Daniel conversed with 
God; for he did not only prophecy of future 
events, as did the other prophets, but he also 
determined the time of their accomplish mona 
and while prophets used to foretell misfortune 
and on that account were disagreeable both 8 
the kings and to the multitude, Daniel was té 


» 

‘ 

* Itis noway improbable that Daniel’s enemies might sug- 
gest this reason to the king, why the lions did not med 
with him, and that they might suspect the king’s kindness 
Daniel had procured these lions to be so filled beforehan 
and that thence it was that he encouraged Daniel to submit to 
this experiment, in hopes of coming off safe; and that chis 
was the true reason of making so terrible an Dat vi 3 








upon those his enemies, and all their families, Dan. vi. 2 
though our other copies do not directly take notice of it. _ 

t What Josephus here says that the stones of the sepv 
chres of the kings of Persia at this tower, or those peri 
of the same sort that are now commonly called the ruins | 
Persepolis, continued so entire and unaltered in his days, 4 
if they were lately put there, “I,”? says Reland, “here 
show to be true, as to those stones of the Persian kings’ mat 
soleum which Corn. Brunius broke off and gave me.?” 
ascribed this to the hardness of the stone, which seare: 
yields to iron tools, and proves frequently too hard for cui 
by the chisel, but oftentimes breaks it into pieces 











BOOK X.—CHAPTER Xt. 


‘them a prophet of good things, and this to such 


a degree, that, by the agreeable nature of his 
predictions, he procured the good will of all 
men, and by the accomplishment of them he 
procured the belief of their truth, and the opi- 
nion of [a sort of | divinity for himself, among 
the multitude. He also wrote and left behind 
him what made manifest the accuracy and un- 
deniable veracity of his predictions; for he 
saith, that “when he was in Susa, the metro- 
polis of Persia, and went out into the field with 
his companions, there was, on the sudden, a 
motion and concussion of the earth, and that 


‘he was left alone by himself, his friends flying 


away from him; and that he was disturbed, 
and fell on his face, and on his two hands, and 
that a certain person touched him, and, at the 
same time, bade him rise and see what would 
befall his countrymen after many generations. 
He also related, that when he stood up, he was 
shown a great ram, with many horns growing 
out of his head, and that the last was higher 
than the rest; that after this he looked to the 
west, and saw a he-goat carried through the 
air from that quarter, that he rushed upon the 
ram with violence, and smote him twice with 
his horns, and overthréw him to the ground, 
and trampled upon him: that afterward he saw 
avery great horn growing out of the head of 


‘the he-goat, and that when it was broken off, 


four horns grew up that were exposed to each 


of the four winds, and he wrote that out of 


them arose another lesser horn, which, as he 
said, waxed great; and that God showed to him 
that it should fight against his nation, and take 
their city by force, and bring the temple-wor- 
ship to confusion, and forbid the sacrifices to 
be offered for one thousand two hundred and 
ninety-six days.” Daniel wrote that he saw 
these visions in the plain of Susa; and he hath 
informed us, that God interpreted the appear- 
ance of this vision after:the following manner: 
“He said that the ram signified the kingdoms 
of the Medes and Persians, and the horns those 
kings that were to reign in them; and that the 
last horn signified the last king, and that he 
should exceed all the kings in riches and glory; 
that the goat signified that one should come 
and reign from the Greeks, who should twice 
fight with the Persian, and overcome him in 
battle, and should receive his entire dominion; 
that by the great horn which sprang out of the 
forehead of the he-goat was meant the first 


BGR 
kine; 


g; and that the springing up of four horne 
upon its falling off, and the conversion of every . 
one of them to the four quarters of the earth, 
signified the successors that should arise after 
the death of the first king, and the partition of 
the kingdom among thei, and that they should 
be neither his children nor of his kindred, that 
should reign over the habitable earth for many 
years; and that from among them there should 
arise a certain king that should overcome our 
nation and their laws, and should take away 
their political government, and should spoil the 
temple, and forbid the sacrifices to be offered 
for three years’ time.” And indeed so it came 
to pass, that our nation suffered these things un- 
der Antiochus Epiphanes, according to Da- 
niel’s vision, and what he wrote many years 
before they came to pass. In the very same 
manner Daniel also wrote concerning the Ro- 
man government, and that our country should 
be made desolate by them. All these thingy 
did this’ man leave in writing, as God had 
showed them to him, insomuch, that such as 
read his prophecies, and see how they have 
been fulfilled, would wonder at the honor 
wherewith God honored Daniel, and may 
thence discover how the Epicureans are in an 
error, who cast Providence out of human life, 
and do not believe that God takes care of the 
affairs of the world, nor that the universe is 
governed and continued in being by that bless- 
ed and immortal nature, but say that the world 
is carried along of its own accord, without 4 
ruler and a curator; which, were it destitute of 
a guide to conduct it, as they imagine, it would 
be like ships without pilots, which we see 
drowned by the winds, or like chariots without 
drivers, which are overturned, so woul! the 
world be dashed to pieces by its being carried 
without a providence, and so perish and cone 
to nought. So that, by the forementioned pre- 
dictions of Daniel, those men seem to me very 
much to err from the truth, who determine, 
that God exercises no providence over hu:nan 
affairs; for if that were the case, that the world 
went on by mechanical necessity, we should 
not see that all thmgs would come to pass ac- 
cording to his prophecy. Now as to myself, I 
have so described these matters as [ have found 
them and read them; but if any one is inclin- 
ed to another opinion about them, Jet him en 
joy his different sentiments w thout any blane 
from me. 


: 


Bh4 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 
BOOK XI. 


OGNTAINING CHE INTERVAL OF TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE YEARS AND FIVE MONTHS. 
FROM THE FIRST OF CYRUS, TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 





CHAPTER I. 


How Cyrus, king of the Persians, delivered the 
Jews out of Babylon, and suffered them to re- 
turn to their own country, and to build their 
temp e, for which work he gave them money. 


§ 1. In the first year of the reign of Cyrus,* 
which was the seventieth from the day that our 
eople were removed out of their own land 
into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity 
and calamity of these poor people, according 
as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the 
prophet, before the destruction of the city; that 
after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his 
posterity, and after they had undergone that 
servitude seventy years, he would restore thern 
again to the land of their fathers, and they 
should build their temple, and enjoy their an- 
cient prosperity. And these things God did 
afford them: for he stirred up the mind of Cy- 
ru, and made him write this throughout all 
Asia, “Thus saith Cyrus the king, since God 
Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the 
hubitable earth, I believe that he is that God 
which the nation of the Israelites worship, for 
in leed he foretold my name by the prophets, 
aud that I should build him a house at Jerusa- 
lein, in the country of Judea.” 

2. This was known to Cyrus by his reading 
the book which Isuiah left behind him of his 
prophecies; for this prophet said, that God had 
spoken thus to him in a secret vision; “My will, 
is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be 
King over many aid great nations, send back 
my people to their own land, and build my tem- 
ple.” ‘This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred 
and forty years before the temple was demol- 
ished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read this, 
and admired the divine power, an earnest de- 
sire and ambition seized upon him, to fulfil 
what was so written; so he called for the most 
eminent Jews that were in Babylon, and said 
to them, that “he gave them leave to go back 
to their own country, and to rebuild their city 
Jerusalem,} and the temple of God, for that he 
would be their assistant, and that he would 
write to the rulers and governors that were in 
the neighborhood of their country of Judea, 
that they should contribute to them gold and 
silver for the building of the temple, and be- 
suies that, beasts for their sacrifices.” 

3. When Cyrus had said this to the Israel- 

* This Cyrus is ce“ed God’s shepherd by Xenophon, as 
well as by Isaiah, Isa. xliv. 28, as alsoit is said of him by the 
same prophet, that “I will make a man more precious than 
fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir,” Isa. 
Ril. 12, which character makes Xenophon’s most excellent 
history of him very credible. 

{ This leave to build Jerusalem, sect. 2, 3, and the epistle 
of Cyrus to Sisinnes and Sathrabuzanes, to the same pur- 
pose, are most unfortunately omitted in all our copies but 
Bus best and completest copy of Josephus: and by such 


emission the famous prophecy of Isaiah, Isa. xliv. 28, where 
we are informed, that God said of or to Cyrus, “He is my 


ites, the rulers of the two tribes of Judah and 
Benjamin, with the Levites, and priests, went in 
haste to Jerusalem, yet did many of them stay 
at Babylon, as not willing to leave their posses- 
sions; and when they were come thither, all 
the king’s friends assisted them, and brought 
in, for the building of the temple, some gold 
and some silver, and some a great many cattle 
and horses. So they performed their vows te 
God, and offered the sacrifices that had been 
accustomed of old time: I mean this upon the 
rebuilding of their city, and the revival of the 
ancient practices relating to their worship. 
Cyrus also sent back to them the vessels of 
God which king Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged 
out of the temple, and had carried to Babylon, 
So he committed these things to Mithridates, 
the treasurer, to be sent away, with an order 
to give them to Sanabassar, that he might keep 
them till the temple was built; and when it was 
finished, he might deliver them to the priests 
and rulers, of the multitude, in order to their - 
being restored to the temple. Cyrus also sent 
an epistle to the governors that were in Syria, 
the contents whereof here follows: | 


“King Cyrus to Sisinnes and SavHRaBuza- © 
NES, sendeth greeting: 


“I have given leave, to as many of the Jews 
that dwellin my country as please, to return to — 
their own country, and to rebuild their city, and 
to build the temple of God at Jerusalem, on the 
same place where it was before. I have also 
sent my treasurer Mithridates, and Zorobable, © 
the governor of the Jews, that they may lay 
the foundations of the temple, and may build it 
sixty cubits high, and of the same latitude, mak-_ 
ing three edifices of polished stones, and one 
of the wood of the country; and the same or- 
der extends to the altar, whereon they offer 
sacrifices to God. I require also, that the sa- 
crifices for these things may be given out of my 
revenues. Moreover, I have also sent the ve+ 
sels which king Nebuchadnezzar pillaged out_ 
of the temple, and have given them to Mithri- 
dates, the treasurer, and to Zorobable the go 
vernor of the Jews, that they may have th 
carried to Jerusalem, and may restore them 
the temple of God. Now their number is as 
follows:* fifty chargers of gold, and five hun-_ 
dred of silver; forty Thericlean cups of gold; 


and five hundred of silver, fifty basins of gold, 














shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying & 
Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple, th 
foundation shall be laid,” could not hitherto be demonstrate 
ed froin the sacred history to have been completely fulfilled, I” 
mican as to that part of it which concerned his cving ve 
or commission for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem as 4 
from the temple; whose rebuilding is alone permitted or a — 
rected in the decree of Cyrus in all the copies. i 
* Of the true nuniber of golden and silver vessels, he 

and elsewhere, belonging to the temple of Solomon, see may 
Description of the Temple, ch. xiii : 


BOOK XL—CHAPTER IL. 


and five hundred of silver; thirty vessels for 
pou.i g [the drink-offerings,] and three hun- 
dred of eilver; thirty vials of cold, and two thou- 
sand four hundred of silver; with a thousand 
other large vessels. 1 pcrmit them to have the 
same honcr which they were used to have from 
their forefathers, as also for their small cattle, 
and for wme atv! oil, two hundred and five 
thousand and five hundred drachms:; and for 
wheat four, twenty thousand an. Sve hundred 
artabee; and I give order. that these expenses 
‘shall be given them out of the tributes due trom 
Samaria. The priests shall alzo offer these sa- 
crifices according to the laws or Moses in, 3 sru- 
salem: and when they offer thei, they shall 
pray to God for the preservation of the king 
and of his family, that the kingdom of Persia 
may continue. But my will is, that those who 
disobey these injuncuons, and make them void, 
shall be hung upon a cross, and their substance 
brought into the king’s treasury.” And such 
was the import of this epistle. Now the num- 
her of those that came out of captivity to Je- 
rusalem, were forty-two thousand four hun- 
dred and sixty-two. 
CHAPTER II. 

How upon the death of Cyrus the Jews were hin- 

dered in building of the temple by the Cuthe- 

ans, and the neighboring governors: and how 


Cambyses entirely forbade the Jews to do any 
such thing. 


§ 1. When the foundations of the temple 
wire laying, and when the Jews were very 
zentlous about building it, the neighboring na- 
tians, especially the Cutheans, whom Shalma- 
nezar, king of Assyria, had brought out of 
P. rsia and Media, and had planted in Samaria, 
w ien he carried the people of Israel captives, 
bc sought the goverers, and those that had the 
care of such affairs, that siey would interrupt 
the Jews, both in the rebuilding of their city, 
aid in the building of their wmple. Now as 
these men were corrupted by them with mo- 
ney, they sold the Cutheans their interest for 
rendering this bnildiug a slow and a careless 
work, for Cyrus, who was busy about other 
wars, knew nothing of all this; and it so hap- 
pened, that when he bad led his army against 
the Massagetee he ended his life.* But when 
Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, had taken the 
kingdom, the governors in Syria, and Pheeni- 
cia, and in the countries of Ammon, and Moab, 
and Samaria, wrete an epistle to Cambyses, 
whose contents were as follows: “To our lord 
Cambyses; we thy servants, Rathumus the his- 
torioyrupher, aud Semellius the scribe, and the 
rest that are thy judges in Syria and Pheenicia, 
send greeting: It is fit, O king, that thou 
shouidext know that those Jews who were car- 

* Juvephus here follows Herut .xus, and those that related 
how Cyrus made war with the Scytbians aid Massagetes, 
Rear the Caspian sea, ane perished in it; wile Xenophon’s 
account, which uppears never to have Seen seen by Jose- 
pbus, that Cyrus died in peace in hie wwn country of Persia, 
attested to by the writers of the iifairs of Alexander the 
Great, when they agree that he our d Cyrus’s sepulchre at 
Pasargade, near Persepo is. ‘This account of Xenophon is 
- also confirmed by the cire 2mstances of Cainbyses, upon his 

aaccession to Cyrus, who instead of a war to avenge his | 
ay 


263 
ried to Babylon, are come into our country, and 
are building that rebellious and wicked citv 
and its market-places, and setting up its walls, 
and raising up the temple: know, therefore, 
that when these things are finished, they will 
not be willing to pay tribute, nor will they sub- 
mit to thy commands, but will resist kings, and 
will choose rather to rule over others, than be 
ruled over themselves. We therefore thought 
it proper to write to thee, O king, while the 
works about the temple are going on so ‘ast, 
and not to overlook this matter, that thou may- 
est search into the books of thy fathers, for 
thou wilt find in them, that the Jews have been 
rebels, and enemies to kings, as hath their cities 
been also, which for that reason, hath been till 
now laid waste. We thought proper also to 
inform thee of this matter, because thou may- 
est otherwise perhaps be ignorant of it, that if 
this city be once inhabited, and be entirely en- 
compassed with walls, thou wilt be excluded 
from thy passage to Celosyria and Pheenicia.” 

2. When Cambyses had read the epistle, be- 
ing naturally wicked, he was irritated at what 
they told him; and wrote back to them as fol- 
lows: “Cambyses the king, to Rathumus the 
historiographer, to Beeltethmus, to Semellius 
the scribe, and the rest that are in commission, 
and dwelling in Samaria and Pheenicia, after 
this manner: I have read the epistle that was 
sent from you; and I gave order that the books 
of my forefathers should be searched into, and 
it is there found, that this city hath always been 
an enemy to kings, and its inhabitants have rais- 
ed seditions and wars. We also are sensible 
that their kings have been powerful and tyran- 
nical, and have exacted tribute of Colosy- 
ria and Pheenicia: wherefore, I give order 
that the Jews shall not be permitted to 
build that city, lest such mischief as they 
used to bring upon kings be greatly augment- 
ed.” When this epistle was read, Rathumus, 
and Semellius the scribe, and their associates, 
got suddenly on horseback, and made haste to 
Jerusalem; they also brought a great company 
with them, and forbade the Jews to build the 
city, and the temple. Accordingly, these works 
were hindered from going on till the second 
year of the reign of Darius, for nine years 
more; for Cambyses reigned six years, and 
within that time overthrew Egypt, and when 
he was come back, he died at Damascus 


CHAPTER III. 


How, after the death of Cambyses, and the pg 
ter of the Magi, but under the ragn of Da 
rius, Zorobabel was superior to the rest in the 
solution of problems, and thereby obtained this 
favor of the king, that the temple should be butlt. 


§ 1. After the slaughter of the Magi, who 


father’s death upon the Scythians 1nd Massagetes, and to 
prevent those nations from overrunning his northern pro- 
vinees, which would have been the natural consequence 
of his father’s ill success and death there, went immediately 
to an Egyptian war, long ago began by Cyrus, according te 
Xenophon, page 644, and conquered that kingdom: nor ia 
there, that Lever heard of, the least mention in the reign of 
this Cambyses of any war against the Scythians and Massa 

getes that he was ever engaged in all his life. 


266 


upon the death of Cambyses, attained the go- 
verniment of the Persians for a year, those fami- 
ues which were called the seven families of the 
Persians, appointed Darius, the son of Hystas- 
pes, to be their king. Now he, while he was a 
rivate man, had made a vow to God, that if 
1¢ came to be king, he would send all the ves- 
sels of God that were in Babylon to the temple 
at Jerusalem. Now it so fell out, that about 
his tume Zorobabel, who had been made go- 
vernor of the Jews that had been in capt: vi- 
ty, came to Darius from Jerusalem: for there 
had been an old friendship between him and 
the king. He was also, with two others, thought | 
worthy to be guards of the king’s body; and 
obtained that honor which he hoped for. 
2. Now in the first year of the king’s a 





Darius feasted those that were about him, and 
those born in his house, with the rulers of the 
Medes, and princes of the Persians, and the to- 
parchs of India and Ethiopia, and the generals | 
of the armies of his hundred and twenty-seven | 
provinces: but when they had eaten and drunk 
to satiety, and abundantly, they every one de- 

arted to go to bed at their own houses, and 
Deicik the king went to bed; but after he had 
rested a little part of the night, he awaked, and 
not being able to sleep any more, he fell into 
conversation with the three guards of his body, 
and promised, that to him who should make an | 
oration, about points that he should inquire of; | 
such as should be most agreeable to truth, and 
to the dictates of wisdoin, he would grant it as 
a reward of his victory, to put on a purple gar- 
ment, and to drink in cups of gold, and to sleep 
upon gold, and to have a chariot with bridles 
of gold, and a head tire of fine linen, and a 
chain of gold about his neck, and to sitnext to 
himself, on account of his wisdom; and, says 
he, he shall be called my cousin. Now when 
he had promised to give them these gifts, Le 
asked the first of them, whether wine was not 
the strongest? The second, whether kings 
were not such? And the third, whether wo- 
men were not such? Or, whether truth was 
not the strongest of all? When he had pro- | 
posed that they should make their inquiries 
about these problems, he went to rest; but in the 
morning he sent for his great men, his princes, 
and toparchs of Persia and Midia, and sat him | 
self down in the place where he used to give au- 
dience, and bade each of the guards of his body 
to declare what they thought proper concern- 
ing the proposed questions, in the hearing of| 
them all.* 

3. Accordingly, the first of them began to 
speak of the strength of wine, and demonstrat- 
ed it thus: “When, said he, I am to give my 

* The reader is to note, that although the speeches or pa- 

of these three of the king’s guards are much the same, 

our third book of Esdras, chap. iii. and iv. as they are 
here in Josephus, yet that the introduction of them is en- 
tirely different, while 1n our Esdras the whole is related as 
the contrivance of the three of the king’s guards themselves: 
and even the mighty rewards are spoken of as proposed by 
themselves, and the speeches are related to have been deliv- 
ered oy themselves to the king m writing, while all is contrary 
in Josephus. I need not say whose account is the most pro- 
bable, the matters speak for themselves; and there can be 


no d~ubt but Josephus’s history is here to be very much pre- 
ferred before the other. Nor, indeed, does it seem to me at 


Fs 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


opinion of wine, O you men, I find that it ex- 


“a 


ceeds everything, by the following indications: | 


It deceives the minds of those who drink it, 
and reduces that of the king to the same state 
with that of the orphan and he who stands in 


‘|need of a tutor, and erects that of the slave to 


the boldness of him that is free, and that of the 
needy. becomes like that of the rich man, for it 
changes and renews the souls of men when it 
gets into them, and it quenches the sorrow of 
those that are under calamities, and makes men 
forget the debts they owe to others, and makes 
them think themselves to be of all men the rich- 
est; it makes them talk of no small things, but 
of talents, and such other names as become 
wealthy men only; nay, more, it makes them 
insensible of their commanders, and of their 
kings, and takes away the remembrance of 
their friends and companions, for it arms men 
even against those that are dearest to them, 
and makes them appear the greatest strangers 
to them; and when they are become sober, and 
they have slept out their wine in the night, 
they arise without knowing any thing they 
have done in their cups; I take these for signs 
of power, and by them discover that wine is 
the strongest and most insuperable of all things.” 


4. As soon as the first had given the fore- 
mentioned demonstrations of the strength of 
wine, he left off; and the next to him began to 
speak about the strength of a king, and de- 
monstrated that it was the strongest of all, and 
more powerful than any thing else that appears 
to have any force or wisdom. He began his 
demonstration after the following manner: and 
said, “They are men who govern all things; 
they force the earth and the sea to become 
profitable to them in what they desire, and over 
these men do kings rule, and over them 
they have authority. Now, those men who 
rule over that animal which is of all the strong- 
est and most powerful, must needs deserve to 
be esteemed insuperable in power and force; 
for example, when these kings command their 
subjects to make war, and undergo dangers, 
they are hearkened to, and when they send 
them against their enemies, their power is so 
great that they are obeyed. They command 
men to level mountains, and to pull down walls 
and towers; nay, when they are commanded 
to be killed and to kill, they submit to it, that 
they may not appear to transgress the king’s 
commands; and when they have conquered, 
they bring what they have gained in the war 
to the king. Those also who are not soldiers, 
but cultivate the ground, and plough it, and 
when, after they have endured the labor, and 
all the inconveniences of such works of hus- 


all unlikely that the whole was a contrivance of king Dart 
us’s Own, in order to be decently and inotfensively put in mind 
by Zorobabel of fulfilling his old vow for the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem and the temple, and the restoration cf tae bese | 
of the One True God there. Nor does the full meaning o 

Zorobabel, when he cries out, 1 Esa. iv. 40, “Blessed be the 
God of truth;”’ and here, “Cod ia true and righteous,” of 
even of all the people, 1 Esd. iv. 41, “Great is truth, and 
mighty above all things,”’ seer. o be much different from this, 
“There is but One True God,” : 2° God of Israel. To which 
doctrine, such as Cyrus and }*arivs, &e. the Jews’ great pa 
trons, seem not to have bees very averse, thorgh the entire 
idolatry of their kingdoms made them generaly conceal it 


' fruits, they bring tributes to the king. 


\ 


‘procure it to ourselves. We also leave father, | 


_ to lay down our lives for them. 


_do we not bring them to the women, as to our 


BOOK X1.—CHAPTER IL. - 


bandry, they have reaped and gathered in their 
And 
whatsoever it is which the king says or com- 
mands, it is done of necessity, and that without 
any delay, while he in the meantime is satiat- 
ed with all sorts of food and pleasures, and 
sleeps in quiet.. He is guarded by such as 
watch, and such as are asit were fixed down 
to the place through fear, for no one dares 
leave him, even when he is asleep, nor does 
any one go away and take care of his own af- 
fairs, but he esteems this one thing the only 
work of necessity, to guard the king, and ac- 
cording to this he wholly addicts himself. How | 
then can it be otherwise, but that it must ap- ; 
pear that the king exceeds all in strength, 
while so great a multitude obeys his injunc- 
tions,” 


5. Now when this man had held his peace, 
the third of them, who was Zorobabel, began 
to instruct them about women, and about truth, 
who said thus: “ Wine is strong, as is the king 
also, whom all men obey, but women are su- 
perior to them in power, for it was a woman 
that brought the king into the world; and for 
those that plant the vines and make the wine, 
they are women who bear them, and bring 


them up: nor indeed is there anything which 


we do not receive from them; for these women 
weave garments for us, and our household af- 
fairs are by their means taken care of, and pre- 
served in safety; nor can we live separate from 
women. And when we have gotten a great 


deal of gold and silver, and any other thing 


that is of great value, and deserving regard, | 
and see a beautiful woman, we leave all things, ! 
and with open mouth fix our eyes upon her 
countenance, and are willing to forsake what} 
we have, that we may enjoy her beauty, and) 


and mother, and the earth that nourishes us, | 
and frequently forget our dearest friends, for 
the sake of women: nay, we are so hardy as 
But what will 
chiefly make you take notice of the strength 
of women, is this that follows; do we not take 
pains, and endure a great deal of trouble, and 
that both by land and sea, and when we have 
procured somewhat as the fruit of our labors, 





mistresses, and bestow them upon them? nay, 
I once saw the king, who is lord of so many 
people, smitten on the face by Apame, the 
daughter of Rabsases Themasius, his concu- 
bine, and his diadem taken from him, and put 
upon her own head, while he bore it patiently ; : 
and when she smiled he smiled, and when she 
was angry he was sad; and according to the 
change of her passions, he flattered his wife, 
and drew her to a reconciliation by the great 
humiliation of himself to her, if at any time 





he saw her displeased at him,” 


6. And when the princes and rulers looked 
one upon another, he began to speak about 
truth, and he said, “I have already demon- 
strated how powerful women are; but both 


these women themselves, and the king him- 


self, are weaker than truth; for although the 


287 


earth be large, and the heaven h.gh, and the 
course of the sun swift, yet are all these moved 
according-to the will of God who is true and 
righteous, for which cause we also ought to ea 
teem truth to be strongest of all things, and 
that what is unrighteous is of no force against 
it. Moreover, all things else that have any 
strength are mortal, and short-lived, but truth 
is a thing that is immortal, and eternal. It af- 
fords us not indeed such a beauty as will wither 
away by time, nor such richesas may be taken 
away by fortune, but righteous rules and laws 
It distinguishes them frum injustice,and_ puits 
what is unrighteous to rebuke.” 

¢. So when Zorobabel had left off his dis. 
es:tese about truth, and the multitude had cried 
out aloud that he had spoken the most wisely, 
and that it was truth alone that had immuta- 
ble strength, and such as never would wax old, 
the king commanded, that he should ask for 
scmewhat over and above what he had pro- 
mised, for that he would give it him because of 
his wisdom, and that prudence wherein he ex- 
ceeded the rest; and thou shalt sit with me, said 
the king, and shalt be called my cousin. Whea 
he had said this, Zorobabel put him in mind of 
the vow he had made, in case he should ever 
have the kingdom. Now this vow was, “'L'o 
rebuild Jerusalem, and to build therein the tein- 
ple of God; as also to restore the vessels which 
Nebuchadnezzar had _ pillaged, and carried to 
Babylon.” And this, said he, is that request 
which thou now permittest me to make, on ac. 
count that I have been judged to be wise and 
understanding. 

8. So the king was pleased with what he 
had said, and arose and kissed him; and wrote 
to the toparchs and governors, and enjoined 
them to conduct Zorobabel, and those that were 
going with him to build the temple. He also 
sent letters to those rulers that were in Syria 
and Pheenicia, to cut down and carry cedar- 
trees from Lebanon to Jerusalem, and to assist 
him in building the city. He also wrote to 
them, that all the captives who should go to 
Judea should be free; and he prohibited his 
deputies and governors to lay any king’s taxes 
upon the Jews; he also permitted that they 
should have all that land which they could 
possess themselves of without tributes. He 
also enjoined the Idumeans and Samaritans, 
and the inhabitants of Calosyria, to restore 
those villages which they had taken from the 
Jews: and that, besides all this, fifty talents 
should be given them for the building of the 
temple. He also permitted them to offer their 
appointed sacrifices, and that whatsoever the 
high priest and the priests wanted, and those 
sacred garments wherein they used to worship 
God, should be made at his own charges; and 
that the musical instruments which the Levitee 
used in singing hymns to God should be given 
them. Moreover, he charged them that por 
tions of land should be given to those thar 
guarded the city and the temple, as also a de 
terminate sum of money every year for ther 
maintenance; and withal he sent the vessela 
And all that Cyrus intended to do befere bing, 


268 
relating to the restoration of Jerusalem, Darius 
also ordained should be done accordingly. 

9. Now when Zorobabel had obtained these 

rants from the king, he went out of the pa- 
ace, and looking up to heaven, he began to re- 
turn thanks to God for the wisdom he had giv- 
en him, and the victory he had gained thereby, 
even in the presence of Darius himself; for, said 
he, “I had not been thought worthy of these s.- 
vantages, O Lord, unless thou hadst been fa- 
vorable to me.” When, therefore, he had re- 
turned these thanks to God for the present cir- 
cumstances he was in, and had prayed to him 
to afford him the like favor for the time to 
come, he came to Babylon, and brought the 
good news to his countrymen, of what grants 
he had procured for them from the king: who 
when they heard the same, gave thanks also to 
God that he restored the land of their forefathers 
to them again. So they betook themselves to 
drinking and eating, and for seven days they 
continued feasting, and kept a festival for the 
rebuilding and restoration of their country. 
After this they chose themselves rulers, who 
should go up to Jerusalem, out of the tribes of 
their forefathers, with their wives, and children, 
and cattle, who travelled to Jerusalem with joy 
an pleasure, under the conduct of those whom 
Darius sent along with them, and making a 
nose with songs, and pipes, and cymbals. The 
rest of the Jewish multitude aiso besides accom- 
panied them with rejoicing. 

10. And thus did these men go, a certain 
an. determinate number out of every family, 
though I do not think it proper to recite par- 
tirularly, the names of those families, that I 
nay not take off the mind of my readers from 
tle connexion of the historical facts, and make 
it hard for them to follow the coherence, of 
niy narration; but the sum of those that went up, 
above the age of twelve years, of the tribes of 
Judah and Benjamin, was four hundred sixty- 
two myriads and eight thousand;* the Levices 


were seventy-four; the number of the women | 
and children mixed together was forty thousand | 


seven hundred and forty-two; and besides these 
there were singers of the Levites one hundred 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


seven; the singing men and singing women 
were two hundred and forty-five; the camels 
were four hundred and thirty-five; the beasts 
used to the yoke were five thousand five hun- 
dred and twenty-five; and the governor of all 
this multitude thus numbered was Zorobabel, 
the son of Salathiel, of the posterity of David 
and of the tribe cf Judeh, and Jeshua, the sor 
of Josedek, the high priest; and besides these 
there were Mordecai and Serebeus, who were 
distinguished from the multitude, and were ru 
lers, who also contributed a hundred pounds of 
gold, and five thousand of silver. By this 
means, therefore, the priests and the Levites, 
and a certain part of the entire people of the 
Jews that were in Babylon, came sa Gwelt in 
Jerusalem, but the rest of the multitude return- 
ed every one to their own countries. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How the temple was built, while the Cutheans en- 
deavored in vain to obstruct the work. 


§ 1. Now in the seventh month, after they 
were departed out of Babylon, both Jeshua the 
high priest, and Zorobabel the governor, sent 
messengers every way round about, and gath- 
ered those that were in the country together to 
Jerusalem universally, who came very gladly 
thither. He then built the altar on the same 
place it had formerly been built, that they 
might offer the appointed sacrifice: upon it te 
God, according to the laws of Moses. But while 
they did this, they did not please the neigh- 
boring nations, who all of them bore an ill-will 
to them. ‘They also celebrated the feast of 
Tabernacles at that time, as the legislatur had 
ordained concerning it, and after that they of- 
fered sacrifices, and what were called the daily 
sacrifices, and the oblations proper for the 
Sabbaths, and for all the holy festivals. Those 
also that had made vows performed them, 
and offered their sacrifices, from the first day 
of the sever.th month. They also began to 
build the temple, and gave a great deal of 
money to the masons and to the carpenters, and 
what wes necessary for the maintenance of the 
worknien. ‘The Sidonians also were very will- 


aud twenty-eight, and porters one hundred and | ing and ready to bring the cedar-trees from 


ten; and of the sacred ministers, three hun-| Libanug, te bind them together, and to make a_ 


died and ninety-two; there were also others be- | united flost of them, and to bring them to the 
sides these, who said they were israclies, but | port of Joppe, for that was what Cyrus had 


were not able to show their genealoyies, six 
hundred and sixty-two; some there were also 
who were expelled out of the number and 
honor of the priests, as having married wives 
whose genealogies they could not produce, nor 
were they found in the genealogies of the Le- 
vites and priests, they were above five hundred 
and twenty-five; the multitude also of servants 
that followed those that went up to Jerusalem, 
were seven thousand three hundred and thirty- 

* This strange reading in Josephus’s present copies, of 
4,000,000 instead of 40,000, is one of the grossest errors that 
is in them, and ought to be corrected from Ezra ii. 64, 1 Es 1. 
v. 40, and Neh. vii. 66, who all agree the general sum was 
but shout 42,360. It is also very plain, that Josephus 
thought, thet when Esdras afterward brought up another 
eompanyou of Babylon and Persia, in the days of Xerxes, 


they were alsu, as well as these, out of the two tribes, and 
ant of them oxy, and were in all no more than a seed and a 


commanded them at first, and what was now 
done at the command of Darius. 

2. In the second year of their coming to Je 
rusalem, as the Jews were there in the second 
month, the building of the temple went on apace; — 
and when they had laid its foundations on the 
first day of the second month of that second 
year, they set as overseers of the work, such 
Levites as were full twenty years old; and Je- 


shua, and his sons ana brethren, and Ca-tmiel » 
remnant, whe an immense number of the ten tribes never 
returned, but as he believed, coutinucd then beyond Eu- 
phrates, ch. v. sect. 2, 3. Of which multitude of Jews beyond — 
Huphrates he speaks frequently elsewhere, though by the 
way, he never takes them to be idolaters, but looks ov then — 
Still as observers of the laws of Moses. 
the peopie that now came up from Babylon at the end ef pis 

chapter, (usp'y the same smaller number of Jews that pa®_ 
came up, and will noway agree with the 4,000,000, lan 


} 


The certain ourt of 


: 


7 7 


BOOK XI—CiIAPTER IV 


the brother of Judas, the son of Aminadab, 
with his sons; and the temple, by the great dili- 
gence of those that had the care of it, was fin- 
ished sooner than any one would have expect- 
ed. And when the temple was finished, the 
priests, adorned with their accustomed gar- 
ments, steod with their trumpets, while the Le- 
vVites, and the sons of Asaph, stood and sung 
hymns to God according as David first of ali 


and JLevites, and the elder uxrt of the families, 
recollecting with themselyee Low muuch great- 
er and more sumptuous the old temple had 
been, seeing that now made, how much infe- 
rior it was on account of their poverty to that 
which had veen built of old, censidered with 
themselves Low much their happy state was 
sunk below whe tt had been of old, as wei! as 
their temple. Herenpon they were «:sconso- 
late and not able to contain their grief, and pro- 
ceeded so far ax to lament and shed tears on 
those accounts: but the peopie in general were 
contented with their present condition, and be- 
cause they were allowed to build tiem a tem- 
ple, they desired no more, and neith-r regard- 
ed- nor remembered, nor indeed at all torment- 
ed themselves with the coinparison of that ana 
the former temple, as if this were below their 
expectations; but the wailing of the old men, 
and of the priests, on account of the deficien- 
cy of the temple, in their opinion, if compared 
with that which had been denvolisned, over- 
came the sounds of the trumpets and the re- 
joicings of the people. 

3. But when the Samaritans, who were still 
enemies to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, 
heard the sound of the trumpets, they came 
running together, and desired to know what 
was the occasion of this tumult? and when 
they perceived that it was from the Jews, who 
had been carried captive to Babylon, and were 
rebuilding their temple, they came to Zoroba- 
bel, and to Jesiiza, and to the heads of the fam- 
ilies, and desired that they would give them 
leave to build the temple with them, and to ve 
partners with tliem in building it; for they said, 
“We worship yctr God, and especially pray to 
him, and are desirous of your religious settle- 
ment, and this ever smee Sanlmanezar, the 
king of Assyria, trensplanted. us out of Cuthah 
and Media to this place.” When they said thus, 
Zorobabel and Jeshua the high priest, and the 
heads of the families of the Israelites, replied 
to them, that “it was imposs:ble for them to 

rmit them to be their partners, while they 

only] had been appointed to build that tem- 
ple at first by Cyrus, and now by Darius, al- 
though it was indeed lawful for them to come 
and worship there if they pleased, and that 
they could allow them nothing, but that in 
common with them, which was common to 
them with all other men, to come to their tem- 
ple, and worship God there.” 

4. When the Cutheans heard this, for the 
Samaritans have that appellation, they had in- 
dignation at it, and persuaded the nations of 

Syna to desire of the governors, in the same 
_ manner as they had done formerly in the days 


268 


of Cyrus, and agen in the days of Cambyses 
afterward, to put a stop to the building of the 
temple, and to endeavor to delay and protract 
the Jews in their zeal about it. Now at this 
time Sisinnes, the governor of Syria and Phe- 
nicia, and Sathrabuzanes, with certain others, 
came up to Jerusalem, and asked the rulers of 
the Jews, “By whose grant it was that they built 


{ ali; che tample in this manner, since it was more 
appointed them to bless God. Now the priests 


like to a citadel than a temple? and for what 
rexson it was that they built cloisters and walis, 
and those strong ones too, about the city?” To 
which Zorobabel and Jeshua the high priest 
replied, “that they were the servants of God 
Almighty: that this temple was built for him 
by aking of theirs that lived in great prosperity, 
and one that exceeded all men in virtue, and 
that it continued a long time, but that because 
of their fathers’ impiety toward God, Nebu- 
chadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, and of 
the Chaldeans, took their city by force, and de- 
stroyed it, and pillaged the temple, and burnt 
it Gown, and transplanted the people whom he 
bad mace captives, and removed them to En- 
bylon: that Cyrus, who after him was king of’. 
Behbylonia and Persia, wrote to them to build 
the temple, and committed the gifts and vesse Js, 
and whatsoever Nebuchadnezzar had carried 
out of it to Zorobabel and Mithridates the trea- 
surer; and gave order to have them carried to 
Jerusalem, and to have them restored to their 
own temple when it was built; for he had sent 
to them to have it done speedily, and coi- 
manded Sanabassar to go up to Jerusalem, and 
to take care of the building of the temple; 
who, upon receiving that epistle from Cynis, 
came, and immediately laid its foundations; 
and although it hath been in building from tliat 
time to this, it hath not yet been finished, by 
reason of the malignity of our enemies. [f, 
therefore, you have a mind, and think it pio- 
per, write this account to Darius, that when he 
hath consulted the records of the kings, he may 
find that we have told you nothing that is false 
about this matter.” 

5. When Zorobabel and the high priest had 
made this answer, Sisinnes, and those that were 
with him, did not resolve to hinder the build- 
ing, until they had informed king Darius of all 
this. So they immediately wrote to him about 
these affairs; but as the Jews were now under 
terror, and afraid lest the king should change 
his resolutions as to the building of Jerusalem 
and of the temple, there were two prophets at 
that time among them, Haggai and Zechariah 
who encouraged them, and bade them be of 
good cheer, and to suspect no discouragement 
from the Persians, for that God foretold this to 
them. So, in dependence on those prophets, 
they applied themselves earnestly to building, 
and did not intermit one day. 

6. Now Darius, when the Samaritans had 
written to him, and in their epistle had accused 
the Jews, how they fortified the city, and built 
the temple more like to a citadel than a temple 
and said, that their doings were not expe- 
dient for the king’s affairs; and besides, they 
showed the epistle of Cambyses, wherein he 


#70 


forbade them to build the temple; and when Da- 
rius thereby understood that the restoration of 
Jerusalem was not expedient for his affairs; 
an'| when he had read the epistle that was 
brvugat him from Sisinnes, and those that 
were with him, he gave order that what con- 
cerned these matters should be sought for 
among the royal records. Whereupon a book 
was found at Ecbatana, in the tower that was 
in Media, wherein was written as follows: 
“Cyrus the king, in the first year of his reign, 
commanded that the temple should be built in 
Jerusalem; and the altar: in height threescore 
cubits, and its breadth of the same, with three 
edifices of polished stone, and one edifice of 
stone of their own country; and he ordained 
that the expenses of it should be paid out of 
the king’s revenue. He also commanded that 
the vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had pillag- 
ed [out of the temple,] and-had carried to Ba- 
bylon, should be restored to the people of Je- 
rusalem, and that the care of these things 
should belong to Senabassar, the governor and 
president of Syria and Pheenicia, and to his 
associates, that they may not meddle with that 
ain but may permit the servants of God, the 

ews and their rulers, to build the temple. He 
algo ordained that they should assist them in 
the work; and that they should pay to the Jews, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 4 
the other multitude of the Israelites, offered 


Bs y 


bs 


sacrifices, as the renovation of thei former 
prosperity after their captivity, and necause 
they had now the temple rebuilt, a hundred 
bulls, two hundred rams, four huadred lanvhs, 
and twelve kids of the goats, according to the 
number of their tribes, (for so many »ra the 


ot 
eal 
4 


& 
Vi 


Ft 


- 


tribes of the Israelites,) and this last tir the — 


sins of every tribe. The prissts also and the 
Levites, set the porters at every gate, according 
to the laws of Moses. The Jews also built the 
cloisters of the inner temple, that were round 
about the temple itself: ; 

8. And as the feast of unleavened bread was 
at hand, in the first month, which, according 
to the Macedonians, is valled Xanthicus, but 
according to us, Nisan, all the people ran to- 
gether out of ihe villages to the city, and cele- 
brated the festival, having purified theniselves, 
with their wives and chikiraa according to the 
law of their corutry; and they offered the sa- 
crifice which was called the Passover, on the 
fourteenth day of the sume month, and fessted 
seven days, and spared for no cost, but offered 
whole burnt-offerings to God, and performed 
sacrifices of thanksgiving, because God had 
led them again to the land of their fathers, and 
to the Jaws thereto belonging, and had render- 
ed the mind of the king of Persia favorable to 


out of the tribute of the country where they|them. So these men offered the largest sacri- 
were governors, on account of the sacrifices, | fices on these accounts, and used great mag- 
bulls, and rams, and lambs, and kids of the! nificence in the worship of God, and dwelt in 
gonts, and fine flour, and oil, and wine, and all} Jerusalem, and made use of a form of govern- 
other things that the priests should suggest to ; ment that was uristocratical, but mixed with an 
them: and that they should pray for the pre- oligarchy, for the high priests were at the heaa 
servation of the king, and of-the Persians, aud | of their affairs, unti! the posterity of the Asa- 
that for such as transgressed any of these oz-} moneans set up kingly government; for before 


ders thus sent to them, he commanded that 
they should be caught and hung upon a cross, 
and their substance confiscated to the king’s 
use. He also prayed to God against them, that 
if any one attempted to hinder the building of 


the temple, God would strike him dead, and j 


thereby restrain his wickedness.” 

7. When Darius had found this book among 
the records of Cyrus, he wrote an answer to 
Sisinnes and his associates, whose contents 
were these: “King Darius to Sisinnes the go- 
vernor, and to Sathrabazanes, sendeth greeting: 
having found a copy of this epistle among the 
records of Cyrus, [ have sent it you; and J will 
that all things be done as is therein written. 
Fare ye well.” So when Sisinnes, and those 
that were with him, understood the intention 


of the king, they resolved to follow his direc- , and whatsoever it wes that they were enjoined © 
So they | to pay the Jews by the king’s order out of their 
forwarded the sacred works, and assisted the | triputes, for the sacrifices, they would net pay 


tions entirely for the time to come. 


elders of the Jews, and the princes of the san- 


\ 


their captivity, and the dissulution of their po- — 


lity, they at first had kingly government from 
Saul and David, for five hundred and thirty- 
two years, six months, and te: days; but before 


those kings, such rulers governed them as were — 
cailed Sudges and Monarchs. Under this form — 
of government they continued for more than — 
five hundred years, after the death of Moses, — 


and of Joshua, their commender. And this is 


the account I had to give of the Jews who — 
had been carried into captivity, but were de-— 


livered from it in the times of Cyrus and Darius, 


\ 


9. But the Samaritans,* being evil and envi- 
ously disposed to the Jews, wreught them — 


many mischiefs, by reliance on their riches, 


and by their pretence that they were allied to — 


the Persians, on account thet thence they came; 


it, ‘hey had also the governors favorable to 


ot 


4 
7 
Ls 

4 


2 
f 


hedrim, and the structure of the temple was|them end assisting them for that purpose; nor 


with great diligence brought to a conclusion, 
by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, 
according to God’s commands, and by the in- 
junctions of Cyrus and Darius, the kings, 

ow the temple was built in seven years’ time: 


and in the ninth year of the reign of Darius, |'The ambassadors were Zorobabel, and four 
en the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, | others of the rulers: and as soon as the king” 


* The history contained in this seetion is entirely wanting 


which is by us called Adar, but by the Mace- 
donians Dystrus, the priests and Levites, and 


did they spare to hurt them, either by them- 


= 


selves, or by others, as far as they were alle. So” 


the Jews determined to send an embassage te 
king Darius, in favor of the people of Jerusa- 


| 


lem, and in order to accuse the Samaritans. — 


‘ 


in all our other copies, both of E<7a and Esdras. 


y 





‘anew ftom the ambessadors the accusations 
and complaiite they brought against the Sa- 
maritans, he gave them ™ epistle to be carried 
othe governors and comei of Samaria. The 
eontents of which epixde were these: “King 
Darius to Tenganas and Sambabas, the go- 
vernors of the Samaritans, to Sadraces and Bo- 
oelo, and the rest of their fellow-servants that 
are in Samaria; “orolabel, Ananias, and Mor- 


i . BOOK XI.—CHAPTER V. 


271 


est. Thou shalt also dedicate those holy ves 
sels which have been given thee, and as many 
more as thou hast a mind to make, and shalt 
take the expenses out of the king’s treasury 
j have, moreover, written to the treasurers of 
Syria and Phoenicia, that they take care of 
those affairs that Esdras the priest, and reader 
of the laws of God, is sent about. And that 
God may not be at all angry with me, or with 


deeai, an.bassadors of the Jews, complain of ;my children, 1 grant all that is necessary for 
you, that you e).struct them in the building of | secritices to God, according to the law, as far 
the temple, and do not supply them with th» ‘as a hundred cori of wheat. And I enjoin 
expenses which ] commanded you to do for; you not to lay any treacherous imposition, or 
the effermg their sacrifices. My will, there- | «ny tributes, upon their priests or Levites, or 
fore, is, that upon i.e reading of this epistle, | sacred singers, or porters, or sacred servants, or 


you supply them with whatsoever they want 
for their sacrifices, 2nd that out of the royal trea- 
sury, of the trilnues of Samaria, as the priests 
shal! desire, that they may net leave off offer- 
ing their daily sacritices, nor praymg to God 
for me and the Veraiaus.” And these were 
the contents of that epistle. 

. CHAPTER V. 

How Xerres the son of Oz2rius, was well dispo- 
sed to the Jews, as also concerning Esdras and 
-Vehemiah. 

§ 1. Upon the death of Darius, Xerxes his son | 
took the kingdom, who, as he inherited his fa- / 
ther’s kingdom, so did he inherit his piety to- ' 
wards God, and honor of bim; for he did all; 
things suitably to his father relating to divine 
“worship, and he was exceedingly friendly to 
the Jews. Now about this titne, 2 sen of Jesh- 
ua, whose name was Joacim, was the high 
priest. Moreover, there was now in Babylon | 


scribes of the temple. And do thou, O Esdras, 
appoint judges according to the wisdom [given 
pat of God, and those such as understand 
the law, that they may judge in all Syria and 
Pheenicia; and do thou instruct those also who 
are ignorant of it, that if any one of thy coun- 
trymen transgress the law of God, or that of 
the king, he may be punished, as not trans- 
gressing it out of ignorance, but as. one that 
knows it indeed, but boldly despises and con- 
temns it; and such may be punished by death, 
or by paying fines. Farewell.” 

2. When Esdras had received this epistle, he 
was very joyful, and began to worship God, 
an? caressed that he had been the cause of 
ine Zing’s rreat favor to him, and that for the 
saine reason he gave all the thanks to God. So 
he read the epistle at Babylon to those Jews 
that were there, but he kept the epistle itself, 
and sent a copy of it to all those of his own 
matioa that were in Media. And when these 


A righteous man, and one that enjoyed 4 grea: | Jews had understood what piety the king had 
reputation among the multitude; he was the | towards God, and what kindness he had for 
principal priest of the people, and his name: tadras, they were all greatly pleased; nay, 


was Esdrx:. He was very skilful in the law or 
Moses, and was well acquainted with king 
Xerses. He nad determined to go up to Je- 
rusalem, and to take with him some of those 
Jews that were in Babylon, and desired that 
the king would give him an epistle to the gov- 
ernors of Syria, by which they might know 
who he wes. Accordingly, the king wrote the 
following epistie to thoss. governors: “Xerxes, 
king of kings, to Ezra the priest, and reader 
of the divine law, greeting: I think it agreea- 
ble to that love which i bear to mankind, to 
permit those of the Jewish nation that are so 
disposed, as well as those of the priests and 
Levites that are in our kingdom, to go together 
toJerusalem. Accordingly, I have given com- 
mand for that purpose: and let every one that 
hath a mind go, according as it hath seemed 
good to me, and to myseven counssllors, and. 
this in order to their review of the affairs of 
Judea, to see whether they be agreeable to the 
‘aw of God. Let them also take with them 
‘those presents which I and my friends have 
‘vowed, with all that silver and gold that is 
found in tne country of the Babylonians, as 
dedicated to God, and let all this be carried to 
Jerusalern, to God for sacrifices. Let it also 
‘Se lawful for thee and thy brethren to make as 
many vessels of silver and gold as thou pleas- 





1 


masxiy of them took their effects with them, and 
/came to Babylon, as very desirous of going 
‘down to Jerusalem, but then the entire body 
io: the people of Israel remained in that coun- 
try, wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia 
and Europe subject to the Romans, while the 
ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and 
are an immense multitude, and not to be esti- 
mated by numbers. Now there came a great 
‘number of priests, and Levites, and porters, 
and sacred singers, and sacred servants to Es- 
dras. So he gathered those that were in the 
captivity together beyond Euphrates, and stay- 
ec there three days, and ordained a fast for 
them, that they might make prayers to God for 
their preservation, that they might suffer ne 
misfortunes by the way, either from their ene- 
mies, or from any other ill accident; for Esdras 
tad seid beforehand, that he had told the king 
how God would preserve them, and so he had 
not thought fit to request that he would send 
horsemen to conduct them. So when they had 
finished their prayers, they removed from Eu- 
phrates on the twelfth day of the first month of 
the seventh year of the reign of Xerxes, and 
they came to Jerusalem on the fifth month of 
the same year. Now Esdras presented the sa- 
cred money to the treasurers, who were of the 
family of the priests, of silver six hundred and 


272 


fifty talents, vessels of silver one hundred ta- 

lents, vessels of gold twenty talents, vessels of 
brass, that was more precious than gold,* 

twelve talents, by weight, for these presents had 

been made by the king and his counsellors, and } 
by all the Israelites that stayed at Babylon. So: 
when Esdras had delivered these things to the 

priests, he gave to God, as the appointed sacri- 

fices of whole burnt-offerings, twelve bulls on 

account of the common preservation of the 

people, ninety rams, and seventy-two lambs, 

twelve kids of the goats, for the remission of 
sins. Ee also delivered the king’s epistles to the 

king’s officers, and to the governors of Ceelo- 

syria and Pheenicia; and as they were under a 

necessity of doing what was enjoined by him, 

they honored our nation, and were assistant to 

them in all their necessities. 

3. Now these things were truly done under 
the conduct of Esdras, and he succeeded in 
them, because God esteemed him worthy of 
the success of his conduct, on account of his 
goodness and righteousness. But some time 
afterward there came some persons to him, and 
brought an accusation against certain of the 
multitude, and of the priests and Levites, who 
had transgressed their settlement, and dissolv- 
ed the laws of their country, by marrying 
strange wives, and had brought the family of 
the priests into confusion. ‘These persons de- 
sired him to support the laws, lest God should 
take up a general anger against them all, and 
reduce them to a calamitous condition again. 
Hereupon he rent his garment immediately out 
of grief, and pulled off the hair of his head and 
beard, and cast himself tipon the ground, be- 
cause this crime had reached the principal men 
among the people, and considering that if he 
should enjoin them to cast out their wives, and 
the children they had by them, he should not 
be hearkened to, he continued lying upon the 
ground. However, all the better sort came 
running to him, who also themselves wept and 
partook of the grief he was under for what 
had been done. So Esdras rose up from the 
ground, and stretched out his hands towards | 
heaven, and said, that “He was ashamed to 
look towards it, because of the sins which the 
people had committed, while they had cast out 
of their memories what their fathers had un- 
dergone on account of their wickedness: end 
he besought God, who had saved a seed and a 
remnant out of the calamity and captivity they 


had been in, and had restored them again to! 
Jerusalem and to their own land, and had ob- ; 


liged the kings of Persia to have compassion 
on them, that he would also forgive them their 
sins they had now committed, which, though 
they deserved death, yet it was agreeable to the 
mercy of God to remit even to these the pun- 
ishment due to them.” 

4. After Esdras had said this, he left off pray- 
mg; and when all those that came to him with 
their wives and children were under lamenta- 
tion, one whose name was Jechonias, a princi- 

Dr. Hudson takes notice here, that this kind of brass or 
or rather mixture of gold and brass or copper, was 


copper 
called "aurichalcum, and that this was of old egteemed the 
‘20st precious of all metals 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. me. 


pal man in Jerusalem, came to him, and said 
that they had sinned in marrying strange wives, 
and he persuaded hiin to adjure them all to cast 
those wives out, and the children born of them, 
and that thoas should be punished who ~ould 
not obey thiglaw. So Madras hearkened to his 
advice, and made the heads of the priests and 
of the Levites, and of the Israclites, swear that 
they wonld put away those wives and children, 
according to the advice of Jechonias. And 
when he haa received their oaths, he went ik 
haste out of the temple into the chamber of 
Johanan, the son of Eliasil. and as he had hith- 
erto tasted nothing at al! for grief, so ‘ie abode 
there thatday. And when proclamation was 
made, that all those of the captivity should 
gather themselves together to Jerusalem, and 
those that did not meet there in two or three 
days should be banished from the multitude, 
and that their substance should be appropriated 
to the uses of the temple according :o the sen 
tence of the elders, those that were of the tribes 
of Judah and Benjamin came together in three 
days, viz. on the twentieth day of the ninth 
month, which according to the Hebrews, is call- 
ed ‘Tebeth, and according to the Macedonians, 
A;eleus. Now, as they were sitting in the 
upper room of the temple, where the elders 
also were present, but were uneasy because of 
the cold, Esdras stood up, and accused them 
that they had sinned in marrying wives tliat 
were not of their own ration; but that now they 
would do a thing both pleasing to God, and ad- 
vantageous to themselves, if they would put 
those wives away. Accorilingly they all cried 
out, that they would do so. ‘That, however, 
the multituile was great, and that the season 
of the year was winter, and that this work 
would require more than one or two days. 
“Let their rulers, therefore, [said they,] and 
those that have married strange wives, come 
hither at a proper time while the elders of 
every place, that are in common to estimate 
the number of those that have thus married 
are ty Le there also.” Accordingly, this was 
resolved on by them, and they began the inquiry 
after those that had married strange wives on 
the first day of the tenth month, and continued 
the inquiry to the first day of the next month, 
and found a great many of the posterity of Je_ 
shua the high priest, and of the priests, and 
Levites, and {sraelites, who hada greater regard 
to the observation of the law than to their na- 
tural affection, and immediately cast out their 
wives, and the children which were born of 
them.* Anil in order te appease God, they of 
fered sacrifices, and slew rams, as oblations to 
* This procedure of Fsdras,and of the best part of the 
Jewish nation, after their return from the Babylonish } 
tivity, of reducing the Jewish svarnages, once for all, to 
strictness of the Jaw of Moses, without any re to th 
greatness of those who had broken it, and without regard to 
that natural affection or compassion for their heathen wive 
and their children by them, wich made it so hard for Esdras _ 
to correct it, deserves greatly to be observed and imitated i 
all attempts for reformation among Christians, the contrary — 
conduct having ever been the bane of true religion, bot 
among Jews and Christians, while political views, or huma 
sions, or prudential motives, are suffered to take pl 
instead of the divine laws, and so the blessing of God is f 


feited, and the church still suffered to continue corrupt 
one generation to another, Sce chap. viii. sect. 2. 










’ 
; 


: 
| 
: 
8 
f 
: 
; 
* 
é 
" 
fo 
: 


| 


| heathen solemnities, as Spanheim here observes and proves. 
’ He also further observes presently, what great regard many 
heathens had to the monuments of their forefathers, as Ne- 
 temiah had here, sect. 6. 


- ty the Apostolical Constitutions, b. v. as obtaining ainong 


* must have been after the death of Esdras, their former go- 
fuildthe walls of Jerusalem. Nor is that at all disagreeable 
Ps 


d 


BOOK XI.—CHAPTER V. 273 


aim; but it does not teem to me to he necessa- | to ths ground, and that the neighboring nations 
ry toset down the names of these men. So! did s great deal of mischief to the Jews, while 
when Esdras had retormed this sin about the | in the day-time they overran the country, and 
marriages of the forementioned persons, he re- | pillaged. ii, and in the night did them mischief 
duced that practice to purity, so thatit contin- | insomuch that not a few were led away captive 
ued in that state for the time to come. out of the country, and out of Jerusalem it- 
5. Now when they Yept the feast of taber-! sclf, and that the roads were in the day-time 
nacles in the seventh month,* and almost all the | f.und full of dead men. Hereupon Nehemiah 
people were come together to it, they went up| shed tears, out of commiseration for the ca- 
to the open part of the temple, to the gate | lamities of his countrymen; and looking up to 
which looked eastward, and desired of Esdras | heaven, he said, “How long, O Lord, wilt thou 
that the laws of Moses might be read to them. | overlook our nation, while it suffers so great 
Accordingly, he stood in the midst of the mul- | miseries, and while we are made the prey and 
titude and read them; and this he did from | spoil of all men?” And while he stayed at the 
morning tonoon. Now, by hearing the laws | gate and lamented thus, one told him that the 
read to them, they were instructed to be righte- | king was going to sit down to supper; so be 
ous men for tlie present and forthe future; but | made haste, and went as he was, without wasl- 
as for their past oilene..;, they were displeased | ing himself, to minister to the king in his offi: e 
at themselves, and pro. eded to shed tears on! of cup-bearer: but as the king was very ple+- 
their account, »s considering with themselves, | sant after supper, and more cheerful than uswii, 
that if they had kept the law, they had endur- | he cast his eyes on Nehemiah, and seeing hira 
ed none of those miseries which they had ex-| look sad, he asked him, why he was sel? 
perienced. But when Esdras saw them in that | Whereupon he prayed to God to give him !1- 
dispostion, he bade them go home and not | vor, and afford him the power of persuads ig 
weep, for that it was a festival, and that they | by his words, and said, “How can I, O ki g, 
ought not to weep thereon, for that it was not| appear otherwise than thus, and not be m 
lawful so todo.t He exhorted them rather to | trouble, while I hear that the walls of Jeruse- 
proceed immediately to feasting, and to do|lem, the city where are the sepulchres of riy 
what was suitabl.; to a feast, and what was | fathers, are thrown down to the ground, aid 
xgreeable to ads:y of joy, but to let their repent- | that its gates are consumed by fire; but do tk au 
ance and sorrow for their former sins be a se-| grant me the favor to go and build its wails, 
curity and a zusrd to them, that they fall no | and to finish the building of the temple.” Ac- 
more into the lil offences. So upon Esdras’s | cordingly, the king gave him a signal, that he 
exhortation they | 2gan to feast, and when they | freely granted him what he asked; and told 
had so done for «ight days, in their tabernacles, | him that he should carry an epistle to the go- 
they departed to their own homes, singing | vernor’s, that they might pay him due honor, 
hyimns to God, and returning thanks to Esdras, | and afford him whatsoever assistance he wa‘it- 
for his reformation of what corruptions had | ed, and as he pleased. “Leave off thy sorrow 
been introduced into their settlement. So it|then, said the king, and be cheerful in the 
came to pass, that after he had obtained this | performance of thy office hereafter.” So Ne- 
reoutation an.ong the people, he died an old| hemiah worshipped God; and gave the king 
man, end w2s Duried in a magnificent manner | thanks for his promise, and cleared up his sad 
ut Jerusalern. Aboutthe sametime it happen-|and cloudy countenance, by the pleasure he 
et alse, thet Joacim the high priest died; and | had from the king’s promises. Accordingly 
his son Elicsibsucceeded in the high priesthood. | the king called for him the next day, and gave 
6. Now there was one of those Jews that had | him an epistle to be carried to Adeus, the go- 
been carried captive, who was cup-bearer to| vernor of Syria, and Phoenicia, and Samariag 
king Xe‘xes; his name was Nehemiah. As| wherein he sent to him to pay due honor to 
this man was walking before Susa, the metro- | Nehemiah, and to supply him with what he 
polis of ze Persians, he heard some strangers | wanted for his building. 
that ¥ ere wntering the city after a long journey,| 7. Now when he was come to Babylon, and 
speakins tc one another in the Hebrew tongue; | had taken with him many of his countrymen, 
sy he went to them and asked them whence | who voluntarily followe1 him, he came to Je- 
they came? And when their answer was, that | rusalem in the twenty and fifth year of tne 
they came from Judea, he began to inquire of| reign of Xerxes: and wl-en he had shown the 
them again in what state the multitude was? | epistles to God,* he gave them to Adeus, and to 
and in what condition Jerusalem was? and | the other governors. He also called together 
when they replied, that they were in a bad | all the people-to Jerusalem, aid stood in the 
state,t for that their walls were thrown down | midst of the temple, and made the following 


* This Jewish feast of tabernacles was imitated in several 






























to these histories in Josephus, since Esdras came on the 7 
and Nehemiah not till the 25th of Xerxes, at the interval 
18 years. 

* This showing king Xerxes’s epistles to God, or layig 
them open before God, in the temple, is very like the laying 
open the epistles of Sennacherib before him also by Heze- 
kiah, 2 Kings xix. 14; Isa. xxxvii. 14; although this last was . 
fora memorial to put him in mind of the enemies, in order t@ 
move the divine compassion, and the present as a token of 
gratitude for mercies already received, as Havercamp wed 
observes on this place. 


t This mle of Esdras, not to fast on a festival day, is quoted 


_Uhristians also. f 
+ This miserable condition of the Jews, and their capital, 


vernor, and before Nehemiah came with his commission to 


35 


®@ dead, the walls for his citizens would never be 


274 


speech tothem: “You know, O Jews, that God 
bath kept our fathers Abraham, and Isaac, and 
Jacob, in mind continually, and for the sake of 
their righteousness hath not left off the care of 
you: indeed, he hath assisted me in gaining this 
authority of the king to raise up our wall, and 
finish what is wanting of the temple. I desire 
you, therefore, who well know the ill wil] our 
neighboring nations bear to us; and that when 
ence they are made sensible that we are in earn- 
est about building, they will come upon us, and 
contrive many ways of obstructing our works, 
that you will, in the first place, put your trust 
in God, as in him that will assist us against their 
hatred, and to intermit building neither night 
nor day, but to use all diligence, and to hasten 
on the work; now we have this especial op- 
portunity for it.” When he had said this, he 
gave order that the rulers should measure the 
wall, and part the work of it among the peo- 
ple, according to their villages and cities, as 
every one’s abilities should require. And when 
he had added this promise, that he himself, with 
his servants, would assist them, he dissolved 
the assembly. So the Jews prepared for the 
work: that is the name they are called by from 
the day that they came up from Babylon, which 
is taken from the tribe of Judah, which came 
first to these places, and thence both they and 
the country gained that appellation. 

8. But now when the Ammonites, and Moab- 
ites, and Samaritans, and al! that inhabited 
Ceplosyria, heard that the building went on 
apuce, they took it heinously, and proceeded 
so lay snares for them, and to hinder their in- 
tentions. They also slew, many of the Jews, 
anil sought how they might destroy Nehemiah 
hiraself, by hiring some of the foreigners to 
kill him. They also put the Jews in fear, and 
disturbed them, and spread abroad rumors, as 
if many nations were ready to make an expe- 
dition against them, by which means they 
were harassed, and had almost left off the 
building: but none of these things could deter 
Nehemiah from being diligent about the work; 
he only set a number of men about him as a 
guard to his body, and so unweariedly perse- 
vered therein, and was insensible of any trou- 
ble, out of his desire to perfect this work. And 
thus did he attentively, and with great forecast 
take care of his own safety, not that he feared 
deatli, but out of this persuasion, that if he were 


{ 


Se gn Sf eee ee ee 


raised. He also gave orders, that the builders 
should keep their ranks, and have their armor 
on while they were building. Accordingly, 
the mason had his sword on, as well as he that 
brought the materials for building. He also 
ay pointed that their shields should lie very near 
them; and he placed trumpeters at every five 
hundred feet, and charged them, that if their 
eneinies appeared, they should give notice of 
it to the people, that they might fight in their 
armor, and their enemies might not fall upon 
them naked. He also went about the compass 
of the city by night, being never discouraged 
neither about the work itself; nor about his 
ewn diet and sleep, for he made no use of thase 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 









things for his pleasure, but out of necessity 
And this trouble he underwent for two ye 
and four*months,* for in so long time was th 
wall built, in the twenty-eighth year of the 
reign of Xerxes, in the ninth month. Now 
when the walls were finished, Nehemiah and 
the multitude offered sacrifices to God for the 
building of them, and they continued in feast- 
ing eight days. However, when the nations 
which dwelt in Syria, heard that the building 
of the wall was finished, they had indignatior 
at it: but when Nehemiah saw that the city 
was thin of people, he exhorted the priests and 
the Levites, that they would leave the country, 
remove themselves to the city, and there con- 
tinue; and he built them houses at his own ex- 
penses, and he commanded that part of the 
people which were employed in cultivating the 
land to bring the tithes of their fruits to Jeru- 
salem, that the priests and Levites having 
whereof they might live perpetually, might not 
leave the divine worship ; who willingly heark- 
ened to the constitutions of Nehemiah by which 
means the city of Jerusalem came to be fuller 
of people than it was before. So when Nehe- 
miah had done many other excellent things, 
and things worthy of commendation in a glo- 
rious manner, he came to a great age, and then 
died. He wasa man of a good and righteous 
disposition, and very ambitious to make his 
own nation happy: and he hath left the walls 
of Jerusalem as an eternal monument for him- 
self. Now this was done in the days of Xerxes. 


CHAPTER YI. 


. 7 ° y 
Concerning Esther, and Mordecai, and Haman, 
and how, in the reign of Artaxerxes, the 
whole nation of the Jews was in danger 
perishing. a 


? 1. After the death of Xerxes, the kingdom 
came to be transferred to his son Cyrus, whom 
the Greeks called Artaxerxes. When this man 
had obtained the government over the Persians. 
the whole nation of the Jews,t with theh 

¢ 


* It may not be very improper to remark here, with whi 
an unusual accuracy Josephus determines these years ¢ 
Xerxes, in which the walls of Jerusalem were built, vii 
that Nehemiah came with his commission on the 25th | 
Xerxes, that the walls were two years four months in buileé 
ing ; and that they were finished in the 28th of Xerxes, sec! 
7,8. It may also be remarked further, that Josephus hardl\ 
ever mentions more than one infallible astronomical charae 
ter, | mean an eclipse of the moon, and this a little befo 
the death of Herod the Great, Antiq. b. xvii. ch. vi. sect. 
Now on these two chronological characters in a great mé 
sure depend some of the most i ear points belonging to 
Chrisuanity, viz. the explication of Daniel’s 70 weeks, and the 
duration of our Savior’s ministry, and the time of his ceatl 
in correspondence to these 70 weeks, See the Supplemel 
to the Lit. Accomp. of Proph. p, 72. 4 

+ Since some sceptical persons are willing to discard this 
book of Esther as no true history; and even our learned an 
judicious Dr. Wall, in his late ee critical notes upo 
all the ether Hebrew books of the Old Testament, gives 
none upon the Canticles or upon Esther, and seems 
to give up this book, as well as he gives up the Canti 
indefensible; I shall venture to say, that almost all the 
tions avainst this book of Esther are gone at once, if, 
certainly ought to do, and as Dean Prideaux has justly dol 
we place this history under Artaxerxes Longimanus, as 
both the Septuagint interpreters and Josephus. ‘The lear 
Dr. Lee, in his posthumous dissertation on the second b 
of Esdras, page 25, also says, that “the truth of this his 
is demonstrated by the feast of Purim, kept up .rom_ 
time to this very day: and this surprising providential rev 
tion in favor of a captive people, thereby constantly 


















BOOK XAL—CHAPTER V1. 


I75 


wives and children, were in danger of perish- | Memucan, said, that “this affront was oflered 


ing: the occasion whereof we shall declare in 
8 File time, for it is proper, in the first place, 
to explain somewhat relating to this king, and 
how he came to inarry a Jewish wife, who was 
herself of the royal family aiso, and who is re- 
lated to have saved our nation; for when Ar- 
taxerxes had taken the kigdorn, ara had set 
governors over the bumlred od twenty-seven 
“provinces, from India even unto Ethiopia, in 
the third year of his reign he made a costly 
feast for his friends, and for the nations of Per- 
sia, and for their governors, such a one as was 
proper for a king to make, when he had a 
mind to make a pubhe demonstration of his 
riches, and this for a hundred and fourscore 
days; after which he made « ‘ast fs: other na- 
tions, and for their ainbarsudors at O24cnan, for 
seven days. Now this feast was orcezed after 
the manner following: he czused a tent to be 
pitched, which was supported b7 pillars of gold 
and silver, with curtains of linen and purple 
spread over them, that it might afford room for 
many ten thousands to sit down. The cups 
with which the waiters ministered were of gold, 
and adorned with precious stones, for pleasure 
and for sight. He also gave order to the ser- 
yants that they should not force them to drink, 
by bringing them wine continually, as is the 
practice of the. Persians, but to permit every 
‘one of the guests to enjoy himself according 
to his own inclination. Moreover, he sent mes- 
sengers through the country, and gave order 
that they should have a remission of their la- 
bors, and should keep a festival many days, on 
account of his kingdom. In like manner did 
Vashti, the queen, gather her guests together 
and made thenia feast in the palace. Now 
the king was desirous to show her, who ex- 
ceeded all other women in beauty, to those 
that feasted with him, and he sent some to 
command her to come to his feast. But she, 
out of regard to the laws of the Persians, 
which forbid the wives to be seen by strangers, 
did not go to the king;* and though he often- 
times sent the eunuchs to her, she did never- 
sheless stay away, and refused to come, till the 
king was so much irritated, that he broke up 
the entertainment, and rose up, and called for 
_shose seven who had the interpretation of the 
laws committed to them, and accused his wife, 
and said, that he had been affronted by her, 
because tliat when she was frequently called 
_by him to his feast, she did not obey him once. 
He, therefore, gave order that they should in- 
form him what could be done by the law 
‘against her. So one of them, whose name was 


memorated, standeth even upon a firmer basis than that there 
éver was such a man as king Alexander [the Great] in the 
world, of whose reign there is no such abiding monument 
‘at this day to be found anywhere. Nor will they, I dare say, 
_who quarrel] at this, or any other of the sacred histories, find 
it a very easy matter to reconcile the different accounts 
‘which were given by historians of the affairs of this king, or to 
“confirm any one fact of his whatever, with the same evidence 
i which is here given for the principal fact in the sacred book, 
Of even so much as to prove the existence of such a person, 
i of whom so great things are related, but upon granting this 
‘ book of Esther, or sixth of Esdras, (as it is placed in some 
_ of the most ancient copies of the vulgate,) to be a most true 
“ and certain history,” &e. 


. a If the Chaldee paraphrast be in the right, that Artaxerxes 


a 8 2 See. 


— 





not to him alone, but to all the Persians, whe 
were in danger of leading their lives very ill 
with their wives, if they must be thus despised 
by them; for that none of their wives woule 
have any reverence for their husbands, if they 
had such an example of arrogance in the queen 
towards thee, who rulest over all.” Accord- 
ingly, he exhorted him to punish her, who had 
been guilty of so great an affront to him, after 
& severe manner; and when he had so done, to 
publish to the nations what had been decreed 
about the queen. So the resolution was to put 
Vashti away, and to give her dignity to another 
woman. 

2. But the king having been fond of her, did 
not well bear a separation, and yet by the law 
he could not admit of a reconciliation, so he 
was under trouble, as not having it in his pow- 
er to do what he desired to do. But when 
his friends saw him so uneasy, they advised 
him to cast the memory of his wife, and his 
love for her, out of his mind, but to send abroad 
over all the habitable earth, and to search out 
for comely virgins, and to take her whom he 
should like best for a wife, because his passion 
for his former wife would be quenched by the 
introduction of another, and the kindness he 
had to Vashti would be withdrawn from her, 
and be placed on her that was with him. Ac- 
cordingly, he was persuaded to follow this ad- 
vice, and gave orders to certain persons to 
choose out of the virgins that were in his king- 
dom those that were esteemed the most comely. 
So when a great number of these virgins were 
gathered together, there was found a damsel in 
Babylon, whose parents were both dead, and 
she was brought up with her uncle Mordecai, 
for that was her uncle’s name. This uncle 
was of the tribe of Benjamin, and was one of 
the principal persons among the Jews. Now 
it proved that’this damsel, whose name was Es- 
ther, was the most beautiful of all the rest, and 
that the grace of her countenance drew the eyes 
of the spectators principally upon her: so she 
was committed to one of the eunuchs to take 
the care of her: and she was very exactly pro- 
vided with sweet odors, in great plenty, and 
with costly ointments, such as her body requir- 
ed to be anointed withall: and this was used 
for six months by the virgins, who were in 
number four hundred. And when the eunuch 
thought the virgins had been sufficiently puri- 
fied, in the forementioned time, and were now 
fit to go to the king’s bed, he sent one tu be with 
the king every day. So when he had accom- 
panied with her, he sent her back to the eunuch 
intended to show Vashti to his guests naked, it is no wonder 
at all that she would not submit to such an indigmty; bué 
still, if it were not so gross as that, yet might it, in the king’ 
cups, be donein a way so indecent, as the Persian laws woule 
not then bear more than the common laws of modesty. And 
that the king had some such design seems notimprobable, fox 
otherwise the principal of these royal guests could be ne 
strangers to the queen, nor unapprized of her beauty, so far 
as decency admitted. However, since Providence was now 
paving the way for the introduction of a Jewess into the 
king’s affections, in order to bring about one of the moat 
wonderful deliverances which the Jewish or any nation ever 
had, we need not be farther solicitous about the motives by 


which the king was induced to divorce Vashti, aud marry 
Esther. } 


\ 


\ 


276 


and when Esther had come to him, he was 
pleased with her, and fell in love with the dam- 
gel, and married her, and made her his lawful 
wife, and kept a wedding feast for her on the 
twelfth month of the seventh year of his reign, 
which was called Adar. He also sent angart, 
as they are called, or messengers, unto every 
nation, and gave orders that they should keep 
a feast for his marriage, while he himself treat- 
ed the Persians and the Medes, and the princi- 
pal men of the nations, for a whole month, on 
account of this his marriage. Accordingly, 
fisther came to his royal palace, and he set a 
diadem on her head: and thus was Esther mar- 
ried, without making known to the king what 
nation she was derived from. Her uncle also 
removed from Babylon to Shushan, and dwelt 
there, being every day about the palace, and in- 
quiring how the damsel did, for he loved her 
as though she had been his own daughter. 

3. Now the king had made a law, that none 
o* his own people should approach him unless 
he were called, when he sat upon his throne;* 
and men with axes in their hands stood round 
about his throne, in order to punish such as ap- 
proached to him without being called. How- 
ever, the king sat with a golden sceptre in his 
hand, which he held out when he had a mind 
to save any one of those that approached to 
him without being called, and he who touched 
it was free from danger. But of this matter 
we have discoursed sufficiently. 

4. Some time after this [two eunuchs] Big- 
than and Teresh plotted against the king; and 
Barnabazus, the servant of one of the eunuchs, 
being by birth a Jew, was acquainted with their 
conspiracy, and discovered it to the queen’s.un-" 
cle; and Mordecai, by the means of Esther, 
made the conspirators known to the king. ‘This 
troubled the king, but he discovered the truth, 
and hanged the eunuchs upon a cross, while at 
that time he gave no reward to Mordecai, who 
had been the occasion of his preservation. He 
only bade the scribes to set down his name in 
the records, and bade him stay in the palace, as 
an intimate friend of the king. 

5. Now there was one Haman, the son of 
Amedatha, by birth an Amalekite, that used to 
go in to the king; and the foreigners and Per- 
sians worshipped him, as Artaxerxes had com- 
manded that such honors should be paid to him; 
but Mordecai was so wise, and so observant of 
his own country’s laws, that he would not wor- 
ship the mant When Haman observed this, he 
inquired whence he came? and when he un- 
derstocd that he wasa Jew, he had indignation 
at aim, and said within himself, that “whereas 
the Persians, who were free men, worshipped 
him, this man, who was no better than aslave, 
does not vouchsafe to do so.” And when he 
desired to punish Mordecai, he thought it too 

* Herodotus says, that this law [against any one’s coming 
ancalled to the kings of Persia when they were sitting on 
their thrones] was first enacted by Deioe«s [i. e. by him who 
first withdrew the Medes from the dominion of the Assyri- 
ens, and himself first reigned overthem.] Thus, also, says 
3 stabi stood guards with their axes, about the throne 

Tenus, or Tenudus, that the offender might by thein be 


«manished by them immediately. 
4 Whetler this adoration required of Mordecai to Harman 


ANTIQUITIES OF CHE JEWS. 


small a thing to request of the king that he alone 


mt % 
a 
« 

4 


fe 
t 
; 


might be punished; he rather determined to — 


abolish the whole nation, for he was naturally 
an enemy to the Jews, because the nation of the 
Amualekites, of which he was, had been destroy- 
ed by them. Accordingly he came to the king, 
and accused them, saying, “There is a certain 
wicked nation, and it is dispersed over all the 
habitable earth that is under thy dominion; 

nation separate from others, unsociable, neither 
admitting the same sori of divine worship thas 
others do, nor using laws like to the laws of 
others; at enmity with thy people, and with all 
men, both in their rcanners and practices, 
Now, if thou wilt be a benefactor to thy sub- 
jects, thou wilt give order to destroy them ut- 
terly, and not leave the least remains of them, 
nor preserve any of them erther for slaves or for 
captives.” But that the king might not be 
damnified by the loss of the tributes which the 
Jews paid him, Haman promised to give him 


out of his own estate forty thousand talents 


whensoever he pleased; and he said, he wouid 
pay this money very wiilingly, that the kingdom 
inight be freed from such a misfortune. 

6. When Haman had made this petition, the 
king both forgave hirr the money, and granted 


him the men, to do whet he would with then. 


So Haman having gaited what he desired, sent 
out immediately a decree, as from the king, to 
all nations, the contents whereof were these: 
“Artaxerxes, the great king, to the rulers of the 
hundred twenty and sevea provinces, frora 
India to Ethiopia, sends this writing: whereas 


I have governed many netions, and obtained the 


dominion of all the habitable earth, according 
to my desire, and have not heen obliged to do 


any thing that is insolent or crnel to my sul- 


jects by such my power, but have showed my- 


self mild and gentle, by taking care of them 


peace and good order, and have sought how 
they might enjoy those blessings for all time to 
come. And whereas J have been kindly in- 
formed by Haman, who, on account of his pru- 
dence and justice, is the first in my esteem, and 
in dignity, and only second to myself, for his 
fidelity and constant good will to me, thet there 
is an ill natured nation intermixed with all 


mankind, that is averse to our laws, and not 


subject to kings, and of a different conduct of 
life from others, that hateth monarchy, and of 
a disposition that is pernicious to our affairs, f 
give order that these men, of whom Haman 


our second father hath informed us, be destroy- 


ed, with their wives and children, and that none 


of them be spared, and that none prefer pity t ~ 


And 


them before obedience to this decree. 


this I will to be executed on the fourteenth day _ 
of the twelfth month of this present year, that — 


so when all that have enmity to us are destroy- 
ed, and this in one day, we may be allowed to 


were by him deemed too like the adoration due only to God, — 


as Josephus seems here to think, as well as the Septuagint 
interpreters also, by their translation of Est. xiii. 12, 13. 1 
or whether he thought he ought to pay no sort of adoration 
to an Amalekite, which nation had been such great siuners 
as to have been universally devoted to destruction by (208 
himself, Exod. xvii. 14, 15, 16: 2 Sam. xv. 18; or whetier 
both causes coneurred, cannot now, I doubt, be certaunty ; 
termined. 


Py 


: | BOOK XI.—CHAPTER VI. 
ead the rest of our lives in peace hereafter.” 


Now wlien this decree was brought to the ci- 
ties, and to the country, all were ready for the 
destruction and entire abolishment of the Jews, 
against the day before mentioned; and they 
were very hasty about it at Shushan in particu- 
lar. Accordingly the king and Haman spent 
their time in feas:ing together with good cheer 
and wine, but the city was in disorder. 


~7 Now when Moréevai was informed of 


_ what was done he rent dis clothes, and put on 


sackcloth, and sprinkied ashes upon his head, 
and went about the city, crying out, that “a na- 
tion that had been injurious to no man, was to 
be destroyed.” And he went on saying thus 
as far as the king’s palace, and there he stood, 
for it was not lawful for him to go into it in that 
habit. The same thing was done by all the 
Jews that were in the several cites w 2erein 
this decree was published, with lamentation 
and mourning, ol: eecount ef the calamities 
denounced against thern. Bui as soon as cer- 
tain persons had told the queen that Mordecai 
stood before the court in a mourning habit, she 


'was disturbed at this report, and sent out such 


as should change his garments; but when he 
could not be induced to put off his sackcloth, 
because the sad eecasion that forced him to put 
“it on was not yet ccased; she called the eunuch 
_Acratheus, for he was then present, and sent 
bim to Mordecai, 1n order to know of him what 
sad accident had befallen him, for which he 
‘was in mourning, and would not put off the 
habit he had put on at her desire. Then did 
Mordecai inform the eunuch of the occasion 
of ti mourning, and of the decree which was 
#2t:t by the king into all the country, and of the 
promise of money whereby Haman bought the 
4. %«2ction of their nation. He also gave him 
‘& copy of what was proclaimed at Shushan, to 
be carried to Esther; and he charged her to 
petition the king about this matter, and not to 
think it a dishonorable thing in her to put on 
an humble habit, for the safety of her nation, 
wherein she might deprecate the ruin of the 
Jews, who were in danger of it; for that Ha- 


‘man, whose dignity was only inferior to that of 


the king, had accused the Jews, and had irritated 
the kingagainstthem. When she was inform- 
ed of this, she sent to Mordecai again and told 
him that she was not called by the king, and 
that he who goes in to him without being call- 
ed, is to be slain, unless, when he is willing to 
Save any one, he holds out his golden sceptre 
w him; but that to whomsoever he does so, 
although he go in without being called, that 
person is so far from being slain, that he ob- 


tains pardon, and is entirely preserved. Now 


when the eunuch carried this message from 
Esthe to Mordecai, he bade him also tell her 
that she must not only provide for her own 


preservation, but for the common preservation 


x 


7 


- of her nation, for that if she now neglected 


this opportunity, there would certainly arise 


help to them from God some other way, but 
she and her father’s house would be destroyed 


by those whom she nowdespised. But Esther 
| Bent the very same eunuer back to Mordecai 


var 
ie 


277 


[to desire him] to go to Shushar., and to gasher 
the Jews that were there together to a congre~ 
gation, and to fast and abstain from all sorts of 
food on her account, and [to let him know that 
she with her maidens would do the same; anc 
ti2n she promised that she would go to the 
king, though it were against the law, and that 
if she must die for it she would not refuse it. 

8. Accordingly, Mordecai did as Esther had 
enjoined him, and made the people fast; and 
he besought God, together with then, “not te 
overlook his nation, particularly at this time 
when it was going to be destroyed; but that, as 
he had often before provided for them, and for- 
given when they had sinned, so he would now 
deliver them from that destruction which was 
denounced against them; for although it was 
not all the nation that had offended, yet must 
they so ingloriously be slain, and that he was 
himself the occasion of the wrath of Haman, 
because, 8236. he, I did not worship him, nor 
could i endive to pay that honor to him which 
T used to pay to thee, O Lord, for upon that 
his anger hath he contrived this present mis- 
chief against those that have not transgress- 
ed thy laws.” The same supplications did 
the multitude put up; and entreated that 
Ged wovld provide for their deliverance, and 
free the Israelites that were in all the earth 
from this calamity which was now coming 
upon them, for they had it before their eyes, 
and expected its coming. Accordingly, Esther 
made supplication to God after the manner of 
her country, by casting herself down upon the 
earth, and putting on her mourning garments, 
and bidding farewell to meat and drink, and all 
delicacies, for three days’ time; and she entreat- 
ed God to have mercy upon her, and make her 
words appear persuasive to the king, and ren- 
der her countenance more beautiful than it was 
before, that both by her words and beauty she 
might succeed, for the averting of the king’s 
anger, In case he were at all irritated against 
her, and for the consolation of those of her 
own country, now they were in the utmost 
danger of perishing; as also, that he would ex- 
cite a hatred in the king against the enemies of 
the Jews, and those that had contrived their 
future destruction, if they proved to be con 
temned by him. 

9. When Esther had used this supplication for 
three days, she put off those garments, chang- 
ed her habit, and adorned herself as became a 
queen, and took two of her handmaids with her 
the one of which supported her, as she gently 
leaned upon her, and the other followed after, 
and lifted up her large train, (which swept along 
the ground,) with the extremities of her fingers; 
and thus she came to the king, having a blush- 
ing redness in her countenance, witha pleasant 
agreeableness in her behavior, yet did she go 
in to him with fear; and as soon as she was 
come over against him as he was sitting op his 
throne, in his royal apparel, which was a gar- 
ment interwoven with gold and precious stones, 
which made him seem to her more terrible, es- 
pecially when he looked at her somewhat se- 
verely, and with a countenance on fire witk an 


278 


ger, her joints failed her immediately, out of 
the dread she was in, and she fell down side- 
ways in aswoon: but the king changed his 
mind, which happened, as I suppose, hy the 
will of God,and was concerned tor his wife, 
lest her fear should bri ing some very ill thing 
upon her, and he leaped ‘from his throne and 
took her in his arms, and recovered her, by 
embracing her, and speaking comfortably to her, 
and exhorting her to be of good cheer, and not 
to suspect any thing that was said on account 
of her coming to him without being called, be- 

eause that law was made for subjects, but that 
she, who, was a queen, as well as he a king, 
might be entirely secure; and as he said this, 
he put the sceptre into her hand, and laid his 
rod upon her neck, on account of the law; and 
so freed her from her fear. And after she had 
recovered herself by these encouragements, she 
said, “My lord, it is not easy for me, on the 
sudden, to say what hath happened, for as soon 
as I saw thee to be great, and comely, and ter- 
rible, my spirit departed from ime, and I had 
no soul left in me.” And while it was with 
“difficulty, and in a low voice, that she could 
say thus much, the king was ina gre*t s¢ ny 
and disorder, and enc ouraged Esther to be of 
good cheer, and to expect better fortune, since 
he was ready, if occasion should require it, to 
grant to her the half of hiskingdom. Accord- 
ingly, Esther desired that he and his friend Ha- 
man would come to her to a banquet, for she 
said she had prepared asupper for him. He 
consented to it; and when they were there, as 
they were drinking, he bade Esther to “let him 
know what she desired: for that she should not 
be disappointed, though she should desire the 
half of his kingdom.” But she put off the 
discovery of her petition till the next day, if he 
would come again, together with Haman, to 
her banquet. 

10. Now when the king had promised so to 
do, Haman went away very glad, because he 
alone had the honor of supping with the king 
at Esther’s banquet, and because no one else 
partook of the same honor with kings but him- 
self} yet when he saw Mordecai in the court, 
he was very much displeased, for he paid him 
no manner of respect when he saw him. So 
he went home, and called for his wife Zeresh, 
and his friends, and when they were come, he 
showed them what honor he enjoyed, not only 
from the king, but from the queen also, for as 
ne alone had that day supped with her, togeth- 
er with the king, so was he also invited again 
for the next day; yet, said he, am I not pleased 
to see Mordecai the Jew in the court. Here- 
upon his wife Zeresh advised him to give or- 
der that a gallows should be made fifty cubits 
high, and that in the morning he should ask it 
of the king, that Mordecai might be hanged 
thereon. So he commended her advice, and 

ave order to his servants to prepare the gal- 
ows, and to piace it in the court, for the pun- 
ishment of Mordecai thereon, which was ac- 
cordingly prepared. But God taughed to scorn 
the wicked expectations of Haman; and as he 
knew what the event would be, was delighted 


ANTIQUITIES OF TH 


} JEWS. 

at it, fer that night he took away the king al 
sleep; mud as the king wes not willing to lose 
the tine of his lying awake, Init to spend it in 
something that might be of advantage to his 
kingdom, he cornmanded the seribe to bring 
him the chronicles of the former kings, and the 
records of his own actions; and when he had 
brought them and was reading thera, one was 
found to have rcceived a country on account cf 
his exce!lent nsnagement on a certain occasion, 
and the name of the country was set down; 
another was found to have had a present made 
him on account of Lis fidelity: then the scribe 
came to Bigthan and 3teresh, the eunuchs that 
had made a conspiracy «camnst the king, which 
Mordecai had discovered, and when the scribe 
said no more but that, and was going on to 
another history, the king stopped him, and in 
quired, “Whether it was not added that Mor 
decai had a reward given him?” and when he 
said there was no such addition, he bade hire 
leave off, and he inquired of those that were 
appointed for that purpose, what hour of the 
night it was? and when he was informed that 
it was already day, ke save oriler, that if they 
found any one of his frei ..!ready come, and 
standing before the court, cney should tell him, 
Now it ‘happened that Haman was found there, 
for he was come sooner than s¢staary to peti- 
tion the king to have Mordecai j:at to death; 
and when the servants said, that Haman was 
before the court, he bade them call him in; and 
when he was come in, he said, “Because I 
know that thou art my only fast friend, | desire 
thee to give me advice, how I may honor one 
that I greatly love, and that after a manner suit- 
able to my magnificence.” Now Haman rea- 
soned with himself, that what opinion he 
should give would be for himself, since it was 
he alone who was beloved by the king; so he 
gave that advice which he thought of all others” 
the best; for he said, “If thou wouldest truly 
honor a man whom thou sayest thou dost love, 
give order that he may ride on horseback, with 
the same garment on which thou wearest, and 
with a gold chain about his neck, and let one 
of thy intimate friends go before him, and pro-_ 
claim through the whole city, that whosoever 
the king honoreth, obtaineth this mark of his_ 
honor.” ‘This was the advice which Hamar 
gave, out of a supposal that such a reward 
would come to himself. Hereupon the king 
was pleased with the advice, and said, “Go 
thou, therefore, for thou hast the horse, the x 
ment and the chain, ask for Mordecai the Jew, 
and give him those things, and go before his 
horse, and proclaim accordingly; for thou art, 
said he, my intimate friend, and hast given” 
me good advice; be thou then the minister of _ 
what thou hast advised me to do. ‘This shal 
be his reward from us for preserving my life.” 
When he heard this order, which was entirel 
unexpected, he was confounded in his min 
and knew uot what to do. However, he went 
out, and led the horse, and took the purple gar- 
ment, and the golden chain for the neck, ar 
finding Mordecai before the court, clothed ut 
sackcloth, he bade him put that garment oft 


a 










iS) 


HN jf ; 








\ BOOK XL—CHAPTER VL 


a) 


279 


and put the purple garment on: but Mordecai, | when the king heard, ae determined that Ha- 


i 
{ 


not knowing the truth of the matter, but think- 
ing that it was done in mockery, said, “O thoa 


_ wretch, the vilest of all mankind, dost thou thus | 


laugh at our calamities?” 


Rut when he was 


man should be punished after no other mannes 
than that which had been devised by hin 
against Mordecai: so he gave order immediate= 
ly that he should be hung upon that gallows, 


-watisfied that the king bestowed this honor! and be put to death after that manner. And 
_apon him, for the deliverance he had procured | fromm hence [ cannot forbear to admire God, 
_ him, when he convicted the eunuchs who nad | and to learn herce his wisdom and his justice, 
eonspired against him, he put on that purp!s | not only in punishing the wickedness of Llamany 
garment wiich the king always wore, and yt | but in so disposing it, that he should underge 


the chain about his neck, and got on horsebacs : 


and went round the citv, while Haman went 


before, and proclaimed, “This shall be the re- 
ward which the king ws\i oestow on every one 
whom he loves, zn esisers.3 worthy of honor.” 
And when they hx} soe: round the city, Mor- 
decai went in tothe king, out Haman went 


home, out of sheme, anc fd:med his wife and 


‘friends of what had happened, and this with 
tears: who said, that “He would never be able 


to be revenged of Mordecai, for that God was 
with him.” 
11. Now while these mem were thus talking 


one to another, Esther’s euntichs hastened Ha- 
“man away to come to supper; but one of the 
_eunuchs, named Sabuviiedss, saw the gallows 


that was fixed in Haman’s house, and inquired 
of one of his servanix, tor what purpose they 
had prepared it? So he knew that it was for 


the queen’s uncle, Fecause Haman was about 


' to petition the king that ne might be punished, 
but at present Le neid his peace. Now when 
the king, with iiaman, were at the banquet, he 
desired the yusen io tell him what gift she de- 
Sired to cvtain, and assured her that she should 
have whatsoevez she hada mind to. She then 
lamented the danger her people were in; and 

said, thac “She and her nation were given up 
to he destroyed, and that she, on that account, 
made t>1s her petition; that she would not have 
trov!:'ed him if he had only given order that 
they z20uld be sold into bitter servitude, for 
euch a misfortune would not have been intolera- 
ble; but she desired that they might be deliver- 
ed from such destruction.” And when the 
xing i quired of her who was the author of this 
misery -o them? she then openly accused Ha- 
iman, and convicted him, that he had been the 
wicked instrument of this, and had formed this 
vlot against them. When the king was here- 
upon in discrder, and was gone hastily out of 
the banque: into the gardens, Haman began to 
mMtercede wiih Esther, and to beseech her to 
forgive him, as :o what he had offended, for he 

| perceived that ne yas ina very bad case. And 
as he had fai'e: upon the ».wen’s bed, and was 
making supzlicetion to her, the king came in, 
and being still uwre provoked at what he saw, 
*O thou wretch, said he, thou vilest of all 
mankind, dost thou aim te force my wife?” And 

‘when Haman was astonished at this; and not 
‘ableto speak one word more, Sabuchadas the 

eunuch came in, and accused Heman, and said, 

“He found a gallows at his house prepared for 
Mordecai, for that the servant told him so much 
-apon his inquiry, when he was sent to him to 
call him to supper” He said farther, “That 

the gallows was fifty cubits high.” Which 


the very same punishment which he had con- 
trived for another; as also because he thereby 
teaches others this lesson, that what mischiefs 
any one prepares against another,he without 
knowing of it, first contrives it against himself. 
12. Wherefore Haman, who had immode- 
rately abused the honor he had from the king, 
was destroyed after this manner, and the king 
granted his estate to the queen. He also cali- 
ed for Mordecai, (for Esther had informed him 
that she was akin to him,) and gave that ring 
to Mordecai, which he had before given to Ha- 
man. 'The queen also gave Haman’s estate to 
Mordecai, and prayed the king to deliver the 
nation of the Jews from the fear of death, and 
showed him what had been written over all the 
country by Haman the son of Ammedatha: for 
that if her country were destroyed, and her 
countrymen were to perish, she could not bear. 
to live herself any longer. So the king promised 
her, that he would not do any thing that should 
be disagreeable to her, nor contradict what she 
desired, but he bade her write what she pleased 
about the Jews, in the king’s name, and seal it 
with his seal, and send it to all his kingdom, 
for that those who read epistles whose authority 
is secured by having the king’s seal to them, 
would noway contradict what was written 
therein. So he commanded the king’s scribes 
to be sent for, and to write to the nations on 
the Jew’s behalf, and to his lieutenants and 
governors, that were over his hundred twenty 
and seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia. 
Now the contents of this epistle were these: 
“The great king Artaxerxes to our rulers,* and 
those that are our faithful subjects, sendeth 
greeting: Many men there are, who, on account 
of the greatness of the benefits bestowed on 
them, and because of the honor which they 
have obtained from the wonderful kind treat- 
ment of those that bestowed it, are not only 
injurious to their inferiors, but do not scruple 
to do evil to those that have been their bene- 
factors, as if they would take away gratitude 
from among men, and by their insolent abuse 
of such benefits as they never expec: ed, they 
turn the abundance they have against those 
that are the authors of it, and suppose they 
shall lie concealed from God in that case, and 
* The true reason why king Artaxerxes did not here pre- 
perly revoke his former barbarous decree for the universal 
slaughter of the Jews, but only empowered and encouraged 
the Jews to fight for their lives, and to kill their enemies # 
they attempted their destruction, seems to have been that old 
law of the Medes and Persians, not yet laid aside, that what- 
ever decree was signed both by the king and his lords, couhi 
not be changed, but remained unalterable, Dan. vi. 7, 8, %, 
12, 15, 17; Esth.i. 19, and viii. 8. And Haman having em 
grossed the royal favor, might perhaps have himself signed 


this decree for the Jews’ slaughter, instead of the anciem 
lords, and so might have rendered it by their niles irrevocable 


380 


avoid that vengeance which comes from hin. 
Sume of these men, when they have had the 
minagement of affairs committed to them by 
their friends, and bearing private malice of their 
own against some others, by deceiving those 
that have the power, persuade them to be angry 
at such as have done them no harm, till they 
are in danger of perishing, and this by laying 
accusations and calumnies; nor is this state of 
things to be discovered by ancient examples, or 
such as we have learned by report only; but by 
some examples of such impudent attempts un- 
der our own eyes, so that it is not fit to attend 
any longer to calumnies and accusations, nor 
to the persuasions of others, but to determine 
what any one knows of himself to have been 
really done, and to punish what justly deserves 
it, and to grant favors to such as are innocent. 
This hath been the case of Haman, the son of 
Ammedatha, by birth an Amalekite, and alien 
from the blood of the Persians, who, when he 
was hospitably entertained by us, and partook 
of that kindness which we bear to all men, to 
80 great a degree as to be called my fathez, and 
to be all along worshipped, and to have honor 
paid him by all in the second rank after the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





day a day of salsvuer instead of a day of de 
struction tc them and may it be a guod day te 
those that wisi 2s well, and a memoria! of the 
punishment of the conspirators agemst us: and 
I will that you take nouice, that every city, an 
every nation, that shah disobey aay thing thar 
is contained in this epistle, sl.ail be destroyed 
by fire and sword. Howevet, let tnis epistie 
be published through all the country that iz 
under our obedience, and Jet all the Jews by all 
means be ready against the day before men- 
tioned, that they may avenge themselves upon 
their enemies.” : 
13. Accordingly, the horsemen who carried 
the epistles, proceeded or the ways which they 
were to go with speed: but as for Mordecai, as 
soon as he had assumed the royal ent, 
anc. the crown of gold. and had put the chain 
about his neck, he went forth in a public pro- 
cession; and when the Jaw. who were at Shu- 
shan, saw him in sce great honor with the king, 
they thought his geod forume was common to 
themselves also; and joy and & beam of salva- 
tion execmpassed the Jews, both those that 
were it: the cities, and those that were in the 
couxtries, upon the publication of the king’s 


royal honor due to ourselves, he coule not bear | letters, inscmuch, that many even of other na- 


hi# good fortune, nor govern the magnitude of 
his prosperity with sound reason; ray, he msde 
a conspiracy against me and my iife, who g>ve 
nin his authority, by endeavoring to take awzy 
Mordecai, my benefactor, and my savior, and 
by basely and treacherously requiring to have 
Esther, the partner of my life, and of my do- 
minion, brought to destruction; for he contriv- 
ed by this means to deprivé me of my faithful 
friends,* and transfer the government to others: 
but since I perceived that these Jews, that were 
by this pernicious fellow devoted to destruc- 
non, were not wicked men, but conducted their 
lives after the best manner, and were men de- 
dicated to the worship of that God who hath 
preserved the kingdom to me and to my ances- 
tors, I do not only free them from the punish- 
ment which the former epistle, which was sent 
by Haman, ordered to be inflicted on them, to 
which, if you refuse obedience, you shall do 
well, but I will that they have all honor paid 
to them. Accordingly, I have hanged up the 
man that contrived such things against them, 
with his family, before the gates of Shushan, 
that punishment being sent upon him by God, 
who seeth all things. And I give you in charge, 
that you publicly propose a copy of this epistle 
through all my kingdom, that the Jews may be 
permitted peaceably to use their own laws, and 
that you assist them; that at the same season 
whereto their miserable estate did belong, they 
may defend themselves the very same day from 
unjust violence, the thirteenth day of the twelfth 
month, which is Adar, for God hath made that 


* These words give an intimation as if Artaxerxes suspect- 
ed a deeper design in Haman than openly appeared, viz. that 
knowing the Jews wonld be faithful to him, and that he could 
mever transfer the crown to his own family, who was an 
Agagite, Esth. iii. 1—10, or of the posterity of Agag, the old 
king of the Amalekites, 1 Sam. xv. 8, 32, 33, while they 
were alive, and spread over all his dominions, he therefore 
eadeavored to destroy them. Nor is it to me improbable, that 


tions circumeis«| their foreskin for fear of the 
Jews, that they m'gi.t procure safety to them- 
selves therely; io: on the thirteenth day of the 
twelfth month, whici. according to the Hebrews 
is called Adar, but accwrding tu the Macedo- 
nians, Dystrus, thos: tha: carried the king's 
e,istle gave them nect:ce that the same day 
wherein their danger was to hav« been, cn that 
very day should they cestioy their enemies, 
But now the rulers of the provinees, and the 
tyrants, and the kings, and the scribes, hacl the 
Jews in esteem; for the fear they were i of 
Mordecai forced them to act with discretica 
Now when the royal decree was come to ail 
the country that was subject to the king, i 
fell out that the Jews at Shushan slew five hun- 
dred of their enemies: and when the king had 
told Esther the number of those that were 
slain in that city, but did not well know wha, 
had been done in the provinces, he asked he= 
whether she would have any thing srthe 
done against them? for that it shoul: be don 
accordingly: upon which she desirea that the 






















ing enemies in the same manne- the next day 
as also that they might hang the ‘en sons of 
Haman upon the gallows. Se the king per- 
mitted the Jews so to do er desirous not 
contradict Esther. So they gathered them 
selves together ag: in on the fourteenth day of 
the month Dystrus, and elew about three hun 
dred of their ene.»ies, but touched nothing o 
what riches they had. Now there was slam b 
the Jews that were in the country, and in 


those 75,800 of the Jews’ enemies which were soon destro 
ed by the Jews, on the permission of the king, which mu 
be on some great occasion, were Amalekites, their old al 
hereditary enemies, Exod. xvii. 14,15, and that thereby w 
fulfilled Balaam’s prophecy, “Amaljek was the first of 

nations, but his latter end shall be, that he perish forever 
Numb. xxiv. 20. 


| 


BOOK XI.—CHAPTERS VII. VIII. 


other cities, seventy-five thousand of their ene- 
mies, and these were slain on the thirteenth 
day of the month, and the next day they kept 
as a festival. In like manner the Jews that 
were in Shushan gathered themselves together, 
and feasted on the fourteenth day and that 
which followed it; whence it is, that even now 
all the Jews that are in the habitable earth 
keep these days festival, and send portions to 
one another. Mordecai also wrote to those 
Jews that lived in the kingdom of Artaxerxes 
to observe these days, and celebrate them as 
festivais, and to deliver them down to posterity, 
that this festival might continue for all time to 
come, and that it might never be buried in 
oblivion, for since they were about to be de- 
stroyed on these days by Haman, they would 
do a right thing, upon escaping the danger in 
them, and on them inflicting punishments on 
their enemies, to observe those days, and give 
thanks to God os them; for which cause the 
Jews still keep the forementioned days, and 
call them days of Phurim for Purim.*] And 
Mordecai beeams a great and illustrious person 
with the king, and sssisted him in the govern- 
ment of the people. He also lived with the 
queen; so that the affairs of the Jews were by 
thir means better than they could ever have 
hc ped for. And this was the state of the Jews 
ui der the reign of Aztaxerxes.t 


CHAPTER VII. 
How John slew las brother Jesus in the temple: 
and how Bagoses offered many iyuries to the 
Jews; and what Sanballat did. 


§ 1. When Eliashib, the high priest was dead, 
hs son Judas succeeded in the high priesthood: 
#1 when he was dead, his son John took that 
d nity; on whose account it was also that Ba- 
gees, the general of another Artaxerxes’s ar- 
n y,{ polluted the temple, and imposed tributes 
01 the Jews, that out of the public stock, be- 
fire they offered the daily sacrifices, they 
siiould pay for every lamb fifty shekels. Now 
Jesus was the brother of John and was a friend 
of Bagoses, who had promised to procure him 
the high priesthood. In confidence of whose 
‘support, Jesus quarrelled with John in the tem- 
pie, and so provoked his brother, that in his an- 

er his brother slew him. Nowit wasa horri- 
Ble thing for John, when he was high priest, to 
perpetrate so great a crime; and so much the 


* Take here part of Reland’s note on this disputed pass- 
: “In Josephus’s copies these Hebrew words, days of 
im, or Tots, as in the Greek copies of Esther, ch. ix. 26, 
‘98—32, is read days of Phurin, or days of Protection but ought 
to be read days of Purim, as in the Hebrew; than which amen- 
dation, says he, nothing is more certain.’”? And had we any 
assurance that Josephus’s copy mentioned the casting of lots, 
as our other copies do, Esth. ili. 7, J stould fully agree with 
Reland, but as it now stands, it serum to me to be by no 
means certain. 
_ + As to this whole book of Esthe1 in the present Hebrew 
eopy, it is so very imperfect, in a case where the providence 
_ of God was so very remarkable, and the Septuagint and Jose- 
phus have so much of religiom, that it has not so much as 
the name of God once in it; and itis hard to say who made 
that epitonvs which the Masorites have given us for the ge- 
nuine book itself; no religious Jews could well be the authors 
- ef it whose education obliged them to have a constant re- 
gard o God, and whatsoever retated to his worship; nor do 
"ws ‘now that there ever was so imperfect a copy of it in the 
world till after the days of Barchocab, in the second century. 
* Concerning this other Artaxerxes, called Mnemon, and 
36 


’ 





281 


more horrible, that there never was so cruel and 
impious a thing done neither by the Greeks 
nor barbarians. However, God did not neglect 
its punishment, but the people were on that 
very account enslaved, and the temple was pol- 
luted by the Persians. Now when Bagoses, 
the general of Artaxerxes’s army, knew that 
John, the high priest of the Jews, had slain 
his own brother Jesus in the temple, he came 
upon the Jews immediately, and began in an- 
ger to say to them, “Have you had the impru- 
dence to perpetrate a murder in your te:mple?” 
And as he was aiming to go into the temple, 
they forbade him so to do; but he said to them, 
“Am not [ purer than he that was slain in the 
ternple?” And when he had said these words, 
he went into the temple. Accordingly, Bago- 
ses made use of this pretence, and punished 
the Jews seven years for the murder of Jesus. 

2. Now when John had departed this life, 
his son Jaddua succeeded in the high priest- 
hood. He had a brother, whose name was 
Manasseh. Now there was one Sanballat, who 
was sent by Darius, the last king [of Persia’ 
inte Samaria. He was a Cuthean by birth; of 
which stock were the Samaritans also. This 
man knew that the city Jerusalem was a fa- 
mous city, and that their kings had given a 
great deal of trouble to the Assyrians and the 


people of Ceelosyria; so that he willingly gave 


his daughter, whose name was Nicaso, in mar- 
riage to Manasseh, as thinking this alliance by 
marriage weuld be a pledge and security that 
the nation of the Jews should continue their 


good will to him. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
Concermng Sanballat and Manasseh, and the tem 
sh which they built on Mount Gerizzim; as also 
w flexander made his entry into the city Jeru- 
salem; and the benefits he bestowed on the Jews. 


§ 1. About this time it was that Philip, kin 
of Macedon, was treacherously assaulted ane 
slain at Egea by Pausanias, the son of Cerastes, 
who was derived from the family of Oreste, 
and his son Alexander succeeded him in the 
kingdom; who, passing over the Hellespont, 
overcame the generals of Darius’s army in a 
battle fought at Granicum. So he marched 
over Lydia, and subdued Ionia, and overran 
Caria, and fell upon the places of Pamphylia, 
as has been related elsewhere. 


the Persian affliction and captivity of the Jews under him, 
occasioned by the murder of the high priest’s brother in the 
holy house itself, see Authent. Rec. at large, page 49. And 
if any wonder why Josephus wholly omits the rest of the 
kings of Persia after Artaxerxes Mnemon, till he came te 
their last king Darius, who was conquered by Alexander the 
Great, I shall give them Vossius’s and Dr. Hudson’s answer, 
though in my own words, viz. that Josephus did not do ill im 
omitting those kings of Persia with whom the Jews had ne 
concern, because he was giving the history of the Jews, and 
not of the Persians [which is a sufficient reason also why he 
entirely omitted the history and the book of Job, as net par- 
ticularly relating to that nation.] He justly, therefore, returns 
to the Jewish affairs after the death of I ongimanus without 
any mention of Darius II. before Artaxerxes Mnemon, or of 
Ochus, or Arogus, as the canon of Ptolemy names them af 
ter him. Norhad he probably mentioned this other Artax 
erxes, unless Bagoses, one of the governors and command 
ders under him, had occasioned the pollution of the Jewish 
ei and had greatly distressed the Jews upon that pel 
ution. 


Fr2 
2, But the elders of Jerusalem beimg very 
uneasy that the brother of Jaddua the high 
riest, though married toa foreigner, should 
ye a partner with him in the high priesthood, 
quarrelled with him: for they esteerned this 
mans marriage a step to such as should be 
desirous of transgressing about the inarriage 
of [strange] wives, and that this would be the 
beginning of a mutual society with foreigners, 
although the offence of some about marriages, 
and their having married wives that were not 
of their own country, had been an occasion of 
their former captivity, and of the miseries they 
then underwent; so they commanded Manasselh 
to divorce his wife, or not to approach the altar, 
the high priest himself joining with the people 
in their indignation against his brother, and 
driving hin away from the altar. Whereupon 
Manasseh came to his father-in-law, Sanballat, 
and told him, that “Although he loved his 
daughter Nicaso, yet was he not willing to be 
deprived of his sacerdotal dignity on her ac- 
count, which was the principal dignity in their 
nation, and always continued in the same fami- 
ly.” And then Sanballat promised him not 
only to preserve to him the honor of his priest- 
hood, but to procure to him the power and dig- 
nity of a high priest, and would make him go- 
vernor of all the places he himself now ruled, 
if he would keep his daughter for his wife. 
He also told him further, that he would build 
him a temple like to that at Jerusalem, upon 
mount Gerizzim, which is the highest of all 
the mountains that are in Samaria, and kh» pro- 
mised that he would do this with the ayproba- 
tion of Darius the king. Mamrass..2 was eleva- 


ted with these promises, and stei? with Ser-: 
ballat, upon a supposal that he should gain s! 
high priesthood, as -bestowed on him by Da- 


rius, for it happened that Sanballat was then in 
years. But there was now a great disturbance 
among the people of Jerusalem, because many 
of those priests and Levites were entangled in 
such matches; for they all revoltedto Manas- 
seh, and Sanballat afforded them money, and 
divided among them land for tillage, and habi- 
tations also, and all this in order every way to 
gratify his son-in-law. 

3. About this time it was that Darius heard 
how Alexander had passed over the Hellespont, 
and had beaten his lieutenants in the battle of 
Granicum, and was proceeding farther: where- 
upon he gathered together an army of horse 
and foot, and determined that he would meet 
the Macedonians before they should assault 
and conquer all Asia. So he passed over the 
river Kuplirates, and came over ‘Taurus, the 
Cicilian mountain; and at Issus of Cicilia he 
waited for the enemy, as ready there to give 
him battle. Upon which Sanballet was glad 
that Darius was come down; and told Manas- 
seh that he would suddenly perform his pro- 
mises to him, and this as soon as ever Darius 
should come back, after he had beaten his ene- 
mies; for not he only, but all those that were 
in Asia also, were persuaded that the Macedo- 
nians would not so much as come to battle with 
the Persians. on account of their multitude. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


But the event proved otherwise than they e2- 
pected, for the king joined battle with the Ma- 
cedonians, and was beaten, and lost a great 
part of his army. iis mother also, and his 
wife and children, were taken captives, end he 
fled into Persia. So Alexander came into Sy- 
ria, and took Damascus; and when he had ob- 
tained Sidon he besiegel Tyre, when he sent 
an epistle to the Jewish high priest, “To send 
him some auxiliaries, and to supply his army 
with provisions; and that what presents he fcr- 
merly sent to Darius, he would now sed te 
him, and choose the friendship of the Macedo- 


nians, and that he should never repent of so | 


doing.” ‘But the high priest uuswered the 
messengers, that “he had given his oath to Da- 
rius not to hear arms against him; and je said, 
that he would act cransgress this wile Derius 
was in the land of the living.” Upor. nesrin 
this answer, Alexander was very ang:y; asd 
though he determined not to leave Tyre, which 
was just ready to be taken, yet as scon as he 
had taken it, he threatened that he would meke 
an expedition against the Jewish high priest, 
and itrough bim teach all men to whom ey 
must Keep their onths. So when he had, wi 
a good deal of pains, during the siege, taken 
Tyre, and had setil-d its affairs, he came to the 
city of Gaza, and lsieged both the city and hiro 
wo was governor of the garrison, whose nam 
was Raberaeses. 

4. But Sanballat thought he had now gow 
a proper opportunity to make his attempt, se 
he renounced Darius, and taking with hra 
sevtn thousend of his subjects, he came to Al- 
exander; ua finding hin: beguming the siege 
mt Tyre, he said to him, that he delivered up 
ty him these men, whu ceme out of places un- 
Cer his dominion, and cid gladly accept of him 
for their lord, instead of Darius. So when 
Alexander had received him kindly, Sanballat 
thereupon took courage, and spoke to him 
about this present affair. He told him, that “he 
had a son-in-law, Manasseh, who was brother 
to the high priest Jeddua: and that there were 
many Others of his own nation now with him, 
that were desirous to have a terople in the 


places subject to him; that it wouid be for the 
king’s advantage to have the strength of the 


Jews divided into two parts, lest, when the na- 
tion is of one mind and united, upon ny at- 
tempt for innovation, it proves troubiesome to 
kings, as it had formerly proved to the kings 
of Assyria.” Whereupon A’exander gave 


Sanballat leave so to do, who used the utmost — 


diligence, and built the temple, and made Me- 
nasseh the priest, and deemed it a great reward, 
that his daughter’s children should have that 
dignity: but when the seven months of the 
siege of Tyre were over, and the two mouths 
of the siege of Gaza, Sanballat died. Now 
Alexander, when he had taken Gaza, made 
haste to go up to Jerusaleir; and Jaddua the 


high priest, when he heard that, was in an 


* 


7 

% 
" 

" 


j 
* 
: 
’ 


agony, aud under terror, as not knowing how ~ 


he should meet the Macedonians, since the king - 
was displeased at his foregoing disobedience. — 


He therefore ordained that the people should — 


y 


¢ 


7 
2 


5 


iy 
7 Ny 
ca « 


- BOOK XI—CHAPTER VIIL | ORS 


meke supplications, and should join with him | And when he went up into tne temple, he of 
in offering, sacrifice to God, whom he besought | fered sacrifice to God, according to the high 
to protect that nation, and to deliver them from | priesv's direction; and magnificently treated 
the perils that were coming upon them: where- | both the high priest and the priests. And when 
apon God warned him in a dream, which came | the book of Daniel was shown him, wherein 
upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that | Daniel deciared that one of the Greeks should 
“he should take courage, and adorn the city, | destroy the empire of the Persians, he suppos- 
and open the gates; that the rest should appear | ed that himself was the person intended: and 
in white garments, but that he and the priests | as he was then glad, he dismissed the multi- 
should meet the king in the habits proper to | tude for the present, but the next day he ca!led 
heir order, without the dread of any ill con- | them to him, and badé them ask what fa\ ors 
gequences, which the providence of God would | they pleased of him; whereupon the high p. ies 
revent.” Upon which, when he rose from | desired that they might enjoy the laws of their 
is sleep, he greatly rejoiced; and declared to | forefathers, and might pay no tribute on the 
all the warning he had received from God.|seventh year. He granted all they desired 
Aceording to which dream he acted entirely, ; And when they entreated him that he would 
and so waited for the coming of the king. ermit the Jews in Babylon and Media to en- 
5. And when he understood that he was not | joy their own laws also, he willingly promised 
far from the city, he went out in procession, | to do hereafter what they desired. And wher 
with the priests and the multitude of the citi- | he said to the multitude, that if any of them 
zens. ‘The procession was venerable, and the | would list themselves in his army, on this con- 
manner of it different from that of other na-| dition, that they should continue under the 
tions. It reached to a place called Sapha, | laws of their forefathers, and live according to 
which name, tr::slated into Greek, signifies a |ther he was willing to take them with him, 
prospect, for you heve thence a prospect both | may were ready to accompany him in his 
of Jerusalem and of the temple; and when | wars. 
‘the Pheenicians and the Chaldeans that follow-| 6. So when Alexander had thus settled mat- 
ed him, thought they should have liberty to| ters at Jerusalem, he led his army into the 
plunder the city, and torment the high priest! neighboring cities; and when all the inhabit- 
to death, which the king’s displeasure fairly | ants, to whom he came, received him with 
promised them, the very reverse of it happen- | great kindness, the Samaritans, who had then 
ed; for Alexander, when he saw the multitude | Shechem for their metropolis, (a city situate at 
at a distance, in white garments, while the | mount Gerizzim, and inhabited by apostates 
priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the! of the Jewish nation,) seeing that Alexander 
high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with had so greatly honored the Jews, determined to 
his mitre on his head, having the golden plate profess themselves Jews, for such is the dispo- 
Woereon the name of God wes engraved, he | sition of the Samaritans, as we have already 
‘approached by himself, and adored that Name, | elsewhere declared, that when the Jews are in 
and first saluted the high priest. The Jews | adversity they deny that they are of kin to 
also did altogether, with one voice, salute Al-|them, and then they confess the truth; but 
exander, and encompass him about: where- | when they perceive that some good fortune 
upon the king of Syria, and the rest, were sur- | hath befallen them, they immediately pretena 
prised at what Alexander had done, and sup-|to hav2 cummunion with them, saying, that 
sed him disordered in his mind. However, | they beicng to them, and derive their genealo- 
BP texto alone went up to him, and asked | gy frem the posterity of Joseph, Ephraim ana 
him, “Ilow it came to pass, that when all others | Manasseh. Accordingly, they made their ad- 
adored him, he should adore the high priest of | dress to the king with splendor, and showed 
the Jews?” To whom he replied, “I did not | great alacrity in meeting him at a little distance 
‘adore him, but that God who hath honored | from Jerusalem. And when Alexander had 
him with this high priesthood; for I saw this | commanded them, the Shechemites approach- 
‘yery person in a dream, in this very habit, when | ed to him, taking with them the troops that 
T was at Dios in Macedoria, who, when I was | Sanballat had sent him, and they desired that 
“considering with myself how I might obtain the | he would come to their city, and do honor to 
fominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no de- | their temple also. To whom he promised that 
ley, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, _ when he returned he would come to thera 


< 


hat he would conduct my army, end would} And when they petitioned that he would remit 
ve me the dominion over the Persians; whence | the tribute of the seventh year to them, because 
“tis, that having seen no other in that habit, | they did nei sow thereon, he asked wko they 
and now seeing this person in it, and remem-| were that made such a petition; and when 
bering that vision, and the exhortation which I they said -hat they were Hebrews, but had the 
had in my dream, I believe that I bring this | name of Sidonians, living at Shechem, he ask- 
army under the divine conduct, and shall there- | ed them again whether they were Jews; and 
with conquer Darius and destroy the power of | when they said they were not Jews, “It was te 
‘the Persians, and that all things will succeed | the Jews, said he, that I granted that privileges 
“according to what is in my own mind.” And | however, when I return and am thoroughly 
when he had said this to Parmenio, and had | informed by you of this matter, I will do what 
given the high priest his right hand, the priests | I shall think proper.” And in this manner he 
ran along by him, and he came inte th= city | took leave of the Shechemites, but ordered 


a 


ari. u 


284 


that the aoops of Sanballat should follow him 
into Egypt, because there he designed to give 
them lands, which he did a little after in The- 
bais, when he ordered them to guard that coun- 
try. 

7, Now when Alexander was dead, the gov- 
ernment was parted among his successors, but 
the temple upon mount Gerizzim remained. 
And if any one was accused by those of Jeru- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


FA 
ty 


salem, of having eaten things common, er of 
having broken the Sabbath, or of ary other 
crime of the like nature, he fled away to the 
Shechemites, and said that he was accused un- 
justly. About this time it was that Jaddua the 
high priest died and Onias his son took the 
high priesthood. This was the state of the af 
fairs of the people of Jerusalem at this time ~ 





BOOK XII. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF — 
ALEXANDER THE GREAT TO THE DEATH OF JUDAS MACCABEUS. 





CHAPTER I. 


How Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, took Jerusalem 
and Judea by deceit and treachery, and carried 
many of the Jews thence, and planted them mn 


Egypt. 


§ 1. Now when Alexander, king of Mace- 
don, had put an end to the dominion of the 
Persians, and had settled the affairs in Judea 
after the forementioned manner, he ended his 
life. And as his government fell among many, 


rizzim, he led them all into Egypt, and settled 
them there.* And as he knew that the peo- 
ple of Jerusalem were most faithful in the ob- 
servation of oaths and covenants} and this 
from the answer they made to Alexander, when 
he sent an embassage to them, after he had beat- 
en Darius in battle; so he distributed many of 
them into garrisons, and at Alexandria gave 
them equal privileges of citizens with the Ma- 
cedonians themselves; and required of them to 
take their oatns, that they would keep their 


Artigonus obtained Asia; Seleucus, Eabyloz; | fidelity to the posterity of those who commit- 


aud of the other nations which were there, 
L.ysimachus governed the Hellespont, end Cas- 
sander possessed Macedonia; as dia Ptolemy, | 
the son of Lagus, seize upon Egypt And 
while these princes ambitiously strove one 
against another, every one for bie own princi- 
pulity, it came to pass that -thera were contin- 
ual wars, and those lasting wars too; and the ci- 
tiis were sufferers, and lost a great many of 
tleir inhabitants in these times of distress, iaso- 
niuch that all Syria, by the means of Ptoicziy 
the son of Lagus, underwent the reverss of 
tl.at denomination of Savior which he then} 
hid. He also seized upon Jerusalem, and for 
tl at end made use of deceit and treachery; for 
ev, he came into the city on a Sabbath day, as if 
hw would offer sacrifices, he without any trou- 
ble gained the city, while the Jews did not op- 
p»se him, for they did not suspect him to be 
their enemy; and he gained it thus, because 
they were free from suspicion of him, and be- 
cause on that day they were at rest and quiet- 
ness; and when he liad gained it, he ruled over 
it in a cruel manner. Nay, Agatharchides of 
Cnidus, who wrote the acts of Alexander’s suc- 
cessors, reproaches us with superstition, as if 
we, by it, had lost our liberty; where he says 
thus: “There is a nation called the nation of 
the Jews, who inhabit a city strong and great, 
named Jerusalem. These men took no care, 
but let it come into the hands of Ptolemy, as 
not willing to take arms, and thereby they 
submitted to be under a hard master, by rea- 
son of their unseasonable superstition.” ‘This 
is what Agatharchides relates of our ration. 
But when Ptolemy had taken a great many 
captives, both from the mountainous parts of 
Judea, and from the places about Jerusalem 
and Samaria, ami the places near mount Ge- 





| tod these places to their care. 


Nay, there were 
nota few other Jews, who, of their own ac- 
cord, went into Egypt, as invited by the good- 
ness of the soil, and by the liberality of Ptolemy 
However, there were disorders among thew 
posterity, with relation to the Samaritans, on 
account of their resolution to preserve that con- 
duct of life which was delivered to them by 
their forefathers, and they thereupon contend- 
ed one with another; while these of Jerusa- 
lem said, that their temple was holy, and re- 
solved tu send their sarrifices taither; but the 
Samaritans were resolved that they should be 
sent to mount Gerizzim. 


CHAPTER 1. 


How Ptolemy Philadelohus procured the laws 
of the Jews to be trunslaid into the Greek 
tcngue; and set rany captives free; and dedi- 
cated many gifts to God. q 
§ 1. When Alexander had reigned twelve 

years, and after him Ptolemy Soter forty years, 

Philadelphus then took the kingdom of Egypt, 


* The great number of the Jews and Samaritans that were _ 
formerly carried into Egypt by Alexander, and now by Ptole- — 
my the son of Lagus, appear afterward in the vast multitude 
who, as we shall see presently, were soon ransomed bj 
Philadelphus, and by him made free, before he sent for the © 
seventy-two interpreters; in the many garrisons, and other | 
soldiers of that nation in Egypt in the famous settlement d : 


‘ 


Jews, and the number of their synagogues at Alexandria, 
long afterward; and in the vehement contention betwee! } 
the Jews and Samaritans under Philometer, about the place — 
appointed for the public worship in the law of M .4 
whether at the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, or at the Sa 
maritan temple at Gerizzira: of all which our author tr 
hereafter. And as to the Samaritans carried into alan 
under the same princes, Sealiger supposes, that those who — 
have 4 great synagogue at Cairo, as also those whom 
Arabic geographer speaks of, as having seized on an island — 
in the Red Sea, are remains of them at this very day, as th 
notes here inform us. wf 
+ Of the sacredness of oaths among the Jews im the 
Testament, see Scripture Politics, p. 54, 65. f 





BOOK XIL—CHAPTER Il. 


and held it forty years within one. He procu- 
red the law to be interpreted;* and set free those 
that were come from Jerusalem into Egypt, 
and were in slavery there, who were a hundred 
and twenty thousand. ‘The occasion was this: 
Demetrius Phalerius, who was library-keeper 
to the kmg, was now endeavoring, if it were 
possible, to gather together all the books that 
were in the habitable earth, and buying what- 
goever was anywhere valuable, or agreeable to 
the king’s inclination; (who was very earnestly 
set upon collecting of books;) to which inclina- 
tion of his, Demetrius was zealously subservi- 
ent. And when once Ptolemy asked him how 
many ten thousands of books he had collected, 
he replied, that he had already about twenty 
times ten thousand, but that, in a little time, he 
should have fifty times ten thousand. But he 
said, he had been informed that there were 
many books of laws emong the Jews worthy 
of inquiring after, and worthy of the king’s li- 
brary, but which being written in characters 
and ina dialect of their own, will cause no 
small pains in getting them translated into the 
Greek tongue; that the characters in which they 
are written seeins to be like to that which is the 
proper character of the Syrians; and. t':2t its 
sound, when pronounced, is like theirs z1so; and 
that this sound appears to be peculiar to tuem- 
selves. Wherefore he said, that nothing hin- 
dered why they might not get those books to 
be translated also, for while nothing is wanting 
that is necessary for that purpose, we may have 
their books also in this library. So the king 
thought that Demetrius was very zealous to 
procure him abundance of books, and that he 
suggested what was exceeding proper for him 
tw do; and, therefore, he wrote to the Jewish 
high priest that he should act accordingly. 

2. Now there was one Aristeus, who was 
among the king’s inost intimate friends, and on 
account of his modesty very acceptable to 
him. This Aristeus resolved frequently, and 
that before now, to petition the king that he 
would set all the captive Jews in his kingdom 
free; and he thought this to be a convenient 
opportunity for the making that petition. So 
he discoursed, in the first place, with the cap- 
tains of the king’s guards, Sosibius of 'Taren- 
tum, and Andreas; and persuaded them to as- 
gist him in what he was going to intercede with 
the king for. Accordingly, Aristeus embraced 
the same opinion with those that had been be- 
fore mentioned; and went to the king, and 
made the following speech to him: “It is not fit 
for us, O king, to overlook things hastily, or to 
deceive ourselves, but to lay the truth open; 
for since we have determined not only to get 
the laws of the Jews transcribed, but interpret- 
ed also, for thy satisfaction, by what means 
ean we do this, while so many of the Jews are 


* Of the translation of the other parts of the Old Testa- 
' ment by seventy Egyptian Jews, in the reign of Ptolemy the 
en of Lagus, and Philadelphus; as also the translation of 
_the Pentateuch by seventy-two Jerusaiem Jews, in the se- 
venth year of Philadelphus at Alexandria, as given us an ac- 
count of by Asiceteus, and thence by Philo and Jusephus, 
With 4 vindication uf Aristeus’s history, see the Appendix to 
Lit Accomp. of Proph. at large, p. 117— 152, 


285 


now slaves in thy kmgdom. Do thou then 
what will be agreeable to thy magnanimity, 
and to thy good nature; free them from the 
miserable condition they are in, because that 
God, who supporteth thy kingdom, was the 
author of their laws as I have learned by par- 
ticular inquiry, for both these people, and we 
also, worship the same God, the framer of al) 
things. We call him, and that truly, by the 
name of Znva, [or Life, or Jupiter,] because he 
breathes life intoall men. Wherefore, do thou 
restore these men te their own country, and 
this do to the hono: of God, because these 
men pay a peculiarly excellent worship to him. 
And know this farther, that though I be not of 
kin to them by birth, nor one of the same 
country with them, yet do I desire these favors 
to be done them, since all men are the work- 
manship of God; and I am sensible that he is 
well pleased with those that do good. I do, 
therefore, put up this petition to thee; to do 
good to them.” 

3. When Aristeus was saying thus, the kis 
looked upon him with a cheerful and joyfid 
countenance, and said, “How many ten thou- 
sands dost thou suppose there are of such as 
want to be made free?” 'To which Andreas 
replied, as he stood by, and said, “A few more 
than ten times ten thousand.” ‘The king maite 
answer, “And is this a small gift that theu 
askest, Aristeus?” But Sosibius, and the rest 
that stood by, said, that “he ought to offer such 
a thank-offering as was worthy of his great- 
ness of soul, to that God who had given him 
hiskingdom.” With thisanswer he was much 
pleased; and gave order, that when they pa‘d 
the soldiers their wages, they should lay down 
(a hundred and] twenty drachme for every one 
of the slaves.* And he promised to publish a 
magnificent decree, about what they request- 
ed, which should confirm what Aristeus had 
proposed, and especially what God willsd 
should be done; whereby, he said, he wouid 
not only set those free who had been led away 
captive by his father and his army, but those 
who were in his kingdom before, and those also, 
if any such there were, who had been brought 
away since. And when they said that their re- 
demption money would amount to above four 
hundred talents, he granted it. A copy of 
which decree I have determined to preserve, 
that the magnanimity of this king may be made 
known. Its contents were as follows: “Let all 
those who were soldiers under our father, and 
who, when they overran Syria and Phoenicia, 


* Although this number one hundred and twenty drachme 
[of Alexandria, or sixty Jewish shekels] be here three times 
repeated, and that in all Josephus’s copies, Greek and Latin. 
yet since all the copies of Aristeus, whence Josephus tooa 
his relation, have this sum several times, and still as no 
more than twenty drachme, or ten Jewish shekels; and 
since the suin of the talents, to be set down presenti, 
which is a little above four hundred and sixty, for somewhit 
more than one hundred thousand slaves, and is nearly tle 
same in Josephus and Aristeus, does better agree to twenty 
than to one hundred and twenty drachme; and since tlie 
value of aslave of old was, ac the utmost, but thirty shekels, 
or sixty drachme, see Exod. ‘xi. 32, while in the present 
circumstances of these Jewish slaves, and those s0 very nu- 
merous, Philade\phus would rather redeem them at a cheap 
er tlian at a dearer rate, there is great reason to prefer hera 
Arisiceus’s copies before Josephus’s. 


306 


made a great profit by them. 


what is here commanded. 


first contained the rest that is here inserted, and 
omitted only those Jews that had formerly been 
brought, and those brought afterward, which 
had not been distinctly mentioned; so he add- 
ed these clauses out of his humanity, and 
with great generosity. He also gave order 
that the payment, which wavlikely to be done 
in a hurry, should be divided among the king’s 
ministers, and among the officers of his trea- 
sury. When this was over, what the king had 
decreed was quickly brought to a conclusion; 
and this in no more than seven days’ time, the 
number of the talents paid for the captives be- 
ing above four hundred and sixty, and this be- 
case their masters required the [hundred and] 
twenty drachme for the children also, the king 
having in effect commanded that these should 
be paid for, when he said in his decree that they 
sliould receive the forementioned sum for every 
slave. 

4. Now when this had been done after so 
magnificent a manner, according to the king’s 
inclinations, he gave order to Demetrius to give 
hin in writing his sentiments concerning the 
transcribing of the Jewish books, for no part of 
to administration is done rashly by these kings, 
out all things are managed with great circum- 
spection. On which account I have subjoined 
a copy of these epistles, and set down the mul- 
titude of the vessels sent as gifts [to Jerusalem,] 
and the construction of every one, that the exact- 
ness of the artificer’s workmanship, as it ap- 
peared to those that saw them, and which work- 
man made every vessel, may be made manifest, 
and this on account of the excellency of the 
veasels themselves. Now the copy of the epis- 


ANTIQUITIES 


and laid waste Judea, took the Jews captives, 
and made then slaves, and brought them into 
our cities, and into this country, and then sold 
them; as also all those that were in my kingdom 
betore them, and if there be any that have been 
lately brought thither, be made free by those 
that possess them; and let them accept of [a 
hundred and] twenty drachme for every slave. 
And let the soldiezs receive this redemption 
money with their pay, but the rest out of the 
king’s treasury: for ] suppose that they were 
made captives without our father’s consent, and 
against equity; and that their country was ha- 
rassed by the insolence of the soldiers, and that 
by removing them into Egypt, the soldiers have 
Out of regard, 
therefore, to justice, and out of pity to those 
that have been tyrannized over, contrary to 
equity, I enjoin those that have such Jews in 
their service to set them at liberty, upon the re- 
eeipt of the before-mentioned sum; and that 
no one use any deceit about them, but obey 
And I will, that 
they give in their names, within three days af- 
ter the publication of this edict, to such as are 
appointed to execute the same, and to produce 
the slaves before them also, for I think it will 
be for the advantage of my affairs; and let 
every one that will, inform against those that 
de not obey this decree; and I will that their 
estates be confiscated into the king’s treasury.” 
When this decree was read to the king, it at 


who had obtained that dignity on the occasion 
following: When Onias the high priest 
dead, his son Simon became his success or. 
He was called Simon the Just,* because of 
both his piety towards Ged, aud his kind dis 
position to those of his own nation. When he 
was dead, and had left a young son, who y 
called Onias, Simon’s brother Eh 

we are speaking, took the high priesthood; a 
he it was to whom Ptolemy wrote, and that it 
the manner following: “King Ptolemy to Elea- 
zar the high priest, sendeth greeting: There 


the son of Onias I. in the fiftieth chapter of Ecclesiasicus, 
through the whole chapter. 
that chapter itself upon this occasion. 


OF THE JEWS. 


tle was to this purpose: “Demetrius to the 
king: when thou, O king, gavest mea charg 
concerning the collection of books that wen 
wanting to fill your library, and concernin 
the care that ought to be taken about such a 
are imperfect, I have used the utmost diligence 
about those matters. And I let you know, tha 
we want the books of the Jewish legislation 
with some others; for they are written in th 
Hebrew characters, and being in the langu 
of that nation, are to us unkn wn. It hat 
also happened to them, that they have beer 
transcribed more carelessly than they ought t 
have been, because they have not had hitherte 
royal care taken about them. - Now it is neces 
sary that thou shouldest have accurate copies 
of them. And indeed this legislation is full of 
hidden wisdom, and entirely blameless, as be- 
ing the legislation of God: for which cause i 
is, as Hecateus of Abdera says, that the poets 
and historians make no mention of it, nor of 
those men who lead their lives according to it 
since it is a holy law, and ought not to be pub- 
lished by profane mouths. If then it please 
thee, O king, thou mayest write to the high 
priest of the Jews, to send six of the elders out 
of every tribe, and those such as are most skil- 
ful in the laws, that by their means we may 
learn the clear and agreeing sense of these 
books; and may obtain an accurate interpreta- 
tion of their contents, and so may have such a 
collection of these as may be suitable to thy 
desire.” | 

5. When this epistle was sent to the king, 
he commande? that an epistle should be drawn 
up for Eleazer, the Jewish high priest, cons 
cerning these matters; and that they should ine 
form him of the release of the Jews that h d 
been in slavery among them. He also sent 
fifty talents of gold for the making of large 
basins, and vials, and cups, and an immense 
quantity of precious stones. He also gave or- 
ders to those who had the custody of the chests 
that contained these stones, to give the artifi- 
cers leave to choose out what sorts of them 
they pleased. He withall appointed, that a hun- 
dred talents in money should be sent to the 
temple for sacrifices, and for other uses. Noy 
I will give a description of these vessels, 


























the manner of their construction, but not till 
after I have set down a copy of the epi 















which was written to Eleazar the high pri 


eazar, of whom 


* We have a very great encomium of this Simon the 


Nor is it improper to consul 


BOUK XU—CHAPTER IL. 


are many Jews who now dwell in my king- 
dom, whem the Persians, when they were in 
wer, carried captives. ‘These were honored 
2 my father; some of them he placed in the 
army, and gave thein greater pay than ordinary: 
to others of them, when they came with him 
into Egypt, he committed his garrisons, and 
the guarding of them, that they might be a 
terror to the Egyptians. And when J had 
taken the government, J treated all men with 
humanity, and especially those that are thy 
fellow-citizens, of whom I have set free above 
a hundred thousand that were slaves, and paid 
the price of their redemption to their masters 
out of my own revenues; end those that are of 
a fit age, I have admitted into the number of 
my soldiers. And for such as are capable of 
being faithful to me, and proper for my court, 
I have put them in such a post, as thinking 
this [kindness done to them] to be a very great 
and acceptable gift, which J devote to God for 
his providence over me. And as I am desirous 
tc do what will be grateful to these, and to all 
the other Jews in the habitable earth, J have 
determined to procure an interpretation of vour 
law, and te have it translated out of Hebrew 
‘into Greek, and to be deposited in my library. 
Thou wilt, therefore, do well to choose out and 
send to me men of a good character, who are 
now elders in age, and six in number out of 
every tribe. These, by their age, mist be skil- 
ful in the laws, and of abilities to make an ac- 


287 
we used not to do before, for we ought to make 
a return for the numerous acts of kindness 
which thou hast done to ourcountrymen. We 
unmediately, therefore, offered sacrifices for 
thee and thy sister, with thy children, and 
friends; and the multitude made prayers, that 
thy affairs may be to thy mind, and that thy 
kingdom may be preserved in peace, and that 
the translation of our law may come to the 
conclusion thou desirest, and be for thy advan- 
tage. We have also chosen six elders out of 
every tribe, wi2in we have sent, and the law 
with them. It willbe thy part, out of thy piety 
and justice, to send back the law, when it 
hath been translated; and to return those to us 
that bring it in safety. Farewell.” 

7. This was the reply which the high priest 
made. But it does not seem to me to be ne- 
cessary to set down the narnes of the seventy 
[two] elders who were sent by Eleazar, and 
carried the law, which yet were subjoined at 
the end of the epistle. However, I thought it 
not improper to give an account of those very 
valuable and artificially contrived vessels which 
the king sent to God, that all may see how 
great a regard the king had for God; for the 
king allowed a vast deal of expenses for those 
vessels, and came often to the workmen, and 
viewed their works, and suffered nothing of 
carelessness or negligence to be any damage te 
their operations. And I will relate how rich 
they were as well as I am able, although per- 


€urate interpretation cf them: and when this| haps the nature of this history may not require 


shal! be finished, I shali think that I have done 
a work glorious to myself. And [ have sent 
t thee Andreas, the captain of my guard, and 
Aristeus, men whom ! hve in very great es- 
teem; by whom I have sent those first-fruits 
which J have dedicate! to the temple, and to 
the sacrifices, and to other uses, to the value of 
-a hundred talents. And if thou wilt send to 
us, to let us know what thou wouldest have 
further, thou wilt do a thing acceptable to me.” 
_ 6. When this epistle of the king was brought 
to Eleazar, he wrote an answer to it with all 
the respect possible: “!leazar the high priest, 
to king Ptolemy, sendeth greeting: If thou and 
thy queen Arsmoe, and thy children, be well, 
we are entirely satisfied.* When we received 
thy epistle, we greatly rejoiced at thy inten- 
tions; and when the multitude were gathered 
together, we read it to them, and thereby made 
them sensible of the piety thou hast towards 
God. We also showed them the twenty vials 
‘of gold, and thirty of silver, and the five large 
' basins, and the table for the show-breaed; as 
‘also the hundred talents for the sacrifices, and 
' for the making what shall be needful at the tein- 
' le.’ Which things Andreas aid Aristeus, those 
‘ most honored friends of thine have brought us: 
/ and truly they are persons of an excellent cha- 
tacter, and of great learning, and worthy of thy 
virtue. Know then, that we will gratify thee 
ai what is for thy advantage, though we do what 


if 





, 

_ * When we have here and presently mention made of Phi- 
adelphus’s queen and sister Arsinoe, we are to remember, 
ith Spanheim, that Arsinoe, was both his sister and his wife, 
_sccording to ihe Yd custom of Persia and of Egypt at this 


¥ 


é 
ie 
r 


such a description, but I imagine I shall there- 
by recommend the elegant taste and magna 
nimity of this king to those that read this his 
tory. 

8. And first I will describe what belongs te 
the table. It was indeed in the king’s mind 
to make this table vastly large in its dimensions; 
but then he gave orders that they should learn 
what was the magnitude of the table which 
was already at Jerusalem, and how large it was, 
and whether there were a possibility of mak- 
ing one larger than it. And when he was in- 
formed how large that was which was already 
there, and that nothing hindered but a larger 
might be made, he said, that “he was willing to 
have one made that should be five times as 
large as the present table, but his fear was that 
it might be then useless in their sacred minis- 
trations, by its too great largeness; for he de- 
sired that the gifts he presented them should 
not only be there for show, but should be use 
ful also in their sacred ministrations.” Accord 
ing to which reasoning, that the former table 
was roadie of so moderate a size for use, and 
not for wast of gold, he resolved that he would 
not exceed the former table in largeness: but 
would make it exceed it in the variety and ele 
gance of its materials. And as he was saga 
cious in observing the nature of all things, and 
in having a just notion of what was new and 
surprising, and where there were no sculptures, 


very time; nay, of the Assyrians long afterward. Sce An 

b. xx. eh. ii. sect. 1, whence we have, upou the coins of 
ladelphus, this known uscription, the divine brother and 
sister. 


288 


he w sald invent such as were proper, by his own 
skill, an¢ would show them to the workmen, 
he commanded that such sculptures should now 
se made, and that those which were delineated, 
should oe most accurately formed by a con- 
stant regard to their delineation. 

9. When, therefore, the workmen had un- 
dertaken to make the table, they framed ‘t in 
length two cubits [and a half,] ia breadth one 
cubit and in height one cubit and a half an? 
the entire structure of the work was of gold. 


They withall made a crown of a handbreath 
round it, with wave-work wreathed about it, and 
with an engraving which imitated a cord, and 
was admirably turned on its three parts; for as 
they were of a triangular figure, every angle 
had the same disposition of its sculptures, that 
when you turned them about, the very same 
form of them was turned about without any 
variation. Now that part of the crown-work 
that was enclosed under the table had its sculp- 
tures very beautiful, but that part which went 
round on the outside was more elaborately 
adorned with most beautiful ornaments, be- 
cause it was exposed to sight, and to the view 
of the spectators; for which reason it was that 
both those sides which were extant above the 
rest, were acute; and none of the angles, which 
we before told you were three, appeared less 
than another; when the table was turned about. 
Now into the cord-work thus turned were pre- 
cious stones inserted in rows parallel one to the 
other, enclosed in golden buttons, which had 
ouches in them; but the parts which were on 
the side of the crown, and were exposed to the 
sight, were adorned with a row of oval figures 
obliquely placed, of the most excellent sort of 
precious stones, which imitated rods laid close, 
and encompassed the table round about. But 
under these oval figures, thus engraven, the 
workmen had put a crown all round it, where 
the nature of all sorts of fruit was represented, 
insomuch that the bunches of grapes hung up. 
And when they had made the stones to repre- 
sent all the kinds of fruit before mentioned, 
and that each in its proper color, they made 
them fast with gold round the whole table. 
The like disposition of the oval figure, and of 
the engraved rods, was framed under the crown, 
that the table might on each side show the same 
appearance of variety and elegance of its or- 
naments, so that neither the position of the} 
wave-work nor of the crown might be different, 
although the table were turned on the other 
side, but that the prospect of the same artificial 
contrivances might be extended as far as the 
feet; for there was made a plate of gold of four 
fingers broad, through the entire breadth of the 
table into which they inserted the feet, and then 
fastened them to the table by buttons and but- 
ton-holes, at the place where the crown was 
situate, that so on what side soever of the table 
one should stand, it might exhibit the very same 
view of the exquisite workmanship, and of the 
vast expenses bestowed upon it; but upon the 
table itself they engraved a meander, inserting 
nto it very valuable stones in the middle, like 
stars of various colors: the carbuncle and the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


emerald, each of which sent out agreeable rays — 


» 


of light to the spectators; with such stones of — 


other sorts also as were most curious and best 
esteemed, as being most precious in their kind. 
Hard by this meander a texture of net-work 
ran round it, the middle of which appeared like 


a rhombus, into which were inserted rock cry-_ 


stal and amber, which, by the great resemblance 
of the appearance they made, gave wonderful 
delight to those that sawthem. The chapiters 
ot the feet imitated the first budding of lilies, 
while their leaves were bent and laid under the 
table, but so that the chives were seen standing 
upright within them. Their bases were made 
of a carbuncle; and the place at the bottom, 
which rested on that carbuncle, was one palm 
ceep, ang eight fingers in breadth. Now they 
had engraver upon it with a very fine tool, and 
with a great deal of pains,a branch of ivy; and 
tendrils of the vine, sending forth clusters of 
grapes, that you would yuess they were nowise 
different from real tendrils, for they were so 
very thin, and so very far extended at their ex- 
tremities, that they were moved with the wind, 
and made one believe that they were the pro- 
duct of nature, and not the representation of 
art. They also made the entire workmanship 
of the table appear ta be threefold, while the 


4 
St 


, 


joints of the several parts were so united to~ 


gether as to be invisible, and the places where 
they joined could not be distinguished. Now 
the thickness of the table was not less than half 
acubit. So that this gift, by the king’s great 
generosity, by the great value of the materials, 
and the variety of its exquisite structure, and 
the artificer’s skill in imitating nature with gray- 
ing tools, was at length brought to perfection, 
while the king was very desirous that though in 
largeness it were not to be different from that 
which was eireaty dedicated to God, yet that 
in exquisite workmanship, and the novelty of 
the contrivances, and in the splendor of its 
ccrstcuction, it should far exceed it, and be 
more illustrious than that was, 
10. Now of the cisterns of gold there were 
two, whose sculpture was of scale-work, from 
its basis to its belt-like circle, with various sorts 
of stone inchased in the spiral circles. Next 
to which there was upon it a meander of a 
cubit in height; it was composed of stones of 
ali sorts of colors. And next to this was the 


rod-weork engraven; and next to that was 4 
rhombus in & texture of net-work, drawn out to _ 
the brim of the basin, while small shields — 


made of stones, beautiful in their kind, and of 
four fingers’ depth, filled up the middle 
About the top of the basin were wreathed the 
leaves of lilies, and of the convolvulus, and the 
tendrils of vines, in a circular manner. And 
this was the construction of the two cisterns of 
gold, each containing two firkins. But those 
which were of silver were much more bright 
and splendid than looking-glasses, and you 
might in them see the images that fell 
them more plainly than in the other. 
king also ordered thirty vials; those of whi 
the parts that were of gold, and filled up wi 
precious stones, were shadowed over 






“Ee 4 


| 


feaves of ivy, and of vines, artificially en- 
graven. And these were the vessels that were, 
after an extraordinary manner, brought to this 
perfection, partly by the skill of the workmen, 
who were admirable in such fine work, but 
much more by the diligence and generosity 
of the king, who not only supplied the arti- 
ficers abundantly, and with great generosity, 
with what they wanted, but he forbade public 
audiences for the time, and came and stood by 
‘the workmen, and saw the whole operation. 
And this was the cause why the workmen 
‘were so accurate in their performance, because 
they had regard to the king, and to his great 
concern about the vessels, and so the more in- 
defatigably kept close to the work. 
_ 11. And these were what gifts were sent by 
‘Ptolemy to Jerusalem, and dedicated to God 
there. But when Eleazar the high priest had 
devoted them to God, and had paid due respect 
‘to those that brought them, and had given 
them presents to be carried to the king, he dis- 
‘missed them. And when they were come to 
Alexandria, and Ptolemy heard that they were 
‘come, and that the seventy elders were come 
also, he presently sent for Andreas and Aris- 
‘teuis, his ambassadors, who came to him, and 
delivered him the epistle which they had 
brought him from the high priest, and made 
answer to all the questions he put to them by 
-word of mouth. Hethen made haste to meet 
the-elders that came from Jerusalem, for the 
‘interpretation of the Jaws; and he gave com- 
mand, that every body, who came on other oc- 
casions, should be sent away, which was a 
thing surprising, and what he did not use to 
do, for those that were drawn thither upon such 
occasions used to come to him on the fifth day 
but ambassadors at the month’s end. But 
when he had sent those away, he waited for 
‘these that were sent by Eleazar; but as the old 
‘men came in with the presents, which the high 
priest had given them to bring to the king, 
‘and with the membranes, upon which they had 
their laws written in golden letters,* he put 
" questions to them concerning those books; and 
“when they had taken off the covers wherein 
‘they were wrapt up, they showed him the 
3h. ° Sak 
membranes. So the king stood admiring the 
thinness of those membranes, and the exact- 
‘ness of the junctures; which could not be per- 
‘eeived, (so exactly were they connected one 
_ with another,) and this he did for a considera- 
ble time. He then said that he returned them 
| thanks for coming to him, and still greater 
| thanks to him that sent them; and, above all, 
‘to that God whose laws they appeared to be. 
‘Then did the elders, and_ those that were pre- 
pent with them, cry out with one voice, and 
wWisned all happiness to the king. Upon which 
he fell into tears by the violence of the plea- 
‘gure he had, it being natural to men to afford 
“the same indications in great joy, that they do 
“under sorrow. And when he had bidden them 
peliver the books to those that were appointed 






1; Ve 

_ * The Talmudists say, that it is not lawful to write the law 
Wm letters of gold, contrary to this certain and very ancient 
8 e. See Hudson’s and Reland’s note here. 
% 68 3 





BOOK XII—CHAPTER I. 


pee 
to receive them, he saluted the men; and said, 
that it was but just to discourse, in the first 
place, of the errand they were sent about, and 
then to address himself to themselves. He 
promised, however, that he would make thia 
day on which they came to him remarkabie 
and eminent every year through the whole 
course of his life; for their coming to him, and 
the victory which he gained over Antigonus 
by sea, proved to be on the very same day. He 
also gave orders, that they should sup with 
him; and gave it in charge that they should 
have excellent lodgings provided for them in 
the upper part of the city. 

12. Now he that was appointed to take care 
of the reception of strangers, Nicanor by name, 
called for Dorotheus, whose duty it was. to 
make provision for them,and bade him pre- 
pare for every one of them what should be re- 
quisite for their diet and way of living. Which 
thing was ordered by the king after this man 
ner: he took care, that those that belonged to 
every city, which did not use the same way of 
living, that all things should be prepared for 
them according to the custom of those that 
came to him, that being feasted according to 
the usual method of their own way of living, 
they might be the better pleased, and might 
not be uneasy at any thing done to them, from 
which they were naturally averse. And t)iis 
was now done in the case of these men by 
Dorotheus, who was put into this office, te- 
cause of his great skill insuch matters belong- 
ing to common life; for he took care of all such 
matters as concerned the reception of strangers, 
and appointed them double seats for them to 
sit on, according as the king had commanded 
him to do; for he had commanded that half of 
their seats should be set at his right hand, and 
the other half behind his table, and took care 
that no respect should be omitted that could be 
shown them. And when they were thus wet 
down, he bade Dorotheus to minister to all these 
that were come to him from Judea after the 
manner they used to be ministered to; for which 
cause he sent away their sacred. heralds, aid 
those that slew the sacrifices, and the rest that 
used to say grace; but called to one of those that 
were come to him, whose name was Eleazar, 
who wasa priest, and desired him to say grace,* 
who then stood in the midst of them, and pray- 
ed, “That all prosperity might attend the king, 
and those that were his subjects.” Upon which 
an acclamation was made by the whole com- 
pany with joy and a great noise: and when that 
was over, they fell to eating their supper, and to 
the enjoyment of what was set before them 
And ata little interval afterward, when the king 
thought a sufficient time had been interposed, 


* This is the most ancient example I have met with, of a 
grace, or short prayer, or thanksgiving, before meat; which, 
as it used to be said by a heathen priest, was now said by 

1 Eleazar, a Jewish priest, who was one of those seventy- 
two interpreters. The nextexample I have met with is that 
of the Essenes, Of the War, b. ii. ch. viii. sect. 5, both be- 
fore and after it; those of our Savior before it, Mark viii. 
John vi. 11, 23, and St. Paul, Acts xxvii. 35; and a form 
such a grace or prayer for Christians, at the end of the fifth 
book of the Apostolical Constitutions, which seems to have 
been intended for both times, both before and after meat 


he began to talk philosophically to them, and he 
asked every one of them a philosophical ques- 
tion,* and such an one as might give light in 
those inquiries: and when they had explained 
all the problems that had been proposed by 
the king, about every point, he was well pleas- 
ed with their answers. This took up the 
twelve days in which they were treated: and 
he that pleases may learn the particular ques- 
tions in that book of Aristeus, which he wrote 
sn this very occasion. 

13. And while not the king only, but the 
philosopher Menedemus also, admired them, 
and soid, “that all things were governed by 
Providence; and that it was probable that 
thence it was that such force or beauty was 
discovered in these men’s words,” they then 
left off asking any more such questions, But 
the king said that he had gained very great ad- 
vantages by their coming, for that he had re- 
ceived this profit from them, that he had learn- 
ed how he ought to rule his subjects. And he 
gave order that they should have every one 
three talents given them, and that those that 
were to conduct them to their lodging should 
dc it. Accordingly, when three days were 
over, Demetrius took them, and went over the 
eziseway seven furlongs. It was a bank in 
ie sea, to an island. And when they had 
gone over the bridge, he proceeded to the 
northern parts, and showed them where they 
should meet, which was in a house that was 
wuilt near the shore, and was a quiet place, and 
fit for their discoursing together about their 
work. When he had brought them thither, he 
entreated them, (now they had all things about 
them which they wanted for the interpretation 
of their law,) that they would suffer nothing to 
interrupt them in their work. Accordingly, 
they made an accurate interpretation, with 
great zeal and great pains, and this they con- 
tinued to do till the ninth hour of the day; after 
which time they relaxed, and took care of their 
body, while their food was provided for them 
in great plenty: besides, Dorotheus, at the 
king’s command, brought them a great-deal of 
what was provided for the king himself. But 
in the morning they came to the court and sa- 
luted Ptolemy, and then went away to their 
former place, where, when they had washed 
their hands,} and purified themselves, they be- 
took themselves to the interpretation of the 
laws. Now when the law was transcribed, 
and the labor of interpretation was over, which 
eame to its conclusion in seventy-two days, De- 
metrius gathered all the Jews together to the 
place where the laws were translated, and 
where the intepreters were, and read them 
ever. The multitude did also approve of those 
elders that were the interpreters of the law. 
They withall commended Demetrius for his 
proposal, as the inventor of what was greatly 
for their happiness; and they desired that he 


* They were rather political questions and answers, tend- 
mg to the good and religious government of mankind. 

¢ This purification of the interpreters, by washing in the 
eea, before they prayed to God, every morning, and before 
they set about wansiating, may be compared with the like 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


would give leave to their rulers also to read the 
law. Moreover, they all, both the priest and 
the ancientest of the elders, and the principal 
men of their commonwealth, made it their re- 
quest, that since the interpretation was happily 
finished, it might continue in the state it now 
was, and might not bealtered. And when they 
all commended that determination of theirs, 
they enjoined, that if any one observed either 
any thing superfluous, or any thing omitted, 
that he would take a view of it again, and have 
it laid before them, and corrected; which was 
a wise action of theirs; that when the thing 
was judged to have been well done, it might 
continue forever. 

14. So the king rejoiced, when he saw that 
his design of this nature was brought to perfec- 
tion to so great advantage; and he was chiefly 
delighted with hearing the laws read to him, 
and was astonished at the deep meaning and 
wisdom of the legislator. And he began to dis- 
course with Demetrius, “How it came to pass, 
that when this legislation was so wonderful, ne 
one, either of the poets or of the historians, — 
had made mention of it.” Demetrius made 
answer, that “no one durst be so bold as to 
touch upon the description of these laws, be- 
cause they were divine and venerable, and be- 
cause some that had attempted it were afflicted 
by God.” Healso told him, that “Theopompus 
was desirous of writing somewhat about them 
but was thereupon disturbed in his mind for 
above thirty days’ time; and upon some inter 
mission of his distemper, he appeased God, 
[by prayer,] as suspecting that his madness 
proceeded from that cause.” Nay indeed 
he farther saw in a dream, that his distem 
per befell him while he indulged too grea 
a curiosity about divine matters, and was de 
sirous of publishing them among common men; — 
but when he left off that attempt, he recovered 
his understanding again. Moreover he inform- — 
ed him of 'Theodectes, the tragic poet, concern- 
ing whom it was reported; that when, in a 
certain dramatic representation, he was desirous — 
to make mention of things that were contained — 
in the sacred books, he was afflicted with a 
darkness in his eyes; and that upon his bein 
conscious of the occasion of his distemper, 
appeasing God [by prayer] he was freed from — 
that affliction. | 

15. And when the king had received these 


‘ 


books from Demetrius, as we have said already, — 


| 


he adored them, and gave order that great care 


4 


should be taken of them, that they might rea 
main uncorrupted. He also desired that the 


interpreters would come often to him out of 
Judea, and that both on account of the respests 
that he would pay them, and on account of the 
presents he would make them: for he said, 

“it was now but just to send them away, al- 


*¥ 






though if of their own accord they woul 
come to him hereafter, they should obtain all 


ractice of Peter the apostle, in the recognitions of Clem 

. iv. ch. iii. ane b. v. ch. xxxvi. and with the places of 
Proseuche, or uf prayer, which were sometimes built 
the sea or rivers also. Of which matter see Antiq. b. 
ch. x. sect. 23, and Acts xvi. 13, 4. 


BOOK XIi.—CHAPTER Ill 


that their own wisdom might justly require, 
and what his generosity was able to give them.” 
So he then sent them away; and gave to every 
one of them three garments of the best sort, 
and two talents of gold, and a cupof the value 
of one talent, and the furniture of the room 
wherein they were feasted. And these were 
the things he presented tothem. But by them 
he sent to Eleazar, the high priest, ten beds, 
with feet of silver, and the furniture to them 
belonging, and a cup of the value of thirty ta- 
lents; and besides these, ten garments, and pur- 
ple, and a very beautiful crown, and a hundred 
reces of the finest woven linen; as also vials 
and dishes, and vessels for pouring, and two 
golden cisterns to be dedicated to God. He 
also desired him, by an epistle, that he would 
give these interpreters leave, if any of them 
were desirous of coming to him, because he 
highly valued a conversation with men of such 
learning; and should be very willing to lay 
out his wealth upon such men. And this was 
what came to the Jews, and was much to their 
glory and honor, from Ptolemy Philadelphus. 


CHAPTER III. 


How the kings of Asia honored the nation of 
the Jews, and made them citizens of those cities 
which they built. 


§ 1. The Jews also obtained honors from 
the kings of Asia, when they became their 
auxiliaries; for Seleucus Nicator made them 
eitizens in those cities which he built in Asia; 
apd in the Lower Syria, and in the metropolis 
itself; Antioch: and gave them privileges equal 
to those of the Macedonians and Greeks, who 
were the inhabitants, insomuch that these privi- 
leges continue to this very day: an argument 
for which you have in this, that whereas the 
Jews do not make use of oil prepared by for- 
eigners,* they receive a certain sum of money 
from the proper officers belonging to their ex- 
ercises as the value of that oil; which money, 
when the people of Antioch would have de- 
prived them of, in the last war, Mucianus, who 
was then president of Syria, preserved it to 
them. And when the people of Alexandria 
and of Antioch did after that, at the time that 
Vespasian and Titus hisson governed the habi- 
table earth, pray that these privileges of citi- 
zens might be taken away, they did not obtain 
their request. In which behavior any one may 
discern the equity and generosity of the Ro- 
mans,} especially of Vespasian and Titus, who, 


_* The use of oi] was much greater, and the donatives of it 
‘much more valuable in Judea and the neighboring countries 
than itis amongst us. It was also in the days of Josephus 
‘thought unlawful for Jews to make use of any oil that was 
‘prepared by heathens, perhaps on account of some super- 

stitions intermixed with its preparation by those heathens. 
When therefore the heathens were to make them a donative 
of oil, they paid them money instead of it. See Of the War, 
b. ii. ch. xxi. sect. 2; the Life of Josephus, sect. 13; and 
‘Hudson’s note on the place before us. 

_+ This, and the like great and just characters of the jus- 
‘tice and equity, and generosity of the old Romans, both to 
‘the Jews and other conquered nations, afford us a very good 
“treason why Almighty God, upon the rejection of the Jews 
‘for their wickedness, chose them for his people, and first 

established Christianity in thatempire. Of which mattersee 
_Yeeephus here, sect 2; as also Antiq. b. xiv. ch. x. sect. 22, 
“@% bz xvi. ch. ii. sect. 4. 


F 
“yy 
HK 


7" Bo 


although they had been ata great dea. of pains 
in the war against the Jews, and were exasper- 
ated against them, because they did not deliver 
up their weapons to them but continued the 
war to the very last, yet they did not take away 
any of their forementioned privileges belong- 
ing to them as citizens, but restrained their an 
ger: and overcame the prayers of the Alexan 
drians and Antiochians, who were a very pow- 
erful people, insomuch that they did not yield 
to them, neither out of their favor to those peo 
ple nor out of their old grudge at those whose 
wicked opposition they had subdued in the 
war; nor would they alter any of the ancient 
favors granted to the Jews: but said, that those 
who had borne arms against them, and fought 
them, had suffered punishment already, and 
that it was not just to deprive those that had 
not offended of the privileges they enjoyed 

2. Wealso know that Marcus Agrippa was 
of the like disposition towards the Jews: for 
when the people of Ionia were very angry at 
them, and besought Agrippa that they, and 
they only, might have those privileges of citi- 
zens which Antiochus, the grandson of Seleu- 
cus, (who by the Greeks was called ‘the god,’) 
had bestowed on them; and desired that if the 
Jews were to be joint partakers with them, they 
might be obliged to worship the gods they 
themselves worshipped: but when these mat- ° 
ters were brought to trial, the Jews prevailed, 
and obtained leave to make use of their own | 
customs, and this under the patronage of Nico- 
laus of Damascus; for Agrippa gave sentence, 
that he could not innovate... And if any one 
hath a mind to know this matter accurately, 
let him peruse the hundred and twenty-third, 
and hundred and twenty-fourth books of the 
history of this Nicolaus. Now, as to this de- 
termination of Agrippa, it is notso much to be 
admired, for at this time our nation had not 
made war against the Romans. But one may 
well be astonished at the generosity of Ves- 
pasian and Titus, that after so great wars and 
contests which they had from us, they should 
use such moderation. But I will now return to 
that part of my history whence I made the pre- 
sent digression. 

3. Now it happened that in the reign of An- 
tiochus the Great, who ruled over all Asia, that 
the Jews, as well as the inhabitants of Celosy 
ria, suffered greatly, and their land was sorely 
harassed: for while he was at war with Ptole- 
my Philopater, and with his son, who was call- 
ed Epiphanes, it fell out, that these nations 
were equally sufferers, both when he was 
beaten, and when he beat the others: so that 
they were very like to a ship in a storm, which 
is tossed by the waves on both sides; and just 
thus were they in their situation in the middle 
between Antiochus’s prosperity and its change 
to adversity. But at length, when Antiochus 
had beaten Ptolemy, he seized upon Judea; 
and when Philopater was dead, his son sent 
out a great army under Scopas, the general of 
his forces, against the inhabitants of Celosyria, 
who took many of their cities, and in particular 
our nation, which, when he fell uponthem wen# 


/ 


ever to him. Yet was it not long afterward 
when Antiochus overcame Scopas, in a battle 
fought at the fountains of Jordan, and destroyed 
a great partofhisarmy. But afterward, when 
Antiochus subdued those cities of Colosyria 
which Scopas had gotten into his possession, 
and Samaria with them, the Jews of their own 
accord went over to him, and received him 
into the city [Jerusalem,] and gave plentiful 
provision to all his army, and to his elephants, 
and readily assisted him when he besieged the 
rrison which was in the citadel of Jerusalem. 
herefore Antiochus thought it but just to re- 
quite the Jews’ diligence and zeal in his ser- 
vice: so he wrote to the generals of his armies, 
and to his friends, and gave testimony to the 
ood behavior of the Jews towards him, and 
informed them what rewards he had resolved 
to bestow on them for that their behavior. I 
will set down presently the epistles themselves, 
which he wrote to the generals concerning 
them, but will first produce the testimonies of 
Polybius of Megalopolis, for thus does he speak 
in the sixteenth book of his history: “Now 
Scopas, the general of Ptolemy’s army, went 
in haste to the superior parts of the country, 
and in the winter-time overthrew the nation of 
the Jews. He also saith, in the same book, 
that when Scopas was conquered by Antiochus, 
Antiochus received Batanea and Samaria, and 
Abila and Gadara; and that, awhile afterward, 
there came in to him those Jews that inhabited 
near that temple which was called Jerusalem, 
concerning which, although I have more to 
say, and particularly concerning the presence 
of God about that temple, yet do I put off that 
history till another opportunity.” This it is 
which Polybius relates. But we will return to 
the series of the history, when we have first 
produced the epistles of Antiochus: “King An- 
tiochus to Ptolemy, sendeth greeting: Since the 
Jews, upon our first entrance on their country, 
demonstrated their friendship towards us; and 
when we came to their city [Jerusalem,] re- 
ceived us in a splendid manner, and came to 
meet us with their senate, and gave abundance 
of provisions to our soldiers, and to the ele- 
phants, and joined with us in ejecting the gar- 
rison of the Egyptians that were in the citadel, 
we have thought fit to reward them, and to re- 
trieve the condition of their city, which hath 
been greatly depopulated by such accidents as 
have befallen its inhabitants, and to bring those 
that have been scattered abroad back to the 
city. And, m the first place, we have deter- 
mined, on account of their piety towards God, 
to bestow on them, as a pension, for their sacri- 
fices of animals that are fit for sacrifice, for 
wine, and oil, and frankincense, the value of 
twenty thousand pieces of silver, and [six] sa- 
ered artabe of fine flour, with one thousand 
four hundred and sixty medimni of wheat, and 
three hundred and seventy-five medimni of 
galt. And these payments I would have fully 
paid them, as I have sent orders to you. I 
would also have the work about the temple 
finished, and the cloisters, and if there be any 
thing else that ought to be rebuilt. And for 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 







the materials of wood, let it be brought then 
out of Judea itself, and out of the other coun 
tries, and out of Libanus, tax free:. and the 
same I would have observed as to those othe 
materials which will be necessary, in order to 
render the temple more glorious. And let all 
of that nation live according to the laws of 
their own country; and let the senate and the 
priests, and the scribes of the temple, and the 
sacred singers, be discharged from Scll-in Saal 
and the crown-tax, and other taxes also, And 
that the city may the sooner recover its inha- 
bitants, I grant a discharge from taxes for three 
years to its present’ inhabitants, and to such as 
shall come to it, until the month Hyperbere- 
teus. We also discharge them for the future 
from a third part of their taxes, that the losses 
they have sustained may be repaired. And all 
those citizens that have been carried away, and 
are become slaves, we grant them and their 
children their freedom; and give order that 
their substance be restored to them.” 

4, And these were the contents of this epis- 
tle. He also published a decree, through all 
his kingdom, in honor of the temple, which 
contained what follows: “It shall be lawful for 
no foreigner to come within the limits of the 
temple round about; which thing is forbidden 
also to the Jews, unless to those who, accord- 
ing to their own custom, have purified them- 
selves. Nor let any flesh of horses, or of mules, 
or of asses, be brought into the city, whether 
they be wild or tame; nor that of leopards, or 
foxes, or hares, and in general, that of any an 
mal which is forbidden for the Jews to eat. Nor 
let their skins be brought into it; nor let any 
such animal be bred up in the city. Let them 
only be permitted to use the sacrifices derived 
from their forefathers, with which they have 
been obliged to make acceptable atonements to 
God. And he that transgresseth any of these 
orders, let him pay to the priests three thou- 
sand drachme of silver.” Moreover, this An 
tiochus bore testimony to our piety and fidelity, 
in an epistle of his, written when he was in- 
formed of a sedition in Phrygia, and Lydia, at 
which time he was in the superior provinces, 
wherein he commanded Zeuxis, the general of 
his forces, and his most intimate friend, to send 
some of our nation out of Babylon into Phry: 
gia. ‘The epistle was this: “King Antiochus 
to Zeuxis, his father, sendeth greeting: If you 
are in health it is well. J also am in health 
Having been informed that a sedition is arisen 
in Lydia and Phrygia, I thought that matter 
required great care; and upon advising with 
my friends what was fit to be done, it hat 
been thought proper to remove two thousati 
families of Jews, with their effects, out of Mt 
sopotamia and Babylon, unto the castles an 
places that lie most convenient; for 1 am pe 
suaded that they will be well disposed guai 
dians of our possessions, because of their pie 
towards God, and because I. know that m 
predecessors have borne witness to them, th 
they are faithful, and with alacrity do wh 
they are desired to do. I will, therefo 
though it be a laborious work, that thou rem¢ 

































BOOK XIJ.—CHAPTER IV. 


these Jews under a promise, that they shall 
be permitted to use their own laws. And when 
thou shalt have brought them to the places 
forementioned, thou shalt give every one of 
their families a place for building their houses, 
and a portion of land for their husbandry, and 
for the plantation of their vines; and thou shalt 
discharge them from paying taxes of the fruits 
of the earth for ten years: and let them have a 
proper quantity of wheat for the maintenance 
of their eeryants, until they receive bread-corn 
out of the earth: also let a sufficient share be 
given to such as minister to them in the neces- 
saries of life, that by enjoying the effects of 
our humanity, they may show themselves 
the more willing and ready about our affairs. 
Take care likewise of that nation, as far as 
thou art able, that they may not have any dis- 
turbance given them by any one.” Nowthese 
testimonials which I have produced, are suffi- 
cient to declare the friendship that Antiochus 
the Great bore to the Jews. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Antiochus made a league with Ptolemy; and 
how Onis provoked Ptolemy Euergetes to an- 
ger; and how Joseph brought all things right 
again, and entered into friendship with him; 
and what other things were done by Joseph and 
his son Hyrcanus. 


§ 1. After this, Antiochus made a friendship 
and a league with Ptolemy; and gave him his 
daughter Cleopatra to wife, and yielded up to 
him Ceelosyria, and Samaria, and Judea, and 
Phoenicia, by way of dowry. And upon the 
division of the'taxes between the two kings, all 
the principal men farmed the taxes of their 
several countries, and collecting the sum that 
was settled for them, paid the same to the [two] 
kings. Now at this time the Samaritans were 
in a flourishing condition, and much distressed 
the Jews, cutting off parts of their lands, and 
carrying off slaves. This happened when 
Onias was high priest; for after Eleazar’s 
death, his uncle Manasseh took the priesthood, 
and, after he had ended his life, Onias received 
that dignity. He was the son of Simon, who 
was called the Just, which Simon was the broth- 
er of Eleazar,asI said before. This Onias was 
one of a little soul, and a great lover of money; 
and for that reason, because he did not pay the 
tax of twenty talents of silver which his fore- 
fathers paid to these kings out of their own es- 
tates, he provoked king Ptolemy Euergetes to 
anger, who was the father of Philopater. Eu- 
ergetes sent an ambassador to Jerusalem, and 
complained that Onias did not pay his taxes, 
and threatened, that if he did not receive them, 
he would seize upon their land, and send sol- 
diers to live upon it. When the Jews heard 
this message of the king, they were confound- 
ed; but so sordidly covetous was Onias that 
nothing of this nature made him ashamed. 

_ 2. There was now one Joseph, young in age, 
but of great reputation among the people of 
Jerusalem, for gravity, prudence, and justice. 
His father’s name was Tobias; and his mother 
was the sister of Oniasthe high priest, who in- 


ae 


formed him of the coming of the ambassador; 
for he was then sojourning at a village nam 
Phicol, where he was born.* Hereupon he 
came to the city [Jerusalem,] and reproved 
Onias for not taking care of the preservation 
of his countrymen, but bringing the nation into 
dangers, by not paying this money. For which 
preservation of them, he told him he had re- 
ceived the authority over them, and had been 
made high priest: but that m case he was s0 
great a lover of money, as to endure to see his 
country in danger on that account, and his 
countrymen sufier the greatest damages, he ad 
vised him to go to the king, and petition him to 
remit either the whole, or a part of the sum de- 
manded. Onias’s answer was this, that he did 
not care for his authority, and that he was 
ready, if the thing were practicable, to lay down 
his high priesthood; and that he would not go 
to the king, because he troubled not himself = 
all about such matters. Joseph then asked him; 
if he would not give him leave to go ambassa- 
dor on behalf of the nation? He replied, that 
he would give him leave. Upon which Joseph, 
went up into the temple, and called the multi- 
tude together to a congregation, and exhorted 
them not to be disturbed or afirighted because 
of his uncle Onias’s carelessness, but desired 
them to be at rest, and not terrify themselves 
with fear about it; for he promised them that ‘ 
he would be their ambassador to the king, and 
persuade him that they had done him no wrong. 
And when the multitude heard this, they re- 
turned thanks to Joseph. So he went down 
from the temple, and treated Ptolemy’s ambas- 
sador inahospitable manner. He also present- 
ed him with rich gifts, and feasted him magni- 
ficently for many days, and then sent him to 
the king before him, and told him that he would 
soon follow him: for he was now more willing 
to go to the king, by the encouragement of the 
ambassador, who earnestly persuaded him to 
come into Egypt; and promised him that he 
would take care that he should obtain every 
thing that he desired of Ptolemy, for he was 
highly pleased with his frank and liberal tem- 
per, and with the gravity of his deportment. 

3. When Ptolemy’s ambassador was come 
into Egypt, he told the king of the thoughtless 
temper of Onias, and informed him of the good- 
ness of the disposition of Joseph, and that he 
was coming to him, to excuse the multitude, as 
not having done him any harm, for that he was 
their patron. In short, he was so very large in 
his encomiums upon the young man, that he 
disposed both the king and his wife Cleopatra 
to have a kindness for him before he came. So 
Joseph sent to his friends at Samaria, and bor- 
rowed money of them, and gotready what was 
necessary for his journey, garments, and cups, 
and beasts for burden, which amounted to 
about twenty thousand drachmee, and went to 
Alexandria. Now it happened, that at this time 
all the principal men and rulers went up out of 

* The name of this place, Phicol, is the very same with 
that of the chief-captain of Abimelech’s host, in the dayw 
of Abraham, Gen. xxi. 22, and might possibly be the place of 


that Phicol’s nativity or abode; for it seems to have been mm 
the south part ~ Falestine, as that was. 


the cities of Syria ana Pheenicia, to bid for 
their taxes; for every y ear the king sold them 
to the men of the greatest power in every city. 
So these men saw Joseph journeying on the 
way, and laughed at him for his poverty and 
meanness. But when he came to Alexandria, 
and heard that king Ptolemy was at Memphis, 
he went up thither to meet with him, which 
happened as the king was sitting in his chariot, 
with his wife, and with his friend Athenion, 
who was the very person who had been am- 
bassador at Jerusalem, and been entertained by 
Joseph. As soon, therefore, as Athenion saw 
him, he presently made him known to the king, 
how good and generous a young man he was. 
So Ptolemy saluted him first, and-desired him 
to come up into his chariot; and as Joseph sat 
there, he began to complain of the management 
of Onias. ‘T'o which he answered, forgive him, 
on account of his age, for thou canst not cer- 
tainly be unaccquainted with this, that old men 
and infants have their minds exactly alike; but 
thou shalt have from us, who are young men, 
every thing thou desirest, and shalt have no 
eause tocomplain. With this good humor and 
leasantry of the young man the king was so 
Selighted: that he began already, as though he 
had long experience of him, to have a still 
ater affection for him, insomuch that he bade 
Aen take his diet in the king’s palace, and be a 
guest at his own table every day. But when 
the king was come to Alexandria, the princi- 
pal men of Syriasaw him sitting with the king, 
and were much offended at it. 

4. And when the day came, on which the 
king was to let the taxes of ‘the cities to farm, 
and those that were the principal men of 
dignity in their several countries were to bid 
for them, the sum of the taxes together of Cw- 
losyria and Phoenicia, and Judea, with Samaria, 
[as they were bidden for,] came to eight thou- 
sand talents. Hereupon Joseph accused the 
bidders, as having agreed together to estimate 
the value of the taxes at too low a rate; and he 
promised, that he would himself give twice as 
much forthem; but forthose who did not pay, he 
would send the king their whole substance: for 
this privilege was sold together with the taxes 
themselves. 'The king was pleased to hear 
that offer; and because it augmented his reve- 
nues, he said he would confirm the sale of the 
taxes to him. But when he asked him this 
question, whether he had any sureties, that 
would be bound for the payment of the mo- 
ney. he answered very pleasantly, I will give 
such security, and those of persons good and 
responsible, and which you shall have no rea- 
gon to distrust. And when he bade him name 
them, who they were, he replied, I give thee 
no other persons, O king, for my sureties, than 
thyself and this thy wife; and you shall be se- 
curity for both parties. So Ptolemy laughed 
at the proposal, and granted him the farming 
of the taxes without any sureties. This pro- 
cedure was a sore grief to those that came from 
the cities into Egypt, who were utterly disap- 
pointed; and they returned every one to their 
#wn country with shame. 


ANTIQUITIES OF. THE JEWS. 


ba 


5. But Joseph took with him two thousanc 
foot soldiers from the king, for he desired he 
might have some assistance, in order to foree 
such as were refractory in the cities to pay 
And borrowing of the king’s friends at Alex 
andria five hundred talents, he made haste back 
into Syria. And when he was at Askelon, anc 
demanded the taxes of the people of Askelon 
they refused to pay any thing; and affrontec 
him also: upon which he seized upon abou 
twenty of the principal men, and slew them 
and gathered what they had together, and sen 
it all to the king, and informed him what he 
had done. Ptolemy admired the prudent con. 
duct of the man, and commended him fo1 
what he had done; and gave him leave to do a: 
he pleased. When the Syrians heard of this, they 
were astonished; and having before them a sad 
example in the men of Askelon that were slai 
they opened their gates, and willingly admitte 
Joseph, and paid their taxes, And when the 
inhabitants of Scythopolis attempted to affron' 
him, and would not pay him those taxes whick 
they formerly used to pay, without disputin 
about them, he slew also the principal men of 
that city, and sent their effects to the king. By 
this means he gathered great wealth together, 
and made vast gains by this farming of the 
taxes: and he made use of what estate he had 
thus gotten, in order to support his authority, 
as thinking it a piece of prudence to kee 
what had been the occasion and foundation of 
his present good fortune; and this he did by 
the assistance of what he was already possess- 
ed of, for he privately sent many presents ta 
the king, and to Cleopatra, and to their friends, 
and to all that were powerful about the court, 
and thereby purchased their good will to him’ 
self. ; 
6. This good fortune he enjoyed for twenty- 
two years; and was become the father of seve 
sons, by one wife: he had also another so 
whose name was Hyrcanus, by his brother So- 
lymius’s daughter, whom he married on the 
following occasion: He once came to Alexan- 
dria with his brother, who had along with him 
a daughter already marriageable, in order to 
give her in wedlock to some of the Jews o 
chief dignity there. He then supped with the 
king, and falling in love with an actress, that 
was of great beauty, and came into the room 
where they feasted, he told his brother of it, 
and entreated him, because a Jew is forbidden 
by their law to come near to a foreigner, t 
conceal his offence, and to be kind and subser- 
vient to him, and to give him an opportunity 
of fulfilling his desires. Upon which hi 
brother willingly entertained the proposal o: 
serving him, and adorned his own daughter, 













into his bed. e 
with drink, knew not who she was, and so la 
with his brother’s daughter; and this did t 
many times, and loved her exceedingly, ant 
said to his brother, that he loved this actress: 

well, that he should run the hazard of his lif 
[if he must part with her,] and yet prohab 
the king would not give him leave [to take ne 


* 


BOOK XII.—CHAPTER IV. 


with him.} But his brother bade him be in no 
concern about that matter, and told him, he 
might enjoy her whom he loved without any 
danger, and might have her for his wife; and 
opened the truth of the matter to him, and as- 
sured him that he chose rather to have his own 
daughter abused, than to overlook him, and see 
him come to [public] disgrace. So Joseph 
‘commended him for this his brotherly love, 
and married his daughter, and by her begat a 
gon, whose name was Hyrcanus, as we said 
before. And when this his youngest son show- 
ed, at thirteen years old, a mind that was both 
courageous and wise, and was greatly envied 
by his brethren, as being of a genius much 
above them, and such a one as they might well 
envy, Joseph had once a mind to know which 
of his sons had the best disposition to virtue, 
and when he sent them severally to those that 
had then the best reputation for instructing 


youth, the rest of his children, by reason of 


their sloth, and unwillingness to take pains, re- 
turned to him foolish and unlearned. After 
them he sent out the youngest, Hyrcanus, and 
‘on him three hundred yoke of oxen, and 
de him go two days’ journey into the wilder- 
ness, and sow the land there, and yet kept back 
privately the yokes of the oxen that coupled 
them together. When Hyrcanus came to the 
place, and found he had no yokes with him, he 
contemned the drivers of the oxen, who ad- 
vised him to send home to his father, to bring 
them some yokes; but he, thinking that he 
ought not to lose his time, while they should 
be sent to bring him the yokes, he invented a 
kind of stratagem, and what suited an age 
elder than his own; for he slew ten yoke of the 
oxen, and distributed their flesh among the la- 
borers, and cut their hides into several pieces, 
and made him yokes, and yoked the oxen to- 
gether with them; by which means he sowed 
as much land as his father had appointed him 
to sow, and returned to him. And when he 
was come back, his father was mightily pleased 
“with his sagacity, and commended the sharp- 
ness of his understanding, and his boldness in 
what he did. And he still loved him the more, 
as if he were his only genuine son, while his 
brethren were much troubled at it. 

7. But when one told him that Ptolemy had 
-ason just born, and that all the principal men 
_ of Syria, and the other countries subject to him, 
_ were to keep a festival, on account of the child’s 
_ birthday, and went away in haste with great 
_ retinues to Alexandria, he was himself indeed 
hindered from going by old age, but he made 
trial of his sons, whether any of them would 
be willing to go to the king. And when the 
elder sons excused themselves from going, and 
_ said, they were not courtiers good enough for 
“such conversation, and advised him to send 

their brother Hyrcanus, he gladly hearkened to 
that advice; and called Hyrcanus, and asked 
him, whether he would go to the king; and 
_ whether it was agreeable to him to go or not? 
And upon his promise that he would go, and 
his saying that he would not want much money 






' for his journey, because he would live mode- 


and that for a present to the king also. 





rately, and that ten thousand drachm would be 
sufficient, he was pleased with his son’s pru- 
dence. After a little while, the son advised 
his father not to send his presents to the king 
from thence, but to give him a letter to his stew- 
ard at Alexandria, that he might furnish him 
with money, for purchasing what would be 
most excellent and most precious. So he, thinke 
ing that the expense of ten talents would be 
enough for presents to be made the king, and 
commending his son as giving him good advice 
wrote to Arion his steward, that managed all 
his money matters at Alexandria; which money 
was not less than three thousand talents on his 
account, for Joseph sent the money he receiv- 
ed in Syria to Alexandria. And when the day 
appointed for the payment of the taxes to the 
king came, he wrote to Arion to paythem. So 
when the son had asked his father for a letter 
to this steward, and had received it, he made 
haste to Alexandria. And when he was gone, 
his brethren wrote to all the king’s friends, 
that they should destroy him. 

8. But when he was come to Alexandria, he 
delivered his letter to Arion, who asked him 
how many talents he would have? (hoping he 
would ask for no more than ten, or a little 
more,) he said he wanted athousand talents. 
At which the steward was angry, and rebuked 
him, as one that intended to live extravagantly; 
and he let him know how his father had gather- 
ed together his estate by painstaking, and re- 
sisting his inclinations, and wished him to imi- 
tate the example of his father: he assured him 
withall, that he would give him but ten talerits, 
The 
son was irritated at this, and threw Arion into 
prison. But when Arion’s wife had infornyed 
Cleopatra of this, with her entreaty that soe 
would rebuke the child for what he had done, 
(for Arion was in great esteem with her,) Cleo- 
patra informed the king of it. And Ptolemy 
sent for Hyrcanus, and told him, that “he wor 
dered when he was sent to him by his father, 
that he had not yet come into his presence, but 
had laid the steward in prison.” And he gave 
order, therefore, that he should come to him, 
and give an account of the reason of what he 
had done. And they report, that the answer 
he made to the king’s messenger was this: that 
“there was a law of his that forbade a child 
that was born to taste of the sacrifice before he 
had been at the temple and sacrificed to God, 
According to which way of reasoning he did 
not himself come to him in expectation of the 
present he was to make to him, as to one whe 
had been his father’s benefactor; and that he 
had punished the slave for disobeying his com. 
mands, for that it mattered not whether a mas- 
ter was little or great: so that unless we pun- 
ish such as these, thou thyself mayest also ex- 
pect to be despised by thy subjects.” Upon 
hearing this his answer, he fell a laughing, ané 
wondered at the great soul of the child. 

9. When Arion was apprised that this was 
the king’s disposition, and that he had no way 
to help himself, he gave the child a thousand 
talents, and was let out of prison. So after 


26 
three days were over, Hyrcanus came and sa- 
suited the king and queen. They saw him 
with pleasure, and feasted him in an obliging 
manner, ct of the respect they bore to his fa- 
ther. So he came to the merchants privately, 
and bought a hundred boys that had learning, 
and were in the flower of their age, each at a 
taient apiece; as also he bought a hundred 
maidens, each at the same price as the other. 
And when he was invited to feast with the 
king among the principal men of the country, 
he sat down the lowest of them all, because he 
was little regarded, as a child in age still; and 
this by those who placed every one according 
to their dignity. Now when all those that sat 
with him had laid the bones of the several 
parts on a heap before Hyrcanus, or they had 
themselves taken away the flesh belonging to 
them,) till the table where he sat was filled full 
with them; Trypho, who was the king’s jester, 
and was appointed for jokes and laughter at 
festivals, was now asked by the guests that sat 
at the table [to expose him to laughter.] So 
he stood by the king, and said, “Dost thou not 
see my lord, the bones that lie by Hyrcanus? 
by this similitude thou mayest conjecture that 
his father made all Syria as bare as he hath 
made these bones.” And the king laughed at 
what Trypho said, and asking of Hyrcanus, 
“How he came to have so many bones before 
him?” he replied, “Very rightfully, my lord: 
for they are dogs that eat the flesh and the 
bones together, as these thy guests have done, 
{looking in the mean time at those guests,) for 
there is nothing before them; but they are men 
that eat the flesh, and cast away the bones, as 
L, who am also a man, have now done.” Upon 
which the king admired at his answer, which 
was so wisely made; and bade them all make 
an acclamation, as a mark of their approba- 
tion of his jest, which was a truly facetious one. 
On the next day Hyrcanus went to every one 
of the king’s friends, and of the men powerful 
at court, and saluted them; but still inquired of 
the servants what presents they would make 
the king on his son’s birthday; and when some 
said that they would give twelve talents, and that 
others of greater dignity, would every one give 
according to the quantity of their riches, he pre- 
tended to every one to be grieved that he was not 
able to bring so large a present; for that he had 
no more than five talents. And when the ser- 
vants heard what he said, they told their masters 
and they rejoiced in the prospect that Joseph 
would be disapproved, and would make the king 
angry, by the smallness of his present. When 
the day came, the others, even those that 
brought the most, offered the king not above 
twenty talents; but Hyrcanus gave to every 
one of the hundred boys, and hundred maidens 
that he had bought a talent apiece, for them to 
carry, and introduced them, the boys to the 
king, and the maidens to Cleopatra: every body 
wondering at the unexpected richness of the 
resents, even the king and queen themselves. 
e also presented those that attended about 
the king with gifts to the value of a great num- 
ker of talents, that he might escape the danger 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


he was in from them; for to these it was that 
Hyrcanus’s brethren had written to destroy 
him. Now Ptolemy admired at the young 
man’s magnanimity, and commanded him to 
ask what gift he pleased. But he desired 
nothing else to be done for him by the king 
than to write to his father and brethren about 
him. So when the king had paid him very 
great respects, and had given him very large 
gifts, and had written to his father and his breth- 
ren, and all his commanders and officers about 
him, he sent him away. But when his breth- 
ren heard that Hyrcanus had received such fa- 
vors from the king, and was returning home 
with great honor, they went out to meet him, 
and to destroy him, and that with the privity 
of their father; for he was angry at him for 
the [large] sum of money that he bestowed for 
presents, and so lrad no concern for his preser- 
vation. However, Joseph concealed the an- 
ger he had at his son, out of fear of the king 
And when Hyrcanus’s brethren came to fight 
him, he slew many others of those that were 
with them; as also two of his brethren them- 
selves, but the rest of them escaped to Jerusa- 
lem to their father. But when Hyrcanus came 
to the city, where nobody would receive him, 
he was afraid for himself, and retired beyond 
the river Jordan, and there abode, but obliging 
the barbarians to pay their taxes. : 
10. At this time Seleucus, who was called 
Soter, reigned over Asia, being the son of An- 
tiochus the Great. And [now] Hyrcanus’s father 
Joseph died. He was a good man, and of great 
magnanimity; and brought the Jews out of a 
state of poverty and meanness, to one that was 
more splendid. He retained the farm of the 
taxes of Syria, and Pheenicia, and Samaria, — 
twenty-two years. His uncle also, Onias, died 
[about this time,] and left the high priesthood — 
to hisson Simon. And when he was dead, — 
Onias his son succeeded him in that dignity. — 
To him it was that Areus king of the Lacede- 
moneans, sent an embassage, with an epistle; — 
the copy whereof here follows: “Areus king of — 
the Lacedemonians, to Onias, sendeth greeting: — 
We have met with a certain writing, whereby — 
we have discovered that both the Jews and the _ 
Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are deriv- _ 
ed from the kindred of Abraham.* It is but _ 
just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, 

* Whence it comes that these Lacedemonians declare — 
themselves here to be of kin to the Jews, as derived from 
the same ancestor, Abraham, I cannot tell, unless as Grotius 
supposes, they were derived from the Dores, that came of 
the Pelasgi. These are by Herodotus called barbarians, and 
perhaps were derived from the Synans and Arabians, the 
posterity of Abraham by Keturah. See Antiq. b. xiv. chap. — 
x. sect. 22; and Of the War, b. i. ch. xxvi. sect. 1; and Grot 
on 1 Macab. xii. 7. We may farther observe, from the re 
cognitions of Clement, that Eliezer of Damascus the servani 
of Abraham, Gen. xv. 2, and xxiv, was of old by some takem 
for his son. So that if the Lacedemonians were sprung from 
him, they might think themselves to be of the posterity of 
Abraham, as well as the Jews, who were sprung from Isaae 
And perhaps this Eliezer of Damascus is that very Damascus 
whom Trogus Pompeius, as abridged by Justin, makes the 
founder of the Jewish nation itself, though he afte f 
blunders, and makes Azelus, Adores, Abraham, and Israel, 
kings of Judea, and successors to this Damascus. It may not 
be improper to observe farther, that Moses Choronensis, in 
his history of the Armenians, informs us, that the nation 


of the Parthians was also derived from Abraham by Keturam 
and her children. { a 













BOOK XII —CHAPTER V. | 


‘ghould send to us about any of your concerns 
-msyou please. We willalso do the same thing, 
and esteem your concerns as our own; and will 
look upon our concerns as in common with 
yours. Demoteles, who brings you this letter, 
‘will bring your answer back tous. ‘This letter 
is foursquare; and the seal is an eagle, with a 
dragon in its claws.” 
1J. And these were the contents of the epis- 
tle which was sent from the king of the Lace- 
demonians. But upon the death of Joseph, 
the people grew seditious, on account of his 
sons; for whereas the elders made war against 
Hyrcanus, who was the youngest of Joseph’s 
sons, tlre multitude was divided, but the greater 
part joined with the elders in this war; as did 
Bincn the high priest, by reason of his kin to 
them. However, Hyrcanus determined not to 
return to Jerusalem any more, but seated him- 
self beyond Jordan; and was at perpetual war 
with the Arabians, and slew many of them, 
and took many of them captives. He also 
erected a strong castle, and built it entirely of 
White stone to the very roof; and had animals 
of a prodigious magnitude engraven upon 
it. He also drew round it a great and deep 
canal of water. He also made caves of many 
furlongs in length, by hollowing a rock that was 
over against him: and then he made large rooms 
in it, some for feasting, and some for sleeping 
and living in. He introduced also a vast quan- 
tity of waters, which ran along it, and which 
were very delightful and ornamental in the 
court. But still he made the entrances at the 
mouth of the caves so narrow, that no more 
than one person could enter by them at once. 
And the reason why he built them after that 
manner was a good one; it was for his own 
rvation, lest he should be besieged by his 
brethren, and run the hazard of being caught 
oytherm. Moreover, he built courts of greater 
‘magnitude than ordinary, which he adorned 
with vastly large gardens. And when he had 
brought the place to this state, he named _ it 
Tyre. This place is between Arabia and Ju- 
dea, beyond Jordan, not far from the country 
of Heshbon. And he ruled over those parts 
for seven years, even all the time that Seleucus, 
was king of Syria. But when he was dead, 
his brother Antiochus, who was called Epiph- 
anes, took the kingdom. Ptolemy also, the 
king of Egypt died, who was besides called 
Epiphanes. He left two sons, and both young 
in age; the elder of whom was called Philo- 
meter, and the youngest Physcon. As for Hyr- 
eanus, when he saw that Antiochus had a great 
army, and feared lest he should be caught by 
him, and brought to punishment for what he 
had done to the Arabians, he ended his life, by 
‘laying himself with his own hand; while An- 
fochus seized upon all his substance. 


CHAPTER V 


How, upon the quarrels of the Jews one against 
another about the high priesthood, Antiochus 
_ made an expedition against Jerusalem, took 
the city and pillaged the temple, and distressed 
| . Jews: as also how many cf the Jews for- 
ae” 


fi 


“> 


2 


sook the laws of their country, and how the 
Samaritans followed the customs of the Greeks 
and named their temple at mount Gerizzim the 
Temple of Jupiter Hellenius. 


§ 1. About this time, upon the death of Onias 
the high priest, they gave the high priesthood 
to Jesus his brother; for that son which Onias 
left [or Onias IV.] was yet but an infant; and 
in its proper place, we will inform the reader 
of all the circumstances that befell this child. 
But this Jesus, who was the brother of Onias, 
was deprived of the high priesthood by the 
king, who was angry with him, and gave it to 
his younger brother, whose name also was 
Onias, for Simon had these three sons, to eack 
of which the priesthood came, as we have al- 
ready informed the reader.* 'This Jesus chang- 
ed his name to Jason; but Onias was called 
Menelaus.. Now as the former high priest, 
Jesus, raised a sedition against Menelaus, who 
was ordained after him, the multitude were 
divided between them both. And the sons of 
Tobias took the part of Menelaus, but the 
greater part of the people assisted Jason; and 
by that means Menelaus and the sons of Tobias 
were distressed, and retired to Antiochus, and 
informed him that they were desirous to leave 
the laws of their country, and the Jewish way 
of living according to them, and to follow the . 
king’s laws, and the Grecian way of living 
Wherefore they desired his permission to build 
them a Gymnasium at Jerusalem. And when 
he had given them leave, they also hid the cir- 
cumcision of their genitals, that even when 
they were naked they might appear to be 
Greeks. Accordingly, they left off all the cus- 
toms that belonged to their own country, and 
imitated the practices of the other nations. 

2. Now Antiochus, upon the agreeable situa- 
tion of the affairs of his kingdom, resolved to 
make an expedition against Egypt, both be- 
cause he had a desire to gain it, and because 
he contemned the son of Ptolemy, as now 
weak, and not yet of abilities to manage affairs 
of such consequence; so he came with great 
forces to Pelusium, and circumvented Ptolemy 
Philometer by treachery, and seized upon 
Egypt. He then came to the places about 


* We have hitherto had but a few of those many citatiuns 
where Josephus says, that he had elsewhere formerly treated 
of many things, of which yet his present books have not a 
syllable. Our commentators have hitherto been able to give 
no tolerable account of these citations, which are far too 
numerous, and that usually in all his copies, both Greek and 
Latin, to be supposed later interpolations, which is almost 
all that has hitherto been said upon this occasion. What 
have to say farther is this, that we have but very few of 
those references before and very many in and after the his- 
tory of Antiochus E/piphanes; and that Josephus’s first work, 
the Hebrew or Chaldee, as well as the Greek history of the 
Jewish War, long since lost, began with that very history, se 
that the references are most probably made to that edition of 
the seven books of the war. See several other examples, be- 
sides those in the two sections before us, in Antiq. b. xii 
ch. ii. sect. 1, 4; and ch. iv. sect. 6; 8; ch. v. sect, 6, 11; ch. 
viii. sect. 4; and ch. xiii. sect. 4, 5; and Antiq. b. xviii. ch. 
il. sect. 5. 

+ This word Gymnasium properly denotes a place where 
the exercises were performed naked, which, because if 
would naturally distinguish circumcised Jews from uncis- 
cumcised Gentiles, these Jewish apostates endeavored to ap- 
pear uncircumcised, by means of a chirurgical operation, 
hinted at by St. Paul. 1 Cor. vii. 18; and described by Celsusy 
b. vii. ch. xxv. as Dr. Hudson here informs us. 


~~ 


Meniphis; and wlien ae had taken them, he 
made haste to Aiexandria, in hopes of taking 
it by siege, and of subduing Ptolemy, who 
reigned there. But he was driven not only 
from Alexandria, but out of all Egypt, by the 
declaration of the Romans, who charged him 
to let that country alone; according as I 
have elsewhere formerly declared. I will now 
ive a particular account of what concerns this 
Ne how he subdued Judea and the temple; 
for in my former work I mentioned those things 
very briefly, and have therefore now thought it 
necessary to go over that history again, and that 
with greater accuracy. —~ 
3. King Antiochus returning out of Egypt, 
for fear of the Romans, made an expedition 
against the city Jerusalem:* and when he was 
there, in the hundred forty and third year of 
the kingdom of the Seleucide, he took the city 
without fighting, those of his own party open- 
ing the gates to him. And when he had gotten 
possession of Jerusalem, he slew many of the 
apposite party; and when he had plundered it of 
a great deal of money, he returned to Antioch. 
4, Now it came to pass, after two years, in 
the hundred forty and fifth year, on the twenty- 
fifth day of that month, which is by us called 
Casleu, and by the Macedonians Apelleus, in 
the hundred and fifty-third olympiad, that the 
king came up to Jerusalem, and pretending 
peace, got possession of the city by treachery: 
at which time he spared not so much as those 
that admitted him into it, on accoant of the 
riches that lay in the temple; but, led by his 
covetous inclination, (for he saw there was in 
ita great deal of gold, and many ornaments 
that had been dedicated to it, of very great 
value,) and in order to plunder its wealth, he 
ventured to break the league he had made. So 
he left the temple bare; and took away the gold- 
en candlesticks, and the golden altar [of in- 
cense,] and table [of show-bread,] and the altar 
[of burnt-offering:] and did not abstain from 
even the vails which were made of fine linen 
and scarlet. He also emptied it of its secret 
treasures, and left nothing at al] remaining; and 
by these means cast the Jews into great lamen- 
tation, for he forbade them to offer those daily 
sacrifices which they used to offer to God, ac- 
cording to the law. And when he had pillag- 
ed the whole city, some of the inhabitants he 
slew, and some he carried captive, together 
with their wives and children, so that the mul- 
titude of those captives that were taken alive 
amounted to about ten thousand. He also burnt 
down the finest buildings: and when he had 
everthrown the city walls, he built a citadel in 
the lower part of the city,} for the place was 


* Hereabouts Josephus begins to follow the first book of 
the Maccabees, a most excellent and most authentic histu- 
ry; and accordingly it is here, with great fidelity and exact- 
ness, abridged by him; between whose present copies there 
seem to be fewer variations than in any other sacred Hebrew 
book of the Old Testament whatsoever, (for this book was 
originally written in Hebrew,) which is very natural, be- 
cause it was written so much nearer to the times of Jose- 
phus than the rest were. 

{ This Citadel, of which we have such frequent mention 
im the following history, both in the Maccabees and Josephus, 
seems to have bren a castle built upon a hill, lower than 
mount Zion, th ugh uyon its skirts, and higher than mount 


, 


ANTIQUITIES OF CHE JEWS. 


ee 





high, and overlooked the temple, on which 
count he fortified it with high walls and tow 
ers; and put into it a garrison of Macedonians 
However, in that citadel dwell the impious ai 
wicked part of the [Jewish] multitude from 
whom it proved that the citizens suffered many 
and sore calamities. And when the king had 
built an idol altar upon God’s altar, he slew 
swine upon it, and so offered a sacrifice, neither 
according to the law, nor the Jewish religious 
worship in that country. He also compelled 
them to forsake the wership which they paid 
their own God, and to adore those whom he 
took to be gods, and made them build temples, 
and raise idol altars in every city and village, 
and offer swine upon them every day. He also 
commanded them not to circumcise their sons, 
and threatened to punish any that should be 
found to have transgressed his injunctions. He 
also appointed overseers, who should compel 
them to do what hecommanded. And indeed 
many Jews there were who complied with the 
king’s commands, either voluntarily or out of 
fear of the penalty that was denounced: but 
the best men, and those of the noblest souls, 
did not regard him, but did pay a greater res- 
pect to the customs of their country, than cone 
cern as to the punishment which he threaten. 
ed to the disobedient; on which account they 
every day underwent great miseries, and bitter. 
torments, for they were whipped with rods, 
and their bodies were torn to pieces, and were 
crucified, while they were still alive, and breaths 
ed: they also strangled those women and thvir 
sons whom they had circumcised, as the kin, 
had appointed, hanging their sons about thei 
necks as they were upon the crosses. And if 
there were any sacred book of the law found, 
it was destroyed, and those with whom the} 
were found, miserably perished also. __ | 
5. When the Samaritans saw the Jews under 
these sufferings, they no longer confessed that’ 
they were of their kindred, nor that the tempk 
on mount Gerizzim belonged to Almighty God. 
This was according to their nature, as we have 
already shown. And they now said, that they 
were a colony of Medes, and Persians: and ine 
deed they were a colony of theirs. So they” 
sent ambassadors to Antiochus, and an epistle” 
whose contents are these: “To king Antiochus 
the god, Epiphanes, a memorial from the Sido 
nians, who live at Shechem. Our forefather 
upon certain frequent plagues, and as followin 
a certain ancient superstition, had a custom 0 
observing that day which by the Jews is called 
the Sabbath.* And when they had erected 
temple at the mountain called Gerizzim, thoug 
without a name, they offered upon it the pr 































Moriah, but between them both; whica& hill the enemi eS 
the Jews now got possession of, and built on it this citad 
and fortified it, till a good while afterward the Jews regain 
it, demolished it, and leveled the hill itself with the comm 
ground, that their enemies might no more recover it, a 
might thence overlook the temple itself, and do them st 
mischief as they had long undergone from it, Antiq. b. x 
ch. vi. sect. 6. . a 
* This allegation of the Samaritans is remarkable, t 
though they were not Jews, yet did they, from ancient times, 
observe the Sabbath day, and as they elsewhere pretend, 
Sabbatic year also. Antiq. b. xi. chap. viii. sect.6. 


~ 


h BOOK XIL—CHAPTER VI 


_ per sacrifices. Now, upon the just treatment 
_ of these wicked Jews, those that manage their 


U8 


to offer sacrifice, as the king had commanded, 
they desired that Mattathias, a person of the 


afiairs, supposing that we were of kin to them, 
and practised as they do, make us liable to the 
same accusations, although we be originally Si- 
' donians, as is evident from the public records. 
_ We, therefore, beseech thee, our benefactor 
and savior, to give order to Apollonius, the go- 
wernor of this part of the country, and to 
Nicanor, the procurator of thy affairs, to give 
us no disturbance, nor to lay to our charge 
what the Jews are accused for, since we are 
aliens from their nation, and from their customs; 
but let our temple, which at present hath no 
name at all, be named the temple of Jupiter 
Hellenius. If this were once done, we should 
no longer be disturbed, but should be more in- 
tent on our own occupation with quietness, and 
so bring in a greater revenue to thee.” When 
the Samaritans had petitioned for this, the king 
sent them back the following answer, in an epis- 
tle: “King Antiochusto Nicanor. ‘The Sidoni- 
ans, who live at Shechem, have sent me the 
memorial enclosed. When, therefore, we were 
advising with our friends about it, the messen- 
gers sent by them represented to us, that they 
‘are noway concerned with accusations which 
belong to the Jews, but choose to live after the 
customs of the Greeks. Accordingly we declare 
_ them free from such accusations, and order that, 
agreeable to their petition, their temple be 
named the temple of Jupiter Hellenius.” He 
also sent the like epistle to Apollonius, the go- 
- vernor of that part of the country, in the forty- 
sixth year, and the eighteenth day of the month 
_Hecatombeon. § 


CHAPTER VI. 


How, upon Antiochus’s prohibition to the Jews to 
make use of the laws of their country, Mattath- 
as the son of Asmoneus alone despised the king, 

and overcame the generals of Antvochus’s 
army; as also concerning the death of Matta- 
thias, and the succession of Judas. 


§ 1. Now at this time there was one whose 
name was Mattathias, who dwelt at Modin, the 
son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of 
_Asmoneus, a priest, of the order of Joarib, and 
acitizen of Jerusalem. He had five sons, John, 
vho was called Gaddis, and Simon, who was 
~-alled Matthes, and Judas who was called Mac- 
cabeus,* and Eleazar who was called Auran, 
and Jonathan, who was called Apphus. Now 
this Mattathias lamented to his children the 
sad state of their affairs, and the ravage made 
im the city, and the plundering of the tem- 
pie, and the calamities the multitude were 
under; and he told them, that it was better for 
them to die for the laws of their country, than 
to live so ingloriously as they then did. 
_ 2. But when those that were appointed by 
the king were come to Modin, that they might 
compel the Jews to do what they were com- 
manded; and to enjoin those that were there 
* That this appellation of Maccabee was not first of all 
ven to Judas Maccabeus, nor was derived from any initial 


_ letters of the Hebrew words on his banner, Mi Kemoka Be 
Elim Jehovah? Who is like unto thee among the gods O Jeho- 


greatest character among them, both on other 
accounts, and particularly on account of such 
a numerous and so deserving a family of chil- 
dren, would begin the sacrifice, because his fel- 
low citizens would follow his example, and 
because such a procedure would make him ho- 
nored by the king. But Mattathias said, “he 
would not do it; and that if all the other na- 
tions would obey the commands of Antiochus, 
either out of fear, or to please him, yet would 
not he nor his sons leave the religious worship 
of their country.” But as soon as he had end- 
ed his speech, there came one of the Jews in- 
to the midst of them, and sacrificed, as Antio- 
chus had commanded. At which Mattathias 
had great indignation, and ran upon him vio- 
lently, with his sons, who had swords with 
them, and slew both the man himself, that sa- 
crificed, and Apelles the king’s general, who 
compelled them to sacrifice, with a few of his 
soldiers. He also overthrew the idol altar; and 
cried out, “If, said he, any one be zealous for 
the laws of his country, and for the worship 
of God, let him follow me.” And when he 
had said this, he made haste into the desert 
with his sons, and left all his substance in the 
village. Many others did the same also, and 
fled with their children and wives into the de- 
sert, and dwelt in caves. But when the king’s 
generals heard this, they took all the forces 
they then had in the citadel at Jerusalem, and 
pursued the Jews into the desert; and when 
they had overtaken them, they in the first place 
endeavored to persuade them to repent, and to 
choose what was most for their advantage, and 
not put them to the necessity of using them 
according to the law of war. But when they 
would not comply with their persuasions, but 
continued to be of a different mind, they fought 
against them on the Sabbath day, and they 
burnt them, as they were in the caves, without 
resistance, and without so much as stopping 
up the entrances of the caves. And they avoid- 
ed to defend themselves on. that day, because 
they were not willing to break in upon the ho- 
nor they owed the Sabbath, in such distresses, 
for our law requires that we rest upon that 
day. There were about a thousand, with their 
wives and children, who were smothered, and 
died in these caves; but many of those that 
escaped joined themselves to Mattathias, and 
appointed him to be their ruler, who taught 
them to fight, even on the Sabbath day; and 
told them, that “unless they would do so, they 
would become their own enemies, by observing 
the law [so rigorously,| while their adversaries 
would still assault them on this day, and they 
would not then defend themselves, and that 
nothing could then hinder but they must all 
perish without fighting. ‘This speech persuad- 
edthem. And this rule continues among us to 
this day, that if there be a necessity, we ma) 
Authent. Rec. part i. 205, 206. Only we may note, by th 

way, that the original name of these Maccabees, and the. 
posterity, was Asmonians; which was derived from Asmo- 


neus the great-grandfather of Mattathias, as Josephus here 
informs us. 


_ pak? Exod. xv. 11, as the modern Rabbins vainlv pretend, see 


yy 


a j 


300 ANTIQUITIES 


fight on Sabbain days. So Mattathias got a 
great army about him, and overthrew their idol 
altars, and slew those that broke the laws, even 
all that he could get under his power, for many 
of them were dispersed among the nations 
round about them for fear of him. He also 
commanded, that those boys which were not 
yet circumcised should be circumcised now; 
and he drove those away that were appointed 
to hinder such their circumcision. 

3. But when he had ruled one year, and was 
fallen into a distemper, he called for his sons, 
and set them round about him, and said, “O 
my sons, I am going the way of all the earth, 
and I recommend to you my resolution, and 
beseech you not to be negligent in keeping it, 
but to be mindful of the desires of him who 
begat you, and brought you up, and to preserve 
the customs of your country, and to recover 
your ancient form of government, which is in 
danger of being overturned, and not to be car- 
ried away with those that, either by their own 
inclination, or out of necessity, betray it, but to 
become such sons as are worthy of me; to be 
above all force and necessity, and so to dispose 
ycur souls, as to be ready, when it shall be ne- 
cessary, to die for your laws, as sensible of this 
by just reasoning, that if God see that you are 
so disposed, he will not overlook you, but will 
have a great value for your virtue, and will re- 
store to you again what you have lost, and will 
return to you that freedom in which you shall 
live quietly, and enjoy your own customs. 
Your bodies are mortal, and subject to fate, but 
they receive a sort of immortality, by the re- 
membrance of what actions- they have done. 
Aud I would have you so in love with this im- 
mortality, that you may pursue after glory; and 
that, when you have undergone the greatest 
difficulties you may pot scruple, for such things, 
to lose your lives. I exhort you, especially, to 
agree with one another; and in what excellen- 
cy any one of you exceeds another, to yield to 
hini so far, and by that means to reap the ad- 
vantage of every one’s own virtues. Do you 
then esteem Simon as your father, because he 
isa man of extraordinary prudencé, and be 
governed by him in what counsels he gives 
you. ‘Take Maccabeus for the general of your 
army, because of his courage and strength, for 
he will avenge your nation, and will bring ven- 
geance on your enemies. Admit among you 
the righteous and religious, and augment their 
power.” : 

4. When Mattathias had thus discoursed to 
his sons, and had prayed to God to be their as- 
sistant, and to recover to the people their form- 
er constitutions, he died a little afterward, 
and was buried at Modin; all the people mak- 
ing great lamentation for him. Whereupon 
his son Judas took upon him the administra- 
tion of public affairs, in the hundred forty and 
sixtli year: and thus by the ready assistance of 
his brethren, and of otrers, Judas cast their ene- 
mies out of the country, and put those of their 
own country to death who had transgressed its 
laws, and purified the land cf all the pol]=tiong 
that were in it. 


OF THE JEWS. 
CHAPTER VH | 
| 





§ 1. When Apollonius, the general ot the 
Samaritan forces, heard this, he took his army, — 
and made haste to go against Judas, who met — 
him, and joined battle with him, and beat him, | 
and slew many of his men, and among thena 
Apollonius himself, their general, whose sword, — 
being that which he happened tken to wear, — 
he seized upon, and kept for himself; but he — 
wounded more than he slew, and took a great — 
deal of prey from the enemies’ camp, and went — 
his way. But when Seron, who was general — 
of the army of Ccelosyria, heard that many — 
had joined themselves to Judas, and that he — 
had about him an army sufficient for fighting, 
and for making war, he determined to make an ~ 
expedition against him, as thinking it became ~ 
him to endeavor to punish those that trans a 
ed the king’s injunctions. He then got togeth- — 
er an army, as large as he was able, and joined 
to it the runagate and wicked Jews, and came 
against Judas. He then came as far as Beth — 
horon, a village of Judea, and there pitched 
his camp upon which Judas met him; and — 
when he intended to give him battle, he saw — 
that his soldiers were backward to fight, be — 

ause their number was small, and because — 
they wanted food, for they were fasting; he en- 
couraged them, and said ta them, that “victory — 
and conquest of enemies are not derived from 
the multitude in armies, but in the exercise of — 
piety towards God, and that they had the 
plainest instances in their forefathers, who, by 
their righteousness, and exerting themselveson 
behalf of their own laws and their own chil- 
dren, had frequently conquered many ten thou- _ 
sands; for innocence is the strongest army.” _ 
By this speech he induced his men to contemn 
the multitude of the enemy, and to fall upon 
Seron. And upon joining battle with him, he 
beat the Syrians; and when their general fell” 
among the rest, they all ran away with speed, 
as thinking that to be their best way of escap-_ 
ing. So he pursued them unto the plain, and 
slew about eight hundred of the enemy, but 
the rest escaped to the region which lay near 
to the sea. . | SS 
2. When king Antiochus heard of these 
things, he was very angry at what had happen- 
ed; so he got together all his own army, witb 
many mercenaries, whom he had hired from 
the islands, and took them with him, and pre- 
pared to break into Judea about the beginning 
of the spring. But when, upon his mustering 
his soldiers, he perceived that his treasures wer 
deficient, and there was a want of money if 
them, for all the taxes were not paid, by rea 
of the seditions there had been among the na 
tions, he having been so magnanimous and § 
liberal that what he had was not sufficient fe 
“him, he therefore resolved first to go into Pers 


























BOOK XII.—CHAPTER VII. 


' pad collect the taxes of that country. Here- 
_ tapon he left one whose name was Lysias, who 
was in great repute with him, governor of the 
kingdom, as far as the bounds of Egypt, and 
_ of the lower Asia, and reaching from the river 
_ Euphrates, and committed to him a certain 
part of his forces, and of his elephants, and 
eharged him to bring up his son Antiochus 
_ with all possible care, until he came back; and 
_ that he should conquer Judea, and take its in- 
/ habitants for slaves, and utterly destroy Jeru- 
salem, and abolish the whole nation. And 
when king Antiochus had given these things 
- incharge to Lysias, he went into Persia; and 
im the hundred and forty-seventh year he pass- 
ed over Euphrates, and went up to the supe- 
rior provinces. 
3. Upon this Lysias chose Ptolemy, the son 
jof Dorymenes, and Nicanor, and Gorgias, very 
pane men among the king’s friends, and de- 
 livered to them forty thousand foot soldiers, 
-and seven thousand horsemen, and sent them 
against Judea, who came:as far as the city Em- 
maus, and pitched their camp in the plain 
country. There came also to them auxiliaries 
out of Syria, and the country round about, as 
also many of the runagate Jews. And besides 
these cAme some merchants to buy those that 
should be carried captives, (having bonds with 
them to bind those that should be made pri- 
 goners,) with that silver and gold which they 
- were to pay for their price. And when Judas 
saw their camp, and how numerous their ene- 
mies were, he persuaded his own soldiers to be 
of good courage, and exhorted them to place 
their hopes of victory in God, and to make 
supplication to him, according to the custom of 
‘their country, clothed in sackcloth, and to 
_ show what was their usual habit of supplica- 
tion in the greatest dangers, and thereby to 
_ prevail with God to grant you the victory over 
your enemies. So he sent them in their an- 
cient order of battle used by their forefathers, 
under their captains of thousands, and other 
officers; and dismissed such as were newly 
‘married, as well as those that had newly gained 
possessions, that they might not fight in a cow- 
, ardly manner, out of an inordinate love of life, 
‘in order to enjoy those blessings. When he 
had thus disposed his soldiers, he encouraged 
them to fight by the following speech, which 
‘he made to them: “O my fellow-soldiers, no 
lother time remains more opportune than the 
an for courage and contempt of dangers; 
tor if you now fight manfully, you may recover 
your liberty, which, as it is a thing of itself 
‘agreeable to all men, so it proves to be to us 
much more desirable, by its affording us the 
liberty of worshiping God. Since, therefore, 
_ you are in such circumstances at present, that 
you must either recover that liberty, and so re- 
_ gain a happy and blessed way of living, which 
3 that according to our laws and the customs 
_ of our country, or to submit to the most oppro- 
_ brious sufferings: nor will any seed of your na- 
_ tion remain if you be beatin this battle. Fight, 
_ therefore, manfully; and suppose that you must 
_ die though you do not fight. But believe, that 


30a 


besides such glortcus rewards as thoue of the 
liberty of your country, of your laws, of your 
religion, you shall then obtain everlasting glory. 
Prepare yourselves, therefore, and put your. 
selves into such an agreeable posture that you 
may be ready to fight with the enemy as soon 
as it is day to-morrowmorning.” 

4. And this was the speech which Judas 
made to encourage them. But when the enemy 
sent Gorgias, with five thousand foot and one 
thousand horse, that he might fall upon Judas 
by night, and had for that purpose certain of 
the runagate Jews as guides, the son of Matta- 
thias perceived it,and resolved to fall upon 
those enemies that were in their camp, now 
their forces were divided. When they had, 
therefore, supped in good time, and had left 
many fires in their camp, he marched all night 
to those enemies that were at Emmaus; so that 
when Gorgias found no enemy in their camp, 
but suspected that they were retired and had 
hidden themselves among the mountains, he 
resolved to go and seek them wheresoever 
they were. But about break of day, Judas 
appeared to those enemies that were at Em- 
maus, with only three thousand men, and those 
ill armed, by reason of their poverty, and when 
he saw the enemy very well and skilfully forti- 
fied in their camp, he encouraged the Jewa, 
and told them, “that they ought to fight, though 
it were with their naked bodies, for that God 
had sometimes of old given such men strength, 
and that against such as were more in number, 
and were armed also, out of regard to their grvat 
courage.” So he commanded the trumpeturs 
to sound for the battle: and by thus falling upon 
the enemies when they did not expect it, and 
thereby astonishing and disturbing their minds, 
he slew many of those that resisted him, and 
went on pursuing the rest as far as Gadara, and 
the plains of Idumea,and Ashdod, and Jatn- 
nia; and of these there fell about three thou- 
sand. Yet did Judas exhort his soldiers not to 
be too desirous of the spoils, for that still thy , 
must have a contest and a battle with Gorgins, | 
and the forces that were with him; but that 
when they had once overcome them, then they 
might securely plunder the camp, because they 
were the only enemies remaining, and they ex- 
pected no others. And just as he was speak- 
ing to his soldiers, Gorgias’s men looked down 
into thatarmy which they left in their camp, 
and saw that it was overthrown, and the camp 
burnt; for the smoke that arose from it showed 
them, even when they were a great way off, 
what had happened. When, therefore, those 
that were with Gorgias understood that things 
were in this posture, and perceived that those 
that were with Judas were ready to fight them, . 
they also were affrighted, and put to flight; but 
then Judas, as though he had already heaten 
Gorgias’s soldiers without fighting, returned 
and seized on the spoils. He took a great 
quantity of gold and silver, and purple, and 
blue, and then returned home with joy, and 
singing hymns to God for their good success 
for this victory greatly contributed to the re 
covery of their liberty 


302 


5. Hereupon Lysias was confounded at the 
defeat of the army which he had sent, and the 
next year he got together sixty thousand chosen 
men. He also took five thousand horsemen, 
and fell upon Judea; and he went up to the hill- 
country of Bethsur a village of Judea, and 
pitched his camp there, where Judas met him 
with ten thousand men; and when he saw the 
great number of his enemies, he prayed to God 
that he would assist them, and joined battle with 
the first of the enemy that appeared, and beat 
them, and slew about five thousand of them, and 
thereby became terrible to the rest of them. 
Nay, indeed, Lysias observing the great spirit 
of the Jews, how they were prepared to die 
rather than lose their liberty, and being afraid 
of their desperate way of fighting, asif it were 
real strength, he took the rest of the army 
back with him, and returned to Antioch, where 
he listed foreigners into the service, and pre- 
pared to fall upon Judea with a greater army. 

6. When, therefore, the generals of Antio- 
chus’s armies had been beaten so often, Judas 
assembled the people together, and told them, 
that “after these many victories which God 
had given them, they ought to go up to Jeru- 
salem, and purify the temple, and offer the ap- 
pointed sacrifices.” But as soon as he, with 
the whole multitude, were come to Jerusalem, 
and found the temple deserted, and its gates 
burnt down, and plants growing in the temple 
of their own accord, on account of its deser- 
tion, he and those that were with him began to 
lament, and were quite confounded at the sight 
of the temple; so he chose out some of his sol- 
diers, and gave them order to fight against 
those guards that were in the citadel, until he 
should have purified the temple. When, there- 
fore, he had carefully purged it, and had 
brought in new vessels, the candlestick, the ta- 
ble [of show-bread,] and the altar [of incense,] 
which were made of gold, he hung up the vails 
at the gates, and added doors to them. He 
also took down the altar [of pashan 
and built a new one of stones that he gathere 
together, and not of such as were hewn with 
iron tools. So on the five-and-twentieth day 
of the month Casleu, which the Macedonians 
call Apelleus, they lighted the lamps that were 
on the candlestick, and offered incense upon 
the [altar of incense,] and laid the loaves upon 
the table [of show-bread,] and offered burnt- 
offerings upon the new altar [of burnt-offering. ] 
Now it so fell out, that these things were done 
on the very same day on which their divine 
worship had fallen off, and was reduced to a 
profane and common use, after three years’ 
time; for so it was that the temple was made 
desolate by Antiochus, and so continued for 
three years. This desolation happened to the 
temple in the hundred forty and fifth year, on 
the twenty-fifth day of the month Apelleus, 
and on the hundred fifty and third olympiad: 
but it was dedicated anew, on the same day, 
the twenty-fifth of the month Apelleus, on the 
hundred and forty-eighth year, and on the hun- 
dred and fifty-fourth olympiad. And this de- 
claration came to pat’ according to the pro- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


‘ ¥ 
phecy of Daniel, which was given four hum 
dred and eight years before; for he declared 
that the Macedonians would dissolve that wor- 
ship [for some pre ji 

7. Now Judas celebrated the festival of the 
restoration of the’ sacrifices of the temple for 
eight days; and omitted no sort of pleasures 
thereon; but he feasted them upon very rich 
and splendid sacrifices; and he honored God, 
and delighted them by hymns and : «alms, 
Nay, they were so very glad at the revival of 
their customs, when, after a long time of inter- 
mission, they unexpectedly had regained the 
freedom of their worship, chat they made it a 
law for their posterity, that they should keep a 
festival on account of the reatoration of their 
temple-worship, for eight days. And from that 
time to this we celebrate this festival, and call 
it ‘Lights.’ I suppose the reason was, because 
this liberty, beyond our hopes, appeared to us; 
and that thence was the name given to that fes- 
tival. Judas also rebuilt the walls round about 
the city; and reared towers of great height 
against the incursions of enemies; and set 
guards therein. He also fortified the city Beth- 
sura, that it might serve as a citadel against any 
distresses that might come from our enemies. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How Judas subdued the nations reund about, 
and how Simon beat the people of Tyre and 
Ptolemais; and how ihe overcome T'imo- 
theus, and forced him to ff away, and dia 
many other things, after Joseph and Azarias 
had been beaten. 


§ 1. When these things were over, the na 
tions round about the Jews were very uneasy 
at the revival of their power, and rose up to-— 
gether, and destroyed many of them, as gain- 
ing advantage over them by laying snares for 
them, and making secret conspiracies against 
them. Judas made perpetual expeditions 
against these men, and endeavored to restrain 
them from those incursions, and to prevent the 
mischiefs they did to the Jews. So he fell upon” 
the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, at Acra- 
battene, and slew a great many of them, and_ 
took their spoils, He also shut up the sons of - 
Bean, that laid wait for the Jews, and he sat 
down about them, and besieged them, and 
burnt their towers, and destroyed the men [that 
were in them.] After this he went thence in” 
haste against the Ammonites, who had a i 
and a numerous army; of which Timotheus— 
was the commander. And when he had sub-— 
dued them, he seized on the city Jazer, and 
took their wives and their children captives, 
and burnt the city, and then returned into Jum 
dea. But when the neighboring nations under — 
stood that he was returned, they got together 
in great numbers in the land of Gilead, and 
came against those Jews that were at their bor- 
ders, who then fled to the garrison of Dathe- 
ma; and sent to Judas to inform him that Tr — 
motheus was endeavoring to take the plac 
whither they were fled. And as these epistles 
were reading, there came other messengers out 
of Galilee, who informed him that the inhabit — 








BOOK XII—CHAPTER VIII. 


nts of Ptolemais, and of Tyre and Sidon, and 
trangers of Galilee, were gotten together. 

2. Accordingly, Judas, upon considering 
what was fit to be done, with relation to the 
iecessity both these cases required, gave order, 
hat Simon his brother should take three thou- 
and chosen men, and go to the assistance of 
he Jews in Galilee, whilst he and another of 
xis brothers, Jonathan, made haste into the land 
of Gilead, with eight thousand soldiers. And 
ae left Joseph, the son of Zacharias, and Aza- 
jas, to be over the rest of the forces; and 
sharged them to keep Judea very carefully, 
md to fight no battles with any persons whom- 
soever until lis return. Accordingly, Simon 
went into Galilee, and fought the enemy, and 
put them to flight, and pursued them to the 
yery gates of Ptolemais, and slew about three 
thousand of them; and took the spoils of those 
that were slain, and those Jews whom they had 
made captives, with their baggage; and then 
returned home. 

3. Now as for Judas Maccabeus, and his 
brother Jonathan, they passed over the river 
Jordan; and when they had gone three days’ 
journey, they lit upon the Nabateans, who 
same to meet them peaceably, and who told 
them how the affairs of those in the land of 
Galilee stood; and how many of them were 
in distress, and driven into garrisons, and into 
the cities of Galilee; and exhorted him to 
make haste to go against the foreigners, and to 
endeavor to save his own countrymen out of 
their hands. To this exhortation Judas heark- 
ened, and returned into the wilderness; and in 
the first place fell upon the inhabitants of Bosor, 
and took the city, and beat the inhabitants, and 
destroyed all the males, and all that were able 
to fight, and burnt the city. Nor did he stop 
even when night came on, but he journeyed 
in it to the garrison where the Jews happened 
to be then shut up, and where Timotheus lay 
round the place with his army: and Judas 
came upon the city in the morning: and when 
he found that the enemy were making an as- 
sault upon the walls, and that some of them 
brought ladders, on which they might get 
upon those walls, and that others brought en- 
gines to [batter them,] he bade the trumpeter 
to sound his trumpet, and he encouraged his 
soldiers cheerfully to undergo dangers for the 
sake of their brethren and kindred; he also 
parted his army into three bodies, and fell upon 
the backs of their enemies. But when Timo- 
theus’s men perceived that it was Maccabeus 
that was upon them, of both whose courage 
and good success in war they had formerly had 
sufficient experience, they were put to flight; 
but Judas followed them with hisarmy, and slew 
about eight thousand of them. He then turn- 
ed aside to a city of the foreigners called Mal- 
le, and took it, and slew all the males and burnt 
the city itself. He then removed from thence, 
and overthrew Casphom, and Bosor, and many 
other cities of the land of Gilead. 

4, But net long after this, Timotheus prepar- 
‘ed a great army, and took many others as aux- 
diaries, ani induced some of the Arabians, by 


F 


the promise of rewards, to go with him in this 
expedition, and came with his army beyond 
the brook, over against the city of Raphon. 
And he encouraged his soldiers, if it came to a 
battle with the Jews, to fight courageously, and 
to hinder their passing over the brook: for he 
said to them beforehand, that “If they come 
over, we shall be beaten.” And when Judas 
heard that Timotheus prepared himself tu 
fight, he took all his own army, and went m 
haste against 'Timotheus his enemy; and when 
he had passed over the brook, he fell upo his 
enemies, and some of them met him, whom he 
slew, and others of them he so terrified, that 
he compelled them to throw down their arms, 
and fly; and some of them escaped, but some 
of them fled to what was called the temple at 
Carnaim, and hoped thereby to preserve them- 
seives; but Judas took the city, and slew them, 
and burnt the temple, and so used several ways 
of destroying his enemies. 

5. When he had done this, he gathered the 
Jews together, with their children and wives, 
and the substance that belonged to them, and 
was going to bring them back into Judea: but 
as soon as he was come to a certain city, whose 
name was Ephron, that lay upon the road, (and 
as it was not possible for him to go any other 
way, so he was not willing to go back again,) 
he then sent to the inhabitants, and desired that 
they would open their gates, and permit them 
to go on their way through the city, for they 
had stopped up the gates with stones, and cut 
off their passage through it. And when the 
inhabitants of Ephron would not agree to this 
proposal, he encouraged those that were with 
him, and encompassed the city round, and be- 
sieged it, and lying round it by day and night, 
took the city, and slew every male in it, and 
burnt it all down, and so obtained a way through 
it; and the multitude of those that were slain 
was so great that they went over the dead bo- 
dies. So they came over Jordan, and arrived 
at the great plain, over against which is situate 
the city of Bethshan, which is called by the 
Greeks Scythopolis.* And going away hastily 
from thence, they came into Judea, singing 
psalms and hymns as they went, and indulging 
such tokens of mirth as are usual in triumphs 
upon victory. They also offered thank-offer- 
ings, both for their good success, and for the 
preservation of their army, for not one of the 
Jews was slain in these battles.} 

6. But as to Joseph, the son of Zacharias, 
and Azarias, whom Judas left generals [of the 
rest of the forces] at the same time when Si- 
mon was in Galilee, fighting against the people 
of Ptolemais, and Judas himself and his brother 
Jonathan were in the land of Gilead, did these 

* The reason why Bethshan was called Scythopolis is well 
known from Herodotus, b.i. p. 105, and Syncellus, p. 214 
that the Scythians, when they overran Asia, in the days of 
Josiah, seized on this city, and kept it as long as they con 
tinued in Asia, from which time it retained the name ot 
Scythopolis or the city of the Scythians. 

+ This most providential preservation of all the religious 
Jews in this expedition, which was according to the will of 
God, is observable often among God’s people, the Jews; and 
somewhat very like it in the changes of the four monarchiea, 


which were also providential. See Prideaux, at the yeass 
331, 333, and 334. 


4 


mvn also affect the glory of being courageous 
gener in war, in order whereto they took the 
army .) at was under their command, and came 
to Jamnia. There Gorgias, the general of the 
forces of Jamnia, met them; and upon joining 
battle with him, they lost two thousand of their 
army,* and fled away, and were pursued to the 
very borders of Judea. And this misfortune 
befell them by their disobedience to what in- 
junctions Judas had given them, “Not to fight 
with any one before his return.” For besides 
the rest of Judas’s sagacious counsels, one may 
well wonder at this concerning the misfortune 
that befell the forces commanded by Joseph 
and Azarias, which he understood would hap- 
pen, if they broke any of the injunctions he 
had given them. But Judas and his brethren 
did not leave off fighting with the Idumeans, 
but pressed upon them on all sides, and took 
from them the city of Hebron, and demolished 
all its fortifications, and set all its towers on 
fire, and burnt the country of the foreigners, 
and the city of Marissa. ‘They came also to 
Ashdod, and took it, and laid it waste, and took 
away a great deal of the spoils and prey that 
were in it, and returned to Judea. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Concerning the death of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
How Antiochus Eupator fought against Judas, 
and besieged him in the temple, and afterward 
made peace with him, and departed. Of Alct- 
mus and Onias 


§ 1. About this time it was that king Antio- 
chus, as he was going over the upper countries, 
heard that there was a very_rich city in Persia, 
called Elymais; and therein a very rich temple 
of Diana, and that it was full of all sorts of 
donations dedicated to it; as also weapons and 
breastplates, which, upon inquiry, he found had 
been left there by Alexander, theson of Philip, 
king of Macedonia. And being incited by 
these motives, he went in haste to Elymais, and 
assaulted it, and besieged it. But as those that 
were in it were not terrified at his assault, nor 
at his siege, but opposed him very courageous- 
ly, he was beaten of his hopes; for, they drove 
him away from the city, and went out and pur- 
sued after him; insomuch that he fled away as 
far as Babylon, and lost a great many of his 
army. And when he was grieving for this dis- 
appointment, some persons told him of the de- 
feat of his commanders whom he had left be- 
hind him to fight against Judea, and what 
strength the Jews had already gotten. When 
this concern about these affairs was added to 
the former, he was confounded, and, by the 
anxiety he was in, fell into a distemper, which, 
as it lasted a great while, and as his pains in- 
creased upon him, so he at length perceived he 
should die in a little time; so he called his 
friends to him, and told them, that his distem- 

* Here is another great instance of Providence, that when, 
even at the very time that Simon, and Judas, and Jonathan, 
were so miraculously preserved, and blessed, in the just de- 
“ence of their laws and religion, these other generals of the 
Jews, who went to fight for honor, in a vainglorious way, 
and without any commission from God, or the family he had 


raised up to deliver them, were miserably disappointed and 
fefeated. See 1 Maccab. v. 61, 62. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


' chus died because he had a purpose to plunder 






































per was severe upon him; and comessed witha 
that this calamity was sent upon him for the 
miseries he had brought upon the Jewish na 
tion, while he plundered their temple, and 
temned their God, and when he had said this, 
he gave up the ghost. Whence one may won- 
d r at Polybius of Megalopolis, who, thou 
wtherwise a good man, yet saith, that “Antio~ 


the temple of Diana in Persia;” for the p 
posing to do a thing,* but not actually doing it, 
is not worthy of punishment. But if Polybis 
could think that Antiochus thus lost his life on 
that account, itis much more provaoie tha 
this king died on account of his sacrilegivus 
plundering of the temple at Jerusalem. But 
we will not contend about this matter with those 
who may think, that the cause assigned by this 
Polybius of Megalopolis is nearer the truth than 
that assigned by us. 
2. However, Antiochus, before he died, 
ed for Philip, who was one of his companions, 
and made him the guardian of his kingdom 
and gave him his diadem, and his garment, 
his ring, and charged him to carry them, and 
deliver them to his son Antiochus; and desir- 
ed him to take care of his education, and 
preserve the kingdom for him.t This Antio 
chus died in the hundred and forty and ninth 
year: but it was Lysias that declared his death 
to the multitude, and appointed his sor Antio- 
chus to be king, (of whom at present he had 
the care,) and called him Eupator. s 
3. At this time it was that the garrison in the 
citadel in Jerusalem, with the Jewish runa- 
gates, did a great deal of harm to the Jews: for 
the soldiers that were in that garrison rushed 
out upon the sudden, and destroyed such as 
were going up to the temple in order to offt 
their sacrifices, for the citadel adjomed to and 
overlooked the temple. When these misfor 
tunes had often happened to them, Judas re 
solved to destroy that garrison; whereupon hi 
got all the people together, and vigorously be- 
sieged those that were in the citadel. ‘This was 
in the hundred and fiftieth year of the domr 
nion of the Seleucid. So he made engines 
of war, and erected bulwarks, and very zea- 
lously pressed on to take the citadel: but there 
were not a few of the runagates who were 
the place, that went out by night into the coun 
try, and got together some other wicked men 
like themselves, and went to Antiochus th 
king, and desired of him, that “He would nc 
suffer them to be neglected, under the gres 
hardships that lay upon them from those of thei 
own nation, and this because their sufferin, 
* Since St. Paul, a Pharisee, confesses, that he had 
known concupiscence, or desires, to be sinful, had not ihe te 
commandment said, Thou shalt not covet, Rom. vil. 7,_ 
case seems to have been much the sane with our Joseph 
who was one of the same sect, that he had not a di 
sense of the greatness of any sins that proceeded no far 
than the intention. However, since Josephus speaks li 
properly of the punishment of death, which is not inflict 
by any law, either of God or man, for the bare intention, 
words need not be strained to mean, that sins intend ed, 
not executed, were no sins at all. oy 
+ No wonder that Josephus here describes Antiochus Eu 
tor as young, and wanting tuition, when he came to 
crown, since Apion informs us, Symac, p. 177, that he ¥ 
then but nine years old. en 





' @ere 0CCus,oned on his father’s account, while 
| they left the religious worship of their fathers, 
‘and preferred that which he had commanded 
them to follow; that there was danger lest the 
' citadel, and those appointed to garrison it by 
' the king, should be taken by Judas, and those 
- that were with him, unless he would send them 
-guecors.” When Antiochus, who was but a 
child, heard this, he was angry, and sent for 
his captains, and his friends, and gave order, 
‘that they should get an army of mercenaries 
together, with such men also of his own king- 
dom as were of an age fit for war. Accord- 
‘ingly, an army was collected of about a hun- 
‘dred thousand footmen, and twenty thousand 
‘horsemen, and thirty-two elephants. 

4, So the king took this army, and marched 
hastily out of Antioch, with Lysias, who had 
the command of the whole, and came to Idu- 
‘mea, and thence went up to the city of Beth- 
‘sura, a city that was strong, and not to be taken 
without great difficulty; he set about this city 
and besieged it. And while the inhabitants of 
‘Bethsura courageously opposed him, and sal- 
lied out upon him, and burnt his engines of 
“War, a great deal of time was spent in the siege. 
But when Judas heard of the king’s coming, 
he raised the siege of the citadel, and met the 

king, and pitched his camp in certain straits, at 
a place called Bethzachariah, at the distance of 
‘seventy furlongs from the enemy; but the king 
‘soon drew his forces from SBethsura, and 
brought them to those straits. And as soon as 
it was day, he put his men in battle array, and 
made his elephants follow one another through 
the narrow passes, because they could ‘not be 
‘get sideways by one another. Nowround about 
every elephant there were a thousand footmen, 
and five hundred horsemen. ‘The elephants 
also had high towers [upon their backs,] and 
archers [in them.] And he also made the rest 
of his army to go up the mountains, and put 
his friends before the rest; and gave orders for 
the army to shout aloud, and so he attacked 
the enemy. He also exposed to sight their 
golden and brazen shields, so that.a glorious 
plendor was sent from them; and when they 
shouted, the mountains echoed again. When 
Judas saw this, he was not terrified, but receiv- 
ed the enemy with great courage, and slew 
about six hundred of the first ranks. But 
when his brother Eleazar, whom they called 
Auran, saw the tallest of the elephants armed 
with royal breast-plates, and supposed that the 
king was upon him, he attacked him with great 
ste and bravery. Healso slew many of 
ose that were about the elephant, and scat- 
tere : the rest, and then went under the belly 
of the elephant, and smote him, and slew him; 
go the elephant fell upon Eleazar, and by his 
Weight crushed him to death. And thus did 
this man come to his end, when he had first 
courageously destroyed many of his enemies. 
5. But Judas, seeing the strength of the ene- 
miy, retired to Jerusalem, and prepared to en- 
dure a siege. As for Antiochus, he sent part 
of his army to Bethsura, to besiege it, and with 
the rest of his army he came against Jerusa- 


HN og 


tag 


= 


BOOK XII—CHAPTER IX. 


am 
lem; but the inhabitants of Bethsura were ter- 
rified at his strength; and seeing that their pro 
visions grew scarce, they delivered themselves 
up on the security of oaths, that they should 
suffer no hard treatment from the king. And 
when Antiochus had thus taken the city, he 
did them no other harm than sending them 
out naked. He also placed a garrison of his 
own in the city. But as for the temple of Je- 
rusalem, he lay at its siege a long time, while 
they within bravely defended it, for what en- 
gines soever the king set against them, they set 
other engines again to oppose them. But then 
their provisions failed them; what fruits of the 
ground they had laid up were spent, and the 
land being not ploughed that year, continued 
unsowed, because it was the seventh year, on 
which, by our laws, we were obliged fo let & 
lie uncultivated. And withall so many of the 
besieged ran away for want of necessaries, that 
but a few only were left in the temple. 

6. And these happened to be the circuns. 
stances of such as were besieged in the temp]. 
But then, because Lysias, the general of the 
army, and Antiochus the king, were inform«d 
that Philip was coming upon them out of Pa~ 
sia, and was endeavoring to get the manag 
ment of public affairs to himself, they cane 
into these sentiments, to leave the siege, and te 
make haste to go against Philip; yet did they 
resolve not to let this be known to the soldiers, © 
nor to the officers; but the king commanded 
Lysias to speak openly to the soldiers and the 
officers, without saying a word about the busi- 
ness of Philip, and to intimate to them, that 
the siege would be very long; that the place 
was very strong; that they were already in went 
of provisions; that many affairs of the kingdom 
wanted regulation; and that it was inuch bet- 
ter to make a league with the besieged, and to 
become friends to the whole nation, by permit- 
ting them to observe the laws of their fathers, 
while they broke out into this war only because 
they were deprived of them, and so to depart 
home. When Lysias had discoursed thus to 
them, both the army and the officers were pleas- 
ed with this resolution. 

7. Accordingly, the king sent to Judas, and 
to those that were besieged with them, and pro- 
mised to give them peace, and to permit them 
to make use of, and live according to, the laws 
of their fathers. And they gladly received his 
proposals; and when they had gained security 
upon oath, for their performance, they went 
outof the temple. But when Antiochus came 
into it, and saw how strong the place was, he 
broke his oaths, and ordered his army that was 
there to pluck down the walls to the ground, 
and when he had so done, he returned to An 
tioch: he also carried with him Onias, the high 
priest, who was also called Menelaus; for Ly- 
sias advised the king to slay Menelaus, if he 
would have the Jews be quiet, and cause him 
no further disturbance, for that this man was 
the origin of all the mischief the Jews had 
done them, by persuading his father to compel 
the Jews to leave the religion of their fatherr 
so the king sent Menelaus to Berea, a city of 


306 


Syria, and there had him put to death, when 
he had been high priest ten years. He had 
been a wicked and an impious man; and, in or- 
der to get the government to himself, had com- 
pelled his nation to transgress their own laws, 
After the death of Menelaus, Alcimus, who 
was also called Jacimus, was made high priest. 
But when king Antiochus found that Philip 
had already possessed himself of the govern- 
ment, he made war against him, and subdued 
him, and took him, and slew him. Now, asto 
Onias, the son of the high priest, who, as we 
before informed you, was left a child when his 
father died, when he saw that the king had 
slain his uncle Menelaus, and given the high 

riesthood to Alcimus, who was not of the 

ih priest stock, but as induced by Lysias to 
translate that dignity from his family to another 
hause, he fled to Ptolemy, king of Egypt; and 
when he found he was in great esteem with 
him, and with his wife, Cleopatra, he desired 
abl obtained a place in the Nomus of Helio- 
patis, wherein he built a temple like to that 
ef Jerusalem, of which, therefore, we shall 
hereafter give an account, ina place more pro- 
per for it. 


CHAPTER X. 


Huo Bacchides, the general of Demetrius’s army, 
made an expedition against Judea, and re- 
turned without success; and how JVicanor 
was sent a little time afterward against Judas, 
and perished, together with his army: as also 
concerning the death of Alcimus, and the suc- 
cession of Judas. 


§ 1. About the same time, Demetrius, the 
sen of Seleucus fled away from Rome, and 
took Tripoli, a city of Syria, and set the dia- 
dem on his own head. He also gathered cer- 
tain mercenary soldiers together, and entered 
into his kingdom, and was joyfully received by 
all who delivered themselves up to him. And 
when they had taken Antiochus the king, and 
Lysias, they brought them to him alive; both 
of whom were immediatly put to death by the 
eommand of Demetrius, when Antiochus had 
reigned two years, as we have already else- 
where related. But there were now many of 
the wicked Jewish runagates that came togeth- 
er to him, and with them Alcimus the high 
priest, who accused the whole nation, and par- 
ticularly Judas and his brethren; and said that 
“they had slain all his friends, and that those in 
his kingdom that were of his party, and waited 
for his return, were by them put to death; that 
these men had ejected them out of their own 
sountry, and caused them to be sojourners in 
a fereign land; and they desired that he would 
ged. some one of his own friends, and know 
from him what mischiefs Judas’s party had 
done.” 

2. At this Demetrius was very angry, and 
gent Bacchides, a friend of Antiochus Epipha- 
nes, a good man,* and one that had been intrust- 


* It is noway probable that Josephus would call Bacchi- 
des, that bitter and bloody enemy of the Jews, as our pre- 
went copies have it, a good man, or kind and gentle. What 
the author of the first book of Maccabees, whom Josephus 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. Ct 


‘peace, but to make war. 










ed with all Mesopotamia, and gave him an a 
my and committed Alcimus the high priest 
his care, and gave him charge to slay Judas 
and those that were with him. So Bacchides 
made haste and went out of Antioch with hi 
army; and when he was come into Judea, he 
sent to Judas and his brethren, to discourse 
with him about a league of fr.endship an 
peace, for he had a mind to take him by treach — 
ery. But Judas did not give credit to him, for 
he saw that he came with so great an army | 
men do not bring when they come to make 
However, soms of 
the people acquiesced in what Bacchides cans.) 
ed to be proclaimed; and supposing they should” 
undergo no considerable harm from Alcimus, 
who was their countryman, they went over to— 
them; and when they had received oaths from 
both of them, that neither they themselves, nor 
those of the same sentiments, should come to— 
any harm, they intrusted themselves with them; 
but Bacchides troubled himself not about the 
oaths he had taken, and slew threescore of 
them, although by not keeping his faith with” 
those that first went over, he deterred all the 
rest, who had intentions to go over to hi 
from doing it. But as he was gone out of Je-! 
rusalem, and was at the village called Bethze 
tho, he sent out and caught many of the de-— 
serters, and some of the people also, and slows 
them all; and enjoined all that lived in the 
country to submit to Aleimus. So he left him” 
there, with some part of the army, that he 
might have wherewith to keep the country in 
obedience, and returned to Antioch, to king 
Demetrius. } 
3. But Alcimus was desirous to have the do- 
minion more firmly assured to him; and un-— 
derstanding, that if he could bring it about 
that the multitude should be his friends, he 
should govern with greater security, he spoke 
kind words to them all, and discoursed to each 
of them after an agreeable and pleasant manner, 
by which means he quickly had a great body 
of men and an army about him, although the 
greater part of them were of the wicked, an¢ 
the deserters. With these, whom he used as 
his servants and soldiers, he went all over the 
country and slew ail that he could find of Ju- 
das’s party. But when Judas saw that Alci- 
mus was already become great, and had de-= 
stroyed many of the good and holy men of the 
country; he also went all over the country, an¢ 
destroyed those that were of the other’s par 
But when Alcimus saw that he was notable 
oppose Judas, nor was equal to him in strength, 
he resolved to apply himself to king Demetri: 
us for his assistance; so he came to Antiock 
and irritated him against Judas, and accuse 
him, alleging that he had undergone a grea 
many miseries by his means, and that he woul 
do more mischief unless he was prevented, an 
brought to punishment, which must be don 
by sending a powerful force against him. 





























here follows, instead of that character, says of him is, & 
he was a great man in the kingdom, and fartnful to his ke 


which was very probably Josephus’s meanig also. 


4, So Demetrius, being already of opimion 
that it would be a thing pernicious to his own 
affairs to overlook Judas, now he was becom- 
ing so great, sent against him Nicanor, the most 
kind and most faithful of all his friends; for he 
it was who fled away with him from the city 
of Rome. He also gave him as many forces 
as he thoughi sufficient for him to conquer Ju- 
das withall, and bade him not to spare the na- 
tion at all. When Nicanor was come to Jeru- 
lem, he did not resolve to fight Judas imme- 
diately, but judged it better to get him into his 
power by treachery; so he sent him a message 
of peace, and said, “There was no manner of 
necessity for them to fight and hazard them- 
selves; and that he would give him his oath 
that he would do him no harm, for that he on- 
ly came with some friends, in order to let him 
krow what king Demetrius’s intentions were, 
and what opinion he had of their nation.” 
When Nicanor had delivered this message, Ju- 
das and his brethren complied with him, and 
suspecting no deceit, they gave him assuranc- 
es of friendship, and received Nicanor and 
his army; but while he was saluting Judas, 
ani they were talking together, he gave a cer- 
tain signal to his own soldiers, upon which 
they were to seize upon Judas; but he perceiv- 
ed the treachery, and ran back to his own sol- 
diers, and fled away with them. So upon this 
discovery of his purpose, and of the snares laid 
‘for Judas, Nicanor determined to make open 
wer with him, and gathered his army, together, 
an prepared for fighting him; and upon join- 
ing battle with him ata certain village called 
Cepharsalama, he beat Judas, and forced him 
to fly to that citadel which was at Jerusalem.* 
5. And when Nicanor came down from the 
citadel unto the temple, some of the priests and 
elders met him, and saluted him; and showed 
hiun the sacrifices which they said they offered 

God for the king: upon which he blasphem- 

d and threatened them, that unless the people 
would deliver up Judea to him, upon his return 
‘he would pull down their temple. And when 
he had thus threatened them, he departed from 
Jerusalem: but the priests fell into tears out of 
grief at what he had said, and besought God 
to deliver them from their enemies. But now 
for Nicanor, when he was gone out of Jerusa- 
Tem, and was at a certain village called Beth- 
horon, he there pitched his camp, another army 
‘out of Syria having joined him: and Judas 
pitched his camp at Adasa, another village, 
‘which was thirty furlongs distant from Beth- 
boron, having no more than one thousand sol- 
‘diers. And when he had encouraged them 
‘Rot to be dismayed at the multitude of their 
‘enemies, nor to regard how many they were 
against whom they were going to fight, but to 
eonsider who they themselves were, and for 
ts * Josephus’s copies must have been corrupted when they 


here give victory to Nicanor, contrary to the words follow- 
ri which imply that he who was beaten fled into the cita- 
sae A 







= Le 


which for certain belonged to the city of David, or to 
mount Z:0n, and was in the possession of Nicanor’s garrison, 
and not of Judas’s: as also it is contrary to the express 
words of Josephus’s original author, 1 Maccab. vii. 32, who 
Bays, that Nicanor lost about 5000 men, and fled to the city 
‘David. 
7 hk 


> ae BOOK XIi.—CHAPTER os) 


307 
what great rewards they hazarded themselv 
and to attack the enemy courageously, he ted 
them out to fight, and joining battle with Ni- 
canor, which proved to be a severe one, he 
overcame the enemy, and slew many of them; 
and at last Nicanor himself, as he was fighting, 
gloriously fell, Upon whose fall the army did 
not stay, but when they had lost their general, 
they were put to flight, and threw down their 
arms; Judas also pursued them, and slew them. 
and gave notice by the sound of the trumpets to 
the neighboring villages, that he had conquered 
the enemy; which, when the inhabitants heard, 
they put on their armor hastily, and met their 
enemies in the face as they were running away 
and slew them, insomuch that not one of them 
escaped out of this battle, who were in number 
nine thousand. This victory happened to fall 
on the thirteenth day of that month, which by 
the Jews is called Adar, and by the Macedo- 
nians Dystrus; and the Jews thereon celebrate 
this victory every year, and esteem it as a fes- 
tival day. After which the Jewish nation were, 
for a while, free from wars, and enjoyed peace: 
but afterward they returned into their former 
state of wars and hazards. , 

6. But now, as the high priest, Alcimus, was 
resolving to pull down the wall of the sanc- 
tuary, which had been there of old time, and 
had been built by the holy prophets, he was 
smitten suddenly by God,* and fell down. This 
stroke made him fall down speechless upon the 
ground; and, undergoing torments for many , 
days, he at length died, when he had been high 
priest four years. And when he was dead, the 
people bestowed the high priesthood on Judas, 
who, hearing of the power of the Romans,f 
and that they had conquered in war Galatia, 
and Iberia, and Carthage, and Libya; and that, 
besides these, they had subdued Greece, and 
their kings, Perseus and Philip, and Antiochus 
the Great also, he resolved to enter into a. 
league of friendship with them. He therefore 
sent to Rome some of his friends, Eupolemus 
the son of John, and Jason the son of Eleazar 
and by them desired the Romans that they 
would assist them, and be their friends, and 
would write to Demetrius that he would not 
fight against the Jews. So the senate received 
the ambassadors that came from Judas to Rome, 
and discoursed with them about the errand on 
which they came, and then granted them a 
league of assistance. ‘They also made a de- 
cree concerning it, and sent a copy of it inte 
Judea. It was also laid uy in the capitol, and 
engraven in brass. ‘The decree itself was thiss 
“The decree of the senate coi erning a leagu 
of assistance and friendship with the nation o, 

* This account of the miserable deata of Alcimus or Jaci- 
mus, the wicked high priest (the first that was not of the 
family of the high priests, and made hy a vile heathen, Ly 
sias,) before the death of Judas, and of Judas’s succession 
to him as high priest, both here and at the conclusion of thie 
book, directly contradicts 1 Maccab. ix. 54—57, which places 
his death after the death of Judas, and says not a syllable of 
the high priesthood of Judas. 

+ How well the Roman histories agree to this account of 
the conquests and powerful condition of the Romans at thie 
time, see the notes in Havercamp’s edition; only, that the 


number of the senators of Rome was then just 320, is, I this® 
only known from } Maecab. vii. 16 


- 


the Jews. It shall not be lawful for any that 
are subject to the Romans to make war with 
the nation of the Jews, nor to assist those that 
do so, either by sending them corn, or ships, or 
money; and if any attack be made upon the 
Tews, the Romans shall assist them, as far as 
they are able: and again, if any attack be made 
upon the Romans, the Jews shall assist them. 
And if the Jews have a mind to add to, or to 
take any thing from this league of assistance, 
that shall be done with the common consent of 
the Romans. And whatsoever addition shall 
thus be made, it shall be of force.” This 
decrew was written by Eupolemus, the son of 
John, and by Jason, the son of Eleazar,* when 
Judas was high priest of the nation, and Si- 
mon, his brother, was general of the army. 
And this was the first league that the Romans 
made with the Jews, and was managed after 
this manner. 


CHAPTER XI. 


That Bacchides was again sent out against Ju- 
das; and how Judas fell as he was courage- 
ously fighting. 

§ 1. But when Demetrius was informed of 
the death of Nicanor, and of the destruction of 
the army that was with him, he sent Bacchi- 
des again with an army into Judea, who march- 
ed out of Antioch, and came into Judea, and 
pitched his camp at Arbela, a city of Galilee, 
and having besieged and taken those that were 
there in caves, (for many of the people fled into 
such places,) he removed, and made all the haste 
he could to Jerusalem. And when he had 
learned that Judas pitched his camp at a cer- 
tain village whose name was Bethzetho, he led 
his army against him: they were twenty thou- 
sand footmen, and two thousand horsemen. 
Now Judas had no mpre soldiers than one thou- 
sand.t| When these saw the multitude of Bac- 
chides’s men, they were afraid, and left their 
camp, and fled all away, excepting eight hun- 
dred. Now when Judas was deserted by his 
own soldiers, and the enemy pressed upon him, 
and gave him no time to gather his army to- 
gether, he was disposed to fight with Bacchi- 
des’s army, though he had but eight hundred 
men with him; so he exhorted these men to 
undergothe danger courageously,and encou- 
raged “them to attack the enemy. And when 
they said they were not a body sufficient to 
fight so great an army, and advised that they 
should retire now, and save themselves, and 
that when he had gathered his own men toge- 

her, then he should fall upon the enemy af- 

* This subscription is wanting, 1 Maccab. viii. 17, 19, and 
must be the words of Josephus, who, by mistake, thought, 
as we have just now seen, that Judas was at this time high 

iest, and accordingly then reckoned his brother Jonathan to 

the general of the army, which yet he seems not to have 
been till after the death of Judas. 

+ That this copy of Josephus, as he wrote it, had here not 
1000 but 3000, with 1 Maccab. ix. 5, is very plain, because, 
though the main part ran away at first, even in Josephus, as 
well as in] Maccab. ix. 6, yet, as there, so here, 800 are said 


tw have remained with Judas; which would be absurd, if 
the whole number had been no more than 1000. 


ANTIQU(TIES OF THE JEWS. 







terward, his answer was this: “Let not tne 1 
ever see such a thing that I should show my 
back to the enemy; and although this be the 
time that will bring me to my end, and I must 
die in this battle, I will rather stand to it cou 
rageously, and bear whatsoever comes upon 
me, than by now running away, bring reproach — 
upon my former great actions, or tarnish their ¢ 
glory.” ‘This was the speech he made to those — 

he encon ; 


that remained with him, whereby 
raged them to attack the enemy. 
2. But Bacchides drew his army out of their 


i 


camp, and put them in array for the battle. 
He set the horsemen on both the wings, and the 
light soldiers and the archers he placed before 
the whole army, but he was himself on the right 
wing. And when he had thus put his army 



































i 
in order of battle, and was going to join ay 
with the enemy, he commanded the trumpeter 
to give a signal of battle, and the army to make ~ 
a shout and to fall on the enemy. And when 
Judas had done the same, he joined battle with — 
them; and as both sides fought valiantly, and 
the battle continued till sun-set, Judas saw that 
Bacchides and the strongest part of the army 
was in the right wing, and thereupon, took the — 
most courageous men with him, and ran upon — 
that part of the army, and fell upon those that 
were there, and broke their ranks, and drow 
them into the middle, and forced them to rum 
away, and pursued them as faras to a moun — 
tain called Aza; but when those of the left 
wing saw that the right wing was put to and 
they encompassed Judas; and pursued him, an 
came behind him, and took him into the mid 
dle of their army; so being not able to fly, but 
encompassed round about with enemies, b i 
stood still, and he and those that were with him _ 
fought; and when he had slain a great many of 
those that came against him, he at last was him- _ 
self wounded, and fell, and gave up the ghost, 
and died in a way like to his former famous ace rf 
tions. When Judas was dead, those that were 
with him had no one whom they could reg i 
[as their commander,] but when they sav 4 
themselves deprived of such a general, they 
fled. But Simon and Jonathan, Judas’s bret! be 
ren, received his dead body by a treaty from 
the enemy, and carried it to the village of Mo- 
din, where their father had been buried, « 
there buried him; while the multitude lament 
ed him many days, and performed the usual 
solemn rites of a funeral tohim. And this 
was the end that Judas came to. He had been 
a man of valor and a great warrior, and mind a 
ful of the commands of his father Mattathias 
and had undergone all difficulties, both in doing 
and suffering, for the liberty of his countr 
men. And when his character was so excel 
lent [while he was alive,] he left behind | him | 
glorious reputation and memorial, by gaimimg _ 
freedom for his nation, and deliterieae her | 
from slavery under the Macedonians. 4 wc 
when he had retained the high pre 
years, he died. 


a 
eer) 
arty q 
} 
' 
eA 


BOOK XITI—CHAPTER 1. 


BOOK XIII. 


VONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF EIGHTY-TWO YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF JUDAS MACCABERUR, 
TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA. 





CHAPTER I. 


How Jonathan took the government after his bro- 
ther Judas, and how he, together with his bro- 
ther Simon, waged war against Bacchides. 


§ 1. By what means the nation of the Jews 
_ recovered their freedom when they had been 
brought into slavery by the Macedonians, and 
what struggles, and how many great battles 
Judas the general of their army ran through, 
till he was slain as he was fighting for them, 
hath been related in the foregoing book; but 
after he was dead, all the wicked, and those 
that transgressed the laws of their forefathers, 
sprung up again in Judea, and grew upon them, 
and distressed them on every side. A famine 
also assisted their wickedness, and afflicted the 
country, till not a few, who by reason of their 
want of necessaries, and because they were not 
able to bear up against the miseries that both 
the famine and their enemies brought upon 
them, deserted their country, and went to the 
Macedonians. And now Bacchides gathered 
those Jews together who had apostatized from 
the accustomed way of living of their forefath- 
ers, and chose to live like their neighbors, and 
committed the care of the country to them; 
w 10 also caught the friends of Judas, and those 
of his party, and delivered them up to Bac- 
cl ides, who, when he had, in the first place, 
to tured and tormented them at his pleasure, 
he by that means at length killed them. And 
wien this calamity of the Jews was become 
90 great, as they never had experience of the 
like since their return out of Babylon, those 
th xt remained of the companions of Judas, see- 
in s that the nation was about to be destroyed 
af.er a miserable manner, came to his brother 
Jcnathan, and desired him that he would imi- 
tate his brother, in that care which he took of 
his countrymen, for whose liberty in general 
he died also; and that he would not permit the 
nation to be without a governor, especially in 
those destructive circumstances wherein it now 
was. And when Jonathan said, that he was 
\ ready to die for them, and was indeed esteemed 
- noway inferior to his brother, he was appoint- 
_ 2d to be the general of the Jewish army. 
2. When Bacchides heard this, and was 
afraid that Jonathan might be very trouble- 
- gome to the king and the Macedonians, as Ju- 
das had been before him, he sought how he 
might slay him by treachery: but this intention 
of his was not unknown to Jonathan, nor to 
his brother Simon: but when these two were 
apprized ef it, they took all their companions, 
and presently fled into that wilderness which 
was nearest to the city; and when they were 
come to a lake called Asphar, they abode there. 


I 


hastened to fall upon them with all his forceay 
and pitching his camp beyond Jordan, he re- 
cruited his army: but when Jonathan knew 
that Bacchides was coming upon them, he 
sent his brother John, who was also called 
Gaddis, to the Nabatean Arabs, that he might 
lodge his baggage with them until the battle 
with Bacchides should be over, for they were 
the Jews’ friends. And the sons of Ambri laid 
an ambush for John from the city Medaba, ana 
seized upon him, and upon those that were 
with him, and plundered all that they had 
with them: they also slew John and all his 
companions, However, they were sufficiently 
punished for what they now did, by John’s 
brethren, as we shall relate presently. 

3. But when Bacchides knew that Jonathan 
had pitched his camp among the lakes of Jor- 
dan, he observed when their Sabbath-day came, 
and then assaulted him, as supposing that he 
would not fight because of the law [for resting 
on that day:] but he exhorted his companions 
[to fight;] and told them that their lives were at 
stake, since they were encompassed by the 
river, and by their enemies, and had no way to 
escape, for that theirenemies pressed upon them 
before, and the river was behind them. So af- 
ter he had prayed to God to give them the vic- 
tory, he joined battle with the enemy, of whom 
he overthrew many; and as he saw Bacchides 
coming up boldly to him, he stretched out 
his right hand to smite him, but the other fore- 
seeing and avoiding the stroke, Jonathan with 
his companions leaped into the river, and swam 
over it, and by that means escaped beyond 
Jordan, while the enemy did not pass over that 
river: but Bacchides returned presently to the 
citadel at Jerusalem, having lost about two 
thousand of his army. He also fortified many 
cities of Judea, whose walls had been demo- 
lished, Jericho, and Emmaus, and Bethhoron, 
and Bethel, and Timna, and Pharatho, and 
Tekoa, and Gazara, and built towers in every 
one of these cities, and encompassed them 
with strong walls, that were very large also, and 
put garrisons into them, that they might issue 
out of them, and do mischief to the Jews. He 
also fortified the citadel at Jerusalem more 
than all the rest. Moreover he took the sons 
of the principal Jews as pledges, and shut 
them up in the citadel, and in that manner 
guarded it. 

4, About the same time one came to Jona-— 
than, and to his brother Simon, and told them 
that the sonsof Ambri were celebrating a mar- 
riage, and bringing the bride from the city Ga- 
batha, who was the daughter of one of the 
illustrious men among the Arabians, and that 
the damsel was to be conducted with pomp 


But when Bacchides was sensible that they ; and splendor, and much riches: so Jonathan 
_ mere in a low state, and were in that place, he! and Simon, thinking this appeared to be the 


10 


uttest time ro, hem to avenge the death ef their 
brother, and that they had forces sufficient for 
receiving satisfaction from them for his death, 
they made haste to Medaba, and lay in wait 
among the mountains for the coming of their 
enemies; and as soon as they saw them con- 
ducting the virgin and her bridegroom, and 
_guch a great company of their friends with 
them as was to be expected at this wedding, 
they sallied out of their ambush, and slew them 
all, and took their ornaments, and all the prey 
that then followed them, and so returned, and 
received this satisfaction for their brother John 
from the sons of Ambri; for as well those sons 
themselves, as their friends, and wives, and 
children, that followed them, perished, being 
in number about four hundred. 

5. However, Simon and Jonathan returned 
to the lakes of the river, and abodethere. But 
Bacchides, when he had secured all Judea 
with his garrisons, returned to the king and 
then it was that the affairs of Judea were quiet 
for two years. But when the deserters and the 
wicked saw that Jonathan and those that were 
with him lived in the country very quietly, by 
reason of the peace, they sent to king Deme- 
trius, and excited him to send Bacchides to 
seize upon Jonathan, which they said was to 
be done without any trouble, and in one night’s 
time; and that if they fell upon them before 
they were aware, they might slay them all. 
So the king sent Bacchides, who, when he 
was come into Judea, wrote to all his friends, 
both Jews and auxiliaries, that they should 
seize upon Jonathan, and bring him to him; 
and when, upon all their endeavors, they were 
not able to seize upon Jonathan, for he was 
sensible of the snares they laid for him, and 
very carefully guarded against them, Bacchi- 
des was angry at these deserters, as having im- 
posed upon him and upon the king, and slew 
fifty of their leaders. Whereupon Jonathan, 
with his brother, and those that were with them, 
retired to Bethagla, a village that lay in the 
wilderness, out of his fear of Bacchides. He 
also built towers on it, and encompassed it with 
walls, and took care that it should’ be safely 
guarded. Upon the hearing of which, Bac- 
chides led his own army along with him, and 
besides took his Jewish auxiliaries, and came 
against Jonathan, and made an assault upon his 
fortifications, and besieged him many days; 
but Jonathan did not abate of his courage at 
the zeal Bacchides used in the siege, but cou- 
rageously opposed him; and while he left his 
brother Simon in the city, to fight with Bac- 
chides, he went privately out himself into the 
country, and got a great body of men together 
of his own party, and fell upon Bacchides’s 
camp in the night-time, and destroyed a great 
many of them. His brother Simon knew also 
of this his falling upon them, because he per- 
ceived that the enemies were slain by him, so 
he sallied out upon them, and burnt the engines 
which the Macedonians used, and made a great 
slaughter of them. And when Bacchides saw 
himself encompassed with enemies, and some 
ef them before and some behind him, he fell 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 






into despair and trouble of mind, as confound 
ed at the unexpected ill success of this siege. 
However, he vented his displeasure at these — 
misfortunes, upon those deserters who seni for 
him from the king, as having deluded him — 
So he had a mind to finish this siege after a 
decent manner if it were possible for him so to 
do, and then to return home. | 
6. When Jonathan understood these his in- 
tentions, he sent ambassadors to him, about a 
league of friendship and mutual assistance, and — 
that they might restore those they had taken 
captive on both sides. So Bacechides thought 
this a pretty decent way of retiring home, and — 
made a league of friendship with Jonathan, 
when they swore that they would not any 
more make war one against another. Accord- 
ingly, he restored the captives, and took his 
own men with him, and returned to the king to — 
Antioch; and after this his departure, he never 
came into Judea again. Then did Jonathan 
take the opportunity of this quiet state of — 
things, and went and lived in the city Mich 
mash; and there governed the multitude, and 
punished the wicked and ungodly, and by that 
means purged the nation of them. 


CHAPTER II. | 

How Alexander { Bala) in his war with Deme-— 

trius, granted Jonathan many advantages, and 
appointed him to be high priest, and persuaded 

him to assist him, although Demetrius [" misea 
him greater advantages on the other side, 

Concerning the death of Demetrius. 


§ 1. Now in the hundred and sixtieth year,” 
it fell out that Alexander, the son of Antiochus — 
Epiphanes,* came up into Syria, and took / 
Ptolemais, the soldiers within having betrayed — 
it to him, for they were at enmity with Deme-— 
trius, on account of his insolence and difficulty 
of access: for he shut himself up ina palace — 
of his that had four towers, which he had built 
himself, not far from Antioch, and admitted — 
nobody. He was withall slothful and negligent 
about the public affairs, whereby the hatred of — 
his subjects was the more kindled against him, ~ 
as we have elsewhere already related. When, — 
therefore, Demetrius heard that Alexander was _ 
in Ptolemais, he took his whole army and led) 
it against him: he also sent ambassadors to 
Jonathan, about a league of mutual assistance } 
and friendship, for he resolved to be beforehand 
with Alexander, lest the other should treat with 
him first, and gain assistance from him: and) 
this he did out of the fear he had, lest Jona-— 
than should remember how ill Demetrius had | 


Sy 
* This Alexander Bala, who certainly pretended to be the | 
son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and was owned for such by thé — 
Jews and Romans, and many others, and yet is by several - 
historians deemed to be a counterfeit, and of no family at 
all, is, however, by Josephus believed to have been the reat 
son of that Antiochus, and by him always spoken of accord- _ 
ingly. And truly, since the original contemporary and au- 
thentic author of the first book of Maecabees, chap. x. 1, 
calls him by his father’s name Epiphanes, and says he was 
the sen of Antiochus, I suppose the other writers, who are 
all much later, are not to be followed against such evidence, 
though perhaps Epiphanes might have him by a woman of no” 
family. The king of Egypt also-Philometer, soon gave him 
his daughter in marriage, which he would hardly have dona 
had he believed him to be a counterfeit, and of so very mean — 
a birth, as the later historians pretend. 7 : 










« 


ee BOOK XUL—CHAPTER IL. 


| formerly treated him, and should join with him 
‘in this war against him. He, therefore, gave 
_ orders that Jonathan should be allowed to raise 
an army, and should get armor made, and 
should receive back those hostages of the Jew- 
“ish nation whom Bacchides had shut up in the. 
' citadel of Jerusalem. When this good fortune 
had befallen Jonathan, by the concession of 
’ Demetrius, he came to Jerusalem, and read the 
_ king’s letter in the audience of the people, and 


all 


of his brother Judas, for at that time no high 
priest had been made. So he raised great 
forces, and had abundance of armor got ready. 
This greatly grieved Demetrius when he heard 
of it, and made him blame himself for his 
slowness, that he had not prevented Alexander, 
and got the good will of Jonathan, but had 
given him time so to do. However, he alse 
himself wrote a letter to Jonathan, and to the 
people; the contents whereof are these: aoie 


of those that kept the citadel. When these 
were read, those wicked men and deserters, 
'who were in the citadel, were greatly afraid, 
upon the king’s permission to Jonathan to raise 
an army, and to receive back the hostages: so 
he delivered every one of them to his own 
( Parents. And thus did Jonathan make his 


Demetrius to Jonathan, and to the nation o 
the Jews, sendeth greeting: Since you have 
preserved your friendship for us; and when 
you have been tempted by our enemies, you 
have not joined yourselves to them, I both 
commend you for this your fidelity, and exhort 
you to continue in the same disposition, for 
which you shall be repaid, and receive rewards 


abode at Jerusalem, renewing the city to a bet- 
ter state, and reforming the buildings as he 


from us: for I will free you from the greatest , 
leased: for he gave orders that the walls of 


part of the tributes and taxes which you form- ' 


_the city should be rebuilt with square stones, 
that it might be more secure from their enemies. 
And when those that kept the garrisons that 
_ were in Judea saw this, they all left them, and 
fled to Antioch, excepting those that were in 
the city of Bethsura, and those that were in the 
citadel of Jerusalem, for the greatest part of 
these was of the wicked Jews and deserters, 
and on that account these did not deliver up 
their garrisons. 
__ 2. When Alexander knew what promises 
Demetrius had made Jonathan, and withall 
_knew his courage, and what great things he 
had done when he fought the Macedonians, 
and besides what hardships he had undergone 
by the means of Demetrius, and of Bacchides, 
the general of Demetrius’s army, he told his 
friends, that “he could not at present find any 
one else that might afford him better assistance 
than Jonathan, who was both courageousagainst 
his enemies, and had a particular hatred against 
Demetrius, as having both suffered many hard 
things from him, and acted many hard things 
against him. If, therefore, they were of opin- 
ton that they should make him their friend 
against Demetrius, it was more for their advan- 
tage to invite him to assist them now than at 
oer time.” It being, therefore, determined 
y him and his friends to send to Jonathan, he 
wrote to him this epistle: “King Alexander to 
his brother Jonathan, sendeth greeting: We 
have long ago heard of thy courage and thy 
fidelity, and for that reason have sent to thee, 
‘to make with thee a league of friendship and 
Mutual assistance. We, therefore, do ordain 
thee this day high priest of the Jews, and that 
thou shalt be called my friend. I have also sent 
thee, as presents, a purple robe and a golden 
¢rown, and desire, that now thou art by us 
eoncres, thou wilt in like manner respect us 
me ” 
~ & When Jonathan had received this letter, 
he put on the pontifical robe at the time of the 
feast of tabernacles,* four years after the death 


e fhe 

___* Since Jonathan plainly did not put on the pontifical robes 
- till seven or eight years after the death of his brother Judas, 
- @ not till tae feast of tabernacles in the hundred and sixti- 
of the Seleucid, 1 Maccab. x. 21, Petitus’s emendation 





here to deserve eansideration, who instead of after 


erly paid to the kings my predecessors, and 
to myself; and I do now set you free from 
those tributes which you have ever paid; and 
besides, I forgive you the tax upon salt, ana 
the value of the crowns which you used to 
offer to me;* and instead of the third part of 
the fruits [of the field,] and the half of the 
fruits of the trees, I relinquish my part of them 
from this day: and as to the poll-money, which 
ought to be given me for every head of the in- | 
habitants, of Judea, and of the three toparchies 
that adjoin Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, and 
Perea, that I relinquish to you for this time, 
and for all time to come. I will also that the 
city of Jerusalem be holy and inviolable, and 
free from the tithe, and from the taxes, unto its 
utmost bounds: and I so far recede from my 
title to the citadel, as to permit Jonathan your 
high priest to possess it, that he may place such 
a garrison in it as he approves of for fidelity 
and good will to himself, that they may keep 
it for us. I also make free all those Jews who 
have been made captives and slaves in my 
kingdom. Talso give order that the beasts of 
the Jews be not pressed for our service. And 
let their Sabbaths, and all their festivals, and 
three days before each of them, be free from 
any imposition. In the same manner I set, 
free the Jews that are inhabitants in my king- © 
dom, and order that no injury be done to them. 
I also give leave to such of themas are willing 
to list themselves in my army, that they may 
do it, and those as far as thirty thousand; which 
Jewish soldiers, wheresoever they go, shall 
have the same pay that-my own army hath, 
and some of them [ will place in my garrisons, 
and some as guards about mine own body, and 
as rulers over those that are in my court. 3 
give them leave also to use the laws of them 


four years since the death of his brother Judas, would have us 


read, and, therefore, after eight years since the death of his 
brother Judas. ‘This would tolerably well agree with the 
date of the Maccabees, and with Josephus’s own exact chro- 
nology at the end of the twentieth book of these Antiquities, 
which the preseuit text cannot be made to do. 

*Take Grotius’s note here: “The Jews,’’ says 
‘were wont to present crowns to the kings [of Syria;] after 
ward that gold which was paid instead of those crowns, 
which was expended in making them, was called the crews 
gold and the crown taz,’’ On 1 Maccab. x. 29. 


812 


forefathers, and to observe them; and I will 
that they have power over the three toparchies 
that are added to Judea; and it shall be in the 
power of the high priest to take care, that not 
one Jew shall have any other temple for wor- 
ship but only that at Jerusalem. I bequeath 
also, out of my own revenues, yearly, for the 
expenses about the sacrifices, one hundred and 
fifty thousand [drachme;] and what money is 
to spare, I will that it shall be your own. I 
also release to you those ten thousand drachme 
which the kings received from the temple, be- 
cause they appertain to the priests that minister 
in that temple. And whosoever shall fly to 
the temple at Jerusalem, or to the places thereto 
belonging, or who owe the king money, or are 
there on any other account, let them be set 
free, and let their goods be in safety. I also 
give you leave to repair and rebuild your tem- 
ple, and that all be done at my expenses. I 
also allow you to build the walls of your city, 
and to erect high towers, and that they be erect- 
ed at my charge. And if there be any fortified 
town that would be convenient for the Jewish 
country to have very strong, let it be so built at 
my expenses.” 

4. This was what Demetrius promised, and 
granted to the Jews, by this letter. But king 
Alexander raised a great army of mercenary 
soldiers, and of those that deserted to him out 
of Syria, and made an expedition against De- 
m2trius. And when it was come to a battle, 
the left wing of Demetrius put those who op- 
posed them to flight, and pursued them a great 
way, and slew many of them, and spoiled their 
camp; but the right wing, where Demetrius 
happened to be, was beaten; and as for all the 
rest, they ran away: but Demetrius fought 
courageously, and slew a great many of the 
enemy; but as heswas in the pursuit of the 
rest, his horse carried him into a deep bog, 
where it was hard to get out, and there it hap- 
pened, that upon his horse’s falling down, he 
could not escape being killed; for when his 
enemies saw what had befallen him, they re- 
turned back, and encompassed Demetrius round, 
and they all threw their darts at fim; but he 
being now on foot, fought bravely, but at length 
he received so many wounds, that he was not 
able to bear up any longer, but fell: and this is 
the end that Demetrius came to when he had 
reigned eleven years,* as we have elsewhere 


related. 
CHAPTER III. 


The friendshrp that was between Onias and Pto- 
lemy Philometer; and how Onias built a tem- 
ple in Egypt like to that at Jerusalem. 


§ 1. But then the son of Onias the high 
priest, who was of the same name with his fa- 
ther, and who fled to king Ptolemy, who was 
called Philometer, lived now at Alexandria, as 
we have said already. When this Onias saw 
that Judea was oppressed by the Macedonians 
and their kings, out of a desire to purchase to 


* Since the rest of the historians now extant give this De- 
metrius thirteen years, and Josephus only eleven years, 
Dean Prideaux does not amiss in a cribing to him the mean 
wamber twelve. 7 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. . ae | 


4. 


himself a memorial and eternal fame, he re 
solved to send to king Ptolemy and queen Cle 
opatra, to ask leave of them that he might 
build a temple in Egypt like to that at Jerusa 
lem, and might ordain Levites and priests out 
of their own stock. The chief reason why he 
was desirous so to do was, that he relied upem 
the prophet Isaiah, who lived above six hume 
dred years before, and foretold that there cers 
tainly was to be a temple built to Almighty 
God in Egypt by aman that wasaJew. On- 
as was elevated by this prediction; and wrote 
the following epistle to Ptolemy and Cleopatra 
“Having done many and great things for you 
in the affairs of the war, by the assistance of 
God, and that in Ce@losyria and Phoenicia, I 
came at length with the Jews to Leontopoli 
and to other places of your nation, where 
found that the greatest part of your people had 
temples in an improper manner, and that on 
this account they bore ill will one against anoth- 
er, which happens to the Egyptians by reason 
of the multitude of their temples, and the 
difference of opinions about divine worship. 
Now I found a very fit place in a castle that 
hath its name from the country Diana; this 
place is full of materials of several sorts, and 
replenished with sacred animals: I desire there- 
fore that you will grant me leave to purge this 
holy place, which belongs to no master, and is 
fallen down, and to build there a temple to AF 
mighty God, after the pattern of that in Jeru- 
salem, and of the same dimensions, that may 
be for the benefit of thyself, and thy wife and 
children, that those Jews who dwell in Egypt 
may have a place whither they may come and 
meet together in mutual harmony one with 
another, and be subservient to thy advantages; 
for the prophet Isaiah foretold, that there should 
be an altar in Egypt to the Lord God:* and 
many other such things did he prophesy relat- 
ing to that place.” 


* It seems to me, contrary to the opinion of Josephus and 
of the moderns, both Jews and Christians, that this prophe- 
cy of Isaiah, xix. 19, &c. In that day there shall be an altar 
to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, §c. pi 
foretold the building of this temple of Onias in Egypt, 
was a sufficient warrant to the Jews for building it, and for 
worshiping the true God, the God of Israel, therein. See 
Authent. Rec. vol. ii. page 755. That God seems to ha 
soon better accepted of the sacrifices and prayers here offe 
him than of those at Jerusalem; see the note on chap. xX. 
sect. 7. And truly the marks of Jewish corruption, or inter- 
polation in this text, in order to discourage their people 7 
approving of the worship of God here, are very strong, and — 
highly deserve our consideration and correction. The fore- — 
going verse in Isaiah runs thus in our common copies: Bs 
that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the 

tage of Canaan, Uh, Hebrew language; shall be full of — 

ews, whose sacred books were in Hebrew,] and socom ae ) 
Lord of hosts. One [of the first] shall be called the city of de — 
struction, Isaiah xx. 18. A strange name, city of destruction, — 
upon so joyful an occasion, and a name never heard of ig 
the land of Egypt, or perhaps in any other nation. The 
reading was evidently the city of the sun, or Heliopolis, 
Onkelos, in effect, and Symmachus, with the Arabic ve 
entirely confess that to be the true reading. The Step’ 
also, although they have the text disguised in the commol 
copies, and call it Asedek, the ci r, righteousness; yet, 
two or three other copies, the Hebrew werd itself for 
sun Acheres or Thares, is preserved. And since Onias im 
sists with the king and queen, that Isaiah’s prophecy con- 
tained many other predictions relating to this place, ee 
the words by him recited, it is highly probable that 
were especially meant by him; and that one main rease 
why he applied this prediction to himself, and to his prefee 
ture of Heliopolis, which Dean Prideaux well proves war 


- ¢ 


rr | : 






} 


BOOK XIIl—CHAPTER IV. 


_ And this was what Onias wrote to king 
| ¥tolemy. Nowany one may observe his piety, 
and that of his sister and wife Cleopatra, by 
that epistle which they wrote in answer to it; 
. for they laid the blame and the transgression 
| of the law upon the head of Onias. 
_ was their reply: “King Ptolemy and queen 
Cleopatra to Onias, send greeting: We have 
“read thy petition, wherein thou desirest leave 


And this 


to be given thee to purge that temple which is 


fallen down at Leontopolis, in the Nomus of 


Heliopolis, and which is named from the coun- 

Bubastis; on which account we cannot bur 
wonder that it should be pleasing to God to 
have a temple erected ina place so unclean, 
and so full of sacred animals: but since thou 
gayest that Isaiah the prophet foretold this long 
ago, we give thee leave to do it, if it may be 


. done according to your law, and so that we 


i 


may not appear to have at all offended God 
herein.” 
3. So Onias took the place, and built a tem- 


_ ple, and an altar to God, like indeed to that in 


_ Jerusalem, but smaller and poorer. 


. 


I do not 
think it proper for me now to describe its di- 


_ mensions, or its vessels, which have been al- 
ready described in my seventh book of the 


and Levites, that there performed divine ser- | lometer, 


wars of the Jews. 


313 


that temple, which was so ancient, and a0 cele 
brated all over the habitable earth. Now when 
Sabbeus and Theodosius had given leave to 
Andronicus to speak first, he began to demon- 
strate out of the law, and out of the successions 
of the high priests, how they every one in suc- 
cession from his father had received that 
dignity, and ruled over the temple; and how 
all the kings of Asia had honored that temple 
with their donations, and with the most splen- 
did gifts dedicated thereto; but as for that ag 
Gerizzim, he made no account of it, nor regard 
ec it, as if it had never had a being. By this 
speech, and other arguments, Andronicus per- 
suaded the king to determine that the temple . 
at Jerusalem was built according to the laws 
of Moses,* and 10 put Sabbeus and Theodosi- 
us to death. And these were the events that 


| befell the Jews at Alexandria in the days of 


Ptolemy Philometer. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Alexander honored Jonathan after an ex 
traordinary manner, and how Demetrius, the 
son of Demetrius, overcame Alexander, und 
made a league of friendship with Jonathan. 


§ 1. Demetrius being thus slain in battle, as 


However, Onias found! we have above related, Alexander took the 


other Jews like to himself, together with priests | kingdom of Syria; and wrote to Ptolemy Phi- 


vice. But we have said enough about this 


- temple. 


4, Now it came to pass that the Alexandrian 
Jews, and those Samaritans who paid their 


worship to the temple that was built in the 


‘sworn to, he would put him to death. 
cordingly, the king took several of his friends 


days of Alexander at mount Gerizzim, did now 


make a sedition one against another, and dis- 
puted about their temples before Ptolemy him- 


self, the Jews saying, that, according to the law 


of Moses, the temple was to be built at Jeru- 
salem; and the Samaritans saying, that it was 
‘to be built at Gerizzim. They desired there- 
fore the king to sit with his friends, and hear 
the debates about these matters, and punish 
those with death who were baffled. Now Sab- 
beus and Theodosius managed the argument 
for the Samaritans, and Andronicus, the son of 


_ Messalamus, for the people of Jerusalem; and 


they took an oath by God and the king, to make 
their demonstrations according to the law; and 


they desired of Ptolemy, that whomsoever he 


should find that transgressed what they had 
Ac- 


into the council, and sat down, in order to hear 


what the pleader said. Now the Jews that 
_were at Alexandria were in great concern for 


‘those men whose lot it was to contend for the 
temple at Jerusalem; for they took it very ul 


that any should take away the reputation of 


in that part of Egypt, and why he chose to build in that pre- 


fecture of Heliopolis, though otherwise an improper place, 


_ Was this, that the same authority that he had for building this 
_ temple in Egypt, the very same he had for building it in his 


_ Own prefecture of Heliopolis also, which he desired to do, 


and which he did accordingly. Dean Prideaux has much 
_ ado to avoid seeing this corruption cf the Hebrew, but it be- 


_ ingin support of his own opinion about this temple, he durst 
_ +@ot see it; and indeed, he reasons here in the most weak and 


Most injudicious manu2r possible. See him at the year 149, 
: — 40 


j 


and desired his daughter in marriage; « 
and said, it was but just that he should be join 

ed in affinity to one that had now received the 
principality of his forefathers, and had been 
promoted to it by God’s providence, and had 
conquered Demetrius, and that was on other 
accounts not unworthy of being related to him. 
Ptolemy received this proposal of marriage, 
gladly; and wrote to him an answer saluting 
him on account of his having received the 
principality of his forefathers; and promising 
him that he would give him his daughter in 

marriage; and assured him that he was coming 
Lo meet him at Ptolemais, and desired that he 
would there meet him, for that he would ac- 
company her from Egypt so far, and would 

there marry his child to him. When Ptolemy 

had written thus, he came suddenly to Ptole- 

mais, and brought his daughter Cleopatra along 


* A very unfair disputation this! while the Jewish dispu- 
tant, knowing that he could not properly prove out of the 
Pentateuch, that the place which the Lord their God shall 
choose to place his name there, so often referred to in the book 
of Deuteronomy, was Jerusalem any more than Gerizzim, 
that being not determined till the days of David, Antiq. b. 
vii. chap. xiii. sect. 4, proves only what the Samaritans did 
not deny, that the temple at Jerusalem was much more an- 
2ient, and much more celebrated and honored than that at 
Gerizzim, which was nothing to the present purpose. The 
whole evidence, by the very oaths of both parties, being, we 
see, ubliged to be confined to the law of Moses, or to thw 
Pentateuch alone. However, worldly policy and interest, 
and the multitude, prevailing, the court gave sentence, as 
usual, on the stronger side, and poor Sabbeus and Theodosi- 
us, the Samaritan disputants, were martyred, and this, so far 
as appears, without any direct hearing at all, which is like 
the usual practice of such political courts about matters of 
religion. Our copies say, that the body of the Jews were ia 
a great concern about those men, in the plural, who were te 
dispute for their temple at Jerusalem; whereas it seems here 
they had but one disputant, Andronicus by name: perhaps 
more were prepared to speak on the Jews?’ side; but the firm 
having answered to his name, and overcome the Samaritans 
there was no necessity for any other defender of the Jerus» 
Jem temple. 


514 


with him, and as he found Alexander there 
before him, as he desired him to come, he gave 
him his child in marriage, and for her portion 
gave her as much silver and gold as became 
such a king te give. 

2. When the wedding was over, Alexander 
wrote to Jonathan the high priest, and desired 
him to come to Ptolemais. So when he came 
to these kings, and had made them magnificent 
presents, he was honored by them both. Alex- 
ander compelled him also to put off his own 
garment, and to take a purple garment, and 
made him srt with him in his throne; and com- 
manded his captains that they should go with 
him into the middle of the city, and proclaim, 
that it was not permitted to any_one to speak 
against him, or to give him any disturbance. 
And when the captains had thus done, those 
that were prepared to accuse Jonathan, and 
who bore him ill will, when they saw the ho- 
nor that was done him by proclamation, and 
that by the king’s order, ran away, and were 
afraid lest some mischief should befall them. 
Nay, king Alexander was so very kind to Jo- 
nathan, that he set him down as the principal 
of his friends. 

3. But then, upon the hundred and sixty- 
fifth year, Demetrius, the son of Demetrius, 
eame from Crete, with a great number of mer- 
cenary soldiers, which Lasthenes, the Cretan, 
brought him, and sailed to Cilicia. This thing 
east Alexander into great concern and disorder 
when he heard it; so he made haste imme- 
diately out of Phoenicia, and came to Antioch, 
that he might put matters in a safe posture 
there, before Demetrius should come. He also 
left Apollonius Daus governor of Coelosyria,* 
who coming to Jamnia with a great army, sent 
to Jonathan the high priest, and told him, that 
“It was not right that he alone should live at 
rest, and with authority, and not be subject to 
the king; and this thing had made him a re- 
proach among all men, that he had not yet 
made him subject to the. king. Do not thou, 
therefore, deceive thyself, and sit still among 
the mountains, and pretend to have forces with 
thee: but if thou hast any dependence on thy 
strength, come down into the plain, and let 
our armies be compared together, and the 
event of the battle will demonstrate which of 
us is the most courageous. However, take no- 
ace, that the most valiant men of every city 
are in my army, and that these are the very 
men who have always beaten thy progenitors; 
but let us have the battle in such a place of the 
country where we may fight with weapons, 
and not with stones, and where there may be 
no place whither those that are beaten may fly.” 

4, With this, Jonathan was irntated; and 
choosing himself ot ten thousand of his sol- 
diers, he went outcf Jerusalem in haste with 

‘his brotuer Simon, and came to Joppa, and 
hei his camp on the outside of the city, 
ecause the people of Joppa had shut their 


* Of the several Mpollonii about these ages; see Dean 
Prideaux at the year 148, This Apollonius Daus was, by his 
account, the son of that Apollonius who had been made go- 
vernex of Colosyria and Phonicia by Seleucus Philopater, 





ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWs. 


gates against him, for they had a garrison ix 
the city put there by Apollonius; but when 
Jonathan was preparing to besiege them, they 
were afraid he would take them by force, and — 
so they opened the gates to him. But Apollo-_ 
nius, when he heard that Joppa was taken by | 
Jonathan, took three thousand horsemen, and 
eight thousand footmen, and came to Ashdod, - 
and removing thence, he made his journey. 
silently and slowly, and going up-to Joppa, he ° 
made as if he was retiring from the place, and 
so drew Jonathan into the plain, as valuing him 
self highly upon his horsemen, and having his 

hopes of victory principally in them. However, - 
Jonathan sallied out, and pursued Apollonius to 
Ashdod; but as soon as Apollonius perceived © 
that hisenemy was in the plain, he came pack 
and gave him battle: but Apollonius had laid — 
a thousand horsemen in ambush in a valley 

that they might not be seen by their enemies 

as behind them; which when Jonathan perceiv — 
ed, he was under no consternation, but order- 
ing his army to stand in a square battle array, — 
he gave them a charge to fall on the enemy on 
both sides, and set them to face those that at- 

tacked them both before and behind; and while 

the fight lasted till the evening, he gave part of © 
his forces to his brother Simon, and ordered 
him to attack the enemies; but for himself he, 
charged those that were with him to cover thern-— 
selves with their armor, and receive the darte 

of the horsemen, who did as they were com-— 
manded; so that the enemy’s horsemen, while — 
they threw their darts till they had no more 

left, did them no harm, for the darts that 
were thrown did not enter into their bodies, — 
being thrown upon the shields, that were 
united and conjoined together, the closencss— 
of which easily overcome the force of the 
darts, and they flew about without any effect. 
But when the enemy grew remiss in throwing — 
their darts from morning till late at night, Simon 
perceived their weariness, and fell upon the 
body of men before him. and because his sol-, 
diers showed great alacrity, he put the enemy to 
flight, and when the horsemen saw that the foot- 
men ran away, neither did they stay themselves, 
but they being very weary, by the duration 
of the fight till the evening, and their hope from 

the footmen being quite gone, they baselv ran 

away, and in great confusion also, till they 
were separated one from another, and scattered 
over all the plain. Upon which Jonathan pur-— 
sued them as far as Ashdod, and slew a great” 
many of them, and compeiled the rest in despair 
of escaping, to fly to the temple of Dagon, which — 
was at Ashdod; but Jonathan took the city om 
the first onset, and burnt it, and the villages 
about it, nor did he abstain from the temp.e of 
Dagon itself, but burnt it also, and destroyed 
those that had fled to it. Now the entire muk 

titude of the enemies that fell in the battle, and 
were consumed in the temple, were eight thou | 
sand, When Jonathan, therefore, had overcome 













and was himseif a confidant of his son Demetrius the father 
and restored to his father’s government by him, but aft 
ward revolted from him to Abs ander, but not to Dem 
the son, as he supposes. ; 


\m great an army, he removed from Ashdod, 
Baca to Askelon; and when he had pitch- 
‘ed Ais camp without the city, the people of As- 
Kelon came out and met him, bringing him 
hospitable presents, and honoring him; so he 
‘accepted of their kind intentions, and returned 
thence to Jerusalem with a great deal of prey, 
which he brough thence when he conquered 
his enemies; but when Alexander heard that 
Appollonius, the general of his army, was 
Been, he pretended to be glad of it, because 
he had fought with Jonathan, his friend and 
ally, against his directions. Accordingly, he 
gent to Jonathan, and gave testimony to his 
worth; and gave him honorary rewards,* asa 
golden button, which it is the custom to give 
e king’s kinsmen; and allowed him Ekron 
‘and its toparchy, for his own inheritance. 
_ 9. About this time it was that king Ptolemy, 
/who was called Philometer, led an army, part 
Dy the sea, and part by the land, and came to 
Syria, to the assistance of Alexander, who was 
‘his son-in-law; and accordingly ali the cities 
received him willingly, as Alexander had com- 
‘manded them to do, and conducted him as far 
vas Ashdod, where they all made loud com- 
‘plaints about the temple of Dagon, which was 
burnt, and accused Jonathan of having laid it 
waste, and destroyed the country adjoining 
with fire, and slain a great number of them. 
Ptolemy heard these accusations, but said 
nothing. Jonathan also went to meet Ptolemy 
as far as Joppa, and obtained from him hospita- 
ble presents, and those glorious in their kinds, 
with all the marks of honor. And when he 
had conducted him as far as the river called 
Eleutherus, he returned again to Jerusalem. 
6. But as Ptolemy was at Ptolemais, he was 
‘very near to a most unexpected destruction, for 
\a treacherous design was laid for his life by Al- 
exander, by the means of Ammonius, who was 
his friend: and as the treachery was very plain, 
Ptolemy wrote to Alexander; and required of 
him that he should bring Ammonius to condign 
ae ent informing him what snares had 
that 





n laid for him by Ammonius, and desiring 
that he might be accordingly punished for it. 
ut when Alexander did not comply with his 
demands, he perceived that it was he himself 
who laid the design, and was very angry at him. 
Alexander had also formerly been on very ill 
terms witu the people of Antioch, for they had 
‘gaffered very much by his means; yet did Am- 
‘Monius at length undergo the punishment his 
Msolent crimes had deserved, for he was killed 
‘Man opprobrious manner, like a woman, while 
‘me endeavored to conceal himself in a femi- 
‘Rine habit, as we have elsewhere related. 

_7@. Hereupon Ptolemy blamed himself for 
“having given his daughter in marriage to Alex- 
‘ander, and for the league he had made with 
him to assist him against Demetrius:’ so he dis- 
solved his relation to him, and took his daughter 
away from him, and immediately sent to De- 
mMetrius, and offered to make a league of mu- 
debe 
“*Dr. Hudson observes here, that the Phoenicians and Ro- 
ms used to reward such as had deserved well of them, by 
ting to them a golden button; see ch. v. sect. 4, 






i ae BOOK XIJL—CHAPTER IV 


315 


tual assistance and friendship with him, and 
agreed with him to give him his daughter ir / 
marriage, and to restore him to the principality 
of his fathers. Demetrius was well pleased with 
this embassage, and accepted of his assistance, 
and of the marriage of his daughter. But Pto- 
lemy had still one more hard task to do, and 
that was, to persuade the people of Antioch to 
receive Demetrius, because they were greatly 
displeased at him on account of the injuries his 
father Demetrius had done them: yet did he 
bring this about; for as the people of Antioch 
hated Alexander on Ammonius’s account, as 
we have showed already, they were easily pre- 
vailed with to cast him out of Antioch; who, 
thus expelled out of Antioch, came into Cilicia, 
Ptolemy came then to Antioch, and was made 
king by its inhabitants, and by the army; se 
that he was forced to put on two diadems, the 
one of Asia, the other of Egypt; but bein 
naturally a good and a righteous man, an 
not desirous of what belonged to others, and, 
besides these dispositions, being also a wise 
man in reasoning about futurities, he determin-~ 
ed to avoid the envy of the Romans; so he cal} 
ed the people of Antioch together to an at- 
sembly, and persuaded them to receive Deme- 
trius; and assured them that “he would not be 
mindfui of what they did to his father, in case 
he shou!d now be obliged by them; and he ure 
dertook that he would himself be a good mone 
tor and governor to him: and promised that he 
would not permit him to attempt any bad ac- 
tions; but that, for his own part, he was con- 
tented with the kingdom of Egypt.” By which 
discourse he persuaded the people of Antioch 
toreceive Demetrius. 

8. But now Alexander made haste with a 
numerous and great army, and came out of 
Cilicia into Syria, and burnt the country be- 
longing to Antioch, and pillaged it; whereupon 
Ptolemy, and his son-in-law Demetrius, brought 
their army against him, (for he had already 
given him his daughter in marriage,) and beat 
Alexander, and put him to flight, and accord- | 
ingly he fled into Arabia. Now it happened | 
in the time of the battle, that Ptolemy’s horse, 
upon hearing the noise of an elephant, cast 
him off his back, and threw him on the ground; 
upon the sight of which accident, his enemies 
fell upon him, and gave him many wou.ds 
upon his head, and brought him into danger of 
death; for when his guards caught him up, he 
was so very ill, that for four days’ time, he was 
not able either to understand or to speak. 
However, Zabdiel, a prince among the Ara- 
bians, cut off Alexander’s head, and sent it to 
Ptolemy, who recovering of his wounds, and 
returning to his understanding on the fifth day, 
heard at once a most agreeable hearing, ana | 
saw a most agreeable sight, which were, the 
death and the head of Alexander; yet a little 
after this his joy for the death of Alexander. 
with which he was so greatly satisfied, he also 
departed this life. Now Alexander, who was 
called Balas, reigned over Asia five years; ag 
we have elsewhere related. 

9. But when Demetrius, who was styled 


316 


Nicator,* had taken the kingdom, he was so 
wicked as to treat Ptolemy’s soldiers very 
hardly, neither remembering the league of mu- 
tual assistance that was between them, nor that 
he was his son-in-law and kinsman, by Cleo- 
patra’s marriage to him; so the soldiers fled 
from his wicked treatment to Alexandria, but 
Demetrius kept his elephants. But Jonathan 
the high priest levied an army out of all Judea, 
and attacked the citadel at Jerusalem, and be- 
sieged it; it was held by a garrison of Mace- 
donians, and by some of those men who had 
deserted the customs of their forefathers. ‘These 
men at first despised the attempts of Jonathan 
for taking the place, as depending on its 
strength; but some of those wicked men went 
out by night and came to Demetrius, and in- 
formed him that the citadel was besieged, who 
was irritated with what he heard, and took his 
army, and came from Antioch against Jona- 
than. And when he was at Antioch, he wrote 
to him, and commanded him to come to him 
qitickly to Ptolemais; upon which Jonathan 
d).1 not intermit the siege of the citadel, but 
to»k with him the elders of the people, and the 
priests, and carried with him gold and silver, 
aii garments, and a great number of presents 
of friendship, and came to Demetrius, and 
pr2sented him with them, and thereby pacified 
tli: king’s anger. So he was honored by him, 
and received from him the confirmation of his 
high priesthood, as he had possessed it by the 
grants of the kings his predecessors. And 
when the Jewish deserters accused him, De- 
metrius was so far from giving credit to them, 
that when he petitioned him that he would de- 
nyind no more than three hundred talents for 
the tribute of all Judea, and the three toparchies 
of Samaria, and Perea, and Galilee, he com- 
plied with the proposal, and gave him a letter 
confirming all those grants, whose contents 
were as follows: “King Demetrius to Jonathan 
his brother, and to the nation of the Jews, 
sendeth greeting: We have sent you a copy of 
tl it epistle which we have written to Lasthenes 
ou: kinsman, that you may know its contents. 
K ng Demetrius to Lasthenes vur father, send- 
et greeting: I have determined to return 
thanks, and to show favor to the nation of the 
Jews, who hath observed the rules of justice 
in our concerns. Accordingly, I remit to them 
the three prefectures, Apherima, and Lydda, 
and Ramatha, which have been added to Judea 
out of Samaria, with their appurtenances; as 
also what the kings, my predecessors, received 
from those that offered sacrifices in Jerusalem, 
and what are due from the fruits of the earth, 
and of the trees, and what else belongs to us; 
with the salt pits and the crowns that used to 
be presented to us. Nor shall they be com- 
pelled to pay any of these taxes from this time 
to all futurity. Take care, therefore, that a 
copy of this epistle be taken and given to Jo- 
nathan, and be set up in an eminent place of 
their holy temple.” And these were the con- 


* This name, Demetrius Nicator, or Demetrius the conquer- 
or, isso written on his coins still extant, as Hudson and 
Spanbeim inform us; the latter of whom gives us here: the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 







tents of this writing. And now when 
trius saw that there was peace everywhere, 
that there was no danger, nor fear of war, 
disbanded the greatest part of his army, 
diminished their pay, and even retained in 
no others but such foreigners as came up with 
him from Crete, and from the other islands, 
However, this procured him ill will and hatred 
from the soldiers, on whom he bestowed noth 
ing from this time, while the kings before him 
used to pay them in time of peace, as they did 
before, that they might have their good will 
and that they might be very ready to undergo 
the difficulties of war, if any occasion shoul 
require it. } 


CHAPTER V. 


How Trypho, after he had beaten Demetrius, de- 
livered the kingdom to Antiochus, the son 
Alexander, and eaten Jonathan for his assis 
ant, and concerning the actions and embassies 
of Jonathan. : 


§ 1. Now there was a certain commander of 
Alexander’s forces, an Apamian by birth, whose 
name was Diodotus, and was also called Try- 
pho, who took notice of the ill will the soldiers 
bore to Demetrius, and went to Malchus, the 
Arabian who brought up Antiochus, the son of 
Alexander, and told him what ill will the ar- 
my bore Demetrius, and persuaded him to give 
him Antiochus, because he would make him 
king, and recover to him the kingdom of hi 
father. Malchus at the first opposed him in 
this attempt, because he could not believe him, 
but when Trypho lay hard at him fora | 
time he over-persuaded him to comply wi 
Trypho’s intentions and entreaties. Aud 
was the state Trypho was now in. 

2. But Jonathan the high priest, being de 
rous to get clear of those that were in the cite 
del of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish deserten 
and wicked men, as well as of those in all the 
garrisons in the country, sent presents and an 
bassadors to Demetrius, and entreated him to 
take away his soldiers out of the strong holds 
of Judea. Demetrius made answer, that afte 
the war, which he was now deeply engaged ip, 
was over, he would not only grant him that, 
but greater things than that also, and he desir- 
ed he would send him some assistance; and in- 
formed him that his army had deserted him. 
So Jonathan chose out three thousand of his 
soldiers, and sent them to Demetrius. te 

3. Now the people of Antioch hated Demetri- 
us, both on account of what mischiefhe had him- 
self done them, and because they were his ene- 
mies, also on account of his father Demetr 
who had greatly abused them; so they wa 
some opportunity which they might lay ho 
on, to fall upon him. And when they were 
formed of the assistance that was coming tt 
Demetrius from Jonathan, and considered at 
the same time that he would raise a nume! 
army, unless they prevented him, and se 
upon him, they took their weapons :mme 


: 






















entire inscription, King Demetrius the Gai Philadet 
cator. ; 


y ana encompassed his palace in the way of 
‘siege, and seizing upon all the ways of get- 
“ung out, they sought to subdue their king. 
And when he saw that the people of Antioch 
‘were become his bitter enemies, and that they 
| were thus in armns, he took the mercenary sol- 
‘diers, which he had with him, and those Jews 
“who were sent by Jonathan, and assaulted the 
 Antiochians, but he was overpowered by them, 
‘for they were many ten thousands, and was 
beaten. But when the Jews saw that the An- 
‘Hochians were superior, they went up to the 
opoft the palace, and shot at them from thence; 
‘and because they were so remote from them 
by their height, that they suffered nothing on 
heir side, but did great execution on the oth- 
ers, as fighting from such an elevation, they 
‘drove them out of the adjoining houses, and 
. immediately set them on fire, whereupon the 
flame spread itself over the whole city, and 
‘burnt it all down. This happened by reason 
of the closeness of the houses, and because 
‘they were generally built of wood; so the An- 
‘tiochians, when they were not able to help 
‘themselves, nor to stop the fire, were put to 
flight. And asthe Jews leaped from the top 
of one house to the top of another, and pursu- 
ed them after that manner, it thence happened 
that the pursuit was so very surprising. But 
when the king saw that the Antiochians were 
‘very busy in saving their children and their 
wives, and so did not fight any longer, he fell 
apon them in the narrow passages, and fought 
them, and slew a great number of them, till at 
last they were forced to throw down their arms, 
and to deliver themselves up to Demetrius. 
So he forgave them this their insolent behavior, 
and put an end to the sedition: and when he 
had given rewards to the Jews out of the rich 
ee he had gotten, and had returned them 
thanks, as the cause of his victory, he sent them 
‘away to Jerusalem to Jonathan, with an ample 
‘testimony of the assistance they had afforded 
him. Yet did he prove an ill man to Jonathan 
afterwards, and broke the promises he had 
Made; and he threatened that he would make 
‘war upon him, unless he would pay all that 
tmbute which the Jewish nation owed to the 
first kings ngs Syria.] And this he had done, 
if Trypho had not hindered him, and diverted 
his preparations against Jonathan, to a concern 
for his own preservation; for he now returned 
‘out of Arabia into Syria, with the child Antio- 
‘hus, for he was yet in age but a youth, and 
put the diadem on his head; and as the whole 
forces, that had left Demetrius, because they 
no pay, came to his assistance, he made 
‘war upon Demetrius, and joining battle with 
‘him, overcame him in the fight, and took 
‘from him both his elephants and the city of 
Antioch. 
__ 4. Demetrius upon his defeat retired into 
‘Cilicia: but the child Antiochus sent ambas- 
‘gadors and an epistle to Jonathan, and made 
him his friend and confederate, and confirmed 
to him the high priesthood, and yielded up to 
him the four prefectures which had been add- 
ed to Judea. Moreover, he sent him vessels 







i 


BOOK XIII.—CHAPTER V. 


317 


and cups of gold, and a purple garment; and 
gave him leave to use them. He also present- 
ed him with a golden button, and styled him 
one of his principal friends, and appointed his 
brother. Simon to be the general over the forces, 
from the ladder of Tyre unto Egypt. So Jona- 
than was so well pleased with these grants 
made him by Antiochus, that he sent ambassa- 
dors to him, and to Trypho, and professed him- 
self to be their friend and confederate, and 
said he would join with him in a war against 
Demetrius, informing him that he had made 
no proper returns for the kindnesses he had 
done him; for that when he had received many 
marks of kindness from him, when he stood 
in great need of them, he, for such good turns, 
had requited him with further injuries. 

5. So Antiochus gave Jonathan leave to raise 
himself a numerous army out of Syria and 
Pheenicia, and to make war against Demetrius’s 
generals; whereupon he went in haste to the 
several cities, which received him splendidly 
indeed, but put no forces into his hands. And 
when he was come from thence to Askelon, 
the inhabitants of Askelon came and brought 
him presents, and met him ina splendid man- 
ner. He exhorted them, and every one of the 
cities of Coelosyria, to forsake Demetrius, and 
to join with Antiochus; and in assisting hirn, 
to endeavor to punish Demetrius for what cf 


fences he had been guilty of against themselves; 4 


and told them there were many reasons for 
that their procedure, if they had a mind so to 
do. And when he had persuaded those cities 
to promise their assistance to Antiochus, he 
came to Gaza, in order to induce them also to 
be friends to Antiochus; but he found the in- 
habitants of Gaza much more alienated from 
him than he expected, for they shut their gates 
against him, and although they had deserted 
Demetrius, they had not resolved to join theim- 
selves to Antiochus. This provoked Jonathan 
to besiege them, and to harass their country, 
for as he set a part of his army round about 


-Gaza itself, so with the rest he overran their 


land, and spoiled it, and burnt what was in it. 
When the inhabitants of Gaza saw themselves 
in this state of affliction, and that no assistance 
came to them from Demetrius, that what dis- 
tressed them was at hand, but what should pro- 
fit them was still at a great distance, and it was 
uncertain whether it would come at all or not, 
they thought it would be prudent conduct te 
leave off any longer continuance with him, 
and to cultivate friendship with the other; so 
they sent to Jonathan, and professed they would 
be his friends, and afford him assistance; for 
such is the temper of men, that before they 
have had the trial of great afflictions, they de 
not understand what is for their advantage; but 
when they find themselves under such afflic- 
tions, they then change their minds; and what 
it had been better for them to have done before 
they had been at all damaged, they choose to 


do, but not till after they have suffered such - 


damages. However, he made a league of 
friendship with them, and took from them host 
ages for their performance of it, and sent theas 


318 


hostages to Jerusalem, while he went himself 
over all the country as far as Damascus. 

6. But when he heard that the generals of 
Demetrius’s forces were come to the city Ka- 
desh with a numerous army, (the place lies be- 
tween the land of the Tyrians and Galilee,) for 
they supposed they should hereby draw him 
out of Syria, in order to preserve Galilee, and 
that he would not overlook the Galileans, who 
were his own people, when war was made upon 
them, he went to meet them, having left Simon 
in Judea, who raised as great an army as he 
was able out of the country, and then sat down 
before Bethsura and besieged it, that being the 
strongest place in all Judea, and a garrison of 
Demetrius kept it, as we have already related. 
But as Simon was raising banks, and bringing 
his engines of war against Bethsura, and was 
very earnest about the siege of it, the garrison 
was afraid: lest the place should be taken of 
Simon by force, and they put to the sword: so 
they sent to Simon, and desired the security of 
his oath, that they should come to no harm 
from him, and that they would leave the place, 
and go away to Demetrius. Accordingly he 
gave them his oath, and ejected them out of 
the city, and he put therein a garrison of his 
own. 

7. But Jonathan removed out of Galilee, and 

from the waters which are called Gennesar, 
for there he was before encamped, and came 
into the plain that is called Asor, without know- 
ing that the enemy was there. When, there- 
fore, Demetrius’s men knew a day beforehand, 
that Jonathan was coming against them, they 
laid an ambush in the mountain, who were to 
assault him on the sudden,;while they them- 
selves met him with an arnsy in the plain, which 
army, when Jonathan saw ready to engage him, 
he also got ready his own soldiers for the bat- 
tle as well as he was able; but those that were 
laid in ambush by Demetrius’s generals being 
behind them, the Jews were afraid lest they 
should be caught in the midst between two 
bodies, and perish, so they ran away in haste, 
and indeed all the rest left Jonathan; but afew 
there were, in number about fifty, who staid 
with him, and with them Mattathias the son of 
Absalom, and Judas the son of Chapseus, who 
were commanders of the whole army. ‘These 
marched boldly, and like men desperate against 
‘the enemy, and so pushed them, that by their 
courage they daunted them, and with their 
weapons in their hands they put them to flight. 
And when those soldiers of Jonathan that had 
retired saw the enemy giving way, they got 
together after their flight and pursued them 
with great violence, and this did they as far as 
Kadesh, where the camp of the enemy lay. 

8. Jonathan having thus gotten a glorious 
victory, and slain two thousand of the enemy, 
returned to Jerusalem. So when he saw that 
aif lis affairs prospered according to bis mind, 
by the providence of God, he sent ambassa- 

.. dors to the Romans, being desirous of renew- 
ing that friendship which their nation had with 
them formerly. le enjoined the same ambas- 
waders that as they came back, they should go 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JiSWs 


to the Spartans, and put them im mind of thetr 
friendship and kindred. So when the ambassa- 
dors came to Rome, they went into their se 
nate, and said what they were commanded by 
Jonathan the high priest to say, how he had 
sent them to confirm their friendship. ‘The 
senate then confirmed what had been formerly 
decreed concerning their friendship with the 
Jews; and gave them letters to carry to all the 
kings of Asia and Europe, and to the govern-~ 
ors of the cities, that they might safely con-— 
duct them to their own country. According-— 
ly, as they returned, they came to Sparta and 
delivered the epistle which they had received — 
of Jonathan to them; a copy of which here 
follows: “Jonathan the high priest of the Jew- 
ish nation, and the senate, and body of the” 
people of the Jews, to the ephori and senate,” 
aud people of the Lacedemonians, send greet-_ 
ing: Lf you be well, and both your pubiic ang 
private affairs be agreeable to your minds, it is~ 
according to our wishes. We are well also. 
When in former times an epistle was brought 
to Onias, who was then our high priest, from 
Areus, who at that time was your king, by De- 
moteles, concerning the kindred that was be-— 
tween us and you, a copy of which is he 
subjoined, we both joyfully received the epistle, 
and were well pleased with Demoteles and Are- 
us, although we did not need such a demon-— 
stration, because we were well satisfied about 
it from the sacred writings,* yet did not we 
think fit, first to begin the claim of this rela- 
tion to you, lest we should seem too early in 
taking to ourselves the glory which is now giv- 
en us by you. It is a long time since this re- 
lation of ours to you hath been renewed; and 
when we, upon holy and festival days, offer sa- 
crifices to God, we pray to him for your pre-" 
servation and victory. As to ourselves, although” 
we have had many wars that have compassed 
us around, by reason of the covetousness of 
our neighbors, yet did we not determine to be 
troublesome either to you, or to others that 
were related to us; but since we have now 
overcome our enemies, and have occasion te, 
send Numenius, the son of Antiochus, and Ap- 
tipater the son of Jason, who are both honora-~ 
ble men belonging to our senate, to the Romans, 
we gave them this epistle to you also, that they 
might renew that friendship which is between 
us. You will, therefore, do well yourselves to 
write to us, and send us an account of what 
you stand in need of from us, smce we are i 
all things disposed to act according to your de- 
sires.” So the Lacedemonians received the 
ambassadors kindly; and made a decree fo 
friendship and mutual assistance, and sent it t 
them. a 

9. At this time there were three sects among 
the Jews, who had different opinions concern 

* This clause is otherwise rendered in the first book of t 
Maccabees, xii. 9, For that we have the holy books of 
ture in our hands to comfort us. The Hebrew original 
lost, we cannot certainly judge which was the truest ¥ 
only the coherence favors Josephus. But if this w: 
Jews’ meaning, that they were satisfied out of their 
that the Jews and Lacedemonians were of kin, that ps 


their Bible is now lost, for we find no such assertion im 
present copier — ' 










































4 


¢ 


fa fs | 


mg human actions; the one was called the sect 
‘of the Pharisees, another the sect of the Sad- 
‘ducees, and the other the sect of the Essenes. 
‘Now for the Pharisees,* they say that some ac- 
tions, but not all, are the work of fate, and some 
of them are in our own power, and that they 
-are liable to fate, but are not caused by fate. 
‘But the sect of the Essenes affirm, that fate 
‘governs all things, and that nothing befalls men 
but what is according to its determination. 
And for the Sadducees, they take away fate, 
‘and say there is no such thing, and that the 
events of human affairs are not at its disposal, 
but they suppose that all our actions are in our 
“awn power, so that we are ourselves the causes 
Of what is good, and receive what is evil from 
our own folly. However, I have given a more 
exact account of these opinions in the second 
‘book of the Jewish War. 
_ 10. But now the generals of Demetrius, be- 
‘ing willing to recover the defeat they had had, 
‘gathered a greater army together than they 
Baa before, and came against Jonathan; but as 
goon as he was informed of their coming, he 
‘went suddenly to meet them, to the country of 
Hamoth, for he resolved to give them no op- 
ortunity of coming into Judea, so he pitched 
his camp at fifty furlongs distant from the ene- 
‘my and sent out spies to take a view of their 
‘camp, and after what manner they were en- 
amped. ‘When his spies had given him full 
information, and had seized upon some of 
them by night, who told bim the enemy would 
g00n attack him, he, thus apprized beforehand, 
provided for his security, and placed watchmen 
Bond his camp, and kept all his forces armed 
all night; and he gave them a charge to be of 
‘good courage, and to have their minds prepar- 
ec to fight in the night-time, if they should be 
obliged to do so, lest their enemies’ designs 
should seem concealed from them. But when 
‘Demetrius’s commanders were informed that 
Jonathan knew what they intencled, their coun- 
sels were disordered, and it alarmed them to 
find that the enemy had discovered those their 
intentions, nor did they expect to overcome 
them any other way, now they had: failed in 
- snares they had laid for them; for should 
ey hazard an open battle, they did not think 
they should be a match for Jonathan’s army, 
80 they resolved to fly: and having lighted many 
fires, that when the enemy saw them they 


2 
Ln 


pert suppose they were there still, they retired. 
ut when Jonathan came to give them battle 
in the morning in their camp, and found it de- 


_ * Those that suppose Josephus to contradict himself in his 
three several accounts of the notions of the Pharisees, this 

here, and that earlier one, which is the largest, Of the War, 
'b. ii. ch. viii. sect. 14; and the later, Antiq. b. xviii. ch. i. 
‘sect. 3; as if he sometimes said they introduced an absolute 
fatality, and denied all freedom of human actions, is almost 
wholly groundless; he ever, as the very learned Casaubon 
bere truly observes, asserting, that the Pharisees were be- 
‘tween the Essenes and Sadducees, and did only so far as- 
_ eribe all to fate or divine Providence, as was consistent with 
‘the freedom of human actions. However, their perplexed 
way of talking about fate or providence as overruling all 
‘things, made it commonly thought they were willing to ex- 
' Suse their sins by ascribing them to fate, as in the Apostoli- 
Sal Constitutions, b. vi. ch. vi. Perhaps under the same gen- 
4 name some difference of opinion in this point might 
9 propagated, as is very common in all parties, especially 
ig 49 


aie 
ae. 


‘ 
4 


a 


a er | BOOK XI11.—CHAPTER V. 


319 


serted, and understood they were fled, he pur- 
sued them, yet he could not overtake them, for 
they had already passed over the river Eleu- 
therus, and were out of danger. So when 
Jonathan was returned thence, he went inte 
Arabia, and fought against the Nabateans, and 
drove away a great deal of their prey, and took 
[many] captives, and came to Damascus, and 
there sold off what he had taken. About the 
same time it was, that Simon his brother went 
over all Judea and Palestine, as far as Askelon 
and fortified the strong holds; and when he 
had made them very strong, both in the edi- 
fices erected, and in the garrisons placed in 
them, he came to Joppa, and when he had 
taken it, he brought a great garrison into it, for 
he heard that the people of Joppa were dis- 
posed to deliver up the city to Demetrius’s 
generals. 

11. When Simon and Jonathan had finished 
these affairs, they returned to Jerusalem, where 
Jonathan gathered all the people together, and 
took counsel to restore the walls of Jerusalem, 
and to rebuild the wall that encompassed the 


temple, which had been thrown down, and te } 


make the places adjoining stronger by very high 
towers; and besides that, to build another wall 
in the midst of the city, in order to exclude the 
market-place from the garrison, which was in 
the citadel, and by that means to hinder them 
from any plenty of provisions; and moreover 
to make the fortresses that were in the country 
much stronger, and more defensible, than they 
were before. And when these things were ap- 
proved of by the multitude, as rightly propos- 
ed, Jonathan himself" took care of the building 


that belonged to the city, and sent Simon away 


to make the fortresses in the country more se- 
cure than formerly. But Demetrius passed 
over {Kuphrates,] and came into Mesopotamia, 
as desirous to retain that country still, as well 
as Babylon; and when he should have obtain- 
ed the dominion of the upper provinces, to lay 
a foundation for recovering his entire kingdom; 
for those Greeks and Macedonians who dwelt 
there, frequently sent ambassadors to him, and 
promised, that if he would cometo them, they 
would deliver themselves up to him, and as- \ 
sist him in fighting against Arsaces,* the king 
of the Parthians. So he was elevated with 
these hopes, and came hastily to them, as hay 
ing resolved that, if he bad once overthrown 
the Parthians, and gotten an army of his own, 
he would make war against Trypho, and eject 
him out of Syria; and the people of that coun- 


in points of metaphysical subtility: however, our Josephus, 
who in his heart was a great admirer of the piety of the Es- 
senes, was yet in practice a Pharisee, as he himself informe 
us, in his own Life, sect.2. And his account of this doc- 
trine of the Pharisees, is for certain agreeable to his own 
opinion, who both fully allowed the freedom of human ae 
tions, and yet strongly believed the powerful interposition of 
divine Providence. See concerning this matter a remarka- 
ble clause, Antiq. b. xvi. ch. xi. sect. 7. 

* This king, who was of the famous race of Arsaces, is 
both here, and 1 Mac. xiv. 2, called by the family name .4r 
saces, but Appian says, his proper name was Phraates. He 
is also called by Josephus, the king of the Purthians, as the 
Greeks used to call them, but by the elder aurhor of the firat 
book of Maccabees, the king of the Persians and Metes, ae 
cording to the language of the eastern natious. See Autheat 
Rec. part ii. p. 1108. 


‘ 


try received him with great alacrity. So he 
raised forces with which he fought against 
Arsaces, and lost all his army, and was himself 
taken alive, as we have elsewhere related. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How Jonathan was slain by treachery; and how 
thereupon the Jews made Simon their general 
and igh priest; what courageous actions he 

also performed, especially against Trypho. 

§ 1. Now when Trypho knew what had be- 
(fallen Demetrius, he was no longer firm to 
Antiochus, but contrived by subtility to kill him, 
and then take possession of his kingdom: but 
the fear that he was in of Jonathan was an ob- 
stacle to this his design, for Jonathan was 
a friend to Antiochus, for which cause he re- 
solved first to take Jonathan out of the way, 
and then to set about his design relating to An- 
tiochus: but he judging it best to take him off 
by deceit and treachery, came from Antioch to 
Bethshan, which by the Greeks is called Scy- 
thopolis, at which place Jonathan met him with 
forty thousand chosen men, for he thought that 
he came to fight him; but when he perceived 
that Jonathan was ready to fight, he attempted 
to gain him by presents and kind treatment, and 
gave order to his captains to obey him, and by 
these means was desirous to give assurance of 
his good will, and to take away all suspicions 
out of his mind, that so he might make him 
careless and inconsiderate, and might take him 
when he was unguarded. He also advised him 
to dismiss his army, because there was no occa- 
sion for bringing it with him when there was 
no war, but all was in peace. However, he 
desired him to retain a few about him, and go 
with him to Ptolemais, for that he would de- 
liver the city up to him, and would bring all 
the fortresses that were in the country under 
his dominion; and he told him, that he came 
with those very designs. 

2. Yet did not Jonathan suspect any thing 
at all by this his management, but believed that 
Trypho gave him this advice out of kindness, 
and with a sincere design. Accordingly, he 
dismissed his army; and retained no more than 
three thousand of them with him, and left two 
thousand in Galilee, and he himSelf,; with one 
thousand, came with Trypho to Ptolemais: but 
when the people of Ptolemais had shut their 
gates, as it had been commanded by Trypho to 
do, he took Jonathan alive; and slew all that 
were with him. He also sent soldiers against 
those two thousand that were left in Galilee, in 
order to destroy them; but those men having 
heard the report of what had happened to Jo- 
nathan, they prevented the execution, and be- 
fore those that were sent by Trypho came, they 
covered themselves with their armor, and went 
away out of the country. Now when those 
that were sent against them saw that they were 
ready to fight for their lives, they gave them 
no disturbance, but returned back to Trypho. 

3. But when the people of Jerusalem heard 
tnat Jonathan was taken, and that the soldiers 
who were with him were destroyed, they deplor- 
ed his sad fate, and there was earnest inquiry 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


made about him by every body, and a greag 
and just fear fell upon them, and made — 
sad, lest now they were deprived of the cou 
rage and conduct of Jonathan, the nations about 
them should bear them ill will; and as they 
were before quiet on account of Jonathan, they 
should now rise up against them, and by mak 
ing war with them, should force them into the 
utmost dangers. And indeed what they sus 
pected really befell them for when those nations 
heard of the death of Jonathan, they began te 
make war with the Jews as now destitute of 
a governor; and Trypho himself got an army 
together, and had an intention to go up to Ju- 
dea, and make war against its inhabitants. Bui 
when Simon saw that the people of Jerusalem 
were terrified at the circumstances they were 
in, he desired to make a speech to them, and 
thereby to render them more resolute in op 
posing T'rypho when he should come against 
them. He then called the people together into 
the temple, and thence began thus to encou- 
rage them: “O my countrymen, you are not 
ignorant that our father, myself, and my breth 
ren, have ventured to hazard our lives, and that 
willingly, forthe recovery of your liberty; since 
I have, therefore, such plenty of examples be. 
fore me, and we of our family have determin 
ed with ourselves to die for our laws, and ow 
divine worship, there shall no terror be so great 
as to banish this resolution from our souls, nor 
to introduce in its place a love of life, and a cca- 
tempt of glory. Do you, therefore, follow ine 
with alacrity whithersoever I shall lead you, as 
not destitute of such a captain as is willing to 
suffer, and to do the greatest things for ycu 
for neither am I better than my brethren tha I 
should be sparing of my own life, nor so ‘ar 
worse than they as to avoid and refuse wt at 
they thought the most honorable of all things; 
I mean, to undergo death for your laws, and for 
that worship of God which is peculiar to you, £ 
will therefore give such proper demonstrations 
as wil] show that I am their own brother; and 
I am so’ bold as to expect that I shall avenge 
their blood upon our enemies, and deliver you 
all, with your wives and children, from the im 
juries they intend against you, and, with God’a 
assistance, to preserve your temple from de- 
struction by them, for I see that these nations 
have you in contempt, as being without a go- 
vernor, and that they thence are encou to 
make war against you.” | 
4. By this speech of Simon’s he inspired the 
multitude with courage, and as they had bee 
before dispirited through fear, they were now 
raised to a good hope of better things, insomue 
that the whole multitude of the people eri 
out all at once, that Simon should be thet 
leader: and that instead of Judas and Jonathan 
his brethren, he should have the government 
over them: and they promised that they would 
readily obey him in whatsoever he shoul : 
mand them. So he got together immediately 
all his own soldiers that were fit for war, and 
made haste in rebuilding the walls of the city 
and strengthening them by very high and strong 
towers, and sent a friend of his, one Jonathas 











PAL i 
oxy: 





tha 
of fi 


the son of Absalom, to Joppa, and gave him 


orders to eject the inhabitants out of the city. 


fer he was afraid lest they should deliver up the 
city to Trypho, but he himself stayed to secure 
Jerusalem. 

_ 5. But Trypho removed from Ptolemais with 
a great army, and came into Judea, and brought 
Jonathan with him in bonds. Simon also met 
him with his army, at the city Adida, which is 
apon a hill, and beneath it lie the plains of Ju- 
dea. And when Trypho knew that Simon was 
by the Jews made their governor, he sent to 
him, and would have imposed upon him by 
deceit and treachery; and desired, if he would 
have his brother Jonathan released, that he 
would send him a hundred talents of silver, 
and two of Jonathan’s sons as hostages, that 
when he shall be released, he may not make 
Judea revolt from the king, for that at present 
he was kept in bonds on account of the money 
he had borrowed of the king, and now owed 
itto him. But Simon was aware of the craft 
of Trypho, and although he knew that if he 
gave him the money, he should lose it, and 
that Trypho would not set his brother free, and 
withall, should deliver the sons of Jonathan to 
the enemy, yet because he was afraid that he 
should have a calumny raised against him 
among the multitude as the cause of his bro- 
ther’s death, if he neither gave the money nor 
sent Jonathan’s sons, he gathered his army to- 
gether, and told them what offers Trypho had 
made, and added this, that the offers were en- 
snaring and treacherous, and yet that it was 
more eligible to send the money and Jonathan’s 
sons than to be liable to the imputation of not 
complying with Trypho’s offers, and thereby 
refusing to save his brother. Accordingly, Si- 
mon sent the sons of Jonathan and the money; 
but when Trypho had received them, he did not 
keep his promise, nor set Jonathan free, but 
isk his army, and went about all the country, 
‘and resolved to go afterward to Jerusalem by 
ithe way of Idumea, while Simon went over 
‘against him with his army, and all along pitch- 
‘ed his own camp over against his. 
‘' 6. But when those that were in the citadel 
‘had sent to Trypho, and besought him to make 
‘haste and come to them, and to send them pro- 
visions, he prepared his cavalry as though he 
would be at Jerusalem that very night, but so 
‘great a quantity of snow fell in the night, that 
it covered the roads, and made them so deep 
that there was no passing, especially for the 
savalry. This hindered him from coming to 
‘Jerusalem; whereupon Trypho removed thence 
hand came into Ccelosyria, and falling vehe- 
‘mently upon the iand of Gilead, he slew Jona- 
than there, and when he had given order for 
his burial, he returned himself to Antioch. 
However, Simon sent some to the city Basca 
to bring away his brother’s bones, and buried 
em in their own city Modin; and all the peo- 
le made great lamentation over him. Simon 
‘also erected a very large monument for his 
father and his brethren, of white and polished 
stone, and raised it a great height, and so as to 
3 seen a long way off, and made cloisters 

2, . 

















ee BOOK XIII—CHAPTER VI. 


52t 


about it, and set up pillars, which were of one 
stone apiece; a work it was wonderful to see, 
Moreover, he built seven pyramids also for his 
parents and his brethren, one for each of them, 
which were made very surprising, both for 
their largeness and beauty, and which have 
been preserved to this day; and we know that 
it was Simon who bestowed so much zeal 
about the burial of Jonathan, ard the building 
of these monuments for his relations. Now 
Jonathan died when he had been high priest 
four years,* and had been also the governor of 
his nation. And these were the circumstances 
that concerned his death. 

7. But Simon, who was made high priest ty 
the multitude, on the very first year of his high 
priesthood set his people free from their slavery 
under the Macedonians, and permitted them te 
pay tribute to them no longer; which liberty 
and freedom from tribute they obtained aftei a 
hundred and seventy years of the kingdom of 
the Assyrians,t which was after Seleucus, w i0 
was called Nicator, got the dominion over &y 
ria. Now the affection of the multitude o- 
wards Simon was so great, that in their ccn- 
tracts one with another, and in the public ; e- 
cords, they wrote, “In the first year of Simon 
the benefactor and ethnarch of the Jews:” ‘or 
under him they were very happy, and overcaine 
the enemies that were round about them, for 
Simon overthrew the city Gazara, and Joppa, 
and Jamnia. He also took the citadel of Je- 
rusalem by siege, and cast it down to the ground, 
that it might not be any more a place of refi'ge 
to their enemies when they took it, to do them 
a mischief, as it had been tillnow. And wien 
he had done this, he thought it their best way 
and most for their advantage, to level the very 
mountain itself upon which the citadel bup- 
pened to stand, that so the temple might be 
higher than it. And, indeed, when he lad 
called the multitude to an assembly, he per- 
suaded them to have it so demolished, and 
this by putting them in mind what miseries 
they had suffered by its garrison, and the Jew- 
ish deserters, and what miseries they might 


* There is some great error in the copies here, when ne 
more than four years are ascribed to the high priesthood of 
Jonathan. We know by Josephus’s last Jewish chronology, 
Antiq. b. xx. ch. x. that there was an interval of seven years 
between the death of Alcimus or Jacimus, the last high 
priest, and the real high priesthood of Jonathan, to whom 
yet those seven years seem here to be ascribed, as a part of 
them were to Judas before, Antiq. b. xii. chap. x. sect. 6. 
Now since, besides these seven years interregnum in the 
pontificate, we are told, Antiq. b. xx. ch. x. that Jonathan’s 
real high priesthood lasted seven years more, these two seven 
years will make up fourteen years, which I suppose was Jo- 
sephus’s own number in this place, instead of the four in our 
present copies. 

+ These 170 years of the Assyrians mean no more, as Jo 
sephus explains himself here, than from the era of Seleucus, 
which, as itis known to have begun on the 312th year before 
the Christian era, from its spring in the first book of Macca- 
bees, and from its autumn in the second book of Maccabees, 
so didit not begin at Babylon till the next spring on the 311th 
year. See Prid. atthe year 312. And itis truly observed by 
Dr. Hudson on this place, that the Syrians and Assyrians are 
sometimes confounded in ancient authors, according to the 
words of Justin the epitomizer of Trogus Pompeius, whe 
says, ‘“I'hat the Assyrians were afterward called Syrians,” 
b. i. ch. xi. See Of the War,b. v. ch. ix. sect. » Whers 
the Philistines themselves, at the very south limit of Syria, 
in its utmost extent, are called Assyrians by Josephus, a 
Spanheim observes. 


hereafter suffer in case any foreigner should 
obtain the kingdom, and put a garrison into 
that citadel. This speech induced the multi- 
tude to a compliance, because he exhorted them 
to do nothing but what was for their own good: 
so they all set themselves to the work, and 
levelled the mountain, and in that work spent 
both day and night without any intermission, 
which cost them three whole years before it 
was removed, and brought to an entire level 
with the plain of the rest of the city. After 
which the temple was the highest of all the 
puildings, now the citadel, as well as the inoun- 
tain whereon it stood, were demolished. And 
these actions were thus performed under Simon. 


CHAPTER VII. 

How Simon confederated himself with Antiochus 
Pius, and made war with Trypho: and a little 
ifterward against Cendebeus, the general of 
Antiochus’s army; as also how Simon was 
murdered by his son-in-law Ptolemy and that 
by treechery. 

§ 1. Now a little while after Demetrius had 
been carried into captivity,* Trypho his gov- 
ernor destroyed Antiochus the son of Alexan- 
der.t who was also called the god,t and this 
when he had reigned four years, though he 
gave it out that he died under the hands of the 
surgeons. He then sent his friends, and those 
that were most intimate with him, to the sol- 
diers; and promised that he would give them 
a great deal of money if they would make him 
king. He intimated to them that Demetrius 


* It must be here diligently noted, that Josephus’s copy 
ef the first book of Maccabees, which he had so carefully 
foilowed, and faithfully abridged as far as the 50th verse of 
the 13th chapter, seems there to have ended. What few 
things there are afterward common to both, might probably 
be learned by him from some other more imperfect records. 
However, we must exactly observe here, what the remain- 
ing part of that book of the Maccabees informs us of, and 
amhit Josephus would never have omitted, had his copy con- 
tained so much, that this‘ Simon the Great, the Maccabee, 
made a league with Antiochus Soter, the son of Demetrius 
Soter, and brother of the other Demetrius, who was now a 
eaptive in Parthia, that upon his coming to the crown, about 
the 140th year before the Christian era, he granted great pri- 
vileges to the Jewish nation, and to Simon their high priest 
and ethnarch, which privileges Simon seems to have taken 
ef his own accord, about three years before. In particular 
he gave him leave to coin money for his country, with his 
own stamp; and as concerning Jerusalem, and the sanctua- 
ry, that they should be free, or as the vulgar Latin hath it, 
holy and free, 1 Maccab. xv. 6, 7, which I take to be the true 
reading, as being the very words of his father’s concession 
offered to Jonathan several years before, chap. x. 31, and 
Antiq. b. xiii. ch. ii. sect. 3. Now what makes this date, 
and these grants, greatly remarkable, is the state of the re- 
maining genuine shekels of the Jews with Samaritan cha- 
racters, which seem to have been, most of them at least, 
eoined in the four first years of this Simon the Asmonean, 
and having upon them these words on one side Jerusalem the 
holy, and on the reverse In the year of freedom, 1, or 2, or 3, 
or 4, which shekels therefore are original monuments of those 
times, and undeniable marks of the truth of the history in 
these chapters, though it be in ioe measure omitted by 
Josephus. See Essay on the Old Test. p. 157, 158. The 
reason why I rather suppose that his copy of the Maccabees 
wanted these chapters, than that his own copies are here 
imperfect, is this, that all their contents are not here omitted, 
though much the greater part be. 

+ How Trypho killed this Antiochus, the epitome of Livy 
informs us, chap. 55, viz. that he corrupted his physicians 
or surgeons, who falsely pretending to the people that he 
was perishing with the stone, as they cut him for it, killed 
him, which exactly agrees with Josephus. 

That this Antiochus the son of Alexander Balas, was 

ed the god, is evident from his coins, which Spanheim 
gasures us, bear this inscription, King Antiochus the God, 
Byiphanes the Victorious. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. i 








was made a captive by the Parthians; and theg 
Demetrius’s brother Antiochus, if he came t 
be king, would do them a great deal of mis 
chief, in way of revenge for their revolting 
from his brother. So the soldiers in expecta 
tion of the wealth they should get by bestow-. 
ing the kingdom on ‘Trypho, made him thei 
ruler. However, when Trypho had gainec 
the management of affairs, he demonstrated his 
disposition to be wicked, for while he was a pre 
vate person, he cultivated a familiarity with tne, 
multitude, and pretended to great moderation, 
and so drew them on artfully, to whatsoever he 
pleased; but when he had once taken the king 
dom, he laid aside any farther dissimulation, 
and was the true Trypho, which behavior m 
his enemies superior to him, for the ola 
hated him, and revolted from him to Cleopatra’ 
the wife of Demetrius, who was then shu 
up in Seleucia with her children. But as An- 
tiochus, the brother of Demetrius, who was 
called Soter, was not admitted by any of the 
cities on account of Trypho, Cleopatra sent to 
him, and invited him to marry her, and to take 
the kingdom. The reasons why she made 
this invitation were these: that her friends per 
suaded her to it, and that she was afraid of her- 
self, in case some of the people of Belew 
pe ag deliver up the city to Trypho. q 
¥2. As Antiochus was now come to Seleucia 
and his forces increased every day, he marche¢ 
to fight Trypho; and having beaten him in th 
battle, he ejected him out of the Upper Syrie 
into Phoenicia, and pursued him thither, ane 
besieged him in Dora, which was a fortress 
hard to be taken, whither he had fled. He als 
sent ambassadors to Simon, the Jewish hig 
priest, about a league of friendship and mutus 
assistance; who readily accepted of the invita 
tion, and sent to Antiochus great sums of me 
ney, and provisions, for those that besieged 
Dora, and thereby supplied them very plentt 
fully, so that for a little while he was looked 
upon as one of his most intimate friends: bu 
still Trypho fled from Dora to Apamia, where 
he was taken during the siege, and put to deat 
when he had reigned three years. a 
3. However, Antiochus forgot the kind 4: 
sistance that Simon had afforded him in hist 
cessity, by reason of his covetous and wicke 
disposition, and committed an army of soldie 
to his friend Cendebeus, and sent him at on 
to ravage Judea, and to seize Simon. 
Simon heard of Antiochus’s breaking his leagt 
with him, although he were now im years, } 
provoked with the unjust treatment he had m 
with from Antiochus, and taking a resoluti 
brisker than his age could well bear, he we 
like a young man to act as general of his arm 
He also sent his sons before among the me 
hardy of his soldiers, and he himself marel 
on with his army another way, and laid ma 
of his men in ambushes, in the narrow vall 
between the mountains; nor did he fail of 8 
cess in any one of his attempts, but was | 
hard for his enemies in every one of them. 
he led the rest of his life in peace, and did 4 
himself make a league with the Romans, 


Ms 
.) 2 












































er ee — ee — SS ee 


mother said so, he resolved to take the fortress 


4. Now he was the ruler of the Jews in all 
eight years; but at a feast came to his end. It 
was caused by the treachery of his son-in-law, 
Ptolemy, who caught also his wife and two of 
his sons, and keptthem in bonds. He also sent 
‘some to kill John, the third son, whose name 
was Hyrcanus; but the young man perceiving 
them coming, he avoided the danger he was in 
from them, and made haste into the city [Jeru- 
salem,]* as relying on the good will of the 
‘multitude, because of the benefits they had re- 
teived from his fathers, and because of the ha- 
tred the same multitude bore to Ptolemy: so 
that when Ptolemy was endeavoring to enter 
the city by another gate, they drove him away, 
as having already admitted Hyrcanus. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

_Hyrcanus receives the high priesthood, and gects 
Ptolemy out of the country. Antiochus makes 
war against Hyrcanus, and afterward makes a 
league with him. 


§ 1. So Ptolemy retired to one of the for- 
tresses that was above Jericho, which was call- 
ed Dagon: but Hyrcanus having taken the 
priesthood that had been his father’s before, 
and in the first place propitiated God by sacri- 
fices, he then made an expedition against Ptole- 
my; and when he made his attacks upon the 
place, in other points he was too hard for him, but 
was rendered weaker than he, by the commis- 


BE ik : BOOK XIIL—CHAPTER VII. 


every seventh year, as they do every seventh 
day; so that Ptolemy being for this cause re- 
leased from the war,* he slew the brethren of 
Hyrcanus, and his mother; and when he had 
so done, he fled to Zeno, who was called Coty- 
las, who was then the tyrant of the city oi 
Philadelphia. 

2. But Antiochus being very uneasy at the 
miseries that Simon had brought upon him, he 
invaded Judea in the fourth year of his reign,| 


and the first year of the principality of Hyrca 
nus, in the hundred and sixty-second olym 


piad.t And when he had burnt the country, 


he shut up Hyreanus in the city, which he en- 


compassed round with seven encampments, 
but did nothing at the first, because of the 


strength of the walls, and because of the valor 
of the besieged; although they were once in 


want of water, which yet they were delivered 
from by a large shower of rain, which fell at 


the setting of the Pleiades.~} However, about 
the north part of the wall, where it happened 
the city was upon a level with the outward 
ground, the king raised a hundred towers of 
three stories high, and placed bodies of soldiers 
upon them, and as he made his attacks every 
day, he cut a double ditch, deep and broad, 
and confined the inhabitants within it as within 
a wall; but the besieged contrived to make fre- 


quent sallies out, and if the enemy were not , 


anywhere upon their guard, they fell upon 
them, and did them a great deal of mischief, 
and if they perceived them, they then retired 
into the city with ease. But because Hyrcanus 
discerned the inconvenience of so great a num- 
ber of men in the city, while the provisions 
were the sooner spent by them, and yet, as is 










eration he had for his mother and brethren, and 
by that only, for Ptolemy brought them upon 
the wall, and tormented them in the sight of 
all, and threatened that he would throw them 
down headlong, unless Hyrcanus would leave 
off the siege. Ard as he thought, that so far 


as he relaxed as to the siege and taking of the 
place, so much favor did he show to those that 
were dearest to him by preventing their misery, 
his zeal about it was cooled. However, his 
mother spread out her hands, and begged of 
him that he would not grow remiss on her ac- 
count, but indulge his indignation so much the 
‘more, and that he would do his utmost to take 
the place quickly, in order to get their enemy 
under his power, and then to avenge upon him 
what he had done to those that were dearest 
to himself; for that death would be to her 
‘sweet, though with torment, if that enemy of 
theirs might be brought to punishment for his 
wicked dealings to them. Now, when his 


immediately; but when he saw her beaten, and 
torn to pieces, his courage failed him, and he 
could not but sympathize with what his mother 
suffered, and was thereby overcome. And as 
the siege was drawn out into length by this 
means, that year on which the Jews used to 
rest came on, for the Jews observe this rest 


* Were Josephus begins to follow and to abridge the next 
sacred Hebrew book, styled, in the end of the first book of 
Maccabees, The Chronicles of John’s [Hyrcanus’s] high 
priesthood, but in some of the Greek copies, the fourth book 
of Maccabees. A Greek version of this chronicle was extant 
- not very long ago, in the days of Santes Pagninus, and Six- 
_ Sus Senensis, at Lyons, though it seems to have been there 
‘burnt, and to be now utterly lost. See Sixtus Senensis’s ac- 
count of it, of its many Hebraisms, and its great agreement 
_ with Josephus’s abridgment, in the Authent. Ree. part i. 
od. 206, 207, 208. ‘ 


} 


and fit for war. 





natural to suppose, those great numbers did 


nothing, he separated the useless part, and ex 


cluded them out of the city, and retained that 


part only who were in the flower of their age 
However, Antiochus would 
not let those that were excluded go away, who 
therefore wandering about between the walls, 


* Hence we learn, that in the days of this excellent high 
priest, John Hyrcanus, the observation of the Sabdatic yeur, 
as Josephus supposed, required a rest, from war, as did that 
of the weekly Sabbath from work; I mean this, unless in the 
ease of necessity, when the Jews were attacked by their 
enemies, in which case indeed, and in which alone, they 
then allowed defensive fighting to be lawful even on the 
Sabbath-day, as we see in several places of Josephus, Antiq. 
b. xii. ch. vi. sect. 2; b. xiii. ch. i. sect. 3; Of the War, b. i. 
ch. vii. sect. 3. But then it must be noted, that this rest 
from war noway appears in the first book of Maccabees, 
chap. xvi. but the direct contrary; though indeed the Jews, it 
the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, did not venture upon fight 
ing on the Sabbath-day,even in the defence of their own lives, 
tull the Asmonians or Maccabees decreed so to do, 1 Mac. 
ii. 32—41. Antiq. b. xii. ch. vi. sect. 2. 

} Josephus’s copies, both Greek and Latin, have here z. 
gross mistake, when they say that this first year of Joba 
Hyreanus, which we have just now seen to have been «# 
Sabbatic year, was in the 162d olympiad, whereas, it was 
for certain the second year of the l6lst. See the like be- 
fore, b. xii. ch. vii. sect. 6. 

t This heliacal setting of the Pleiades, or seven stare, 
was in the days of Hyreanus and Josephus, early in the 
spring, about February, the time of the latter rain in Judea: 
and this, so far as [ remember, is the only astronomical cha 
racter of time, besides one eclipse of the moon in the reign 
of Herod, that we meet with in all Josephus, the Jews be- 
ing little accustomed to astronosnicu! observations, any far- 
ther than for the uses of their calendar, and utterly forbiddow 
Aone astrological uses which the heathens commonly made 
of them. 


i 


and consuming away by famine, died misera- 


oly; but when the feast of tabernacles was at 


hand, those that were within commiserated 
their condition, and received them in again. 
And when Hyrcanus sent to Antiochus, and 
desired there might be a truce for seven days, 
because of the festival, he gave way to his piety 
towards God, and made that truce accordingly: 
and besides that, he sent in a magnificent sa- 
erifice, bulls with their horns gilded,* with all 
sorts of sweet spices, and with cups of gold 
and silver. So those that were at the gates re- 
ceived the sacrifices from those that brought 
them, and led them to the temple, Antiochus 
in the meanwhile feasting his army; which was 
a quite different conduct from Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, who, when he had taken the city, of- 
fered swine upon the altar, and sprinkled the 
temple with the broth of their flesh, in order 
to violate the laws of the Jews, and the reli- 
gion they derived from their forefathers; for 
which reason our nation made wat with him, 


~ and would never be reconciled to him; but for 


this Antiochus, all men called him Antiochus 
the Pious, for the great zeal he had about re- 
ligion. 

3. Accordingly, Hyrcanus took this modera- 
tion of his kindly; and when he understood 
how religious he was towards the Deity, he sent 
an embassage to him, and desired that he would 
restore the settlements they received from their 
forefathers. So he rejected the counsel of 
those that would have him utterly destroy the 
nation by reason of their way of living, which 
was to others unsociable, and did not regard 
what they said. But being persuaded that all 
they said was out of a religious mind, he an- 
swered the ambassadors, that if the besieged 
would deliver up their arms, and pay tribute 
for Joppa, and the other cities which bordered 
upon Judea, and admit a garrison of his; on 
these terms he would make war against them 
no longer. But the Jews, although they were 
content with the other conditions, did not agree 
to admit the garrison, because they could not 
associate with other people, nor converse with 
them; yet were they willing, instead of the ad- 
mission of the garrison, to give him hostages, 
and five hundred talents of silver, df which they 
paid down three hundred, and sent the host- 
ages immediately, which king Antiochus ac- 
cepted. One of these hostages was Hyrcanus’s 
brother; but still he broke down the fortifica- 
tions that encompassed the city; and upon these 
eonditions Antiochus broke up the siege and 
departed. 

4. But Hyrcanus opened the sepulchre of 
David, who excelled all other kings in riches, 
and took out of it three thousand talents. He 
was also the first of the Jews that, relying on 
this wealth, maintained foreign troops. ‘There 
was also a league of friendship and mutual as- 


* Dr. Hudson tells us here, that this custom of gilding the 
horns of those oxen that were to be sacrificed, is a known 
ey hie in the poets and orators. 

¢ This account in Josephus, that the present Antiochus 
was persuaded, though in vain, not to make peace with the 
‘ews, but to cut them off utterly, is fully confirmed by Dio- 
dorus S culis, in Photius’s extracts out of his 34th book. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. Mere a 








sistance made between them; upon which Hyr — 
canus admitted him into the eity, and furnish- 

ed him with whatsoever his army wanted im 
great plenty, and with great generosity, and~ 
marched along with him when he made an ex — 
pedition against the Parthians; of which Nico — 
laus of Damascus, is a witness for us, who in- 
his history writes thus: “When Antiochus had 
erected a trophy at the river Lycus, upon hw” 
conquest of Indates, the general of the Partht | 
ans, he stayed there two days. It was at the 
desire of Hyrcanus the Jew, because it was” 
such a festival derived to them from their fore-— 
fathers, whereon the law of the Jews did not 
allow them to travel.” And truly he did not 
speak falsely in saying so; for that festival, 
which we call Pentecost, did then fall out to be 
the next day to the Sabbath: nor is it lawful for 
us to journey,* either on the Sabbath-day, or 
on a festival-day. But when Antiochus joined 
battle with Arsaces, the king of Parthia, he 
lost a great part of his army, and was himself 
slain; and his brother Demetrius succeeded in 
the kingdom of Syria by the permission of 

Arsaces, who freed him from his captivity, at 
the same time that Antiochus attacked Parthia, 
as we have formerly related elsewhere. 


CHAPTER IX. 
How, after the death of Antiochus, Hyrca 
made an expedition against Syria, and made 
a league with the Romans: concerning the 
death of king Demetrius and Alexander. 


§ 1. But when Hyrcanus heard of the death 
of Antiochus, he presently made an expedition 
against the cities of Syria, hoping to find thot 
destitute of fighting men, and of such as we 
able to defend them. However, it was not till 
the sixth month that he took Medaba, and that 
not without the greatest distress of his army. 
After this he took Samega, and the neighbor-. 
ing places; and besides these, Shechem and_ 
Gerizzim, and the nation of the Cutheans, who 
dwelt at the temple which Alexander permit-_ 
ted Sanballat, the general of his army, to build — 
for the sake of Manasseh, who was son-in-law | 
to Jaddua, the high priest, as we have former- 
ly related, which temple was now deserte¢ 
two hundred years after it was built, Hyreca- 
nus took also Dora, and Marissa, cities of Idu- 
mea, and subdued all the Idumeans, and per- 
mitted them to stay in that country, if the 
would circumcise their genitals, and make use 
of the laws of the Jews; and they were so dé. 
sirous of living in the country of their forefa- 
thers, that they submitted to the use of circum- 
cision, and of the rest of the Jewish ways 0 
living; at which time, therefore, this befel 
them, that they were hereafter no other tha 
Jews. a 
2. But Hyrcanus, the high priest, was dé 
sirous to renew that league of friendship the’ 























* The Jews were not tomarch, or journey, on the Sabbat 
or on such a great festival as was equivalent to the Sabbath 
any farther than a Sabbath day’s jo , or 2000 cubits. Se 
the note on Antiq. b. xx. ch, viii. sect.6. . 

} This account of the [dumeans admitting cire’ 
and the entire Jewish law, from this-time, or from th 
of Hyrcanus, is confirmed by their entire history afte 


4 4 pi " 
"os ies 7 ; ! 


pts aie BOOK XIJI—CHAPTER X. 


had with the Romans. Accordingly, he sent 
an embassage to them; and when the senate 
had received their epistle, they made a league 
of friendship with them, after the manner fol- 
lowing: “Fanius, the son of Marcus the preetor, 
rathered the senate together on the eighth day 
fore the ides of February, in the senate-house, 
when Lucius Manlius, the son of Lucius, of 
the Mentine tribe, and Caius Sempronius, the 
son of Caius, of the Falernian tribe, were pre- 
sent. ‘The occasion was, that the ambassadors 
sent by the people of the Jews,* Simon, the son 
of Dositheus, and Apollonius, the son of Alex- 
ander, and Diodorus, the son of Jason, who 
were good and virtuous men, had somewhat to 
propose about that league of friendship and 
mutual assistance which subsisted between 
them and the Romans, and about other public 
affairs, who desired that Joppa, and the havens, 
and Gazara, and the springs [of Jordan,] and 
the several other cities and countries of theirs, 
which Antiochus had taken from them in the 
war, contrary to the decree of the senate, might 
be restored to them; and that it might not be 
lawful for the king’s troops to pass through their 
country, and the countries of those that are 
subjectto them. And that what attempts An- 
tiochus had made during that war, without the 
decree of the senate, might be made void; and 
that they would send ambassadors, who should 
take care that restitution be made them of what 
Antiochus had taken from them, and that they 
should make an estimate of the country that 
had been laid waste in the war, and that they 
would grant them letters of protection to the 
kings, and free people, in order to their quiet 
return home. It was, therefore, decreed, as to 
those points, to renew their league of friendship 
and mutual assistance with these good men, and 
who were sent by a good and a friendly people.” 
But that asto the letters desired, their answer 
was, that the senate would consult about that 
matter, when their own affairs would give them 
leave, and that they would endeavor, for the 


see Antiq. b. xiv. ch. viii. sect. 1; b. xv. ch. vii. sect. 9; Of 
the War, b. ii. ch. iii. sect. 1; b. iv. ch. iv. sect.5. This, in 
the opinion of Josephus, made them proselytes of justice, or 
entire Jews, as here and elsewhere, Antiq. b. xiv. ch. viii. 
sect. 1. However Antigonus, the enemy of Herod, though 
Herod was derived from such a proselyte of justice for seve- 
ral generations, will allow him to be no more than a half 
| Jew, b. xiv. ch. xv. sect. 2. But still take out of Dean Pri- 
deaux, at the year 129, the words of Ammonius, a gramma- 
nian, which fully confirms this account of the _Idumeans in 
Josephus: “The Jews, says he, are such by nature, and 
froin the beginning, whilst the Idumeans were not Jews 
from the beginning, but Phoenicians and Syrians; but being 
afterward subdued by the Jews, and compelled to be circum- 
sised, and to unite into one nation, and be subject to the 
ame laws, they were called Jews.”? Dio also says, as the 
Bay there quotes him from book xxxvi. p. 37: “That coun- 
| ty 1s called Judea, and the people Jews, and this name is 
| Ben also to as many others as embrace their religion though 
| of other nations.”? But then upon what foundation so good 
8 governor as Hyrcanus took upon him to compel those Idu- 
| means either to become Jews, or to leave their country, de- 
serves great consideration. I suppose it was because they 
‘had long ago been driven out of the land of Edom, and had 
‘seized on and possessed the tribe of Simeon, and all the 
_ Southern part of the tribe of Judah, which was the peculi- 
| a inheritance of the worshippers of the true God without 
idolatry, as the reader may learn from Reland, Palestine, part 
_& p. 164, 305; and from Prideaux, at the years 140 and 165. 
. _ * In this decree of the Roman senate, it seems that these 
_ Smbassadors were sent from the people of the Jews, as well 
birom their prince or high priest, Te4n Hyrcanus. 


i 
‘ 










time to come, that no like injury should be dona 
them; and that their pretor, Fanius, should 
give them money out of the public treasury to 
bear their expenses home. And thus did Fa- 
nius dismiss the Jewish ambassadors, and gave 
them money out of the public treasury, and 
gave the decree of the senate to those that 
were to conduct them, and take care hat they 
should return home in safety. ) 
3. And thus stood the affairs of Hyrcanus 
the high priest. But as for kmg Demetrius 
who had a mind to make war against Hyr 
canus, there was no opportunity nor room for 
it, while both the Syrians and the soldiers bore 
il! will to him, because he was an ill man. But 
when they had sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, 
who was called Physcon, that he would send 
them one of the family of Seleucus, in order 
to take the kingdom, and he had sent them Al- 
exander, who was called Zebina, witb an army, 
and there had been a battle between them, De- 
metrius was beaten in the fight, and fled to Cle- 
opatra his wife, to Ptolemais, but his wife would 
not receive hin. He went thence to Tyre, and 
was there caught; and when he had suffered 
much from his enemies before his death, he 
was slain by them. So Alexander took the | 
kingdom, and made a league with Hyrcanus, 
who yet, when he afterward fought with An- 
tiochus the son of Demetrius, who was called 
Grypus, was also beaten in the fight, and slain. 


CHAPTER X. 


How, upon the quarrel between Antiochus Gry- 
pus and Antiochus Cyzicenus, about the king- 
dom, Hyrcanus took Samaria, and utterly 
molished it; and how Hyrcanus joined himself 
to the sect of the Sadducees, and left that of the 
Pharisees. 


1. When Antiochus had taken the kmgdom, 
he was afraid to make war against Judea, be- 
cause he heard that his brother, by the same 
mother, who was also called Antiochus, was 
raising an army against him out of Cyzicum; 
so he staid in his own land, and resolved to 
prepare himself for the attack he expected 
from his brother, who was called Cyzicenus, 
because he had been brought up in that city. 
He was the son of Antiochus that was called 
Soter, who died in Parthia. He was the brother 
of Demetrius, the father of Grypus, for it had 
so happened, that one and the same Cleopatra 
was married to two, who were brethren, as we 
have related elsewhere. But Antiochus Cyzi- 
cenus coming into Syria, continued many years 
at war with his brother. Now Hyrcanus lived 
all this while in peace; for after the death of 
Antiochus, he revolted from the Macedonians, 
nor did he any longer pay them the least re 
gard, either as their subject or their friend, but 
his affairs were in a very improving and flou- 
rishing condition in the times of Alexander 
Zebina, and especially under these brethren, 


* Dean Prideaux takes notice at the year 130, that Justin, 
in agreement with Josephus, says, ‘‘The power of the Jews 
was now grown so great, that after this Antiochus they would 
not bear any Macedonian king over them, and that they se 
up a government of their own, and infested Syria with great 
wals.’’ 


B26 


for t= war which they had with one another 
ve Hyrcanus the opportunity of enjoying 
imself in Judea quietly, insomuch that he 
got an immense quantity of money. However, 
when Antiochus Cyzicenus distressed his land, 
he then openly showed what he meant. And 
when he saw that Antiochus was destitute of 
Egyptian auxiliaries, and that both he and his 
brother were in an ill condition in the strug- 
gles they had with one another, he despised 
them both. 

2. So he made an expedition against Sama- 
ria, which was a very strong city; of whose 
present name Sebaste, and its rebuilding by 

erod, we shall speak at a proper time: but he 
made his attack against it, and besieged it with 
a great deal of pains, for he was greatly dis- 
pleased with the Samaritans for the injuries 
they had done to the people of Merissa, a co- 
lony of the Jews, and confederate with them, 
and this in compliance to the kings of Syria. 
When he had, therefore, drawn a ditch, and 
built a double wall round the city, which was 
fourscore furlongs long, he set his sons Anti- 
gonus and Aristobulus over the siege, which 
brought the Samaritans to that great distress by 
famine, that they were forced to eat what used 
not to be eaten, and to call for Antiochus Cyzi- 
cenus to help them, who came readily to their 
assistance, but was beaten by Aristobulus, and 
when he was pursued as far as Scythopolis by 
the two brethren, he got away. So they re- 
turned to Samaria, and shut them again within 
the wall, till they were forced to send for the 
game Antiochus a second time to help them, 
who procured about six thousand men from 
Ptolemy Lathyrus, which were sent them 
without his mother’s consent, who had then in 
a manner turned him out of his government. 
With these Egyptians, Antiochus did at first 
overrun and ravage,the country of Hyrcanus 
after the manner of a robber, for he durst not 
meet him in the face to fight with him, as not 
having an army sufficient for that purpose, but 
only from this supposal, that by thus harassing 
his Jand he should force Hyrcanus to raise the 
siege of Samaria; but because he fell into 
snares, and lost many of his soldiers therein, 
he went away to Tripoli, and committed the 
prosecution of the war against the Jews to 
Callimander and Epicrates. 

3. But as to Callimander, he attacked the 
enemy too rashly, and was put to flight and de- 
stroyed immediately; and as to Epicrates, he 
was such a lover of money, that he openly be- 
trayed Scythopolis, and other places near it, to 
the Jews, but was not able to make them raise 
the siege of Samaria. And when Hyrcanus 
had taken the city, which was not done till 
after a year’s siege, he was not contented with 
doing that only, but he demolished it entirely, 
and brought rivulets to it to drown it, for he 
dug such hollows as might let the water run 
under it; nay, he took away the very marks 
that there had ever been such a city there. Now 
& very suprising thing is related of this high 
priest Hyrcanus, how God came to discourse 
with him; for they say, that on the very same 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. __ os 







day on which his sons fought with Antiochu 
Cyzicenus, he was alone in the temple, as hi 
priest, offering incense, and heard a voice, th 
“his sons had just then overcome Antiochus.* 
And this he openly declared before all the mul- 
titude upon his coming out of the temple, and 
it accordingly proved true: and in this posture 
were the affairs of Hyrcanus. . 
4. Now it happened at this time, that n 
only those Jews who were at Jerusalem and 
in Judea were in prosperity, but also those of 
them that were at Alexandria, and in Egy pt, 
and Cyprus, for Cleopatra the queen was at va- 
riance with her son Ptolemy, who was called 
Lathyrus, and appointed for her generals Chel- 
cias, and Ananias, the sons of that Onias who 
built the temple in the prefecture of Heliopoli 
like that at Jerusalem, as we have elsewhere 
related. Cleopatra intrusted these men with 
her army; and did nothing without their advice, 
as Strabo of Cappadocia attests, when he saith 
thus, “Now the greater part, both those that 
came to Cyprus with us, and those that were 
sent afterward thither, revolted to Ptolemy im- 
mediately; only those that were called Onias’s 
party, being Jews, continued faithful, because 
their countrymen Chelcias and Ananias were - 
in chief favor with the queen.” These are 
the words of Strabo. x 
5. However, this prosperous state of affairs 
moved the Jews to envy Hyrcanus, but they 
that were the worst disposed to him were the 
Pharisees,* who were one of the sects of the | 
Jews, as we have informed you already. These 
have so great a power over the multitude, that _ 
when they say any thing against the king, or 
against the high priest, they are presently me 
lieved. Now Hyrcanus was a disciple of theirs. 
and greatly beloved by them. And when he 


| 


we 






























once invited them to a feast, and entertainec 
them very kindly, when he saw them in 
good humor, he began to say to them, tha 
“They knew he was desirous to be a righteous 
man, and .to do all things whereby he might 
please God, which was the profession of 
Pharisees also. However, he desired, if they 
observed him offending in any point, and go- 
ing out of the right way, they would call hin 
back and correct him.” On which occasion 
they attested to his being entirely virtuous, with 
which commendation he was well plea 
But still there was one of his guests th 


* The original of the Sadducees, as a considerable party 
among the Jews, being contained in this and the two folios 
ing sections, take Dean Prideaux’s note upon this their 
public appearance, which I suppose to be true; “‘Hyrcan’ 
says he, ‘“‘went over to the party of the Sadducees; the 
by embracing their doctrine against the tradition of the eld 
added to the written law, and made of equal autho: 
it, but not their doctrine against the resurrection and a 
state, for this cannot be supposed of so good andrighteous: 
man as John Hyrcanus is said to be. It is most probabl 
that at this time the Sadducees had gone no farther in thé 
doctrines of that sect than to deny all their unwritten 
tions, which the Pharisees were so fond of; for Jos 
mentions no other difference at this time between 
neither does he say that Hyrcanus went ove: to the § 
cees in any other particular than in the abolishing of | 
traditionary constitutions of the Pharisees, whioh our 
condemned as well as they.”? [At the year 108.] _ 

+ This slander that arose from a Pharisee, has bee: 
sesveu by their suecessors the Rabbins, to these la 

. 







































ger, and delighting in seditious practices. 
‘This man said, “Since thou desirest to know 
‘the truth, if thou wilt be righteous in earnest, 
Tay down the high priesthood, and, content 
thyself with the civil government of the peo- 
“ple.” And when he desired to know for what 
‘cause he ouglit to lay down the high priest- 
‘hood, the other replied, “We have it frem old 
‘men, that thy mother had been a captive under 
‘thereign of Antiochus Epiphanes.” This sto- 
ry was false, and Hyrcanus was provoked 
ggainst him; and all the Pharisees had a very 
" great indignation against him. 
‘6. Now there was one Jonathan, a very great 
‘ friend of Hyrcanus, but of the sect of the Saddu- 
gees, whose notions are quite contrary to those 
of the Pharisees. He told Hyrcanus, that 
“Bleazar had cast such a reproach upon him 
“according to the common sentiments of all the 
Pharisees, and that this would be made mani- 
‘fest, if he would but ask them the question, 
‘what punishment they thought this man de- 
served? for that he might depend upon it, that 
‘the reproach was not laid on him with their 
| approbation, if they were for punishing him as 
his crime deserved.” So the Pharisees made 
‘answer, that “He deserved stripes and bonds, 
‘but that it did not seem right to punish re- 
proaches with death.” And indeed the Phari- 
gees, even upon other occasions, are not apt to 
be severe in punishments. At this gentle sen- 
‘tence, Hyrcanus was very angry, and thought 
| that this man reproached him by their appro- 
| bation. It was this Jonathan who chiefly irri- 
‘tated him, and influenced him so far, that he 
“made him leave the party of the Pharisees, and 
/ abolish the decrees they had imposed on the 
/ people, and punish those that observed them. 
"From this source arose that hatred which he 
‘and his sons met with from the multitude; but 
‘of these matters we shal! speak hereafter. 
What I would now explain is this, that the 
Pharisees have delivered to the people a great 
many observances by succession from their fa- 
thers, which are not written in the laws of Mo- 
‘ges; and for that reason it is that the Saddu- 
| Cees reject them, and say, that we are to esteem 
| those observances to be obligatory which are 
| in the written word, but are not to observe 
| what are derived from the tradition of our fore- 
| fathers. And concerning these things it is that 
| great disputes and differences have arisen 
| among them, while the Sadducees are able to 
| persuade none but the rich, and have not the 
populace obsequious to them, but the Phari- 
‘sees have the multitude on their side. But 
‘about these two sects, and that of the Essenes, 
‘Thave treated accurately in the second book 
' of Jewish affairs. 
7. But when Hyrcanus had put an end to 
‘this sedition, he after that lived happily, and 
“ administered the government in the best man- 
‘ner for thirty-one years, and then died;* leav- 


4 


for Dr. Hudson assures us, that David Gantz, in his chrono- 
- gy, S. Pr. p.77, in Vorstius’s version, relates that Hyrea- 
_gus’s mother was taken captive in mount Modiith. See ch. 
( iii. sect. 5. : , 

__ * Here ends the high priesthood and the life of this excel- 
| emt person, John Hyrcanus; anda together with him the holy 


h 


BOOK XITI—CHAPTER XI. 


327° 
ing behind him five sons. He was esteemed 
by God worthy of the three greatest privileg 
the government of his nation, the dignity of 
the high priesthood, and prophecy, for Goa 
was with him, and enabled him to know fu- 
turities; and to foretell this in particular, that as 
to his two eldest sons, he foretold that they 
would not long continue in the government of 
public affairs: whose unhappy catastrophe will 
be worth our description, that we may thence 
learn how very much they were inferior to theiz 
father’s happiness. 


CHAPTER XI. 

How Aristobulus, when he had taken the govern- 
ment, first of all put a diadem on his head, and 
was most barbarously cruel to his mother and 
lus brethren: and how, after he had slain Anti- 
gonus, he himself died. 


§ 1. Now when their father Hyrcanus was 
dead, the eldest son, Aristobulus, intending to 
change the government into a kingdom, for so 
he resolved to do, first of all put a diadem on 
his head, four hundred eighty and one years 
and three months after the people had been de- 


livered from the Babylonish slavery, and were 


returned to their own country again. This 
Aristobulus loved his next brother Antigonus, 
and treated him as his equal, but the others he 
held in bonds. He also cast his mother into 
prison, because she disputed the government 
with him, for Hyrcanus had left her to be mis- 
tress of all. He also proceeded to that degree 
of barbarity, as to kill her in prison with hun- 
ger; nay, he was alienated from his brother 
Antigonus by calumnies, and added him to the 
rest whom he slew; yet he seemed to have an 
affection for him, and made him above the rest 
a partner with him in the kingdom. Those 
calumnies he at first did not give credit to, part- 
ly because he loved him, and so did not give 
heed to what was said against him, and partly 
because he thought the reproaches were derived 
from the envy of the relaters. But when An- 
tigonus was once returned from the army, and 
that feast was then at hand when they made 
tabernacles to [the honor of ] God, it happeneu 


theocracy or divine government of the Jewish nation, and its 
concomitant oracle by Urim. Now follows the profane and 
tyrannical Jewish monarchy, first of the Asmoneans or Mac- 
cabees, and then of Herod the Great, the _Idumeans, till the 
coming of the Messiah. See the note on Antiq. b. iil. ch. viii. 
sect.9. Hear Strabo’s testimony on this occasion, b. Xvis 
pages 761, 762: “Those,” says he, ‘‘that succeeded Moses, 
continued for some time in earnest, both in righteous actions 
and in piety; but after a while, there were others that took 
upon them the high priesthood; at first superstitious and af 
terward tyrannical persons. Such a prophet was Mores, and 
those that succeeded him, beginning in a way not to be blam- 
ed, but changing for the worse. And when it openly ap- 
peared that the government was become tyrannical, Alexan- 
der was the first that set himself up for a king instead of & 
priest; and his sons were Hyreanus and Aristobulus.” All im 
agreement with Josephus, excepting this, that Strabo omits 
the first king Aristobulus, whose reign being but a single 
year, seems hardly tohave come to his knowledge. Nor in-« 
deed does Aristobulus, the son of Alexander, pretend thag 
the name of king was taken before his father Alexander took 
it himself. Antiq. b. xiv. ch. iii. sect. 2. See also ch. xii. sects 
1; which favor Strabo also. And indeed, if we may judge 
from the very different characters of the Egyptian Jews um- 
der high priests, and of the Palestine Jews under kings, a 
the two next centuries, we may well suppose, that the 
vine Shechinah was removed into Egypt, and that the wos- 
shipers at the temple of Onias were better men than those ad 
the temple of Jerusalem. 


? 


e228 


that Aristobu.as was fallen sick, and that An- 
tigonus went up most splendidly adorned, and 
with his soldiers about him in their armor, to 
the temple, to celebrate the feast and to put 
up many prayers for the recovery of his bro- 
ther, when some wicked persons, who had a 
great mind to raise a difference between the bre- 
thren, made use of this opportunity of the pomp- 
ous appearance of Antigonus, and of the great 
actions Wlx th he had done, and went to the 
king, and spitefuuy aggravated the pompous 
show of his.at the feast, and pretended that all 
these circumstances were not like those of a 
private person: that these actions were indica- 
tions of an affection of royal authority; and 
that his coming with astrong body of men 
must be with an intention to kill him; and that 
his way of reasoning was this, that it was a silly 
thing in him, while it was in his power to reign 
himself, to look upon it as a great favor that he 
was honored with a lower dignity by his bro- 
ther. 

2. Aristobulus yielded to these imputations, 
but took care both that his brother should not 
suspect him, and that he himself might not run 
the hazard of his own safety; so he ordered 
his guards to lie in a certain place that was 
under ground, and dark, (he himself then lying 
sick in the tower which was called Antonia,) 
and he commanded them, that in case Antigo- 
nus came in to nim unarmed, they should not 
touch any body, but if armed, they should kill 
him: yet did he send to Antigonus, and desired 
that he would come unarmed; but the queen, 
end those that joined with her in the plot 
against Antigonus, persuaded the messenger to 
tell him the direct contrary: how his brother 
had heard that he had made himself a fine suit 
of armor for war, and desired him to come to 
him in that armor, that he might see how fine 
it was. So Antigonus, suspecting no treachery, 
but depending on thé good will of his brother, 
came to Aristobulus armed, as he used to be, 
with his entire armor, in order to show it to 
him; but when he was come to a place which 
was called Strato’s ‘Tower, where the passage 
happened to be exceeding dark, the guards 
slew him; which death of his demonstrates 
that nothing is stronger than envy and calumny, 
and that nothing does more certainly divide the 
good will and natural affections of men than 
those passions. But here one may take occa- 
sion to wonder at one Judas, who was of the 
sect of the Essenes, and who never missed the 
truth in his predictions; for.this man, when he 
saw Antigonus passing by the temple, cried 
eut to his companions and friends, who abode 
with him as his scholars, in order to learn the 
art of foretelling things to come,* “That it was 

ood for him to die now, since he had spoken 
falsely about Antigonus, who is still alive, and 
I see him passing by, although he had foretold 
that he should die at the place called Strato’s 
Tower, that very day, while yet the place is 
six hundred furlongs off, where he had foretold 

* Hence we learn that the Essenes pretended to have rules 
whereby men might foretell things to come, and that this 


Jadas the Essene taught those rules to his scholars, but 
whether weir prete4ces were of an astrological or magical 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 






he should be slain; and still this day is a gree 
part of it already past, so that he was in da 
ger of proving a false prophet.” As he was 
saying this, and that in a melancholy mood, 
the news came that Antigonus was slain in a 
p:ace under ground, which itself was called also 
Strato’s Tower, or of the same name with that 
Cesarea which is seated at the sea. This event 
put the prophet into a great disorder. a 
3. But Aristobulus repented immediately of 
this slaughter of his brother, on which account 
his disease increased upon him, and he was’ 
disturbed in his mind, upon the guilt of such 
wickedness, insomuch that his entrails were 
corrupted by his intolerable pain, and he vo- 
mited blood; at which time one of the servants 
that attended upon him, and was carrying his” 
blood away, did, by divine Providence, as ia 
cannot but suppose, slip down and shed part of 
his blood at the very place where there were 
spots of Antigonus’s blood there slain, still re- 
maining; and when there was a cry made by 
the spectators, as if the servant had on purpose 
shed the blood on that place, Aristobulus heard — 
it, and inquired what was the matter? And asthey 
did not answer him, he was the more earnest 
to know what it was, it being natural to men 
to suspect that what is thus concealed is very 
bad; so upon his threatening, and forcing them 
by terrors to speak, they at length told him the 
truth; whereupon he shed many tears, in that 
disorder of mind which arose from his con- 
sciousness of what he had done, and gave a 
deep groan, and said, “I am not, therefore, I 
perceive, to be concealed from God, in the im- 
pious and horrid crimes I have been guilty of, 
but a sudden punishment is coming upon mé 
for the shedding the blood of my relations, 
And now, O thou most imprudent body of 
mine, how long wilt thou retain a soul tha 
ought to die, in order to appease the ghosts of 
my brother and my mother? Why dost thou 
not give it all up at once? And why do I de 
liver up my blood drop by drop, to those whon 
I have so wickedly murdered?” In saying 
which last words, he died, having reigned a 
year. He was called a lover of the Grecians, 
and had conferred many benefits on his o 
country, and made war against Iturea, and add- 
ed a great part of it to Judea, and compellec 
the inhabitants, if they would continue in tha 
country, to be circumcised, and to live accord=- 
ing to the Jewish laws. He was naturally 4 | 
man of candor, and of great modesty, as Strabo 
bears witness, in the name of Timagenes; who 
says thus: “This man was a person of candor, 
and very serviceable to the Jews, for he added 
a country to them, and obtained a part of th 
nation of the Itureans for them, and bow 
them to them by the bond of the circumcision 
of their genitals.” a 


CHAPTER XII. | 


How Alexander, when he had taken the g 
ment, made an expedition against P 


nature, which yet in such religious Jews, who were utt 
forbidden such arts, is noway probable, or to any Bath 
spoken of by the later Rabhins, or otherwise, I cannot 
see Of the War, b. ii. ch. viii. sect. 12, ; 
























: 


: 





and then rased the sregre out of fear of Ptole- 
my Lathyrus, and how Ptolemy made war 
' against lim, because he had sent to Cleopatra 
to persuade her to make war against Ptolemy, 
and yet pretended to be in friendship with him, 
when he went to beat the Jews in batile. 
- §1. When Aristobulus was dead, his wife 
- Salome, who by the Greeks was called Alex- 
_ andra, let his brethren out of prison, for Aris- 
tobulus had kept them in bonds, as we have 
said already, and made Alexander Janneus 
king, who was superior in age and in modera- 
tion. This child happened to be hated by his 
_ father as soon as he was born, and could never 
be permitted to come into his father’s sight till 
‘he died. The occasion of which hatred is 
thus reported: When Hyrcanus chiefly loved 
_ the two eldest sons, Antigonus and Aristobulus, 
God appeared to him in his sleep, of whom he 
“fnquired, which of his sons should be his suc- 
“cessor? Upon God’s representing to him the 
countenance of Alexander, he was grieved that 
he was to be the heir of all his goods, and suf- 
fered him to be brought up in Galilee.* How- 
ever, God did not deceive Hyrcanus, for after 
the death of Aristobulus, he certainly took the 
kingdom, and one of his brethren, who affect- 
ed the kingdom, he slew, and the other, who 
those to live a private and a quiet life, he had 
_in esteem. 
2. When Alexander Janneus had settled the 
j ata in the manner that he judged best, 
_he made an expedition against Ptolemais; and 
‘having overcome the men in battle, he shut 
them up in the city, and sat round about it, and 
besieged it; for of the maritime cities there re- 
“mained only Ptolemais and Gaza to be con- 
“quered, besides Strato’s ‘Tower, and Dora, 
which were held by the tyrant Zoilus.s Now 
while Antiochus Philometer, and Antiochus 
wlio was called Cyzicenus, were making war 
one against another, and destroying one anoth- 
@rs armies, the people of Ptolemais could have 
Mo assistance from them; but when they were 
distressed with this siege, Zoilus, who possess- 
ed Strato’s Tower and Dora, and maintained 
@ legion of soldiers, and, on occasion of the 
contest between the kings, affected tyran- 
By himself, came and brought some small as- 
sistance to the people of Ptolemais; nor indeed 
had the kings such a friendship for them, as 
shat they should hope for any advantage from 
them: both these kings were in the case of 
. wrestlers, who finding themselves deficient in 
_ strength, and yet being ashamed to yield, put off 
| the fight by laziness, and by lying still as long as 
_they can. The only hope they had remaining 
_ was from the kings of Egypt, and from Ptoie- 
. my Lathyrus, who now held Cyprus, and who 
came to Cyprus when he was driven from the 
‘ government of Egypt by Cleopatra his mother: 
_ 60 the people of Ptolemais sent to this Ptolemy 
_Lathyrus, and desired him to come as a con- 
. federate, to deliver them, now they were in 


pe * The reason why Hyrcanus suffered not this son of his 
i ‘whom he did not love to come into Judea but ordered him to 


was not esteemed so happy and well cultivated a | in Judea. 


42 


Prey 


ae re) BOOK XI/l.—CHAPTER XII. 





such danger, out of the hands of Alexander 
And as the ambassadors gave him hopes, that 
if he would pass over into Syria, he would 
have the people of Gaza on the side of those 
of Ptolemais; as they also said, that Zoilus, 
and besides these the Sidonians, and many 
others, would assist them; so he was elevated 
a this, and got his fleet ready as soon as possi 

e. 

3. But in this interval, Demetrius, one that 
was of abilities to persuade men to do as he 
would have them, and a leader of the populace, 
made those of Ptolemais change their opinions 
and said to them, that “it was better to ‘run the 
hazard of being subject to the Jews, than to 
admit of evident slavery by delivering them- 
selves up to a master: and besides that to have 
not only a war at present but to expect a much 
greater war from Egypt, for that Cleopatra 
would not overlook an army raised by Ptolemy 
for himself out of the neighborhood, but would 
come against them with a great army of her 
own, and this because she was laboring to eject 
her son out of Cyprus also; ‘that as for Ptolemy 
if he fail of his hopes, he can still retire to Cy 
prus, but that they will be left in the greatest dan 
ger possible.” Now Ptolemy, although he had 
heard of the change that was made in the peo- 
ple of Ptolemais, yet did he still go on with his 
voyage, and came to the country called Syca- 
mine, and there set his army on shore. This 
army of his in the whole, horse and foot to- 
gether, were about thirty thousand, with which 
he marched near to Ptolemais, and there pitch- 
ed his camp; but when the people of Ptole- 
mais neither received his ambassadors, nor 
would hear what they had to say, he was un- 
der a very great concern. 

4, But when Zoilus and the people of Gaza 
came to him, and desired his assistance, because 
their country was laid waste by the Jews, and 
by Alexander, Alexander raised the siege, for 
fear of Ptolemy; and when he had drawn off 
his army into his own country he used a 
stratagem afterward, by privately inviting Cle- 
opatra to come against Ptolemy, but publicly 
pretending to desire a league of friendship and 
mutual assistance with him; and promising to 
give him four hundred talents of silver, he de- 
sired that, by way of requital, he would take off 
Zoilus, the tyrant, and give his country to the 
Jews. And then indeed Ptolemy, with pleasure, 
made such a league of friendship with Alexan- 
der, and subdued Zoilus; but when he after 
ward heard that he had privily sent to Cleopa- 
tra, his mother, he broke the league of friende 
ship with him, and besieged Ptolemais, because 
it would not receive him. However, leaving his 
generals, with some part of his forces, to go on 
with the siege, he went himself immediately 
with the rest to lay waste Judea; and when 
Alexander understood this to be Ptolemy’s in- 
tention, he also got together about fifty thou- 
sand soldiers out of his own country; nay, as 


country as Judea, Matt. xxvi. 73; John vii. 52; Acts ii. 7 
althongh another obvious reason occurs also, that he wae 


£ 


- Battoo ve up in Galilee, is suggested by Dr. Hudson, that | farther out of his sight in Galilee than he would have bees 


4 


330 


some writers have said.* eighty thousand. He 
then took his army, ard went to meet Ptolemy; 
but Ptolemy fell upon Assochis, a city of Gali- 
lee, and took it by force on the Sabbath-day, 
and there he took about ten thousand slaves, 
and a great deal of other prey. 

§ He then tried to take Sephoris, which 
was a city not far from that which was destroy- 
ed, but lost many of his men; yet did he then 
go to fight with Alexander, which Alexander 
met him at the river Jordan, near a certain 
place called Saphoth [not far from the river 
Jordan,| and pitched his camp near to the ene- 
my. He had, however, eight thousand in the 
first rank, which he styled Hecatontomachi, 
having shields of brass. ‘Those in the first 
rank of Ptolemy’s soldiers also had shields 
covered with brass; but Ptolemy’s soldiers in 
other respects were inferior to those of Alexan- 
der, and therefore were more fearful of running 
hazards; but Philostephanus, the camp master, 
put great courage into them, and ordered them 
to pass the river, which was between their 
camps: nor did Alexander think fit to hinder 
their passage over it, for he thought that if the 
enemy had once gotten the river on their back, 
that he should the easier take them prisoners, 
when they could not flee out of the battle; in 
the beginning of which the acts on both sides, 
with their hands, and with their alacrity, were 
alike, and a great slaughter was made by both 
the armies; but Alexander was superior, till 
Philostephanus opportunely brought up the 
auxiliaries, to help those that were giving way; 
butas there were no auxiliaries to afford help to 
tuat part of the Jews that gave way, it fell out 
that they fled, and those near them did not as- 
sist them, but fled along withthem. However, 
Ptolemy’s soldiers acted quite otherwise; for 
they followed the Jews, and killed them, till at 
length those that slew,them pursued after them, 


when they had made them all. run away, and | 


siew them so long, that their weapons of iron 
were blunted, and their hands quite tired with 
the slaughter; for the report was, that thirty 
thousand men were then slain. Timagenes 
says, they were fifty thousand. As for the rest, 
they were part of them taken captives, and the 
other part ran away to their own country. 

6. After this victory, Ptolemy overran all the 
country; and when night came on, he abode in 
certain villages of Judea, which when he found 
full of women and children, he commanded 
his soldiers to strangle them and cut them in 
pieces, and then to cast them into boiling cal- 
drons, and then to devour their limbs as _ sacri- 
fices. This commandment was given, that 
such as fled from the battle, and came to them, 
might suppose their enemies were cannibals, 
and ate men’s flesh, and might on that account 
we still more terrified at them upon such a sight. 

* From these and other occasional expressions dropped 
ey Josephus, we may learn, that were the sacred books of 
the Jews were deficient, he had several other histories then 
extant, but now most of them lost, which he faithfully fol- 
towed in his own history: nor indeed have we any other re- 
eards of those times, relating to Judea, that can be compar- 
e@ to these acccunts of Josephus, though when we do meet 


with authentic fragments of such original records, they do | 
aiwayes confirm his history. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ; 


| 


'sent thither part of her army, and drove him 
out of that country; so when he was returne¢ 
out of Egypt again, and abode during the win- 


And both Strabo and Nichclaus |of Dame 
affirm, that they used these people after thy 
manner, as I have already related. Ptolen 
also took Ptolemais by force, as we have ¢ 
clared elsewhere. 


CHAPTER XIII a 


How Alexander, upon the league of mutual de 
Jence which Cleopatra had agreed with him, 
made an expedition against Celosyria, and 
utterly overthrew the city of Gaxa; and how: 

he slew many ten thousands of Jews that re 

belled against him: also concerning Antiochu 

Grypus, Seleucus, Antiochus Cyzicenus, ot 

Antiochus Pius, and others. 9 
§ 1. When Cleopatra saw that her son . 

grown great, and laid Judea waste without dig | 

turbance, and had gotten the city of Gaza Uns. 
der his power, she resolved no longer to over= 
look what he did, when he was almost at her 
gates; and she concluded, that now he was s¢ 
much stronger than before, he would be very 
desirous of the dominion over the Egyptians 

but she immediately marched against him with 

a fleet at sea, and an army of foot on land, and 

rade Chelcias and Ananias the Jews, genera 

of her whole army, while she sent the greates 
part of her riches, her grandchildren, and het 
testament, to the people of Cos.* Cleopatra 

also ordered her son Alexander to sail with a 

great fleet to Phoenicia: and when that countn 

had revolted, she came to Ptolemais; and be- 
cause the people of Ptolemais did not receive 
her, she besieged the city; but Ptolemy wen 
out of Syria, and made haste into Egypt, sup- 
posing that he should find it destitute of an 
army, and soon take it, though he failed of his 
hopes. At this time Chelcias, one of Cleopae 
tra’s generals, happened to die in Ceelosyria, as 

he was in pursuit of Ptolemy. , 
2. When Cleopatra heard of her son’s at 

tempt, and that his Egyptian expedition di 

not succeed according to his expectations, she 


5 








































ter at Gaza, in which time Cleopatra took the 
garrison that was in Ptolemais by siege, as well 
as the city; and when Alexander came to hei 
he gave her presents, and such marks of re 
spect as were but proper, since under the mise 
ries he endured by Ptolemy, he had no othe 
refuge but her. Now there were some of he 
triends who persuaded her to seize Alexandel 
und to overrun and take possession of th 
country, and not to sit still and see such a mui 
titude of brave Jews subject to one man. Bu 
Ananias’s counsel was contrary to theirs, wh 
said, that she “would do an unjust action, if 
she deprived a man that was her ally, of tha 
authority which belonged to him, and this” 
man who is related to us; for, said he, I wou 


not have thee ignorant of this, that what inju 


* This city or islandof Cos is not that remote island in t 
Egean sea, famous for the birth of the great Hippocrates 

acity orisland of the same name adjoinirg to Egypt, mentie 
ed both by Stephanus and Ptolemy, as Dr. Hudson infor 
us. Of which Cos, and the treasures there laid up by Ok 
patra and the Jews, see Antiq. b. xiv. ch. vii. sect. 8 


ees et 
rag 

















‘tice thou dost to him, will make all of us that 
‘are Jews to be thy enemies.” This desire of 
Ananias, Cleopatra complied with, and did no 
-‘mjury to Alexander, but made a league of mu- 
‘mal assistance with him, at Scythopolis, a city 
of Ceelosyria. 
“8. So when Alexander was delivered from 
‘the fear he was in of Ptolemy, he presently 
“made an expedition against Coelosyria. He 
‘aiso took Gadara, after a siege of ten months. 
‘He took also Amathus, a very strong fortress 
belonging to the inhabitants above Jordan, 
where Theodorus, the son of Zeno, had his 
‘shief treasure, and what he esteemed most pre- 
cious. This Zeno fell unexpectedly upon the 
| Jews, and slew ten thousand of them, and seiz- 
ed upon Alexander’s baggage: yet did not this 
misfortune terrify Alexander, but he made an 
“expedition upon the maritime parts of the 
_ country, Raphia and Anthedon, (the name of 
- which king Herod afterward changed to Agrip- 
| pias,)and took even that by force: but when 
Alexander saw that Ptolemy was retired from 
| Gaza to Cyprus, and his mother Cleopatra was 
| returned to Egypt, he grew angry at the peo- 
ple of Gaza, because they had invited Ptolemy 
) to assist them, and besieged their city, and rav- 
aged their country. But as Apollodotus, the 
) general of the army of Gaza, fell upon the 
camp of the Jews by night, with two thousand 
\ foreign, and ten thousand of his own forces, 
‘while the night lasted, those of Gaza prevailed, 
| because the enemy was made to believe that it 
) was Ptolemy who attacked them; but when 
_ day was come on, and that mistake was cor- 
- rected, and the Jews knew the truth of the 
matter, they came back again and fell upon 
. those of Gaza, and slew of them about a thou- 
» sand; but as those of Gaza stoutly resisted them, 
and would not yield for either their want of any 
' thing, nor for the great multitude that were 
) slain, for they would rather suffer any hard- 
_ ship whatever than come under the power of 
' their enemies, Aretus, king of the Arabians, a 
person then very illustrious, encouraged them 
to go on with alacrity, and promised them that 
' he would come to their assistance, but it hap- 
pened, that before he came, Apollodotus was 
slain, for his brother Lysimachus, envying him 
- for the great reputation he had gained among 
the citizens, slew him, and got the army to- 
- gether, and delivered up the city to Alexander, 
- who, when he came it at first, lay quiet, and af- 
terward set his army upon the inhabitants of 
' Gaza, and gave them leave to punish them; so 


as 


some went one way, and some went another, 


| nd slew the inhabitants of Gaza; yet were not 
| hey of cowardly hearts, but opposed those that 
“eame to slay them, and slew as many of the 
| Jews; and some of them, when they saw them- 
_ selves deserted, burnt their own houses, that 
the enemy might get none of their spoils; nay, 
- some of them with their own hands slew their 
_ children and their wives, having no other way 
_ Sut this of avoiding slavery for them; but the 
" senators, who were in all five hundred, fied to 
_ Apollo’s temple, (for this attack happened to 
_ be made as they were sitting,) whom Alexan- 


nef 


eh. 
es 





BOOK XITI—CHAPTER XIi1. 


33] 


der slew; and when he iad utterly overthrown 
their city, he returned to Jerusalem, having 
spent a year in that siege. 

4, About this very time Antiochus,* who 
was called Grypus, died. His death was caus- 
ed by Heracleon’s treachery, when he had liv- 
ed forty-five years, and had reigned twenty- 
nine.+ His son Seleucus succeeded him in his 
kingdom; and made war with Antiochus, his 
father’s brother, who was called Antiochus Cy- 
zicenus, and beat him, and took him prisoner 
and slew him, But after a while Antiochus, 
the son of Cyzicenus, who was called Pius 
came to Aradus, and put the diadem on his 
own head, and made war with Seleucus, and 
beat him, and drove him out of allSyria. But 
when he fled out of Syria, he came to Mopsu- 
estia again and levied money upon them, but 
the people of Mopsuestia had indignation at 
what he did, and burnt down hispalace, and slew 
him, together with his friends. But when An- 
tiochus, the son of Cyzicenus, was king of Sy-- 
ria, Antiochus, the brother of Seleucus made 
war upon him, and was overcome, and destroy- 
ed, he and his army. After him, his brother 
Philip|| put on the diadem, and reigned over 
some part of Syria; but Ptolemy Lathyrus sent 
for his fourth brother Demetrius, who was call- 
ed Eucerus, from Cnidus, and made him king 
of Damascus. Both these brothers did Antio- 
chus vehemently oppose, but presently died 
for when he was come as an auxiliary to Lao-~ 
dice, queen of the Gileadites,§ when she was 
making war against the Parthians, and he was 
fighting courageously he fell, while Demetrius 
and Philip governed Syria, as hath been else- 
where related. 

5. As to Alexander, his own people were 
seditious against him; for at a festival which was 
then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, 
and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upob 
him and pelted him with citrons, [which they 
then had in their hands,] because the law of 
the Jews required, that at the feast of taberna- 
cles every one should have branches of the 
palm-tree and citron-tree: which thing we have 
elsewhere related. They also reviled him, as 
derived from a captive, and so unworthy of 
his dignity, and of sacrificing. At this he was 
in a rage, and slew of them about six thousand. 


*This account of the death of Antiochus Grypus is con- 
firmed by Appion, Syriac, p. 132, here cited by Spanheim. 

¢ Porphyry says, that this Antiochus Grypus reigned bug 
26 years, as Dr. Hudson observes. 

t The copies of Josephus, both Greek and Latin, have here 
so grossly false a reading, Antiochus and Antoninus, or An- 
tonius Pius for Antiochus Pius, that the editors are forced 
to correct the text from the other historians, who all agree 
that this king’s name was nothing more than Antiochus Pius, 

|| These two brothers, Antiochus and Philippus, are called 
twins by Porpliyry; the fourth brotber was king of Damas 
cus; both which are the observations of Spanheim. 

§ This Laodicea was a city of Gilead beyond Jordan. 
However, Porphyry says that this Antiochus Pius did not die 
in this battle, but, running away, was drowned in the river 
Orontes. Appian says, that he was deprived of the kingdom 
of Syria by Tigranes; but Porphyry makes this Laodice 
queen of the Calamans: all which Is noted by Spanheim. 
In such confusion of the later historians, we have no reason 
to prefer any of them before Josephus, who had more orig 
nal ones before him. 

{ This reproach upon Alexander, that he was sp 
from a captive, seems only the repesition of the old Pharisa# 
cal calumny upon his father, ch. x. sect. 5. 


Se 


He also built a partition wall of wood round 
the altar and the temple, as far as that partition 
within which it was only lawful for the priests 
to enter, and by this means he obstructed the 
multitude from coming at him. He also main- 
tained foreigners of Pisidia and Cilicia, for as 
to the Syrians, he was at war with them, and 
so made no use of them. He also overcame 
the Arabians, such as the Moabites and Gilea- 
ditcs, and made them bring tribute. Moreover, 
he demolished Amathus, while Theodorus 
durst not fight with him;* but as he had join- 
ed battle with Obedas, king of the Arabians, 
and fell mto an ambush in places that were 
rugged and difficult to be travelled over, he 
was thrown down into a deep valley by the 
multitude of the camels at Gadara, a village of 
Gilead, and hardly escaped with hislife. From 
thence he fled to Jerusalem, where besides his 
other ill success, the nation insulted him, and 
he fought against them for six years, and slew 
no fewer than fifty thousand of them. And 
when he desired that they would desist from 
their ill will to him they hated him so much 
the more, on account of what had already 
happened; and when he had asked them 
wl at he ought to do? they all cried out, “that 
he ought to kill himself” They also sent to 
Demetrius Eucerus, and desired him to make 
a league of mutual defence with them. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Fiow Demetrius Eucerus overcame Alexander, 
and yet in alittle time retired out of the coun- 
try for fear of the Jews. As also how Alexan- 
der slew many of the Jews, and thereby got 
clear of his troubles. Concerning the death of 
Demetrius. 


§ 1. So Demetrius came with an army, and 
teok those that invited him, and pitched his 
camp near the city Shechem; upon which AI- 
exander, with his six thousand two hundred 
n.ercenaries, and about twenty thousand Jews, 
wao were of his party, went against Deme- 
tr.us, who had three thousand horsemen, and 
furty; housand footmen. Now there were great 
e.;deavors used on both sides, Demetrius try- 
ig to bring off the mercenaries that were with 
Alexander, because they were Greeks, and Al- 
exander trying to bring off the Jews that were 
with Demetrius. However, when neither of 
them could persuade them so to do, they came 
to a battle, and Demetrius was the conqueror, 
in which all Alexander’s mercenaries were kill- 
ed, when they had given demonstration of their 
fidelity and courage. A great number of De- 
¥ jetrius’s soldiers were slain also. 

2. Now as Alexander fled to the mountains, 
&.x thousand of the Jews hereupon came toge- 
ther [from Demetrius] to him, out of pity at 
the change of bis fortune; upon which Deme- 
trius was afraid, and retired out of the country; 
. after which the Jews fought against Alexander, 
and being beaten, were slain in great numbers 
in the several battles which they had; and when 
he had shut up the most powerful of them in 


* This Theodorus, was the son of Zeno, and was in pos- 
session of Amathus, as we learn from sect. 3, foregomg. — 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. . me 








the city Bethome, he besieged them the 
and when he had taken the city, and gottent 
men into his power, he brought them to Jeru- 
salem, and did one of the most barbarous ac- 
tions in the world to them; for as he was feast- 
ing with his concubines, in the sight of all the 
city, he ordered about eight hundred of them 
to be crucified, and while they were living he 
ordered the throats of their children and wives 
to be cut before their eyes. This was indeed 
by way of revenge for the injuries they 
done him; which punishment yet was of aa 
inhuman nature, though we suppose that he 
had been ever so much distressed, as indeed 
he had been, by his wars with them; for he had 
by their means come to the last degree of ha- 
zard, both of his life and of his kingdom, while 
they were not satisfied by themselves only to 
fight against him, but introduced foreigners also 
for the same purpose; nay, at length they re- 
duced him to that degree of necessity, that he 
was forced to deliver back to the king of Arabia 
the land of Moab and Gilead, which he had 
subdued, and the places that were in them, that 
they might not join with them in the waragainst 
him, as they had done ten thousand other 
things that tended to affront and reproach him. 
However, this barbarity seems to have been 
without any necessity, on which account he 
bore the name of a Thracian among the Jews;* 
whereupon the soldiers that had fought against 
him, being about eight thousand in number 
ran away by night, and continued fugitives a 
the time that Alexander lived; who being now 
freed from any further disturbance from them 
reigned the rest of his time in the utmost tran- 
quillity. a 
3. But when Demetrius was departed out of 
Judea, he went to Berea, and besieged his bro- 
ther Philip, having with him ten thousand foot- 
men, and a thousand horsemen. However, 
Strato the tyrant of Berea, the confederate of 
Philip called in Zizon, the ruler of the Arabian 
tribes, and Mithridates Sinax, the ruler of the 
Parthians, who coming witha great number of 
forces and besieging Demetrius in his encamp-_ 
ment, into which they had driven him with 
their arrows, they compelled those that w 
with him by thirst to deliver up themselves. 
So they took a great many spoils out of that 
country, and Demetrius himself, whom the 
sent to Mithridates, who was then king of Par- 
thia; but as to those whom they took captive 
of the people of Antioch, they restored them ta 
the Antiochians without any reward. Now 
Mithridates, the king of Parthia, had Demetriui 
in great honor, till Demetrius ended his life by 
sickness. So Philip, presently after the figk 
was over, came to Antioch and took it, ¢ 
reigned over Syria. 


CHAPTER XV. 

How Antiochus, who was called Dionysus, ¢ 
after him Aretas, made expeditions ine Judea 
as also, how Alexander took many cities, an 


* This name Thracida, which the Jews gave Alexan 
must, by the echerence, denote as barbarous as a actos 
or somewhat ike it, but what it properly signifies is 1 wy 
known. ee 























Ls 
We 
(ae 


. then returned to Jerusalem, and, after a sick- 
. ness of three years, died; and what counsel he 
_ gave to Alexandra. 

' §1. After this, Antiochus, who was called 
Dionysus, and was Philip’s brother,* aspired to 
‘the dominion, and came to Damascus, and got 
‘the power into his hands, and there he reigned: 
‘but as he was making war against the Arabians, 

‘his brother Philip heard of it, and came to Da- 
‘mascus, where Milesius, who had been left go- 
‘yernor of the citadel, and the Damascenes 
‘themselves, delivered up the city to him; yet 
‘because Philip was become ungrateful to him, 
‘and had bestowed upon him nothing of that 
im hopes whereof he had received him into the 
city, but had a mind to have it believed that it 
‘was rather delivered up out of fear than by the 
‘kindness of Milesius, and because he had not 
‘rewarded him as he ought to have done, he be- 
came suspected by him, and so he was obliged 
to leave Damascus again; for Milesius caught 
him marching out into the Hippodrome, and 
‘shut him up in it, and kept Damascus for An- 
tiochus [Eucerus,] who, hearing how Philip’s 
‘affairs stood, came back out of Arabia. He 
‘also came immediately, and made an expedi- 
tion against Judea, with eight thousand armed 
footmen, and eight hundred horsemen. So 
‘Alexander, out of fear of his coming, dug a 
deep ditch, beginning at Chabarzaba, which is 
now called Antipatris, to the sea of Joppa, on 
which part only his army could be brought 
against him. He also raised a wall, and erect- 
‘ed wooden towers, and intermediate redoubts, 
for one hundred and fifty furlongs in length, 
and there expected the coming of Antiochus, 
but he soon burnt them all, and made his army 
La by that way into Arabia. The Arabian 
king [Aretas] at first retreated, but afterward 
appeared on the sudden with ten thousand 
‘horsemen. Antiochus gave them the meeting, 
and fought desperately; and indeed when he 
‘had gotten the victory, and was bringing some 
‘auxiliaries to that part of his army that was in 
‘distress, he was slain. When Antiochus was 
‘fallen, his army fled to the village Cana, where 
‘the greatest part of them perished by famine. 
| 2. After him Aretas reigned over Ccelosyria,t 
being called to the government by those that 
‘held Damascus, by reason of the hatred they 

‘bore to Ptolemy Menneus. He also made 

‘thence an expedition against Judea, and beat 
Alexander in battle, near a place called Adida, 

“yet did he, upon certain conditions agreed on 

‘Detween them, retire out of Judea. 

' 3. But Alexander marched again to the city 

| Dios, and took it; and then made an expedition 

‘against Essa, where was the best part of Ze- 

‘mo’s treasures, and there he encompassed the 

place with three walis, and when he had taken 


4 
_* Spanheim takes notice, that this Antiochus Dionysus 
‘i = brother of Philip, and of Demetrius Eucerus, and of 
9 others] was the fifth son of Antiochus Grypus; and that 
"he is styled on the coins, .4ntiochus Epiphanes Dionysus. 
' _ ¢ This Aretas was the first king of the Arabians who took 
_ Damascus and reigned there; which name became after- 
/ ward common to such Arabian kings, both at Petro and at 


« Damascus, as we learn from Josephus in many places, and: 


¢ from St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 32; 
i ch. ix. sect. 4, 


: 


see the note on Antig. b. xvi. 


BOOK XIIL—CHAPTER XV 


the city by fighting, he marched to Golan and 
Seleucia; and when he had taken these cities, 
he, besides them, took that valley which is call- 
ed the valley of Antiochus, as also the fortress 
of Gamala. He also accused Demetrius, who 
was povernor of those places, of many crimes, 
and turned him out: and after he had spent 
three years in this war, he returned to his own 
country, when the Jews joyfully received him 
upon this his good success. 

4. Now at this time the Jews were in pos- 
session of the following cities that had belonged 
to the Syrians, and Idumeans, and Pheenicians; 
at the seaside, Strato’s Tower, Apollonia, Joppa, 
Jamnia, Ashdod, Gaza, Anthedon, Raphia, and 
Rhinocolura; in the middle of the country, 
near to Idumea, Adora, and Marissa; near the 
country of Samaria, mount Carmel, and mount 
Tabor, Scythopolis, and Gadara; of the country 
of Gaulonitis, Seleucia, and. Gabala; in the 
country of Moab, Heshbon, and Medaba, Lem 
ba, and Oronas, Gelithon, Zara, the valley of 
the Celices, and Pella; which last they utterly 
destroyed, because its inhabitants would not 
bear to change their religious rites for those pe- 
culiar to the Jews.* The Jews also possessed 
others of the principal cities in Syrie, which 
had been destroyed. 

5. After this, king Alexander, although he 
fell into a distemper by hard drinking, and had 
a quartan ague, which held him three years, 
yet would not leave off going out with his army 
till he was quite spent with the labors he had 
undergone, and died in the bounds of Regaba, 
a fortress beyond Jordan. But when his queen 
saw that he was ready to die, and had no longer 
any hopes of surviving, she came to him weep- 
ing, and lamenting, and bewailing herself and 
her sons, on the desolate condition they showd 
be left in; and said to him, “To whem dost 
thou thus leave me and my children, who are 
destitute of all other supports, and this when 
thou knowest how much ill will thy nation 
bears theer” But he gave her the following 
advice, “That she need but follow what he 
would suggest to her, in order to retain the 
kingdom securely, with her children; that she 
should’‘conceal his death from the soldiers till 
she snould have taken that place; after this, 
she should go in triumph, as upon a victory, to 
Jerusalem, and put some of her authority inte 
the hands of the Pharisees, for that they would 
commend her for the honor she had done 
them, and would reconcile the nation to her: 
for he told her, they had great authority among 
the Jews, both to do hurt to such as they hated, 
and to bring advantages to those to whom they 
were friendly disposed, for that they are then 


* We may here, and elsewhere, take notice, that whatever 
countries or cities the Asmoneans conquered from any of the 
neighboring nations, or whatever countries or cities they 
gained from them, that had not belonged to them before, they 
after the days of Hyrcanus, compelled the inhabitants te 
leave their idolatry, and entirely to receive the law of Mosea, 
as proselytes of justice, or else banished them into other 
lands. That excellent prince, John Hyrcanus, did it to the 
Idumeans, as I have noted on chap. ix. sect. 1, already, whe 
lived then in the promised land, and this I suppose justly; 
but by what right the rest did it, even to countries or cities 
that were no part of tha: land, I do not at all know. This- 
looks too like unjust persecution for religion. 


334 


believed best of all by the multitude when they 
speak any severe thing against others, though 
it be only out of envy at them. And he said, 
that it was by their means that he had incurred 
the displeasure of the nation, whom indeed he 
had injured. Do thou, therefore, said he, when 
thou art come to Jerusalem, send for the lead- 
ing men among them, and show them my body, 
and with great appearance of sincerity, give 
them leave to use it as they themselves please, 
whether they will dishonor the dead body by 
refusing it burial, as having severely suffered 
by my means, or whether in their anger they 
will offer any other injury to that body. Pro- 
mise them also, that thou wilt do nothing with- 
out them in the affairs of the kingdom. If 
thou dost but say this to them, I shall have the 
honor of a more glorious funeral from them 
than thou couldst have made for me: and when 
it is in their power to abuse my dead body, 
they will do it no injury at all, and thou wilt 
rule in safety.”* So when he had given his 
wife this advice, he died after he had reigned 
twenty-seven years, and lived fifty years within 
one. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


How Alexandra, by gaining the good will of the 
Pharisees, retained the kingdom nine years, and 
then, having done many glorious actions, died. 


§ 1. So Alexandra, when she had taken the 
fortress, acted as her husband had suggested 
to her, and spoke to the Pharisees, and put all 
things into their power, both as to the dead 
body, and as to the affairs of the kingdom, and 
thereby pacified their anger against Alexander, 
and made them bear good will and friendship 
to him; who then came among the multitude, 
and made speeches to them, and laid before 
them the actions of Alexander, and told them 
that they had lost a righteous king, and by the 
commendation theysgave him, they brought 
them to grieve, and to be in heaviness for him, 
so that he had a funeral more splendid than 
had any of the kings before him. Alexander 
left behind him two sons, Hyrcanus and Aris- 
tobulus, but committed the kingdom to Alex- 
andra. Now, as to these two sons, Hyrcanus 
was indeed unable to manage public affairs, 
and delighted rather in a quiet life; but the 
younger, Aristobulus, was an active and a bold 
man; and for this woman herself, Alexandra, 
she was loved by the multitude, because she 
seemed displeased at the offences her husband 
had been guilty of. 


*It seems by this dying advice of Alexander Janneus to 
his wife, that he had himself pursued the measures of his 
fatoer Hyrcanus, and taken part with the Sadducees, who 
kept close to the written law, against the Pharisees, who 
had introduced their own traditions, chap. xvi. sect. 9. and 
that he now saw a political necessity of submitting to the 
Pharisees and their traditions hereafter, if his widow and fa- 
mily minded to retain their monarchial government or tyran- 
my over the Jewish nation: which sect yet, thus supported, 
were at last in a great measure the ruin of the religion, go- 
vernment, and nation of the Jews, and brought them into 
80 wicked 8 state that the vengeance of God came upon them 
. to their utter excision. Just thus did Caiaphas politically 
advise the Jewish Sanhedrim, John xi. 50; That it was ex- 
Neneh for them that one man should die for the people, and 

the whole nation perish not; and this in consequence of 
their own political supposa. verse 48, that if they let Jesus 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. aaa 







2. So she made Hyrcanus high priest, 
cause he was the elder, but much more be. 
cause he cared not to meddle with polities, and 
permitted the Pharisees to do every thing; te 
whom also she ordered the multitude to be 
obedient. She also restored again those prac 
tices which the Pharisees had introduced, ace 
cording to the traditions of their forefathers, 
and which her father-in-law Hyrcanus, bad 
abrogated. So she had indeed the name of. 
the regent, but the Pharisees had the author . 
ty; for it was they who restored such as ha 
been banished, and set such as were prisoners, 
at liberty, and, to say all at once, they differed | 
in nothing from lords. However, the queen 
also took care of the affairs of the kingdom, 
and got together a great body of mercenary 
soldiers, and increased her own army to oil 
a degree, that she became terrible to the neigh- 
boring tyrants, and took hostages of them; and 
the country was entirely at peace, excepting. 
the Pharisees; for they disturbed the queen, 
and desired that she should kill those who per- 
suaded Alexander to slay the eight hundred 
men; after which they cut the throat of one of 
them, Diogenes: and after him they did the. 
same to several, one after another, till the men 
that were the most potent came into the | 
and Aristobulus with them, for he seemed to 
be displeased at what was done, and it appear 
ed openly, that if he had an opportunity, he 
would not permit his mother to go on so. 
“These put the queen in mind what great dan- 
gers they had gone through, and great things” 
they had done, whereby they had demonstratee 
the firmness of their fidelity to their master, 
insomuch, that they had received the greates 
marks of favor from him; and they begged of 
her, that she would not utterly blast their hopes, 
as it now happened, that when they had es 
caped the hazards that arose from their [open 
enemies, they were to be cut off at home, h 
their [private] enemies, like brute beasts, with- 
out any help whatsoever. They said also, tha’ 
if their adversaries would be satisfied with 
those that had been slain already, they woul 
take what had been done patiently, on accout 
of their natural love to their governors; butif 
they must expect the same for the future also, 
they implored of hera dismission from her 
service, for they could not bear to think of at 
tempting any method for their deliverance 
without her, but would rather die willingly be 
fore the palace-gate, in case she would not fo 
give them. And that it was a great shame both 
























alone, with his miracles, all men would helieve on him, ane 
the Romans would come, and take away both their yee z 
nation. Which political crucifixion of Jesus of Naz 
brought down the vengeance of God upon them, and ocea- 
sioned those very Romans, of whom they seemed so much 
afraid, that to prevent it they put him to death, actually t 
come and take away both their place and nation within thirt 
eight years afterward. I heartily wish the po ns | 
Christendom would consider these and the like exan 
and no longer sacrifice all virtue and religion to their p 
cious schemes of government, to the bringing down the ju 
ment of God upon themselves, and the several nations it 
trusted to their care. But this is a digression: I wish it we 
an unseasonable one also. Josepnus himself several ' | 
makes such digressions, and [ -here venture to follow himy 
see one of them at the conclusion of the very next chapt 














_ for themselves, and fir the queen, that when 
‘they were neglected by her, they should come 
‘under the lash of her husband’s enemies: for 
‘that Aretas, the Arabian king, and the mo- 
‘narchs, would give any reward, if they could 
get such men as foreign auxiliaries, to whom 
their very names, before their voices be heard, 
. may perhaps be terrible: but if they could not 
obtain this their second request, and if she had 
, determined to prefer the Pharisees before them, 
_ they still insisted that she would place them 
avery one in her fortresses; for if some fatal 
demon had a constant spite against Alexander’s 
. aouse, they would be willing to bear their part, 
| and to live in a private station there.” 
_ 3. As these men said thus, and called upon 
. Alexander’s ghost for commiseration of those 
| already slain, and those in danger of it, all the 
_ bystanders broke out into tears: but Aristobulus 
. chiefly made manifest what were hissentiments, 
‘and used many reprozchful expressions to his 
_ mother, [saying,] “Nay, indeed, the case is this, 
. that they have been themselves the authors of 
_ their own calamities, who have permitted a wo- 
_man, who, against reason, was mad with am- 
| bition, to reign over them, when there were 
sons in the flower of their age fitter for it.” So 
' Alexandra, not knowing what to do with any 
decency, committed the fortresses to them, all 
but Hyrcania, and Alexandrium, and Mache- 
‘rus, where her principal treasures were. After 
alittle while also, she sent her son Aristobulus 
with an army to Damascus against Ptolemy, 
| who was called Menneus, who was such a bad 
neighbor to the city; but he did nothing con- 
siderable there, and so returned home. 
4, About this time news was brought, that 
Tigranes, the king of Armenia, had made an 
‘irruption into Syria, with five hundred thou- 
sand soldiers,* and was coming against Judea. 
This news, as may well be supposed, terrified 
the queen and the nation. Accordingly, they 
sent him many and very valuable presents, as 
also ambassadors, and that as he was besieging 
Ptolemais; for Selene the queen, the same that 
was also called Cleopatra, ruled then over Sy- 
ria, who had persuaded the inhabitants to ex- 
clude Tigranes. So the Jewish ambassadors 
interceded with him, and entreated him that he 
would determine nothing that was severe about 
their queen or nation. He commanded them 
‘or the respects they paid him at so great a dis- 
tance, and gave them good hopes of his favor. 
But as soon as Ptolemais was taken, news came 
 Tigranes, that Lucullus, in his pursuit of 
Mithridates, could not light upon him, who 
was fled into Iberia, but was laying waste Ar- 
‘nenia, and besieging its cities. Now when Ti- 
granes knew this he returned home. 
3. After this, when the queen was fallen into 
a dangerous distemper, Aristobulus resolved to 
attempt the seizing of the gcvernment; so he 


_* The number of 500,000, or even 300,000, as one Greek 
copy, with the Latin copies, have it, for Tigranes’s army, 
t came outof Armenia into Syria and Judea, seems much 
@olarge. We have had already several such extravagant 
aumbers in Josephus’s present copies, which are not to be 
at all ascribed tu him. Accordingly I incline to Dr. Hudson’s 
ion here, which supposes them but 40,000. 


My 
ve 
e 


© ¥. 
ah he 


BOOK XIII—CHAPTER XVI. 


stole away secretly by night, with only one of 
his servants, and went to the fortresses wherein 
his friends, that were such from the days of his 
father, were settled: for as he had been a great 
while displeased at his mother’s conduct, so he 
was now much more afraid, lest, upon her death, 
their whole family should be under the pevrer 
of the Pharisees, for he saw the inability of zis 
brother who was to succeed in the government: 
nor was any one conscious of what he was do- 
ing, but only his wife, whom he left at Jerusa- 
Jem with their children. He first of all came 
to Agaba, where was Galestes, one of the po- 
tent men before mentioned, and was received 
by him. When it was day the queen perceived 
that Aristobulus was fled; and for some tims 
she supposed that his departure was not in or- 
der to make any innovation; but when mes 
sengers came one after another with the news, 
that he had secured the first place, the secend 
place, and all the places, for as soon as one had 
begun, they all submitted to his disposal; then 
it was that the queen and the nation were in 
the greatest disorder, for they were aware that 
it would not be long ere Aristobulus would be 
able to settle himself firmly in the government. 
What they were principally afraid of was this, 
that he would inflict punishment upon them 
for the mad treatment his house had had from 
them: so they resolved to take his wife and 
children into custody, and keep them in the 
fortress that was over the temple.* Now there 
was a mighty conflux of people that came to 
Aristobulus from all parts, insomuch that he 
had a kind of royal attendance about him; for 
in little more than fifteen days he got twenty- 
two strong places, which gave him the oppor- 
tunity of raising an army from Libanus and 
Trachonitis, and the monarchs; for men are 
easily led by the greater number, and easily 
submit to them. And _ besides this, that by af- 
fording him their assistance when he could not 
expect it, they, as well as he, should have the 
advantages that would come by his being king, 
because they had been the occasion of his gain- 
ing the kingdom. Now the elders of the Jews, 
and Hyrcanus with them, went in unto the 
queen, and desired, “that she would give them 
her sentiments about the present posture of 
affairs, for that Aristobulus was in effect lord of 
almost all the kingdom, by possessing of so 
many strong holds, and that it was absurd for 
them to take any counsel by themselves, how ill 
soever she were, whilst she was alive, and that 
the danger would be upon them in no long time.” 
But she “bade them do what they thought pro- 
per to be done: that they had many cireum- 
stances in their favor still remaining; a nation in 
good heart, an army,and money in their several 
treasuries, for that she had small concern for 
public affairs now, when the strength of her 
body already failed her. 


* The fortress, castle, or tower, whither the wife and cht 
dren of Aristobulus were now sent, and which overlooked 
the temple, could be no other than what Hyrcanus I. built, 
Antiq. b. xviii. chap. iv. sect. 3, and Herod the Great re- 
built, and called the Tower of Antonia, Antiq. b. xv. ch. x 
sect. 5. ; 


336 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


6. Now a little while after she had said this 
to them, she dicd, when she had reigned nine 
years, and had in all lived seventy-three. A 
woman she was who showed no signs of the 
weakness of her sex, for she was sagacious to 
the greatest degree in her ambition of govern- 
ing, and demonstrated by her doings at once, 
that her mind was fit for action, and that some- 
times men themselves show the little under- 
standing they have by the frequent mistakes 
they make in point of government; for she al- 
ways preferred the present to futurity, and 
preferred the power of an imperious dominion 
above all things, and in comparison of that had 
no regard to what was good, or what was 
right. However, she brought the affairs of her 
house to such an unfortunate condition, that 


BCS es 













she was the occasion of the taking away ths 
authority from it, and that in no long time sf 
terward, which she had obtained by a vast 
number of hazards and misfortunes, and this 
out of a desire of what does not belong to a— 
woman, and all by a compliance in her senti- 
ments with those that bore ill will to their 
family, and by leaving the administration desti- ; 
tute of a proper support of great men: and in- 
deed her management during her administra-— 
tion, while she was alive, was such, as “!\ed) 
the palace after her death with calamities and 
disturbance. However, although this had been 
her way of governing, she preserved the na- 
tion in peace. And this is the conclusion of © 
the affairs of Alexandra. hi 


’ 





BOOK XIV. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA > 
TO THE DEATH OF ANTIGONUS. ‘A 





CHAPTER I. 


The war between Aristobulus and Hyrcanus 
about the kingdom; and how they made an 
agreement that Aristobulus should be king, 
and Hyrcanus live a private life: as also, how 
Hyrcanus, a little afterward, was persuaded by 
Antipater to fly to Aretas. 


§ 1. We have related the affairs of queen 
Alexandra, and her death, in the foregoing 
book, and will now speak of what followed, 
and was connected with those histories; de- 
claring, before we proceed, that we have noth- 
ing so much at heart as this, that we may omit 
no facts,* either through ignorance or laziness, 
for we are upon the history and explication of 
such things as the greatest part are unacquaint- 
ed withall, because of their distance from our 
times; and we aim to do it with a proper beauty 
of style, so far as that is derived from proper 
words harmonically disposed, and from such 
ornaments of speech also as may contribute to 
the pleasure of our readers, that we may en- 
tertain the knowledge of what we write with 
some agreeable satisfaction and pleasure. But 
the principal scope that authors ought to aim 
at above all the rest, is to speak accurately, and 
to speak truly, for the satisfaction of those that 
are otherwise unacquainted with such transac- 
tions, and obliged to’ believe what these writers 
inform them of. 

2. Hyrcanus then began his high priesthood 
on the third year of the hundred and seventy- 
seventh olympiad, when Quintus Hortensius 
and Quintus Metellus, who was called Metellus 
of Crete, were consuls at Rome; when pre- 
sently Aristobulus began to make war against 


* Reland takes notice here, very justly, how Josephus’s 
declaration, that it was his great concern not only to write 
an agreeable, an accurate, and a true history, but also dis- 
tinctly not to omit any thing [of consequence] either through 
{gnorance or laziness, implies, that he could not, consistent- 


iy with that resolution, omit the mention of [so famous a 


gerson as} Jesus Christ. 


him, and as it came to a battle with Hyrcarus: 
at Jericho, many of the soldiers deserted hin, 
and went over to his brother; upon which Hyr- 
canus fled into the citadel, where Aristobulus’s— 
wife and children were imprisoned by their 
mother, as we have said already, and attacked © 
and overcome those his adversaries that had 
fled thither, and lay within the walls of the 
temple. So when he had sent a message to” 
his brother about agreeing the matters between 
them, he laid aside his enmity to him on these _ 
conditions, that Aristobulus should be par | 
that he should live without intermeddling with 
public affairs, and quietly enjoy the estate he 
had acquired. When they had agreed upon 
these terms in the temple, and had confirmed 
the agreement with oaths, and the giving one 
another their right hands, and embracing one” 
another in the sight of the whole multitude, 
they departed; the one, Aristobulus, to the pa- 
lace: and Hyrcanus, as a private man, to 
former house of Aristobulus. 
3. But there was a certain friend of Hyrca- 
nus, an Idumean, called Antipater, who was 
very rich, and in his nature an active and a se 
ditious man, who was at enmity with Aristo- 
bulus, and had differences with him on account 
of his good will to Hyrcanus. It is true that 
Nicolaus of Damascus says, that Antipater wa 
of the stock of the principal Jews who cam 
out of Babylon into Judea; but that assertior 
of his was to gratify Herod, who was his son 
and who, by certain revolutions of fortune 
came afterward to be king of the Jews, whos 
history we shall give you in its proper place 
hereafter. However, this Antipater was 1 
first called Antipas,* and that was his fathe 






















* That the famous Antipater’s or Antipas’s father was @ 
Antipater or Antipas, (which two may justly be esteemed ou 
and the same name, the former with a Greek or Gentile, & 
latter with a Hebrew or Jewish termination,) Josephus he! 
assures us, though Eusebius indeed says it was Herod. 


Me Soh a 
Sond - 4 


wort 


ame also; of whora they relate this, that king 
Alexander and his wife made him general of all 
Idumea, and that he made a league of friend- 
ship with those Arabians, and Gazites, and As- 
calonites, that were of his own party, and had, 
by many and large presents, made them his fast 
friends. But now, this younger Antipater was 
suspicious of .the power of Aristobulus, and 
was afraid of some mischief he might do him, 
because of his hatred to him, so he stirred up 
the most powerful of the Jews, and talked 
oo him to them privately; and said, that 
“It was unjust to overlook the conduct of Aris- 
tobulus, who had gotten the government un- 
righteously, and ejected his brother out of it, 
who was the elder, and ought to retain what 
belonged to him by prerogative of his birth.” 
And the same speeches he perpetually made 
to Hyrcanus; and told him, that his own life 
would be in danger, unless he guarded himself, 
and got rid of Aristobulus; for he said, that 
the friends of Aristobulus omitted no opportu- 
nity of advising him to kill him, as being then, 
and not before, sure to retain his principality. 
Hyrcanus gave no credit to these words of his, 
as being of a gentle disposition, and one that 
did not easily admit of calumnies against other 
men. This temper of his, not disposing him 
to meddle with public affairs, and want of 
spirit, occasioned him to appear to spectators 
to be degenerate and unmanly; while Aristo- 
bulus was of a contrary temper, an active man, 
and one of a great and generous soul. 
| 4. Since, therefore, Antipater saw that Hyr- 
‘anus did not attend to what he said, he never 
wased day by day, to charge feigned crimes 
upon Aristobulus, and to calumniate him, be- 
fore him, as if he had a mind to kill him, and 
#0, by urging him perpetually, he advised him, 
ind persuaded him to fly to Aretas, the king of 
Arabia, and promised, that if he would comply 
‘with his advice, he would also himself assist 
aim, [and go with him.] When Hyrcanus 
Jeard this, he said that it was for his advantage 
io fly away to Aretas. Now Arabia is a coun- 
ry that borders upon Judea. However, Hyr- 
Janus sent Antipater first to the king of Ara- 
Jia, in order to receive assurances from him, 
hat when he should come in the manner of 
‘supplicant to him, he would not deliver him 
Apto his enemies. So Antipater having re- 
Jeived such assurances, returned to Hyrcanus 
.0 Jerusalem. Awhile afterward he took Hyr- 
us, and stole out of the city by night, and 
}vent a great journey, and came and brought 
tim to the city called Petra, where the palace 
| if Aretas was; and as he was a very familiar 
| tend of that king, he persuaded him to bring 
| ack Hyrcanus into Judea, and his persuasion 
le continued every day without any intermis- 
|ion. He also propes2d to make him presents 
(mthat account. At length he prevailed with 
jiretas in his suit. Moreover, Hyrcanus pro- 
)nised him, that when he had been brought thith- 
|, and had received his kingdom, he would 
| estore that country, and those twelve cities 
| Vhich his father Alexander had taken from the 
| \rabians, which were these, Medaba, Naballo, 
43 ‘ 
















wt 


ae BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER II. 


38? 


Libias, Tharabasa, Agaia, Athone, Zoar, Crone. 
Marissa, Rudda, Lussa, and Oruba. 


CHAPTER IT. 


How Aretas and Hyrcanus made an expedition 
against Aristobulus, and besieged Jerusalem; 
and how Scaurus, the Roman general, raised 
the siege. Concerning the death. uf Onias. 


§ 1. After these promises had been given to 
Aretas, he made an expedition against Aristo 
bulus, with an army of fifty thousand horse 
and foot, and beat him in the battle. And 
when after that victory many went over to Hyr 
canus as deserters, Aristobulus was left deso 
late, and fled to Jerusalem; upon which the 
king of Arabia, took all his army and made an 
assault upon the temple, and besieged Aristo- 
bulus therein, the people still supporting Hyr- 
canus, and assisting him in the siege, while 
none but the priests continued with Aristobulus, 
So Aretas united the forces of the Arabians 
and of the Jews together, and pressed on the 
siege vigorously. As this happened at the time 
when the feast of unleavened bread was cele- 
brated, which we call the passover, the princi- 
pal men among the Jews left the country and 
fled into Egypt. Now there was one whose 
name was Onias, a righteous man he was, and 
beloved of God, who, in a certain drought, had ° 
prayed to God to put anend to the intense 
heat, and whose prayers God had heard, and had 
sent them rain. ‘This man had hid himself, 
because he saw that this sedition would last 
a great while. However, they brought him to 
the Jewish camp, and desired, that as by his 
prayers he had once put an end to the drought, 
so he would in* likey manner make impreca- 
tions on Aristobulus, and those of his faction, 
And when upon his refusal, and the excuses 
that he made, he was still by the multitude 
compelled to speak, he stood up in the midst of 
them, and said, “O God, the King of the whole 
world! since those that stand now with me are 
thy people, and those that are besieged are aiso 


‘thy priests, I beseech thee, that thou wilt neith 


er hearken to the prayers of those against these 
nor bring to effect what these pray against 
those.” Whereupon such wicked Jews as 
stood about him, as soon as he had made this — 
prayer, stoned him to death. 

2. But God punished them immediately for 
this their barbarity, and took vengeance of 
them for the murder of Onias, in the manner 
following: while the priests and Aristobulus 
were besieged, it happened that the feast called 
the passover was come, at which it is our cus- 
tom to offer a great number of sacrifices to 
God; but those that were with Aristobulus 
wanted sacrifices, and desired that their coun- 
trymen without would furnish them with such 
sacrifices and assured them they should have 
as much money for them as they should de- 
sire; and when they required them to pay a 
thousand drachmee for each head of cattle, Aris- 
tobulus and the priests willingly undertook to 
pay for them accordingly, and those within let 
down the money over zhe walls, and gave it 
them. But when the others had received it 


i 


JSS 


tney did not deliver the sacrifices, but arrived 
at that height of wickedness as to break the 
assurances they had given, and to be guilty of 
impiety towards God, by not furnishing those 
that wanted them with sacrifices. And when 
ehe priests found they had been cheated, and 
that the agreements they had made were viola- 
ted, they prayed to God that he would avenge 
them on their countrymen. Nor did he delay 
that their punishment, but sent a strong and 
vehement storm of wind, that destroyed the 
fruits of the whole country, till a modius of 
wheat was then bought for eleven drachme. 
3. In the mean time Pompey sent Scaurus 
into Syria, while he was himself in Armenia, 
and making war with Tigranes: but when Scau- 
rus was come to Damascus, andfound that 
Lollius and Metellus had newly taken the city, 
he came himself hastily into Judea. And when 
he was come thither, ambassadors came to him, 
both from Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and both 
desired he would assist them. And when both 
of them promised to give him money, Aristo- 
bulus four hundred talents, and Hyrcanus no 
less, he accepted of Aristobulus’s promise, for 
he was rich, and had a great soul, and desired 
to obtain nothing but what was moderate; 
whereas the other was poor, and tenacious, and 
‘made incredible promises in hopes of greater 
advantages; for it was not the same thing to 
take a city that was exceeding strong and pow- 
erful, as it was to eject out of the country some 
fugitives, with a greater number of Nabateans, 
who were no very warlike people. He, there- 
fore, made an agreement with Aristobulus, for 
the reasons before mentioned, and took his 
money, and rajsed the siege; and ordered Aretas 
to depart, or else he should be declared an ene- 
my tothe Romans. So Scaurus returned to 
Damascus again; and Aristobulus, with a great 
army, made war with Aretas and Hyrcanus, and 
fought them at a place called Papyron, and beat 
them in the battle, and slew about six thousand 
of the enemy; with whom fell Phalion also, 
the brother of Antipater. 


CHAPTER LL ; 


How Aristobulus and Hyrcanus came‘to Pom- 
pey, in order to argue who ought'to have the 
kingdom: and how, upon the flight of Aristo- 
bulus to the fortress Alexandrium, Pompey led 
his army against him, and ordered him to deliver 
up the fortresses whereof he was possessed. 


§ 1. A little afterward Pompey came to Da- 
mascus, and marched over Colosyria, at which 
time there came ambassadors to him from all 
Syria, and Egypt, and out of Judea also, for 
Aristobulus nad sent him a great present, 
which wasa golden vine,* of the value of five 
hundred talents. Now Strabo of Cappadocia 
mentions this present in these words: “There 

* This golden vine or garden, seen by Strabo at Rome has 
its inscription here, asif it were the gift of Alexander, the 
father of Aristobulus, and not of Aristobulus himself, to 
whom yet Josephus ascribes it: and in order to prove the 
truth of that part of his history, introduces this testimony of 
Strano: so that the ordinary copies seem to be here either 
erroneous or defective, and the original reading seems to 


have been either 4ristobulus, instead of Alexander, with one 
Greek copy, or else .dristobulus, the son of Alexander, with 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. == > —s—<‘C;:S 












came also an embassage out of Egypt, and 
crown of the value of fomik thousand pieces of 
gold, and out of Judea there came another 
whether you call it a vine or a garden: they 
called the thing Tzrrour, the Dehght. How- 
ever, we ourselves saw that present reposited 
at Rome in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, 
with this inscription, the gift of Alexander the 
king of the Jews. Yt was valued at five hundred. 
talents; and the report is, that Aristobulus, tha 
governor of the Jews, sent it.” 
2. Ina little time afterward came ambassadors 

again to him, Antipater from Hyrcanus, and | 
Nicodemus from Aristobulus; which last alse 
accused such as had taken bribes, first Gabi | 
nius, and then Scaurus, the one three hundred | 
talents, and the other four hundred; by which > 
procedure he made these two his enemies, be- 

sides those he had before. And when Pompey | 
had ordered those that had controversies one 
with another to come to him in the beginning | 
of the spring, he brought his army out of their — 
winter quarters, and marched into the country 
of Damascus; and as he went along he de | 
molished the citadel that was at Apamia, which — 
Antiochus Cyzicenus had built, and took cog- 
nizance of the country of Ptolemy Menneus, @ 
wicked man, and not less so than Dionysius of 
Tripoli, who had been beheaded, who was also | 
his relation by marriage; yet did he buy off the — 
punishment of his crimes for a thousand ta-_ 
lents, with which money Pompey paid the sol- _ 
diers their wages. He also conquered the ! 
{ 
; 





- 


place called Lysias, of which Silas, a Jew, was 
tyrant. And when he had passed over the ci- 
ties of Heliopolis and Chalecis, and got over the 
mountain which is on the limit of nd thee 



















he came from Pella to Damascus; and there | 

was that he heard the causes of the Jews, and 
of their governors Hyrcanus and Aristobulus 
who were at difference one with shes 
also of the nation against them both; which 
did not desire to be under kingly government, 
because the form of government they receiveé 
from their forefathers was that of subjectior 
to the priests of that God whom they wor: 
shiped, and [they complained,] that thougl 
these two were the posterity of priests, yet did 
they seek to change the government of thei 
nation to another form, in order to enslave 
them. Hyrcanus complained, that although 
he were the elder brother, he was deprived 
of the prerogative of his birth by Aristobu- 
lus, and that he hath but a small part of th 
country under him, Aristobulus having taken 
away the rest from him by force. He also ac 
cused him, that the incursions which had been 
made into their neighbor’s countries, and the 
piracies that had been at sea, were owing té 
him and that the nation would not have revol 


the Latin copies; which last seems to me the most prot 
for as to Archbishop Usher’s conjectures, that and 
made it, and dedicated it to God in the tempie, and that 
thence Aristobulus took it, and sent it to Pompey, they aF 

both very improbable, and noway agreeable to 5 phy 
who would hardly have avoided the recording both these @ 
common points of history, had he known any thing of then 
nor would either the Jewish nation, or even Pompey himse 
then have relished such a flagrant instance o° sac 


ae ae 4 
Ta) ot iy gia 

fe ee 

ae 


we vivience an: disorder; and there were no 
fewer than a thousand Jews of the best esteem 
‘among them, who confirmed this accusation; 
which confirmation was procured by Antipa- 
ter. But Aristobulus alleged against him, that 
it was Hyrcanus’s own temper, which was in- 
active, and on that account contemptible, which 
caused him to be deprived of the government; 
and that for himself he was necessitated to take 
it upon hin, for fear lest it should be transfer- 
red to others. And that as to his title [of king] 
it was no other than what his father had taken 
“before him.| He also called for witnesses of 
what he said some persons who were both 
young and insolent; whose purple garments, 
fine heads of hair, and other ornaments, were 
detested [by the court,] and which they appear- 
ed in, not as though they were to plead their 
cause in a court of justice, but as if they were 
marching in a pompous procession. 
~ 3. When Pompey had heard the causes of 
these two, and had condemned Aristobulus for 
his violent procedure, he then spoke civilly to 
them and sent them away; and told them, that 
when he came again into their country he 
would settle all their affairs, after he had first 
taken a view of the affairs of the Nabateans. 
In the mean time, he ordered them to be quiet; 
and treated Aristobulus civilly, lest he should 
make the nation revolt, and hinder his return; 
which yet Aristobulus did; for without expect- 
ing any further determination, which Pom- 
sy had promised them, he went to the city of 
elius, and thence marched into Judea. 

4. At this behavior Pompey was angry; and, 
taking with him that army which he was lead- 
jag against the Nabateans, and the auxiliaries 
that came from Damascus, and the other parts 
of Syria, with the other Roman legions which 
‘he had with him, he made an expedition against 
Aristobulus; but as he passed by Pella, and 
‘Beythopolis, he‘came to Cores, which is the 
‘first entrance into Judea when one passes over 
the midland countries, where he came toa 
‘Most beautiful fortress that was built on the top 
of a mountain, called Alexandrium, whither 
‘Aristobulus had fled, and thence Pompey sent 
his commands to him, that he should come to 
him. Accordingly, at the persuasions of many, 
‘that he would not make war withthe Romans, 
he came down, and when he had disputed with 
his brother about the right to the government, 
he went up again to the citadel, as Pompey 
gave him leave to do, and this- he did two or 
three times, as flattering himself witlrthe-hopes 
of having the kingdom granted him: so that 
he still pretended he would obey Pompey in 
Whatsoever he commanded, although, at the 
‘Bame time, he retired to his fortress, that he 
might not depress himself too low, and that he 
might be prepared for a war, in case it should 
prove, as he feared, that Pompey should trans- 
fer the government to Hyrcanus. But when 
Pompey enjoined Aristobulus to deliver up the 
fortresses he held, and to send an injunction to 
their governors under his own hand, for that 
Purpose, for they had been forbidden to deliver 
sem up upon any other ~ommands, he sub- 


. 












et. BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER IV. 


mitted indeed to do so, but still ne retired im 
displeasure to Jerusalem, aud made prepara- 
tion for war. A little after this, certain persons 
came out of Pontus, and informed Pompey, az 
he was on the way, and conducting his army 
against Aristobulus, that Mithridates was dead, 
and was slain by his son Pharnaces. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Pompey, when the citizens of Jerusalem 
shut the gates against him, besveged the city, 


and took it by force; as also what other things 
he did in Judea. i 


§ 1. Now when Pompey had pitched his 
camp at Jericho, (where the palm-tree grows,* 
and that balsam which is an ointment of all 
the most precious, which, upon any incision 
made inthe wood with a sharp stone, distils 
out thence like a juice,) he marched in the 
morning to Jerusalem. Hereupon Aristobulus 
repented of what he was doing, and came to 
Pompey, and [promised to] give him money, 
and received him into Jerusalem, and desired 
that he would leave off the war, and do what 
he pleased peaceably. So Pompey, upon his 
entreaty, forgave him, and sent Gabinius, and 
soldiers with him, to receive the money and 
the city: yet was no part of this performed, 
but Gabinius came back, being both excluded 
out of the city, and receiving none of the mo 
ney promised, because Aristobulus’s soldiers 
would not permit the agreements to be execu- 
ted. At this Pompey was very angry, and put 
Aristobulus into prison, and came himself to 
the city, which was strong on every side, ex 
cepting the north, which was not so well for 
tified, for there wasa broad and deep ditch 
that encompassed the city,} and included within 
the temple, which was itself encompassed 
about with a very strong stone wall. 

2. Now there was a sedition of the men that 
were within the city, who did not agree what 
was to be done in their present circumstances, 
while some thought it best to deliver up the 
city to Pompey; but Aristobulus’s party ex- 
horted them to shut the gates, because he was 
kept in prison. Now these prevented the oth- 
ers, and seized upon the temple, and cut off 
the bridge which reached from it to the city, 
and prepared themselves to abide a siege; but 


* These express testimonies of Josephus here, and Antigq, 
b. vill. ch. vi. sect. 6, and b. xv. ch. iv. sect. 2, that the only 
balsam gardens, and the best palm-trees, were at least in his 
days, near Jericho and Engaddi, about the north part of the 
Dead Sea, (whereabout also Alexander the Great saw the 
balsam drop,) show the mistake of those that understand 
Eusebius and Jerome, as if one of those gardens were at the 
south part of that sea, at Zoar or Segor; whereas they must 
either mean another Zoar or Segor, which was between Je- 
richo and Engaddi, agreeably to Josephus, which yet they de 
not appear to do; or else they directly contradict Josephus, 
and were therein greatly mistaken; I mean this, unless that 
balsam, and the best palm-trees, grew much more southward 
in Judea in the days of Eusebius and Jerome than the} 
did in the days of Josephus. 

+ The particular depth and breadth of this ditch, whenee 
the stones for the wall about the temple were probably takei., 
are omitted in our copies of Josephus, but set down by 
Strabo, b. xvi. p. 763, from whom we iearn, that this ditch 
was 60 feet deep, and 250 feet broad. However, its deptk 
is, in the next section, said by Josephus to be tmmense, 
which exactly agrees to Strabo’s description, and whick 
numbers in Strabo are a strong confirmation cf the wuts of 
Josephus’s deseripnon also. 


340 


the others admitted Pompey’s army in, and de- 
livered up both the city and the king’s palace 
to him. So Pompey sent his lieutenant Piso 
with an army, and placed garrisons both in the 
city and in the palace, to secure them, and forti- 
fied the houses that joined to the temple; and 
all those which were more distant, and without 
it, And in the first place, he offered terms of ac- 
commodation to those within, but when they 
would not comply with what was desired, he 
encompassed all the places thereabout with a 
wall, wherein Hyrcanus did gladly assist him 
on all occasions, but Pompey pitched his camp 
within [the wall,] on the north part of the tem- 
ple, where it was most practicable; but even 
on that side there were great towers, and a 
ditch had been dug, and a deep valley begirt 
it round about, for on the parts towards the city 
were precipices, and the bridge on which 
Pompey had gotten in was broken down; how- 
ever, a bank was raised day by day, with a 
great deal of labor, while the Romans cut 
down materials for it from the places round 
about: and when this bank was sufficiently 
raised, and the ditch filled up, though but poor- 
ly, by reason of its immense depth, he brought 
his mechanical engines and battering rams from 
Tyre, and placing them on the bank, he battered 
the temple with the stones that were thrown 
against it. And had it not been our practice, 
trom the days of our forefathers, to rest on the 
seventh day, this bank could never have been 
perfected, by reason of the opposition the Jews 
would have made; for though our laws give us 
ieave then to defend ourselves against those 
that begin to fight with us, and assault us, yet it 
does not permitus to meddle with our enemies 
while they do any thing else. 

3. Which thing when the Romans under- 
stood, on those days which we call Sabbaths, 
they threw nothing at the Jews, nor came to 
any pitched battle with them, but raised up 
their earthern banks, and brought their engines 
into such forwardness that they might do exe- 
cution the following days. And any one may 
hence learn how very great piety we exercise 
towards God, and the observance of his laws, 
since the priests were not at all hindered from 
their sacred ministrations, by their fear during 
this siege, but did still twice a day, in the morn- 
ing, and about the ninth hour, offer their sacri- 
fices on the altar; nor did they omit those sa- 
crifices, if any melancholy accident happened 
by the stones that were thrown among them; 
. for although the city was taken on the third 
month,” on the day of the fast, upon the hun- 
dred and seventy-ninth olympiad, when Cai- 
us Antonius and Marcus Tullius Cicero were 
consu.s, and the enemy then fell upon them, 
and cut the throats of those that were in the 
temple, yet could not those that offered the sa- 
crifice be compelled to run away, neither by 
the fear they were in of their own lives, nor by 
the number that were already slain, as think- 


* That is, on the 23d of Sivan, the annual fast for the de- 
fection and idolatry of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin; or 
probably some other fast might fall into that month, before 
amd in the davs of Jose phus. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.  — 















































ing it better to suffer whatever came. uy DOr 
them, at their very altars, than to omit 
thing that their laws required of them. ; 
that this is not a mere brag, or an encomiun 
to manifest a degree of our piety that wai 
false, but is the real truth, I appeal to those 
that have written of the acts of Pompey; and 
among them, to Strabo and Nicolaus fof De 
mascus;] and besides these to Titus Livius, th 
writer of the Roman history, who will bea 
witness to this thing.* 

4. But when the battering engine was brought | 
near, the greatest of the towers was shaken 
it, and fell down, and broke down a part of the 
fortifications; so the enemy poured in apace 
and Cornelius Faustus, the son of Sylla, with 
his soldiers, first of all ascended the wall, 
next to him Furius the centurion, with th 
that followed on the other part, while Fabius, 
who was also a centurion, ascended it in the | 
middie, with a great body of men after him, 
But now all was full of slaughter; some of the 
Jews being slain by the Romans, and some by 
one anothers nay, some there were who threw 
themselves down the precipices, or put fire 
their houses, and burnt them, as not able to 
bear the miseries they were under. Of the 
Jews there fell twelve thousand, but of the Ro- 
mans very few. Absalom, who was at once 
both uncle and father-in-law to Aristobuius, 
was taken captive. And no small enormiti 
were committed about the temple itself, whi 
in former ages, had been inaccessible and see 
by none; for Pompey went into it, and not 2 
few of those that were with him also, and sa 
all that which it was unlawful for any o 
men to see but only for the high priests. Thet 
were in that temple the golden table, the ho 
candlestick, and the pouring vessels, andi 
great quantity of spices; and besides — 
there were among the treasures two thousane 
talents of sacred money; yet did’ Pompey to 
nothing of all this,t on account of his regare 
to religion; and in this point also he acted in# 
manner that was worthy of his virtue. The 
next day he gave order to those that had 
charge of the temple to cleanse it, and to b 
what offerings the law required to God; a 
restored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, hoth 
because he had been useful to him in other 
respects, and because he hindered the Jet 
the country from giving Aristobulus any assis! 
ance in his war against him. He also cut off 
those that had been the authors of that war, 
and bestowed proper rewards on Faustus, and 





* It deserves here to be noted, that this Pharisaical sup 
stitious notion, that offensive fighting was unlawful to 
even under the utmost necessity, on the Sabbath 
which we hear nothing before the times of the Mac 
was the proper occasion of Jerusalem’s being taken 
pey, by Sosius, and by Titus, as appears from the pl 
ready quoted in the note on Antiq. b. xiii. eh. vi 
which scrupulous superstition, as to the observation 
a rigorous rest upon the Sabbath-day, our Savior alw 
posed, when the Pharisaical Jews insisted on it, as is | 
dent in many places of the New Testament, though h Le 
intimated how pernicious that superstition might, provi 
ther in their flight from the Romans, Mat. xxv. 20, 

t This is fully confirmed by the testimony of Cicero, ’ 
says, in his oration for Flaccus, that “Cneius Pcanpe 
when he was conqueror, and had taken Jorussieiays 
touch any thing belonging to that temple. ” 


{ 


t 


alacrity: and he made Jerusalem tributary to the 
Romans, and took away those cities of Cvelosy- 
fia which the inhabitants of Judea had subdued, 
and put them under the government of the 
Roman president, and confined the whole na- 
tion, which had elevated itself so high before, 
within its own bounds. Moreover, he rebuilt 
Gadara, which had been demolished a little 
before,* to gratify Demetrius of Gadara, who 
was his freed-man, and restored the rest of the 
zities, Hippos, and Scythopolis, and Pella, and 
Dios, and Samaria, as also Marissa, and Ash- 


‘dod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa, to their own 


inhabitants: these were in the inland parts; be- 
sidés those that had been demolished; and also 
of the maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and 
Dora, and Strato’s Tower; which last Herod re- 


_ built after a glcrious manner, and adorned with 


 Cesarea. 


havens, and temples, and changed its name to 
All these Pompey left in a state of 
freedom, and joined them to the province of 
Syria. 

5. Now the occasions of this misery which 
came upon Jerusalem, were Hyrcanus and 


Aristobulus, by raising a sedition one against 
9 g 


_ the other; for now we lost our liberty, and be- 


came subject to the Romans, and were depriv- 
ed of that country which we had gained by 
our arms from the Syrians. Moreover, the 


‘Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above 


ten thousand talents. And the royal authority, 
which was a dignity formerly bestowed on 


those that were high priests, by the right of 


their family, became the property of private 
men. But of these matters we shall treat in 
‘heir proper places. Now Pompey committed 
velosyria, as far as the river Euphrates and 


_ Egypt, to Scaurus, with two Roman legions, 


ance unth Aretas. 


YS 


=... 


and then went away to Cilicia, and made haste 
i0 Rome. He also carried bound along with 
him Aristobulus and his children; for he had 
two daughters, and as many sons, the one of 
whom ran away, but the younger, Antigonus, 


was carried to Rome, together with his sisters. 


CHAPTER V. 


How Scaurus made a league of mutual assist- 
And what Gabinius did in 

Judea, after he had conquered Alexander the 
_ son of Aristobulus. 


_ § 1. Scaurus made now an expedition against 
Petrea, in Arabia, and set on fire all places 
*ound about it, because of the great difficulty 
gf access to it. And as his army was pinched 
67 famine, Antipater furnished him with corn 


out of Judea, and with whatever else he want- 


ed, and this at the command of Hyrcanus. 


And when he was sent to Aretas, as an am- 
bassador by Scaurus, because he had lived with 
him formerly, he persuaded Aretas to give 
Scaurus a sum of money, to prevent the burn- 


ing of his country; and undertook to be his 
surety for three hundred talents. 
pon these terms, ceased to make war any 


So Scaurus, 


of this destruction of Gadara here presupposed, and its 


| Sestoration by Pompey, see the note on the War b. i. ch. vii. 
amet. 7. 


oe BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER V. 
- guose others that mounted the wall with such 


ad 


Jonger, which was done as much at Scaurus’s 
desire, as at the desire of Aretas. 

2. Sometime after this, when Alexander, the 
son of Aristobulus, made an incursion into Ju- 
dea, Gabinius came from Rome to Syria, as 
commander of the Roman forces. He did 
many considerable actions: and particularly 
made war with Alexander, since Hyrcanus was 
not yet able to oppose his power, but was al- 
ready attempting to build the walls of Jerusa- 
lem, which Pompey had overthrown, although 
the Romans, who were there, restrained him 
from that his design. However, Alexander 
went over all the country round about, and 
armed many of the Jews, and suddenly got to- 
gether ten thousand armed footmen, and fif- 
teen hundred horsemen, and fortified Alexan- 
drium, a fortress near to Coreze and Macherus, 
near the mountains of Arabia. Gabinius, there- 
fore, came upon him, having sent Marcus An- 
tonius, with other commanders, before. These 
armed such Romans as followed them; and, to- 
gether with them, such Jews as were subject 
to them, whose leaders were Pitholaus and 
Malichus, and they took with them also their 
friends that were with Antipater, and met Alex- 
ander, while Gabinius himself followed with 
his legion. Hereupon Alexander retired to 
Jerusalem, where they fell upon one another, 
and it came to a pitched battle, in which the 
Romans slew of their enemies about three thou- 
sand, and took a like number alive. 

3. At which time Gabinius came to Alexan- 
drium, and invited those that were in it to de- 
liver it up on certain conditions, and promised 
that then their former offences should be -for- 
given: but as a great number of the enemy 
had pitched their camp before the fortress, 
whom the Romans attacked, Marcus Antonius 
fought bravely, and slew a great number, and 
seemed to come off with the greatest honor. 
So Gabinius left part of the army there, in order 
to take the place, and he himself went into 
other parts of Judea, and gave order to rebuild 
all the cities that he met with that had been 
demolished; at which time were rebuilt Sama- 
ria, Ashdod, Scythopolis, Anthedon, Raphia, 
and Dora; Marissa also, and Gaza, and not a 
few others besides. And as the men acted ac- 
cording to Gabinius’s command, it came to pass, 
that at this time these cities were securely in- 
habited, which had been desolate for a long 
time. 

4, When Gabinius had done thus in the 
country, he returned to Alexandrium; and 
when he urged on the siege of the place, 
Alexander sent an embassage to him, desiring 
that he would pardon his former offences; he 
also delivered up the fortresses, Hyrcania and 
Macherus; and at last Alexandrium itself, which 
fortress Gabinius demolished. But when A}- 
exander’s mother, who was of the side of the 
Romans, as having her husband and other 
children at Rome, came to him, he granted her 
whatsoever she asked; and when he had settled 
matters with her, he brought Hyrcanus to Je- 
rusalem, and committed the care of the temple 
to him: and when he had ordained five coun 


342 
cils, he distributed tae same nation into the 
same number of parts: so these councils go- 
verned the people; the first was at Jerusalem, 
the second at Gadara, the third at Amathus, 
the fourth at Jericho, and the fifth at Sepphoris 
in Galilee So the Jews were now freed from 
monarchic authority, and were governed by an 
aristocracy * 


CHAPTER VI. 


How Gabinius caught Aristobulus after he had 
fled from Rome, and sent him back to Rome 
again; and how the same Gabinius, as he re- 
turned out of Egypt, overcome Alexander and 
the Nabateans in’ battle. 


§ 1. Now Aristobulus ran away from Rome 
to Judea, and set about the rebuilding of Al- 
exandrium, which had been newly demolished: 
hereupon Gabinius sent soldiers against him, 
and for their commanders Sesenna, and Anto- 
nius, and Servilius, in order to hinder him 
from getting possession of the country, and to 
take him again. And indeed many of the 
Jews ran to Aristobulus, on account of his form- 
er glory, as also because they should be glad 
of an innovation. Now there was one Pitho- 
laus, a lieutenant at Jerusalem, who deserted to 
him with a thousand men, although a great 
number of those that came to him were unarm- 
ed; and when Aristobulus had resolved to go to 
Macherus, he dismissed those people because 
they were unarmed, for they could not be use- 
fal to him in what actions they were going 
about, but he took with him eight thousand 
that were armed, and marched on; and as the 
Romans fell upon them severely, the Jews 
fought valiantly, but were beaten in the battle; 
and when they had fought with alacrity, but 
were overborne by the enemy, they were put 
to flight; of whom were slain about five thou- 
sand, and the rest being dispersed, tried, as 
well as they were able, to save themselves. 
However, Aristobulus had with himstill above a 
aousand, and with them he fled to Macherus, 
and fortified the place, and though he had had 
ill success, he still had good hope of his affairs: 
but when he had struggled against the siege for 
two days time, and had received many wounds, 
he was brought as a captive to Gabinius, with 
his son Antigonus, who also fled with him from 
Rome. And this was the fortune of Aristobu- 
lus, who was sent back again to Rome, and 
was there retained in bonds, having been both 
king and high priest for three years and six 
months; and was indeed an eminent person and 
one of a great soul. However, the senate let 
his children go, upon Gabinius’s writing to 
them, that he had promised their mother so 
much when she delivered up the fortresses 
to him; and accordingly they then returned in- 
to Judea. 

2. Now waen Gabinius was making an ex- 
pedition against the Parthians, and had al- 
ready passed over Euphrates, he changed his 


* Dean Prideaux well observes, that “notwithstanding the 
elamor against Gabinius at Rome, Josephus gives him a 
laudable character, as if he had acquitted himself with 
honor in the charge committed to him’ [in Judea;] see at 
the year 53. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. a Rie 


































mind, and resolved to return into Beyit in or 
der to restore Ptolemy to his kingdom.* " 
hath also been related elsewhere. i 
Antipater supplied his army, which he shit 
against Archelaus, with corn, and weapons, 
and money. He also made those Jews whe 
were above Pelusium, his friends and confede- 
rates, and had been the guardians of the vassal 
that led into Egypt. But when he came back 
out of Egypt, he found Syria in disorder, wi 
seditions and troubles: for Alexander, the s 
of Aristobulus, having seized on the goy ern- 
ment a second time by force, made many of 
the Jews revolt to him, and so he marched 
over the country with a great army, and slew 
all the Romans he could light upon, and pro- 
ceeded to besiege the mountain called Geriz~ 
zim, whither they had retreated. 
3. But when Gabinius found Syria in such 
astate, he sent Antipater, who was a prudent 
man, to those that were seditious, to try whether 
he could cure them of their madness, and per- 
suade them to return toa better mind, and 
when he came to them, he brought many of 
them to a sound mind, and induced them to dS : 
what they ought to do; but he could not re- 
strain Alexander, for he had an army of thirty 
thousand Jews, and met Gabinius, and joining 
battle with him, was beaten, and lost ten thous 
sand of his men about mount Tabor. ‘ 
4. So Gabinius settled the affairs which be- 
longed to the city Jerusalem, as was agreeable 
to Antipater’s inclination, and went against the 
Nabateans, and overcome them in battle. He 
also sent away in a friendly manner Mithrida- 
tes and Orsanes, who were Parthian deserters, 
and came to him, though the report went abroad 
that they had run away from him. And when 
Gabinius had performed great and ploy : 
tions, in his management of the affairs of war, 
he returned to Rome, and delivered the govern 
ERY to Crassus. Now, Nicolaus of Dams 
s, and Strabo of Cappadocia, both describe 
the expedition of Pompey and Gabinius again . 
the Jews, while neither of them say any thin; 
new which is not in the other. a 


CHAPTER VII. } 

Hes Crassus came into Judea, and pillaged the 
es and marched against the Parthians, 
erished with his army. Also how Cas 
obtemied Syria, and put a stop to the Pa 
ans, and then went up to Judea. 


§ 1. Now Crassus, as he was going u 
his expedition against the Parthians, came. 
Judea, and carried off the money that was ii 
the temple, which Pompey had left, being wo 
thousand talents; and was disposed to ieee 
of all the gold belonging to it, which ~ 
eight thousand talents. He also took a be 
which was made of solid beaten gold, of 
weight of three hundred mine; each of wl 
weighed two pounds and a half. Itw 
priest who was guardian of the cocred t = 


ee 


* This history is best illustrated by Dr. Hudson ¢ 
Livy, who says, “That A. Gabinius thé proconsul r 
Ptolemy to his kingdom of Egypt, and ejected Arc! 
whom they had set up for king,’”’ &c.; see Prid. at they 
64 and 65. ora 


: 
py 





wires, and whose name was Lleazar, that gave 
hun this beam; not out of a wicked design, for 
he was a good and a righteous man; but being 
imtrusted with the custody of the vails belong- 
ing to the temple, which were of admirable 
beauty, and of very costly workmanship, and 
ba | ? 

hung down from this beam, when he saw that 
Crassus was busy in gathering money, and was 
in fear for the entire ornaments of the temple, 
be gave him this beam of gold, as a ransom for 
the whole; but this not till he had given his 
eath that he would remove nothing else out of 
the temple, but be satisfied with this only which 
he should give him, being worth many ten thou- 
sand [shekels.| Now, this beam was contain- 
ed in a wooden beam that was hollow; but was 
known to no others, but Eleazar alone knew it; 
yet did Crassus take away this beam, upon the 
condition of touching nothing else that belong- 
ed to the temple, and then broke his oath, and 
earried away all the gold that was in the tem- 
} ° 

y 9. Let no one wonder that there was so much. 
wealth in our temple, since all the Jews through- 
out the habitable earth, and those that worship- 
ed God, nay, even those of Asia, and Europe, 
sent their contributions to it, and this from very 
ancient times. Nor isthe largeness of these 
sums without its attestation; nor is that great- 
ness Owing to our vanity, as raising it without 
ground to so great a height: but there are many 
‘witnesses to it, and particularly Strabo of Cap- 
padocia, who says thus: “Mithridates sent to 
Cos, and took the money which queen Cleopa- 
tra had deposited there, as also eight hundred 
talents belonging to the Jews.” Now, we have 
no public money but only what appertains to 
God; and it is evident that the Asian Jews re- 
moved this money out of fear of Mithridates, 
for it is not probable that those of Judea, who 
had a strong city and temple, should send their 
‘money to Cos; nor is it likely that the Jews, 
who are inhabitants of Alexandria, should do so 
either, since they were in no fear of Mithri- 
dates. And Strabo himself bears witness to 
the same thing in another place, that at the 
same time that Sylla passed over into Greece, 
im order to fight against Mithridates, he sent 
Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that our 
‘dation, of whom the habitable earth is full, 
‘nad raised in Cyrene: where he speaks thus: 
“There were four classes of men among those 
of Cyrene; that of citizens, that of husband- 
‘men, the third of strangers, and the fourth of 
Tews. Now these Jews are already gotten into 
ill cities, and it is hard to find a place in the 
Aaoitable earth that hath not admitted this tribe 
Sf men, and is not possessed by it: and it hath 
oLue to pass that Egypt and Cyrene, as having 
“he same governors, and a great number of other 
ations, imitate their way of living, and main- 
ain great bodies of these Jews in a peculiar 
manner, and grow up to greater prosperity with 
hem, and make use of the same Jaws with that 
ia also. Accordingly the Jews have places 
issigned them in Egypt, wherein they inhabit, 
/yesides what is peculiarly allotted to this nation 
it Alexandria, which is a large part of that city. 


a 





BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER VIL. 


343 
There is also an ethnarch allowed them; whe 
governs the nation; and distributes justice to 
them, and takes care of their contracts, and of 
the laws to them belonging, as if he wers the 
ruler of a free republic. In Egypt, therefore, 
this nation is powerful, because, the Jews were 
orriginally Egyptians, and because the land 
wherein they inhabit, since they went thence, 
is near to Egypt. They also removed into 
Cyrene, because that this land adjoined to 
the government of Egypt, as well as does Ju- 
dea, or rather was formerly under the same go~- 
vernment.” And this is what Strabo says. 

3. So when Crassus had settled all things as 
he himself pleased, he marched into Parthia, 
where both he himself and all his army perish- 
ed, as hath been related elsewhere. But Cas- 
sius, as he fled from Rome to Syria, took pos- 
session of it, and was an impediment to the 
Parthians, who by reason of their victory over 
Crassus, made incursions upon it; and as he 
came back to Tyre, he went up into Judea also, 
and fell upon ‘Taricheze and presently took it; 
and carried about thirty thousand Jews cap- 
tives: and slew Pitholaus, who succeeded Aris- 
tobulus in his seditious practices, and that by 
the persuasion of Antipater, who proved to 
have great interest in him, and was at that time 
in great repute with the Idumeans also; out 
of which nation he married a wife, who was 
the daughter of one of their eminent men, and 
her name was Cypros,* by whom he had four 
sons, Phasael and Herod, who was afterward 
made king, and Joseph, and Pheroras; and a 
daughter named Salome. This Antipater cul- 
tivated also a friendship and mutual kindness 
with other potentates, but especially with the 
king of Arabia, to whom he committed his 
children, while he fought against Aristobulus, 
So Cassius removed his camp, and marched te 
Euphrates, to meet those that were coming te 
attack him, as hath been related by others. 

4, But some time afterward, Cesar, when he 
had taken Rome, and after Pompey and the 
senate were fled beyond the Ionian sea, freed 
Aristobulus from his bonds, and resolved te 
send him into Syria, and delivered two legions 
to him, that he might set matters right, as be- 
ing a potent man in that country: but Aristo~ 
bulus had no enjoyment of what he hoped for 
from the power that was given him by Cesar, 
for those of Pompey’s party prevented it, and 
destroyed him by poison, and those of Cesar’s 
party buried him. His dead body also lay, for 
a good while, embalmed in honey, till Antony 
afterward sent it to Judea, and caused him te 
be buried in the royal sepulchre. But Scipia, 
upon Pompey’s sending to him to slay Alexan 
der, the son of Aristobulus, because the young 
man was accused of what offences he had been 
guilty of at first against the Romans, cut off 
his head; and thus did he die at Antioch. But 
Ptolemy, the son of Menneus who was the 
ruler of Chalcis, under mount Libanus, took 


* Dr. Hudson observes, that the name of this wife of An 
tipater in Josephus was Cyprus, as a Hebr-w termination, 
but not Cypris the Greek name for Venus, +s some critics 
were ready to correct it. 


oda 


bis brethren to him, and sent his son Philippion 
to Askelon to Aristobulus’s wife, and desired 
her to send back with him her son Antigonus, 
and her daughters: the one of which, whose 
name was Alexandra, Philippion fell in love 
with and married her, though afterward his 
father, Ptolemy, slew him, and married Alex- 
andra, and continued to take care of her bre- 
thren. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The Jers became confederates with Cesar when 
he fought against Egypt. The glorious ac- 
tions of Antipater, and his friendship with 
Cesa- The honors which the Jews recewed 
from the Romans and Athenians. 


§ 1. Now after Pompey was dead, and afier 
that victory Cesar had gained over him, Anti- 
pater, who managed the Jewish affairs, became 
very useful to Ceesar when he made war against 
Egypt, and that by the order of Hyrcanus: for 
when Mithridates of Pergamus was bringing 
his auxiliaries, and was not able to continue 
his march through Pelusium, but obliged to 
stay at Askelon, Antipater came to him, con- 
ducting three thousand of the Jews, armed 
men: he had also taken care the principal men 
of the Arabians should come to his assistance; 
and on his account it was that all the Syrians 
assisted him also, as not willing to appear be- 
hindhand in their alacrity for Ceesar, viz. Jamn- 
blicus the ruler, and Ptolemy his son, and 'Tho- 
lomy the son of Sohemus, who dwelt at mount 
Libanus, and almost all the cities. So Mithri- 
dates marched out of Syria, and came to Pe- 
lusium; and when the inhabitants would not 
admit him, he besieged the city. Now Anti- 
pater signalized himself here, and was the first 
who plucked down a part of the wall, and so 
opened a way to the rest, whereby they might 
enter the city, and by this means Pelusium was 
taken: but ithappenedthat the Egyptian Jews, 
who dwelt in the country called Onion, would 
not Jet Antipater and Mithridates, with their 
soldiers, pass to Ceesar, but Antipater persuad- 
ed them to come over to their party, because 
he was of the same people with them, and that 
chiefly by showing them the epistles of Hyr- 
canus the high priest, wherein he exhorted 
them to cultivate friendship with Ceesar, and to 
supply his army with money, and all sorts of 
provisions which they wanted: and according- 
ly, when he saw Antipater and the high priest 
of the same sentiments, they did as they were 
desired. And when the Jews about Memphis 
aeard that these Jews were come over to Cee- 
sar, they also invited Mithridates to come to 
them; so he came and received them also into 
his army. 

2. And when Mithridates had gone over all 
Delta, as the place is called, he came to a pitch- 
ed battle with the enemy, near the place called 
the Jewish camp. Now Mithridates had the 
right wing, and Antipater the left; and when it 
came to a fight, that wing where Mithridates 
was gave way, and was likely to suffer extreme- 
ly, unless Antipater had come running to him 
with his own soldiers along the shore, when 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





he had already beaten the enemy that opposed _ 
him; so he delivered Mithridates, and put those 
Egyptians, who had been too hard for him, te | 
flight. He also took their camp, and continu- 
ed in the pursuit of them. He also recalled 
Mithridates, who had been worsted, and was 
retired a great way off; of whose soldiers eight - 
hundred fell, but of Antipater’s fifty. So Mi. 
thridates sent an account of this battle to Ca- 
sar, and openly declared, that Antipater was the’ 
author of this victory, and of his own preser- 
vation, insomuch that Cesar commended An- 
tipater then, and made use of him all the rest 
of that war in the most hazardous undertakings 
he happened also to be wounded in one of those — 
engagements, ag | 
3. However, when Cesar, after some time 
had finished that war, and was sailed away for | 
Syria, he honored Antipater greatly, and con- 
firmed Hyrcanus in the high priesthood, and 
bestowed on Antipater the privilege of a citi- | 
zen of Rome, and a freedom from taxes every 
where: and it is reported by many, that Hyr — 
canus went along with Antipater in this expe-_ 
dition, and came himself into Egypt. And 
Strabo of Cappadocia, bears witness to this, 
when he says thus, in the name of Asinius; 
“After Mithridates had invaded Egypt, and 
with him Hyrcanus, the high priest of the 
Jews.” Nay, the same Strabo says thus again, 
in another place, in the name of Hypsicrates, 
that “Mithridates at first went out alone, but 
that Antipater, who had the care of the Jew- | 
ish affairs, was called by him to Askelon, and 
that he had gotten ready three thousand sol 
diers, to go along with him, and encouraged — 
other governors of the country to go along 
with him also; and that Hyrcanus the hight 
priest, was also present in this expedition.” — 
This is what Strabo says. K | 
4. But Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, 
came at this time to Cesar, and “lamented his | 
father’s fate; and complained that it was by 
Antipater’s means that Aristobulus was taken” 
off by poison, and his brother was behead 
by Scipio, and desired that he would take pity 
of him, who had been ejected out of that prin- 
cipality which was due to him.” He also ac- 
cused Hyrcanus and Antipater as governing 
the nation by violence, and offering injuries to” 
him. Antipater was present, and made his de- 
fence as to the accusations that were laid against 
him. He demonstrated, that Antigonus and 
his party were given to innovation, and were 
seditious persons. He also put Cesar in mind 
what difficult services he had undergone, when 
he assisted him in his wars, and disco 
about what he was a witness of himself. He 
added, that Aristobulus was justly carried 
away to Rome, as one that was an enemy to 
the Romans, and could never be brought to be 
a friend to them, and that his brother had no 
more than he deserved from Scipio, as be 
seized in committing robberies; and that thii 
punishment was not inflicted on him in a way 
of violence or injustice by him that did it 
5. When Antipater had male this speech 
Ceesar soabaitedt Hyrcanus to be high pries 


t 
} 
















BOOK XIV. -CHAPTER IX. 


and gave Antipater what principality he him- 
self should choose, leaving the determination 
to himself, so he made him procurator of Ju- 
dea. He also gave Hyrcanus leave to raise up 
‘the walls of his own city, upon his asking that 
favor of him, for they had been demolished by 
Pompey. And this grant he sent to the con- 
‘suls of Rome, to be engraven in the capital. 
‘The decree of the senate was this that follows:* 
Lucius Valerius, the son of Lucius, the pretor, 
referred this to the senate, upon the ides of 
December, in the tem; le of Concord. There 
‘were present at the writing of this decree Lu- 
‘eius Coponius, the son of Lucius, of the Col- 
Tine tribe, and Pepirius, of the Quirine tribe, 
concerning the affairs which Alexander, the 
son of Jason, and Nu:nenius, the son of An- 
tiochus, and Alexander, the son of Dositheus, 
ambassadors of the Jews, good and worthy 
men, proposed, who came to renew that league 
‘of gc-od will and friendship with the Romans 
which was in being before. They also brought 
a shield of gold, as a mark of confederacy, va- 
lued at fifty thousand pieces of gold; and de- 
sired that letters might be given them, directed 
both.to the free cities and to the kings, that 
their country and their havens might be at 
peace, and that no one among them might re- 
ceive any injury. It, therefore, pleased [the 
senate] to make a league of friendship and good 
will with them, and to bestow on them what- 
soever they stood in need of, and to accept of 
the shield which was brought by them. This 
was done in the ninth year of Hyrcanus, the 
high priest and ethnarch, in the month Pane- 
mus.” Hyrcanusalso received honors from the 
people of Athens, as having been useful to them 
9n many occasions. And when they wrote to 
him, they sent him this decree, as it here fol- 
lows: “Under the Prutaneia and priesthood of 
Dionysius, the son of Esculapius, on the fifth 
day of the latter part of the month Panemus, 
this decree of the Athenians was given to their 
commanders, when Agathocles was archon, 
and Eucles, the son of Menander, of Alimusia, 
was the scribe. In the month Munychion, on 
the eleventh day of the Prutaneia, a council of 
the presidents was held in the theatre. Doro- 
theus, the high priest, and the fellow-presidents 
with him, put it to the vote of the people. 
Dionysius, the son of Dionysius, gave the sen- 
‘tence: Since Byrcanus, the son of Alexander, 
the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, con- 
nues to bear good will to our people in gen- 
‘eral, and to every one of our citizens in par- 
cular, and treats them with all sorts of kind- 
‘mess; and when any of the Athenians come to 
‘him, either as ambassadors, or on any occasion 
of their own, he receives them in an obliging 
‘manner, and sees that they are conducted back 
‘m safety, of which we have had several former 
Unie . 


| * Take Dr. Hudson’s note upon this place, which I sup- 
pose to be the truth: “Here is some mistake in Josephus: 
for when he had promised us a decree for the restoration of 
derusalem, he brings in a decree of far greater antiquity, and 
Mat a league of friendship and union only. One may easily 
/ believe that Josephus gave order for one thing, and his ama- 
. atlensis performed another, by transposing decrees that con- 
‘@eamed %e Hyrcani- and as deluded by the sameness of their 
ey 44 . 


if 


i ue, 
A 
t 


Re 


34s 


testimonies, it is now also decreeu, at the report 
of Theodosius, the son of Theodorus, and upon 
his putting the people in mind of the virtue of 
this man, and that his purpose is to do us all 
the good that is in his power, to honor him 
with a crown of gold, the usual reward accord 

ing to the law, and to erect his statue in brass 
in the temple of Demus, and of the Graces; 
and that this present of a crown shall be pro- 
claimed publicly in the theatre, in the Diony 

sian shows, while the new tragedies are acting 
and in the Panathenean, Eleusinian, and Gym- 
nical shows also; and that the commanders 
shall take care, while he continues in his friend- 
ship, and preserves his good will to us, to re- 
turn all possible honor and favor to the man 
for his affection and generosity; that by this 
treatment it may appear how our people re 

ceive the good kindly, and repay them a suita- 
ble reward; and he may be induced to proceed 
in his affection towards us, by the honors we 
have already paid him. ‘That ambassadors be 
also chosen out of all the Athenians, who shall 
carry this decree to him, and desire him to ac- 
cept of the honors we do him, and to endeavor 
always to be doing some good to our city.” 
And this shall suffice us to have spoken as to 
the honors that were paid by the Romans and 
the people of Athens to Hyrcanus. 


CHAPTER IX. 


How Antipater committed the care of Galilee to 
Herod, and that of Jerusalem to Phasaelus; 
as also, how Herod upon the Jews’ envy at An- 
tipater, was accused before Hyrcanus. 


§ 1. Now when Cesar had settled the affairs 
of Syria, he sailed away; and as soon as Anti- 
pater had conducted Cesar out of Syria, he 
returned to Judea. He then immediately raised 
up the wall, which had been thrown down by 
Pompey; and, by coming thither, he pacified 
that tumult which had been in the country; 
and this by both threatening and advising them 
to be quiet: for that “if they would be of Hyr- 
canus’s side, they would live happily, and lead 
their lives without disturbance, in the enjoy- 
ment of their own possessions; but if they 
were addicted to the hopes of what may come 
by innovation, and aimed to get wealth there- 
by, they should have him a severe master, in- 
stead of a gentle governor; and Hyrcanus a 
tyrant, instead of a king; and the Romans, to- 
gether with Cesar, their bitter enemies, instead 
of rulers; for that they would never bear him 
to be set aside whom they had appointed to 
govern.” And when Antipater had said this 
to them, he himself settled the affairs of this 
country. 

2. And seeing that Hyrcanus was of a slow 
and slothful temper, he made Phasaelus, his el- 
dest son, governor of Jerusalem, and of the 


names; for that belongs to the first high priest of this name 
[John Hyreanus] which Josephus here ascribes to one that 
lived luter [Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander Janneus.] How- 
ever, the decree which he proposes to set down follows alit- 
tle lower, in the collection of Roman decrees, that concern 
ed the Jews, and is that dated when Cesar was consul the 
fifth time; see ch. x 5 


346 
laces that were about it, but committed Gali 
ee to Herod, his next son, who was then a very 
oung man, for he was but fifteen years of age:* 
ut that youth of his was no impediment to 
him; but as he was a youth of great mind, he 
presently met with an opportunity of signaliz- 
ing his courage; for finding that there was one 
Hezekias, a captain of a band of robbers, who 
overran the neighboring parts of Syria with a 
great troop of them, he seized him, and slew 
him, as well asa great number of the other 
robbers that were with him; for which action 
he was greatly beloved by the Syrians; for 
when they were very desirous to have their 
country freed from this nest of robbers, he 
purged it of them: so they sung songs in his 
commendation, in their villages and cities, as 
having procured them peace, and the secure 
enjoyments of their possessions, and on this 
account it was that he became known to Sex- 
tus Cesar, who was a relation of the great Ce- 
sur, and was now president of Syria. Now 
Phasaelus, Herod’s brother, was moved with 
emulation at his actions, and envied the fame 
he had thereby gotten, and became ambitious 
not to be behindhand with him in deserving it: 
so he made the inhabitants of Jerusalem bear 
him the greatest good will, while he held the 
city himself, but did neither manage its af- 
fairs improperly, nor abuse his authority, there- 
in. This conduct procured from the nation 
to Antipater such respect as is due to kings, 
and such honors as he might partake of, if he 
were an absolute lord of the country. Yet 
did not this splendor of his, as frequently hap- 
pens in the least diminish in-him that kindness 
and fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus. 

3. But now the principal men among the 
Jews, when they saw Antipater and his sons 
to grow so much in the good will the nation 
bore to them, and in the revenues which they 
received out of Judea, and out of Hyrcanus’s 
own wealth, they became ill disposed to him: 
for.indeed Antipater had contracted a friend- 
ship with the Roman emperors: and when he 
had prevailed with Hyrcanus to send them mo- 
ney, he took it to himself, and purloined the 
present intended, and sent it as if it were his 
own, and not Hyrcanus’s gift to them. Hyr- 
canus heard of this his management, but took 
no care about it: nay, he rather was very glad 
of it: but the chief men of the Jews were there- 
fore in fear, because they saw that Herod was 

violent and bold man, and very desirous of 
acting tyrannically; so they came to Hyrcanus, 
and now accused Antipater openly, and said 
to him, “How long wilt thou be quiet under 
such actions as are now done? Or dost thou 
not see that Antipater and his sons have al- 
ready seized upon the government? and that 
it is only the name of a king which is given 

* Those who will carefully observe the several occasional 
numbers and chronological characters in the life and death 
ef this Herod, and of his children, hereafter noted, will see, 
that twenty-five years, and not fifteen, must for certain have 
been here Josephus’s own number for the age of Herod, 
when he was made governor of Galilee; see chap. xxiii. 
sect. 5, and ch. xxiv. sect. 7, and particularly Antiq. b. xvi. 


sh. vii. sect. 1, where about 44 years afterward Herod dies 
am old man at about 70. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. i 


| 









thee? But do not thou sufler these things to be 
hidden from thee; nor do thou think to escape 
danger, by being so careless of thyself and of 
thy kingdom; for Antipater and his sons ar 
not now stewards of thine affairs: do not thor 
deceive thyself with such a notion; they eo 
evidently absolute lords, for Herod, Antipater’s 
son, hath slain Hezekiah and those that were | 
with him, and hath thereby transgressed our. 
law, which hath forbidden to slay any man, 
even though he were a wicked man, unless he | 
had been first condemned to suffer death by 
the sanhedrim:* yet hath he been so insolent 
as to do this, and that without any authority 
from thee.” \o 
4. Upon Hyrcanus hearing this, he complied | 
with them. The mothers also of those that 
had been slain by Herod raised this indigna- | 
tion; for those women continued every day in 
the temple, persuading the king and the peo 
ple, that Herod might undergo a trial before 
the sanhedrim for what he had done. Hyrca- 
nus was so moved by these complaints, that he | 
summoned Herod to come to his trial, for what 
was charged upon him. Accordingly he came: 
but his father had persuaded him to come not 
like a private man, but with a guard, for the - 
security of his person; and that when he had 
settled the affairs of Galilee in the best manner — 
he could for his own advantage, he should 
come to his‘trial, but still with a body of men 
sufficient for his security on his journey, yet so 
that he should not come with so great a force | 
as might look like terrifying Hyrcanus, but 


AS 

























still such a one as might not expose him naked | 
and unguarded [to his enemies.) However, | 
Sextus Ceesar, president of Syria, wrote te _ 
Hyrcanus, and desired him to clear He { 
and dismiss him at his trial, and threatened him 
beforehand, if he did not do it. Whiche le 
of his was the occasion of Hyrcanus’s deliver- 
ing Herod from suffering any harm from the | 
sanhedrim, for he loved him as his own son. 
But when Herod stood before the sanhedrim 
with his body of men about him, he affrighted 
them all, and no one of his former accusers 
durst after that bring any charge against him, 
but there was a deep silence, and nobody knew 
what was to be done. When affairs stood 
thus, one whose name was Semeas,} a righteous 
man he was, and for that reason above all fe 
rose up, and said, “OQ you that are asse 


with me, and O thou that art our king, I neither 


have ever myself known such a case, nor doT 
suppose that any one of you can name its p& 
rallel, that one who is called to take his trial by 


al 

every one, whosoever he be, that comes to t 
¥ 
* It is here worth our while to remark, that none couldt 
put to death in Judea but by the approbation of the Jewis 
sanhedrim, there being an excellent provision in the law‘ 
Moses, that even in criminal causes, and particularly whe 
life was concerned, an appeal should lie, from the | 

councils of seven in the other cities, to the supreme coun¢ 
of seventy-one at Jerusalem. And this is exactly according 

to our Savior’s words, when he says, It could not be that 
prophet should perish out of Jerusalem. Luke xii, 33. 
+ This account, as Reland observes, is confirmed by _ 
Talmudists, who call this Semeas, Simeon ihe son of | 
tach. i : 







[Saami . 
‘tried by this sanhedrim, presents himself in a 
‘submissive manner, and like one that is in 
fear of himself, and that endeavors to move us 
‘te compassion, with his hair dishevelled, and 
‘in a black mourning garment: but this admira- 
‘ple man Herod, who is accused of murder, and 
‘called to answer so heavy an accusation, stands 
“here clothed in purple, and with the hair of his 
“head finely trimmed, and with his armed men 
about him, that if we shall condemn him by 
“yur law, he may slay us, and by overbearing 
justice, may himself escape death. Yet do I 
‘make this complaint against Herod himself: he 
‘ys to be sure more concerned for himself than 
for the laws; but my complaint is against your- 
‘gelyes, and your king, who gave him a license 
‘goto do. However, take you notice, that God 
is t, and that this very man, whom you are 
going to absolve and dismiss, for the sake of 
/Hyrcanus, will one day punish both you and 
your king himself also.” Nor did Semeas mis- 
take in any part of this prediction; for when 
‘Herod had received the kingdom, he slew all 
the members of this sanhedrim, and Hyrcanus 
thimself also, excepting Semeas, for he had a 
“great honor for him on account of his righte- 
“ousness, and because, when the city was after- 
‘ward besieged by Herod and Sosius, he per- 
suaded the people to admit Herod into, it; and 
-teld them, “That for their sins they would not 
be able to escape his hands.” Which things 
‘will be related by us in their proper places. 
» §. But when Hyrcanus saw that the mem- 
_bers of the sanhedrim were ready to pronounce 
‘the sentence of death upon Herod, he put off 
the trial to another day, and sent privately to 
Herod, and advised him to fly out of the city, 
‘for that by this means he might escape. So 
_he retired to Damascus, as though he fled from 
the king: and when he had been with Sextus 
Cesar, and had put his own affairs in a sure 
posture, he resolved to do thus, that in case he 
_ Were again summoned before the sanhedrim to 
take his trial, he would not obey that sum- 
-mons. Hereupon the members of the sanhe- 
_drim had great indignation at the posture of 
affairs, and endeavored to persuade Hyrcanus 
that all these things were against him. Which 
_ state of matters he was not ignorant of, but 
| his temper was so unmanly, and so foolish, that 
| he was able todo nothing at all. But when 
Sextus had made Herod general of the army 
of Coelosyria, for he sold him that post for mo- 
. ney, Hyrcanus was in fear lest Herod should 
.make war upon him; nor was the effect of 
. what he feared long in coming upon him, for 
| Herod came and brought an army along with 
‘him, to fight with Hyrcanus, as being angry at 
(the irial he had been summoned to undergo 
_ before the sanhedrim; but his father Antipater, 
and his brother [Phasaelus,] met him, and hin- 
dered him from assaulting Jerusalem. They 
also pacified his vehement temper, and _per- 
suaded him to do no overt action, but only to 
“affright them with threatenings, and to proceed 
ho further against one who had given him the 
dignity he had; they also desired him not only 
otto be angry that he was summoned, and 











BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER X. 


347 


obliged to come to his trial, but .to remember 
withall, how he was dismissed without con- 
demnation, and how he ought to give Hyr- 
canus thanks for the same, and that he was 
not to regard only what was disagreeable to him, 
and be unthankful for his deliverance. So they 
desired him to consider, that since it is God 
that turns the scales of war, there is great un- 
certainty in the issues of battles, and that there- 
fore he ought not to expect the victory, when 
he should fight with his king, and him that had 
supported him, and bestowed many benefits 
upon him, and had done nothing of itself very 
severe to him; for that his accusation, which 
was derived from evil counsellors, and not from 
himself, had rather the suspicion of some 
severity, than any thing really severe in it. He- 
rod was persuaded by these arguments, and be- 
lieved that it was sufficient for his future hopes 
to have made a show of his strength before the 
nation, and done no more to it: and in this state 
were the affairs of Jhidea at this time. 


CHAPTER X. 


The honors that were paid the Jews; and the 
leagues that were made by the Romans, ana 
other nations, with them. 


§ 1. Now when Cesar was come to Rome, 
he was ready to sail into Africa to fight against 
Scipio and Cato, when Hyrcanus sent ambas- 
sadors to him, and by them desired that he 
would ratify that league of friendship and mu- 
tual alliance which was between them. And 
it seems to me to be necessary here to give an 
account of all the honors that the Romans and 
their emperors paid to our nation, and of the 
leagues of mutual assistance they have made 
with it, that all the rest of mankind may 
know what regard the kings of Asia and Eu- 
rope have had to us, and that they have been 
abundantly satisfied of our courage and fideli- 
ty; for, whereas many will not believe what 
hath been. written about us by the Persians 
and Macedonians, because those writings are 
not everywhere to be met with, nor do lie in 
public places, but among us ourselves, and cer- 
tain other barbarous nations, while there is no 
contradiction to be made against the decrees 
of the Romans, for they are laid up im the pub- 
lic places of the cities, and are extant still in 
the capitol, and engraven upon pillars of brass; 
nay, besides this, Julius Caesar made a pillar of 
brass for the Jews of Alexandria, and declared 
publicly that they were citizens of Alexan- 
dria. Out of these evidences will 1 demon- 
strate what I say; and will now set down the 
decrees made both by the senate, and by Julius 
Cesar, which relate to Hyrcanus, and to our 
nation. 

2. “Caius Julius Cesar, imperator and high 
priest, and dictator the second time, to the ma- 
gistrates, senate, and people of Sidon, sendeth 
greeting: If you be in health, it is well. [alse 
and the army are well. I have sent you a copy 
of that decree, registered on the tables, which 
concerns Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the 
high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, that it 
may be laid up among the public records; and: 


348 
I will that it be openly proposed in a table of 
brass both in Greek and in Latin: it is as fol- 
lows: I, Julius Caesar, imperator the second 
time, and high priest, have made this decree, 
with the approbation of the senate: Whereas 
Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the Jew, hath 
demonstrated his fidelity and diligence about 
our affairs, and this both now and in former 
times, both in peace and in war, as many of 
our generals have borne witness, and came to 
our assistance in the last Alexandrian war,* 
with fifteen hundred soldiers; and when he 
was sent by me to Mithridates, showed himself 
superior in valor to all the rest of that army; 
for these reasons I will that Hyrcanus the son 
of Alexander, and his children; be ethnarchs 
of the Jews, and have the high priesthood of 
the Jews for ever, according to the customs of 
their forefathers, and that he and his sons be 
our confederates, and that besides this, every 
one of them be reckoned among our particu- 
lar friends. I also ordain, that he and his chil- 
dren retain whatsoever privileges belong to 
the office of high priest, or whatsoever fa- 
vors have been hitherto granted them. And if 
at any time hereafter there arise any questions 
about the Jewish customs, I will that he de- 
termine the same. And I think it not proper 
that they should be obliged to find us winter- 
quarters, or that any money should be required 
of them.” 

3. “The decrees of Caius Cesar, consul, 
containing what hath been granted and deter- 
mined, are as follows: That Hyrcanus and his 
children bear rule over the nation of the Jews, 
and have the profits of the’ places to them be- 
queathed: and that he as himself the high 
priest and ethnarch of the Jews, defend those 
that are injured. And that ambassadors be 
gent to Hyrcanus the son of Alexander, the 
high priest of the Jews, that may discourse 
with him about a league of friendship and mu- 
tual assistance, and that a table of brass con- 
taining the premises, be openly proposed in the 
capitol, and at Sidon, and Tyre, and Askelon, 
and in the temple, engraven in Roman and 
Greek letters: that this decree may also be 
communicated to the questors and pretors of 
the several cities, and to the friends of the Jews; 
and that the ambassadors may have presents 
made them, and that these decrees be sent every- 
where.” 

4, “Caius Cesar, imperator, dictator, con- 
sul, hath granted, That out of regard to the 
honor, and virtue, and kindness of the man, and 
for the advantage of the senate, and of the 
people of Rome, Hyrcanus, the son of Alex- 
ander, both he and his children, be high priests 
and priests of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish 
nation, by the same right, and according to the 
saine laws, by which their progenitors have 
held the priesthood.” | 

5. “Caius Ceesar, consul the fifth time, hath 
decreed, That the Jews shall possess Jerusa- 

em, and may encompass that city with walls: 


* That Hyrcanus was himself in Egypt, along with Antipa- 
ter at this tire, to whom accordingly the bold and prudent 
aetions of his deputy Antipater are here ascribed, as this de- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. — ee 







and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the 
high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, retain it 
in the manner he himself pleases; and that the 
Jews be allowed to deduct out cf their tribute 
every second year the land is let [in the sab- 
batic period] a corus of that trijute, and that 
the tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that 
they pay always the same tribute.” YJ 

6. “Caius Cesar, imperator the second time, 
hath ordained, That all the country of the 
Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute yearly 
for the city of Jerusalem, excepting the seventh; 
which they call the sabbatical year, becatise 
thereon they neither receive the fruits of thew 
trees, nor do they sow their land; and that they 
pay their tribute in Sidon on the second year 
[of that sabbatical period,} the fourth part of 
what was sown: and besides this, they are to 
pay the same tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons, 
which they paid to their forefathers. And that 
no one, neither president, nor lieutenant, nor 
ambassador, raise auxiliaries within the bounds 
of Judea, nor may soldiers exact money of 
them for winter-quarters, or under any other 
pretence, but that they may be free from all 
sorts of injuries: and that whatsoever they shall 
hereafter have, and are in possession of, or. 
have bought, they shall retain them all. It is. 
also our pleasure, that the city of Joppa, which 
the Jews had originally, when they made a 
league of friendship with the Romans, shall 
belong to them, as it formerly did, and that 
Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and. his sons, 
have as tribute of that city from those that oc- 
cupy the land for the country, and for what 
they export every year to Sidon, twenty thou- 
sand, six hundred, and seventy-five modii every 
year, the seventh year, which they call the pd 
batic year, excepted, whereon they neither 
plough nor receive the product of their bi 
It is also the pleasure of the senate, that as to 


( 


the villages which are in the great plain, which 
Hyrcanus and his forefathers formerly ie 
ed, Hyrcanus and the Jews have them with the 
same privileges with which they formerly had 
them also, and that the same original ordinances 
remain still in foree, which concern the Jews, 
with regard to their high priests; and that they 
enjoy the same benefits which they have had 
formerly by the concession of the people, an 
of the senate, and let them enjoy the like pre 
vileges in Lydda. It is the pleasure also of th 
senate, that Hyrcanus the ethnarch, and the 
Jews, retain those places, countries, and vil- 
lages, which belonged to the kings of Syria and 
Phoenicia, the confederates of the Romans, 
which they had bestowed on them as their ff 
gifts. It is also granted to Hyrcanus, and 
his sons, and to the ambassadors by them 
to us, that in the fights between single gle 
tors, and in those with beasts, they shal 
among the senators to see those shows. 
that when they desire an audience, they 
be introduced into the senate by the dictate 
or by the general of the horse; and when they 


















cree of Julius Cesar supposes, we a’e farther assured ; 
the testimony of Strabo already produced by Josephus, 
viii. sect. 2. St 










ae introduced them, their answers shall be 
returned them in ten days at the farthest, after 
‘the decree of the senate is made about their 
affairs.” , 
__ 7%. “Caius Cesar, imperator, dictator the 
‘fourth time, and consul the fifth time, declared 
‘to be perpetual dictator, made this speech cou- 
eerning the rights and privileges of Hyrcanus 
‘the son of Alexander, the high priest and eth- 
‘march of the Jews. Since those imperators* 
‘that have been in the provinces before me have 
borne Witness to Hyrcanus, tne high priest of 
“the Jews, and to the Jews themselves, and this 
before the senate and people of Rome, when 
‘the people and senate returned their thanks to 
‘them, it is good that we now also remember 
‘the same, and provide that a requital be made 
_to Hyrcanus, to the nation of the Jews, and to 
‘the sons of Hyrcanus, by the senate and peo- 
‘ple of Rome, and that suitably to what good 
‘will they have shown us, and to the benefits 
they have bestowed upon us.” 
| 8. “Julius Caius, pretor [consul] of Rome, 
to the magistrates, senate, and people of the 
'Parians, sendeth greeting: The Jews of Delos, 
‘and some other Jews that sojourn there, in the 
Yai of your ambassadors, signified to us, 
that by a decree of yours, you forbid them to 
make use of the customs of their forefathers, 
and their way of sacred worship. Now it does 
Not please me, that such decrees should be made 
‘against our friends and confederates, whereby 
they are forbidden to live according to their 
Own customs, or to bring in contributions for 
common suppers and holy festivals, while they 
are not forbidden so to do even| at Rome itself, 
for even Caius Cesar, our imperator and con- 
sul, in that decree wherein he forbade the Bac- 
‘chanal rioters to meet in the city, did yet per- 
mit these Jews, and these only, both to bring 
in their contributions, and to make their com- 
mon suppers. Accordingly, when I forbid 
other Bacchanal rioters, [ permit these Jews 
to gather themselves together, according to the 
customs and laws of their forefathers, and to 
persist therein. It will be, therefore, good for 
you, that if you have made any decree against 
these our friends and confederates, to abrogate 
‘the same, by reason of their virtue and kind 
disposition towards us.” 

9. Now after Caius was slain, when Marcus 
Antonius, and Publius Dolabella, were consuls, 
they both assembled the senate, and introduced 

dyrcanus’s ambassadors into it, and discoursed 
of what they desired, and made a league of 
friendship with them. The senate also decreed 
t0 grant them all they desired. I add the decree 

‘itself, that those who read the present work 
May have ready by them a demonstration of 
the truth of what we say; the decree was this: 
10, “The decree of the senate, copied out of 
the treasury, from the public tables belonging 
to the quzstors, when Quintus Rutilius and 
Caius Cornelius were quzestors, and taken out 








| a 


at 
Dr. Hudson justly supposes, that these Roman impera- 
8, Or generals of armies, meant both here and sect. 2, who 
testimony to Hyrcanus’s and the Jews’ faithfulness 
ood will to the Romans, before the senate and people 


| ee ae BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER X. 


349 


of the second table of the ‘rst class, on the 
third day before the ides of April, in the tem- 
ple of Concord. There were present at the 
writing of this decree, Lucius Calpurnius Piso 
of the Menenian tribe; Servius Papinias Potitus 
of the Lemonian tribe; Caius Caninius Rebi- 
lius of the Tarentine tribe; Pablius Tidetus; 
Lucius Apulinus, the son of Lucius, of the 
Sergian tribe; Flavius, the son of Lucius, of 
the Lemonisn tribe; Publius Platius, the son of 
Publius, of the Papyrian tribe; Marcus Acilius, 
the son of Marcus, of the Mecian tribe; Lucius 
Erucius, the son of Lucius, of the Stellatine 
tribe; Marcus Quintus Plancillus, the son of 
Marcus, of the Pollian tribe, and Publius Serius. 
Publius Dolabella, and Marcus Antonius, the 
consuls, made this reference to the senate, that 
as to those things which, by the decree of the 
senate, Caius Cesar had adjudged about the 
Jews, and yet had not hitherto that decree been 
brought into the treasury, it is our will, as it is 
also the desire of Publius Dolabella, and Mar- 
cus Antonius, our consuls, to have these de- 
crees put into the public tables, and brought 
to the city questors, that they may take care to 
have them put upon the double tables. This 
was done before the fifth of the ides of Februa- 
ry, ig the temple of Concord. Now the am- 
bassadors from Hyrcanus the high priest were 
these, Lysimachus the son of Pausanias, Alexan- 
der the son of Theodorus, Patroclus the son of 
Cheras, and Jonathan the son of Onias.” 

11. Hyreanus sent also one of these ambas 
sadors to Dolabella, who was then the prefect 
of Asia, and desired him to dismiss the Jews 
from military services, and to preserve to them, 
the customs of their forefathers, and to permit 
them to live according to them. And when 
Dolabella had received Hyrcanus’s letter, with 
out any further deliberation, he sent an epistle 
to all the Asiatics, and particularly to the city 
of the Ephesians, the metropolis of Asia, about 
the Jews, a copy of which epistle here follows 

12. “When Artemon was prytanis, on the 
first day of the month Leneon, Dolabella im- 
perator, to the senate, and magistrates, and 
people of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting: 
Alexander, the son of Theodorus, the ambas 
sador of Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the 
high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, appeared 
before me, to show that his countrymen could 
not go into their armies, because they are 
not allowed to bear arms, or to travel on the 
Sabbath-days, nor there to procure themselves 
those sorts of food which they have been used 
to eat from the times of their forefathers: } do 
therefore grant them a freedom from going inte 
the army, as the former prefects have done, and 
permit them to use the customs of their fore- 
fathers, in assembling together for sacred and 
religious purposes, as their law requires, and 
for collecting oblations necessary for sacrifices 
and my will is, that you write this to the several 
cities under your jurisdiction.” 


of Rome, were principally F mpey, Scaurus, and Gibiniws 
of all whom Josephus had z'ready given ug the history, #0 
far as the Jews were concer: d vith them. . 


a 
yd 


850 ANTIQUITIES OF THE smws. 5 oe 


13. And these were the concessions that Do- 
labella made to our nation when Hyrcanus sent 
an embassage to him. But Lucius the consul’s 
decree ran thus: “I have at my tribunal set these 
Jews, who are citizens of Rome, and follow 
the Jewish religious rites, and yet live at Ephe- 
sus, free from going into the army, on account 
of the superstition they are under. ‘This was 
done before the twelfth of the calends of Oc- 
tober, when Lucius Lentulus, and Caius Mar- 
cellus, were consuls, in the presence of Titus 
Appius Balgus, the son of Titus, and lieutenant 
of the Horatian tribe; of Titus Tongius, the 
son of ‘Titus, of the Crustumine tribe; of Quin- 
tus Resius, the son of Quintus; of Titus Pom- 
peius Longinus, the son of Titus; of Caius 
Servilius, the son of Caius, of the. Tarentine 
tribe; of Bracchus, the military tribune; of 
Publius Lucius Gallus, the son of Publius, of 
the Veturian tribe; of Caius Sentius, the son 
of Caius, of the Sabbatine tribe; of Titus At- 
tilus Bulbus, the son of Titus, lieutenant and 
vice-preetor, to the magistrates, senate, and peo- 
ple of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting: Lucius 
Lentulus the consul freed the Jews that are in 
Asia from going into the armies, at my inter- 
cession for them. And when I had made the 
same petition some time afterward to Phanius 
the imperator, and to Lucius Antonius the vice- 
queestor, [ obtained that privilege of them also; 
and my will is, that you take care that no one 
give them any disturbance.” 

14. 'The decree of the Delians: “The answer 
of the pretors, when Beotus was archon, on 
the twentieth day of the month Thargeleon. 
While Marcus Piso the lieutenant lived in our 
city, who was also appointed over the choice 
of the soldiers, he called us, and many other 
of the citizens, and gave order, that if there be 
here any Jews, who are Roman citizens, no 
one is to give them any disturbance about go- 
ing into the army, because Cornelius Lentulus, 
the consul, freed the Jews from going into the 
army, on account of the superstition they are 
under; you are therefore obliged to submit to 
the preetor.” And the like decree was made 
by the Sardians about us also. 

i6. “Caius Phanius, the son of Caius, impe- 
rator and consul, to the magistrates of Cos, 
sendeth greeting: “I would have you know 
that the ambassadors of the Jews have been 
with me, and desired they might have those 
decrees which the senate had made about 
them; which decrees are here subjoined. My 
will is, that you have a regard to, and take 
care of these men, according to the senate’s 
decree, that they may be safely conveyed home 
through your country.” 

16. The declaration of Lucius Lentulus the 
cousul; “I have dismissed those Jews who are 
Roman citizens, and who appear to me to have 
their religious rites, and to observe the laws of 
the Jews at Ephesus, on account of the super- 
stition they are under, This act was done be- 
fore the thirteenth of the calends of October.” 

17. “Lucius Antonius, the son of Marcus, 
vice-queestor, and vice-pretor, to the magis- 
trates, seuate, and people of the Sardians, send- 













eth greeting: Those Jews that are our feaow 
citizens of Rome, came to me; and demonstrat 
ed that they had an assembly of their own 
according to the laws of their forefathers, anc 
this from the beginning, as also a place of their 
own wherein they determined heir suits an 
controversies with one another: upon their pe 
tition therefore to me, that these might be law 
ful for them, I gave order that these their privi 
leges be preserved, and they be permittec od 
accordingly.” 

18. The declaration of Marcus Publius, th 
son of Spurius, and of Marcus the son of Mar 
cus, and of Lucius, the son of Publius: “We 
went to the proconsul, and informed him o 
what Dositheus, the son of Cleopatrida of 
exandria desired, that if he thought good, h 
would dismiss those Jews who were Roman 
citizens, and were wont to observe the rites of 
the Jewish religion, on account of the supersti- 
tion they were under. Accordingly, he did dis- 
miss them. This was done before the thir- 


teenth of the calends of October.” ie 
19. “In the month Quintilis, when Lucius 
Lentulus and Caius Marcellus were consuls; 
and there were present Titus Appius Balbus 
the son of Titus, lieutenant of the Horatian 
tribe; Titus Tongius of the Crustumine tribe; 
Quintus Resius the son of Quintus; Titus Pom- 
peius the son of ‘Titus; Cornelius Longinus 
Caius Servilius Bracchus, the son of Caius; : 
military tribune, of the Tarentine tribe, Pu 
us Clausius Gallus, the son of Publius, of the 
Veturian tribe; Caius Teutius the son of Caiusy 
a military tribune, of the Emilian tribe; Sex- 
tus Atilius Serranus, the son of Sextus of the 
Esquiline tribe; Caius Pompeius, the son o 
Caius, of the Sabbatine tribe; Titus Appius 
Menander, the son of Titus; Publius Servilius 
Strabo, the son of Publius; Lucius Paccius 
Capito, the son of Lucius, of the Colline t 
Aulus Furius Tertius, the son of Aulus, and 
Appius Menas. In the presence of these it 
was that Lentulus pronounced this decree: 
have before the tribunal dismissed those Jew 
that are Roman citizens, and are accustome 
to observe the sacred rites of the Jews 4 
Ephesus, on account of the superstition they 
are under.” be 
20. “The magistrates of the Laodiceans to 
Caius Rubilius, the son of Caius, the const 
send greeting: Sopater, the ambassador of Hy: 
canus, the high priest. hath delivered us an 
tle from thee, whereby he lets us know, t 
certain ambassadors were come from Hyreani 
the high priest of the Jews, and brought ai 
epistle written concerning their nation, where 
they desire that the Jews may be allowed 
observe their Sabbaths and other sacred rites, 
according to the laws of their forefathers, at 
that they may be under no command, bee: 
they are our friends and confederates, and tha 
nobody may injure them in our provinces 
Now although the Trallians there present com 
tradicted them, and were not pleased with these 
decrees, yet didst thou give order that the 
should be observed, and informedst us that th 
hadst been desired to write this to us abo 


7 


























— | BOOK XIV.CHAPTER x. 351 


them. We, therefore, mn obedience to the in- 
Junctions we have received from thee, have re- 
weived the epistle whic:: thou sentest us, and 
have laid it up by itself among our public re- 
cords. And as to the other things about which 
thou didst send to us, we will take care that no 
eomplaint be made against us.” 
' 21. “Publius Servilius, the son of Publius, 
‘of the Galban tribe, the proconsul to the magis- 
trates, senate, and people of the Milesians, 
sendeth greeting: Prytanes the son of Hermes, 
8 citizen of yours, came to me when I was at 
Tralles, and held a court there, and informed 
me that you used the Jews in a way different 
from my opinion, and forbade them to cele- 
brate their Sabbaths, and to perform the sacred 
rites received from their forefathers, and to 
manage the fruits of the land according to their 
ancient custom, and that he had himself been 
the promulger of your decree, according as 
2 laws require; I would therefore have you 
know, that upon hearing the pleadings on both 
sides, I gave sentence that the Jews should not 
be prohibited to make use of their own cus- 
toms.” 

22. The decree of those of Pergamus. When 
Cratippus was prytanis, on the first day of the 
month Desius, the decree .i the preetors was 
this: “Since the Romans, following the conduct 
of their ancestors, undertake dangers for the 
tommon safety of all mankind, and are ambiti- 
ous to settle their confederates and friends in 
happiness and in firm peace; and since the na- 
‘tion of the Jews, and their high priest Hyrcanus, 
‘gent as ambassadors to them, Strato, the son of 
Theodotus, and Apollonius, the son of Alexan- 
der,and Eneas, the son of Antipater, and Aris- 
tobulus, the son of Amyntus, and Sosipater, the 
gon of Philip, worthy and good men, who 
‘gave a particular account of their affairs, the 
senate thereupon made a decree about what 
they had desired of them, that Antiochus the 
king, the son of Antiochus, should do no in- 
jury to the Jews, the confederates of the Ro- 
‘mans; and that the fortresses, and the havens, 
and the country, and whatsoever else he had 
-taken from them, should be restored to them; 
-and that it may be lawful for them to export 
their goods out of their own havens; and that 
‘no king nor people may have leave to export 
any goods, either out of the country of Judea, 
or out of their havens, without paying customs, 
put only Ptolemy the king of Alexandria, be- 
cause he is our confederate and friend; and 
‘that, according to their desire, the garrison that 
is in Joppa may be ejected. Now Lucius Pet- 
ius, one of the senators, a worthy and good 
| man, gave order that we should take care that 
| these things should be done according to the 
)/genate’s decree; and that we should take care 
) alé> »at their ambassadors might return home 
“Mesaiety. Accordingly, we admitted Theodo- 
‘Ms into our senate and assembly, and took the 
‘epistle out of his hands, as well as the decree 
af the senate; and as he discoursed with great 
“teal about the Jews, and described Hyrcanus’s 
‘virtue and generosity,and how he was a bene- 
‘factor to al men in common, and particularly 


to every body that comes to him, we laid ur 
the epistle in our public records; and made a 
decree ourselves, that since we also are in con- 
federacy-with the Romans, we would do every 
thing we could for the Jews, according to the 
senate’s decree. 'Theodorusalso, who brought 
the epistle desired of our pretors, that they 
would send Hyrcanus a copy of that decree, 
as also ambassadors to signify to him the affec- 
tion of our people to him, and to exhort them 
to preserve and augment their friendship for 
us, and be ready to bestow other benefits upon 
us, as justly expecting to receive proper requi- 
tals from us; and desiring them to remember that 
our ancestors* were friendly to the Jews even 
in the days of Abraham, who was the father of 
all the Hebrews, as we have [also] found it set 
down in our public records.” 

23. 'The decree of those of Harlicarnassus. 
When Memnon, the son of Oristidas by de- 
scent, but by adoption, of Eunonymus, was 
priest, on the *** day of the month Aristerion, 
the decree of the people, upon the representa- 
tion of Marcus Alexander, was this: “Since 
we have ever a great regard to piety towards 
God, and to holiness, and since we aim to fol- 
low the people of the Romans, who are the 
benefactors of all men, and what they have 
written to us about a league of friendship and 
mutual assistance between the Jews and our 
city, and that their sacred offices, and accustom- 
ed festivals and assemblies, may be observed by 
them, we have decreed, that as many men and 
women of the Jews as are willing so to do, 
may celebrate their Sabbaths, and perform their 
holy offices according to the Jewish laws; and 
may make their proseuche at the seaside ac- 
cording to the customs of their forefathers; and 
if any one, whether he be a magistrate or pri 
vate person, hindereth them from so doing, he 
shall be liable to a fine, to be applied to the uses 
of the city.” 

24. The decree of the Sardians. This de- 
cree was made by the senate and people, upon 
the representation of the preetors: “Whereas 
those Jews, who are our fellow-citizens, and 
live with us in this city, have ever had great 
benefits heaped upon them by the people, and 
have come now into the senate, and desired of 
the people, that upon the restitution of their 
law and their liberty, by the senate and peo- 
ple of Rome, they may assemble together, ac- 
cording to their ancient legal custom, and that 















































\ 

















* We have here a most remarkable and authentic attesta- 
tion of the citizens of Pergamus, that Abraham was the 
father of all the Hebrews; that theirown ancestors were, im 
the oldest times, the friends of those Hebrews; and that the 
public acts of their city, then extant, confirmed the same} 
which evidence is too strong to be evaded by our present ig- 
norance of the particular occasion of such ancient friendship 
and alliance between those people. See the like full evi- 
dence of the kindred of the Lacedemonians and the Jews; 
and that because they were both the posterity of Abraham 
by a public epistle of those people to the Jews, preserved 
in the first book of the Maccabees, xii. 19—23, and thence 
by Josephus, Antiq. b. xii. ch. iv. sect. 10; both which au- 
thentic records are highly valuable. Itas also wel: worthy 
of observation, what Moses Choronensis, the principal Ar 
menian historian, informs us of, p. 83, that Arsaces, whe 
raised the Parthian empire, was of the seed of Abraham by 
Keturah; and that thereby was accomplished that prediction 
which said, kings of nations shall proceed from thee, Geom. 
xvii. 6 


352. 


we will not bring any suit against them about 
it; and thata place may be given them where 
they may hold their congregatious, with their 
wives and children, and may offer, as did their 
forefathers, their prayers and sacrifices to God; 
now the senate and people have decreed to per- 
mit them to assemble together on the days for- 
merly appointed, and to act according to their 
own laws; and that such a place be set apart 
for them by the preetors, for the building and 
inhabiting the same, as they shall esteem fit 
for that purpose. And that those that take 
care of the provisions for the city, shall take 
care that such sorts of food as they esteem fit 
for their eating, may be imported into the city.” 

25. The decree of the Ephesians. When 
Menophilus was prytanis, on the first day of 
the month Artemisius, this decree was made 
by the people: “Nicanor, the son of Euphe- 
mius, pronounced it, upon the representation 
of the pretors. Since the Jews that dwell in 
this city have petitioned Marcus Julius Pom- 
peius, the son of Brutus, the proconsul, that 
they might be allowed to observe their Sab- 
baths, and to act in all things according to the 
customs of their forefathers, without impedi- 
ment from any body, the pretor hath granted 
their petition. Accordingly, it was decreed by 
the senate and people, that in this affair that 
concerned the Romans, no one of them should 
be hindered from keeping the Sabbath-day, 
nor be fined for so doing, but that they may be 
allowed to do all things according to their own 
laws.” 

26. Now there are many such decrees of the 
senate and imperators of the Romans,* and 
those different from these before us, which 
have been made in favor of Hyrcanus, and of 
our nation; as also, there have been more de- 
crees of the city, and receipts of the pretors, 
to such epistles as concerned our rights and 
privileges; and certainly such as are not ill dis- 
posed to what we write, may believe that they 
are all to this purpose, and that by the speci- 
mens which we have inserted; for since we 
have produced evident marks that may still be 
seen, of the friendship we have had with the 
Romans, and demonstrated that those marks 
are engraven upon columns and tables of brass 
in the capitol, that are still in being, and pre- 
served to this day, we have omitted to set them 
all down as needless and disagreeable; for I 
vannot suppose any one so perverse as not to 
believe the friendship we have had with the 
Romans, while they have demonstrated the 
same by such a great number of their decrees 
relating to us; nor will they doubt of our fidel- 
#y as to the rest of those decrees, since we 
have showed the same in those we have pro- 
duved. And thus have we sufficiently explain- 
ed that confederacy we at those times had with 
the Romans. 


* If we compare Josephus’s promise in sect. 1, to produce 
all the public decrees of the Romans in favor of the Jews, 
with his excuse here for omitting many of them, we may ob- 
_ serve, that when he came te transcribe all those decrees he 
had collected, he found them so numercus that he thought 
he should too much tire his readers if he had attempted it, 
which he thought a sufficient apology for his omitting the 
vast of them; yet do those by him produced afford such a 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. «| 


- . ad » ly oe 
' tA { 


CHAPTER XI) 2 a 
How Marcus* succeeded Sextus, when he had 
been slain by Bassus’s treachery; and how 
after the death of Caesar, Cassius came ink 
Syria, and distressed Judea; as also, how Maw 
lichus slew Antipater, and was himself slain 
by Herod. : 5 
§ 1. Now it so fell out, that about this very 
time the affairs of Syria were in great disorder, 
and this on the occasion following: Cecilius 
Bassus, one of Pompey’s party, laid a treache-. 
rous design against Sextus Cesar, and sle 
him, and then took his army, and got the ma- 
nagement of public affairs into his own hand; 
so there arose a great war about Apamia, while 
Cesar’s generals came against him with an 
army of horsemen and footmen: to these Anth 
pater also sent succors, and his sons with them, 
as calling to mind the kindnesses they had re- 
ceived from Cesar, and on that account he 
thought it but just to require punishment for 
him, and to take vengeance on the man that 
had murdered him. And as the war was drawn 
out into a great length, Marcus came from 
Rome to take Sextus’s government Eee himy 
but Cesar was slain by Cassius and Brutus in 
the senate-house, after he had retained the g 
vernment three years and six months. 
fact, however, is related elsewhere. J 
2. As the war that arose upon the death of 
Cesar was now begun, and the principal men 
were all gone, some one way and some another, 
to raise armies, Cassius came from Rome = 4 
lay in 
the 





- 


Syria, in order to receive the [army that 

the] camp at Apamia; and having raised the 
siege, he brought over both Bassus and Marcus: 
to his party. He then went over the cities, and 
got together weapons and soldiers, and la 
great taxes upon those cities; and he chi 
oppressed Judea, and exacted of it seven hun. 
dred talents: but Antipater, when he saw the 


{ 






state to be in so great consternation and diso 
der, divided the collection of that sum, aio’ 
appointed his two sons to gather it, and so that 
part of it was to be exacted by Malichus, 
was ill disposed to him, and part by others 
And because Herod did exact what was re’ 
quired of him from Galilee before others, he 
was in the greatest favor with Cassius; for he 
thought it a part of prudence to cultivate | 
friendship with the Romans, and to gain tnex 
good will at the expense of others; whereas 
the curators of the other cities, with their ci ae 
zens, were sold for slaves; and Cassius reduced 
four cities into slavery, the two most potent 0 
which were Gophna and Emmaus; and, ae! 
sides these, Lydda and Thamna. Nay, Cassiu 

was so very angry at Malichus, that he had 
killed him, (for he assaulted him,) had not Hyr 
canus, by the means of Antipater, sent him * 
hundred talents of his own, and thereby pac 

fied his anger against him. a 


strong confirmation to his history, and give such great li 
to even the Roman antiquities themselves, that I believe’ 
curious are not a little sorry for such his omissions. —_ 

* For Marcus, the president of Syria, sent as successor 
Sextus Cesar, the Roman historians require us to read MM 
cus in Josephus, and this perpetually, both in these An 
ties, and in the history of the War, as the learned 
agree. 






















BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER X11. 


_§. But after Cassius was gone out of Judea, 
| Malichus laid snares for Antipater, as thinking | 
‘that his death would be the preservation of 
Hyrcaius’s government; but his design P| 
not unknown to Antipater, which, when he 
_ perceived, he retired beyond Jordan, and got 
‘together an army, partly of Arabs, and partly 
_of his own countrymen. However, Malichus, 
being one of great cunning, denied that he had 
‘laid any snares for him, and made his defence 
with an oath, both to himself and his sons; and 
said, that while Phasaelus had a garrison in Je- 
-fusalem, and Herod had the weapons of war 
_in-his custody, he could never have a thought 
/of any such thing. So Antipater, perceiving 
the distress that Malichus was in, was recon- 
-ciled to him, and made an agreement with 
him; this was when Marcus was president of! 
‘Syria; who yet perceiving that this Malichus 
‘was making a disturbance in Judea, proceeded 
so far that he had almost killed him, but still, 
_at the intercession of Antipater, he saved him. 
4, However, Antipater little thought that by 
saving Malichus, he had saved his own murder- 
er; for now Cassius and Marcus had got toge- 
‘ther an army, and intrusted the entire care of 
‘it to Herod, and made him general of the forc- 
es of Ceelosyria, and gave him a fleet of ships, 
and an army of horsemen and footmen, and 
promised him, that after the war was over, they 
would make him king of Judea, for a war was 
already begun between Antony and the younger 
Cesar, but as Malichus was most afraid of An- 
‘tipater, he took him out of the way: and, by 
‘the offer of money, persuaded the butler of 
Hyrcanus, with whom they were both to feast, 
‘to kill him by poison. This being done, and 
he having armed men with him, settled the af- 
fairsof the city. But when Antipater’s sons, 
-Herod and Phasaelus, were acquainted with 
‘this conspiracy against their father, and had 
indignation at it, Malichus denied all, and utter- 
ly renounced any knowledge of the murder. 
And thus died Antipater, a man that had dis- 
tinguished himself for piety and justice, and 
love to his country. And whereas one of his 
‘sons, Herod, resolved immediately to revenge 
their father’s death, and was coming upon Ma- 
lichus with an army for that purpose, the elder 
of his sons, Phasaelu;, thought it best rather to 
is this man into their hands by policy, lest 
‘they should appear to begin a civil war in the 
country; so he accepted of Malichus’s defence 
for himself, and pretended to believe him that 
he had no hand in the violent death of Anti- 
pater, his father, but erected a fine monument 
‘for him. Herod also went to Samaria, and 
‘when he found them in great distress, he re- 
'vived their spirits and composed their differ- 
ences. 

5. However, a little after this, Hetod, upon 
the approach of a festival, came with his sol- 
-diers into the city; whereupon Malichus was 
affrighted, and persuaded Hyrcanus not to per- 
mit him to come into the city. Hyrcanus com- 
fe and, for a pretence of excluding him, al- 





eged, that a rout of strangers ought not to be 
mitted, when the multitude were purifying 
45 


x 





themselves, But Herod had little rogard to the 
messengers that were sent to him, and entered 
the city in the night-time, and affrighted Ma- 
lichus; yet did he remit nothing of his former 
dissimulation, but wept for Antipater, and be- 
wailed him asa friend of his, witha loud voice 
but Herod and his friends thought it prope 

not openly to contradict Malichus’s hypocrisy 

but to give him tokens of mutual friendship, im 
order to prevent his suspicion of them. 

6. However, Herod sent to Cassius, and in- 
formed him of the murder of his father; whe 
knowing what sort of man Malichus was as to 
his morals, sent him back word, that he should 
revenge his father’s death; and also sent pri- 
vately, to the commanders of his army at Tyre, 
with orders to assist Herod in the execution of 
a very just dlesign of his, Now when Cassius 
had taken Laodicea, they all went together tw 
him, and carried him garlands and money; and 
Herod thought Malichus might be punished 
while he was there; but he was somewhat ap- 
prehensive of the thing, and designed to make 
some great attempt, and because his son was 
then a hostage at Tyre, he went to that city, 
and resolved to steal him away privately, and 
to march thence into Judea; and as Cassius 
was in haste to mareh against Antony, he 
thought to bring the country to revolt, and to 
procure the government for himself. But pre- 
vidence opposed his counsels; and Herod beng 
a shrewd man, and perceiving what his inten- 
tion was, he sent thither beforehand a. servant 
in appearance indeed to get a supper ready, for 
he had said before, that he would feast them 
all there, but in reality to the commanders of 
the army, whom he persuaded to go out against 
Malichus, with their daggers. So they went 
out and met the man neur the city, upon the 
seashore, and there stabbed him. Whereupon 
Hyrcanus was so astonished at what had hap- 
pened, that his speech failed him, and when, 
after some difficulty, he had recovered him- 
self, he asked Herod, what the matter could be, 
and who it was that slew Malichus? and when 
he said that it was done by the command of 
Cassius, he commended the action; for thaz 
Malichus was a very wicked man, and one thet 
conspired against his own country. And thas 
was the punishment that was inflicted on Ma- 
lichus for what he wickedly did to Autipater. 

7. But when Cassius was marched out of 
Syria, disturbances arose in Judea: for Felix 
who was left at Jerusalem with an army, made 
a sudden attempt against Phasaelus, and the 
people themselves rose in arms; but Herod 
went to Fabius the prefect of Damascus, and 
was desired to run to his brother’s assistance, 
but was hindered by a distemper that seized 
upon him, till Phasaelus by himself had been 
too hard for Felix, and had shut him up in the 
tower, and there, on certain conditions, dis- 
missed him. Phasaelus also coniplained of 
Hyrcanus, that although he had received @ 
great many benefits from them, yet did he sup- 
port their enemies; for Malichus’s brother made 
many places to revolt, and kept garrisons im 
them, and particularly Massada, the strongew 


354 


fortress of them all. In the mean time Herod 

was recovered of his disease, and came and 

took from Felix all the places he had gotten: 

and, upon certain conditions, dismissed him 
0. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Herod eects Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, 
out of Judea, and gains the friendship of An- 
tony, who was now come into Syria, by sending 
him much money; on which account he would 
not admit of those that would have accused 
Herod: and what tt was that Antony wrote to 
the Tyrians in behalf of the Jews. 


§ 1. Now Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, 
brought back into Judea, Antigonus, the son of 
Aristobulus, who had already raised an army, 
and had, by money,* made Fabius to be his 
friend, and this because he was of kin to him. 
Marion also gave him assistance. He had been 
left by Cassius to tyrannize over Tyre, for this 
Cassius was a man that seized on Syria, and 
then kept it under in the way of atyrant. Ma- 
rion also marched into Galilee, which lay in 
his neighborhood, and took three of his for- 
tresses, and put garrisons into them to keep 
them. But when Herod came, he took all 
from him; but the Tyrian garrison he dismiss- 
ed in a very civil manner; nay, to some of the 
soldiers he made presents, out of the good will 
he bore to that city. When he had despatched 
these affairs, and was gone to meet Antigonus, 
he joined battle with him, and beat him, and 
drove him out of Judea presently, when he 
was just come into its borders. But when he 
was come to Jerusalem,.Hyrcanus and the 
people put garlands about his head; for he had 
already contracted an affinity with the family 
of Hyrcanus by having espoused a descendant 
of his, and for that reason Herod took the 

eater care of him, as being to marry the 
_ eel of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, 
and the granddaughter of Hyreanus, by which 
wife he became the father of three male and 
two female children. He had also married be- 
fore this another wife, out of a lower family of 
his own nation, whose name was Doris, by 
whom he had his eldest son Antipater. 

2. Now Antonius and Cesar had beaten 
Cassius near Philippi, as others have related; 
but after the victory, Caesar went into Gaul 
[Italy,] and Antony marched for Asia, who, 
when he was arrived at Bithynia, had ambas- 
gadors that met him from all parts. The prin- 
cipal men also of the Jews came thither, to 
accuse Phasaelus and Herod, and they said, that 
Hyrcanus had indeed the appearance of reign- 
ng, but that these men had all the power; but 
Antony paid great respect to Herod, who was 
come to him to make his defence against his 
accusers, on which account his adversaries 

* In this and the following chapters, the reader will easily 
remark how truly Gronovius observes, in his notes on the 
Roman decrees in favor of the Jews, that their rights and 
privileges were commonly purchased of the Romans with 
money. Many examples of this sort, both as to the Romans 
and others in authority, will occur in our Josephus; both now 


amd hereafter, and need not to be taken particular notice of 
em the several occasions in these notes. Accordingly the 


eaptain confesses to St. Paul, that with a great swum he ' and Pliny’s Nat. Hist. b. i. ch. xxx. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


could not so much as obtain a nearing; which fa 
vor Herod had gained of Antony by money. 
But stifl, when Antony was come to Ephesus 
Hyrcanus the high priest, and our nation, sent 
an embassage to him, who carried a crown of 
gold with them, and desired that he would write 
to the governors of the provinces, to set those 
Jews free who had been carried captive by Cas- 
sius, and this without their having fought againa 
him, and to restore them that country which, 
in the daysof Cassius, had been taken from 
them. Antony thought the Jews’ desires were 
just,and wrote immediately to Hyrcanus, and 
to the Jews. He also sent, at the same time, a 
decree to the Tyrians; the contents of which 
were to the same purpose. 

3. “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to Hyrea- 
nus the high priest and ethnarch of the Jews, 
sendeth greeting: If you be in health, it is well 
I also am in health, with the army. Lysima- 
chus the son of Pausinius, and Josephus the 
son of Menneus, and Alexander the son of 
Theodorus, your ambassadors, met me at Ephe- 
sus, and have renewed that embassage which 
they had formerly been upon at Rome; and 
have diligently acquitted themselves of the 
present embassage, which thou and thy nation 
have intrusted to them; and have fully deelar- 
ed the good will thou hast for us. I am there- 
fore satisfied, both by your actions and your 
words, that you are well disposed to us: and 1] 
understand that your conduct of life is constant 
and religious; so I reckon upon you as our own; 
but when those that were adversaries to you, 
and to the Roman people, abstained neither 
from cities nor temples, and did not observe 
the agreement they had confirmed by oath, it 
was not only on account of our contest with 
them, but on account of all mankind in com- 
mon, that we have taken vengeance on those 
who have been the authors of great injustice 
towards men, and of great wickedness towards 
the gods; for the sake of which we suppose it 
was that the sun turned away his light from 
us,* as unwilling to view the horrid crime they 
were guilty of inthe case of Cesar. We have 
also overcome their conspiracies, which threat 
ened the gods themselves, which Macedonia re- 
ceived, as it is a climate peculiarly proper for 
impious and insolent attempts; aud we have 

| overcome that confused rout of men, half mad 
with spite against us, which they got together 
(at Philippi, in Macedonia, when they seized on 
the places that were proper for their purpose, 
| and, as it were, walled them: round with moun- 
| tains to the very sea, and where the passage 
was open only through a single gate. Th 
victory we gained, because the gods had con- 
demned these men for their wicked enterprise& 
Now Brutus, when he had fled as far as Philip» 
pi, was shut up by us, and became a partak- 
had obtained his freedom, Acts xxii. 28, as bad St. Paul’s ame 
cestors, very probably, purchased the like freedom for them 
family by money, as the same author justly concludes alse. 

* This clause plainly alludes to that well known but ut 
al and very Jong darkness of the sun, which happened 
the murder of Julius Cesar by Brutus and Cassius; 


is taken great notice of by Virgil, Pliny, and other Romas 
authors; see Virgil’s Georgics, book i. just before the @ 





BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER XIII. 


_¢e of the same periition with Cassius; and 
now these have received their punishment, 
we suppose that we may enjoy peace for the 
time to come, and that Asia may be at rest 
from war. We, therefore, make that peace 
~which God hath given us, common to our 
confederates also; insomuch that the body 
of Asia is now recovered out of that distem- 
per it was under by the means of our victory. 
therefore, bearing in mind both thee and 
your nation, shall take care of what may be for 
your advantage. I have also sent epistles in 
writing to the several cities, that if any per- 
sons, whether freemen or bondmen, have been 
sold under the spear by Caius Cassius, or his 
subordinate officers, they may be set free. 
And I will that you kindly make use of the fa- 
vors which I and Dolabella have granted you. 
_Talso forbid the Tyrians to use any violence 
with you; and for what places of the Jews 
_ they now possess, I order them to restore them. 
I have withall a-cepted of the crown which 
thou sentest me.” 
_ 4, “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to the ma- 
' gistrates, senate, and people of Tyre, sendeth 
: preeting: The ambassadors of Hyrcanus the 
igh priest and ethnarch [of the Jews] appear- 
ed before me at Ephesus, and told me, that you 
are in possession of part of their country, 
which you entered upon under the government 
of our adversaries. Since, therefore, we have 
undertaken a war for the obtaining the govern- 
ment, and have taken care to do what was 
agreeable to piety and justice, and have brought 
to punishment those that had neither any re- 
membrance of the kindnesses they had re- 
ceived, nor have kept their oaths, [ will that 
you be at peace with those that are our con- 
federates; as also, that what you have taken by 
the means of our adversaries shall not be reck- 
oned your own, but be returned to those from 
whom you took them; for none of them took 
their provinces or their armies by the gift of 
the senate, but they seized them by force, and 
bestowed them by violence upon such as be- 
came useful to them in their unjust proceedings. 
Since, therefore, those men have received the 
punishment due to them, we desire that our 
confederates may retain whatsoever it was that 
they formerly possessed without disturbance, 
and that you restore all the places which be- 
long to Hyrcanus the ethnarch of the Jews, 
which you have had, though it were but one 
day before Caius Cassius began an unjustifia- 
ble war against us and entered into our pro- 
_ vinces; nor do you use any force against him, in 
_ order to weaken him, that he may not be able 
_to dispose of that which is his own, but if you 
_ have any contest with him about your respect- 
ive rights, it shall be lawful for you to plead 
_ your cause when we come upon the places con- 
cerned, for we shall alike preserve the rights, 
and hear al] the causes of our confederates.” 
__ 9. “Marcus Antonius, imperator, to the ma- 
' gistrates, senate, and people of Tyre, sendeth 
greeting: I have sent you my decree, of which 
. twill that ye take care that it be engraven on 
' me public tables, in Roman and Greek letters, 


and that it stand engraven in the most illustri- 
ous places, that it may be read by all.” Mar- 
cus Antonius, imperator, one of the triumvirate 
over the public affairs, made this declaration. 
“Since Caius Cassius, in this revolt he hath 
made, hath pillaged that province which be- 
longed not to him, and was held by garrisons 
there encamped, while they were our confe- 
derates, and hath spoiled that nation of the Jews 
that was in friendship with the Roman people, 
as in war; and since we have overcome his 
madness by arms, we now correct by our de- 
crees and judicial determinations what he hath 
laid waste, that those things may be restored 
to our confederates. And as for what hath 
been sold of the Jewish possessions, whether 
they be bodies or possessions, let them be re- 
leased, the bodies into that state of fréedom 
they were originally in, and the possessions to 
their former owners. I also will, that he who 
shall not comply with this decree of mine, shall 
be punished for his disobedience: and if such 
a one be caught, I will take care that the of.- 
fender suffer condign punishment.” 

6. The same thing did Antony write to the 
Sidonians, and the Antiochians, and the Ara- 
bians. We have produced these decrees, there- 
fore, as marks for futurity of the truth of what 
we have said, that the Romans had a great con 
cern about our nation. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


How Antony made Herod and Phasaelus te- 
trarchs after they had been accused to no pur- 
pose; and how the Parthians, when they brought 
Antigonus into Judea, took Hyrcanus ana 
Phasaelus captives. Herod’s flight; and 
hed dar pat Hyrcanus and Phasaelus en- 

ured. 


§ 1. When, after this, Antony came into Sy- 
ria, Cleopatra met him in Cilicia, and brought 
him to fall in love with her. And there came 
now also a hundred of the most potent of the 
Jews to accuse Herod and those about him, and 
setthe men of the greatest eloquence among 
them to speak. But Messala_ contradicted 
them, on behalfof the young men, and all this 
in the presence of Hyrcanus, who was Herod’s 
father-in-law already.* When Antony had 
heard both sides at Daphne, he asked Hyr- 
canus who they were that governed the nation 
best? he replied, Herod and his friends. Here- 
upon Antony, by reason of the old hospitable 
friendship he had made with his father [Anti- 
pater, ] at that time when he was with Gabinius, 
he made both Herod and Phasaelus tetrarchs, 
and committed the public affairs of the Jews to 
them, and wrote letters to that purpose. He 
also bound fifteen of their adversaries, and was 
going to kill them, but that Herod obtained their 
pardon. 

2. Yet did not these men continue quiet 
when they were come back, but a thousand of 


* We may here take notice, that espousals alone were of 
old esteemed a sufficient foundation for affinity, Hyrcanws 
being here called father-in-law to Herod, because his grand- 
daughter Mariamne was betrothed to him, although the mas. 
inne was not completed till four years afterward, see Mat 


L 


the Jews came to Tyre to meet him there, 
whither the report was that he would come. 
But Antony was corrupted by the money which 
Herod and his brother had given him, and so 
he gave order to the governor of the place to 
punish the Jewish ambassadors, who were for 
making innovations, and to settle the govern- 
ment upon Herod; but Herod went out hastily 
to them, and Hyrcanus was with him, (for they 
stood upon the shore before the city,) and he 
charged them to go their ways, because great 
mischief would befall them if they went on 
with their accusation. But they did not .ac- 
quiesce; whereupon the Romans ran upon 
them with their daggers, and slew some, and 
wounded more of them, and the rest fled away 
and went home, and lay still in great conster- 
nation: and when the people made a clamor 
against Herod, Antony was so provoked at it 
that he slew the prisoners. 

3. Now, in the second year, Pacorus, the 
king of Parthia’s son, and Barzapharnes, a com- 
mander of the Parthians, possessed themselves 
of Syria. Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, also 
was now dead, and Lysanias his son took his 
government, and made a league of friendship 
with Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus; and 
m order to obtain it, made use of that com- 
mander, who had a great interest in him. Now 
Antigonus had promised to give the Parthians 
a thousand talents, and five hundred women, 
upon condition they would take the govern- 
ment away from Hyrcanus, and bestow it upon 
him, and withall kill Herod. And although 
he did not give them what he had promised, 

et did the Parthians make_an expedition into 
Filed on that account, and carried Antigonus 
with them. Pacorus went along the maritime 
parts, but the commander Barzapharnes through 
the midland. Now the Tyrians excluded Pa- 
eorus, but the Sidonians, and those of Ptole- 
mais, received him. However, Pacorus sent a 
troop of horsemen into Judea, to take a view 
ef the state of the country, and to assist Anti- 
gonus; and sent also the king’s butler, of the 
game name with himself. So when the Jews 
that dwelt about mount Carmel came to Anti- 

onus, and were ready to march with him into 
Sesion Antigonus hoped to get some part of 
the country by their assistance. The place is 
ealled Drymi; and when some others came and 
met them, the men privately fell upon Jerusa- 
lem; and when some more were come to them, 
they got together in great numbers, and came 
against the king’s palace and besieged it. But 

8 Phasaelus’s and Herod’s party came to the 
ether’s assistance, and a battle happened be- 
tween them in the market-place, the young 
men beat their enemies, and pursued them into 
the temple, and sent some armed men into the 
adjoining houses to keep them in, who yet 
being destitute of such.as should support them, 
were burnt, and the houses with them, by the 
people who rose up against them. But Herod 
was revenged on these seditious adversaries of 
his a little afterward for this injury they had 
offered him, whea he tought with them, and 
slew a great number of thous 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEW>. 


| 


4, But while there were daily skirmishes 
the enemy waited for the coming of the muk 
titude out of the country to Pentecost, a feast 
of ours so called: and when that day was come 
many ten thousands of the people were gather- 
ed together about the temple, some in armor, 
and some without. Now those that came, ; 
guarded both the temple and the city, except. — 
ing what belonged to the palace, which Herod 
guarded with a few of his soldiers: and Pha — 
saelus had the charge of the wall, while He 
rod, with a body of his men, sallied out upon 
the enemy, who lay in the suburbs, and fought — 
courageously, and put many ten thousands to 
flight, some flying into the city, and some into 
the temple, and some into the outer fortifica- 
tions, for some such fortifications there were in ~ 
that place. Phasaelus came also to his assist- 
ance; yet was Pacorus, the general of the Par — 
thians, at the desire of Antigonus, admitted int 
the city, with a few of his horsemen, under | 
pretence indeed as if he would still the sedi — 
tion, but in reality to assist Antigonus in ob-_ 
taining the government. And when Phasaelus 
met him, and received him kindly, Pacorus— 
oy iattrth him to go himself as ambassador to” 

arzapharnes, which was done fraudulently, 
Accordingly, Phasaelus, suspecting no h | 
complied with his proposal, while Herod did ~ 
not give his consent to what was done, because — 
of the perfidiousness of these barbarians, but” 
desired Phasaelus rather to fight those that 
were come into the city. . 

5. So both Hyrcanus and Phasaelus wenton 
the embassage; but Pacorus left with flerod 
two hundred horsemen, and ten men, who 
were called the Freemen; and conducted the 
others on their journey; and when they were 
in Galilee, the governors of the cities there met 
them in their arms. Barzapharnes also received | 
them at the first with cheerfulness, and made 
them presents, though he afterward conspired — 
against them; and Phasaelus, with his horse 
men, were conducted to the seaside: but when 
they heard that Antigonus had promised to give - 
the Parthians a thousand talents and five hun-— 
dred women, to assist him ayainst them, they 
soon had a suspicion of the barbarians. More 


over, there was one who informed them that 
snares were laid for them by night,while a guard | 
came secretly, and they had then been seized” 
upon, had not they waited for the seizure of 7 
Herod by the Parthians that were about Jeru- 
salem, lest upon the slaughter of Hyrcanus and | 
Phasaelus, he should have an intimation of 
and escape out of their hands, And the 
were the circumstances they were now i, 
they saw who they were that guarded them. 
Some persons indeed would have persuaded 
Phasaelus to fly away immediately on horse 
back, and not stay any longer; and there ‘ 
one Ophellius, who, above all the rest, was 
earnest with him to do so, for he had heard | 
this treachery from Saramalla, the richest 

all the Syrians at that time, who also prom 
to provide him ships to carry him off; for t 
sea was just by them; but he had no mind 
desert Hyrcanus, nor bring his brother 1 






BOOK XIV. -CHAPTER XIII. 


‘danger; but he went to Barzapharnes, and told 
him he did not act justly when he made such 
/a contrivance against them, for that if he want- 
-ed money, Le would give him more than An- 
 tigonus; and besides, that it was a horrible thing 
to slay those that came to him upon the secu- 
rity of their oaths, and that when they had done 
‘them no injury. But the barbarian swore to 
-him that there was no truth in any of his sus- 
| fo but that he was troubled with nothing 
ut false proposals, and then went away to Pa- 
corus. 
_ 6, But as soon as he was gone away, some 
men came and bound Hyrcanus and Phasae- 
us, while Phasaelus greatly reproached the 
Parthians for their perjury. However, that 
butler who was sent against Herod, had it in 
‘command to get him without the walls of the 
city, and seize upon him; but messengers had 
‘been sent by Phasaelus to inform Herod of the 
‘perfidiousness of the Parthians: and when he 
new that the enemy had seized upon him, he 
went to Pacorus, and to the most potent of the 
Parthians, as to the lords of the rest, who al- 
though they knew the whole matter, dissem- 
bled- with him in a deceitful way; and said, 
“that he ought to go out with them before the 
walls, and meet those who were bringing him 
his letters, for that they were not taken by his 
adversaries, but were coming to give him an ac- 
count of the good success Phasaelus had had.” 
‘Herod did not give credit to what they said; 
for he had heard that his brother was seized 
upon by others also; and the daughter of Hyrca- 
nus, whose daughter he had espoused, was his 
monitor also [not to credit them,] which made 
him still more suspicious of the Parthians, for 
although other people did not give heed to her, 
yet did he believe her as a woman of very great 
wisdom. 

7. Now while the Parthians were in consul- 
tation what was fit to be done; for they did not 
think it proper to make an open attempt upon 

person of his character; and while they put 
off the determination till the next day, Herod 
was under great disturbance of mind; and rath- 
er inclining to believe the reports he had heard 
about his brother and the Parthians, than to give 
need to what was said on the other side, he de- 
termined that when the evening came on, he 
would make use of it for his flight, and not 
make any longer delay, as if the dangers from 
the enemy were not yet certain. He therefore 
removed with the armed men whom he had 
with him; and set his wives upon the beasts.as 
also his mother and sister, and her whom he 
was about to marry, [Mariamne] the daugiter 
‘of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, with her 
‘mother, the daughter of Hyrcanus, and his 
‘youngest brother, and all their servants, and 
the rest of the multitude that was with him, 
and without the enemies’ privity pursued his 
“Way to Idumea: nor could any enemy of his, 
who then saw him in this case, be so hardheart- 
ed, but would have commiserated his fortune, 
while the women drew along their infant chil- 

dren, and left their own country, and their 
fiends in prison. with tears in their eyes, and 


Bos] 


sad lamentations, and in expectation of noth- 
ing but what was of a melancholy nature, 

8. But for Herod himself, he raised his mina 
above the miserable state he was in, and was of 
good courage in the midst of his misfortunes 
and as he passed along, he bade every one to 
be of good cheer, and not to give themselves 
up to sorrow, because that would hinder them 
in their flight, which was now the only hope of 
safety that they had. Accordingly, they tried 
to bear with patience the calamity they were 
under, as he exhorted them to do; yet was he 
once almost going to kill himself, upon the over- 
throw of a wagon, and the danger his mother 
was then in of being killed, and this on two 
accounts, because of his great concern for her, 
and because he was afraid, lest by. this delay, 
the enemy should overtake him in the pursuit, 
but as he was drawing his sword, and going to 
kill himself therewith, those that were present 
restrained him, and being so many in number, 
were too hard for him: and told him, that he 
ought not to desert them, and leave them a 
prey to their enemies, for that it was not the 
part of a brave man to free himself from the 
distresses he was in, and to overlook his friends 
that were in the same distresses also. So he 
was compelled to let that horrid attempt alone, 
partly out of shame at what they said to him, 
and partly out of regard to the great number 
of those that would not permit him to do what 
he intended. So he encouraged his mother 
and took all the care of her the time would al- 
low, and proceeded on the way he proposed to 
go with the utmost haste, and that was to the 
fortress of Massada. And as he had many 
skirmishes with such of the Parthians as at- 
tacked him, and pursued him; he was con- 
queror in them all. 

9. Nor indeed was he free from the Jews all 
along as he was in his flight; for by the time he 
had gotten sixty furlongs out of the city, and 
was upon the road, they fell upon him, and 
fought hand to hand with him, whom he also 
put to flight, and overcome, not like one that 
was in distress and in necessity, but like one 
that was excellently prepared for war, and had 
what he wanted in great plenty. And in this 
very place where he overcome the Jews it was 
that he some time afterward built a most ex- 
cellent palace, and a city round about it, and 
called it Herodium. And when he was come 
to Idumea, at a place called Thressa, his bro- 
ther Joseph met him, and he then held a coun- 
cil to take advice about all his affairs, and what 
was fit to be done in his circumstances, since 
he had a great multitude that followed him, 
besides his mercenary soldiers, and the place 
Massada, whither he proposed to fly, was toe 
small to contain so great a multitude; so he 
sent away the greater part of his company, be- 
ing above nine thousand, and bade them go 
some one way, and some another, and to save 
themselves in Idumea, and gave them what 
would buy them provisions on their journey; 
but he took with him those that were the least 
encumbered, and were most intimate with him, 
and came to the fortress, and placed there cm 


338 


wives and his followers, being eight hundred 
in number, there being in the place a sufficient 
quantity of corn and water, and other neces- 
garies, and went directly for Petra, in Arabia. 
But when it was day, the Parthians plundered 
all Jerusalem, and the palace, and abstained 
from nothing but Hyrcanus’s money, which 
was three hundred talents. A great deal of 
Herod’s money escaped, and principally all that 
the man had been so provident as to send into 
Idumea beforehand: nor indeed did what was 
in the city suffice the Parthians, but they went 
out ipto the country, and plundered it, and de- 
molished the city of Marissa. 

10. And thus was Antigonus brought back 
into Judea by the king of the Parthians, and 
received Hyrcanus and Phasaelus for his pri- 
soners; but he was greatly cast down because 
the women had escaped, whom he intended to 
have given the enemy, as having promised they 
should have them, with the money, for their 
reward; but being afraid that Hyrcanus, who 
was under the guard of the Parthians, might 
have his kingdom restored to him by the mul- 
titude, he cut off his ears, and thereby took 
care that the high priesthood should never 
come to him any more, because he was maim- 
ed, while the law required that this dignity 
should belong to none but such as had all their 
members entire.* But now one cannot but 
here admire the fortitude of Phasaelus, who, 
perceiving that he was to be put to death, did 
not think death any terrible thing at all; but to 
die thus by the means of his enemy, this he 
thought a most pitiable and dishonorable thing, 
and, therefore, since he had not his hands at 
liberty, for the bonds he was in prevented him 
from killing himself thereby, he dashed his 
head against a great stone, and thereby took 
away his own life, which he thought to be the 
best thing he could do in such a distress as he 
was in, and thereby put it out of the power of 
the enemy to bring him to any death he pleas- 
ed. It is also reported, that when he had made 
a great wound in his head, Antigonus sent 
physicians to cure it, and, by ordering them to 
infuse poison into the wound, killed him. 
However, Phasaelus hearing, before he was 
quite dead, by a certain woman, that his brother 
Herod had escaped the enemy, underwent his 
death cheerfully, since he now left behind him 
one who would revenge his death, and who 
was able to inflict punishment on his enemies. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


How Herod got away from the king of Arabia 
and made haste md go unto pdt ool thence 
went away in haste also to Rome; and how, by 
promising a great deal of money to Antony, he 
obtained of the senate and of Cesar to be made 
king of the Jews. 


§ 1. As for Herod, the great miseries he was 
in did not jiscourage him, but made him sharp 
in discovering surprising undertakings; for he 
went to Malchus, king of Arabia, whom he had 


* This law of Moses, that the priests were to be without 
genet as to all the parts of their bodies, is in Lev. xxi 
1—24, 


ANTIQUITIES UF ‘THE JEWS. 


formerly been very kind to, in 6.Jer to receive 
somewhat by way of requital, now he was im 
inore than ordinary want of it, and desired he 
would let him have some money, either by way 
of loan, or as his free gift, on account of the 
many benefits he had received from him; for 
not knowing what was become of his brother, 
he was in haste to redeem him out of the hands 
of his enemies, as willing to give three hundred 
talents for the price of his redemption. He 
also took with him the son of Phasaelus, who 
was a child of but seven years of age, for this 
very reason, that he might be a hostage for the 
repayment of the money; but there came mes- 
sengers from Malchus to meet him, by whom 
he was desired to be gone, for that the Par- 
thians had laid a charge upon him not to en- 
tertain Herod. This was only a pretence which 
he made use of that he might not be obliged 
to repay him what he owed him: and this he 
was further induced to by the principal men 
among the Arabians, that they might cheat 
him of what sums they had received from [his 
father] Antipater, and which he had commit- 
ted to their fidelity. He made answer, that he 
did not intend to be troublesome to them by 
his coming thither, but that he desired only to 
discourse with them about certain affairs that 
were to him of the greatest importance. 

2. Hereupon he resolved to go away, and did 
go very prudently the road to Egypt; and then 
it was that he lodged in a certain temple, for he 
had left a great many of his followers there. 
On the next day he came to Rhinocolura, and 
there it was that he heard what had _ befallen 
his brother. Though Malchus soon repented 
of what he had done, and came running after 
Herod, but with no manner of success, for he 
was gotten a very great way off, and made 
haste into the road to Pelusium; and when the 
stationary ships that lay there hindered him 
from sailing to Alexandria, he went to their 
captains, by whose assistance, and that out of 
much reverence of, and great regard to him, he 
was conducted into the city [Alexandria,] and 
was retained there by Cleopatra; yet was she 
not able to prevail with him to stay there, be- 
cause he was making haste to Rome, even 
though the weather was stormy, and he was 
informed that the affairs of Italy were very 
tumultuous and in great disorder. ¥ 

3. So he set sail from thence to Pamphylia, 
and, falling into a violent storm, he had much 
ado to escape to Rhodes, with the loss of the 
ship’s burden; and there it was that two of hiv 
friends, Sappinas and Ptolemeus, met with him, 
and as he found that city very much carina 
in the war against Cassius, though he were i0 
necessity himself, he neglected not to do it & 
kindness, but did what he could to recover it 
to its former state. He also built there a three 
decked ship, and set sail thence, with his friends, 
for Italy, and came to the port of Brundusium; 
and when he was come from thence to Rome, 
he first related to Antony what had befallen 
him in Judea, and how Phasaelus, his brother, — 
was seized on by the Parthians, and put to 
death Fy them: and how Hyrcanus was cotati 
g 


ria 


of 
. 
a 


i 
Fe] 


a 


A | BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER XV. 


- ed captive by them, and how they made Anti- 
_ gonus king, who had promised them a sum of 
_ money, no less than a thousand talents, with 
five hundred women, who were to be of the 
_ principal families, and of the Jewish stock, and 
that he had carried off the women ‘by night, 
and that by undergoing a great many hard- 
ships, he had escaped the hands of his enemies; 
as also, that his own relations were in danger 
of being besieged and taken, and that he had 
‘wailed through a storm, and contemned all 
these terrible dangers, in ‘order to come as 
~ goon as possible to him, who was his hope and 
only succor at this time. 

4. This account made Antony commiserate 
the change that had happened in Herod’s con- 
dition;* and reasoning with himself that this 
was a common case among those that are plac- 
ed in such great dignities, and that they are 
liable to the mutations that come from fortune, 
he was very ready to give him the assistance 
he desired, and this because he called to mind 
the friendship he had had with Antipater, be- 
eause Herod offered him money to make him 
king, as he had formerly given it him to make 
him tetrarch, and chiefly because of his hatred 
to Antigonus, for he took him to be a seditious 
person, and an enemy tothe Romans. Cesar 

- was also the forwarder to raise Herod’s dignity, 
and to give him his assistance in what he de- 
sired, on account of the toils of war which he 
_ had himself undergone with Antipater his father 
in Egypt, and of the hospitality he had treated 
~ him withall, and the kindness he had always 
showed him, as also to gratify Antony, who 
was very zealous for Herod. So a senate was 
convocated; and Messala, first, and then Atrati- 
nus, introduced Herod intoit, and enlarged 
upon the benefits they had received from his 
father, and put them in mind of the good will 
he had borne to the Romans. At the same time 
they accused Antigonus, and declared him an 
énemy, not only because of his former oppo- 
_ gition to them, but that he had now overlooked 
the Romans, and taken the government from 
. the Parthians. Upon this the senate was irritat- 
_ ed: and Antony informed them farther, that it 
| was for their advantage in the Parthian war that 
Herod should be king. This seemed good to all 
_ the senators; and so they made a decree ac- 
cordingly. | | 
_ _9. And this was the principal instance of 
Antony’s affection for Herod, that he not only 
, procured him a kingdom which he did not ex- 
_ pect, (for he did not come with an intention to 
ask the kingdom for himself, which he did not 
suppose the Romans would grant him who 
ased to bestow it on some of the royal family, 
but intended to desire it for his wife’s brother, 
- who was grandson by his father to Aristobulus, 
. and to Hyrcanus by his mother,) but that he 
procured it for him so suddenly that he obtain- 
ed what he did not expect, and departed out 







* Concerning the chronology of Herod, and the time when 

_ be was first made king at Rome, and concerning the time 

. when he began his second reign, without a rival, upon the 

‘| @enyaest and slaughter of Antigonus, both principally deriv- 

ed from this and the two next chapters in Josephus; see the 
Bete or vect. 6, and Ch. xv. sect. 10 


5] 


of Italy in so few daysas seven mall. This 
young man [the grandson} Herod afterward 
took care to have slain, as we shal] show iw 
its proper place. But when the senate was 
dissolved, Antony and Casar went out of the 
senate-house, with Herod between them, ano 
with the consuls and other magistrates vefore 
them, in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay 
up their decrees in the capitol. Antony also 
feasted Herod the first day of his reign. And 
thus did this man receive the kingdom, hav 
ing obtained it on the hundred and eighty- 
fourth olympiad, when Caius Domitius Calvin- 
us was consul the second time, and Caius Asi- 
nius Pollio [the first time.] 

6. All this while Antigonus besieged those 
that were in Massada, who had plenty of all 
other necessaries, but were only in want of 
water,* insomuch that on this occasion Joseph 
Herod’s brother, was contriving to run away 
from it, with two hundred of his dependents, 
to the Arabians; for he heard that Malchus re- 
pented of the offences he had been guilty of 
with regard to Herod: but God, by sending 
rain in the night-time, prevented his going 
away, for their cisterns were thereby filled, and 
he was under no necessity of running away on 
that account; but they were now of good cou- 
rage, and the more so, because the sending that 
plenty of water which they had been in want 
of, seemed a mark of divine Providence; se 
they made a sally, and fought hand to hand 
with Antigonus’s soldiers, with some openly, 
with some privately, and destroyed a great num- 
ber of them. At the same time, Ventidius, the 
general of the Romans, was sent out of Syria, 
to drive the Parthians out of it, and marched 
after them into Judea, in pretence indeed te 
succor Joseph, but in reality the whole affair 
was ho more that a stratagem, in order to get 
money of Antigonus; so they pitched their 
camp very near to Jerusalem, and stripped Anti- 
gonus of a great deal of money, and then he 
retired himself with the greater part of the ar- 
my: but, that the wickedness he had been guilty 
of might not be found out, he left Silo there, 
with a certain part of his soldiers, with whora 
also Antigonus cultivated an acquaintance, that 
he might cause him no disturbance, and was 
still in hopes that the Parthians would come 
again and defend him. 


CHAPTER XV. 


How Herod sailed out af Italy to Judea, ana 
fought with Antigonus; and what «ther things 
happened in Judea about that time. 


§ 1. By this time Herod had sailed out of Ital 
to Ptolemais, and had gotten together no sma 
army, both of strangers and of his own coun- 
trymen, and marched through Galilee against 
Antigonus. Silo also, and Ventidious, came 
and assisted him, being persuaded by Delius 
who was sent by Antony to assist in bringing 

* This grievous want of water at Massada, till the place 
had like to have been taken by the Parthians, mentioned 


both here, and Of the War, b. i. ch. xv. sect. 1, is an indica. 
tion that it was now summer-time 


860 


back Herod. Now, tor Ventidius, he was em- 
loyed in composing the disturbances that had 
en made in the cities by the means of the Par- 
thians; and for Silo, he was in Judea indeed, 
but corrupted by Antigonus. However, as He- 
rod went along, his army increased every day, 
and all Galilee,with some small exception, joined 
him; but as he was marching to those that were 
at Massada, for he was obliged to endeavor to 
gave those that were in that fortress, now they 
were besieged, because they were his relations, 
Joppa was a hinderance to him, for it was ne- 
eessary for him to take that place first, it being 
a city at variance with him, that no strong-hold 
might be left in his enemies’ hands behind him, 
when he should go to Jerusalem: and when 
Silo made this a pretence for rising up from 
Jerusalem, and was thereupon pursued by the 
Jews, Herod fell upon them with a small body 
of men, and both put the Jews to flight and 
saved Silo, when he was very poorly able to 
defend himself; but when Herod had taken 
Joppa, he made haste to set free those of his 
family that were in Massada. Now of the 
people of the country, some joined him be- 
cause of the friendship they had had with his 
father, and some because of the splendid ap- 
pearance he made, and others by way of re- 
quital for the benefits they had received from 
both of them, but the greatest number came to 
him in hopes of getting somewhat from him 
afterward, if he were once firmly settled in the 
kingdom. 

2. Herod had now a strong army; and as he 
marched on, Antigonus laid snares and am- 
bushes in the passes and places most proper for 
them, but in truth he thereby did little or no 
damage to the enemy: so Herod received those 
of his family out of Massada, and the fortress 
Ressa, and then went on for Jerusalem. The 
soldiery also that was with Silo accompanied 
him all along, as did many of the citizens, be- 
ing afraid of his power; and as soon as he had 
pitched his camp on the west side of the city, 
the soldiers that were set to guard that part 
shot their arrows, and threw their darts at him; 
and when some sallied out in a crowd, and 
came to fight hand to hand with the first ranks 
of Herod’s army, he gave orders that they 
should, in the first place, make proclamation 
about the wall, that “he came for the good of 
the people, and for the preservation of the city, 
and not to bear any old grudge at even his 
most open enemies, but ready to forget the of- 
fences which his greatest adversaries had done 
him.” But Antigonus, by way of reply to what 
Herod had caused to be proclaimed, and this 
before the Romans, and before Silo also, said, 
“That they would not do justly, if they gave 
the kingdom to Herod, who was no more than 
a private man, and an Idumean, i.e. a half 
Jew;* whereas they ought to bestow it on one 
of the royal family, as their custom was; for, 

* This affirmation of Antigonus, spoken in the days of He- 
rod, and in a manner to his face, that he was an Idwmean, i. e. 
a half Jew, seems to me of much greater authority than that 
pretence of his favorite and flatterer Nicolaus of Damas- 


eus, that he derived his pedigree from Jews as far back- 
ward as the Babylonish captivity, ch. i. sect. 3. Accord- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


that in case they at present bore an ill will te 
him, and had resolved to d2prive him of the 
kingdom, as having received it from the Par 
thians, yet there were many others of his famil 
that might by their law take it, and these piss 
as had noway offended the Romans, and being 
of their sacerdotal family, it would be an un- 
worthy thing to put them by.” Now, while 
they said thus one to another, and fell to re- 
proaching one another on both sides, Antigo- 
nus permitted his own men that were upon the 
wall to defend themselves, who using their 
bows, and showing great alacrity against their 
enemies, easily drove them away from the 
towers. 

3. And now it was that Silo discovered that 
he had taken bribes; fr he seta good number 
of his soldiers to complain aloud of the want 
of provisions they were in, and to require mo- 
ney to buy them food, and that it was fit to let 
them go into places proper for winter-quarters, 
since the places near the city were a desert, by 
reason that Antigonus’s soldiers had carried all 
away; so he set the army upon removing, and 
endeavored to march away: but Herod, press- 
ed Silo not to depart; and exhorted Silo’s cap- 
tains and soldiers not to desert him, when Ceesar 
and Antony, and the senate, had sent him thith 
er, for that he would provide them plenty of all 
the things they wanted, and easily procure them 
a great abundance of what they required; after 
which entreaty, he immediately went into the 
country, and left not the least pretence to Silo 
for his departure, for he brought an unexpected 
quantity of provisions, and sent to those friends 
of his who inhabited about Samaria, to we 
down corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle, an 
all other provisions, to Jericho, that there might 
be no want of a supply for the soldiers for the 
time to come. Antigonus was sensible of thig 
and sent presently over the country such as 
might restrain and lie in ambush for those that 
went out for provisions. So these men obeyed 
the orders of Antigonus, and got together a great 
number of armed men about Jericho, and sat 
upon the mountains, and watched those that 
brought the provisions. However, Herod was 
not idle in the mean time, for he took ten bands 
of soldiers, of whom five were of the Romans, 
and five of the Jews, with some mercenaries 
among them, and with some few horsemen, 
and came to Jericho; and as they found the 
city deserted, but that five hundred of them 
had settled themselves on the tops of the hills 
with their wives and children, those he took 
and sent away; but the Romans fell upon the 
city, and plundered it, and found the houses 
full of all sorts of good things: so the king left 
a garrison at Jericho, and came back again, 
sent the Roman army to take their winter-quar 
ters in the countries that were come over to 
him, Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, And 
so much did Antigonus gain of Silo for the 
ingly Josephus always esteeins him an Idumean, though he 
says his father Antipater was of the same people with the 
Jews, chap. viii. sect. 1, and by birth a Jew, Antiq. b. xx. ch. 
viii. sect. 7; as indeed all such proselytes of justice, as the 
Idumeans, were in time esteemed the very same people wit 
the Jews. A 


‘; “ 


ey 


BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER XV. 


vribes he gave him that part of the army 
should be quartered at Lydda, in order to please 
Antony. So the Romans laid their weapons 
aside, and lived in plenty of all things. 


4, But Herod was not pleased with lying 
still, but sent out his brother Joseph against 
Idumea with two thousand armed footmen, 
and four hundred horsemen, while he himself 
came to Samaria, and Jeft his mother and his 
other relations there, for they were already 
gone out of Massada, and went into Galilee, to 
take certain places which were held by the 
garrisons of Antigonus; and he passed on to 
Sepphoris, as God sent a snow, while Anti- 
gonus’s garrisons withdrew themselves, and 
had great plenty of provisions. He also went 
thence, and resolved to destroy those robbers 
that dwelt in the caves, and did much mischief 
in the country: so he sent a troop of horsemen, 
and three companies of armed footmen, against 
them. They were very near to a village call- 
ed Arbela; and on the fortieth day after, he 
came himself with his whole army; and as the 
enemy sallied out boldly upon him, the left 
wing of his army gave way, but he appearing 
with a body of men, put those to flight who 
were already conquerors, and recalled his men 
that ran away. He also pressed upon his ene- 
mies, and pursued them as far as the river Jor- 
dan, though they ran away by different roads. 
So he brought over to him all Galilee, except- 
ing those that dwelt in the caves, and distribut- 
ed money to every one of his soldiers, giving 
them a hundred and fifty drachme apiece, and 
much more to their captains, and sent them into 
winter quarters, at which time Silo came to 
him, and his commanders with him, because 
Antigonus would not give them provisions any 
longer, for he supplied them for no more than 
one month; nay, he had sent to all the country 
about, and ordered them to carry off the pro- 
visions that were there, and retire to the moun- 
tains, that the Romans might have no provi- 
sions to live upon, and so might perish by fa- 
mine; but Herod committed the care of that 
matter to Pheroras, his youngest brother, and 
ordered him to repair Alexandrium also. Ac- 
cordingly, he quickly made the soldiers abound 
with great plenty of provisions, and rebuilt Al- 
exandrium, which had been before desolate. 


5. About this time it was that Antony con- 
tinued some time at Athens, and that Ventidi- 
us, who was now in Syria, sent for Silo, and 
commanded him to assist Herod in the first 
place, to finish the present war, and then to 
send for their confederates, for the war they 
were themselves engaged in; but as for Herod, 
he went in great haste against the robbers that 
were in the caves, and sent Silo away to Ven- 
tiditis, while he marched against them. These 
caves were in mountains, that were exceeding- 
ly abrupt, and in their middle were no other 
than precipices, with certain entrances into the 
Caves, and those caves were encompassed with 
Sharp rocks, and in these did the robbers lie 
concealed, with all their families about them ; 
but the king caused certain chests to be made, 
In order to destroy them, and to be hung down, 


bound about with iron chains, by an engine, 
from the top of the mountain, it being not pos 
sible to get up to them, by reason of the sharp 
ascent of the mountains, nor to creep down to 
them from above, Now these chests were fill- 
ed with armed men, who had long hooks in 
their hands, by which they might pull out suek 
as resisted them, and then tumble them down, 
and kill them by so doing; but the letting the 
chest down proved to be a matter of great dane 
ger, because of the vast depth they were to be 
let down, although they liad their provisions in 
the chests themselves: but when the chests 
were let down, and not one of those in the 
mouths of the caves durst come near them, 
but lay still out of fear, some of the armed men 
girt on their armor, and by both their hands 
took hold of the chain, by which the chests 
were let down, and went into the mouths of 
the caves, because they fretted that such delay 
was made by the robbers not daring to come 
out of the caves; and when they were at any 
of those mouths, they first killed many of those 
that were in the mouths with their darts; and 
afterward pulled those to them that resisted 
them with their hooks, and tumbled them 
down the precipices, and afterward went into 
the caves, and killed many more, and then went 
into their chosts again, end lay still there; but 
upon this, terror seized the rest, when they 
heard the lamentations tv at were made, and 
they despaired of escaping; however, when 
the night came on, that put an end to the whole 
work; and as the king proclaimed pardon by a 
herald to such as delivered themselves up to 
him, many accepted of the offer. The same 
method of assault was made use of the next 
day; and they went farther, and got out in 
baskets to fight them, and fought them at their 
doors, and sent fire among them, and set their 
caves on fire, for there was a great deal of com- 
bustible matter within them. Now there was 
one old man who was caught within one of 
these caves, wich seven children and a wife; 
these pray +d him to give them leave to go out, 
and yield themselves up to the enemy; but he 
stood at the cave’s mouth, and always slew that 
child of his who went out, till he had destroy- 
ed them every one; and after that he slew his 
wife, and, cast their <tead bodies down the pre- 
cipice, and himsely etter them; and so undere 
went death rather than slavery: but before he 
did this, he greatly reproached Herod with the 
meanness of his family, although he was then 
king. _ Herod also saw what he was doing, and 
stretched out his hands, and offered him all 
manner of security for his life. By which 
means all these caves were at length subdued 
entirely. 

6. And when the king had set Ptolemy over 
these parts of the country as his general, he 
went to Samaria, with six hundred horsemen, 
and three thousand armed footmen, as intend 
ing to fight Antigonus. But still this command 
of the army did not succeed well with Ptole- 

‘ iny, but those that had been troublesome to Ga- 
lilee before attacked him, and slew him; and 
‘when they had done this, they fled ainong the 


lakes and places almost inaccessible, laying 
waste and plundering whatsoever they coult 
rome at in those places. But Herod soon re- 
turned, and punished them for what they had 
done; for some of these rebels he slew, and 
others of them, who had fled to the strong-holds, 
he besieged, and both slew them, and demol- 
ished their strong-holds: and when he had thus 
put an end to their rebe'lion, he laid a fine upon 
the cities of a hundred talents. 

7. In the mean time Pacorus was failen in a 
battle, and the Parthians were defeated. When 
Ventidius sent Macherus to the assistance of 
Herod, with two legions and a thousand horse- 
men, while Antony encouraged him to make 
rxaste. But Macherus, at the instigation of 
Antigonus, without the approbation of Herod, 
as being corrupted by money, went about to 
take a view of his affairs: but Antigonus sus- 
pecting this intention of his coming, did not 
admit him into the city, but kept him at a dis- 
tance with throwing stones at him, and plainly 
showed what he himself meant. But when 
Macherus was sensible that Herod had given 
him good advice, ard that he had made a mis- 
take himself in not hearkening to that advice, 
he retired to the city of Emmaus; and what 
Jews he met with he slew them, whethar they 
were enemies or friends, out of the rage he w-s 
in at what hardships he had undergone. 'Th> 
king was provoked at this conduct of his, -nd 
went to Samaria, and resolved to go to Antony 
about these affairs, and to inform him that he 
stood in no need of such helpers, who did him 
more ‘nischief than they did his enemies, and 
that he was able of himself to beat Antigonus; 
but Macherus followed him,and desired that 
he would not go to Antony, or if he was re- 
solved to go, that he would join his brother 
Joseph with him, and let them fight against 
Antigonus. -So he was reconciled to Mache- 
rus, upon his earnest entreaties. Accordingly 
he left Joseph there with his army, but charg- 
ed him to run no hazards; nor to quarrel with 
Macherus. 

8. But for his own part, he made haste to 
Antony, (who was then at the siege of Samo- 
sata, a place upon Euphrates,, with his troops, 
both horsemen and footmen, to be auxiliaries 
to him: and when he came to Antioch, and 
met there a great number of men gotten to- 
gether, that were very desirous to go to Anto- 
ny, but durst not venture to go out of fear, be- 
eause the barbarians fell upon men on the 
road, and slew many, so he encouraged them, 
and became their conductor upon the road. 
Now when they were within two days march 
of Samosata, the barbarians had laid an am- 
ush there to disturb those that came to Anto- 
ny; and where the woods made the passes 
Barrow, as they led to the plains, there they 
said not a few of their horsemen, who were to 
lie still until those passengers were gone by 
into the wide place. Now as soon as their 
first rauks were gone by, (for Herod brought 
on the rear,) those that lay in ambush, who 
were about five hundred, fell upon them on 
the sudden, ard when they had put the ture- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. | 


Ree ou 


most to flight, the king came riding hard, with — 
the forces that were about him, and imme — 
diately drove back the enemy; by which means 
he rade the minds of his own men coura- 
geous, and emboldened them to go on, inso- 
much that those who ran away before, now 
returned back, and the barbarians were slain 
on all sides. The king also went on killing 
them, and recovered all the baggage; among ~ 
which were a great number of beasts for bur 
den, and of slaves, and proceeded or. in his 
march; and whereas there were a very great 
number of those in the woods that attacked 
them, and were near the passage thar led into 
the plain, he made a sally upon these also with 
a strong body of men, and put them to flight 
and slew many of them, and thereby rendered 
the way safe for those that came after; and 
these called Herod their savior and protector. 

9, And when he was near to Samosata, An 
tony sent out his army in all their proper ha 
biliments to meet him, in order to pay Herod 
this respect, and because of the assistance he 
had given him, for he had heard what attacks 
the barbarians had made upon him [in Judea.] 
He also was very glad to see him there, as hay- 
ing been made acquainted with the great ac- 
sions he had performed upon the road: so he 
entertained him very kindly, and could not but 
admire his courage. Antony also embraced 
him as soon as he saw him, and saluted him 
after a most affectionate manner, and gave him 
the upper hand, as having himself lately made 
him a king; and in a little time Antiochus de- 
livered up the fortress, and on that account this 
war was at an end; then Antony committed 
the rest to Sosius, and gave him orders to assist 
Herod, and went himself to Egypt. Accord- 
ingly, Sosius sent two legions before into Ju- 
dea to the assistance of Herod, and he followed — 
himself with the body of the army. . 

10. Now Joseph was already slain in Judea, 
in the manner following: he forgot what char, 
his brother Herod had given him when he 
went to Antony; and when he had pitched his — 
camp among the mountains, for Macherus had 
lent him five regiments, with these he went 
hastily to Jericho, in order to reap the corn 
thereto bel nine and as the Roman regiments — 
were but newly raised, and were unskilful ip 
war, for they were in great part collected out — 
of Syria, he was attacked by the enemy ana 
caught in those places of difficulty, and was 
himself slain, as he was fighting bravely, and— 
the whole army was lost; for tere were six 
regiments slain. So when Antigonus had got 
possession of the dead bodies, he cut off Jo- 
seph’s litad, although Pheroras his brother — 
would have redeemed it at the price of fifty 
talents. After which defeat, the Galileans re 
volted from their commanders, and took those 
of Herod’s party, and drowned them in the — 
lake, and a great part of Judea was become 
seditious; but Macherus fortified the place — 
Gitta [in Samaria.] h 

11.. At this time messengers came to Herod 
and informed him of what had been done; and — 
when he was come to Daphne by Antioch, : 


" : 
+ & 4 







f 
if 


i 


they told him of the ill fort:ine that had befall- 
en his brother; which yet he expected, from 
certain visions thut sppeared to him in his 
dreams, which clearly tereshowed his brother’s 
death. So he hastened his march: and when 


| hecame to mount Libanus, be recuved aliout 





; 


i 
i 
di 
i, 


i; 


Jt 


’ 


eight hundred of the men of that place, hasing 


with these he came to Ptolemais. He also 
marched thence by night with his army, and 
roceeded along Galilee. Here it was that the 
hemy met him, and fought him, and were 


eaten, and shut up in the same place of 


strength whence they had sallied out the @ay 
before. So he attacked the place in the tnorn- 
ing, but by reason of a great storm that was then 
very violent, he w-s able to do nothing, but 
drew off his army into the neighboring vil- 
lages; yet as soon as the other legion that Anto- 
hy sent him was come to his assistance, those 
that were in garrison in the place were afraid, 


_ and deserted it in the night-time. Then did the 


king march hastily to Jericho, intending | to 
avenge himself on the enemy for the slaughter 
of his brother; and when he had pitched his 
tents, he made a feast for the principal com- 
manders, and after this collation was over, and 
he had dismissed his guests, he retired to his 
9wn chamber; and here one may see what 
kindness God had for the king, for the upper 
a of the house fell down when nobody was 
n it, and so killed none, insomuch that all the 


aie believed that Herod was beloved of 


d, since he had escaped such a great and 
surprising danger. 
12. But the next day six thousand of the 
enemy came down from the tops of the moun- 
tains to fight the Romans, which greatly terri- 
fied them; and the soldiers that were in light 
armor came near, and pelted the king’s guards 
that were come out with darts and stones, and 
one of them hit him on the side with a dart. 
Antigonus also sent a commander against Sa- 
maria, whose name was Pappus, with some 
forces, being desirous to show the enemy how 

tent he was, and that he had men to spare in 


cities, took such as were left in them, being 
about two thousand, and slew them; and burnt 
the cities themselves, and then returned to go 
against Pappus, who was encamped at a village 
called Jsanas; and there can into him wany 
out of Jericho and Judea, near t2 whic!. , Ikces 
he was, and the enemy fell upon his me:, so 


BOOK XIV.—CHAPTER XV. 


dred ¢ ‘lay heaped one upon another. 
already with him also one Roman legion, uw.) | 


Is war with them; he sat down to oppose ' 
Macherus; but Herod, when he had taken five | 








Bo 


soldiers that were caught, nd l:y all on a 
heap: so they threw stones down upon them aa 
they lay piled one upon arother, and thereby 
killed them: nor was there a more frightful 
spectacle in all the war than this, where beyond 
the walls an immense multitude of dead men 
This action it 
was which chiefly broke the spirits of the ene- 
my, who expected now what would come, for 
there appeared a mighty number of people that 
came from places far distant, that were now 
about the village, but then ran away; and had 
it not been for the depth of winter, which then 
restrained them, the king’s army had presently 
gone to Jerusalem, as being very courageous at 
this good success, and the whole work had 
been done immediately, for Antigonus was 
already looking about how he might fly away, 
and leave the city. j 

13. At this time the king gave order that the 
soldiers should go to supper, for it was late at 
night, while he went into a chamber to use the 
bath, for he was very weary: and here it was 
that he was in t!:e greatest danger, which yet, 
by God’s providence, he escaped; for as he 
was naked, 211" he! ut one servant that fol- 
lowed him, tu be sviih: him while he was bath- 
ing in an inrer icv, certain of the enemy, 
who were in their armor, and had tied thither 
out of fear, were then in the place: and as he 
was bathing, the first of them came out with 
his naked sword drawn, and went: ut at the 
doors, and after him a second an:' 3 third, arm- 
ed in like manner, and were under such a cuon- 
sternation, that they did no hurt to the king, and 
thought themselves to have come off \ ery well 
in suffering no harm theinselves, in their get- 
ting out of the house. However, on the next 
day, he cut off the head of Pappus, for he was 
already slain, and sent it to Pheroras, as a 
punishment of what their brother had suffered 
by his means, for he wes the man that slew 
him with his own hand. 

14. When the rigor of winter was ovvr, 
Herod removed his army, and came near to 
Jerusalem, and pitched his camp hard by the 
city. Now this was the third year since Si 
had been made king at Rome andashe reiicr- 
ed his camp, and came nea: that part of the 
wall where it could be most asily assaulted, he 
pitched that camp before th: temple, intending 
to make his attacks in the s me manner as did 
Pompey: so he encompasse | the place with 
three bulwarks, and erectec towers, and en. 
ployed a great many handss bout the work, aiut 


. "tout were they at this time, and joine! Sattle | cut down the trees that were round about the 


with them, but he beat them ir the fig wt; and 


city: and when he had appuinted proper pur~ 


'B. order to be revenged on them for the slaugh- | sons to oversee the works, even while the aruiy 


/ 


} 
j 


ter of his brother, he pursued the’r vharply, and 
killed them as they ran ¢wva): and as tne houses 
were full of armed mot,* and many of them 
ran as far as the tope uf the houses, he got them 


‘under his power, and prlled down the rocfs of 
the houses, ani saw the lower rooms full of 


* It may be worth our observation here, that these soldiers 
ef Herod could not have gotten upon the tops of these 
houses which were full of enemies, in order to pull up the 

 &pper floore and destroy them beneath, but by ladders from 


lay before the city, he himself went to Samaria 
to complete his marriage, and to take to wife 
the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristo- 
bulus: for he had betrothed her already, as } 
have before related. 


the outside; which illustrates som ; texts in the New Tesi. 
ment, hy vhich it appeara that mo used to + cand thither 
by ladders on the outsides; see Mu't. 3719 >, Mark xiii 15 
Luke v. 19, xvii. 31. 


364 
CHAPTER XVI. . 


How Herod, when he had married Mariamne, | 
took Jerusalem, with the assistance of Sosius, | 
by force ; and how the government of the Asmo- 
neans was put an end to. | 


§ 1. After the wedding was over, came So- 
sius through Phoonicia, having sent out his 
army before him over the midland parts. He 
also, who was their commander, came him- 
self with a great number of horse:nen and foot- 
men. The king als» came himse.f from Sama- 
ria, and brought with him no small army, be- 
sides that which was there before, fr they 
were ahout thirty thousand; and they ail met 
tugether at the walls of Jerusalem, and en- 
camped at the north wall of the city, being 
now an army ofyeleven legions, armed men on 
foot, anl six thousand horsemen, with other 
uxiliaries out of Syria. The generals were 
two, Sosius, sent by Antony to assist Herod, and 
Herod on his own account, in order to take the 
government from Antigonus, who was declared 
an enemy to Rome, and that he might him- 
self be king, according to the decree of the 
senate. 

2. Now the Jews that were enclosed within 
the walls of the city fought against Herod with 
great alacrity and zeal; {for the whole nation 
was gathered together;) they also gave out ma- 
ny prophecies about the temple, and many 
things agreeable to the people, as if God would 
deliver them out of the dangers they were in; 
they had also carried off what was out of the 
city, that they might not leave any thing to af- 
ford sustenance either for men or for beasts; 
and by private robberies, they made the want 
of necessaries greater. When Herod under- 
stood this, he opposed ambushes in the fittest 
places against their private robberies, and he 
sent legions of armed men to bring in provi- 
sions, and that from remote places, so that in a 
little time they had great plenty of provisions. 
Now the three bulwarks were easily erected, 
berause so many hands were continually .at 
work upon them; for it was summer-time, and 
there was nothing to hinder their works, neith- 
er from the air, nor from the workmen; so they 
urought their engines to bear, and shook the 
walls of the city, and tried all inanner of ways 
to get in; yet did not those within discover any 
fear, but they also contrived not a few engines 
to oppose their engines withall. ‘They also sal- 
tied out, and burnt not only those engines that 
were not yet perfected, but those that were: and 
when they came hand to hand, their attempts 
were not less bold than those of the Romans, 
though they were behind them inskill. They 
also erected new works when the former were 
ruined, and, making mines under ground, they 
met each other, and fought there; and making 
use of brutish courage rather than of prudent 
valor, they persisted in this war to the very 
last; and this they did while a mighty army 
Jay round about them, and while they were 
distressed by famine, and the want of necessa- 
ries, for this happened to be a sebbatic year. 
The first that scaled the walls were twenty cho- 


| ing to yielt; but when he saw that the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. | 


sen men, the next were Sosius’s centuriona, for | 
the first wall was taken in forty days, and the 
second in fifteen more, when some of the clois- 
ters that were about the temple were burnt, 
which Herod gave out to have been burnt by 
Antigonus, in order to expose him to the ha- 
tred of the Jews. And when the outer court 
of the temple, and the lower city, were taken, 
the Jews fled into the inner court of the tem- 
ple, and into the upper city; but now fearin 
lest the Romans should hinder them from o 
fering their daily sacrifices to God, they sent 
an embassage, und desired that they would on- 
ly permit them to bring in beasts for sacrifices, 
which Herod granted, hoping they were 

did 


nothing of what he supposed, but bitterly op- 
posed him, in order to preserve the kingdom to 
Antigonus, he made an assault upon the city 
and took it by storm; and now all parts were 
full of those that were sla’ 1 Ly the rage of the 
Romans at the long duratien of the siege, and 
by the zeal of the Jews that were on Herod’s 
side, who were not willing to leave one of 
their adversaries alive, so they were murdered 
continually in the narrow streets, and in the 
houses by crowds, and as they were flying to 
the temple for shelter, and there was no pity 
taken of either infants or the aged, nor did 
they spare so much as the weaker sex; nay, 
although the king sent alhout, and besought them 
to spare the people, yet nobody restrained 
their hand from slaughter, but, as 1f they were 
a company of madmen, they fell upon persons 
of all ages without distinetion; and then Ale 
tigonus, without regard to either his past or 
present circumstances, caine down from the 
citadel, and fell down xt the feet of Sosius, 
who took no pity of him in the change of his 
fortune, but insulten him beyond measure, and 
called hit? Antigune [i. e. a woman, and nots 
man;] yet ait he not treat him as if he were 
a wo1iv:, by letting him go at liberty, Sut put 
hiiu into bonds, and kept him in close custody 
2, Aw! now Herod, having overcome his 
et.eties, his care was to govern those foreigners 
whe hud been his assistants, for the crowd of 
stra.gersrusned to see the temple, and the sa 
cred things in the vemple; but the king, think- 
iny % victciy tc bea more severe affliction than 
a cefeat, if any of those things which it was 
not ‘awful to see, should be seen by them, used 
entreaties and threatenings, and even sometimes 
force itself to restrain them. He also prohibited 
the ravage that wes made in the city, and 
many times asked Sosius, whether the Romans 
would empty the city both of money and men, 
and leave him king of a desert? and told him, 
that he esteemed the dominion over the whole 
habitable earth as by no means an equivalent 
satisfaction for such a murder of his citizens, 
and when he said, that this plunder was justly 
to be permitted the soldiers for the siege they 
had undergone, he replied, that he would give 
every one their reward out of his own money, 
and by this means he redeemed what remain- 
ed of the city from destruction; and he per 
formed what he had promised him, for he gay 


ai 


war, 
a noble present to every soldier, and a propor- 
-fionable present tu their commanders, but a 
“most royal jresent to Sosius himself, till they 
‘all went away full of money. 
__ 4, This destruction befell the city of Jerusa- 
Yem* when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gal- 
lus were consuls of Rome, on the hundred 
‘eighty and fifth Olympiad, on the third month, 
_on the solemnity of the fast, as if a periodical 
revolution of calamities had returned, since 
‘that which befell the Jews under Pompey, for 
the Jews were taken by him on the same day, 
‘and this was after twenty-seven years’ time. 
So when Sosius had dedicated a crown of gold 
to God, he marched away from Jerusalem, and 
carried Antigonus with him in bonds to Anto- 
ny ; but Herod was afraid lest Antigonus should 
be kept in prison [only] by Antony, and that 
when jie was carried to Rome by him, he might 
get his cause to be heard by the senate, and 
“might demonstrate, as he was himself of the 
“royal blood, and Herod but a private man, that 


__#*Note here, that Josephus fully and frequently assures us 
that there passed above three years between Herod’s first 
obtaining the Kingdom at Rome, and his second obtaining it 

upon the taking of Jerusalem, and the death of Antigonus. 

| The present History of this interval twice mentions the 

- army’s going into winter-quarters, which perhaps belonged 

_ to two several winters, chap. xv. sect. 3, 4; and though Jo- 

_ sephus says nothing how long they lay in these quarters, yet 

_ does he give such an account of the long and studied delays 
of Ventidius, Silo, and Macherus, who were to see Herod 
settled in his new kingdom, (but seem not to have had suffi- 
¢ient forces for that purpose, and were for certain all corrupt- 

-ed by Antigonus to make the longest delays possible,) and 
fives us such particular account of the many great actions 

‘of Herod during the same interval, as fairly imply that inter- 
val, before Herod went to Samosata, to have been very con- 

siderable. However, what is wanting in Josephus is fully 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER 1. 


therefore it belonged to his sons however t> 
have the kingdom, on account of the family 
they were of, in case he had himself’ fended! 
the Romans by what he had done. Out of 
Herod’s fear of this it was, that he, 'y giving 
Antony a great deal of money, endeay ‘red to 
persuade him to have Antigonus slain, which if 
It were once done, he should be free from that 
fear. And thus did the government of the As- 
moneans cease, a hundred twenty and six years 
after it was first set up. This family was a splen- 
did and an illustrious one, both on account of th- 
nobility of their stock, and of the dignity of the 
high priesthood, as also for the glorious actions 
their ancestors had performed for our natior: 
but these men lost the government by their dis- 
sensions one with another: and it came to He- 
rod the son of Antipater, who was of no more 
than a vulgar family, and of no eminent ex- 
traction, but one that was subject to other kings: 
and this is what history tells us was the end of 
the Asmonean family. 

supplied by Moses Choronensis, the Armenian historian, im 
his history of the same interval, b. ii. ch. xvi". where he di- 
rectly assures us, that Tigranes, then king of Armenia, and 
the principal manager of this Parthian war, reigned two 
years after Herod was made king at Rome: and yet Antony 
did not hear of his death, in that very neighborhood, at Sa- 
mosata, till he was come thither to besiege it; after which 
Herod brought him an army, which was 340 miles march 
and through a difficult country, fuil of e:.emies also, and 
joined with him in the siege of Samosata, till that city was 
taken; then Herod and Sosius marched back with their large 
armies the same number of 349 miles,: d when ina little 
time they sat down to besiege Jez sale: +, they were notable 
to take it, but by a siege of five months. All which put to 
gether fully supplies what is wanting in Josephus, and se 


cures the entire chronology of these times beyvnd contea 
diction. 


BOOK XV. 


CUNTAINING THE INTERVAL OF EIGHTEEN YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF A%CONUS TO THE 
FINISHING OF THE TEMPLE BY HEROD. 





CHAPTER IL. 


Concerning Pollio and Sameas. Herod slays 

the principal of Antigonus’s friends, and 

spoils the city of its wealth. Antony beheads 
_ Antyronus. 


' $1. How Sosius and Herod took Jernusaleiu 
» by force; and, besides that, how they took An- 
' tigonus captive, has been related by us in the 
' foregoing book. We will now proceed in the 
‘Marration. And since Herod had now the go- 
' vernment of all Judea put into his hands, he 
' promoted such of the private men in the city 
/a@s had been of his party, but never left off 
‘avenging and punishing every day those that 
had chosen to be of the party of his enemies: 
‘but Pollio, the Pharisee, and Sameas, a disciple 
* of his, were honored by him above all the rest; 
_ for when Jerusalem was besieged, they advis- 
ed the citizens to r“rerve Herod, for which ad- 
vice they were well requited; but this Pollio, 
at the time when Herod was once upon his 
trial of life and death, foretold, in way of re- 
‘proach, Hyrcanus and the other judges, how 
’ this Herod, whom they st-ffered now to escape, 





would afterward inflict punishment on the: 
all; which had its completion in time, while 
God fulfilled the words he had spoken. 

2. At this time Herod, now he had got Jeru- 
salem under his power, carried off all the roys) 
ornaments, and spoiled the wealthy men f 
what they had gotten; and when by there 


| n-eans he had heaped together a great quantit,- 


ot silver and gold, he gave it all to Antony 
and his friends that were about him. He alse 
slew forty-five of the principal men of Anti- 
gonus’s party, and set guards at the gates of the 
city, that nothing might be carried out together 
with their dead bodies. They also searched 
the dead, and whatsoever was found, either of 
silver or guid, or other treasure, it was carried 
to the king; nor was there any end of the mi- 
series ].e brought upon them, and this distress 


j was in part eccasioned by the covetousness of 


the prince regent, who was still in want of 
more, and in part by the sabbatic year, which 
was still going on. and forced the country to lie 
still uncultivair:.. since we are forbidden to sow 
the land in taai year. Now when Antony had 
received Antigonus as his captive, he deter 


966 


mined to keep him against his triumph; but 
when he hhvard that the nation grew seditious, 
and that, out of their hatred to Herod, they 
continue ? to bear good will to Antigonus, he 
resolved to ‘ehead him at Antioch, for other- 
wise the Jews could noway be brought to be 
quiet. And Strabo of Cappadocia attests to 
what I have said, when he thus speaks: “An- 
tony ordered Antigonus the Jew to be brought 
to Antioch, and there to be beheaded: and this 
Antony seems to me to have been the very first 
‘an who beheaded a king, as supp: sing he 
ould no other way bend the minis of the 
Jews, so as to receive Herod, whom he hat 
made king in his stead, for by nu torments 
could they be forced to call him king, so great 
« fondness they had for their former iting; so he 
thought that this dishonorable death would 
diminish the value they had for Antigonus’s 
memory, and at the same time would diminish 
the hatred they bore to Herod.” ‘Thus far 
Strabo. 
CHAPTER II. 


How Hyrcevs was set at liberty by the Par- 
thians, ar? returned to Herod; and what Alex- 
andra did when she heard that Ananelus was 
made high priest. 

§ 1. Now after IIerod was in possession of 
the kingdom, Hyrcanus the high priest, who 
was then a captive umong the Parthians, came 
to him again, and was set free from his cap- 
tivity in the manner following: Barzapharnes 
and Pacorus, the *«»rals of the Parthians, 
took Hyrcanus, wii.) was first made high priest 
and afterward king, and Herod’s brother Pha- 
saelus, captives, and were carrying them away 
into Parthia, Phasaelus indeed could not bear 
the reproach of being in bonds, and thinking 
that death with » »ry was better than any life 
whatsoever, he became his own executioner, 
as [ have formerly related. 

2. But wher Hyrcanus was brought into 
Parthia, the ksig Phraates treated him after a 
» ry gentle manner, as having already learned 
of what an illustrious family he was; on which 
account he set him free from his bonds, and 
gave him a habitation at Babylon,* where there 
were Jews in great numbers. These Jews ho- 
ured Hyreznus as their high priest and king; 
as did all the Jewish nation that dwelt as far as 
Kuphrates; which respect was very much to 
his satisfaction. But when he was informed 
that Herod had received the kingdom, new 
hopes came upon him, as having been himself 
still of a kind disposition towards him, and ex- 
pecune that Herod would bear in mind what 

vor he had received from him, and when he 
was upon his trial, and when he was in «langer 
that a capital sentence would be pronounced 
against him, he delivered him from that danger 
and from all punishment. Accordingly, he 
talked of that matter with the Jews that came 

* The city here called Babylon by Josephus seems to be 
one which was built by some of the Seleucide upon the Ti- 
gris, which, long after the utter desolation of old Babylon, 
was commonly so called: and, I suppose, not far from Se- 


eacia; just as the latter adjoining city Bagdat has been, and 
is often called by the same old name of Babylon till this very 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





Yee 
‘ 
{ 


often to him with great affection; but they en 
deavored to retain hin among them, ae de- 
sired that he wouid stay with them, putting 
him in mind of the kind offices and honors 
they did him, and thet th se honors they paid 
him were not at ail intesior to what they could | 
pay to either .neir high priests or their kings: 
and what wa . greater motive to determine 
him, they sa ‘1, was this, that he could not have 
those dignit'es {in Judea} because of that maim 
in his body, which had been inflicted on him 
by Antigonus; aid that kings do not use to re-_ 
quite men for those kindnesses which they re- 
ceived when tl.2y were private persons, the 
height of fortune making usually no small 
changes in them. 

3. Now although they suggested these argu- 
ments to him for his own a‘vantage, yet did 
Hyrcanus still desire to depart. Herod also 
wrote to him, and persuaded him to desire of — 
Phraates, and the sews that were ‘ere, that 
they should not gxi.dge him the royal authority, 
which he should have jointly with himself, for 
that now was the proper time for himself to 
make him amends for the favors he had re- 
ceived from him, as having been brought up 
by him, and saved by him also, as well as for 
Hyrcanus to receive it. And as he wrote thus 
to Hyrcanus, so did he send also Saramallas, 
his ambassador, to Phraates, and many pre-— 
sents with hin, and desired him in the most 
obliging way that he would be no hinderance ~ 
to his gratitude towards his benefactor. But 
this zeal of Herod’s did not flow from that prin-— 
cipe, but because he had been made governor 
of chat country, without having any just claim 
to i:, he was afraid, and that upon reasons ga9d © 
enough, of a change in his condition, and g0— 
made what haste hs could to get Hyrcanur” 
into his power, or indeed te put him quite ou 
of the way: which last thir.g he compassed af — 
terward. 

4, Accordingly, when Hyre:nns came, full 
of assurance, by the permission of the king of — 
Parthia, and at the expense of the Jews, who 
supplied him with money, Herod received hitn— 


with all possible respect, and gave him the up-— 
per place at public meetings, and set him — 
above all the rest at feasts, and thereby deceived — 
‘im... HH» eeiied him kis father; and endeavor-_ 
eu y ail the ways possible, that he might have 
no suspicion of any treacherous design against 
iitu. He also did other things, in order to se- 
cure his government, which yet occasioned a se-— 
dition in his own family; for being cautious how 
he made any illustrious person the high priest” 
of God,* he sent for an obscure priest out of — 


* Here we have an eminent example of Herod’s worldly 
and profane politics; when, by the abuse of his unlawful — 
and usurped power, to make whom he pleased high priest, 
in the person of Ananelus, he occasioned such disturbanced 
in his kingdom, and in his own family, as suifured him to en- — 
joy no lasting peace or tranquility ever afterward: and gucl 
is frequently the effect of prufane court politics about mat 
ters of religion in other ages and nations. The Old Testa — 
ment is full of the miseries the people of the Jews derived 
from such court politics, especially in and after the days of 
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sing; whe 
gave the most pernicious example of it; who brought ¢ 
the grossest c.rruption of religion by it; and the Eee shim 
of whose family for it eas most remarkable. se 
too well known to stand in or ed of particular citations. 















; ; 


‘Babylon, whose name was Ananelus, and be- 
mowed the high priesthood upon him. 

5. However, Alexandra, the daughter of 
tivrcanus, and wife of Alexander, the son of 
Aristobulus the king, who had also brought Al- 
exander [two] children, could not bear this in- 
dignity. Now this son was one of the .. -eat- 
est comeliness, and was called Aristobulus; ard 
the daughter, Mariamne, was married to He- 
rod, and eminent for her beauty also. This 
Alexandra was much disturbed, and took this 
indignity offered to her son exceeding ill, that 
while he was alive, any one else should be sent 
for to have the dignity of the high priesthood 
eonferred upon him. Accordingly she wrote 
to Cleopatra (a musician assisting her in taking 
eare to have her letters carried) to desire her 
mtercession with Antony, in order to gain the 
nigh priesthood for her son. 

6. But as Antony was slow in granting, this 
request, his friend Dellius*, came into Judea 
upon some affairs, and when he saw Aristobu- 


_lus, he stood in admiration at the tallness and 


tony. 


handsomeness of the child, and no less at Ma- 
riamne, the king’s wife, and was open in his 
commendations of Alexandra, as the mother of 
most beautiful children: and when she came to 
diseourse with him, he persuaded her to get 
pictures drawn of them both, and send them 
to Antony, for that when he saw them, he 
would deny her nothing that she should ask. 
Accordingly Alexandra was elevated with 
these words of his, and sent the pictures to An- 
Dellius also talked extravagantly, and 
gai, that “These children seemed not derived 
from men, but from some god or other.” His 
design in doing so was to entice Antony into 
lewd pleasures with them, who was ashamed 
to send for the damsel, as being the wife of 
Herod, and avoided it, because of the reproach- 
es he should have from Cleopatra on that ac- 
count, but he sent, in the most decent manner 
he could, for the young man; but added this 
withall, “Unless he thought it hard upon him 
so to do.” When this letter was brought to 
Herod he did not think it safe for him to send 
one so handsome as was Aristobulus, in the 
prime of his life, for he was sixteen years of 
age, and of so noble a family, and particularly 
hot te Antony, the principal man among the 
Romazis, and one that would abuse him in his 
amors, and besides, cne that openly indulged 
himse:f in such pleasures, as his power allow- 
ed him, w:zhoui ccnirol. He therefore wrote 
back tc Sim, that “7* this boy shwuld only go 
out of the country, all would b« ina state of 
war and uproar, because the Jews were in hopes 
of a change in the government, and to have 


- mnother king over them.” 


— 2 =: a. 


om. 





7. When Herod had thus excused himself to 
Antony he resolved that he would not entirely 
rmit the child or Alexandra to be treated dis- 
Onorably; but his wife Mariamne lay vehe- 
mently at him to restore the high priesthood to 
her br.ther, and he judged it was for his advan- 
_ &¥e s0 to do, because, if he ence had that digni- 


* Of this wicked Dellius, see the note om the War, b. i. ch. 
sect. 3 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER LLL. 


2 rt 


pe 


367 


ty, he could not go out of the country. So he 
called all his friends together, and told them, 
that “Alexandra privately conspired against his 
royal authority, and endeavored by the means 
of Cleopatra, so to bring it about, that he might 
be deprived of the government, and that by .An- 
tony’s means this youth might have the man- 
agement of public affairs in his stead; and thnt 
this procedure of hers was unjust, since she 
would at the same time deprive her daughter of 
the dignity she now had, and would bring dis- 
turbances upon the kingdom, for which he had 
taken a great deal of pains, and had gotten it 
with extraordinary hazards: and yet while he 
well remembered her wicked practices, he 
would not leave off doing what was righi hiva- 
self, but would even now give the youth the 
high priesthood: and that he formerly set up 
Ananelus, becau.. Aristobulus was then se 
very young a chi} L”) Now when he had said 
this, not at ranc::m, but as he thought with the 
nest discretion he had, in order to deceive the 
women, and those friends whom he had taken 
to consult withall, Alexandra, out of the great 
joy she had at this unexpected promise, and out 
of fear from the suspicions she lay under, fell 
a weeping, and made the following apology for 
herself; auc said, that “as to the [high] priest- 
hood, she was very much concerned for the 
disgrace her son was under, and so did her ut- 
most endeavors to procure it for him, but that 
as to the kingdom, she had made no attcr .pts, 
and that if it were offered her [for her -on, 
s’.e would not accept it; and that now she woul 
be satisfied with her son’s dignity, while h: 
himself held the civil government, and she hrd 
thereby the security that arose, from his pecu- 
liar ability in governing, to all the remainder 
of her family; that she was now overcome by 
his benefits, and thankfully accepted of this 
honor showed by him to her son, and that she 
would hereafter be entirely obedient: and she 
desired him to excuse her, if the nobility of 
her family and that freedom of acting which 
she thought that allowed her, had made her 
act too precipitately and imprudently in. this 
matter” So when they had spoken thus to 
one another, they came to an agreement, and 
all suspicions, so far as appeared, were vanish- 
ed away. 


CHAPTER III. 


How Herod, upon his making Aristobulus high 
priest, took care that he should be murdered 1 
a little time; and what apology he made to An- 
tony about Aristobi'us. as also concerning Jo 
seph and Mariamne. 


§ 1. So king Herod immediately took the 
high priesthood away from Ananelus, who, 
as we said before, was not of this coruitry, ’ ut 
one of those Jews that had been carried cap- 
tive beyond Euphrates; for there were not a 
few ten thousands of this people that had been 
carried captives, and dwelt about Babylonia, 
whence Ananelus came. He was one of the 
stock of the high priests,* and had bven of old 


the new 


* When Josephus says here, that this Ananelus, 
of the high priests; and since he 


high priest was of the stock 


368 ANTIQUITIES 


a perticular friend of Herod; and when he was 
first m=de king, he conferred that dignity upon 
him, and now put him out of it again, in order 
to quiet the troubles in his family; though 
what he did was plainly unlawful, for at no 
other time [of old] was any one th.t had once 
been in that dignity deprived of it. It was An- 
tiochus Epiphanes who first broke that law, 
and deprived Jesus, and made his brother Onias 
high priest in his stead. Aristobulus was the 
second that did so, and took that dignity from 
his brother [Hyrcanus:] and this Herod was 
the third, who took that high office away [from 
Anxnelus,] and gave it to this young man, 
Ari ¢obulus, in his stead. 

2. And now Herod seemed to have healed 
the divisions in his family; yet was he not 
without suspicion, as is frequently the case, of 

eople seeming to be reconciled to one another, 
ee thought that, as Alexandra nad already 
made attempts tending to innovations, so did 
he fear that she would go on therein, if she 
found a fit opportunity for so doing; so he gave 
a command, that she should dwell in the pa- 
lace, and meddle with no public affairs: her 
guards also were so careful, that nothing she 
did in private life every day was concealed. 
All these hardships put her out of patience, by 
ttle and little, and she began to hate Herod; 
€1 as she had the pride of a woman to the ut- 
acat degree, she had great indignation at this 
sispicious guard that was about her, as desir- 
ous rather to undergo any thing that could be- 
fall her, than to be deprived of her liberty of 
speech, and, under the notion of an honcrary 

uard, to live in a state of slavery and terror. 
She therefore sent to Cleopatra, and mace a 
‘ang complaint of the circumstances she was 
in, aud entreated her to do her utmost for het 
resistance. Cleopatra hereupon advised her tuo 
take her son with her, and come away imme 
diately to her into Egypt. This advice pleased 
her; and she. had this contrivance for getting 
away: she got two coffins made, as if they 
were to carry away two dead bodies, and put 
herself into one, and her son into the other, 
and gave orders to such of her servants as 
knew of her intentions, to carry them away in 
the night-time. Now their road was to be 
thence to the seaside, and there was a ship 
ready to carry them into Egypt. Now Avsop, 
one of her servants, happened to fall upor fla- 
bion, one of her friends, and spoke of this 
matter to him, as thinking he had known of it 
hefore. When Sabion knew this, (who had 
forn.erly been an enemy of Herod, and been 
esteered one of those who laid snares for, and 
gave the poison to [his father] Antipater,) he 
expected that this discovery would change He- 


hal been just telling us that he was a priest of an obscure 
family or character, ch. ii. sect. 4, it is not at all probable that 
hé could so soon say that he was of the stock of the high 
priests. However Josephus here makes a remarkable obser- 
vation, that this Auwsneluas wasthe third that was ever 
unjustly and wickedly turned out of the high priesthood by 
the civil pawer; no king or governor heving ventured to do so 
that Josephus knew of, but that heathen tyrant and perse- 
extor Antiochus Epiphanes; that barbarous parricide Aristo- 


buius, tne first that took royal authority among the Macca- | ehronicle mistook the ame, and wrote 


sees; and this tyrant king Herod the Great; although after- 


OF THE JEWS. me 


en Lt A 


rud’s hatred into kindness, so he told the king 
of this private stratagem of Alexandra; wiere- 
pon he suffered her to proceed to the execu- 
tien of her project, and caught her in the very 
fact, bu’ still he passed by her offence: and 
though lie had a great inind to do it, he 
durst not inflict any thing that was severe upon 
her, for he knew that Cleopatra would not bear 
that he should have her accused, on account 
of her hat-cd to him, but made a show as if it 
were rat!.¢r the generosity of his soul, and his 
great moderation that made him forgive them 
However, he filly proposed to himself to put 
this young men out of the way, by one means 
or other; bt he thought he might in proba- 
bility be better concealed in doing it, if he did 
it not presently, nor immediately after what 
had lately bappeusd. 

3. And now, upon the approach of the feast 
of tabernacles, which is a festival very much 
observed among us, he let those days pass over, 
and both he and the rest of the people were 
therein very merry; yet did the envy which 
at this time arose in him, cause him to make 
haste to do what he was about, and provoke 
him to do it: for when this youth Aristobulus, 
who was now in the seventeenth year of his 
age, went up to the altar, according to the law, 
to offer the sacrifices, and this with the orna- 
ments of his high priesthood, and when he per- 
formed the sacred offices,* he seemed to be ex- 
ceeding comely, and taller than men usually 
were at that age, and to exhibit in his counte- 
nance a great deal of that high family he waa 
sprung from, and a warm zeal and affection to- 
wards him appeared among the people, and the 
memory of the actions of his grandfather Aris- 
tobulus was fresh in their minds; and their 
aftections got so far the mastery of them, that 
they could not forbear to show their inclinations 
to him. They at once rejoiced, and were con 
founded, and mingled with good wishes their 
joyful acclamations which they made to him, 
till the good will of the multitude was made 
too evident, and they more rashly proclaimed 
the happiness they had received from his fami- 
ly, than was fit under a monarchy to have done. 
Upon all this, Herod resolved to complete what 
he had intended against the young man. When, 
tl arefore, the festival was over, and he was 
feasting 9t Jerichot with Alexandra, who ef 
tertained hin there, he was then very plessam 
w'th the young man, and drew him into a lon& 
ly place, and at the same time played with hits — 
in « juvenile and ludicrous manner. Now the 
nature or that place was hotter than ordinery; 
so they wer’ out ina body and of a sudden, 
and ina vein of maduess; end as they stood by 
the fish-ponds, of which there were large ones” 


till the very 


ward that infamous practice became frequent 
f high 


destruction of Jerusalem, when the office o 
hood was at an end. Pb as 

* This entirely confutes the Talmudists, who pretend } 
no one under twenty years of age could officiate as high priest 
among the Jews. i 

+ A Hebrew chronicle, cited by Reland, says this porns F 
ing was at Jordan, not at Jericho, and this even when Re 
quotes Josephus. I suspect the transcriber of the Hebrew 
Jordan for Je cho. — 


Sf 
| 


about the house, they went to cool themselves 
[by bathing] because it was in the midst of a 
hot day. At first they were only spectators of 
Herod’s servants and acquaintance as they were 
awimming, but after a while, the young man, 
at the instigation of Herod, went into the water 
among them, while such of Herod’s acquaint- 
ance, as he had «\ointed to do it, dipped him, 
as he was swimming, and plunged him under 
water, in the ‘ark of the evening, as if it had 
peen done ins; rt only, nor did they desist till 
he was entirely suffocated; and thus was Aris- 
tobulus murdered, having lived no more in all 
than eighteen ycars,* and kept the high priest- 
hood one year only: which high priesthood 
Ananelus now recovered again. 

4. When this sad accident was told the wo- 
men, their joy was soon changed to lamenta- 
tion, at the sight of the dead body that lay be- 
fore them, and their s.rrow was immoderate. 
The city also of [Jertsalem,] upon ti © spread- 
ing of this news, was in very great gr‘ef, every 
family looking on this calamity as if it had not 
belonged to an ther, but that one of themselves 
was slain, but Alexandra was more deeply af- 
fected, upon her knowledge that he had teen 
destroyed [on purpose.] Her sorrow was 
greater than that of others; by her knowing 
how the murder was committed, but she was 
under a necessity of bearing up under it, out 
of her prospect of a greater mischief that might 
otherwise follow: and she oftentimes came to 
an inclination to kili herself with her own hand, 
but still she restreined herself, in hopes she 
might live jong enough to revenge the unjust 
murder thus privately committed; nay, she fur- 
ther rssolved to endeavor to live longer, and to 
give no occasion t» think she suspected that 
her son was slain on purpose, and suppos- 
ed that she might thereby be in a capacity of 
revenging it at a proper opportunity. ‘Thus did 
the restrain herself, that she might not be noted 
for entertaining any such suspicion. How- 
2ver, Herod endeavored that non. abroad 
thould believe that the child’s death was caused 
dy any design of his; and for this ptirpose he 
‘lid not only use the ordinary signs of sorrow, 
ut fell into tears also, and exhibited a real 
‘onfusion of soul; and perhaps his affections 
‘Were Overco.ne on this occasion, when he saw 
he child’s countenance so young, and so beau- 
iful, although his death was supposed to tend 
0 his own security; so far, at least, this grief 
erved as to make some apology for him: and 
‘8 for his fineral, that he took care should be 
‘ery magnificent, by making great preparation 
‘ora sepu'chre to lay his body in, and provid- 
‘Ng a great quantity of spices, and burying 
‘any ornaments together with him, till the 
“ery women, who were in such deep sorrow, 
vere astonished at it, and received in this way 
‘Ome consolation. 

9. However, no such things could overcome 
ilexandra’s grief, but the remembrance of 
2s miserable case made her sorruw both deep 













} * The reading of 0... of Josephus’s Greek Mf. scems 

&e to be right, that Aristobulus was not eighteen 4< «~ old, 

‘hen he was drowned: for he was not seventees “x. be 
f 47 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER II] 


and obstinate. Accordingly, sie wrote an aoe- 
count of this treacherous scene to Cleopatra, 
and how herson was murdered; but Cleopatra, 
as she had formerly been desirous to give her 
what satisfaction she could, a:.d commiserating 
Alexandra’s misfortunes, made the case her 
own, and would not let Antony be quiet, bu 
excited him to punish the child’s murder, for 
that it was an unworthy thing that Herod, whe 
had been by him made king of a kingdom that 
noway belonged to him, should be guilty of 
such horrid crimes against those that were of 
the royal blood in reality. Antony was per- 
suaded by these arguments, and when he came 
to Laodicia, he sent and commanded Herod to 
come and make his defence, as to what he had 
done to Aristobulus, for that such a treacher- 
ous design was not well done, if he had any 
hand in it. Herod was now in fear, both of the 
accusation, and of Cleopatra’s ill will to him, 
which was such, that she was ever endeavor- 
ing to make Antony hate him. He, therefore, 
acvermined to obey his summons, for he had 
no possible way to avoid it: so he lefi his un- 
cle, Joseph, procurator for his governnient, and 
for the public affairs, and gave him a private 
charge, that if Antony should kill him, he also 
should kill Mariamne immediately; for that he 
had a tender affection for this his wife, and 
was afraid of the injury that should be of 
fered him, if, after his death, she, for her beau- 
ty should be engaged to some other man; but 
his intimation was nothing but this at the bot- 
tom, that Antony had fallen in love with her 
when he had formerly heard somewhat of ner 
beauty: so when Herod had given Joseph this 
charge, and had indeed no sure hopes of escap- 
ing with his life, he went away to Antony. 

6. But as Joseph was administering the pub- 
lic affairs in the kingdom, and for that reason 
was very frequently with Mariamne both be- 
cause his business required it, and because of 
the respects he ought to pay to the queen, he 
frequently let himself into discourses about He- 
rod’s kizuiness and great affection towards her, 
and when the women, especially Alexandra, 
used to turn his discourses into feminine railery. 
Joseph was so over desirous to demonstrate the 
king’s inclination, that he proceeded so far as to 
mention the charge he had received, and thence 
drew his demonstration, that Herod was not 
able to live without her: and that if he should 
come to any ill end, he could not endure a 
separation from her, even after he was dead. 
Thus spoke Joseph. But the women, as was 
natural, did not take this to be an instance of 
Herod’s strong affection for them, but of his 
severe usage of them, that they could not es- 
cape destruction, nor a tyrannical death, even 
when he was dead himself} and this saying [of 
Joseph] was a foundation for the women’s se- 
vere suspicions about him afterward. 

7. At this time a report went about the city 
of Jerusalem, emong Herod’s enemies, that 
Antony had torture! Herod, and put him te 


was made hig}: priest, ch. ii, eect. 6; eh. iit. sect. 3; and he 
continued + thet affice bat une year, a» im the place before 
us. 


370 


death. This report, as is natural, disturbed 
those that were about the palace, but chiefly 
the women: upon which Alexandra endeavor- 
ed to persuade Joseph to go out of the palace, 
and fly to the ensigns of the Roman legions, 
which then lay encamped about the city as a 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


~i59 


were no more than a calumny, that he had of © 
ten had criminal conversation with Mariamne 
The reason of her saying so was this, that she 
for a long time bore her ill will, for when they 
had differences with one another, Mariamne 
took great freedoms, and reproached the rest 


guard to the kingdom, under the command of {for the meanness of their birth. But Herod, 


Julius; for that, by this means, if any disturb- 
ance should happen about the palace, they 
should be in greater security, as having the Ro- 
mans favorable to them ; and that besides, they 
hoped to obtain the highest authority, if Anto- 
ny did but once see Marianne, by whose means 
they should recover the kingdom, and want 
nothing which was reasonable for them to 
hope for, because of their royal extraction. 

8. But as they were in the midst of these de- 
literations, letters were brought from Herod 
about al! iis atuirs, and proved contrary to 
the report, and of what they before expected; 
for when he was come to Antony, he soon re- 
covered his interest with him, by the presents 
he madg him, which he had brought with him 
from J«rusalem, and he soon induced him, upon 
discoursing with him, to leave off his indigna- 
tion at him, so that Cleopatra’s persuasions had 
less force than the arguments and presents he 
brought, to regain his friendship, for Antony 
said, that “it was not good to require an account 
of a king, as to the affairs of his government, fur 
at this rate he could be no king at all, but thst 
those whohad given him that authority oughtt 
permit him to make use of it.” He also said the 
same things to Cleopatra, that it would be best 
for her not busily to meddle with the acts of the 
king’s government. Herod wrote an account 
of thesz things, and “enlarged upon the other 
honors which he had received from Antony; 
how he sat by him at his hearing causes, and 
took his diet with him, every day, and that he 
enjoyed those favors from him, notwithstand- 
ing the reproaches that Cleopatra so severely 
laid against him, who having a great desire of 
his country, and earnestly entreating Antony 
that the kingdom might be given to her, labor- 
ed with her utmost diligence to have him ou 
of the way, but that he still found Antony juss 
wo him, end had no longer any apprehensions 
ef hard treatment from him; and that he was 
soon upon his return, with a firmer additional 
assurance of his favor to him, in his reigning 
and managing public affiirs; and that there 
was no longer any hope for Cleopatra’s cove- 
tous temper, since Antony had given her Cee 
losyria, instead of what she desired, by which 
means he had at once pacified her, and got 
clear of the entreaties which she made him to 
have Judea bestowed upon her.” 


9. When these letters were brought, the wo- 
men left off their attempt for flying to the Ro- 
mans, which they thought of while Herod was 
supposed to be dead, yet was not that purpose 
of theirs a secret; but when the king had con- 
ducted Antony on his way against the Par- 
thians, he returned to Judea, when both his 
sister Salome and his mother informed him of 
Alexandra’s intentions. Salome also added 
somewhat further against Joseph, though it 


whose affection to Mariamne was always very 
warm, was presently disturbed at his, and 
could not bear the torments of jealousy, but 


was still restrained from doing any rash thing 


to her by the love he had for her; yet did his 
vehement affection and jealousy together make 
him ask Mariamne by herself about this matter 
of Joseph; but she denied it upon her oath, 
and said all that an innocent woman could 
possibly say in her own defence, so that by 
little and little the king was prevailed upon to 
drop the suspicion, and left off his anger at her, 
and being overcome with his passion for his 
wife, he made an apology to her for having 
seemed to believe what he had heard about 
her, and returned her a great many acknow- 
ledgments of her modest behaviour, and pro- 
fessed the extraordinary affection and kindness 
he had for her, till at last, as is usual between 
lovers, they both iell into tears, and embraced 
one another with a most tender affection. But 
as the king gave more and more assurances of 
his belief of her fidelity, and endeavored to 
‘raw her to a like confidence in him, Marianne 
said, “Yet ws not that command thou gavest, 
that if any hxrm came to thee from Antony, I, 
who had been n° occasion of it, should perish 
with thee, a sign of thy love to me.” When 
these words were fallen from her, the king was 
shocked at them, and presently let her go out 
of his arms, and cried out, and tore his hair 
with his own hands, and said, that “now he 
had an evident demonstration that Joseph had 
had criminal conversation with his wife, for 
that he would never have uttered what he had 
told him alone by himself, unless there had 
been such a great familiarity and firm confi 

dence between them.” And while he was *a 
this passion he had liked to have killed his 
wife, but being still overborne by his love te 
Ler, he restrained this his passion, though not 
without a lasting grief, and disquietness of 
mind. However, h~ gave order to slay Joseph, 
without permitting him to come into his sigat, 
and as for Alexandra, he bound her, and kept 
8 Me custody, as the cause of all this mis- 
chief. 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Cleopatra, when she had polten JSrom .Into- 
y some parts of Judea zn! Arabia, came inte 
udea; and how Herod gave her many presents, 
and conducted her on her way back to Egypt. 


4 1. Now at this time the affairs of Syria 
were in confusion by Cleo; .sira’s constant per- 
suasions to Antony to make an attempt upon 
every body’s dominions; for she persuaded 
him to take those con.nions away their 
several princes, and bestow them upon her, 
and she had a mighty influence upon him, 
reason of bis being enslaved to her by his 


: BOON AV.—CHAPTER IV. 


fecuions. She was alse bv nature very covetous, 
and shunned no wickedi.es~. She had already 
poisoned her brother, because she knew that he 
‘was tu be king of Egypt,and ‘nis when he was 
but fifteen years old; and she got her sister 
Arsinoe to be slain, by tne means of Antony, 
when she was a supplicant at Diana’s temple 
‘at Ephesus; for if there were but any hopes of 
“settng money, she would violate both temples 
tu. sepulchres. Wor was there any holy place, 
‘that was esteerned the most inviolable, from 
_,uich she would not fetch the ornaments it 
h d in it; nor any place so profane, }-.1t was to 
uifer the tnost flagitious treatment possible 
from her, if it ceihi but contribute somewhat 
to the covetous }n: .acr of this wicked creature; 
yet did not all this suffice so extravagant a wo- 
man, who was a slave to her lusts, but she still 
imagined that she wanted every thing she could 
think of, and did her utmost to gain it; for which 
reasoa she hurried Antony on perpetually to 
deprive others of their dominions, and give 
them tohe:. Andasshe went over Syria with 
him, she contrived to get it into her possession; 
80 he slew Lysanius, the son of Ptolemy, ac- 
eusing him of his bringing the Parthians upon 
‘those countries. Sh+ also petitioned Antony 
to give her Judea and Arabia, and in order there- 
to desired him to take these countries away from 
their present governors. As for Antoy, he was 
80 entirely overcorre by this woman, that one 
would not think her conversation only could do 
it, but that he was some way or other bewitch- 
ed to do whatsoever she would have him; yet 
did the grossest part of her injustice make him 
so ashamed, that he would not always hearken 
to her to do those flagrant enormities she would 
have persuaded him to. at, therefore, 1: 
might not totally deny her, nor, by doing every 
thing which she enjoined him, appear openly 
‘to be an ill man, he took some parts of each of 
those countries away from their former cevern- 
ors, and gave them to her. ‘Thus he yw ve her 
the cities that were withn. che river Eleuthe- 
‘rus, as far as Egypt, excepting ''yre and Sidon 
‘which he knew to have been free cities from 
| often to bestow those on her also. 
‘2. When Cleopatra had obtained thus much, 
and had accompanied Antony in bis expedition 
‘to Armenia, as far as Euphrates, she returned 
| back, and came to Apamia, and Damascus, and 
d on to Judea, where Herod met her, and 
armed off her parts of Arabia, and those reve- 
‘Ques that came to her ‘rom the region about 
Jericho. This country «-ars that balsam, which 


their ancestors, although she pressed hin vers | 


37 


the whole, she seemed overcome with love te 
him. Now Herod had a great while borne ne 
good will to Cleopatra, as knowing that she 
was a woman irksome to all: and at that time 
he thought her particularly worthy of his ha- 
tred, if this attempt proceeded out of lust; he 
had also thought of preventing her intrigues, 
by putting her to death, if such were her en- 
deayors. However, he refused to comply with 
her proposals, and called a council of his 
friends to consult with them, “Whether he 
should not kill her, now he had her im his 
power? for that he should thereby deliver all 
those from a multitude of evils to whem she 
was already become irksome, and was expect- 
ed to be still so for the time to come; and that 
this very thing would be much for tne advan- 
tage of Antony himself, since she w-.':\ cer- 
tainly not be faithful to him, in case iny such 
reason or necessity should come vj-.n «im as 
that he should stand in need of ber Adutity.” 
But when he thought to follow this advice, his 
friends would not let him; and tol %’m, that 
“in the first place, it was not rigi.t to attempt 
so great a thing, and run himself :i:e7sby into 
the utmost danger; and they lay hara et him, 
and begged vf Lim to undertake nowsg veshly, 
for that Antony ‘vould never bear 2 7.9, not 
though any one should evidently lay Sevore his 
eyes that it was for his own advantage; and 
that the appearance of depriving him of her 
conversation, by this violent and treacherous 
method, would probably set his affections mere 
in flame than before. Nor cid it appear thar 
he could offer any thing of tolerable weight in 
his defence, this attempt being against such a 
| woman as was of the highest dignity of any of 
jer sex at that time in the world; and as to any 
advantage to be expected from such an under- 
taking, if any such could be supposed in this 
case, it would appear to deserve condemnation, 
on account of the insolence he must take upon 
him in doing it. Which considerations made 
it very Divin thay ia so ¢cig he would find hie 
| governr.. ut “ited with irischiefs, both great 
laea lasting, both to himself and bis posterity, 
whereas it was still in his power to reject that 
- ickedness she would persuade him to, and to 
come off honorably at the same time.” So by 
thus affrighting Herod, and representing to him 
the hazard he must, in all probability, run, by 
this undertaking, they restrained him from it. 
So he treated Cleopatra kindly, and made her 
presents, and conducted her on her way te 
Egypt. 
3. But Antony subdued Armenia, and sent 


‘8 the most precious drug that is there, and | Artabazes, the son of Tigranes, in bonds, with 
grows therealone. The place bears also palin- | his children and procurators, to Egypt, and 
trees, both many in number, and those exc:!-!made a present of them, and of all the royal 
‘Kent in their kind. When she was there, and | ornaments which he had taken out of that king- 
‘was very often with Herod, she endeavored to | don, to Cleopatra. And Artaxias, the eldest 












have criminal conversation with the king; nor 
‘did she affect secrecy in the indulgence of such: 
sort of pleasures; and perhaps she had in some 
‘Ineasure a passion of love to him, or rather, 
‘what is most probable, she laid a treacherous 
‘snare for him, by aiming to obtain such adul- 
-#rous conversation from him: however, upon 


of nis sons, who had escaped at that time, took 
the kingdom of Armenia, who yet was ejectea 
by Archelaus and Nero Cesar, when they re- 
stored Tigranes, his younger brother, to that 
kingdom: but this happened a good while af 
terward. 

4, But then, as to the tributes which Herod 


372 


was to pay Cieopatra for that country which 
Antony had given her, he acted fairly with her, 
as deeming it not safe for him to afford any 
cause for Cleopatra to hate him. As for the 
king of Arabia, whose tribute Herod had un- 
dertaken to pay her, for some time indeed he 
paid him as much as came to two hundred 
talents, but he afterward became very niggardly, 
and slow in his payments, and could hardly be 
brought to pay some parts of it, and was not will- 
ing to pay even them without some deductions. 


CHAPTER V. 


How Herd made war with the king of Arahia, 
and after they had fought many battles, at 
length conquered him, and was chosen by the 
Arabs io be governor of that wittcn; as also 
concermng a great earthquake. 

§ 1. isereupon Herod held himseif ready to | 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ae 
7 
~ 
ay: 


ed to make use of that zeal the mulutude then 
exhibited; and when he had assured them he 
would not be behindhand with them in courage, 
he led them on, and stood before them all in 
his armor, all the regiments following him in 
their several ranks: whereupon a consternation 
fell upon the Arabians; for when they perceiy- 
ed that the Jews were not to be conquered, and 
were full of spirit, the greater part of them rar 
away, and avoided fighting, and they had beep 
quite destroyed, had not Athenion fallen upor 
the Jews, and distressed them, for this man was 
Cleopatra’s general over the soldiers she had 
there, and was at enmity with Herod, and ve 
wistfully looked on to see what the event o 
the battle would be: he had also resolved, that 
in ease the Arabians did any thing that was 
brave and successful, he would lie still, but m 
case they were beaten as it really happened, ne 


o ageinst the king of Arabia, because of his| would sitack the Jews with those forces he 
Ingratituce to him, and because, after all, he | had of his own, and with those that the coun- 
would ce ‘wthiing that was just to him, althongh | try Ld gotten together for him: so he fell upon 
Herod iaede the Roman war an occasicn of| t.¢ Jews unexpectedly, when they were fa- 
delaying his own, for the battle of Actium wes | tigued, and thoughtthey had already vanquished 


now expected, which fell intu the hundred and 
eighty-seventh olympiad, where Cesar and 
Antony were to fight for the supreme power 
of the world; but Herod having enjoyed a 
country that was very fruitful, and that now 
for a iong time, and having received great taxes, 
and raised great armies therewith got together 
a body of men, and carefully furnished them | 
with all necessaries, and designed them as auk- 
iliaries for Antony; but Antony said, he had no 
want of his assistance; but he commanded him 
to punish the king of Arabia, for he had heard 
both from him, and from Cleopatra how per- 
fidious he was; for this was what Cleopatra de- 
sired, who thought it for her own advantage, that ! 
these two kings should do one another as great 
mischief as possible. Upon this message from 
Antony, Herod returned back, but kept his 
army with him, in order to invade Arabia im- 
mediately. So when his army of horsemen 
and footmen was ready, he marched to Diospo- 
lis, whither the Arabians came also to meet 
them, for they were not unapprized of this war 
that was coming upon them; and after a great 
battle had been fought, the Jews had the victo- 
ry. but afterward there were gotten together 
another numerous army of the Arabians, at 
Cana, which is a place of Colosyria. Herod 
was inforsaed of this beforehand: so he came 
marching agamst them with the greatest part of 
the forces le hac; and when he was cume near 
to Cana, he resolved to encamp himeeif, and he 
east up a bulwark, that he might take a pro- 
per season for attacking the enemy, but as he 
was giving those orders, the multitude of the 
Jews cried out that he should make no delay, 
but lead them against the Arabians. They 
Went with great spirit, as believing they weze 
in very good order, and those especially were ' 
so that had been in the former battle, and Lad | 
been conquerors, and had not permitted their 
enemy so much as to come to a close fight with 
them. And when they were so tumultuous, 
and showed such great alacrity, the king resolv- 


the enemy, and made a great slaughter of them; 
for as the Jews had spent their courage upon 
their known enemies, and were about to en- 
joy themselves in quietness after the victory. 
they were easily beaten by these that attacked 
them afresh, and in particu_ar received a great 
loss in place where the horses could not be of 
service, anc which were very stony, and where 
those that attacked them were better acquaiat- 
ed with the places than themselves. And when 
the Jews had suffered this loss, the Arabians 
raised their spirits after their defeat, and re- 
turning back again, slew those that were 
already put to flight; and indeed all sorts of 
slaughter were now frequent, and of those thar 
escaped, a few only returned into the camp 
So king Herod, when he despaired of the bat- 
tle, rode up to them to bring them assistance, 
yet did he not come time enough to do them 
any service, though he labored hard to do it, 
but the Jewish camp was taken, so that the Ara- 
bians had unexpectedly a most glorious success, 
having gained that victory, which of themselves 
they were noway likely to have gained, and 
slaying a great part of the enemy’s army: 
whence afterward Herod could only act like a 
private robber, and make excursions upon 
many parts of Arabia, and distress them by 
sudden incursions, while he encamped among 
the mountains, and avoided by any means to 
come to a pitched battle, yet did he greatly ha- 
rass the enemy by his assiduity, and the hard 
labor he took in this matter. He also to7k great 
care of his own forces, and usec all tne means | 
he could to restore his affairs to their old state. 
2. At this time it was that the fight happen- - 
ed at Actium, between Octavius Cesar and 
Antony, in the seventh* year of the reign of 


*The reader is here to take notice, that this seventh yeat 
of the reign of Herod, and all the other years of his reigns 
susephus, are dated fromthe death of Antigouus, or at 
soonest from the conquest of Antigonus, and the taking 
Jerusalem a few months before, and never frem his first ob 
taining the kingdom at Rume above three yeors before, as 
some have very weakly and injudiciously done. ma 


ae | 


: 
Herod; and then it was «lso that there was an 
earthquake in Judea, such a one as had not 
‘happened a: any other tise, and which earth- 

quake brought a great destruction upon the cat- 

‘fle in that country. About ten thousand men 

also perished by the fall of houses: but the ar- 

‘wy, which lodged in the field, received no da- 
mage by this sad accident. When the Ara- 
bians were informed of this, and when those 

‘that hated the Jews, and pleased themselves 

with aggravating the reports, told them of it, 
they raised their spirits, as if their enemy’s 
country was quite overthrown, and the men 
were utterly destroyed, and thought there now 
remained nothing that could oppose them. 

Accordingly, they took the Jewish mbassadors, 
who came to them after all this had happened, 
to make peace with them, and slew them, and 
came with great alacrity again» their army; 
but the Jews durst not withstand them, and 
were so cast down by the calamities they were 
‘under, that they took no care of their affairs, 
but gave up themselves to despair; for they had 

no hope that they should be upon a level with 
them again in battles, nor obtain any assistance 
elsewhere, while their affairs at home were in 

‘such great distress also. When matters were 
in this condition, the king persuaded the com- 

manders by his words, and -ried to raise their 

Spirits, which were quite sunk, and first he en- 
deavored to encourage and emboiden some of 
the better sort beforehand, and then ventured 
to makea speech to the multitude, which he 

‘had before avoided to do, lest he should find 
them uneasy thereat, because of the misfor- 
tines which had happened; so he made a 
consolatory speech to the multitude, in the man- 
oer following: 

3. “You are not unacquainted, my fellow- 
soldiers, that we have had, not long since, 
many accidents that have put a stop to what 
we are about; and it is probable that even those 
that are most distinguished above others for 
their courage, can hardly keep up their spirits 
in such circumstances; but since we cannot 
avoid fighting, and nothing that hath hap~ened 
is of such a nature but it may bv ourse:ves be 
recovered into a good state, and this by one 
brave action only, well performed, I have pro- 
posed to myself both to give you some encou- 
ragement, and, at the same time, some infor- 
mation, both* which parts of my design will 
tend to this point, that you may still «7 tinue 
in your own proper fortitude. I will tren, in 

‘the first place, demonstrate tu you, that this 

War is a just one on our side, and that on this 
account it is a war of necessity, and occasioned 

by the injustice of our adversaries, fo: if you 

be once satisfied of this, it will be a reai cause 
of alacrity to you, after which I will further 
demonstrate, that the misfortunes we are under 
are of no great c »nsequence, and that we have 
the greatest reason to hope for victory. I shall 
begin with the first,and appeal to yourselves as 

Witnesses to what I shall say. You re not ig- 

-dorant certainly of the wickedness f the Ara- 

dians, which is to that degree as to appear in- 

_tredible to all other men, and to include some- 


os: | BOOK XV.—UCHAPTER V. 


373 


what that shows the grossest barbarity and 
ignorance of God. The chief things wherein 
they have affronted us, have arisen from cove 
tousness'and envy; and they have attacked ua 
in an insidious manner, and on the sudden, 
And what occasion ig there for me to mention 
many instances of such their procedure?’ When 
they were in danger of losing their own go- 
vernment of themselves, and of being slaves 
to Cleopatra, what others were they that freed 
them from that fear? For it was the friendship 
I had with Antony, ard the kind disposition he 
was in towards us, that hath been the occasion 
that even these Arabians have not been utterly 


‘undone. Antony beiag unwilling to undertake 


any thing which might be suspected by us of 
unkindness: but when he had a mind to be- 
stow some parts of each of our dominions on 
Cleopatra, I also managed that matter so, that 
by giving him presents of my own, I might 
obtain a security to both nations, while I un- 
dertook myself to answer for the money, and 
gave him two hundred talents, and became 
surety for those two hundred more which were 
imposed upon the land which was subject to 
this tribute: and this they have defrauded us 
of, although it was not reasonable that Jews 
should pay tribute to any man living, or allow 
part of their land to be taxable; but although 
that was to be, yet ought we not to pay tribute 
for these Arabians, whom we have ourselves 
preserved, nor is it fit that they, who have pro- 
fessed, and that with great integrity and sense 
of our kindness, that it is by our means that 
they keep their principality, should injure us, 
and deprive us of what is our due, and this 
while we have been still not their enemies but 
their friends. And whereas observation of 
covenants takes place among the bitterest ene- 
mies, but among friends is absolutely necessary 
this is not observed among these men, who 
think gain to be the best of all things, let it be 
by any means whatsoever, and that injustice is 
no harm, if they may but get money by it: is 
it, therefore, a question with you, Whether the 
unjust are to be punished or not? When God 
himself hath declared his mind that so it ought 
to be, and hath commanded us that we ever 
should hate injuries and injustice, which is not 
only just but neceseary in wars between severr] 
nations; for t' es3 Arabians have done what 
both the Gre xs and barbarians own to be an 
instante of the grossest wickedness, with ro- 
gard te our ambassadors, whom they have 'e- 
headed while the Greeks declare that such 
ambassadors are sacred and inysolable.* An‘ 
for ourselves, we have learned trom God the 
most excellent of our doctrines, and the most 
holy part of our law by angels, or amb:.ssadors 
for this name brings God to the knowledge of 
mankind, and is sufficient to reconcile enemies 
one to another. What wickedness then cam be 
greater than the slaughter of ambassadors, whc 


* Herod says here, that as ambassadors were sacred when 
they carried messages to others, so did the laws of the Jews 
derive asacred authority by being delivered from God by 
angels [or divine ambassadors,] which is St. Paul’s expres 
sion about the same laws, Gal. iii. 19: Heb. ii. 2. 


374 


some >» treat about doing what is right. And 
when such have been their actions, how is it 
possible they can live cecurely in common life, 
or be successful in war? in my opinion this is 
impossible; but perhaps some will say, that 
what is holy and what is righteous, is indeed 
on our side, but the Arabians are either more 
courageous, or more numerous than we are. 
Now as to this, in the first place, it is not fit for 
us to say so, for with whom is what is righte- 
ous, with them is God himself} now where 
God is, there is both multitude and courage. 
But to examine our own circumstances a little, 
we were conquerors in the first battle; and 
when we fought again, they were not able to 
oppose us, but ran away; and could not en- 
dure our att.cks or our courage; but when we 
had conquered them, then came Athenion, and 
made war against us without declaring it; and 
pray, is this an instance of their manhood? or 
is it not a second instance of their wickedness 
ani! treachery? Why are we, therefore, of less 
courage, on account of that which ought to in- 
spire us with stronger hopes? and why are we 
terrified at these, who, when they fight upon 
the level, are continually beaten, and when 
they seem to be conquerors, they gain it by 
wickedness? and if we suppose that ary one 
should deem them to be men of real courage, 
will not he be excited by thet very consideration 
to do his utmost against them? for true valor is 
not shown by fighting against weak persons, 
but in being able to overcome the most hardy. 
But then, if the distresses we are ourselves un- 
der, and the miseries that have come by the 
earthquake, have affrighted any one, let him 
consider, in the first place, that this very thing 
will deceive the Arabians, that what hath be- 
fallen us is greater than it really is. Moreover, 
it is not right that the same thing that embold- 
ens them should discourage us; for these men, 
you see, do not derive their alacrity from any 
advantageoys virtue of their own, but from 
their hope, as t> us, that we are quite cast down 
by our misf rtunes; but when we boldly march 
against them, we shall soon pull down their in- 
solent conceit of themselves, and shall gain this 
hy attacking them, that they will not be so in- 
solet.t when we come to the battle, for our uis- 
tresses are not so great, nor is what hath hap- 
pened an indication of the anger of God against 
us, as some imagine, for suci: things are acci- 
dental, and adversities that come in the usual 
course of things; end if we allow that this was 
done by the will of God, we must allow that it 
is now over by his will also, and that he is satis- 
fied with what hath already happened, for had 
he been willing to afflict us still more thereby, 
he ha! not changed his mind so soon. And as 
for the war we are engaged in, he hath himself 
demonstrated. that he is willing it should go on 
and that he knows it to be a just war; for 
while some of he people in the country have 
perished, all you who were in arms have suf- 
fered nothing, but are all preserved alive; 
whereby God makes it plain to us, that if you 
nad universally, with your children and wives, 
neen in the army, it had come to pass, that you 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 






had not undergone any thing tha wouid have 
much hurt you. Consider these things, an 1 
what is more than all the rest, that you have 
God at all times for your protector; and prose — 
cute these men with a just bravery, who, in” 
point of frienéship are unjust, in them battles” 
perfidious, towards ambassadors impious, and 
always inferior to you in valor.” 
4, When the Jews heard thisspeech they were 
much raised in their minds, and more disposed 
to fight than before. So Herod, when he had 
offered the sacrifices appointed by the law,* 
made haste, and took them, and led them 
against the Arabians; and in order to that pass- 
ed over Jcrdan, and pitched his camp near to 
that of the enemy. Healso thought fit to seize 
upon a certain castle that lay in the midst of 
them, as hoping it would be for his advantage, 
and would the sooner produce a battle; and 
that if there were occasion for delay, he should 
by it have his camp fortified. And as the Ara- 
bians had the same intentions upon that place, 
a contest arose about it: at first they were but 
skirmishes, after which there came more sol- 
diers, and it proved a sort of fight, and some 
fell on both sides, till those of the Arabian side 
were beaten, and retreated. This was no small 
enccuragement to the Jows immediately: and 
when Herod observed that the enemy’s army 
was disposed to any thing rather than to come 
to an engagement, he ventured boldly to at- 
tempt the bulwark itself, and to pull it to pieces, 
and so to get nearer to their camp, in order to 
fight them; for when they were forced out of 
their trenches, they weut out in disorder, and 
had not the least alacrity, or hope of victory; 
yet did they fight hand to hand, because they 
were more in number than the Jews, and be- 
cause they were in such a disposition of war 
that they were under a necessity of coming on 
boldly; so they came to a terrible battle, while 
not a few fell on each side. However, at 
length the Arabians fled; and so great a slaugh- 
ter was made upon their being routed, that they 
were not only killed by their enemies, but be- 
came the authors of their own deaths also, and 
were trodden down by the multitude, and the 
great current of people in disorder, and were 
destroyed by their own armor; so five thou- 
sand men lzy dead upon the spot, while the 
rest of the multitude soon ran within the bul- 
wark [for safety,] but had no firm hope of 
safuty, by reason of their want of necessaries 
and especially of water. The Jews pursued 
them; but could not get in with them, but sat 
round about the bulwark, and watched any as- 


* This piece of religion, the supplicating God, with sacré 
fices, by Herod, before he went to this fight with the Arabr 
ans, taken notice of also in the first book Of the War, ch. xix. 
sect. 5, is worth remarking, because it is the only example of 
this nature, so far as I remember, that Josephus ever men- 
tions in all his large and particular acccunts of this Herod, 
and it was when he had been in mighty distress, and discou- 
raged by a ,reat defeat of his former army, and by a very 
great earthquake in Judea; such times of afflictiun making 
men most religious: nor was he disappointed of his hopes 
here, but immediately gained a most signal vie. *y over the 
Arabians; while they who just before had been s. great vic 
tors, and so much elevated upon the earthquake in Judea as 
to venture to slay the Jewish ambassadors, were now unde 
a strange consternation, and hardly able to fight at all. 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER Vl. 


sistance that would get in to them, and prevent- 
ed any there, that had a mind to it, from run- 
ning away. 

5. When the Arabians were in these circum- 
stances, they sent ambassadors to Herod. in 
the first place to propose terms of accommo- 
dation; and after that to offer him, so pressivig 
was their thirst upon them, to undergo what- 
soever he pleased, if he would free them frem 
their present distress; but he would admit of 
no ambassadors, of no price of redemption, 
nor of any other moderate terms whatever, 
being very desi~ous to revenge those unjtst ac- 
sions which they had been guilty of towards his 
nation. So they were necessitated by other 
mutives, and particularly by their thirst, to come 
out, and deliver themselves up to him, to be 
cairied away captives; and in five days’ time 
the number of four thousand were taken pri- 
soners, while all the rest resolved to make asa!- 
ly upon their enemies, and to fight it out with 
them, choosing rather, if so it must be, to die 
therein than to perish gradually and ingiorius- 
ly. When they had taken this resolution, they 
came out of their trenches, but could noway 
sustain the fight, being too much disabled, both 
in mind and body, and having not room to ex- 
ext themselves, and thought it an advantage to 
be killed, and a misery to survive; so on the first 
onset there fell about seven thousand of them; 
after which stroke they let all the courage they 
bad put on before fall, and stood amazed at 
fierod’s warlike spirit under his own calamities; 
so for the future they yielded, and 1aade him 
ruler of their nation: whereupon he was great- 
ly elevated at so seasonable a success, sid re- 
turned home, taking great authority upon him, 
on account of so bold and glorions an expedi- 
tion as he had made. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How Herod slew Hyrcanus, and then ‘asted 
away to Cesar, and obtained the kingdom from 
ham also; and how, a little time afterward, he 
entertained Cesar ina mest honoraile man- 
peT. 


§ 1. Herod’s other affairs were now very pros- 
perous; and he was not to be easily assaulted 
oa any side. Yet did there come upon hima 

ganger that would hazard his entire dominions, 
efter Antony had been beaten at the battle of 
Actium by Cesar [Octavian;] for at that time 
_ts.ch Herod’s enemies and friends despaired of 
his affairs, for it was not prod-Lle that he 
would remain without punishment, who had 
snowed so much frieudship for Antony. So it 
happened that his friends despaired, and had 
na hopes of his escape, but for his enemies, 
suzy all outwardly appeared to be troubled at 
his case, but were privately very glad of it, as 
hoping to obtain a change for the better., As 
for Herod himself, he saw that there was no 
one of royal dignity left but Hyrcanus, and 
therefore he thought it would be for his advan- 
sage not to suffer him to be an obstacle in his 
‘way any longer; for that in case he himself 
#urvived, end © «..°' the danger he was in, 
‘he thought it the safest way to put it out of 


the power of such a man to make any attempt 
against him at such junctures of affairs, as was 
more worthy of the kingdom than himself; and 
in case he should be slain by Ceesar, his envy 
prompted him to desire to slay him that would 
otherwise be king after him. 

2. While Herod had these things in his mind, 
there was a certain occasion afforded him; fot 
Hyreanus was of so mild a temper, both then 
av. at other times, that he desired not to med- 
dle with public affairs, nor to concern himself 
with innovations, but left all to fortune, and 
contented himself with what that afforded him: 
but Alexandra [his daughter] was a lover of 
strife, and was cxcveding desirous of a change 
of the government, and spoke to her father not 
to bear for ever Herod’s injurious treatment of 
their fainity, but to anticipate their future hopes, 
as he safely might; and desired him to write 
about these matters to Malchus, who was then 
governor of Arabia, to receive them, and to se- 
cure them [from Herod,] for that if they went 
away, and Herod’s affairs proved to be, as it 
was lixely they would be, by reason of Ceesar’s 
enmity to him, they should then be the only 
persons that could take the government, and 
this both on account of the royal family they 
were of, and on account of the goo disposi- 
tion of the multitude to them. While she used 
these sersuasions, Hyrcanus put off her suit; 
but as she showed that she was a woman, and 
a contentious woman too, and would not desist 
e:t er night or day, but would always be speak- 
ng to him about these matters, and about He- 
:od’s treacherous designs, she at last prevailed 
with iim to intrust Dositheus, one of his friends, 
with aletter, wherein his resolution was de- 
clared; and he desired the Arabian governor to 
senc. to kim some horsemen, who should receive 
him, and conduct him to the lake Asphaltites, 
vhica is from the bounds of Jerusalem three 
hundred furlongs: and he did therefore trust 
Dositheus with this letter, because he was a 
careful attendant on him and on Alexandra, and 
had no small occasion to bear ili wilito Herod: 
for he was a kinsman of one Joseph, whom he 
had slain, and a brother of those that were 
formerly slain at Tyre by Antony; yet could 
not these motives induce Dositheus to serve 
Hyrcanus in this afiair, for preferring the 
hopes he had frum the present king to those 
he had from him, he gsve Herod the letter. So 
he took his kindnesz iz good part, and bade 
him besides do what he had already done, that 
is, go on in serving him, by rolling up the epis- 
tle, and sealing it again, and delivering it to 
Malchus, and then to bring back his letter in 
answer to it, for it would be much better if he 
could know Malchus’s intentions also. And 
when Dositheus was very ready to serve him in 
this point also, the Arabian governor returned 
back for answer, that he would receive Hyr- 
canus, and all that should come with him, and 
even all the Jews that were of his party: that he 
would, moreover, send forces sufficient to se- 
cure them in their journey, and that he shoule 
be in ‘no want of any thing he should desire 
Now as soon as Herod had received this letter 


376 


he immediately sent for Hyrcanus, and ques- 
tioned him about the league he had made with 
Malchus; and, when he denied it, showed his 
Jetter to the sanhedrim, and put the man to 
death immediately. 

3. And this account we give the reader, as it 
is contained in the commentaries of king He- 
rod: but other historians do not agree with 
them, for they suppose that Herod did not find, 
but rather make this an occasion for thus put- 
ting him to death, and that by treacherously 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWs. 


of a man of a mild and moderate disposition, ‘ 
and suffered the administration of affairs to be — 


generally done by others under him. He was 
averse to much meddling with the public, nor 
had shrewdness enough to govern a kingdom; 
and both Antipater and Herod came to their 
greatness by reason of his mildness, and at last 
he met with such an end from them as was not 
agreeable either to justice or piety. 
5. Now Herod, as soon as he put Hyrcanv 


| out of the way, made haste to Cesar; and be- 


laying a snare for him; for thus do they vrrite: | cause he could not have any hopes of kindness 
that Herod and he were once at a trezt, and! from him, on account of the friendship he had 


that Herod had given no occasion to suspect 
{that he was displeased at him,} but put this 
question to Hyrcanus, whether he had receiv- 
ed any letters from Malchus? and when he 
answered, that he had received letters, but those 
of salutation only; and when le asked farther, 
whether he had not received any presents from 
him? and when he had replied, that he had re- 
eeived no more than four horses to ride on, 
which Malchus had sent him; they pretended 
that Herod charged these upon him as the 
erimes of bribery and treason, and gave order 
that he should be led away and slain. And in 
order to demonstrate that he had been guilty of 
no offence, when he was thus brought to his 
end, they alleged how mild his temper had 
been, and that even in his youth he had 
never given any demonstration of boldness or 
rashness, anc that the case was the same when 
he came to be king, but that he even then com- 
mitted the management of the greatest part of 
public affairs to Antipater; and that he was 
now above fourscore years old, and knew that 
Herod’s government was in a secure state. He 
also came over Euphrates, and left those who 
greatly honored him beyond that river, though 
he were to be entirely under Herod’s govern- 
ment, and that it was a most incredible thing 
that he should enterprise any thing by way of 
innovation, and not at all agreeable to his tem- 
per, but that this was a plot of Herod’s contriv- 
ance. 

4. And this was the fate of Hyrcanus; and 
thus did he end his life, after he had endured 
various and manifold turns of fortune in his 
lifetirne: for he was made high priest of the 
Jewish nation in the beginning of his mother 
Alexandra’s reign, who held the government 
nine years; aud when, after his mother’s death, 
he took the kingdom himself, and held it three 
months, he lost it, by the means of his brother 
Aristobulus. He wes then restored by Pom- 
pey, and received all sorts of honor from him, 
and enjoyed them forty years; but when he 
was again deprived by Antigonus, and was 
maimed in his body, he was made captive 
by the Parthians, and thence returnea home 
again after some time, on account of the hopes 
that Herod had given him; none of which came 
to pass according to his expectation, but he still 
eonflicted with many misfortunes through the 
whole course of his life; and what was the 
heaviest calamity of all, as we have related al- 
ready, he came to an end which was undeserv- 
ed by him. His character appeared to be that 


for Antony, he had a suspicion of Alexandra, 
lest she should take this opportunity to bring 
the multitude to a revolt, and introduce a se- 
dition into the affairs of the kingdom; so he 
committed the care of every thing to his brother 
Pheroras, and placed his mother Cypros, and 
his sister [Salome,] and the whole family, at 
Massada, and gave him a charge, that if he 
should hear any sad news about him, he should 
take care of the government: but as to Mariam- 
ue his wife, because of the misunderstanding 
between her and his sister, and his sister’s 
mother, which made it impossible for them to 
live together, he placed her at Alexandrium, 
with Alexandra her mother, and left his trea- 
surer Joseph, and Sohemus of Iturea, to take 
care of that fortress. These two had been 
very faithful to him from the beginning, and 
were now left as a guard to the women. They 
also had it in charge, that if they should hear 
any mischief had befallen him, they should kill 
them both, and as far as they were abie, to pre- 
serve the kingdom for his sons, and for his 
brother Pieroras. 

6. When he had given them this charge, he 
made hasie to Rhodes, to meet Ceesar; and 
when he had sailed to that city, he took off his 
diaduni, but remitted nothing else of his usual 
dignity: and when, upon his meeting him, he 
desired that he would let him speak to him, he 
therein exhibited a much more noble specimen 
of a great soul, for he did not betake himself 
to supplications, as men usually do upon such 
occasions, nor offered him any petition, as if he 
were an offender, but, after an undaunted man- 
ner, gave an account of what he had done; for 
he spoke thus to Cesar, that “he had the great- 
est friendship for Antony, and did every thing 
he could tl.,t he might attain the government: 
that he was not indeed in the army with him, 
because the Arebiaus had diverted him, but 


that he had sent him both money and cora, 


which was but too litt!» in comparison of what 
he ought to have done for him; for if a man 
owns himself to be another’s friend, and knows 
him to be a benefactor, he is obliged to hazard 
every thing, to use every faculty of his soul, 
every member of his body, and all the wealth 
he hath, for him, in which I confess I. have 
been too deficient. However, I am conscious 
to myself that so far I have done right, that 
I have not deserted him upon his defeat at Ac- 
tium; nor upon the evident change of his for- 
tune have I transferred my hopes from him te 
another, but have preserved myself, though 


BOOK. XV.—CHAPTER VII. 


mot as a valuabie fellow soldier, yet certainly 
asa faithful counsellor to Antony, when I de- 
moustrated to him that the only way that he 
had to save himself, and not to lose all his au- 
thority, was to slay Cleopatra; for when she 
was once dead, there would be room for him 
to retain his authority, and rather to bring 
thee to make a composition with him, than to 
‘continue at enmity any longer. None of which 
advices would he attend to, but preferred his 
.own rash resolutions before them, which have 
pppened unprofitable for him, but profitable for 
Now, therefore, in case thou determin- 
est about me, and my alacrity in serving Anto- 
ny, accerd'ng to thy anger at him, I own there 
is no room for me to deny what I have done, 
nor will I ‘se ashamed to own, and that public- 
ly too, that I had a great kindness for him: but 
if thou wilt put him out of the case, and only 
examine how I behaved myself to my bene- 
factors in general, and what sort of friend I 
‘am, thou wilt find by experience that we shall 
‘do and be the same to thyself, for it is but chang- 
ing the names, and the firmness of friendship 
that we shall bear to thee will not be disappov- 
ed by thee.” 
7. By this speech, and by his behavior, 
which showed Cesar the frankness of his mind, 
he greatly gained upor. him, who was himself 
of a generous and magnificent temper, inso- 
much that those very actions, which were the 
foundation of the accusation against him, pro- 
cured him Cesar’s good will. Accordingly, 
he restored him his diadem again; and encou- 
raged him to exhibit hiriself as great a friend 
to himself as he had been to Antony, and then 
had him in great esteem. Moreover, he added 
this, that Quintus Didius had written to him, 
that Herod had very readily assisted him in 
the affair of the gladiators. So when he had 
obtained such a kind reception, and had, be- 
yond all his hopes, procured his crown to be 
more entirely and firmly settled upon him than 
ever by Cesar’s donation, as well as by that 
decree of the Romans, which Cesar took care 
to procure for his greater security, he conduct- 
ed Cesar on his way to Egypt, and made pre- 
sents even beyond his ability, to both him and 
his friends, and in general behaved himself 
with great magnanimity. He also «desired that 
Cesar would not put to death one Alexarder, 
who had been a companion of Antony, but 
Cesar had sworn to put him to death, and so 
he could not obtain that his petition: and now 
he returned to Judea again with greater honor 
and assurance than ever, and affrighted those 
that had expectations to the contrary, as still 
acquiring from his very dangers greater splen- 
dor than before, by the favor of God to him. 
| Sc he prepared for the reception of Cesar, as 
he was going out of Syria to invade Egypt; 
| and when he came, he entertained him at Pto- 
lemais with all royal magnificence. He also 
bestowed presents on the army, and brought 
| them provisions in abundance. He also provy- 
ed to be one of Czsar’s most cordial friends, 





Ceasar and 


377 


appointed in all respects, after a rich and sump 
tuous manner, for the better reception of him 
and his friends. He also provided them with 
what they should want, as they passed over 
the dry desert, insomuch that they lacked neith- 
er wine nor water, which last the soldiers stood 
in the greatest need of, and besides, he present- 
ed Cesar with eight hundred talents, and pro- 
cured to himself the good will of them all, be- 
cause he was assisting to them in a much 
greater and more splendid degree than the 
kingdom he had obtained could afford, by 
which means he more and more demonstrated 
to Ceesar the firmness of his friendship, and his 
readiness to assist him; and what was the great- 
est advantage to hirn was this that his liberality 
came at aseasonable time also: and when they 
returned again out of Egypt his assistances were 
noway inferior to the good offices he had for- 
merly done them. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How Herod slew Sohemus and Mariamne, and 
afterward Alexandra and Costobaras, and his 
most intimate friends, and at last the sons of 
Babas also. 


§ 1. However, when he came into his king- 
dom again, he found his house all in disorder, 
and his wife, Mariamne, and her mother, Alex- 
andra, very uneasy; for, as they supposed, what 
was easy to be supposed, that they were not 
put into that fortress [Alexandrium] for the 
security of their persons, but as into a garrison 
for their imprisonment, and that they had no 
power over any thing, either of others or of 
their own affairs, they were very uneasy; and 
Mariamne, supposing that the king’s love to 
her waz but hypocritical, and rather pretended, 
as advantageous to himself, than real. she look- 
ed upon it as fallacious. She also was grievea 
that he would not allow her any hopes of sur- 
viving him, if he should come to any harm 
himself. She also recollected what commands 
he had formerly given to Joseph, insomuch 
that she endeavored to please her keepers, and 
especially Sohemus, as well apprized how all 
was in his power. And at the first Sohemus 
was faithful to Herod, and neglected none of 
the things he had given him in charge; but 
when the women, by kind words and liberal 
presents, had gained his affections over to them, 
he was by degrees overcome, and at length dis- 
covered to them all the king’s injunctions, and 
this on that account principally, that he did not 
so much as hope he would come back with the 
same authority he had before, so that he thought 
he should both escape any danger from him, 
and supposed that he did hereby riuch gratify 
the women, who were likely not to be over- 
looked in the settling of the govern:nent, say, 
that they would be able to make him abundant 
recompense, since they must either reign them- 
selves, or be very near to him that should reign. 
He had a further ground of hope also, that 
though Herod should have all the success he 
could wish for, and should return again, he 


) and putthe army im array, and rode along with | «:.uld not contradict his wife in what she de- 
bed e hundred and fifty men well | vized, for he knew that the king’s fondness fhe 


$78 


his wife was inexpressible. These were the 
motives that drew Sohemus to discover what 
injunctions had been given him. So Mariamne 
was greatly displeased to hear that there was 
no end of the dangers she was under from He- 
rod, aud was greatly uneasy 2% it, and wished 
he might obtain no favors [from Cesar,] and 
esteemed it almost an insupportable task to 
live with him any longer; and this she after- 
ward openly declared, witnout concealing her 
resentment. 

2. And now Herod sailed home with joy, 
at the unexpected good success he had had, and 
went first of all, as was proper, to this his wife, 
and told her, and her only, the good news, as 
preferring her before the rest, on account of 
his fondness for her, and the intimacy there 
had been between them, and saluted her; but 
so it happened, thatas he told herof the good 
success he had had, she was so far from re- 
joicing at it, that she rather was sorry for it; 
nor was she able to conceal her resentments; 
but, depending on her dignity, and the nobili- 
ty of her birth, inreturn for bis salutations she 
gave a groan, 2nd declared evidently that she 
rather grieved than rejoiced at his success; and 
this till Herod was disturbed at her, as afford- 
ing him not only marks of her suspicion, but 
evident signs of her dissatisfaction. ‘This much 
troubled him, to see that this surprising hatred 
of his wife to him was not concealed, but open; 
and he took this so ill, and yet was so unable 
to bear it, on account of the fondness he had 
for her, that he could not continue long in any 
one mind; but sometimes was angry at her, 
and sometimes reconciled himself to her; but 
by always changing one passion for another, 
he was still in great uncertainty. And thus 
was he entangled between hatred and love, and 
was frequently disposed to inflict punishment 
on her for her insolence towards him; but 
being deeply in love with her in his soul, he 
was not able to get quit of this woman. In 
short, as he would gladly have her punished, 
so was he afraid lest, ere he were aware, he 
should, by putting her to death, bring a heavier 
punishment upon himself at the same time. 

3. When Herod’s sister and mother perceiv- 
ed that he was in this temper with regard to 
Mariamne, they thought they had now got an 
excellent opportunity to exercise their hatred 
against her, and provoked Herod to wrath by 
telling him such long stories and calumnies 
about her, as might at once excite his hatred 
and his jealousy. Now, though he willingly 
enough heard their words, yet had not he cou- 
rage enough to do any thing to her, as if he 
believed them, but still he became worse and 
worse disposed to her, and these ill passions 
were more aiid more inflamed on both sides, 
while she did not hide her disposition towards 
him, and he turned his love to her iste wrath 
against her. But when he was just going to 
put this matter past all remedy, he heard the 
news that Cesar was the vict»r in the war, and 
that Antony and Cleopatra were both dead, and 
that he had conquered Egypt, whereupon he 
made haste to go to meet Cz sar, and left the 


ANTIQUITIES OF 


father rightly, or else we must, as before, ch. i. sect. 1, allow 


HE JEWS. ( 
affairs of his family in their present state, 
However, Mariamne recommended Sohemus 
to him, as he was setting out on his journey, 
and profes! that sae owed him thanks for 
the cxre he had taken of her, and asked of the 
king 1or him a place in the government; upon 
which an honorable employment was bestow- 
ed upon him accordingly. Now, when Herod 
was come into Egypt, he was introduced to 
Ceesar with great freedom, as already a friend 
of his, and received very great favors from 
him; for he made him a present of those four 
hundred Galatians who had been “leopatra’e 
guards, and restored that country to him again, 
which by lier means had been taken away from 
him. He also added to his kingdom, Gadara, 
Hippos, and Samaria; and, besides these, the 
maritime cities, Gaza, Anthedon, Joppa and 
Strato’s Tower. 

4. Upon these new acquisitions, he grew 
more magnificent, and conducted Cesar as far 
as Antioch; but upon his return, as much as his 
prosperity was augmented by the foreign ad 
ditions that had been made him, so much the 
greater were the distresses that came upon him 
in his own family, and chiefly in the affair of 
his wife, wherein he formerly appeared to have 
been most of all fortunate; for the affection he 
had for Mariamne was noway inferior to the af- 
fections of such as are on that account cele- 
brated in history, and this very justly. As for 
her, she was in other respects a chaste wom 
and faithful to him; yet had she somewhat ‘a 
a woman rough by nature, and treated her hus- 
band imperiously enough, because she saw he 
was so fond of her as to be enslaved to her, 
She did not also consider seasonably with her- 
self that she lived under a monarchy, and that 
she was at another’s disposal, and accordingly 
would behave herself after a saucy manner to 
him, which yet he usually put off in a jesting 
way, and bore with moderation and good tem- 
per. She would also expose his mother and 
his sister openly, on account of the meannese 
of their birth, and would speak unkindly of 
them, insomuch, that there was before this a 
disag>-ement and unpardonable hatred among 
the wox..sn, and it was now come to greater re-_ 
proaches of one another than formerly, which 
suspicions increased, and lasted a whole year 
after Herod returned from Cresar. However, 
these misfortunes, which had been kept under 
some decency for a great while, burst out all | 
at once upon such an occasion as was now of- 
fered; for as the king one day about noon was | 
laid down on his bed to rest him, he called for | 
Mariamne, out of the great affection he had ak. 
weys for her. She came in accordingly, but 
wsuild not lie down by him: and when he was. 
very desirous of her company, she showed her 
conternpt of him; and added, by way of re 
proach,* that he had caused her father and ber | 


* Whereas Mariamne is here represented as reproschim 
Herod with the murder of her father [Alexander,] as well 
as her brother [Aristobulus,] while it was her grandfather 
Hyreanus, and not her father Alexander, whom he caused — 
to be slain, (as Josephus himself informs us, ch. vi. sect. 2)\ _ 
we must either take Zonara’s reading, which is here grand 









a slip of Josephus’s pen or memory in the place before us. 


. 
] 
* im 


BOOK XV - 


bruther to be slain. And when he took this in- 
jwy very unkindly, and was ready to use vio- 
lence to her, in a precipitate manner, the king’s 
sister, Salome, observing that he was more than 
ordinarily disturbed, sent in to the king his cup- 
bearer, who had been prepared long before- 
hand for such a design, and bade him tell the 
king, how Mariamne had persuaded him to 
_ give his assistance in preparing a love potion 
for him; and if he appeared to be greatly con- 
cerned, and to ask what that love potion 
was? to tell him that she had the potion, and 
that he was desired only to give it him: but 
that in case he did not appear to be much con- 
cerned at this potion, to let the thing drop, and 
that if he did so, no harm should thereby come 
to him. When she had given him these in- 
structions, she sent him in at this time to make 
such a speech. So he went in after a compos- 
ed manner, to gain credit to what he should 
say, and yet somewhat hastily, and said, that 
“Mariamne had given him presents, and per- 
suaded him to give him a love poticn.” And 
when this moved the king, he said, that “this 
love potion was a composition that she had 
given him, whose effects he did not know, which 
was the reason of his resolving te give him 
this information, as the safest course he could 
take, both for himself and for the king.” When 
Herod hesrd what ke said, and was in an ill 
disposition before, his indignation grew more 
violent; and he ordered that eunuch of Mari- 
amne’s who was most faithful to her, to be 
»rought to torture about this potion, as well 
knowing it was not possible that any thing 
small or great could be done without him. 
And when the man was under the utmost ago- 
nies, he could say nothing concerning the thing 
he was tortured about, but so far he knew that 
Mariamne’s hatred against him was occasioned 
by somewhat that Sohemus had said to her. 
Now, as he was saying this, Herod cried out 
aloud, and said, that “Sohemus, who had been 
at all other times most faithful to him, and to 
nis government, would not have betrayed what 
injunctions he had given him, unless he had 
ad a nearer conversation than ordinary with 
Mariamne.” So he gave order that Sohemus 
should be seized on and slain immediately; but 
he allowed his wife to take her trial; and got 
ingether those that were most faithful to him; 
and laid an elaborate accusation against her ror 
this love potion and composition, which had 
been charged upon her by way of calumny 
only. However, he kept no temper in whet he 
said, and was in too great a passion for ‘udging 
well about this matter. Accordingly, when the 
court was at length satisfied that he was so re- 
solved, they passed the sentence of death upon 
her: but when the sentence was passed upon 
her, this temper was suggested by himself, and 
by some others of the court. that she should 
not be thus hastily put to death, but be laid in 

rison in one of the fortresses belonging to the 

‘ngdom: but Salome and her party labored 
hard to have the woman put to death; and they 
prevailed with the king to do so, and advised 
this out of caution, lest the multitude should 


CHAPTER VII, 


378 


be tumultéous if she were suffered te hive; and 
thus was Mariamne led to execution. 

5. When Alexandra observed how things 
went, and that there were small hopes that she 
herself should escape the like treatment from 
Herod, she changed her behavior to quite the 
reverse of what might have been expected 
from her former boldness, and this after a very 
indecent manner: for out of her desire to show 
how entirely ignorant she was of the crimes 
laid against Mariamne, she leaped out of her 
place, and reproached her daughter in the 
hearing of all the people; and cried out, tha 
“she had been an ill woman and ungrateful to 
her husband, and that her punishment came 
justly upon her, for such her insolent behavior, 
for that she had not made proper returns to 
him who had been their common benefactor.” 
And when she had for some time acted after 
this hypocritical manner, and been so out- 
rageous as to tear her hair, this indecent and 
dissembling behavior, as was to be expected, 
was greatly condemned by the rest of the spec- 
tators, as it was principally by the poor woman 
who was to suffer; for at the first she gave her 
not a word, nor was discomposed at her peev- 
ishness, and only looked at her; yet did she, 
out of a greatness of soul, discover her con 
cern for her mother’s offence, and especially 
for her exposing herself in a manner so unbe- 
coming her; but as for herself, she went to her 
death with an unshaken firmness of mind, and 
without changing the color of her face, and 
thereby evidently disc:.vered the nobility of her 
descent to the spect~tors, even in the last mo- 
ments of her life. 

6. And thus died Mariamne, a woman of an 
excellent character, both for chastity and great- 
ness of soul; but she wanted moderation, and 
had too much of contention in her nature, yet 
had she all that can be said in the beauty of 
her body, and her majestic appearance in con- 
versation; and thence arose the greatest part of 
the occasions why she did not prove so agree- 
abie to the king, nor live so pleasantly with 
him, as she might otherwise have done; for 
while she was most indulgently used by the 
king, out of his fondness to her, and did not 
expect that he could do any hard thing to her, 
she took too unbounded a liberty. Moreover, 
that which most afflicted her was, what he had 
done to her relations; and she ventured to speak 
of all they had suffered by him, and at last 
greatly provoked both the king’s mother and 
sister, till they became enemies to her; and even 
he himself also did the same, on whom alone 
she depended for her expectations of escaping 
the last of punishments. 

7. But when she was once dead, the king’s 
affections for her were kindled in a more out- 
rageous manner than before, whose old passion 
for her we have already described; for his love 
to her was not of a calm nature, nor such as 
we usually meet with among other husbands, 
for at its commencement it was of an enthusi- 
astic kind, nor was it by their long cohabitation 
and free conversation together, brought under 
his power to manage; but at this time his love 


to Mariamne seemed to seize him in such a 
peculiar manner, as looked like divine ven- 
eance upon him for the taking away her 
ife, for he would frequently call for her, and 
frequently lament for her in a most indecent 
manner. Moreover, he bethought him of every 
thing he could make use of to divert his mind 
from thinking of her, and contrived feasts and 
assemblies for that purpose, but nothing would 
suffice; he therefore laid aside the administra- 
tion of public affairs, and was so far conquered 
by his passion, that he would order his servants 
to call for Mariamne, as if she were still alive, 
and could still hear them. And when he was 
in this way, there arose a pestilential disease, 
that carried off the greatest part of the multi- 
tude, and of his best and most esteemed friends, 
and made all men suspect that this was brought 
upon him by the anger of God, for the injus- 
tice that had been done to Mariamne. This 
circumstance affected the king still more, till 
at length he forced himself to go into desert 
laces, and there, under pretence of going a 
unting, bitterly afflicted himself; yet had he 
not borne his grief there many days before he 
fe!l into a most dangerous distemper himselfi 
bo had an inflammation upon him, aud a pain 
m the hinder part of his head, joined with 
madness; and for the remedies that were used, 
they did him no good at all, but proved con- 
trary to his case, and so at length brought him 
to despair. All the physicians also that were 
about him, partly because the medicines they 
brought for his recovery could not at aii con- 
quer the disease, and partly because his diet 
could be no other than what his disease inclin- 
ed him to, desired him to eat whatever he had 
a mind to, and so left the small- hones they had 
of his recovery in the power of that diet, and 
committed him to fortune. And thus did his 
distemper go on while he was at Samaria, now 
called Sebaste. 
8. Now Alexandra abode at this time in Je- 
rusalem, and being informed what condition 
Fferod was in, she endeavored to get possession 
of the fortified places that were about the city, 
which were two, the one belonging to the city 
itself, the other belonging to the temple; and 
those that could get them into their hands nad 
the whole nation under their power, for with- 
out the command of them it was not possible 
to offer their sacrifices; and to think of leaving 
off those sacrifices, is to every Jew plainly im- 
posi who are still more ready to lose their 
ives than to leave off that divine worship 
which they have been wont to pay unto God. 
Alexandra, therefore, discoursed with those that 
had the keeping of these strong-holds, that it 
was proper for them to deliver the same to her, 
and to Herod’s sons, lest, upon his death, any 
other person should seize upon the govern- 
ment; and that upon his recovery none could 
keep them more safely for him than those of 
his own family. These words were not b 
them at all taken in good part; and as they had 
geen in former times faithful [to Herod,] they 
pesolved to continue so more than ever, both 
Because they hated Alexandra, and because 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


/ 


they thought it a sort ut mnpiety to despair of 
Herod’s recovery while he was yet alive, for 
they had been his old friends; and one of them, 
whose name was Achiabus, was his cousin- 
german. They sent messengers, therefore, to 
acquaint him with Alexandra’s design; so he 
made no longer delay, but gave orders to have 
her slain; yet was it still with difficulty, and 
after he had endured great pain, that he got 
clear of his distemper. He was still sorely af 
flicted both in mind and body, and made very 
uneasy, and readier than ever upon all occa 
sions to inflict punishment upon those that fel 
under his hand. He also slew the most int: 
mate of his friends, Costobarus, and Lysima 
chus, and Gadias, who was also called Antipa 
ter; as also Dositheus, and that upon the fol 
lowing occasion. 

9. Costobarus was an Idumean by birth, and 
one of principal dignity among them, and one 
whose ancestors had been priests to the Koze, 
whom the Idumeans had [formerly] esteemed 
as a god; but after Hyrcanus had made a 
change in their political government, and made 
them receive the Jewish customs and law, 
Herod made Costobarus governor of Idumea 
and Gaza, and gave him his sister Salome to 
wife; and this was upon his slaughter of [his 
uncle] Joseph, who had that government be- 
fore, as we have related aiready. When Cos- 
tobarus had gotten to be so highly advanced, 1 
pleased him, and was more than he hoped for, 
and he was more and more puffed up by his 
good success, and in a little while he exceeded 
ail bounds, and did not think fit to obey what 
lierod, as their ruler, commanded him, or that 
the Idumeans should make use of the Jewish 
customs, or be subject to them. He therefore 
sent to Cleopatra, and informed her that the 
Idumeans had been always under his progeni- 
tors, and that for the same reason it was but 
just that she should desire that country for him 
of Antony, for that he was ready to transfer his 
friendship to her; and this he did, not hecause 
he was better pleased to be under Cleopatra’s - 
government, but because he thought that, upon 
the diminution of Herod’s power, it would not 
be difficult for him to obtain himself the entire 
government over the Idumeans; and somewhat 
more also; for he raised his hopes still higher 
as having no small pretences, both by his birtk 
and by those riches which he had gotten by his 
conztant attention to filthy lucre; and accord- 
ingly it was not a small matter that he aimed 
at. ‘So Cleopatra desired this country of An- 
tony, but failed of her purpose. An account 
of this was brought to Herod, who was there 
upon ready to kill Costobarus, yet upon the 
entreaties of his sister and mother, he forgave 
him, and _ vouchsafed to pardon him entirely, — 
though he still hada suspicion of him after- 
ward for this his attempt. 

10. But some time afterward, when Salome 
happened to quarrel with Costobarus, she sent 
him a bill of divorce,* and dissolved her mar- — 


* Here is a plain example of a Jewish lady giving a Pilot — 
divorce to her husband, though in the days of Josephus# 
was not by the Jews esteemed lawful for a woman 80 tode 


a 
; 


if 


| “psi with him, though this was not according 
tothe Jewish laws; for with us it is lawful for 
a husband to do so; but a wife, if she departs 
from her husband, cannot of herself be mar- 
ried to another, unless her former husband put 
her away. However, Salome chose not to fol- 
low the law of her country, but the law of 
her authority, and so renounced her wedlock; 
and told her brother Herod, that she left her 
husband out of her good will to him, b<cause 
she perceived that he, with Antipater, and Ly- 
simachus, and Dositheus, were raising a sedi- 
tion against him: as an evidence whereof, she 
alleged the case of the sons of Babas, that they 
had been by him preserved alive already for 
the interval of twelve years; which proved to 
be true. But when Herod thus unexpectedly 
heard of it, he was greatly surprised at it, and 
was the more surprised, because the relation 
appeared incredible to him. As for the fact 
relating to these sons of Babas, Herod had for- 
merly taken great pains to bring them to pun- 
ishment, as being enemies to his government, 
but they were now forgotten by him, on ac- 
count of the length of time [since he had or- 
dered them to be slain.] Now, the cause of 
his ill will and hatred to them arose hence, that 
while Antigonus was king, Herod with his army 
besieged the city of Jerusalem, where the dis- 
tress and miseries which the besieged endured 
were so pressing, that the greater number of 
them invited Herod into the city, and already 
ee their hopes on him. Now, the sons of 
abas were of great dignity, and had power 
among the multitude, and were faithful to An- 
tigonus, and were always raising calumnies 
against Herod, and encouraged the people to 
preserve the government to that royal family 
which held it by inheritance. So these men 
acted thus politically, and, as they thought, for 
their own advantage; but when the city was 
taken, and Herod had gotten the government 
into his own hands, and Costobarus was ap- 
pointed to hinder men from passing out at the 
gates, and to guard the city, that those citizens 
that were guilty, and of the party oppouite to 
the king, might not get out of it, Costobarus 
being sensible that the sons of Babas were had 
in respect and honor by the whole multitude, 
and supposing that their preservation might be 
of great advantage to him in the changes of 
government afterward, he set them by them- 
selves, and concealed them in his own farms: 
and when the thing was suspected, he assured 
Herod upon oath that he really knew nothing 
of that matter, and so overcome the suspicions 
hat Jay upon him; nay, after that, when the 
king had publicly proposed a reward for the 
discc very, and had put in practice all sorts of 
methods for searching out this inatter, he 


see the like among the Parthians, Antiq. b. xviii. ch. ix. sect. 
6. However, the Christian law, when it allowed divorce for 
adultery, Matt. v. 32, allowed the innocent wife to divorce 
her guilty husband , as well as the innocent husband to di- 
_ Vorce his guilty wife, as we learn from the shepherd of Her- 
mas, Mand. b. iv. and from the second apology of Justin 
_ Martyr, where a persecution was brought upon the Christians 
‘upon such a divorce; and [ think the Roman laws permitted 
- ft at that time, as well as the laws of Christianity. Now 
this Babas. who was one of the race of the Asamoneans or 


oe BOOK XV.—CHAPTER VIM. 


ee 


381 


would not confess it, Litt being persuaded that 
when he had at first denied it, if the men were 
found, he should not escape unpunished, he 
was forced to keep them secret, not only out of 
his good will to them, but out of a necessary 
regard to his own preservation also; but when 
the king knew the thing, by his sister’s infor- 
mation, he sent men to the places where he 
had the intimation they were concealed, and 
ordered both them, and those that were aecus- 
ed as guilty with them, to be slain, insomuch 
that there were now none at all left of the 
kindred of Hyrcanus, and the kingdom was 
entirely in Herod’s own power, and there was 
nobody remaining of such dignity as could put 
a stop to what he did against the Jewish laws. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How ten men of the citizens [of Jerusalem] inade 
aconspiracy against Herod, for the foreign 
prectices he had introduced, which was a trans 
gression of the laws of their country. Con- 
cerning the building of Sebaste and Cesarea, 
and other edifices of Herod. 


§ 1. On this account it was that Herod re 
volted from the laws of his country, and cor- 
rupted their ancient constitution, by the intro 
duction of foreign practices, which constitu 
tion yet ought to have been preserved inviola- 
ble; by which means we became guilty of great 
wickedness afterward, while those religious ob- 
survances which used to lead the multitude to 
picty, were now neglected: for, in the first place, 
he appointed solemn games to be celebrated 
every fifth year, in honor of Cesar, and built 
a theatre at Jerusalem, as also avery great am- 
phitheatre in the plain. Both of thein were in- 
deed costly works, but opposite to the Jewish 
notions; for we have had no such shows de- 
livered down to us as fit to be used or exhibited 
by us; yet did he celebrate these games every 
five years, in the most solemn and splendid 
manner. He also made proclamation to the 
neighboring countries, and called men together 
out of every nation. ‘The wrestlers also, and 
the rest of those that strove for the prizes in 
such games, were invited out of every land, 
both by the hopes of the rewards there to be 
bestowed, and by the glory of victory to be 
there gained. So the principal persons that 
were the most eminent in these sorts of exer- 
cises, were gotten together, for there were very 
great rewards for victory proposed, not only to 
those that performed their exercises naked, but 
to those that played as musicians also, and 
were called Thymelici; and he spared no pains 
to induce all persons, the most famous for such 
exercises, to come to this contest for victory. 
He also proposed no small rewards for thos 
who ran for the prizes in chariot races, whe 


Maccabees, as the latter end of this section informs us, te 
related by the Jews, as Dr. Hudson here remarks, to have 
been so eminently religious in the Jewish way, that, except 
the day following the tenth of Tisri, the great day of atone- 
ment, when he seems to have supposed all his sins entirely 
forgiven, he used every day of the whole year to offer a sa- 
crifiee for his sins of ignorance, or such as he supposed he 
had been guilty of, but did not distinctly remember; see some- 
what like it of Agrippa the Great, Antiq. b. xix. ch. iii. seet 
3; and Jobi.4 5 


882 


they were drawn by two, or three, or four pair 
of horses. He also imitated every thing, 
though ever so costly or magnificent, in other 
nations, out of an ambition that he might give 
most public demonstration of his grandeur. 
Inscriptions also of the great actions of Cesar, 
and trophies of those nations which he had 
conquered in his wars, and all made of the 
purest gold and silver, encompassed the theatre 
itself: nor was there any thing that could be 
subservient to his design, whether it were pre- 
cious garments or precious stones set in order, 
which was not also exposed to sight in these 
games. He had also made a great preparation 
of wild beasts, and of lions themselves in great 
abundance, and of such other beasts as were 
sither of uncommon strength, or of such a 
scrt as were rarely seen. ‘These were prepar- 
ed either to fight one with another, or that men 
who were condemned to death were to fight 
with them. And truly foreigners were greatly 
surprised and delighted at the vastness of the 
expenses here exhibited, and at the great dan- 
gers that were here seen; but to natural Jews 
this was no better than a dissolution* of those 
customs for which they had so great a venera- 
tion. It appeared also no better than an in- 
stance of barefaced impiety, to throw men to 
wild beasts, for the affording delight to the 
spectators; and it appeared an instance of no 
less impiety, to change their own laws for such 
foreign exercises: but, above all the rest, the 
trophies gave most distaste to the Jews; for as 
they imagined them to be images, included 
within the armor that hung round about them, 
they were sorely displeased at them, because it 
was not the custom of their country to pay 
honors to such images. 

2. Nor was Herod unacquainted with the 
disturbance they were under; and as he thought 
it unseasonable to use violence with them, so 
he spoke to some of them by way of console- 
tion, and in. order to free them from that super- 
stitious fear they were under; yet could not he 
satisfy them, but they cried out with one ac- 
cord, out of their great uneasiness at the of- 
fences they thought he had been guilty of, that 
although they should think of bearing all the 
rest, yet would they never bear iinages of men 
in their city, meaning the trophies, because 
this was disagreeable to the laws of their coun- 
try. Now, when Herod saw them in such a 
disorder, and that they would not easily change 
their resolution unless they received satisfac- 
tion in this point, he called to him the most 
eminent men among them, and brought them 
upon the theatre, and showed them the tro- 
phies, and asked them, what sort of things they 
took these trophies to be? and when they cried 
out, that they were the images of men, he gave 
order that they should be stripped of these out- 
ward ornaments which were about them, and 
showed them the naked pieces of wood; which 

* These grand plays, and shows, and Thymelici or music 
meetings, and chariot races, when the chariots were drawn 
by two, three, or four pai of horses, &c. instituted by Herod 
in his theatres, were still, as we see here, looked on by the 


sober Jews as heathenisb sports, and tending not only to cor- 
wot the manners of the Jewish nation, and to bring the. iz 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


pieces of wood: now without any ornament, 
became matter of great sport and laughter to 
them, because they had before always had the 
ornaments of :miages themselves in derision. 

3. When therefore Herod had thus got clear 
of the multitude, aid had dissipated the vehe- 
mency «7 passion «n° ver which they had been, 
the greatest part of the people were disposed 
to change their conduct and not to bedispleas- 
ed at him any longer; but still some of them 
continued in their displeasure against him for 
his introduction of new customs, and esteemed: 
the violation of the laws of their country as 
likely to be the origin of very great mischiefa 
to them, so that they deemed it an instance of 
piety rather to hazard themselves [to be put to 
death,] than to seem as if they took no notice 
of Herod, who upon the change in their go- 
vernment, introduced such customs, and thas 
in a violent manner, which they had never been 
used to before; as indeed in pretence a king, 
but in reality one that showed himself an ene- 
my to their whole nation; on which account 
ten men that were citizens [of Jerusalem] con- 
spired together against him, and swore to one 
another to undergo any dangers in the attempt, 
and took daggers with them under their gar 
ments, [for the purpose of killing Herod.] Now 
there was a certain blind man among those 
conspirators, who had thus sworn one to ano- 
ther, on account of the indignation he had 
against what he heard to have been done; he 
was not indeed able to afford the rest any as- 
sistance in the undertaking, but was ready to 
undergo any suffering with them, if so be they 
should come to any harm, insomuch, that he 
became a very great encourager of the rest of 
the undertakers. 

4. When they had taken this resolution: and 
that by common consent, they went into the 
theatre, hoping that, in the first place, Herod 
himself could not escape them, as they should 
fall upon him so unexpectedly; and supposin 
however, that if they missed him, they shoial 
kill a great many of those that were about him, 
and this resolution they took, though they 
should die for it, in order to suggest to the 
king what injuries he had done to the multi- 
tude. These conspirators, therefore, standing 
thus prepared beforehand, went about their 
design with great alacrity; but there was one 
of those spies of Herod’s, that were appointed 
for such purposes, to fish out and inform him | 
of any conspiracies that should he made against 
him, who found out the whole affair, and told 
the king of it, as he was about to go into the 
theatre. So when he reflected on the hatred 
which: t.2 knew the greatest part of the people 
bore hi, and on the disturbances that arose 
upon every occasion, he thought this plot 
agains: him not to be improbable. Accord- 
ingly, he retired into his palace, and called 
those that were accused of this conspiracy be- 
love with Paganish i aganis ss 
to ng tected oe tbe. Meness ect ancers refew: ~— 
greauy and justly condemned by them, as appears here and 
everywhere else in Josephus. Nor is the case of our nr 


tuasquerades, plays, operas, and the pomps and vanities of 
this wicked world, of any better tendency under Christianity 


fore him by their several names; and as, upon 
the guards falling upon them, they were caught 
B® the very fact, and knew they could not es- 
| cape, they prepared themselves, for their ends 
with all the decency they could, and so as not 
at all to recede from their resolute behavior; 
for they showed no shame for what they were 
about, nor denied it, but when they were seiz- 
ed, they showed their daggers, and professed. 
that “the conspiracy they had sworn to was a 
_holy and a pious action; that what they had 
intended to do was not for gain, or out of 
any indulgence to their passions, but principal- 
sty for those common customs of ther rounty 
which all the Jews were obliged to observe, or 
to die for them.” ‘This is what these men said, 
out of their undaunted courage in this con- 
spiracy. So they were led away to execution 
by the king’s guards that stood about them, and 
patiently underwent ull the torments inflicted 
gn them till they died. Nor was it ier.g before 
that spy who had discovered them was seized 
on by some of the people, out of the hatred 
they bore to him, and was not only slain }y 
them, but pulled to pieces limb from limb, and 
iven to the dogs. This execution was scen 
by many of the citizens, yet would not one of 
them discover the doers of it, till upon Herod’s 
‘making a strict scrutiny after them, by bitter 
end severe tortures, certaio women that were 
tortured, confessed what they hed seen done; 
the authors of which fact were se terribly 
punished by the king, that their entire families 
‘were destroyed for this their rasl. attempt; yet 
did not the obstirsary of the people, and that 
undaunted constancy they show-d in the de- 
feuee of their laws, maxe Herold any easier to 
them, but he sal! streng:henet hunself after a 
more secure manner, and reacise' to encom- 
pass the multitude every way, lest such inno- 
vations should end in an open rebel}icn. 
5. Since, therefore, he had now whe city for- 
tified by the paiace in which he lived, and by 
the temple, which had a strong fortress by it, 
called Antonia, and was rebuilt by himself, he 
‘contrived to make Samaria a fortress for him- 

self also against all the people, and ~<alled it 
- Sebaste, supposing that this place would be a 
| strong hold against the country, not inferior to 
the former. So he fortified that place, which 
‘Was a day’s journey distant from Jerusilem, 
“and which would be useful to him in cummon, 
‘to keep both the country and the city m awe. 
' He also built another fortress for the whole na- 
tion; it was of old called Strato’s Tower, hut 
was by him named Cesarea. Moreover, he 
‘chose out some select horsemen, and placed 
‘them in the great plain; and built [for them] a 
‘ place in Galilee, called Gaba, with Heseboni- 
tis, in Perea. And these were the places 
which he particularly built, while he was al- 
ways inventir.g somewhat farther for his own 
‘ security, and encompassing the whole nation 
‘with guards, that they might by no means get 





from under his power, nor fall into tumults, ! 


which they did continually upon any small 
commotion; and that if they did make any 
sommotions he might know of it. while some 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER IX. 5 | 


of his spies might be upon them from the 
neighborhood, and might both be able to know 
what they were attempting, and to prevent it. 
And when he went about building the wall of 
Samaria, he contrived to bring thither many 
of those that had beeu assisting to him in his 
wars, and many of the people, in that neigh- 
borhood also, whom he made fellow-citizens 
with the rest. This he did out of an ambi- 
tious desire of building a temple, and out of a 
desire to make the city more eminent than it 
had been before, but principally because he 
contrived that it might at once be for his own 
security, and a monument of his mzenificence. 
He alec changed its name, and calied it Sebas- 
te. Moreover, he parted the adjcining country, 
which was excellent in its kind, among the ine 
habitants of Samaria, that they umght be ina 
happy condition, upon their firs: coming to in- 
habit it. Besides all which, be encompassed 
the city with a wall of great strength, and 
made use of the acclivity of the viace tor mak- 
ing its fortifications stronger; nour was the com- 
pass of the place made now so small as it had 
been before, but was such as rendered it nos 
inferior to the most famous cities; fur it was 
twenty furlongs in circumference. Now, with- 
in and about the middle of it he built a sacred 
place, of a furlong and a half [in circuit,] and 
adorned it with all sorts of decorations, and 
therein erected a temple, which was illustrious 
on account of both its largeness and beauty. 
And as to the several parts of the city, he adorn- 
ed them with decorations of all sorts also; and 
as to what was necessary to provide for his 
own security, he made the walls very strong for 
that purpose, and made it, for the greatest part, 
a citadel; and as to the elegance of the build- 
ing, it was taken care of also that he might 
leave monuments of the fineness of jis taste, 
and of his beneficence, to future ages. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Concerning the Famine that happened in Judea 
and Syria; and how Herod, after he had mar- 
ried another wife, rebuilt Caesarea and other 
Grecian cities. 


§ 1. Now on this very year, which was the 
thirteenth year of the reign of Herod, very 
great calamities came upon the country; wheth- 
er they were derived from the anger of God, 
or whether this misery returns again naturally 
in certain periods of time;* for in the first place 
there were perpetual droughts, and tor that 
reason the ground was barren, and <i] not 
bring forth the same quantity of fruits that it 
used to produce; and after this barrenness of 
the soil, that change of food which the want of 
corn occasioned, produced distempers in the 
bodies of men, and a pestilential disease pre- 
vailed, one misery followu.y upon the back 
of another; and the circumsrances, that they 


* Here we have an eminent example of the language of 
Josephus in his writing to Gext''es, different from that when 
he wyote to Jews; in his writ tc whom he still derives all 
such judginents from the anger of God; but because he 
knew many of the Gentiles thought they might naturally 
' come in certain periods, he complies with them in the above 

sentence. See the note on the War, b. i. ch. xxxiii. sect. 8 


384 


were destitute both of methods of cure and of 
food, made the pestilential distemper, which 
began after a violent manner, the more last- 
ing. The destruction of menalso after such a 
manner deprived those that survived of all their 
courage, because they had no way to provide 
remedies sufficient for the distresses they were 
in. When, therefore, the fruits of that year 
were spoiled, and whatsoever they had laid up 
beforehand was s}ent, there was no foundation 
of hope for relief remaining, but the misery, 
contrary to what they expected, still increased 
upon them; and this not only in that year, 
while they had nothing for themselves left at 
the end of it, but what seed they had sown 
perished also, by reason of the ground not 
yielding its fruits on the second year.* This 
distress they were in made them also, out of 
necessity, to eat many things that did not use 
to be eaten; nor was the king himself free from 
this distress any more than other men, as being 
deprived of that tribute he used to have from 
the fruits of the ground, and having already 
expended what money he had, in his liberality 
to those whose cities he had built: nor had he 
any people that were worthy of his assistance, 
since this miserable state of things had procur- 
ed him the hatred of his subjects, for it is a 
constant rule, that misfortunes are still laid to 
the account of those that govern. 

2. In these circumstances he considereJ 
with himself how to procure some seasonable 
help; but this was a hard thing to be done, 
while their neighbors had no food to sell them, 
and their money also was gone, had it been 
possible to purchase a little food at a great 
price. However, he thought it his best way, 
by all means, not to leave off his endeavors to 
assist his people; so he cut off the rich furni- 
ture that was in his palace, both of silver and 
gold, insomuch that he did not spare the finest 
vessels he had, or those that were made with 
he most elaborate skill of the artificers, but 
sent the money to Petronius, who had been 
made prefect of Egypt by Caesar, and as not a 
few had already fled to him under their neces- 
sities, and as he was particularly a friend to 
Herod, and desirous to have his subjects pre- 
served, he gave leave to them in the first place 
to export corn, and assisted them every way, 
both in purchasing and exporting the same, so 
that he was the principal, if not the only per- 
son, who afforded them what help they had. 
And Herod taking care the people should un- 
derstand that this help came from himself, did 
thereby not only remove from him the ill opin- 
ion of those that formerly hated him, but gave 
them the greatest demonstration possible of his 
good will to them, and care of them; for in the 
first place, as for those who were able to pro- 
vide their own food, he distributed to them 
their proportion ut corn in the exactest manner, 


* This famine that for two years affected Jndea and Syria, 
the 13th and 14th years of Herod, which are the 23d and 24th 
year before the Chnstian era, seems to have been more ter- 
rible during this time than was that in the days of Jacob, 
Gen. xli. xlii. And what makes the comparison the more 
remarkable is this, that now as well as then, the relief they 
had was from Egypt also; then from Joseph the governor 
ef Egypt, under Pharaoh king of Egypt, and now from Petro- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. mot 
| 


a 


‘ 


but for those many that were not able, either 
by reason of their old age, or any other infir- 
mity, to provide food for themselves, he made 
this provision for them, that the bakers should 
make their bread ready for them. He also 
took care that they might not be hurt by the 
dangers of winter, since they were in great 
want of clothing also, by reason of the utter de- 
struction and consumption of their sheep and 
goats, till they had no wool to make use of, 
nor any thing else to cover themselves withall 
And when he had procured these things for 
his own subjects, he went farther, in order te 
provide necessaries for their neighbors, and 
gave seed to the Syrians, which thing turned 
greatly to his own advantage also, this charita- 
ble assistance being afforded most seasonably 
to their fruitful sou, so that every one had now 
a plentiful provision of fond. Upon the whole, 
when the harvest of the laud was approaching, 
he sent no fewer than fifty thousand men, 
whom he had sustained, into the country; by 
which means he both repaired the afflicted 
condition of his own kingdom with great gene- 
rosity and diligence, and lightened the afflic- 
tions of his neighbors, who were under the 
same calamities, for there was nobody who had 
been in want, that was left destitute of a suita- 
ble assistance by him: nay, further, there were 
neither any people, nor any cities, nor any pri- 
vate men, who were to make provision for 
the multitudes, and on that account were in 
want of support, and had recourse to him, but 
received what they stood in need of, insomuch 
that it appeared upon a computation, that the 
number of cori uf wheat, of ten Attic me- 
dimni apiece, that were given to foreigners, 
amounted to ten thousand, and the number 
that was given in his own kingdom was about 
fourscore thousand. Now it happened. that 
this care of his, and this seasonable benefac- 
tion, had such influence on the Jews, and was 
so cried up among other nations, as to wipe off 
that old hatred which his violation of some of 
their custorns, during his reign, had procured 
him among all the nation; and that this liber- 
ality of his assistance in this their greatest ne- 
cessity waz full satisfaction for all that he had 
done of that nature, as it als» procured him 
great fame among foreigners: ard it looked as 
if these calamities that afflicted Lis land to a 
degree plainly incredible, came in order to 
raise his glory, and to be to lis great advan- 
tage, for the greatness of his liberality in these 
distresses, which he now demonstrated beyond 
all expectation, did so change the disposition of 
the multitude towards him, that they were | 
realy to suppose he had been from the begin- 
ning not such a one as they had found him 
to be by experience, but such a one as the care’ 
he had taken of them in supplying their neces- 
sities proved him now to be. G 


nius the prefect of Egypt, under Augustus the Roman em 
peror; see almost the like case, Antiq. b. xx. ch. ii. sect. 6. 
It is also well worth our observation here, that these tw@). 
years were a sabbatic year, and a year of jubilee, for whieh — 
Providence, during the theocracy, used to provide ae 
crop beforehand, but became now, when the J¢ ws had f 
feited that blessing, the greatest years of fam ne two thew 
ever since the days of Ahab, 1 Kings xvii. xviii y 


¥ 


Pi % About this time it was that he sent five 
hundred chusen men out of the guards of his 
body as auxiliaries to Cesar, whom A¢lius Gal- 
us led to the Red Sea,* and who were of great 
service to him there. When, therefore, his af- 
fairs were thus improved, and were again in a 
flourishing condition, he built himself a palace 
in the upper city, raising the rooms to a very 
great height, and adorning them with the most 
costly furniture of gold, and marble seats and 
beds, and these were so large, that they could 
contain very many companies of men. These 
apartments were also of distinct magnitudes, 
aud had particuiar names given them, for one 
apartment was called Ceesar’s, another Agrip- 
pa’s. He also fell in love again, and married 
another wife, not suffering his reason to hinder 
him from living as he pleased. ‘The occasion 
of this his marriage was as follows: there was 
one Simon, a citizen of Jerusalem, the son of 
one Boethus, a citizen of Alexandria, and a 
priest of great note there: this man had a 
daughter, who was esteemed the most beauti- 
ful woman of that time; and when the people 
of Jerusalem began to speak much in her com- 
mendation, it happened that Herod was much 
affected with what was said of her; and when 
he saw the damsel, he was smitten with her 
beauty, yet did he entirely reject the thoughts of 
using his authority to abuse her, as believing, 
what was the truth, that by so doing he should 
be stigmatized for violence and tyranny; so he 
thought it best to take the damsel to wife. And 
while Simon was of a dignity too inferior to be 
allied to him, but still too considerable to be 
despised, he governed his inclinations after the 
most prudent manner, by augmenting the dig- 
nity of the family, and making them more hon- 
orable; so he immediately deprived Jesus, the 
gon 01 Phabet, of the high priesthood, and 
conferred that dignity on Simon, and so joined 
in affinity with him [by marrying his daughter. ] 

4, When this wedding was over, he built 
another citadel in that place where he had con- 
quered the Jews when he was driven out of 
his government, and Antigonus enjoyed it. 
This citade] is distant from Jerusalem about 
threescore furlongs. It was strong by nature, 
and fit for such a building. It is asort of a 
moderate hill, raised to a farther height by the 
hand of man, till it was of the shape of a wo- 
man’s breast. It is encompassed with circular 
towers, and hath a strait ascent up to it, which 
ascent is composed of steps of polished stones, 
im number two hundred. Within it are royal 
and very rich apartments, of a structure that 
‘provided both for security and for beauty. 
About the bottom there are habitations of such 
A structure as are well worth seeing, both on 
other accounts, and also on account of the wa- 
er, which is brought thither from a great way 
off and at vast expenses, for the place itself is 
destitute of water. The plain that is about this 
-titadel is full of edifices, not inferior to any 






* * This #lius Gallus seems to be no other than that Alius 
“argus whom Dio speaks of as conducting an expedition that 
was about this time made into Arabia Felix, according to 
?etavius, who is here cited by Spanheim; see a full account 
wf this expedition in Prideaux, at the years 23 and 24. 


‘ 
raaee) 


a . BOOK XV.—CHAPTER IX, 


388 


city in largeness, and having the hill above it 
in the nature of a castle. 

5. And now, when all Herod’s designs had 
succeeded according to his hopes, he had not 
the least suspicion that any troubles could arise 
in his kingdom, because he kept his people 
obedient, as well by the fear they stood in of 
him, for he was implacable in the inflictions of 
his punishments, as by the provident care he 
had showed towards them, after the most mag~ 
nanimous manner, when they were under their 
distresses; but still he took care to have exter= 
nal security for his government as a fortresa 
against his subjects; for the orations he made 
to the cities were very fine, and full of kind- 
ness, and he cultivated a seasonable good un- 
derstanding with their governors, and bestowed 
presents on every one of them, inducing them 
thereby to be more friendly to him, and using 
his magnificent disposition, so as his kingdom 
might be the better secured to him, and this 
till all his affairs were every way more and 
more augmented. But then, this magnificent 
temper of his, and that submissive behavior 
and liberality which he exercised towards Cre- 
sar, and the most powerful men of Rome, ob- 
liged him to transgress the customs of bis na- 
tion, and to set aside many of their laws, and 
by building cities after an extravagant manner, 
and erecting temples;* not in Judea indeed, for 
that would not have been borne, it being for- 
bidden for us to pay any honor to images, or 
representations of animals, after the manner of 
the Greeks, but still he did thus in the country 
[properly] out of our bounds, and in the cities 
thereof. The apology which he made to the 
Jews for these things was this, that all was 
done, not out of his own inclinations, but by 
the commands and injunctions of others, in or- 
der to please Cesar and the Romans, as though 
he had not the Jewish customs so much in his 
eye as he had the honor of those Romans, while 
yet he had himself entirely in view all the while, 
and indeed was very ambitious to leave great 
monuments of his government to posterity; 
whence it was that he was so zealous in build- 


* One may here take notice, that how tyrannical and ex- 
travagant soever Herod was in himself, and in his Grecian 
cities, as to those plays, and shows, and temples for idolatry, 
mentioned above, ch. viii. sect. 1, and here also, yet durst 
even he introduce very few of them into the cities of the 
Jews, who, as Josephus here notes, would not even then 
have borne them, so zealous were they still for many of the 
laws of Moses, even under so tyrannical a government as this 
was of Herod the Great; which tyrannical government puts 
me naturally in mind of Dean Prideaux’s honest retlection 
upon the like ambition, after such a tyrannical power in Pom- 
pey and Cesar. ‘One of these,” says he, at the year 60. 
“eould not bear an equal, nor the other a superior; an 
through this ambitious humor, and thirst after more power 
in these two men, the whole Roman empire being divid- 
ed into two opposite factions, there was produced hereby 
the most destructive war that ever afflicted it; and the like 
folly too much reigns in all other places. Could about thirty 
men be persuaded to live at home in peace, without enter 
prising upon the rights of each other, for the vainglory of 
conquest, and the enlargement of power, the whole world 
might be at quiet; but their ambition, their follies, and theix 
humor, leading them constantly to encroach upon and quar-~ 
rel with each other, they involve all that are under them im 
the mischiefs thereof, and many thousands are they which 
yearly perish by it; so that it may almost raise a doubt, 
whether the benefit which the world receives from goverm- 
ment be sufficient to make amends for the calamities whieh 
it suffers from the follies, mistakes, and maladministrations 
of those that manage it.”’ so 


386 
ing such fine cities, and spent such vast sums 
of money upon them. 

6. Now, upon his observation of a place 
near the sea, which was very proper for con- 
taining a city, and was before called Strato’s 
Tower, he set about getting a plan for a mag- 
nificent city there, and erected many edifices 
with great diligence all over it, and this of 
white stone. He also adorned it with most 
sumptuous palaces, and large edifices for con- 
taining the people; and, what was the greatest 
anil most laborious work of all, he adorned it 
with a haven, that was always free from the 
waves of the sea. Its largeness was not less 
than the Pyreum ‘at welaetat and had towards 
the city a double station for the ships. It was 
of excellent workmanship; and this was the 
more remarkable for its being built in a place 
that of itself was not suitable to such noble 
structures, but was to be brought to perfection 
by materials from other places, and at very 
great expenses, This city is situate in Phoni- 
cia, in the passage by sea to Egypt, between 
Joppa and Dora, which are lesser maritime ci- 
ties, and not fit for havens, on account of the 
impetuous south winds that beat upon them, 
which, rolling the sands that come from the 
sea ayainst the shores, do not admit of ships 
lying in their station, but the merchants are 

encrally there forced to ride at their anchors 
in the sea itself. So Herod endeavored to rec- 
tly this inconvenience, and laid out such a 
-eompass towards the land as might be suffi- 
cient for a haven, wherein the great. ships 
might lie in safety; and this he effected by let- 
ting down vast stones of above fifty feet in 
length, not less than eighteen in breadth, and 
nine in depth, into twenty fathoms deep, and 
as some were lesser, so were others bigger 
than those dimensions. This mole which he 
built by the sea-side was two hundred feet 
wide, the. half of which was opposed to the 
current of the waves, so as to keep off those 
waves which were to break upon them, and so 
was called Procymatia, or the first breaker of 
the waves, but the ether half had upon it a 
wall, with several towers, the largest of which 
was named Drusus, and was a work of very 
great excellence, and had its name from Drusus, 
the son-in-law of Cesar, who died young. 
There were also a great number of arches 
where the mariners dwélt. There were also 
before them a quay [or landing-place,] which 
ran round the entire haven, and was a most 
agreeable walk to such as had a mind to that 
exercise; but the entrance or mouth of the 
port was made on the north quarter, on which 
side was the stillest of the winds of all in this 
place; and the basis of the whole circuit on 
the left hand, as you enter the port, supported 
@ round turret, which was made very strong, 
in order to resist the greatest waves, while on 
the riglit hand, as you enter, stood two vast 
stones, and those each of them larger than 
the turret, which was over against them: these 
stood upright, and were joined together. Now 
there were edifices all along the circular haven, 
made of the most polished stone, with a certain 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 





ne 


elevation, whereon was erected a temple, tha 
was seen a great way off by those that were 
sailing for that haven, and had in it two statues 
the one of Rome, and the other of Cesar. 
The city itself was called Ceesarea, which was 
also itself built of fine materials, and was of @ 
fine structure; nay, the very subterranean vaults 
and cellars had no less of architecture bestow- 
ed on them than had the buildings above 
ground. Some of these vaults carried things 
at even distances to the haven and to the sea, 
but one of them ran obliquely, and bound al 
the rest together, that both the rain and the 
filth of the citizens were together carried off 
with ease, and the sea itself, upon the flux of 
the tide from without, came into the city, and 
washed it all clean. Herod also built therein 
a theatre of stone; and on the south quarter, 
behind the port, an amphitheatre also, capable 
of holding a vast number of men, and conve: 
niently situated for a prospect to the sea. Sc 
this city was thus finished in twelve years; 
during which time the king did not fail to ge 
on both with the work, and to pay the charges 
that were necessary. 


CHAPTER X. 


How Herod sent his sons to Rome; how also he 
was accused by Zenodorus, and the Gadarens 
but was cleared of what they accused him of 
and withall gained to himself the good will 
Cesar. Concerning the Pharisees, the E 
senes, and Manahem. 


§ 1. When Herod was engaged in suel 
matters, and when he had already re-edifiec 
Sebaste [Samaria,] he resolved to send his son 
Alexander and Aristobulus to Rome, to enjoy 
the company of Ceesar, who, when they came 
thither, lodged at the house of Pollio,t whe 
was very fond of Herod’s friendship; and they 
had leave to lodge in Ceesar’s own palace, fo 
he received these sons of Herod with all hu. 
manity, and gave Herod leave to give his king. 
dom to which of his sons he pleased; and be 
sides all this, he bestowed on him Trachon, anc 
Batanea, and Auranitis, which he gave him or 
the occasion following: one Zenodorus{ hac 
hired what was called the house of Lysanias 
who, as he was not satisfied with its revenues 
became a partner with the robbers that inhabit 
ed the Trachones, and so procured himself 
larger income; for the inhabitants of thost 
places lived ina mad way, and pillaged a 
country of the Damascenes, while Zenodoru 
did not restrain them, but partook of the pre) 
they acquired. Now, as the neighboring pa 
ple were hereby great sufferers, they complai 
















* Cesarca being here said to be rebuilt and adorn 
twelve years, and soon afterward, in ten years, Antiq. b. x 
ch. v. sect, 1, there must be a mistake in one of the 
as to the true number, but in which of them it is har 
tively to detennine. ng 

+ This Pollio, with whom Herod’s sons lived at Rome, wi 
not Pollio the Pharisee, already mentioned by Josephus, cB 
i. sect. 1; and again presently after this, chap. x. sect. 4, Dt 
Ausinius Pollio the Roman, as Spanheim here observes. — 

{ The character of this Zenodorus is so like that of af 
mous robber of the same name in Strabo, and that about t 
very country, and about this very time also, that [ think D 
Hudson hardly needed to have put @ perhaps to his determ 
nation that they were the same. 


<a e 
Sy 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER X. 


ed to Varro, who was then president [of Syria,] 

and entreated him to write to Cesar about this 

injustice of Zenodorus. When these matters 

were laid before Cesar, he wrote back to Var- 

ro to destroy those nests of robbers, and to give 

the land to Herod, that so by his care the neigh- 

boring countries might be no longer disturbed 

with these doings of the Trachonites, for it 

was not an easy thing to restrain them, since 

this way of robbery had been their usual prac- 

tice, and they had no other way to get their 

living, because they had neither any city of 
their own, nor lands in their possession, but 

only some receptacles and dens in the earth, 

and there they and their cattle lived in com- 

mon together However, they had made con- 

irivances to get pools of water, and laid up 

torn in granaries for themselves, and were 

able to make great resistance, by issuing out 

on the sudden against any that attacked them; 

for the entrances of their caves were narrow, 

n which but one could come in at a time, 

ind the places within incredibly large, and 

made very wide; but the ground over their ha- 

Jitations was not very high, but rather ona 

dlain, while the rocks are altogether hard and 

lifficult to be entered upon, unless any one 

gets into the plain road by the guidance of 
nother, for these roads are not straight, but | 
aave several revolutions. But when these 

nen are hindered from their wicked preying 

ipon their neighbors, their custom is to prey 

yne upon another, insomuch that no sort of in-- 
justice comes amiss to them. But when Herod 

aad received this grant from Czsesar, and was 

some into this country, he procured skilful 

suides, and put a stop to their wicked robberies, 

ind procured peace and quietness tothe neigh- 

oring people. 

2. Hereupon Zenodorus was grieved, in the 
irst place, because his principality was taken. 
iway from him, and still more so, because he 
mvied Herod, who had gotten it; so he went 
ip to Rome to accuse him, but returned back 
gain without success. Now Agrippa was 
about this time] sent to succeed Ceesar in the 
sovernment of the countries beyond the Ionian 
ea; upon whom Herod lit when he was win- 
ering about Mitylene, for he had been his par- 
icular friend and companion, and then return- 
d into Judea again. However, some of the 
zadarens came to Agrippa, and accused He- 
od, whom he sent back bound to the king 
vithout giving them the hearing: but still the 
Arabians, who of old bore ill will to Herod’s 
sovernment, were nettled, and at that time at- 
empted to raise a sedition in his dominions, 
ind as they thought upon a more justifiable 
»ecasion: for Zenodorus, despairing already of 
wuccess, as to his own affairs, prevented [his en- 
tmnies,| by selling to those Arabians a part of 
is principality, called Auranitis, for the value 
of fifty talents; but as this was included in the 
jonations of Ceesar, they contested the point 
with Herod, as unjustly deprived of what they 
aad bought. Sometimes they did this by 
making incursions upon him, and sometimes 
xy attempting force against him, and some- 


387 


times by going to law with him. Moreover, 
they persuaded the poorer soldiers to help them, 
and were troublesome to him, out of a constant 
hope that they should seduce the people te 
raise a sedition; in which designs those that 
are in the most miserable circumstances of life, 
are still the most earnest; and although Herod 
had been a great while apprized of these at- 
tempts, yet did not he indulge any severity te 
them, but by rational methods aimed to miti- 
gate things, as not willing to give any handle 
for tumults. 

3. Now when Herod had already reigned se- 
venteen years, Czesar came into Syria; at which 
time the greatest part of the inhabitants of Ga- 
dara clamored against Herod, as one that was 
heavy in his injunctions, and tyrannical. These 
reproaches they mainly ventured upon by the 
encouragement of Zenodorus, who took his 
oath that he would never leave Herod till he 
had procured that they should be severed from 
Herod’s kingdom, and joined to Cesar’s pro- 
vince. The Gadarens were induced hereby, 
and made no small cry against him, and that 
the more boldly, because those that had been 
delivered up by Agrippa were not punished 
by Herod, who let them go, and did them ne 
harm, for indeed he was the principal man in 
the world who appeared almost inexorable in 
punishing crimes in his own family, but very 
generous in remitting the offences that were 
committed elsewhere. And while they ac- 
cused Herod of injuries, and plunderings, and 
subversion of temples, he stood unconcerned, 
and was ready to make his defence. However, 
Cesar gave him his right hand, and remitted 
nothing of his kindness to him, upon this dis- 
turbance by the multitude; and indeed these 
things were alleged the first day, but the hear- 
ing proceeded no further; for as the Gadarens 
saw the inclination of Cesar and of his as- 
sessors, and expected, as they had reason to do, 
that they should be delivered up to the king, 
some of them, out of a dread of the torments 
they might undergo, cut their own throats in 
the night-time, and some of them threw them- 
selves down precipices, and others of them 
cast themselves into the river, and destroyed 
themselves of their own accord; which acci- 
dents seemed a sufficient condemnation of the 
rashness and crimes they had been guilty of 
whereupon Cesar made no longer delay, but 
cleared Herod from the crimes he was accus- 
ed of. Another happy accident there was, 
which was a further advantage to Herod at this 
time; for Zenodorus’s belly burst, and a great 
quantity of blood issued from him in his sick- 
ness, and he thereby departed thisgife at An- 
tioch in Syria; so Czesar bestowed his country, 
which was no small one, upon Herod; it lay 
between Trachon and Galilee, and contained 
Ulatha, and Paneas, and the country round 
about. He also made him one of the pro © 
curators of Syria, and commanded that they 
should do every thing with his approbation, 
and, in short, he arrived at that pitch of felici- 
ty, that whereas there were but two men that 
governed the vast Roman empire, first Caesar 


788 ANTIQUITIES 


‘nd then Agrippa, who was his principal fa- 
vorite; Cesar preferred no one to Herod be- 
sides Agrippa, and Agrippa made no one his 
greater friend than Herod besides Cesar. And 
when he had acquirei auch freedom, he beg- 
ged of Cesar a tetrarchy* for his brother Phe- 
coras, while he did himself bestow upon him a 
revenue of a hundred talents out of his own 
kingdom, that in case he came to any harm 
himself, his brother might be in safety, and 
that his sons might not have dominion over ' 
him. So when he had conducted Cesar to 
the sea, and was returned home, he built him a 
most beautiful temple of the whitest stone, in 
Zenodorus’s country, near the place called Pa- 
nium. Thisisa very fine cave in a mountain, 
under which there is a great cavity in the earth, 
and the cavern is abrupt, and prodigiously deep, 
and full of a still water, over it hangs a vast 
mountain; and under the caverns arise the 
springs of the river Jordan. Herod adorned 
this place, which was already a very remarka- 
ble one, still further, by the erection of this 
temple, which he dedicated to Ceesar. 

4. At which time Herod released to his sub- 
jects the third part of their taxes, under pre- 
tence indeed of relieving them, after the dearth 
they had had; but the main reason was, to re- 
cover their good will, which he now wanted, 
for they were uneasy at him, because of the 
innovations he had introduced in their prac- 
tices, of the dissolution of their religion, and 
of the disuse of their own customs; and the 
‘people everywhere talked against him, like 
those that were still more provoked and dis- 
turbed at his procedure: against which discon- 
tents he greatly guarded himself, and took away 
the opportunities they might have to disturb 
him, and enjoined them to be always at work, 
nor did he permit the citizens either to meet 
together, or to walk, or to eat together, but 
watched every thing they did, and when any 
were caught they were severely punished, and 
many there were who were brought to the cita- 
del Hyrcania, both openly and secretly, and 
were there put to death: and there were spies 
set everywhere, both in the city and in the 
roads, who watched those that met together; 
nay, it is reported that he did not himself neg- 
lect this part of caution, but that he would of- 
tentimes himself take the habit of a private 
man, and mix among the multitude, in the 
night-time, and make trial what opinion they 
had of his government; and as for those that 
could noway be reduced to acquiesce under 
his scheme of government, he prosecuted them 
all manner of ways, but for the rest of the 
multitude, he required that they should be ob- 
liged to take an oath of fidelity to him, and at 
the same time compelled them to swear that 
they would bear him good will, and continue 
certainly so to do, in his management of the 
government; and indeed a great part of them, 
either to please him, or out of fear of him, yield- 
ed to what he required of them: but for such 


* A tetrarchy properly and originally denoted the fourth 
part of an entire kingdom or country, and a tetrarch one that 
was a ruler of such a fourth part, which always implies some- 


sss 


OF THE JEWS. 


+f" 
* 


as were of a more open and generous dispos} 
tion, and had indignation at the force he used 
to them, he by one means or other made awa’ 
with them. He endeavored also to persuade 
Pollio the Pharisee, and Sameas, and the great- 
est part of their scholars, to take the oath; but 
these would neither submit so to do, nor were 
they punished together with the rest, out of the 
reverence he bore to Pollio. "The Essenes also 
as we call a sect of ours, were excused from 
this imposition. ‘These men live the same kina 
of life as do those whom the Greeks call Py- 
thagoreans, concerning whom I shall discourse 
more fully elsewhere. However, it is but fit 
to set down here the reasons wherefore Herod 
had these Essenes in such honor, and thought 
higher of them than their moral nature requir- 
ed; nor will this account be unsuitable to the 
nature of this history, as it will show the opin 
ion men had of these Essenes. 

5. Now there was one of these Essenes, 
whose name was Manahem, who had this tes- 
timony, that he not only conducted his life after 
an excellent manner, but had the foreknow- 
ledge of future events given him by God also, 
This man once saw Herod when he was a 
child, and going to school, and saluted him as 
king of the Jews, but he, thinking that either 
he did not know him, or that he was in jest, 
put him in mind that he was but a private man; 
but Manahem smiled to himself and clapped 
him on his backside with his hand, and said, 
“However that be, thou wilt be king, and wilt 
begin thy reign happily, for God finds thee wor- 
thy of it. And do thou remember the blows that 
Manahem hath given thee, as being a signal of 
the change of thy fortune. And truly this will 
be the best reasoning for thee, that thou love 
justice [towards men,] and piety towards 
and clemency towards thy citizens; yet do 
know how thy whole conduct will be, that thou 
wilt not be such a one, for thou wilt excel all 
men in happiness, and obtain an everlasting rep- 
utation, but wilt forget piety and righteousness; 
and these crimes will not be concealed from God, 
at the conclusion of thy life, when thou wilt 
find that he will be mindful of them, and punish 
thee for them.” Now at that time Herod did 
not atall attend to what Manahem said, as hay- 
ing no hopes of such advancement; buta little 
afterward, when he was so fortunate as to be ad- 
vanced to the dignity of king, and was in the 
height of his dominon, he sent for Manahem, and 
asked him, how long he should reign? Manahem 
did not tell him the full length of his reign, 
wherefore, upon that silence of his, he asked him 
further, whether he should reign ten years, or 
not? he replied, “Yes, twenty, nay, thirty year 
but did not assign the just determinate limit o 
his reign. Herod was satisfied with these re 
plies, and gave Manahem his hand, and dis- 
missed him, and from that time he continued 
to honor all the Essenes. We have thoughts 
proper to relate these facts to our readers, how 
strange soever they be, and to declare wha? 


what less extent of dominion 


and power than belong to # 
kingdom, and to.a king. » 


=e 
oe an | 
om | 
ie % 


BOOK XV.—CHAPTER X1.. 


| hath happened among us, because many of the 
Essenes have by their excellent virtue been 
‘thought worthy of this knowledge of divine 


pevelations. 

ys CHAPTER XI. 

How Herod rebuilt the temple, and rarsed it high- 
er, and made tt more magnificent than it was 


before; as also concerning: that tower which he 
called Antonia. — 


_ §1. And now Herod, in the eighteenth year 
ef his reign, and after the acts already mention- 
ed, undertook avery great work, that is, to 
build of himself the temple of God,* and made 
it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most 
magnifie2nt altitude, as esteeming it to be the 
most glorious of all his actions, as it really was, 
to bring it to perfection, and this would be suf- 
ficient for an everlasting memorial of him; but 
‘as he knew the multitude were not ready nor 
willing to assist him in so vasta d:»sign, he 
thought to prepare them first by making a 
‘speech to them, and then set about the work 
iiself; so he called them together, and spoke 
thus tothem: “I think I need not speak to you, 
‘my countrymen, about such other works as I 
‘have done since I came to the kingdom, al- 
‘though I may say they have been performed in 
such a manner as to bring more security to you 
than glory to myself; for I have neither been 
pegligent in the most difficult times about what 
tended to ease your necessities, nor have the 
buildings I have made been so proper to pre- 
‘serve me as yourselves from injuries; and I 
Imagine that, with God’s assistance,.I have ad- 
‘vanced the nation of the Jews to a degree of 
happiness which they never had before; and 
for the particular edifices belonging to your 
own country, and your own cities, that we have 
lately acquired, which we have erected and 
greatly adorned, and thereby augmented the 
dignity of your nation, it seems to me a need- 
less task to enumerate them to you, since you 
well know them yourselves; but as to that un- 
dertaking which I have a mind to set about at 
present, and which will be a work of the greatest 
piety and excellence that can possibly be under- 
taken by us, I will now declare it to you. Our 
fathers indeed, when they were returned from 
Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty, 
yet does it want sixty cubits of its Jargeness in 
altitude; for so much did that first temple 
which Solomon built exceed this temple; nor 
let any one condemn our fathers for their neg- 
ligence or want of piety herein, for it was not 
their fault that the temple was no higher; for 
‘they were Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hys- 
taspes, who determined the measure for its re- 
‘bailding; and it hath been by reason of the 
|. * We may here observe, that the fancy of the modern 
_dews, in calling this temple, which was really the third of 
their temples, the second temple, followed so long by later 
| Christians, seems to be without any solid foundation. The 
| €ason why the Christiazis here follow the Jews is, hecause 
fe prophecy of Haggai, ii. 6—9, which they expound of the 
‘Messiah’s coming to the second or Zorobabel’s temple, of 
, which they suppose this of Herod’s to be only a continuation, 
which is meant, I think, of his coming to the fourth and last 
mj le, or to that future largest and most glorious one de- 
scribed by Ezekiel. Whence [ take the former notion, how 


eneral soever, to be a great mistake. See Lit. Accom. of 
Trop’ } 24. 


- 
. 


38d 
subjection of those fathers of ours to thei, ana 
to their posterity, and after them to the Mace- 
donians, that they had not.the opportunity to 
follow the original model of this pious edifice, 
nor could raise it to its ancient altitude; but 
since I am now, by God’s will, your governor. 
and I have had peace a long time, and have 
gained great riches, and large revenues, and, 
what is the principal thing of all, I am at ami 
ty with, and well regarded by, the Romans, 
who, if I may so say are the rulers of the whole 
world, I will do my endeavor to correct that 
imperfection, which hath arisen from the ne 
cessity of our affairs, and the slavery we have 
been under formerly, and to make a thankfu) 
return, after the most pious manner, to God 
for what blessings I have received from him, 
by giving me this kingdom, and that by ren- 
dering his temple as complete as I am able.” 

2. And this was the speech which Herod 
made to them; but still this speech affrighted 
many of the people, as being unexpected by 
them; and, because it seemed incredible, it did 
not encourage them, but put a damp upon them, 
for they were afraid that he would pull down 
the whole edifice, and not be able to bring his 
intentions to perfection for its rebuilding; and 
this danger appeared to them to be very great, 
and the vastness of the undertaking to be such 
as could hardly be accomplished. But while 
they were in this disposition, the king encon- 
raged them, and told them, “He would not 
pull down their temple till all things were 
gotten ready for building it up entirely again.” 
And as he promised them this beforehand, so 
he did not break his word with them, but got 
ready a thousand wagons, that were to bring 
stones for the building, and chose out ten thou- 
sand of the most skilful workmen, and brought 
a thousand sacerdotal garments for as many of 
the priests, and had some of them taught the 
arts of stonecutters, and others of carpenters, 
and then began to build, but this not till every 
thing was well prepared for the work. 

3. So Herod took away the old foundations, 
and laid others, and erected the temple upon 
them, being in length a hundred cubits, and in 
height twenty additional cubits, which Kare 
upon the sinking of their foundations,* fel 
down: and this part it was that we resolved to 
raise again in the days of Nero. Now, the 
temple was built of stones that were white and 
strong, and each of their length was twenty- 


* Some of our modern students in architecture have made 
a strange blunder here, when they imagine that Josephus 
affirms the entire foundation of the temple or holy house 
sunk down into the rocky mountain on which it stood, ne 
less than twenty cubits, whereas he is clear that they were 
the foundation of the additional twenty cubits only above 
the hundred, (made perhaps weak on purpose, and only fos 
show and grandeur,) that sunk or fell down, as Dr. Hudson 
rightly understands him. Nor is the thing itself possible in 
the othersense. Agrippa’s preparation for building the inner 
parts of the temple twenty cubits higher, (History of the 
War, b. v. ch. 1, sect. 5,) must, in all probability, refer to 
this matter, since Josephus says here, that this which had fall 
en down was designed to be raised up again under Nero, under 
whom Agrippa made that preparation. But what Josephus 
says presently, that Solomon was the first king of the Jewa, 
appears by the parallel place Antiq.b vx. cu. ix. sect. 7 
and other places, to be meant only the first of David’s pos 
‘erity, and the first builder of the temple. 


0 
five cubits, their height was eight, and their 
breadth about twelve; and the whole structure, 
as also the structure of the royal cloister, was 
on each side much lower, but the middle was 
much higher, till they were visible to those 
that dwelt in the country for a great many fur- 
longs, but chiefly to such as lived over against 
them, and those that approached to them. The 
temple had doors also at the entrance, and lin- 
tels over taem, of the same height with the 
temple itself. They were adorned with em- 
broidered vails, with their flowers of purple, 
and pillars interwoven: and over these, but 
under the crown-work, was spread out a golden 
vine, with its branches hanging down from a 
great height, the largeness and fine workman- 
ship of which was a surprising sight to the 
spectators, to see what vast materials there 
were, and with what great skill the workman- 
ship was done. He also encompassed the en- 
tire temple with very large cloisters, contriving 
them to be in a due proportion thereto; and he 
laid out larger sums of money.upon them than 
had been done before him, till it seemed that 
no one else had so greatly adorned the temple 
as he had done. There was a large wall to 
both the cloisters, which wall was itself the 
most prodigious work that was ever heard of 
by man. The hill was a rocky ascent, that de- 
clined by degrees towards the east parts of the 
city, till it came to an elevated level. This 
hill it was which Solomon, who was the first 
of our kings, by divine revelation, encompass- 
_ ed with a wall; it was of excellent workman- 
ship upwards, and round the top of it. He 
also built a wall below, beginning at the bot- 
tom, which was encompassed by a deep valley; 
and at the south side he Jaid rocks together, 
and bound them one to another with lead, and 
included some of the inner parts, till it pro- 
ceeded to a great height, and till both the large- 
ness of the square edifice, and its altitude, were 
immense, and till the vastness of the stones in 
the front were plainly visible on the outside, 
yet so that the inward parts were fastened to- 
gether with iron, and preserved the joints im- 
movable for all future times. When this 
work [for the foundation] was done in this 
manner, and joined together as part of the hill 
itself to the very top of it, he wrought it all 
into one outward surface, and filled up the hol- 
low places which. were about the wall, and 
made it a level on the external upper surface, 
and a smooth level also. ‘This hill was walled 
al! round, and in compass four furlongs, [the 
distance of | each angle containing in length a 
furlong: but within this wall, and on the very 
top of all, there ran another wall of stone also, 
having, on the east quarter, a double cloister, 
of the same length with the wall; in the midst 
of which was the temple itself. This cloister 
looked to the gates of the temple; and it had 
been adorned by many kings in former times. 
And round about the entire temple were fixed 
the spoils taken from barbarous nations; all 
these had been dedicated to the temple by He- 
rod, with the addition of those he had taken 
from the Arabians. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 








4. Now on the north garth: the temple 
was built a citadel, whose walls were souare, 
aud strong, and of extraordinary firnniess 
This citadel was built by the kings of the Asa- 
monean race, who were also high priests be 
fore Herod, and they called it the Tower, in 
which were reposited the vestments of the 
high priest, which the high priest only put on 
at the time when he was to offer sacrifice, 
These vestinents king Herod kept in that place, 
and after his death they were under the power 
of the Romans, until the time of Tiberius 
Cesar; under whose reign Vitellius, the prest+ 
dent of Syria, when he once came to Jerusa- 
lem, and had been most magnificently receiy- 
ed by the multitude, had a mind to make them 
some requital for the kindness they had show- 
ed him; so, upon their petition to have those 
holy vestments in their own power, he wrote 
about them to Tiberius Cesar, who granted 
his request; and this their power over the sa 
cerdotal vestments continued with the Jews 
till the death of king Agrippa; but after that, 
Cassius Longinus, who was president of Syris 
and Cuspius Fadus, who was procurator 60 
Judea, enjoined the Jews to reposit those vest- 
ments in the Tower of Antonio, for that they 
ought to have them in their power, as they for- 
merly had. However, the Jews sent ambassa- 
dors to Claudius Ceesar, to intercede with him 
for them, upon whose coming, king Agrippa, 
jun. being then at Rome, asked for, and ob 
tained, the power over them from the emperor, 
who gave command to Vitellius, who was then 
commander in Syria, to give it them accord- 
ingly. Before that time, they were kept under 
the seal of the high priest, and of the treasur- 
ers of the temple; which treasurers, the day 
before a festival, went up to the Roman captain 
of the temple guards, and viewed their own 
seal, and received the vestments; and again, 
when the festival was over, they brought them 
to the same place, and showed the captain of 
the temple guards their seal, which .corres- 
ponded with his seal, and reposited them there. 
And that these things were so, the afflictions 
that happened to us afterward [about them] 
are sufficient evidence: but for the tower it- 
self, when Herod the king of the Jews had 
fortified it more firmly than before, in order’ 
secure and guard the temple, he gratified An 
tonius, who was his friend, and the Roma 
ruler, and then gave it the name of the Tows 
of Antonia. 4 
5. Now in the western quarters of the enclo 
sure of the temple there were four gates; th 
first led to the king’s palace, and went to 
passage over the intermediate valley; two mor 
led to the suburbs of the city; and the last] 
to the other city, where the road descence 
down into the valley by a great number @ 
steps, and thence up again by the ascent; for 
the city lay over against the temple in the map- 
ner of a theatre, and was encompassed wi 
deep valley along the entire south quarter; — 
the fourth front of the temple, which w 
southward, had indeed itself gates in its mic 
dle, as also it had the royal cloister, with 


















i | 
Fo 
walks which reached in length from the east 
yalley unto that on the west, for it was impos- 
sible it should reach any farther: and this clois- 
ter deserves to be mentioned better than any 
other under the sun; for while the valley was 
very deep, and its bottom could not be seen, if 
ou looked from above into the depth, this 
arther vastly high elevation of the cloister 
stood upon that height, insomuch, that if any 
one Jooked down from the top of the battle- 
ments, or down both those altitudes, he would 
be giddy, while his sight could not reach to 
such an immense depth. This cloister had 
pillars that stood in four rows one over against 
the other all along, for the fourth row was in- 
terwoven into the wall, [which also was built of 
stone;] and the thickness of each pillar was 
such, that three men might, with their arms 
extended, fathom it round, and join their hands 
again, while its length was twenty-seven feet, 
with a double spiral at its basis; and the num- 
ber of all the pillars [in that court] was a hun- 
dred and sixty-two. Their chapiters were made 
‘with sculptures after the Corinthian order, and 
caused an amazement [to the spectators,] by 
reason of the grandeur of the whole. These 
four rows of pillars included three intervals for 
walking in the middle of this cloister; two of 
which walks were made parallel to each other, 
‘and were contrived after the same manner; the 
breadth of each of them was thirty feet, the 
length was a furlong, and the height fifty feet, 
but the breadth of the middle part of the clois- 
ter was one anda half of the other, and the 
height was double, for it was much higher 
‘than those on each side; but the roofs were 
adorned with deep sculptures in wood, repre- 
senting many sorts of figures; the middle was 
much higher than the rest, and the wall of the 
front was adorned with beams, resting upon 
pillars that were interwoven into it, and that 
front was all of polished stone; insomuch, that 
its fineness, to such as had not seen it, was in- 
credible, and to such as had seen it, was greatly 
amazing. ‘Thus was the first enclosure, in the 
midst of which, and not far from it, was the 
second, to be gone up to by a few steps; this 
was encompassed by a stone wall for a parti- 
tion, with an inscription, which forbade any 
foreigner to go in under pain of death. Now, 
this inner enclosure had on its southern and 
northern quarters three gates [equally] distant 
from one another; but on the east quarter, to- 
wards the sunrising, there was one large gate, 
through which such as were pure came in, to- 
gether with their wives, but the temple farther 
mward in that gate was not allowed to the wo- 
_men; but still more inward was there a third 
: ,|court of the] temple. whereinto it was not 








‘BOOK XV. —CHAPTER XI. 


* 


Bi 


lawful for any but the priests alone tu enter, 
The temple itself was within this; and before 
that temple was the altar, upon which we offer 
our sacrifices and burnt-offerings to God. Inte 
none of these three did king Herod enter,* 
for he was forbidden, because he was not a 
priest. However, he took care of the clois- 
ters, and the outer enclosures, and these he 
built in eight years. 

6. But the temple itself was built by the 
priests in a year and six months: upon which 
all the people were full of joy; and presently 
they returned thanks, in the first place to Gou, 
and in the next place, for the alacrity the king 
had showed. They feasted, and celebrated 
this rebuilding of the temple: and, for the king, 
he sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did 
the rest, every one according to his ability; the 
number of which sacrifices is not possible to be 
set down, for it cannot be that we should truly 
relate it: for at the same time with this celebra- 
tion for the work about the temple, fell also the 
day of the king’s inauguration, which he kept 
of an old custom as a festival, and it now coin- 
cided with the other, which coincidence of 
them both made the festival most illustrious. 

7. There was also an occult passage, built for 
the king: it led from Antonia to the inner tem- 
ple, at its eastern gate; over which he also 
erected for himself a tower, that he might have 
the opportunity of a subterraneous ascent to 
the temple, in order to guard against any sedi- 
tion which might be made by the people against 
their kings. It is also reported,t that during 
the time that the temple was building, it did 
not rain in the day-time, but that the showers 
fell in the night, so that the work was not 
hindered. And this our fathers have delivered 
to us; nor is it incredible, if any one have re- 
gard to the manifestations of God. And thus 
was performed the work of the rebuilding of 
the temple. 

* Into none of these three did king Herod enter; i.e. 1. Not 
into the court of the priest; 2. nor into the holy house itself} 
3. nor into the separate place belonging to the altar, as the 
words following imply; for none but priests, or their attend- 
ants the Levites, might come into any one of them. See 
Antiq. b. xvi. ch. iv.sect. 6,where Herod goes into the temple, 
and makes a speech in it to the people; but that could only 
be into the court of Israel, whither the people could come te 
hear him. 

+ This tradition which Josephus here mentions, as deliver- 
ed down from fathers to their children, of this particular 
remarkable circumstance relating to the building of Herod’s 
temple is a demonstration that such its building was a known 
thing in Judea in his time. He was born but forty-six years 
after it is related to have been finished, and might himself 
have seen and spoken with some of the builders themselves, 
and with a great number of those that had seen it building. 
The doubt, therefore, about the truth of this history of the 
pulling down and rebuilding this temple by Herod, whick 
some weak people have indulged, was not then much greater 
than it soon may be, whether or not our St. Paul’s chured be 


London was burnt down in the fire of London, A. D. 166% 
and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren a little afterward. 


ae ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS a 
BOOK XVI. ce 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWELVE YEARS.—FROM THE FINISHING OF THE TEMPLE BY 
HEROD TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER AND ARISTOBULUS. 





CHAPTER I. mother to death, as if it were not agreeable to 


A law of Herod about thieves. Salome and Phe- | Piety to appear to converse with their mother’s 
roras calumniate Alexander and Aristobulus | murderer. Now by carrying these stories, that 


. ) t| had indeed a true foundation [in the fact,} but 
Be ieticies les Vicia Rh oneanttai were only built on probabilities as to the pre 


i ¢ sent accusation, they were able to do them 
| § 1. Asking Herod was very zealous in the mischief, and to make Herod take away that 
administration of his entire government, and | kindness from his sons which he had before 
desirous to put a stop to particular acts of in-| porne to them, for they did not say these thin 
justice which were done by criminals about the | to him openly, but scattered abroad such wo 
city and country, he made a law, noway like among the rest of the multitude; from which 
our original laws, and which he enacted of words, when carried to Herod, he was induced 
himself, to expose housebreakers to be ejected {at last] to hate them; and which natural af 
out of his kingdom; which punishment was] fection itself, even in length of time, was not 
not only grievous to be borne by the offenders, | able to overcome; yet was the king at that 
but contained in it a dissolution of the customs] time in a condition to prefer the natural affec- 
of our forefathers; for this slavery to foreign-| tion of a father before all the suspicions and 
ers, and such as did not live after the manner] ealumnies his sons lay under; so he respected 
of Jews, and this necessity that they were un-| them as he ought to do, and married them to 
der to do whatsoever such men should com- wives, now they were of an age suitable thereto. 
mand, was an offence against our religious set-| To Aristobulus he gave for a wife Bernice, 
dement, rather than a punishment to such as| Galome’s daughter, and to Alexander, Glaph 
| 


were found to have offended, such a punish-| the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. 
ment being avoided in our original laws; for CHAPTER IT 


those laws ordain, that the thief shall restore - { 

fourfold: and that if he have not so much, he How easing nolan Gf eee and how, 

shall be sold indeed, but not to foreigners, nor| pon the complarnt of the Jews in Ionia against 
all be sold indeed, but not to foreigne “ip Airicka apo commie eas ah 


_ 6 that he be under perpetual slavery, for he 
must have been released after six years. But 
this law, thus enacted, in order to introduce a 
severe and illegal punisliment, seemed to be a 
piece of insolence in Herod; when he did not 
act asa king, but as a tyrant, and thus contempt- 
uously, and without any regard to his subjects, 
did he venture to introduce such a punishment. 
Now this penalty, thus brought into practice, | his guest, and was his friend. This request he 
was like Herod’s other actions, and became a| greatly pressed, and to it Agrippa agreed, and 
art of his accusation, and an occasion of the| came into Judea; whereupon Herod omitted 
Eatred he lay under. nothing that might please him. He entertained 
2. Now at this time it was that he sailed to} him in his new-built cities, and showed him the 
Italy, as very desirous to meet with Ceesar, and | edifices he had built, and provided all sorts of 
to see his sons who lived at Rome: and Cesar | the best and most costly dainties for him and 
was not only very obliging to him in other| his friends, and that at Sebaste and C 
respects, but delivered him his sons again, that | about that port that he had built, and at the for- 
he might take them home with him, as having | tresses which he had erected at great expenses, 
already completed themselves in the sciences; Alexandrium, and Herodium, and Hyrcania 
but as scon as the young men were come from| He also conducted him to the city Jerusalem, 
Italy, the multitude were very desirous to see| where all the people met him in their festival 
them, and they became conspicuous among} garments, and received him with acclamationa, 
them all, as adorned with great blessings of| Agrippa also offered a hecatomb of sacrifices 
fortune, and having the countenances of per-| to God, and feasted the people, without omi . 
sons of royal dignity. So they soon appeared | ting any of the greatest dainties that could be 
to be the objects of envy to Salome, the king’s| goiten. He also took so much pleasure there, | 
sister, and to such as had raised calummnies} that he abode many days with them, and would 
against Mariamne: for they were suspicious, willingly have staid longer, but that the season | 


that when these came to the government they | of the year made him make haste away; for 
should be punished for the wickedness they | as winter was coming on, he thought it ng 
had been guilty of against their mother: so| safe to go tosea later, and yet he was of neces. 


Jews to them. 


§ 1. When Herod had despatched these af 
fairs, and he understood that Marcus Agrippa 
had sailed again out of Italy into Asia, he made 
haste to him, and besought him to come to him 
into his kingdom, and to partake of what he 
inight justly expect from one that had been 


they made this very fear of theirs a mitive to | sity to return again to lonia 4 
raise calumnies against them also. They gave} 2. So Agrippa went away, when Herod had 
& out that they were not pleased with their| bestowed on him, and onthe principal of those 
father’s compa ry, because he had put their! that were with him. many presents; but 


| 
\ 







BOOK XVI.—CHAPTER II. 


Herod, when he had passed the winter in his 


own dominions, made haste tu get to him again 


in the spring, when he knew he designed to go 
to a campaign at the Bosphorus. So when 
he had sailed by Rhodes, and by Cos, he touch- 
ed at Lesbos, as thinking he should have over- 
taken Agrippa there, but he was taken short 


_here by a north wind, which hindered his ship 


from going to the shore; so he continued many 
days at Chios, and there he kindly treated a 
eat many that came to him, and obliged them 

y giving them royal gifts. And when he saw 
that the portico of the city was fallen down, 
which, as it was overthrown inthe Mithridatic 
‘war, and was a very large and fine building, so 
was it not so easy to rebuild that, as it was the 
rest; yet did he furnish a sum not only large 
enough for that purpose, but what was more 
than sufficient to finish the building, and or- 
Jered them not to overlook that portico, but to 


rebuild it quickly, that so the city might recov- 


er its proper ornaments. And when the high 
winds were laid, he sailed to Mytilene, and 


thence to Byzantium, and when he heard that 


Agrippa was sailed beyond the Cyanean rocks, 
ne made all the haste possible to overtake him, 


~ and came up with him about Sinope, in Pontus. 


He vas seen sailing by the shipmen most un- 


_ expectedly, but appeared to their great joy: and 


many friendly salutations there were between 
them, insomuch that Agrippa thought he had 
received the greatest marks of the king’s kind- 
ness and humanity towards him possible, since 


“the king had come so long a voyage, and at a 


very proper season, for his assistance, and had 
left the government of his own dominions, and 
thought it more worth his while to come to him. 
Accordingly, Herod was all in all to Agrippa 
it the management of tle war, and a great as- 


 gistant in civil affairs, and in giving him coun- 


gel as to particular matters. He was also a 

leasant companion for him when he relaxed 
Fimself and a joint partaker with him in all 
things: in troubles, because of his kindness, 
and in prosperity, because of the respect Agrip- 
pa had for him, Now as soon as those affairs 


' of Pontus were finished, for whose sake Agrip- 





pa was sent thither, they did not think fit to 
return by sea, but passed through Paphlagonia 
and Cappadocia; they then travelled thence 
over Great Phrygia, and came to Ephesus, and 
then they sailed from Ephesus to Samos. And 


‘ mdeed the king bestowed a great many bene- 


fits on every city that he came to, according as 


they stood in need of them; for as for those 


that wanted either money or kind treatment, he 
was not wanting to them; but he supplied the 


former himself out of his own expenses: he 


also became an intercessor with Agrippa, for 


' all such as came after his favor, and he brought 
) things so about, that the petitioners failed in 
} none of their suits to him, Agrippa being him- 


self of a good disposition, and of great gene- 
rusity, and ready to grant all such requests as 
might be advantageous to the petitioners, pro- 
vided they were not to the detriment of others. 
The inclination of the king was of great weight 


* also, and still excited Agrippa, who was himself 


aD 


398 
ready to do good; for he made a reconciliation 
between the people of Ilium, at whom he was 
angry, and paid what money the people of 
Chios owed Cwsar’s procurators, and discharg- 
ed them of their tributes; and helped all others 
according as their several necessities required. 

3. But now, when Agrippa and Herod were 
in Ionia, a great multitude of Jews, who dwelt 
in their cities, caine to them, and, laying hold 
of the opportunity and the liberty now given 
them, laid before them the injuries which they 
suffered; while they were not permitted to use 
their ewn laws, but were compelled to prose- 
cute their law-suits, by the ill usage of the 
judges, upon their holydays; and were depriv- 
ed of the money they used to lay up at Jeru- 
salem; and were forced into the army, and 
upon such other offices as obliged them to 
spend their sacred money: from which bur- 
dens they always used to be freed by the Ro- 
mans, who had still permitted them to live ac- 
cording to their own laws. When this clamor 
was made, the king desired of Agrippa that he 
would hear their cause, and assigned Nicolaus, 
one of his friends, to plead for those their pri- 
vileges. Accordingly, when Agrippa had call- 
ed the principal of the Romans, and such of 
the kings and rulers as were there, to be his 
assessors, Nicolaus stood up, and pleaded for 
the Jews as follows: “It is of necessity incum- 
bent on such as are in distress to have recourse 
to those that have it in their power to free them 
from those injuries they he under; and for 
those that now are complainants, they approach 
you with great assurance; for as they have for- 
merly often obtained your favor, so far as they 
have even wished to have it, they now only 
entreat that you, who have been the donors, 
will take care that those favors you have al- 
ready granted them may not be taken away 
from them. We have received these favors 
from you, who alone have power to grant 
them, but have them taken from us by such as 
are no greater than ourselves, and by such as 
we know are as much subjects as we are: and 
certainly, if we have been vouchsafed great fa 
vors, it is to our commendation, who have ob 
tained them, as having been found deserving 
of such great favors; and if those favors be 
but small ones, it would be barbarous for the 
donors not to confirm them to us; and for those 
that are the hinderance of the Jews, and use 
them reproachfully, it isevident that they affront 
both the receivers, while they will not allow 
those to be worthy men to whom their excel- 
lent rulers themselves have borne ther testi- 
mony; and the donors, while they desire those 
favors already granted may be abrogated. 
Now if any one should ask these Gentiles 
themselves, which of the two things they 
would choose to part with, their lives, or the 
customs of their forefathers, their solemnities, 
their sacrifices, their festivals, which they cele- 
brated in honor of those they suppose to be 
gods? 1 know very well that they would 
choose to suffer any thing whatsoever, rather 
than a dissolution of any of the custems of 
their forefathers; for a great many of wer 


nave rather chosen to go to war on that ac- 
count, as very solicitous not to transgress in 
those matters: and indeed we take an estimate 
of that happiness which all mankind do now 
enjoy by your means from this very thing, that 
we are allowed every one to worship as our 
own izstitutions require, and yet to live [in 
peace,} and although they would not be thus 
treated themselves, yet do they endeavor to 
compel others to comply with them, as if it 
were not as great an instance of impiety, pro- 
fanely to dissolve the religious solemnities of 
any others, as to be negligent in the observa- 
tion of their own towards their gods. And 
let us now consider the one of these practices: 
is there any people, or city, or community of 
men, to whom your government and the Ro- 
man power does not appear to be the greatest 
oiessing? Is there any one that can desire to 
make void the favors they have granted? No 
one is certainly so mad: for there are no men 
but sucn us iiave been partakers of their fa- 
vors, both public and private; and indeed those 
that take away what you have granted, can 
have no assurance; but every one of their own 
grants made them by you, may be taken from 
them also; which grants of yours can yet never 
be sufficiently valued; for if they consider the 
old governments, under kings, together with 
vour present government, besides the great 
number of benefits which this government 
hath bestowed on them in order to their hap- 
piness, this is instead of all the rest, that they 
appear to be no longer in a state of slavery, 
but of freedom. Now tle privileges we de- 
sire, even when we are in the best circum- 
stances, are not such as deserve to be envied, 
for we are indeed in a prosperous state by your 
means, but this is only in common with others; 
and it is no more than this which we desire, to 
preserve our religion without any prohibition; 
which as it appears not in itself a privilege to 
be envied us, so it is for the advantage of those 
that grant it to us; for if the divinity delights 
is being honored, he must delight in those 
that permit him to be honored; and there are 
none of our customs which are inhuman, but 
al] tending to piety, and devoted to the pre- 
servation of justice; nor do we conceal these 
injunctions of ours, by which we govern our 
lives, they being memorials of piety, and of a 
friendly conversation among men: and the 
seventh day we set apart from labor; it is de- 
dicated to the learning of our customs and 
laws,* we thinking it proper to reflect on 
them, as well as on any [good] thing else, in 
order to our avoiding of sin. If any one, 
therefore, examine into our observances, he will 
find they are good in themselves, and that 

2y are ancient also, though some think oth- 
erwise, insomuch, that those who have receiv- 
ed them cannot easily be brought to depart 
from them, out of that honor they pay to 
the length of time they have religiously en- 
joyed them, and observed them. Ne ow our ad- 


* We may here observe the ancient practice of the Jews, 
ef dedicating ‘ne Sabbath-day not to idleness, but to the 
‘earning thew sacred rites and religious customs, and to the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


versaries take these our privilc ges away, in the 
way of injustice: they violently seize upon that 
money of ours which is offered to God, and 
called sacred money, and this openly, after a 
sacrilegious inanner; and they impose tributes 
upon us, and bring us before tribunals on holy- 
days, and then require other like debts of us, 
not because the contracts require it, or for their 
own advantage, but because they woul” put 
an affront on our religion, of which they are 
conscious as well as we, and have indulged 
themselves in an unjust, and to them involun- 
tary hatred; for your government over al] 
one, tending to the establishing of benevolence, 
and abolishing of ill will among such as are 
disposed to it. This is, therefore, what we im- 
plore from thee, most excellent Agrippa, that 
we may not be ill-treated; that we may not be 
abused; that we may not be hindered from 
making use of our own customs; nor be de- 
spoiled of our goods; nor be forced by these 
men to do what we ourselves force nobody to 
do; for these privileges of ours are not only 
according to justice, but have been granted us 
by you. And we are able to read to you many 
decrees of the senate, and the tahles that con- 
tain them, which are still extant in the capitol, 
concerning these things, which it is evident 
were granted after you had experience of our 
fidelity towards you, and which ought to be 
valued, though no such fidelity had been; for 
you have hitherto preserved what people were 
in possession of, not to us only, but almost to 
all men, and have added greater advantages 
than they could have hoped for, and thereby 
your government is become a great advantage 
to them. And if any one were able to enw 
merate the benefits you have conferred on every 
nation, which they possess by your means, he 
could never put an end to his discourse; but 
that we may demonstrate that we are not un- 
worthy of all those advantages we have obtain- 
ed, it will be sufficient for us to say nothing of 
other things, but to speak: freely of this king 
who now governs us, and is now one of thy 
assessors: and-indeed, in what instance of good 
will as to your house, hath he been deficient? 
What mark of fidelity to it hath he omitted? 
What token of honor hath he not devised? 
What occasion for his assistance of you hath 
he not regarded at the very first? What hin- 
dereth, therefore, but that your kindnesses may 
be as numerous as his so great benefits to you 
have been. It may also perhaps be fit here 
not to pass over in silence the valor of hs 
father Antipater, who when Ceesar made an 
expedition into Egypt, assisted him with two 
thousand armed men, and proved infericr w | 
none, neither in the battles on land, nor in the 
management of the navy; and what need [ say 
any eu Be how great weight those so.diers 
were at that juncture? or how many and how - 
great presents they were vouchsafed by Caesar? 
And truly I ought before now to have men 
tioned the epistles which Ceesar wrote to the 


meditation on the law of Moses. The like to which we | 
meet with elsewhere in Josephus also against Apion, b. § — 
sect. 22, ea . 
Je } 
ee 4 


Het 


Ny BOOK XVI—CHAPTER UL 


_ g@enate, and how Antipater had honors, and the 
_ freedom of the city of Rome, bestowed upon 
him, for these are demonstrations both that we 
_ have received these favors by our own deserts, 
and do on that account petition thee for thy 


ing favorable winds, from whence he came te 
Jerusalem, and there gathered all the people 
together to an assembly, not a few being there 
out of the country also. So he came to them, 
and gave them a particular account of all his 


_vonfirmation of them, from whom we had rea- 
gon to hope for them, though they had not 
been given us before, both out of regard to 
our king’s disposition towards you, and your 
disposition. towards him. And _ farther, we 
_maye seen informed by those Jews that were 
‘there with what kindness thou camest into our 
-Pountry, and how thou offeredst the most per- 
fect sacrifices to God, and honored him with 
remarkable vows, and how thou gavest the peo- 
ple a feast, and acceptedst of their own hos- 
vitable presents to thee. We ought to esteem 
all these kind entertainments, made both by 
our nation and our city, to a man who is the 
ruler and manager of so much of the public 
affairs, as indications of that friendship which 
‘thou hast returned to the Jewish nation, and 
“which hath been procured them by the family 
of Herod. So we put thee in mind of these 
things, in the presence of the king, now sitting 
by thee, and make our request for no more but 
this, that what you have given us yourselves, 
-you-will not see taken away by others from us.” 
__ 4, When Nicolaus had made his speech, 
‘here was no opposition made to it by the 
Greeks, for this was net an inquiry made, as in 
t court of justice, bat an intercession to pre- 
‘vent violence to be offered to the Jews any 
Jonger; nor did the Greeks make any defence 
of themselves, or deny what it was supposed 
they had done. Their pretence was no more 
than this, that while the Jews inhabited in their 
country, they were entirely unjust to them [in 
hot joining in their worship,| but they demon- 
strated their generosity in this, that though they 
worshiped according to their own institutions, 
they did nothing that ought to grieve them. 
So when Agrippa perceived that they had been 
oppressed by violence, he made this answer: 
“That on account of Herod’s good will and 
‘friendship, he was ready to grant the Jews 
whatsoever they should ask him, and that their 
requests seemed to him in themselves just; and 
that if they requested any thing farther, he 
should not scruple to grant it them, provided 
it was noway to the detriment of the Roman 
government; but that, while their request was 
no more than this, that what privileges they 
had already given.them might not be abrogat- 
ed, he confirmed this to them, that they might 
 Yontinue in the observation of their own customs 
Without any one’s offering them the least in- 
jury.” And when he had said this, he dissolv- 
éd the assembly; upon which Herod stood up, 
and saluted him, and gave him thanks for the 
ind disposition he showed to them. Agrippa 
also took this in a very obliging manner, and 
saluted him again, and embraced him in his 
arms; after which he went away from Lesbos; 
but the king determined to sail from Samos to 
his own country; and when he had taken his 
eave of Agrippa, he pursued his voyage, and 
anded ai Ceesarea in a few days’ time, as hav- 


¥ 
4 


journey, and of the affairs of all the Jews in 
Asia, how by his means they would live with- 
out injurious treatment for the time to come, 
He also told them of the entire good fortune 
he had met with, and how he had administer- 
ed the government, and had not neglected any 
thing which was for their advantage; and as 
he was very joyful, he now remitted to them 
the fourth part of their taxes for the last year. 
Accordingly, they were so pleased with his fa- 
vor and speech to them, that they went their 
ways with great gladness, and wished the king 
all manner of happiness. 


CHAPTER III. 


How great disturbances arose in Herod’s fami 
on has preferring Antipater, his eldest son, be- 
Sore the rest, till Alexander took that injury very 
heinously. 


§ 1. But now the affairs in Herod’s family 
were in more disorder, and became more se- 
vere upon him, by the hatred of Salome to the 
young men [Alexander and Aristobulus,] 
which descended as it were by inheritance 
[from their mother Mariamne:] and as she had 
fully succeeded against their mother, so she 
proceeded to that degree of madness and in- 
solence as to endeavor that none of her pos 
terity might be left alive, who might have it in 
their power to revenge her death. The young 
men _ had also somewhat of a bold and uneasy 
disposition toward their father, occasioned by 
the remembrance of what their mother had 
unjustly suffered, and by their own affection 
of dominion. The old grudge was also renew- 
ed; and they cast reproaches on Salome and 
Pheroras, who requited the young men with 
malicious designs, and actually laid treacher- 
ous snares for them. Now, as for this hatred, 
jt was equal on both sides, but the manner of 
exerting that hatred was different; for as for 
the young men, they were rash, reproaching 
and affronting the others openly, and were un- 
experienced enough to think it the most gen- 
erous to declare their minds in that undaunted 
manner; but the others did not take that meth- 
od, but made use of calumnies after a subtle 
and a spiteful manner, still provoking the young 
men, and imagining that their boldness might 
in time turn to the offering violence to .. eir 
father; for inasmuch as they were not ashamed 
of the pretended crimes of their mother nor 
thought she suffered justly, these supposed that 
it might at length exceed all bounds, and in- 
duce them to think they ought to be avenged 
on their father, though it were by despatching 
him with their own hands. At length it came 
to this, that the whole city was full of their dis- 
courses, and, as is usual in such contests, the 
unskilfulness of the young men was pitied, but 
the contrivauce of Salome was too hard for 
them, and what imputations she laid upon thens 
came to be believed, by means of their ow? 


conduct; for they wre so deeply affected with 
the death of their mother, that while they said 
both she and themselves were in a miserable 
case, they vehemently complained of her pitia- 
ble end, which indeed was truly such, and said 
that they were themselves in a pitiable case al- 
80, because they were forced to live with those 
that had been her murderers, and to be partak- 
ers with them. 

2. These disorders increased greatly, and 
the king’s absence abroad had afforded a fit 
epportunity for that increase; but as soon as 
Herod was returned, and had made the fore- 
mentioned speech to the multitude, Pheroras 
and Salome let fall words immediately, as if he 
were in great danger, and as if the young men 
openly threatened that they would not spare 
him any longer, but revenge their mother’s 
death upon him. They also added another 
circumstance, that their hopes were fixed on 
Archelaus, the king of Cappadocia, that they 
should be able by his means to come to Cesar, 
and accuse their father. Upon hearing such 
things, Herod was immediately disturbed; and 
indeed was the more astonished, because the 
same things were related to him by some others 
also. He then called to mind his former cala- 
mity and considered that the disorders in his 
family had hindered him from enjoying any 
comfort from those that were dearest to him, 
or from his wife whom he loved so well; and 
suspecting that his future troubles would soon 
be heavier and greater than those that were 
past, he was in great confusion of mind; for 
divine Providence had in reality conferred 
upon hima great many outward advantages 
for his happiness, even beyond his hopes, but 
the troubles he had at home were such as he 
never expected to have met with, and render- 
ed him unfortunate; nay, both sorts came upon 
him to such a degree as no one could imagine, 
and made it a doubtful question, whether, upon 
the comparison of both, he ought to have ex- 
changed so great a success of outward good 
things, for so great misfortunes at home, or 
whether he ought not to have chosen to avoid 
the calamities relating to his family, though he 
had, for a compensation, never been possessed 
of the admired grandeur of akingdom. 

3. As he was thus disturbed and afflicted, in 
order to depress these young men, he brought 
to court another of his sons, that was born to 
him when he was a private man: his name was 
Antipater; yet did he not then indulge him as 
he did afterward, when he was quite overcome 
by him, and let him do every thing as he pleas- 
ed, but rather with a design of depressing the 
tnsolence of the sons of Mariamne, and manag- 
ing this elevation of his so, that it might be 
for a warning to them, for this bold behavior 
of theirs, he thought, would not be so great, if 
they were once persuaded, that the succession | 


to the kingdom did not appertain to them alone, | 


or must of necessity come to them. So he in- 





troduced Antipater as their antagonist, and im- 
agined that he made a good provision for dis- 
eouraging their prile, and that after this was | 


x 
Reo 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. j 


done to the young men, there might be a pre 
per season for expecting these to be of a better 
disposition: but the event proved otherwise 
than he intended, for the young men thought 
he did them a very great injury; and as Ant» 
pater was a shrewd man, when he had once 
obtained this degree of freedom, ana began to 
expect greater things than he had before hoped 
for, he had but one single design in his head, 
and that was, to distress his brethren, and nog 
at all to yield to them the pre-eminence, but te 
keep close to his father, who was already alien 
ated from them by the calumnies he had heard 
about them, and ready to be wrought upon 
any way his zeal against them should advise 
him to pursue, that he might be are | 
more and more severe against them. Acc 
ingly, all the reports that were spread abroad 
came from him, while he avoided himself the 
suspicion of those discoveries proceeding from 
him, for he rather chose to make use of those 
persons for his assistance that were unsu 

ed, and such as might be believed to speak 
truth by reason of the good will they bore to 
the king; and indeed there were already nota 
few who cultivated a friendship with Antipater, 
in hopes of gaining somewhat by him, an 
these were the men who most of all persuaded 
Herod, because they appeared to speak thus out 
of their good will to him: and while these joint 
accusations, from various foundations, sup- 
ported one another’s veracity, the young men 
themselves afforded farther occasions to Anti- 
pater also: for they were observed to shed tears 
often, on account of the injury that was offer- 
ed them, and had their mother in their mouths 
and among their friends they ventured to re 
proach their father, as not acting justly by them; 
all which things were with an evil intention re- 
served in memory by Antipater against a pro- 
per opportunity; and when they were told te 
Herod with aggravations, increased the disorder 
so much that it brought a great tumult into the 
family; for while the king was very angry al 
imputations that were laid upon the sons of 
Mariamne, and was desirous to humble them, 
he still increased the honor that he had bestow- | 
ed on Antipater; and was at last so overcome 
by his persuasions, that he brought his mother | 
to court also. Healso wrote frequently to Ce 
sar in favor of him, and more earnestly recom- 
mended him to his particular care. And when’ 
Agrippa was returning to Rome, after he had 
finished his ten years’ government in Asia;* 
Herod sailed from Judea; and when he mei 
with him, he had none with him but Antipater 
whom he delivered to Agrippa that he might” 
take him along with him, together with bis ; 
presents, that so he might become C. : 
friend, insomuch, that things already looked as 
if he had all his father’s favor, and that the 
young men were entirely rejected from any 
hopes of the kingdom. | 


* This interval of ten years for the duration of M: q 


f 
Agrippa’s government in Asia, seems to be true, and 
ble to the Roman history; see Usher’s Annals at A. M. 


i 


i 


ae, § 


a 


BOOK XVI1.—CHAPTER IV. 
CHAPTER IV. 


397 


from him? or what hardships he hath ever laid 
upon them to make them complain of him? 
and how they can think it just that he should 
not be lord of that kingdom, which he in a 
long time and with great danger had gained 
and not allow him to keep it and to dispose o 

it to him who should deserve it best? And 
this, with other advantages, he proposes as 
a reward for the piety of such a one as will 
hereafter imitate the care he hath taken of it, 
and that such a one may gain so great a re- 
quital as that is: and that it is an impious thing 
for them to pretend to meddle with it before- 
hand, for he who hath ever the kingdom in his 
view, at the same time reckons upon procuring 


a ie 

‘ How, during Antipater’s abode at Rome, Herod 

| brought Alexander and Aristobulus before Ce- 

| sar, and accused them. Alexander's defence of 

| Iamself before Cesar, and reconciliation to his 
Sather. 


§ 1. And now what happened during Anti- 
ter’s absence augmented the honor to which 
‘ a had been promoted, and his apparent emi- 
-nence above his brethren, for he had made a 
_ great figure in Rome, because Herod had sent 
. recommendations of him to all his friends 

there: only he was grieved that he was not at 
home, nor had proper opportunities of perpe- 


_tually calumniating his brethren; and his chief 
_ fear was, lest his father should alter his mind, 
_and entertain a more favorable opinion of the 
_ sons of Mariamne; and as he had this in his 
mind, he did not desist from his purpose, but 
Continually sent from Rome any such stories 
_as he hoped might grieve and irritate his father 
against his brethren, under pretence indeed of 
a deep concern for his preservation; but in 
truth, such as his malicious mind dictated, in 
order to purchase a greater hope of the suc- 
_cession, which yet was already great in itself 
and thus he did till he had excited such a de- 
el of anger in Herod, that he was already 
come very ill disposed towards the young 
men; but still, while he delayed to exercise so 
violent a disgust against them, and that he 
‘might not either be too remiss or too rash, and so 
offend, he thought it best to sail to Rome, and 
there accuse his sons before Cesar, and not in- 
-dulge himself in any such crime as might be 
heinous enough to be suspected of impiety: 
but as he was going up to Rome, it happened 
that he made such haste as to meet with Cesar 
at the city Aquilei:* so when he came to the 
speech of Ceesar, he asked for a time for hear- 
ing this great cause, wherein he thought him- 
self very miserable, and presented his sons 
there, and accused them of their mad actions, 
and of their attempts against him: that “They 
Were enemies to him; and by all the means 
they were able did their endeavors to show 
their hatred to their own father, and would 
take away his life, and so obtain his kingdom 
after the most barbarous manner; that he had 
power from Cesar to dispose of it, not by ne- 
cessity, but by choice, to him who shall exer- 
‘cise the greatest piety towards him, while these 
“my sons are not so desirous of ruling, as they 
are, upon a disappointment thereof, to expose 
their own life, if so be they may but deprive 
‘their father of his life, so wild and polluted is 
‘their mind by time become out of their hatred 
0 him; that whereas he had a long time borne 
this his misfortune, he was now compelled to 
‘lay it before Czesar, and to pollute his ears with 
‘Buch language, while he himself wants to 
‘know what severity they have ever suffered 


* Although Herod met Augustus at Aquilei, yet was this 
,@ccusation of his sons deferred till they came to Rome, as 
, Sect. 3 assures us; and as we are particularly informed in the 
history of the War, b. i. ch. xxiii. sect. 3; though what he 

here says belonged distinctly to Alexander the elder brother, 
1 mean his being brought to Rome, is here justly extended to 


the death of his father, because otherwise he 
cannot come at the government; that as for 
himself, he had hitherto given them all that he 
was able, and what was agreeable to such as 
are subject to the royal authority, and the sons 
of a king; what ornaments they wanted, with 
servants and delicate fare; and had married 
them into the most illustrious families, the one, 
[Aristobulus] to his sister’s daughter, but Alex- 
ander to the daughter of king Archelaus: and 
what was the greatest favor of all, when their 
crimes were so very bad, and he had authority 
to punish them, yet had he not made use of it 
against them, but had brought them before 
Cesar their common benefactor, and had not 
used the severity which, either as a father who 
had been impiously abused, or as a king who 
had been assaulted treacherously, he might 
have done, he made them stand upon the leve 
with him in judgment; that, however, it was 
necessary that all this should not be passed 
over without punishment, nor himself live in 
the greatest fears; nay, that it was not for their 
own advantage to see the light of the sun after 
what they have done, although they should 
escape at this time, since they had done the 
vilest things, and would certainly suffer the 
greatest punishments that were ever known 
among mankind.” 

2. These were the accusations which Herod 
laid with great vehemency against his sons be- 
fore Cesar. Now, the young men, both while 
he was speaking, and chiefly at his concluding, 
wept, and were in confusion. Now, as to 
themselves, they knew in their own consciences 
they were innocent, but because they were ac- 
cused by their father, they were sensible, as the 
truth was, that it was hard for them to make 
their apology, since, though they were at liberty 
to speak their minds freely as the occasion re- 
quired, and might with force and earnestness 
refute the accusation, yet was it not now de- 
centsotodo. There was, therefore, a difficulty ~ 
how they should be able to speak; and tear, 
and at length a deep groan, followed, while 
they were afraid, that if they said nothing, 
they should seem to be in this difficulty from a 
consciousness of guilt, nor had they any de 


both the brothers, and that not only in our copies, but in thas 
of Zonara also; nor is there reason to doubt but they were 
both at this solemn hearing by Augustus, although the de 
fence was made by Alexander alone, who was the 
brother, and one that could speak very well. 


398 


fence ready, by reason of their youth, and the 
disorder they were under; yet was not Czesar 
aunapprized, when he looked upon them in the 
confusion they were in, that their delay to 
make their defence did not arise from any con- 
sciousness of great enormities, but from their 
unskilfulness and modesty. They were also 
commiserated by those that were there in par- 
ticular, and they moved their father’s affec- 
tions in earnest till he had much ado to conceal 
them. 

3. But when they saw there was a kind dis- 
position arisen both in him and in Cesar, 
and that every one of the rest did either shed 
tears, or at least did all grieve with them, the 
one of them, whose name was Alexander, call- 
ed to his father; and attempted to answer his 
accusation, and said, ‘O father, the benevolence 
thou hast showed to us, is evident, even in this 
very judicial procedure; for hadst thou had any 
pernicious intentions about us, thou hadst not 
produced us here before the common savior of 
all; for it was in thy power, both as a king, and 
as a father, to punish the guilty; but by thus 
bringing us to Rome, and making Cesar him- 
self a witness to what is done, thou intimatest 
that thou intendest to save us; for no one that 
hath a design to slay a man will bring him to 
the temples, and to the altars; yet are our cir- 
cumstances still worse, for we cannot endure 
to live ourselves any longer, if it be believed 
that we have injured such a father; nay, perhaps 
it would be worse for us to live with this sus- 
_ picion upon us, that we have injured him, than 
to die without such guilt; and if our open de- 
fence may be taken to be true, we shall be hap- 

y, both in pacifying thee, and in escaping the 
Ne we are in; but if this’calumny so pre- 
vails, it is more than enough for us that we 
have seen the sun this day; which why should 
we see, if this suspicion be fixed upon us? 
Now it is easy to say of young men, that they 
desire to reign; and to say farther, that this evil 
proceeds from the case of our unhappy moth- 
er. This is abundantly sufficient to produce 
our misfortune out of the former; but consid- 
er well, whether such an accusation does not 
suit all such young men, and may not be said 
of them all promiscuously? for nothing can 
hinder him that reigns, if he have children, 
and their mother be dead, but the father may 
have a suspicion upon all his sons, as intend- 
ing some treachery to him; but a suspicion is 
not sufficient to prove such an impious prac- 
tice. Now let any man say, whether we have 
actually and insolently attempted any such 
thing, whereby :ctions, otherwise incredible, 
use to be made credible. Can any body prove 
that poison hath been prepared? or prove a 
conspiracy of our equals, or the corruption of 
servants, or letters written against thee? though 
indeed there are none of those things but have 
sometimes been pretended by way of calumny, 
when they were never done; for a royal fami- 
ly that is at variance with itself is a terrible 

ing; and that which thou callest a reward of 
paety, often becomes, among very wicked men, 
such a foundation of hope as makes them leave 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. o 





no sort of mischief untried; nor does any 
lay any wicked practices to our charge; but as 
to calumnies by hearsay, how can he put an 
end to them, who will not hear what we have 
to say? Have we talked with two great free- 
dom? yes; but not against thee, for that would 
be unjust, but against those that never conceal 
any thing that is spoken to them. Hath either 
of us lamented our mother? yes; but not be 
cause she is dead, but because she was evil 
spoken of by those who had no reason so to” 
do. Are we desirous of that dominion which 
we know our father is possessed of? For what 
reason can we be so? If wealready have royal” 
honors, as we have, should not we labor in 
vain? And if we have them not, yet, are not 
we in hopes of them? Or, supposing that we 
had killed thee, could we expect to obtain thy 
kingdom? while neither the earth would let us” 
tread upon it, nor the sea let us sail upon it, 
after such an action as that: nay, the religion’ 
of all your subjects, and the piety of the whole 
nation would have prohibited parricides from 
assuming the government, and from entering in-_ 
to that most holy temple which was built by 
thee.* But suppose we had made light of 
other dangers, can any murderer go off un- 
punished while Cesar is alive? Weare thy sons, 
and not so impious, or so thoughtless, as that 
comes to, though perhaps more unfortunate 
than is convenient for thee. But in case thou 
neither findest any causes of complaint, nor 
any treacherous designs, what sufficient evi- 
dences hast thou to make such a wickedness of — 
ours credible? Our mother is dead indeed, but 
then what befell her might be an instruction to 
us to caution, and not an incitement to wick-— 
edness. We are willing to make a larger apo 
logy for ourselves, but actions never done do 
not admit of discourse: nay, we will make this 
agreement with thee; and that before Cesar 
the lord of all, who is now a mediator between 
us: if thou, O father, canst bring thyself, by 
the evidence of truth, to have a mind free from 
suspicion concerning us, let us live, though 
even then we shall live in an unhappy way, oF 
to be accused of great acts of wickedness, 
though falsely, is a terrible thing; but if ine | 
hast any fear remaining, continue thou on in thy 
pious life, we will give this reason for our own 
conduct, our life is not so desirable to us as t 
desire to have it, if it tend to the harm of our 
father who gave it us.” 2 
4. When Alexander had thus spoken, C 
who did not before believe so gross a calumny, 
was still more moved by it, and looked intent , 
upon Herod, and perceived he was a little con- 


















* Since some prejudiced men have indulged a wild sus 
picion, as we have supposed already, Antiq. b. xv. ch. xh 
sect. 7, that Josephus’s history of Herod’s rebuilding the 
temple is not better than a fable, it may not be amiss to take 
notice of this occasional clause in the speech of Alexander 
before his father Herod, in his and his brother’s vindication, - 
which mentions the temple as known by every body to have 
been built by Herod; see John ii. 20; see also another speech 
of Herod’s own to the young men that pulled down his gold 
en eagle from the front of the temple, where he takes no 
tice, ‘‘How the building of the temple cost him a vast sw ms 
and that the Asamoneans, in those 125 years they held the 
government, were not able to perform so great a 
the honor of God as this was.’? Antiq. k. 


ae 
o 
a 


ii. ch. vi. sect. & 








































































































} 
ee 


\¥ 
oe 
KS 




































































DIVIDING THE LAND BY Lov, (See page 122 | 








aus 
‘foun led; the persons there present were under 
‘an anxiety about the young men, and the fame 
‘that was spread abroad made the king hated, 
‘for the very incredibility of the calumny, and 
‘the commiseration of the flower of youth, the 
beauty of body, which were in the young men, 
pleaded for assistance; and the more so on this 
‘account, that Alexander had made their defence 
with dexterity and prudence; nay, they did not 
themselves any longer continue in their former 
‘countenances, which had been bedewed with 
tears and cast downwards to the ground, but 
now there arose in them a hope of the best; 
and the king himself appeared not to have had 
foundation enough to build such an accusa- 
tion upon, he having no real evidence where- 
with to convict them. Indeed he wanted some 
apology for making the accusation; but Cesar, 
afier some delay, said, that “although the young 
men were thoroughly innocent of that for 
which they were calumniated, yet had they 
been so far to blame, that they had not demean- 
ed themselves towards their father so as to pre- 
vent that suspicion which was spread abroad 
concerning them.” He also exhorted Herod 
to lay all such suspicions aside, and to be re- 
‘conciled to his sons; for that it was not just to 
give any credit tosuch reports concerning his 
own children: and that this repentance on both 
sides might still heal those breaches that had 
happened between them, and might improve 
their good will to one another, whereby those 
on both sides, excusing the rashness of their 
‘suspicions, might resolve to bear a greater de- 
gree of affection towards each other than they 
Fad before. After Ceesar had given them this 
admonition, he beckoned to the young men. 
When, therefore, they were disposed to fall 
down to make intercession to their father, he 
took them up, and embraced them, as they 
were in tears, and took each of them distinctly 
in his arms, till not one of those that were pre- 
sent, whether freeman or slave, but was deeply 
affected with what they saw. 

5. Then did they return thanks to Cesar, and 
went away together; and with them went An- 
tipater, with a hypocritical pretence that he re- 
wiced at this reconciliation. And in the last 

ays they were with Czesar, Herod made him 
a present of three hundred talents,as he was 
then exhibiting shows and largesses to the peo- 
ple of Rome; and Cesar made him a present 
of half the revenue of the copper mines in 
Cyprus, and committed the care of the other 
half to him, and honored him with other gifts 
and incomes: and as to his own kingdom, he 
left it in his own power to appoint which of 
his sons he pleased for his successor, or to dis- 
tribute it in parts to every one, that the dignity 
might thereby come to them all. And when 
Herod was disposed to make such a settlement 
/ tamediately, Ceesar said, “He would not give 
him leave to deprive himself, while he was 
tlive, of the power over his kingdom, or over 
bis sons.” 
_ 6. After this Herod returned to Judea again, 
put during his absence no small part of his do- 
ninions about Trachon had revolted, whom 


, 
fuaih 





a ; BOOK XVI—CHAPTER V. 


yet the commanders he left there had vanquish 
ed, and compelled toa submission again. Now, 
as Herod was sailing with his sons, and waa 
come over against Cilicia, to [the island] Eleusa 
which hath now changed its nam for Sebaste 
he met with Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, 
who received him kindly, as rejoicing that he 
was reconciled to his sons, and thatthe accu- 
sation against Alexander, who had married his 
daughter, was at anend. They also made one 
another such presents as it became kings to 
make. From thence Herod came to Judea, 
and to the temple, where he made aspeech te 
the people, concerning what had been done in 
this his journey: “He also discoursed to them 
about Cesar’s kindness to him, and about as 
many of the particulars he had done, as he 
thought it for his advantage other people should 
be acquainted with. At last he turned his 
speech to the admonition of his sons; and ex- 
horted those that lived at court, and the multi- 
tude, to concord: and informed them, that his 
sons were to reign after him; Antipater first, 
and then Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons 
of Mariamne; but he desired that at present 
they should all have regard to himself, and es- 
teem him king and lord of all, since he was 
not yet hindered by old age, but was in that 
period of life when he must be the most skil- 
ful in governing; and that he was not deficient 
in other arts of management that might enable 
him to govern the kingdom well, and to rule 
over his children also. He farther told the rulers 
under him, and the soldiery, that in case they 
would look upon him alone, their life would 
be led in a peaceable manner, and they would 
make one another happy.” And when he 
had said this, he dismissed the assembly. 
Which speech was acceptable to the greatest 
part of the audience, but not so to them all, for 
the contention among his sons, and the hopes 
he had given them, occasioned thoughts and 
desires of innovations among them. 


CHAPTER V. 


How Herod celebrated the games that were to re- 
turn every fifth year, upon the building of 
Caesarea; and how he built and adorned mang 
other places after a magnificent manner; ana 
did many other actions gloriously. 


§ 1. About this time it was that Ceesarea 
Sebaste, which he had built, was finished. The 
entire building being accomplished in thetenth 
year, the solemnity of it fell into the twenty 
eighth year of Herod’s reign, and into the hun- 
dred and ninety-second olympiad. There was 
accordingly a great festival, and most sumptu- 
ous preparations made presently, in order to its 
dedication, for he had appointed a contention 
in music, and games to be performed naked, 
He had also gotten ready a great number of 
those that fight single combats, and of beasts 
for the like purpose: horse-races also, and the 
most chargeable of such sports and shows as 
used to be exhibited at Rome, and in other 
places. He consecrated this combat to Cesar, 
and ordered it to be celebrated every fifth year. 


.0U ANTIQUITIES 


He also sent all sorts of ornaments for it out 
of his own furniture, that it might want noth- 
ing to make it decent: nay, Julia, Czsar’s 
wife, sent a great part of her most valuable 
furniture [from Rome,] insomuch that he had 
no want of any thing. The sum of them all 
was estimated at five hundred talents. Now 
when a great multitude was come to that city 
to see the shows, as well as the ambassadors 
whom other people sent, on account: of the 
benefits they had received [from Herod,] he 
entertained them all in the public inns, and at 
public tables, and with perpetual feasts, this so- 
lemnity having in the day-time the diversions 
of the fights, and in the night-time such merry 
meetings as cost vast sums of money, and pub- 
licly demonstrated the generosity of his soul, 
for in all his undertakings he was ambitious to 
exhibit what exceeded whatsoever had been 
done before of the same kind. And it is relat- 
ed that Cesar and Agrippa often said, that “the 
dominions of Herod were too little for the 
greatness of his soul, for that he deserved to 
have both all the kingdom of Syria, and that 
of Egypt also.” 

2. After this solemnity and these festivals 
were over, Herod erected another city in the 
plain called Capharsaba, where he chose out a 
fit place, both for plenty of water, and good- 
ness of soil, and proper for the production of 
what was there planted, where a river encom- 
passed the city itself, and a grove of the best 
trees, for magnitude was round about it; this 
he named Antipatris, from his father Antipater. 
He also built upon another spot of ground 
above Jericho, of the same name with his 
mother, a place of great security, and very 
pleasant for habitation, and called it Cypros. 
He also dedicated the finest monuments to his 
brother Phasaelus, on account of the great na- 
tural affection there had been between them, 
by erecting a tower in the city itself, not less 
than the tower of Pharos, which he named 
Phasaelus, which was at once a part of the 
strong defences of the city, and a memorial for 
nim that was deceased, because it bore his 
name. He also built a city of the same name 
in the valley of Jericho, as you go from it north- 
ward, whereby he rendered the neighboring 
country more fruitful, by the cultivation its in- 
habitants introduced; and this also he called 
Phasaelus. 

3. But as for his other benefits, it is impossi- 
ble to. reckon them up, those which he bestow- 
ed on cities, both in Syria and in Greece, and 
in all the places he came to in his voyages; for 
he seems to have conferred, and that after a 
most plentiful manner, what would minister to 
many necessities, and the building of public 
works, and gave them the money that was ne- 
cessary to such works as wanted it, to support 
them upon the failure of their other revenues: 
but, what was the greatest and most illustrious 
of all his works, he erected Apollo’s temple at 
Rhodes, at his own expenses, and gave them a 
great number of talents of silver for the repair 
of their fleet. He also built the greatest part 
#4 the public edifices for the inhabitants of Ni- 


OF THE JEWS. 


copolis,* at Actium: and for the Antiochians 
the inhabitants of the principal city of Syris 
where a broad street cuts through the plac 
lengthways, he built cloisters along it on bot 
sides; and laid the open road with polishe 
stone, which was of very great advantage t 
the inbabitants. And as to the olympic games 
which were in a very low condition, by reaso 
of the failure of their revenues, he recovere 
their reputation, and appointed revenues fo 
their maintenance, and made that solemn meet 
ing more venerable, as to the sacrifices an 
other ornaments: and by reason of this vas 
liberality, he was generally declared in ther 
inscriptions to be one of the perpetual manag 
ers of those games. 

4. Now some there are who stand amazes 
at the diversity of Herod’s nature and purposes 
for when we have respect to his magnificence 
and the benefits which he bestowed on al 
mankind, there is no possibility for even thos 
that had the least respect for him, to deny, o 
not openly to confess, that he had a natur 
vastly beneficent; but when any one look 
upon the punishments he inflicted, and the in 
juries he did, not only to his subjects, but te 
his nearest relations, and takes notice of his se 
vere and unrelenting disposition there, he wil 
be forced to allow that he was brutish, and : 
stranger to all humanity, insomuch that thes 
men suppose his nature to be different, anc 
sometimes at contradiction with itself: but | 
am myself of another opinion, and imagine 
that the occasion of both these sorts of action: 
was one and the same; for being a man ambi 
tious of honor, and quite overcome by tha 
passion, he was induced to be magnificent 
wherever there appeared any hopes of a fu 
ture memorial, or of reputation at present: anc 
as his expenses were beyond his abilities, h 
was necessitated to be harsh to his subjects 
for the persons on whom he expended his mo 
ney were so many, that they made him a very 
bad procurer of it; and because he was consciout 
that he was hated by those under him, for the 
injuries he did them, he thought it not an 
thing to amend his offences, for that it was in 
convenient for his revenue; he therefore strove 
on the other side to make their ill will an oe 
casion of his gains. As to his own court 
therefore, if any one was not very obsequiou! 
to him in his language, and would not confes: 
himself to be his slave, or but seemed to think 
of any innovation in his government, he was 
not able to contain himself, but prosecute¢ 
his very kindred and friends, and punished 
them as if they were enemies; and this wick- 
edness he undertook out of a desire that he 
might be himself alone honored. Now fos 
this my assertion about that passion of his, we 
have the greatest evidence, by what he did te 
honor Ceesar and Agrippa, and his other friends: 
for with what honors he paid his respects t 


* Dr. Hudson here gives us the words of Suctonus co® 
cerning this Nicopolis, when Augustus rebuilt it: “And “ 
the memory of the victory at Actium might be celebrated th 
more afterward, be built Nicopolis at Actium, and appointed 
public shows to be there exhibited every fifth year” I 
August. sect. 18 RR, $ 

“a 


BN BOOK XVI—CHAPTER VI. 


nem who were his superiors, the same did he 
esire to be paid to himself; and what he 
ought the most excellent present he could 
jake another, he discovered an inclination to 
ave the like presented to himself. But now 
3¢ Jewish nation is by their law a stranger to 
ll such things, and accustomed to prefer 
gliteousness to glory; for which reason that 
ation was not agreeable to lim, because it was 
ut of their power to flatter the king’s ambi- 
on with statues or temples, or any other such 
erformances. And this seems to me to have 
een at once the occasion of Herod’s crimes, 

3 to his own courtiers and counsellors, and of 

is benefactions, as to foreigners and those that 

ad no relation to him. 
CHAPTER VI. 

In embassage of the Jews in Cyrene and Asia 
to Cesar, concerning the complaints they had 
to make against the Greeks; with copies of the 
epistles which Cesar and Agrippa wrote to the 
cities for them. 


§ 1. Now the cities ill treated the Jews in 
sia, and all those also of the same nation 
fhich lived in Libya, which joins to Cyrene, 
rhile the former kings had given them equal 
rivileges with the other citizens; but the 
reeks affronted them at this time, and that so 
ir as to take away their sacred money, and to 
0 them mischief on other particular occasions. 
Vhen, therefore, they were thus afflicted, and 
und no end of the barbarous treatment they 
1et with among the Greeks, they sent ambas- 
ndors to Ceesar on those accounts; who gave 
hem the same privileges as they had _ before, 
nd sent letters to the same purpose to the gov- 
rors of the provinces, copies of which I sub- 
oin here, as testimonials of the ancient favora- 
le disposition the Roman emperors had to- 
vards us. 

2. “Cesar Augustus, high priest, and tribune 
f the people, ordains thus: Since the nation 
f the Jews hath been found grateful to the 
toman people, not only at this time, bu. in 
ime past also, and chiefly Hyrcanus the high 
wiest, under my father Cesar the emperor,* 
tseemed good to my counsellors, according to 
he sentence and oath of the people of Rome, 
hat the Jews have liberty to inake use of their 
wn customs, according to the law of their fore- 
athers, as they made use of them under Hyr- 
‘anus the high priest of Almighty God; and 
hat their sacred money be not touched, but be 
ent to Jerusalem, and that it be committed to 
hecare of the receivers at Jerusalem; and that 
hey be not obliged to go before any judge on 
he Sabbath-day, nor on the day of the prepa- 
‘ation to it, after the ninth hour:f but if any 
me be caaght stealing their holy books, or their 
aered money, whether it be out of the syna- 
rogue, or public school, he shall be deemed a 
acrilegious person, and his goods shall be 


- 
_* Augustus here calls Julius Cesar his father, though by 
irth he was only his uncle, on account of his adoption by 
im. See the same, Antig. b. xiv. ch. xiv. sect. 4. 
. ¥ This is authentic evidence, that the Jews, in the days 
.f Augustus, began to prepare for the celebration of the Sab- 
wh at the ninth hour on Friday, as the wadition of the el- 
ees did, it seeins, then require of them. 

4 ae | 
e 


401 


brought mte the public treasury of the Romans 
And I give order, that the testimonial which 
they have given me, on account of my regard 
to that piety which I exercise toward all man- 
kind, and out of regard to Caius Marcus Cen- 
sorinus, together with the present decree, be 
proposed in that most eminent place which 
hath been consecrated to me, by the commu- 
nity of Asia at Ancyra. And if any one trans- 
gress any part of what is above decreed, he 
shall be severely punished.” This was inscrib- 
ed upon a pillar m the temple of Ceesar. 

3. “Cesar to Norbanus Flaccus, sendetk 
greeting: Let those Jews, how many soever 
they be, who have been used according to ther 
ancient custom, to send their sacred money re 
Jerusalem, do the same freely.” These were 
the decrees of Ceesar. 

4, Agrippa also did himself write after the 
manner following, on behalf of the Jews: 
“A crippa, to the magistrates, senate, and peo- 
ple of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting: I will 
that the care and custody of the sacred money 
that is carried to the temple at Jerusalem be 
left to the Jews of Asia, to do with it accord- 
ing to their ancient custom; and that such ae 
steal that sacred money of the Jews, and fly 
to a sanctuary, shall be taken thence and de- 
livered to the Jews, by the same law that sa- 
crilegious persons are taken thence. I have 
also written to Sylvanus the preetor, that no 
one compel the Jews to come before a judge 
on the Sabbath-day.” 

5. “Marcus Agrippa, to the magistrates, se- 
nate, and people of Cyrene, sendeth greeting 
The Jews of Cyrene have interceded with me 
for the performance of what Augustus sent on 
ders about to Flavius, the then preetor of Libya, 
and to the other procurators of that province, 
that the sacred money may be sent to Jerusa- 
lem freely, as hath been their custom from 
their forefathers, they complaining that they 
are abused by certain informers, and, under 
pretence of taxes which were not due, are 
hindered from sending them, which I com- 
mand to be restored, without any diminution 
or disturbance given to them, and if any of that 
sacred money in the cities be taken from their 
proper receivers, I farther enjoin, that the same 
be exactly returned to the Jews in that place.” 

6. “Caius Norbanus Flaccus, proconsul, to 
the magistrates of the Sardians, sendeth grevi- 
ing: Cesar hath written to me, and command. 
ed me not to forbid the Jews, how many soever 
they be, from assembling together according te 
the custom of their forefathers, nor from send 
ing their money to Jerusalem: I have there- 
fore written to you, that you may know tha 
both Ceesar and 1 would have you act accord- 
ingly.” 

7. Nordid Julius Antonius, the proconsul, 
write otherwise: ‘“Il'o the magistrates, senate, 
and people of the Ephesians, sendeth greetings 
As I was dispensing justice at Ephesus, on the 
ides of February, the Jews that dwell in Asia 
demonstrated to me, that Augustus and Agrip- 
pa had permitted them to use their own laws 

land customs, and to offer those their first fraite 


602 


which every of them freely offers to the Deity 
en account of piety, and to carry them in a 
company together to Jerusalem without dis- 
turbance. They also petitioned me, that I also 
would confirm what had been granted by Au- 
gustus and Agrippa by my own sanction. I 
would, therefore, have you take notice, that 
according to the will of Augustus and Agrippa, 
I permit them to use and do according to 
the customs of their forefathers without dis- 
tarbance.” 
8. I have been obliged to set down these de- 
erees, because the present history of our own 
‘acts will go generally among the Greeks; and 
I have hereby demonstrated to them that we 
have formerly been in great esteem, and have 
not been prohibited by those governors we 
were under from keeping any of the laws of 
our forefathers: nay, that we have been sup- 
ported by them, while we followed our own 
religion, and the worship we paid to God; and 
1 frequently make mention of these decrees, in 
order to reconcile other people to us, and to 
take away the causes of that hatred which un- 
reasonable men bear to us. As for our customs,* 
there is no nation which always makes use of 
the same, and in every city almost we meet 
with them different from one another; but na- 
tural justice is most agreeable to the advantage 
of all men equally, both Greeks and barbarians, 
to which our laws have the greatest regard, 
and thereby render us if we abide in them af- 
ter a pure manner, benevolent and _ friendly to 
ali men: on which account we have reason to 
expect the like return from others, and to in- 
form them that they ought not to esteem differ- 
ence of positive institutions a sufficient cause 
of alienation, but { join with us in] the pursuit 
of virtue and probity, for this belongs to all 
men in common, and of itself alone is sufficient 
for the perservation of human life. I now re- 
turn to the thread of my history. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How, upon Herod’s going doton into Davi’s se- 
pruchre, the sedition in his family greatly tn- 
creased. ° 


§ 1. As for Herod, he had spent vast sums 
apout the cities, both without and within his 
vywn kingdom: and as he had before heard that 
Yyreanus, who had been king before him, had 
spened David’s sepulchre, and taken out of it 
three thousand talents of silver, and that there 
was a much greater number left behind, and 
tndeed enough to suffice all his wants, he had 
& great while an intention to make the attempt; 
and at this time he opened that sepulchre by 
Rignt, and went into it, and endeavored that it 
Bhould not be at all known in the city, but 
took only his most faithful friends with him. 


* The remaining part of this chapter is a remarkable one, 
as justly distinguishing natural justice, religion, and morali- 
fy, from positive institutions in all countries, and evidently 
preferring the former before the latter; ag did the true pro- 
shets of God always under the Old Testament, and Christ 
end his apostles always under the New; whence our Jose- 

us seems to have been at this time nearer Christianity 

an were the scribes and Pharisees of his age, who, as we 
know from the New Testament, were entirely of a different 
pinion and practice 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


a 


a 


As for any money, he found none, as Hyreane 
had done, but that furniture of gold, and thos 
precious goods that were laid up there; a 
which he took away. However, he had 
great desire to make a more diligent seare] 
and to go farther in, even as far as the very bc 
dies of David and Solomon; where two of hi 
guards were slain by a flame that burst on 
upon those that went in, as the report wa 
So he was terribly affrighted, and went o 
and built a propitiatory monument of the 
fright he had been in, and this of white stor 
at the mouth of the sepulchre, and that at 
great expense also. And even Nicolaus hb 
historiographer makes mention of this mont 
ment built. by Herod,* though he does ne 
mention his going down into the sepulchre, e 
knowing that action to be of ill repute; an 
many other things he treats of in the sam 
manner in his book; for he wrote in Herod 
lifetime, and under his reign, and so ast 
please him, and as a servant to him, touchin 
upon nothing but what tended to his glon 
and openly excusing many of his notoriou 
crimes, and very diligently concealing then 
And as he was desirous to put handsome ec 
lors on the death of Mariamne and her son: 
which were barbarous actions in the king, h 
tells falsehoods about the incontinence of Mz 
riamne, and the treacherous designs of hi 
sons upon him; and thus he proceeded in hi 
whole work, making a pompous encomiur 
upon what just actions he had done, but earn 
estly apologizing for his unjust ones. Indee 
a man, as I said, may have a great deal to sa 
by way of excuse for Nicolaus; for he did ne 
so properly write this as a history for other: 
as somewhat that might be subservient to th 
king himself. As for ourselves, who come 0 
a family nearly allied to the Asamonean king 
and on that account have an honorable plac 
which is the priesthood, we think it indecer 
to say any thing that is false about them, an 
accordingly we have described their action 
after an unblemished and upright manne: 
And although we reverence many of Herod 
posterity who still reign, yet do we pay a 
regard to truth than to them, and this thoug 
it sometimes happens that we incur their dis 
pleasure by so doing. 
2. And indeed Herod’s troubles in his famil 
seem to be augmented by reason of this at 
tempt he made upon David’ssepulchre, whethe 
divine vengeance increased the calamities h 
lay under, in order to render them incurabk 
or whether fortune made an assault upon hin 
in those cases, wherein the seasonableness o 
the cause made it strongly believed that 
calamities came upon him for his impiety, fo 
the tumult was like a civil war in his palac 


* It is here worth our observation, how careful Joseph 
was as to the discovery of truth in Herod’s history, sinc 
he would not follow Nicolaus of Damascus himself, so gret 
a historian, where there was great reason to suspect 
flattered Herod; which impartiality in history Josephus het 
solemnly professes, and of which impartiality he has 
more demonstration than almost any other historian w 
soever. But as to Herod’s taking great wealth out of 
sepulchre, though I cannot prove it, yet do I strongly susp 
it fromm this very histery. , ow 

Rh 
a 


wa 


BOOK XVI.—CHAPTER VIL. 


and their hatred towards one another was like 
that where eacli one strove to exceed another 
in calumnies. However, Antipater used stra- 
‘agems perpetually against his brethren, and 
that very cunningly; while abroad, he loaded 
them with accusations, but sti]l took upon him 
frequently to apologize for them, that this ap- 
ent benevolence to them might make hiim 
believed, and forward his attempts against 
them, by which means he, after various man- 
ners, circumvented his father, who believed 
that all he did was for his preservation. Herod 
also recommended Ptolemy, who was a great 
director of the affairs of his kingdom, to Anti- 
pater; and consulted with his mother about the 
ublic affairs also. And indeed these were all 
m all, and did what they pleased, and made 
the king angry against any other persons, as 
they thought it might be to their own advan- 
tage: but still the sons of Mariamne were in a 
‘worse and worse condition perpetually, and 
while they were thrust out, and set in a more 
dishonorable rank, who yet by birth were the 
most noble, they could not bear the dishonor. 
And for the women, Glaphyra, Alexander’s 
wife, the daughter of Archelaus, hated Salome, 
both. because of her love to her husband, and 
because Glaphyra seemed to behave herself 
somewhat insolently towards Salome’s daugh- 
ter, who was the wife of Aristobulus, which 
equality of hers to herself Glaphyra took very 
impatiently. 
_ 3. Now, besides this second contention that 
had fallen among them, neither did the king’s 
brother Pheroras keep himself out of trouble, 
but had a particular foundation for suspicion 
and hatred; for he was overcome with the 
charms of his wife to such a degree of mad- 
ness, that he despised the king’s daughter, to 
whom he had been betrothed, and wholly bent 
his mind to the other, who had been but a ser- 
vant. Herod also was grieved by the dishon- 
or that was done him, because he had bestow- 
ed many favors upon him, and had advanced 
him to that height of power that he was almost 
& partner with him in the kingdom, and saw 
that he had not made him a due return for his 
favors, and esteemed himself unhappy on that 
account. So upon Pheroras’s unworthy re- 
fusal, he gave the damsel to Phasaelus’s son: 
‘but after some time, when he thought the heat 
of his brother’s affections was over, he blamed 
him for his former conduct, and desired hitn, 
to take his second daughter, whose name was 
‘Cypros. Ptolemy also advised him to leave off 
‘efironting his brother, and to forsake her whom 
‘he had loved, for that it was a base thing to be 
‘so enamored of a servant, as to deprive hiim- 
self of the king’s good will to him, and become 
‘aN Occasion of his trouble, and make hiunself 
hated by him. Pheroras knew that this ad- 
vice would be for his own advantage, particu- 
‘larly because ne had been accused before, and 
‘forgiven; so he put his wife away, although he 
already had a son by her, and engaged to the 
ibe that he would take his second daughter, 
and agreed that the thirtieth day after should 
be the day of marriage; and swore he would 


499 


have no farther conversation with ler whom 
he had put away: but when the thirty days 
were over, he was such aslave to his affections, 
that he no longer performed any thing he had 
promised, but continued still with his former 
wife. This occasioned Herod to grieve open- 
ly, and made him angry, while the king drep- 
ped one word or other against Pheroras perpete 
ually; and many made the king’s anger an op 

portunity for raising calumnies against him, 
Nor had the king any longer a single quiet day 
or hour, but occasions of one fresh quarrel or 
another arose among his relations, and those that 
were dearest to him: for Salome was of a narsh 
temper, and ill natured to Mariamne’s sons; 
nor would she suffer her own daughter, who 
was the wife of Aristobulus, one of those 
young men, to bear a good will to her husband, 
but persuaded her to tell her if he had said any 
thing to her in private; and when any misunder- 
standings happened, as is common, she raised 
a great many suspicions out of it; by which 
means she learned all their concerns, and made 
the damsel ill natured to the young man And 
in order to gratify her mother, she often said 
that the young men used to mention Mariamne 
when they were by themselves; and that they 
hated their father, and were continually threat- 
ening, that if they had once got the kingdom, 
they would make Herod’s sons by his former 
Wives country schoolmasters, for that the pre- 
sent education which was given them, and 
their diligence in learning, fitted them for such 
anemployment. And as for the women, when- 
ever they saw them adorned with their mother’s 
clothes, they threatened that instead of their 
present gaudy apparel, they should be clothed 
in sackcloth, and confined so closely that they 
should not see the light of the sun. These 
stories were presently carried by Salome to the 
king, who was troubled to hear them, and en- 
deavored to make up matters; but these sus- 
picions afflicted him, and becoming more and 
more uneasy, he believed every body against 
every body. However, upon his rebuking his 
sons, and hearing the defence they made for 
themselves, he was easier for a while, though 
a little afterward much worse accidents came 
upon him. 

4. For Pheroras came to Alexander, the 
husband of Glaphyra, who was the daughter 
of Archelaus,as we have already told you, and 
said, that he had heard from Salome, that He- 
rod was enamored of Glaphyra, and that his 
passion for her was incurable. When Alexsa- 
der heard that, he was all on fire, from his youth 
and jealousy; and he interpreted the instances 
of Herod’s obliging behavior to her which 
were very frequent, for the worse, whica came 
from those suspicions he had on account of 
that word which fell from Pheroras; nor could 
he conceal his grief at the thing, but informed 
him, what words Pheroras had said. Upon 
whicl. Herod was ina greater disorder than 
ever; and not bearing such a false calumny, 
which was to his shame, was much disturbed 
at it; and often did he lament the wickedness 
of his domestics, and how good he had been te 


ayy 


ther, and how ill requitals they had made him. 
Bo he sent for Pheroras, and reproached him, 
and said, “Thou vilest of all men! art thou 
tome to that unmeasurable and extravagant de- 
gree of ingratitude, as not only to suppose such 
things of me, but to speak of them? I now in- 
deed perceive what thy intentions are: it is not 
thy only aim to reproach me, when thou usest 
such words to my son, but thereby to persuade 
him to plot against me, and get me destroyed 
by poison. And who is there, if he had nota 
good genius at his elbow, as hath my son, that 
would bear such a suspicion of his father, but 
would revenge himself upon him? Dost thou 
suppose that thou hast only dropped a word for 
him to think of, and not rather hast put a sword 
into his hand to slay his father? And what 
dost thou mean, when thou really hatest both 
him and his brother, to pretend kindness to 
them, only in order to raise a reproach against 
me, and talk of such things as no one but such 
an impious wretch as thou art could either de- 
vise in their mind, or declare in their words. 
Begone, thou that art such a plague to thy be- 
nefactor and thy brother, and may that evil con- 
science of thine go along with thee; while I 
still overcome my relations by kindness, and 
am so far from avenging myself of them as 
they deserve, that I bestow greater benefits 
upon them than they are worthy of.” 

5. Thus did the king speak.. Whereupon 
Pheroras, who was caught in the very act of 
his villainy, said, that “it was Salome who was 
the framer of this plot, and that the words 
came from her.” But as soon as she heard that, 
for she was at hand, she cried out, like one that 
would be believed, that no such thing ever 
came out of her mouth; that they all earnestly 
endeavored to make the king hate her, and to 
make her away, because of the good will she 
bore to Herod, and because she was always 
foreseeing the dangers that were coming upon 
him, and that at present there were more plots 
against him than usual; for while she was the 
only person who persuaded her brother to put 
away the wife he now had, and to take the 
king’s daughter, it was no wonder if slie were 
hated by him. As she said this and often tore 
her hair, and often beat her breast, her coun- 
tenance made her deniai to be believed; but 
the perverseness of her manners declared at 
the same time her dissimulation in these pro- 
ecedings; but Pheroras was caught between 
them, and had nothing plansible to offer in his 
own defence, while he confessed that he had 
said what was charged upon him, but was not 
believed wheu he said he had heard it from 
Salome; so the confusion among them was in- 
ereased, and their quarrelsome words one to 
another At last the king, out of his hatred to 
his brother and sister, sent them both away; 
and when he had commended the moderation 
of his son, and that he had himself told him of 
the report, he went in the evening to refresh 
bimself. After such a contest as this had fall- 
en out among them, Salome’s reputation suf- 
fered greatly, since she was supposed to have 
first raised the calumny; and the king’s wives 


, yt 
reel 
‘6 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWws. + ae 


¢ 


were grieved at her, as knowing she was a very 
ill natured woman, and would soinetimes he a 
friend, and sometimes an enemy, at different 
seasons; so they perpetually said one thing o 
another against her, and somewhat that now 
fell out made them the bolder in speaking 
against her. 

6. There was one Obodas, king of Arabia, 
an inactive and slothful man in his nature 
but Sylleus managed most of his affairs fo 


him. He was a shrewd man, although he wa, 
but young, and was handsome withall. This 


Sylleus, upon some occasion coming to Herod, 
and supping with him, saw Salome, and set his 
heart upon her: and, understanding that she 
wasa widow, he discoursed with her. Now, 
because Salome was at this time less in favor 
with her brother, she looked upon Sylleus with 
some passion, and was very earnest to be mar- 
ried to him; and on the days following there 
appeared many, and those very great, indica 
tions of their agreement together. Now the 


“women carried this news to the king, and laugh 


ed at the indecency of it; whereupon Herod 
inquired about it farther of Pheroras, and de- 
sired him to observe them at supper, how then 
behavior was one toward another; who tolc 
him, that by the signals which came from thei 
heads and their eyes, they both were evidently 
in love. Afier this, Sylleus the Arabian, be- 
ing suspected, went away, but came again if 
two or three months afterwards, as it were or 
that very design, and spoke to Herod about it, 
and desired that Salome might be given him to 
wife; for that his affinity might not ‘be disad- 
vantageous to his affairs, by a union with Ara 
bia, the government of which country was ab 
ready in effect under his power, and more evi 
dently would be his hereafter. Accordingly. 
when Herod discoursed with his sister about it 
and asked her, whether she were disposed t 
this match, she immediately agreed to it. Bu: 
when Sylleus was desired to come over to the 
Jewish religion, and then he should marry her 
aud that it was impossible to do it on any othe 
terms, he could not bear that proposal, ane 
went lis way; for he said, that if he should do 
so, he should be stoned by the Arabs. Ther 
did Pheroras reproach Salome for her mecot- 
tivency, as did the women much more, 
said, that Sylleus had debauched her. As fo: 
that damsel, whom the king had betrothed te 
his brother Pheroras, but he had not taken her 
as | hsve before related, because he was eD- 
amored of his former wife, Salome desired 
of Herod she might be given to her son by 
Costobarus; which match he was very willl 
to, but was dissuaded from it by Pheroras, wha 
pleaded, that this young man would not be 
kind to her, since his father had been slain by 
him, and that it was more just that his son, wi 
was to be his successor in the tetrarchy, should 
have her, so he begged his pardon, and pel 
suaded him todo so. Accordingly, the dam 
upon this change of her espousals, was dis 
ed of to this young man, the son of Pheror 
iy king giving for her portion a hundred 
ents, 










hd 


e BOOK XVI—CHAPTER VIII. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How Herod took up Alexander, and bound him; 
whom yet Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, re- 
conciled to his father Herod again. 


§ 1. But still the affairs of Herod’s family 
were no better, but perpetually more trouble- 
gome. Now this accident happened, which 
arose from no decent occasion, but proceeded 
so far as to bring great difficulties upon him. 
There were certain eunuchs which the king 
had, and on account of their beauty, were very 
fond of them; and the care of bringing him 
drink was intrusted to one of them, of bring- 
ing him his supper to another, and of putting 
him to bed to the third, who almost managed 
the principal affairs of the government; and 
there was one told the king, that these eunuchs 
were corrupted by Alexander the king’s son, 
With great sums of money: and when they 
were asked, whether Alexander had had crimi- 
nal conversation with them? they confessed it, 
but said they knew of no farther mischief of 
his against his father; but when they were more 
severely tortured, and were in the utmost ex- 
tremity, and the tormentors, out of compliance 
with Antipater, stretched the rack to the very 
utmost, they said, that Alexander bore great 
ill will and innate hatred to his father; and that 
he told them that Herod despaired to live much 
longer; and that in order to cover his great age, 
he colored his hair black, and endeavored to 
conceal what would discover how old he was; 
but that if he would apply himself to him, 
when he should attain the kingdom, which, in 
spite of his father, could come to no one else, 
he should quickly have the first place in that 
Kingdom under him, for that he was now 
ready to take the kingdom, not only as his birth- 
right, but by the preparations he had made for 
obtaining it, because a great many of the rulers, 
and a great many of his friends were of his 
side, and those no ill men neither, ready both 
to do and to suffer whatsoever should come on 
that account. 

2. When Herod heard this confession, he 
was all over anger and fear, some parts seem- 
ing to him reproachful, and some made him 
suspicious of dangers that attended him; inso- 
much that on both accounts he was provoked, 
and bitterly afraid lest some more heavy plot 
was laid against him than he should be then 
able to escape from; whereupon he did not now 
make an open search, but sent about spies to 
watch such as he suspected, for he was now 
overrun with suspicion and hatred against all 
about him; and indulging abundance of those 
‘Suspicions, in order to his preservation, he con- 
‘tinued to suspect those that were guiltless; nor 
did he set any bounds to himself, but suppos- 
ing that those who staid with him had the most 
bower to hurt him, they were to him very 
frightful; and for.those that did not use to 
‘come to him, it seemed enough to name them 
[to make them suspected,] and he thought him- 
self safer when they were destroyed: and at 
last his domestics were come to that pass, that 
being no way secure of escaping themselves, 


ee eee 
rR 7 


408 


they fell to accusing one another, and imagin- 
ing that he who first accused another, waa 
most likely to save himself} yet, when any had 
overthrown others, they were hated, and they 
were thought to suffer justly, who unjustly ac- 
cused others, and they only thereby prevented 
their own accusations; nay, they now executed 
their own private enmities by this mesns, and 
when they were caught they were punished in 
the same way. ‘Thus these men contrived to 
make use of this opportunity as an instrument 
and a snare against their enemies; yet when 
they tried it, were themselves caught also in the 
same snare which they laid for others: and the 
king soon repented of what he had done, be- 
cause he had no clear evidence of the guilt of 
those whom he had slain; and yet what was 
still more severe in him he did not make use 
of his repentance, in order to leave off doing 
the like again, but in order to inflict the same 
punishment upon their accusers. 

3. And in this state of disorder were the 
affairs of the palace: and he had already told 
many of his friends directly, that they ought 
not to appear before him, nor come into the 
palace; and the reason of this injunction was, 
that [when they were there] he had less free- 
dom of acting, or a greater restraint on him- 
self on their account: for at this time it was 
that he expelled Andromachus and Gamellus, 
men who had of old been his friends, and been 
very useful to him in the affairs of’ his king- 
dom, and been of advantage to his family, by 
their embassages and counsels; and had been 
tutors to his sons, and had in a manner the 
first degree of freedom with him. He expeli- 
ed Andromachus, because his son Demetrius 
was a companion to Alexander; and Gamellus, 
because he knew that he wished him well, 
which arose from his having been with him in 
his youth, when he was at school, and absent 
at Rome. These he expelled out of his pa- 
Jace, and was willing enough to have done 
worse by them; but that he might not seem te 
take such liberty against men of so great repu- 
tation, he contented himself with depriving 
them of their dignity, and of their power to 
hinder his wicked proceedings. 

4. Now it was Antipater who was the cause 
of all this; who, when he knew what a mad 
and licentious way of acting his father was in, 
and had been a great while one of his coun- 
sellors, he hurried him on, and then thought 
he should bring him to do somewhat to pur- 
pose, when every one that could oppose him 
was taken away. When, therefore, Andro- 
machus and his friends were driven away, and 
had no discourse nor freedom with the kin 
any longer, the king in the first place examin 
by torture all whom he thought to be faithfu 
to Alexander, whether they knew of any of his 
attempts against him; but these died without 
having any thing to say to that matter, which 
made the king more zealous [after discoveries, ]} 
when he could not find out what evil proceed- 
ings he sx:spected them of. As for Antipater 
he was very sagacious to raise a calumny 
against those that were really innocent, as if 


406 


their denial was only their constancy and fidel- 
ity [to Alexander] and thereupon provoked 
Herod to discover, by the torture of great num- 
bers, what attempts were still concealed. Now 
there was a certain person among the many 
that were tortured, who said, that he knew that 
the young man had often said, that when he 
was commended as a tall man in his body, and 
e skilful marksman, and that in his commenda- 
ble exercises he exceeded all men, these quali- 
fications giy2n him by nature, though good in 
themselves, were not advantageous to him, be- 
cause his father was grieved at them, and en- 
vied him for them; and that when he walked 
along with his father he endeavored to depress 
and shorten himself, that he might not appear 
too tall, and that when he shot at any thing as 
he was hunting, when his father was by, he 
missed his mark on purpose, for he knew how 
ambitious his father was of being superior in 
such exercises. So when the man was tor- 
mentod about this saying, and had ease given 
his body after it, he added, that he had _ his 
brother Aristobulus for his assistance; and 
contrived to lie in wait for their father, as they 
were hunting, and kill him: and when they 
had done so, to fly to Rome, and desire to have 
the kingdom given them. There were also 
letters of the young man found, written to his 
brother, wherein he complained, that his father 
did not act justly in giving Antipater a country, 
whose [yearly] revenues amounted to two 
hundred talents. Upon these confessions He- 
rod presently thought he had somewhat to de- 
pend on, in his own opinion, as to his suspi- 
cion about his sons: so he took up Alexander 
and bound him: yet did he still continue to be 
uneasy, and was not quite satisfied of the truth 
of what he had heard; and when he came to 
recollect himself, he found that they had only 
made juvenile complaints and contentions, and 
that it was an incredible thing, that when his 
son should have slain him, he should openly 
go to Rome [to beg the kingdom] so he was 
desirous to have some surer mark of his son’s 
witkedness, and was very solicitous about it, 
that he might not appear to have condemned 
nim to be put in prison too rashly; so he tor- 
tured the principal of Alexander’s friends, and 
put not a few of them to death, without get- 
ting any of the things out of them which he 
suspected. And while Herod was very busy 
about this matter, and the palace was full of 
terror and trouble, one of the younger sort, 
when he was in the utmost agony, confessed 
that Alexander had sent to his friends at Rome, 
and desired that he might be quickly invited 
thither by Ceesar, and that he could discover a 
pat against him; that Mithridates, the king of 
arthia, was joined in a friendship with his 
father against the Romans, and that he had a 
poisonous potion ready prepared at Askelon. 
5. To these accusations Herod gave credit, 
and enjoyed hereby, in his miserable case some 
sort of consolation, in excuse of his rashness 
as flattering himself with finding things in so 
bad a condition; but as for the poisonous po- 
tion, which he labored to find, he could find 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


none. As for Alexander, he was very desirous 
to aggravate the vast misfortunes he was un 
der; so he pretended not to deny the accuse. 
tions, but punished the rashness of his father 
with a greater crime of his own; and perhaps 
he was willing to make his father ashamed of 
his easy belief of such calumnies: he aimed 
especially, if he could gain belief to his story, 
to plague him and his whole kingdom; for he 
wrote four letters, and sent them to him, thay 
“he did not need to torture any more persons 
for he had plotted against him; and that he had 
for his partners Pheroras and the most faithful 
of his friends; and that Salome came into him 
by night, and that she lay with him whether he 
would or no: and that all men were come to 
be of one mind, to make away with kim as 
soon as they could, and so get clear of the con- 
tinual fear they were in from him.” Among 
these were accused Ptolemy and Sapinnius, who 
were the most faithful friends to the ki 
And what more can be said, but that those who 
before were the most intimate friends, were 
become wild beasts to one another, as if a cer 
tain madness had fallen upon them, while there 
was no room for defence or refutation, in or- 
der to the discovery of the truth, but all were 
atrandom doomed to destruction; so that some 
lamented those that were in prison, some those 
that were put to death, and others lamented 
that they were in the expectation of the same 
miseries; and a melancholy solitude rendered 
the kingdom deformed, and quite the reverse 
to that happy state it was formerly in; Herod’s 
own life also was entirely disturbed; and be- 
cause he could trust nobody, he was sorely pe 
ished by the expectation of farther misery, 

he often fancied in his imagination, that hisson 
had fallen upon him, or stood by him witha 
sword in his hand; and thus was his mind night 
and day intent upon this thing, and revolved it 
over and over, no otherwise than if he were un- 
der a distraction. And this was the sad condi 
tion Herod was now in. 

6. But when Archelaus, king of Cappadocia 
heard of the state that Herod was in, and being 
in great distress about his daughter, and the 
young man [her husband,] and grieving with 
Herod, as with a man that was his friend, on 
account of so great a disturbance as he was 
under, he came [to Jerusalem] on purpose ‘> 
compose their differences; and when he found 
Herod in such a temper, he thought it wholly 
unseasonable to reprove him, or to pretend that 
he had done any thing rashly; for that he should 
thereby naturally bring him to dispute the 
point with him, and by still more ana more 
apologizing for himself to be the more irrita- 
ted; he went therefore another way to work, in 
order to correct the former misfortunes, and ap- 
peared angry at the young man, and said, that’ 
Herod had been so very mild a man, that he 
had not acted a rash part at all. He also said, 
he would dissolve his daughter’s marriage with 
Alexander, nor could in justice spare his own 
daughter, if she were conscious of any thing, 
and did not inform Herod of it. When 
chelaus appeared to be of this temper, 


‘ae 


1 | BOOK XVI.—CHAPTER LX. «0? 


xtherwise than Herod expected or imagined, and 
for the main, took Herod’s part, and was angry 
yn his account, the king abated of his harshness, 
ind took occasion, from his appearing to have 
acted justly hitherto, to come by degrees to put 
yn the affection of a father, and was on both 
sides to be pitied; for when some persons refut- 
ad the calumnies that were laid on the young 
man, he was thrown into a passion; but when 
Archelaus joined in the accusation, he was dis- 
solved into tears and sorrow after an affection- 
ate manner. Accordingly, he desired that he 


quietly, which was 4 thing they did not hk 

and when they did take that pains, the oeoiinet 
did not produce much fruit for them. However, 
at the first the king would not permit them te 
rob, and so they abstained from that unjust way 
of living upon their neighbors, which procur- 
ed Herod a great reputation for his care: but 
when he was sailing to Rome, (it was at the? 
time when he went to accuse his son Alexan- 
der, and to commit Antipater to Czesar’s pro» 
tection,) the Trachonites spread a report as if 
he were dead, and revolted from his dominion, 













would not dissolve his son’s marriage, and be- 
rame not so angry as before for his offences. 
So when Archelaus had brought him to a more 
moderate temper, he transferred the calumnies 
upon his friends; and said, it must be owing to 
them that so young a man, and one unacquaint- 
ed with malice, was corrupted, and he suppos- 
ed that there was more reason to suspect the 
brother than the son. Upon which Herod was 
very much displeased at Pheroras, who indeed 
now had no one that could make a reconcilia- 
tion between him and his brother; so when he 
saw that Archelaus had the greatest power with 
Herod, he betook himself to him in the habit of 
a mourner, and like one that had all the signs 
upon him of an undone man. Upon this, Ar- 
chelaus did not overlook the intercession he 
made to him, nor yet did he undertake to change 
the king’s disposition towards him immediately; 
and he said, that it was better for him to come 
himself to the king, and confess himself the oc- 
casion of all; that this would make the king’s 
anger not to be extravagant towards him, and 
that then he would be present to assist him. 
When he had persuaded him to this, he gained 
his point with both of them; and the calumnies 
raised against the young man were, beyond all 
expectation, wiped off. And Archelaus, as 
goon ashe had made the reconciliation, went 
then away to Cappadocia, having proved at 
this juncture of time the most acceptable per- 
son to Herod in the world; on which account 
he gave him the richest presents, as tokens of 
his respect to him, and being on other occasions 
magnanimous, he esteemed him one of his 
dearest friends. He also made an agreement 
‘with him that he would go to Rome, because 
he had written to Ceesar about these affairs: so 
they went together as far as Antioch, and there 
Herod made areconciliation between Archelaus 
‘and Titus, the president of Syria, who had 
‘been greatly at variance, and so returned back 
to Judea. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Cencernng the revolt of the Trachonites: how 
| leus accused Herod before Cesar: and how 

erod, when Cesar was angry at lam, resolv- 
ed to send Nicolaus to Rome. 


§ 1. When Herod had been at Rome, and 
was come back again, a war arose between him 
-and the Arabians, on the occasion following: 
\ the inhabitants of Trachonitis, after Ceesar had 
taken the country away from Zenodorus, and 
‘added it to Herod, had not now power to rob, 
but were forced to plcugh the land. and to live 































and betook themselves again to their accustome 
ed way of robbing their neighbors; at which 
time the king’s conimanders subdued them dur- 


ing his absence, but about forty of the principal 


robbers, being terrified by those that had been 
taken, left the country, and retired into Arabia, 
Sylleus entertaining them, after he had missed 
of marrying Salome, and gave them a place of 
strength, in which they dwelt. 
ran not only Judea, but all Celosyria also, and 
carried off the prey, while Sylleus afforded 
them places of protection and quietness during 
their wicked practices. But when Herod came 


So they over- 


back from Rome, he perceived that his domi- 


nions had greatly suffered by them, and since 
he could not reach the robbers themselves, be= 
cause of the secure retreat they had in thas 
country, and which the Arabian government 
afforded them, and yet being very uneasy at the 
injuries they had done him, he went all over 


Trachonitis, and slew their relations; whereup- 
on these robbers were more angry than before, 
it being a law among them to be avenged on 
the murderers of their relations by all possible 
means, so they continued to tear and rend every 
thing under Herod’s dominion with impunity; 
then did he discourse about these robberies 
to Saturninusand Volumnius, and required that 
they should be punished; upon which occasion 
they still the more confirmed themselves " 
their robberies, and became more numerous; 
and made very great disturbances, laying waste 
the countries and villages that belonged to He- 
rod’s kingdom, and killing those men whom 
they caught, till these unjust proceedings came 
to be like a real war, for the robbers were now 
become about a thousand. At which Herod 
was sore displeased, and required the robbers, 
as well as the money which he had lent Obo- 
das, by Sylleus, which was sixty talents; and 
since the time of payment was now past, he 
desired to have it paid him; but Sylleus, who 
had laid Obodas aside, and managed all by him- 
self, denied that the robbers were in Arabia, 
and put off the payment of the money; about 
which there was a hearing before Saturnin.s 
and Volumnius, who were then the presidents* 
of Syria. At last, he, by their means, agreed, 
that within thirty days’ time Herod should be 
paid his money, and that each of them should 
deliver up the other’s subjects reciprocally. 
Now, as to Herod, there was not one of the 
other’s subjects found in his kingdom, either as 


* These joint presidents of Syria, Saturninus and Volum 
nius, were not perhaps of equal authority; but the latter like 
a procurator under the former: as the very learned Noris and 
Pagi, and with them Dr. Hudson, determined. 


£06 


doing any injustice, or on any other account; 
but it was proved that the Arabians had the 
robbers among them. 

2. When the day appointed for payment of 
the money was past, without Sylleus’s perform- 
ing any part of his agreement, and he was gone 
to Rome, Herod demanded the payment of the 
money, and that the robbers that were in Ara- 
bia should be delivered up; and, by the per- 
mission of Saturninus and Volumnius, execut- 
ed the judgment himself upon those that were 
refractory. He took an army that he had, and 
led it into Arabia; and in three days’ time, by 
forced marches, arriving at the garrison where- 
in the robbers were, he made an assault upon 
them, and took them all, and demolished the 
place, which was called Raepta, but did no 
harm to any others: but as the Arabians came 
to their assistance, under Nacebus their captain, 


there ensued a battle wherein a few of Herod’s | 


soldiers, and Nacebus, the captain of the Ara- 
bians, and about twenty of his soldiers fell, 
while the rest betook themselves to flight. So 
when he had brought these to punishment, he 
placed three thousand Idumeans in Trachonitis, 
and thereby restrained the robbers that were 
there. He alsu sent an account to the captains 
that were about Pheenicia, and demonstrated 
that he had done nothing but what he ought to 
do, in punishing the refractory Arabians, which, 
upon an exact inquiry, they found to be no 
more than what was true. 

3. However, messengers were hasted away to 
Sylleus to Rome, and informed him of what 
had been done, and, as is usual, aggravated 
every thing. Now Sylleus had already insin- 
uated himself into the knowledge of Cesar, 
and was then about the palace: and as soon as 
he heard of these things, he changed his habit 
into black, and went in, and told Ceesar that 
“Arabia was afflicted with war, and that all his 
kingdom was in great confusion, upon Herod’s 
laying it waste with his army: and he said with 
tears in his eyes, that two thousand five hun- 
dred of the principal men among the Arabians 
had been destroyed, and that their captain Na- 
eebus, his familiar friend and kinsman, was 
slain; and that the riches that were at Raepta 
were carried off; and that Obodas was despised, 
whose infirm state of body rendered him unfit 
for war; on which account neither he, nor the 
Arabian army, were present.” When Sylleus 
said so, and added invidiously, that “he would 
not himself have come out of the country, un- 
less he had believed that Caesar would have 
provided that they should all have peace one 
with another, and that, had he been there, he 
would have taken care that the war should not 
have been to Herod’s advantage.” Czesar was 
provoked when this was said, and asked no more 
than this one question, both of Herod’s friends 
that were there, and of his own friends, who 
were come from Syria, “Whether Herod had 
led an army thither?” And when they were 
forced to confess so much, Cesar, without stay- 
ing to hear for what reason he did it, and how 
it was done, grew very angry, and wrote to 
‘ferod sharply. The sum of his epistle was! 


te 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


this; that “whereas of old he had used him 4 
his friend, he should now use him as his sub 
ject.” Sylleus also wrote an account of tsi 
to the Arabians; who were so elevated with i 
that they neither delivered up the robbers th¢ 
had fled to them, nor paid the money that wa 
due: they retained those pastures also whic 
they had hired, and kept them, without payin 
their rent, and all this because the king of th 
Jews was now in a low condition, by reason o 
Cesar’s anger at him. Those of Trachoniti 
also made use of this opportunity, and rose u: 
against the Idumean garrison, and followe 
the same way of robbing with the Arabian 
who had_ pillaged their country, and wer 
more rigid in their unjust proceedings, not on 
ly in order to get by it, but by way of reveng 
also. 

4. Now Herod was forced to hear all this 
that confidence of his being quite gone witl 
which Ceesar’s favor used to inspire him; fo 
Cesar would not admit so much as an embas 
sage from him to make an apology for him 
and when they came again, he sent them awa 
without success. So he was cast into sadnes 
and fear; and Sylleus’s circumstances grieves 
him exceedingly, who was now believed by 
Cesar, and was present at Rome, nay, some 
times aspiring higher. Now it came to pas 
that Obodas was dead: and Eneas, whos 
name was afterwards changed to Aretas,* tool 
the government, for Sylleus endeavored by ca 
lumnies to get him turnéd out of his principali 
ty, that he might himself take it; with whiel 
design he gave much money to the courtiers 
and promised much money to Cesar, who wat 
angry that Aretas had not sent to him first be. 
fore he took the kingdom; yet did Eneas se 
an epistle and presents to Cesar, and a goldet 
crown, of the weight of many talents. No 
that epistle accused Sylleus as having been 
wicked servant, and having killed Obodas by 
poison; and that, while he was alive, he h 
governed him as he pleased; and had also de- 
bauched the wives of the Arabians; and ha 
borrowed money, in order to obtain the domin- 
ion for himself; yet did not Ceesar give heed te 
these accusations, but sent his ambassadors 
back, without receiving any of his presents 
but in the mean time the affairs of Judea ané¢ 
Arabia became worse and worse, partly becaus 
of the anarchy they were under, and partly bi 
cause, as bad as they were, nobody had powe 
to govern them, for of the two kings, the one 
was not yet confirmed in his kingdom. and se 
had not authority sufficient to restrain the evi 
doers: and as for Herod, Ceesar was immediate. 
ly angry at him, for having avenged hims olf 
and so he was compelled to bear all the inju 
ries that wer offered him. At length, whei 
he saw no ent! of the mischiet which surround: 
ed him, he resolved to send ambassadors to 
Rome again, to see whether his friends hi 
prevailed to mitigate Ceesar, and to address 

* This Aretas was now become so established a name # 
the kings of Arabia fet Petra and Damascus,] that when thé 
crown came to this Eneas he changed his name 1o « 


et fart ercamp here justly observes; see Antiq. b. x ii, ch. X¥. 
sect. 2. . iy 
















BOOK XVIL--CHAPTER X. 


dhermselves to Ceesar himself: and the ambas- 
sador he sent thither was Nicolaus of Damas- 
Us. 


CHAPTER X. 


How Eurycles falsely accused Herod’s sons; and 

how their father bownd them, and wrote to 
Cesar about them. Of Sylleus, and how he 
was accused by Nicolaus. 


§ 1. The disorders about Herod’s family 
and children about this time grew much worse; 
for it now appeared certain, nor was it unfore- 
seen beforehand, that fortune threatened the 
greatest and most insupportable misfortunes 
possible to his kingdom. Its progress and 
augmentation at this time arose on the occa- 
sion following: One Eurycles, a Lacedemo- 
nian, (a person of note there, but a man of a per- 
verse mind, and so cunning in bis ways of vo- 
juptuousness and flattery, as to indulge both, and 
yet seem to indulge neither of them,) came in 
his travels to Herod, and made him presents, 
but so that he received more presents from 
him. He also took such proper seasons for in- 
sinuating himself into his friendship, that he 
became one of the most intimate of the king’s 
friends. He had his lodging in Antipater’s 
house; but he had not only access, but free 
conversation with Alexander, as pretending to 
nim that he was in great favor with Archelaus, 
the king of Cappadocia; whence he pretended 
much respect to Glaphyra, and, in an occult 
manner, cultivated a friendship with them all, 
but always attending to what was said and 
done, that he might be furnished with calum- 
nies to please them all. In short, he behaved 
himself so to every body in his conversation, 
as to appear to be his particular friend, and he 
made others believe that his being anywhere 
was for that person’s advantage. So he won 
upon Alexander, who was but young; and per- 
suaded him that he might open his grievances 
to him with assurance, and with nobody else. 
So he declared his grief to him, how his father 
was alienated from him. He related to him 
also the affairs of his mother, and of Antipater; 
that he had driven them from their proper dig- 
nity, and had the power over every thing him- 
self; that no part of this was tolerable, since 
his father was already come to hate them; and 
he added, that he would neither admit them to 
his table, nor to his conversation. Such were 
the complaints, as was but natural, of Alexander, 
about the things that troubled him: and these 
discourses Eurycles carried to Antipater; and 
told him, he did not inform him of this on his 
own account, but that, being overcome by his 
aindness, the great importance of the thing 
obliged him to do it: and he warned him to 
have a care of Alexander, for that what he 
said was spoken with vehemency, and that, in 
consequence of what he said, he would cer- 
tainly kill him with his own hand. Where- 
upon Antipater, thinking him to be his friend 
by this advice, gave him presents upon all oc- 
easions, and at length persuaded him to inform 
Herod of what he had heard. So when he 
related to the king Alexander’s ill temper, as 

52 


discovered by the words he had heard him 
speak, he was easily believed by him, and he 
thereby brought the king to that pass turning 
him about by his words, and ir: xating him, 
till he increased his hatred to him, and made 
him implacable, which he showed at that very 
time, for he immediately gave Eurycles a pre- 
sent of fifty talents; who, when he had gotten 
them, went to Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, 
and commended Alexander before him, and 
told him that he had been many ways of ad- 
vantage to him in making a reconciliation be- 
tween him and his father. So he got money 
from him also, and went away, before his per- 
nicious practices were found out: but when 
Kurycles was returned to Lacedemon, he did 
not leave off doing mischief, and so, for his 
many acts of injustice, he was banished from 
his own country. 

2. But as for the king of the Jews, he was 
not now in the temper he was in formerly to- 
wards Alexander and Aristobulus, when he 
had been content with the hearing their calum- 
nies when others told him of them, but he was 
now come to that pass as to hate them himself, 
and to urge men to speak against them, though 
they did not do it of themselves. He also ob- 
served all that was said, and put questions, and 
gave ear to every one that would but speak, if 
they could but say any thing against them, till 
at length he heard that Euaratus, of Cos, was a 
conspirator with Alexander; which thing to 
Herod was the most agreeable and sweetest 
news imaginable. 

3. But still a greater misfortune came upon 
the young men, while the calumnies against 
them were continually increased, and, asa man 
may say, one would think it was every one’s 
endeavor to lay some grievous thing to their 
charge, which might appear to be for the king’s 
preservation. ‘There were two guards of He- 
rod’s body, who were in great esteem for their 
strength and tallness, Jucundus and Tyrannust 
these men had been cast off by Herod, who 
was displeased at them; these now used to ride 
along with Alexander, and for their skill in their 
exercises were in great esteem with him, and 
had some gold and other gifts bestowed upon 
them. Now the king, having an immediate 
suspicion of these men had them tortured; who - 
endured the torture courageously for a long 
time, but at Jast confessed that Alexander would 
have persuaded them to kill Herod, when he 
was in pursuit of the wild beasts, that it might 
be said he fell from his horse, and was run 
through with his own spear for that he had once 
such a misfortune formerly. They also show- 
ed where there was money hidden in the stable 
under ground, and these convicted the king’s 
chief hunter, that he had given the young men 
the royal hunting spears, and weaponsto Alex- 
ander’s dependants, at Alexander’s command. 

4, After these, the commander of the garri- 
son of Alexandrium was caught and _ tortured, 
for he was accused to have promised to re — 
ceive the young men into his fortress, and te 
supply them with that money of the king which 
was laid up in that fortress, yet did he not ae 


410 


knowledge any tning of it himself: but his son 
came in, and said it was so, and delivered up 
the writing, which so far as could be guessed, 
was in Alexauder’s hand. Its contents were 
these: “When we have finished, by God’s help, 
all that we have proposed to do, we will come 
to you; but do your endeavors, as you have 
promised, to receive us into your fortress,” 
After this writing was produced Herod had no 
doubt about tke treacherous designs of his sons 
against him. But Alexander, said, that Dio- 
phantus, the scribe, had imitated his hand, and 
that the paper was maliciously drawn up by 
Antipater; for Diophantus appeared to be very 
cunning in such practices; and as he was after- 
ward convicted of forging other papers he was 
put to death for it. 

5. So the king produced those that had been 
tortured before the multitude at Jericho, in or- 
der to have them accuse the young men, which 
accusers many of the people stoned to death; 
and when they were going to kill Alexander, 
and Aristobulus likewise, the king would not 
permit them to do so, but restrained the multi- 
tude, by the means of Ptolemy and Pheroras. 
However the young men were put under a 
guard, and kept in custody, that nobody might 
come at them; and all that they did or said 
was watched; and the reproach and fear they 
were in was little or nothing different from 
those of condemned criminzls; and one of 
them, who was Aristobulus, was so deeply af- 
fected, that he brought Salome, who was his 
aunt, and his mother-in-law, to lament with 
him for his culamities, and to hate him who had 
suffered things to come to that pass; when he 
said to her, “Art not thou in danger of destruc- 
tion also, while the report goes that thou hadst 
disclosed beforehand all our affairs to Sylleus, 
when thou wast in hopes of being married to 
hini?” But she immediately carried those 
words to her brother: upon this he was out of 
patience, and gave command to bind him; and 
enjoined them both, now they were kept sepa- 
rate one from the other, to write down the ill 
things they had done against their father, and 
bring the writings to him. So when this was 
enjoined them, they wrote this, that they had 
laid no treacherous designs, nor made any pre- 

arations against their father, but that they had 
intended to fly away; and that by the distress 
they were in, their lives being now uncertain 
and tedious to them. 

6. About this time there came an ambassa- 
dor out of Cappadocia from Archelaus, whose 
name was Melas: he was one of the principal 
rulers under him. So Herod, being desirous 
to show Archelaus’s ill will to him, called for 
Alexander, as he was in his bonds, and asked 
him again concerning his flight, whither and 
how they had resolved to retire? Alexander re- 
plied, “To Archelaus, who had promised to 
send them away to Rome; but that they had 
no wicked nor mischievous designs against 
their father; and that nothing of that nature 
which their adversaries had charged upon them 
was true; and that their desire was, that he 
might have examined Tyrannus and Jucun- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


dus more strictly; but that they nad been sud 
denly slain by the means of Antipater, whe 
put his own friends among the multitude [for 
that purpose.” ) 
7. When this was said, Herod commanded 
that both Alexander and Melas should be car- 
ried to Glaphyra, Archelaus’s daughter, and 
that she should be asked, whether she did not 
know somewhat of Alexander’s treacherous 
designs against Herod? Now as soon as they 
were come to her, and she saw Alexander im 
bonds, she beat her head, and in a great con- 
sternation gave a deep and moving groan. The 
young man also fell into tears. This was so 
miserable a spectacle to those present, that, for 
a great while, they were not able to say or do 
any thing; but at length Ptolemy, who was 
ordered to bring Alexander, bade him say, 
whether his wife were conscious of his actions? 
He replied, “How is it possible that she, whom 
{ love better than my own soul, and by whom | 
have had children, should not know what I do?” 
Upon which she cried out, that “she knew of 
no wicked designs of his; but that yet, if her 
accusing herself falsely would tend to his pre- 
servation, she would confess it all.” Alexan- 
der replied, “There is no such wickedness as 
those (who ought the least of all so to do) sus 
pect, which either I have imagined, or thou 
knowest of, but this only that we had resolved 
toretire to Archelaus, and from thence to 
Rome.” Which she also confessed. Upon 
which Herod, supposing that Archelaus’s ill 
will to him was fully proved, sent a letter by 
Olympus and Volumnius; and bade them, as 
they sailed by, to touch at Eleusa of Cilicia, 
and give Archelaus the letter. And that when 
they had expostulated with him that he had a 
hand in his son’s treacherous design against 
him, they should from thence sail to Rome, and 
that, in case they found Nicolaus had gained 
any ground, and that Ceesar was no longer dis- 
pleased at him, he should give him his lettera, 
and the proofs which he had ready to show 
against the young men. As to Archelaus, he 
made this defence for himself, that “he had pro- 
mised to receive the young men, because it was 
both for their own and their father’s adveun 
so to do, lest some too severe procedure shou 
be gone upon, in that anger and disorder they 
were in, on occasion of the present suspicions; 
but that still he had not promised to send them 
to Cesar: and that he had not promised any 
thing else to the young men that could show’ 
ill will to him.” i 
8. When these ambassadors were come to 
Rome, they had a fit opportunity of delivering 
their letters to Caesar, because they found him. 
reconciled to Herod; for the circumstance of 
Nicolaus’s embassage had been as follows: as 
soon as he was come to Rome, and was about 
the court, he did not first of all set about what 
he was come for only, but he thought fit alse 
to accuse Sylleus. Now the Arabians, even 
before he came to talk with them, were quar- 
relling one with another; and some of them 
left Sylleus’s party, and, joining themselyes to 
Nicolaus, informed him of al the wicked things: 


of 
_ F 


BOOK XVI.—CHAPTER X. 


that had been done; and produced to him evi- 
dent demonstrations of the slaughter of a great 
number of Obodas’s friends by Sylleus; for 
when these men left Sylleus, they had carried 
off with them those letters whereby they could 
convict him. When Nicolaus saw such an 
opportunity afforded him, he made use of it, in 
order to gain his own point afterward, and en- 
deavored immediately to make a reconciliation 
between Ceesar and Herod; for he was fully 
satisfied, that if he should desire to make a de- 
fence for Herod directly, he should not be allow- 
ed that liberty; but that if he desired to accuse 
Sylleus, there would an occasion present itself 
of speaking on Herod’s behalf. So when the 
cause was ready for a hearing, and the day was 
appointed, Nicolaus, while Aretas’s ambassa- 
dors were present, accused Sylleus, and said, 
that “he imputed to him the destruction of the 
king pepodess} and of many others of the Ara- 
bians; that he had borrowed money for no good 
design; and he proved that he had been guilty 
of adultery, not only with the Arabian, but Ro- 
man womenalso.” And he added, that “above 
all the rest he had alienated Cesar from Herod; 
and that all that he had said about the actions 
of Herod were falsities.” When Nicolaus was 
come to this topic, Cesar stopped him from 
going on, and desired him only to speak to this 
affair of Herod’s; and to show that “he had 
not led an army into Arabia, nor slain two 
thousand five hundred men there, nor taken 
prisoners, nor pillaged the country.” To 
which Nicolaus made this answer: “I shall prin- 
tipelly demonstrate, that either nothing at all, 
or Lut a very little, of those imputations are 
true of which thou hast been informed, for had 
they been true, thou mightest justly have been 
still more angry at Herod.” At this strange 
assertion Cesar was very attentive; and Nico- 
laus said, that there was a debt due to Herod of 
five hundred talents, and a bond, wherein it 
was written, that if the time appointed be 
elapsed, it should be lawful to make a seizure 
out of any partof hiscountry. As for the pre- 
tended army he said, it was no army, but a party 
sent out to require the just payment of the mo- 
ney; that this was not sent immediately, nor so 
soon as the bond allowed, but that Sylleus had 
frequently came before Saturninus and Volum- 
nius, the presidents of Syria; and that at last 
he had sworn at Berytus, by thy fortune,* that 
he would certainly pay the money within thirty 
days, and deliver up the fugitives that were 
under his dominion. And that when Sylleus 
had performed nothing of this, Herod came 
again before the presidents; and upon their 
permission to make a seizure for his money, he, 
with difficulty, went out of bis country with a 
party of soldiers for that purpose. And this is 
all the war which these men so tragically de- 
seribe; and this is the affair of the expedition 
nto Arabia. And how can this be called a 
war? when thy presidents permitted it; the 
4ovenants allowed it; and it was not executed 
um thy name, O Cesar, as well as that of the 


* This oath, by the fortune of Caesar, was put to Polycarp, 
bishop of Smyma, by the Roman governor, to try whether 


415 


other gods, had been profaned. And now J] 
must speak in order about the captives. There 
were robbers that dwelt in Trachonitis, at first 
their number was no more than forty, but they 
became more afterward, and they escaped the 
punishment Herod would have inflicted on 
them, by making Arabia their refuge. Sylleus 
received them, and supported them with food, 
that they might be mischievous to all mankind, 
and gave them a country to inhabit, and him- 
self received the gains they made by robbery; 
yet did he promise that he would deliver up 
these men, and that by the same oaths and 
same time that heswore and fixed for payment 
of his debt; nor can he by any means show 
that any other persons have at this time been 
taken out of Arabia, besides these, and indeed 
not all these neither, but only so many as could 
not conceal themselves, And thus does the 
calumny of the captives, which hath been so 
odiously represented, appear to be no better 
than a fiction and a lie, made on purpose te 
provoke thy indignation; for I venture to affirm. 


that when the forces of the Arabians came upon 


us, and one or two of Herod’s party fell, he then 
only defended himself, and there fell Nacebus, 
their general, and in all, about twenty-five 
others, and no more; whence Sylleus, by mul- 
tiplying every single soldier to a hundred, he 
reckons the slain to have been two thousand 
five hundred.” 

9. This provoked Czesarsmore than ever: so 
he turned to Sylleus full of rage, and asked 
him how many of the Arabians were slain? 
Hereupon he hesitated, and said he had been 
imposed upon. 'The covenants also were read 
about the money he had borrowed, and the 
letters of the presidents of Syria, and the com- 
plaints of the several cities, so many as had 
been injured by the robbers. The conclusion 
was this, that Sylleus was condemned to die, 
and that Cesar was reconciled to Herod, and 
owned his repentance for what severe things 
he had written to him, occasioned by calumny, 
insomuch that he told Sylleus, that he had 
compelled him, by his lying account of things, 
to be guilty of ingratitude against a man that 
was his friend. At the last, all came to this; 
Sylleus was sent away to answer Herod’s 
suit, and to repay the debt that he owed, and 
after that to be punished [with death:] but still 
Ceesar was offended with Aretas, that he had 
taken upon himself the government, without 
his consent first obtained, for he had determin- 
ed to bestow Arabia upon Herod, but that the 
letters he had sent hindered him from so doing, 
for Olympus and Volumnius, perceiving that 
Cesar was now become favorable to Herod, 
thought fit immediately to deliver him the let- 
ters they were commanded by Herod to give 
him concerning his sons. When Cesar had 
read them, he thought it would not be proper 
to add another government to him, now he was 
old, and in an ill state with relation to his sona, 
so he admitted Aretas’s ambassadors; and after 
he had just reproved him for his rashness in 


he was a Christian, as they were then esteemed who refae 
ed to swear that oath. Martyr. Polye. sect. 9. 


412 


not tarrying till he had received the kingdom 
from him, he accepted of his presents, and 
confirmed him in his government. 


CHAPTER XI. 


How Herod, by permission bis Cesar, accused 
his sons before an assembly of Judges at Bery- 
tus; and what Tero suffered for using a bound- 
less and military liberty of speech. Concern- 
ing also the death of the young men, and their 
burial at Alerandrium. 


§ lL. So Cesar was now reconciled to Herod, 
and wrote thus to him, that “he was grieved 
for Lim on account of his sons: and that in 
ease they had been guilty of any profane and 
insoleit crimes against him, it would behove 
him to punish them as parricides, for which 
he gave him power accordingly; but if they 
had only contrived to fly away, he would have 
him give them an admonition, and not proceed 
to extremity with them. He also advised him 
to get an assembly together, and to appoint 
some place near Berytus,* which is a city be- 
longing to the Romans, and to take the presi- 
dents of Syria, and Archelaus king of Cappa- 
docia, and as many more as he thought to be 
illustrious, for their friendship to him, and the 
dignities they were in, and determine what 
should be done by their approbation.” 'These 
were the directions that Cesar gave him. Ac- 
cordingly, Herod, when the letter was brought 
to him, was immediately very glad of Ceesar’s 
reconciliation to him, and very glad also, that 
be had a complete authority given him over 
his sons. And it strangely came about, that 
whereas before, in his adversity, though he 
had indeed showed himself severe, yet had he 
not been very rash, nor hasty in procuring the 
destruction of his sons, he now, in his pros- 

rity, took advantage of this change for the 

tter, and the freedom he now had, to exer- 
case his hatred against them, after an unheard 
of manner; he therefore sent and called as 
many as he thought fit to this assembly, ex- 
cepting Archelaus, for as for him, he either 
hated him, so that he would not invite him, or 
he thought he would be an obstacle to his de- 
signs. 

2. When the presidents and the rest that be- 
longed to the cities, were come to Berytas, he 
kept his sons in a certain village belonging to 
Sidon, called Platana, but near to this city, that 
if they were called he might produce them, for 
he did not think fit to bring them before the 
assembly: and when there were one hundred 
and fifty assessors present, Herod came by 
himself alone, and accused his sons, and that 
in such a way as if it were not a melancholy 
accusation, and not made but out of necessity, 
and upon the misfortunes he was under: in- 
deed, in such a way, as was very indecent for 
& father to accuse his sons, for he was very ve- 
hement and disordered, when he came to the 
demonstration of the crime they were accused 
of, and gave the greatest signs of passion and 

* What Josephus relates Augustus to have here said, that 
Berytus was a city belongmg to the Romans, is confirmed by 


Spanheim’s note here: “It was, says he, a colony placed 
there by Augustus.”’ Whence Ulpian, De cens. bel. L. T. xv. 


ANTIQUITIES OF 'HE JEWS. 


barbarity: nor would he suffer the assessor 
to consider of the weight of the evidence, but 
asserted them to be true by his own authority 
after a manner most indecent ina father againg 
his sons, and read himself what they them 
selves had written, wherein there was no con. 
fession of any plots or contrivances agains 
him, but only how they had contrived to flee 
away, and containing withall certain reproacher 
against him, on account of the ill will he bor 
them; and when he came to those reproaches 
he cried out most of all, and exaggerated what 
they said, as if they had confessed the desigt 
against him, and took his oath, that he hac 
rather lose his life than hear such reproachfu 
words. At last he said, that “he had sufficient 
authority both by nature, and by Cesar’s gran 
to him, [to do what he thought fit.] He alsc 
added an allegation of a law of their country 
which enjoined this: that if parents laid then 
hands on the head of him that was accused 
the standers by were obliged to cast stones a 
him, and thereby to slay him, which thougt 
he was ready to do in his own country anc 
kingdom, yet did he wait for their determina 
tion: that yet they came thither not so muck 
as judges, to condemn them for such manifes 
designs against him, whereby he had almos 
perished by his sons’ means, but as persons 
who had an opportunity of showing their de- 
testation of such practices, and declaring how 
unworthy a thing it noust be in any, even the 
most remote, to pass over such treacherous de- 
signs [without punishment.” ] 

3. When the king had said this, and the 
young men had not been produced ‘to make 
any defence for themselves, the assessors per- 
ceived there was no room for equity and recon 
ciliation, so they confirmed his authority. And 
in the first place, Saturninus, a person that had 
been consul, and one of great dignity, pro- 
no'nced his sentence, but with great modera- 
tion and trouble, and said, “That he condemned 
Herod’s sons, but did not think they should be 
put to death. He had sons of his own, and to 
put one’s son to death, is a greater misfortune 
than any other that could befall him by ther 
means.” After him Saturninus’s sons, for he 
had three sons that followed him, and were his 
legates, pronounced the same sentence with 
their father: on the contrary, Volumnius’s sen 
tence was to inflict death on such as had been 
so impiously undutiful to their father; and the 
greatest part of the rest said the same, inso- 
much that the conclusion seemed to be, that 
the young men were condemned to die. Im- 
mediately after this, Herod came away from 
thence, and took his sons to T'yre, where Nico- 
laus met him in his voyage from Rome; 
whom he inquired, after he had related to him 
what had passed at Berytus, what his sent 
ments were about his sons, and what his frien 
at Rome thought of that matter? His answe 
was, “That what they had determined to do to 
thee was impious and that thou oughtest 1 

: 
Cesur.’ And thenge it is, Ut emeliy tie cole 6a 


we meet with some having this inscription; the happy co 
of Augustus at Berytus. 










BOOK XVL—--CHAPTER XI. 


keep them in prison; and if thou thinkest any 
thing farther necessary, thou mayest indeed so 
punish them, that thou mayest not appear to 
mdulge thy anger more than to govern thyself 
xy judgment; but if thou inclinest to the milder 
ide, thou mayest absolve them, lest perhaps 
hy misfortunes be rendered incurable: and this 
s the opinion of the greatest part of thy friends 
ut Rome also.” Whereupon I{erod was silent, 
mynd in great thoughtfulness, and bade Nicolaus 
il along with him. 

4, Now as they come to Cesarea every body 
was there talking of Herod’s sons, and the king- 
lom was in suspense, and the people in great 
sxxpectation of what could become of them, for 
t terrible fear seized upon all men, lest the an- 
sient disorders of the family, should come to a 
iad conclusion, and they were in great trouble 
ibout their sufferings: nor was it without dan- 
fer to say any rash thing about this matter nor 
sven to hear another saying it: but men’s pity 
was forced to be shut up in themselves, which 
endered the excess of their sorrow very irk- 
ome, but very silent; yet was there an old sol- 
lier of Herod’s, whose name was Tero, who 
ad a son of the same age with Alexander, 
ind his friend, who was so very free, as openly 
o speak out what others silently thought about 
hat matter: and was forced to cry out often 
mong the multitude, and said, in the most un- 
ruarded manner, “That truth was perished, 
ind justice taken away from men, while lies 
ind ill will prevailed, and brought such a mist 
vefore public affairs, that the offenders were 
10t able to see the greatest mischief that can 
yefall men.” And as he was so bold, he seem- 
id not to have kept himself out of danger, by 
peaking so freely; but the reasonableness of 
what he said moved men to regard him, as hav- 
ng behaved himself with great manhood, and 
his at a proper time also, for which reason 
very one heard what he said with pleasure; 
ind although they first took care of their own 
afety, by keeping silent themselves, yet did 
hey kindly receive the great freedom he took; 
or the expectation they were in of so great 
in affliction, put aforce upon them to speak 
yf Tero whatsoever they pleased. 

5. This man had thrust himself into the 
king’s presence with the greatest freedom, and 
lesired to speak with him by himself alone, 
which the king permitted him to do, where he 
aid this: “Since 1 am not able, O king, to bear 
ip under so great a concern as I am under, | 
preferred the use of this bold liberty that I have 
now taken, which may be for thy advantage, if 
thou mind to get any profit by it, before my 
pwn safety. Whither is thy understanding 
gone, and left thy soul empty? Whither is 
hat extraordinary sagacity of thine gone, 
whereby thou hast performed so many and 
such glorious actions? Whence comes this 
solitude, and desertion of thy friends and rela- 
tions? Of which 1 cannot but determine, that 
they are neither thy friends nor relations, while 
they overlook so horrid wickedness in thy once 
tappy kingdom. Dost not thou perceive what 
ta doing? Wilt thou slay these two young 


413 


men, born of thy queen, who are accompush 
ed with every virtue in the highest degree, and 
leave thyself destitute in thy old age, but ex 
posed to one son, who hath very ill managed 
the hopes thou hast given him; and to relations, 
whose death thou hast so often resolved on 
thyself? Dost not thou take notice, that the 
very silence of the multitude at once sees the 
crime and abhors the fact? The whole army 
an the officers have cominiseration on the poor 
unhappy youths, and hatred to those that are 
the actors in this matter.’ These words the 
king heard, and for some time with good temi- 
per. But what can one say? When '‘T'ero 
plainly touched upon the bad behavior and 
perfidiousness of his domestics, he was mov- 
ed at it: but Tero went on farther, and by 
degrees used an unbounded military freedom 
of speech, nor was he so well disciplined as to 
accommodate himself to the time: so Herod 
was greatly disturbed, and seeming to be rather 
reproached by this speech, than to be hearin 

what was for his advantage, while he foaiies 
hereby, that both the soldiers abhorred the 
thing he was about, and the officers had indig- 
nation at it, he gave orders that all whom Tero 
had named, and Tero himself, should be bound 
and kept in prison. 

6. When this was over, one Trypho, whe 
was the king’s barber, took the opportunity, 
and came and told the king, that Tero would 
often have persuaded him, that when he trim- 
med him with a razor, to cut his throat, for 
that by this means he should be among the 
chief of Alexander’s friends, and receive great 
rewards from him. When he had said this, 
the king gave order that Tero and his son, and 
the barber should be tortured, which was done 
accordingly, but while Tero bore up himself, 
his son seeing his father already in a sad cage, 
and had no hope of deliverance, and perceiving 
what would be the consequence of his terrible 
sufferings, said, that “if tke king would free 
him and his father from these torments, for 
what he should say, he would tell the truth.” 
And when the king had given his word to do 
so, he said that “there was an agreement made, 
that Tero should lay violent hands on the king, 
because it was easy for him to come when he 
was alone; and that if, when he had done the 
thing, he should suffer death for it, as was not 
unlikely, it would be an act of generosity done 
in favor of Alexander.” This was what Tero’s 
son said, and thereby freed his father from the 
distress he was in; but uncertain it is whether 
he had been thus forced to speak what waa 
true, Whether it were a contrivance of his in 
order to procure his own and _ his father’s 
deliverance from their miseries, 

7. As for Herod, if he had before any doub 
about the slaughter of lis sons, there was now 
no longer any room left in his soul for it; but 
he had banished away whatsoever might afford 
him the least suggestion of reasoning better 
about this matter, so he already made haste to 
bring his purpose to a conclusion. He also 
brought out three hundred of the officers that 
were under an accusation, as also Tero and bie 


: 1 


44 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. y 


son, and the barber that accused them, before 
an assembly, and brought an accusation against 
them all; whom the multitude stoned with 
whatsoever came to hand, and thereby slew 
them. Alexander, and also Aristobulus, were 
brought to Sebaste by their father’s command, 
and there strangled; but tneir dead bodies were 
in the night-time carried to Alexandrium, where 
their uncle by their mother’s side, and the great- 
est part of their ancestors, had been deposited. 

8. *And now, perhaps, it may not seem un- 
reasonable to some, that such an inveterate ha- 
tred might increase so much [on both sides,] 
as to proceed farther, and overcome nature: 
but it may justly deserve consideration, whether 
it be to be laid to the charge of the young men, 
that they gave such an occasion to their father’s 
anger, and led him to do what he did, and by 
going on long in the same way, put things past 
remedy, and brought him to use them so un- 
mercifully; or whether it be to be laid to the 
father’s charge, that he was so hard-hearted, 
and so very tender in the desire of govern- 
ment, and of other things that would tend to 
his glory, that he would take no one into a 
partnership with him, that so whatsoever he 
would have done himself might continue im- 
moveable; or indeed, whether fortune have not 
greater power than all prudent reasonings: 
whence we are persuaded that human actions 
are thereby determined beforehand by an in- 
evitable necessity, and we call her Fate, be- 
cause there is nothing which is not done by 
her: wherefore, I suppose, it will be sufficient 
to compare this notion with that other, which 
attributes somewhat to ourselves, and renders 
men not unaccountable for the different con- 
ducts of their lives, which notion is no other 
than the philosophical determination of our 
ancient law. Accordingly, of the two other 
causes of this sad event, any body may lay the 
blame on the young men, who acted by youth- 
ful vanity, and pride of their royal birth, that 
they should bear to hear the calumnies that 
were raised against their father, while certainly 
they were not equitable judges of the actions 
of his life, but ill natured in suspecting, and 
ntemperate in speaking of it, and on both ac- 


counts easily cauglit by those that observe 
them, and revealed them to gain favor; y 
cannot their father be thought worthy or é: 
cuse, as to that horrid impiety which he wi 
guilty of about them, while he ventured, witl 
out any certain evidence of their treacherot 
designs against him, and without any proo 
that they had made preparation for such 
tempt, to kill his own sons, who were of ve1 
comely bodies, and the great darlings of oth 
men, and noway deficient in their conduc 
whether it were in hunting, or in warlike e: 
ercises, or in speaking upon occasional topi 
of discourse: for in all these they were skilfw 
and especially Alexander, who was the eldes 
for certainly it had been sufficient, even thoug 
he had condemned them, to have kept the 
alive in bonds, or to let them live at a distanc 
from his dominion in banishment, while | 
was surrounded by the Roman forces, whic 
were a strong security to him, whose hel 
would prevent his suffering any thing by 
sudden onset, or by open force; but for him t 
kill them on the sudden, in order to gratify 
passion that governed him, was a demonstrs 
tion of insufferable impiety; he also was guilt 
of so great a crime in his older age; nor wi 
the delays that he made, and the length of tim 
in which the thing was done, plead at all ft 
his excuse; for when a man is on a sudde 
amazed, and in commotion of mind, and the 
commits a wicked action, although this be 
heavy crime, yet it isa thing that frequentl 
happens; but to do it upon deliberation, an 
after frequent attempts, and as frequent put 
tings off, to undertake it at Jast, and accomplis 
it, was the action of a murderous mind, an 
such as was not easily moved from that whiel 
is evil: and this temper he showed in what h 
did afterward, when he did not spare thos 
that seemed to be the best beloved of hi 
friends that were left, wherein, though th 
Justice of the punishment caused those tha 
perished to be the less pitied, yet was the bar 
barity of the man here equal, in that he di 
not abstain from their slaughter also; but o} 
these persons we shall have occasion to dis 
course more hereafter. 


























observes; nor is there any other reason for it, I suppose, thas 
the great difficulty of an exact translation. 


* The reader is here to note, that this eighth section is en- 
tirely wanting in the old Latin version, as Spanheim truly 





BOOK XVII 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF FOURTEEN YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER ANT . 
ARISTOBULUS TO THE BANISHMENT OF ARCHELAUS. 





CHAPTER I. 
How Antpater was hated by all the Jewish nation 
Jor the slaughter of his brethren; and how, for 
» that reason, he got into peculiar favor with his 
friends at Rome, by giving them many presents; 
as he did also with Saturninus, the president of 
Syria, and the governors who were under him; thing, and almost impracticable, to come at the 
and concerning Herod’s wives and children. kingdom, because the hatred of the nation 
§ J. Wuen Antipater had thus taken off his | against him on that account was become very 
brethren, and had brought his father into the | great: and, besides this very disagreeable cix 


highest degree of impiety, till he was haunted 
with furies for what he had done, his hopes dic 
not succeed to his mind, as to the rest of his 
life; for although he was delivered from t 

fear of his brethren being his rivals as_ to the 
government, yet did he find it a very hard 


ry 


BOOK XVII—CHAPTER I. 


sumstance, the affair of the soldiery grieved 
aim still more, who were alienated from him 
from which yet these kings derived all the 
safety which they had, whenever they found the 
nation desirous of innovation: and _ all this 
danger was drawn upon him by his destruc- 
tion of his brethren. However, he governed 
the nation jointly with his father, being indeed 
no other than a king already; and he was for 
that very reason trusted, and the more firmly 
depended on, for which he ought himself to 
have been put to death, as appearing to have 
betrayed his brethren out of his concern for 
the preservation of Herod, and not rather out 
of his ill will to them, and before them, to his 
father himself; and this was the accursed state 
he was in. Now all Antipater’s contrivances 
tended to make his way to take off Herod, 
that he might have nobody to accuse him in the 
vile practices he was devising; and that Herod 
might have no refuge, nor any to afford him 
their assistance, since they must thereby have 
Antipater for their open enemy; insomuch that 
the very plots he had laid against his brethren 
were occasioned by the hatred he bore his fa- 
ther. But at this time he was more than ever 
set upon the execution of his attempts against 
Herod, because, if he were once dead, the go- 
vernment would now be firmly secured to him; 
but, if he were suffered to live any longer, he 
should be in danger, upon a discovery of that 
wickedness of which he had been the con- 
triver, and his father would of necessity then 
become his enemy, and on that account it was 
that he became very bountifui to his father’s 
friends, and bestowed great sums on several of 
shem, in order to surprise men with his good 
deeds, and take off their hatred against him: 
And he sent great presents to his friends at 
Rome particularly, to gain their good will; and 
above all to Saturninus, the president of Syria. 
He also hoped to gain the favor of Saturninus’s 
brother with the large presents he bestowed on 
him; as also, he used the same art to [Salome] 
the king’s sister, who had married one of He- 
rod’s chief friends. And when he counterfeited 
friendship to those with whom he conversed, he 
was very subtle in gaining their belief, and very 
cunning to hide his hatred against any that he 
really did hate. But he could not impose upon 
his aunt, who understood him of a long time, 
and was a woman not easily to be deluded; es- 
pecially while she had already used all possible 
caution in preventing his pernicious designs. 
Although Antipater’s uncle by the mother’s 
sile was married to her daughter, and this by 
ais Own contrivance and management, while 
she had before been married to Aristobulus, 
and while Salome’s other daughter by that hus- 
band, was married to the son of Calleas; yet 
that tnarriage was no obstacle to her, who 
knew how wicked he was, in her discovering 
his lesigns, as her former kindred to him could 
Hot prevent her hatred of him. Now L[lerod 
hai compelled Salome, while she was in love 
with Sylleus the Arabian, and had taken a fond- 
hess for him, to marry Alexas; which match 
was oy her submitted to at the instance of Ju- 


4l5 


lia, who persuaded Salome not to refuse it, lest 
she should herself be their open enemy, since 
Herod had sworn that he would never be 
friends with Salome, if she would not accept 
Alexas for her husband; so she submitted tc 
Julia as being Cesar’s wife, and besides that, 
she advised her to nothing but what was very 
much for her own advantage. At this time, also, 
it was that Herod sent back king Archelaus’s 
daughter, who had been Alexander’s wife, to 
her father, returning the portion he had with 
her out of his own estate, that there might be 
no dispute between them about it. 

2. Now Herod brought up his sons’ children 
with great care; for Alexander had two sons 
by Glaphyra; and Aristobulus had three sons 
by Bernice, Salome’s daughter, and two daugh- 
ters; and, as his friends were once with him, 
he presented the children before them, and de- 
ploring the hard fortune of his own sons, he 
prayed that no such ill fortune would befall 
these who were their children, but that they 
might improve in virtue, and obtain what they 
justly deserved, and might make him amends 
for his care of their education. He also caused 
them to be betrothed against they should come 
to the proper age of marriage: the elder of Al- 
exander’s sons to Pheroras’s daughter, and An- 
tipater’s daughter to Aristobulus’s eldest son. 
He also allotted one of Aristobulus’s daughters 
to Antipater’s son, and Aristobulus’s other 
daughter to Herod, a son of his own, who was 
born tu him by the high priest’s daughter; for 
it is the ancient practice among us to have many 
wives at the same time. Now, the king made 
these espousals for the children out of com- 
miseration of them now they were fatherless, 
as endeavoring to render Antipater kind to 
them by these intermarriages. but Antipater 
did not fail to bear the same teinper of mind 
to his brothers’ children which he had borne 
to his brothers themselves; and his father’s 
concern about them provoked his indignation 
against them, upon this supposal, that they 
would become greater than ever his brothers 
had been, while Archelaus, a king, would sup- 
port his daughter’s sons, and Pheroras, a te- 
trarch, would accept of one of the daughters 
as a wife tohis son. What prevoked him also 
was this, that all the multitude would so com- 
miserate these fatherless children, and so hate 
him, [for making them fatherless,] that all 
would come out, since they were no strangers 
to his vile disposition towards his brethren 
He contrived, therefore, to overturn his father’s 
settlements, as thinking it a terrible thing that 
they should be so related to him, and be so 
powerful withall. So Herod yielded to him, 
and changed his resolution at his entreaty: and 
the determination now was, that Antipater 
himself should marry Aristobulus’s daughter, 
and Antipater’s son should marry Pleroras’s 
daughter. So the espousals for the marriages 
were changed after this manner, even without 
the king’s real approbation. 

3. Now Herod the king had at this time nine 





wives; one of them Antipater’s mother, and 
‘another the high priest’s daughter, by whow 


te 
416 ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. A 


he had a son of his own name: he had also one 
who was his brother’s daughter, and another 
his sister’s daughter, which two had no chil- 
dren. One of his wives also was of the Sa- 
maritan nation, whose sons were Antipas and 
Archelaus, and whose daughter was Olympias; 
which daughter was afterward married to Jo- 
seph, the king’s brother’s son; but Archelaus 
and Antipas were brought up with a certain 
private man at Rome. Herod had also to wife 
Cieonatra of Jerusalem, and by her he had 
his sons Herod and Philip; which last was also 


brought up at Rome; Pallas also was one of 


his wives, who bore lim his son Phasaelus. 
And besides these, he had for his wives Phedra 
and Elpis, by whom he had his daughters 
Roxana and Salome. As for his elder daugh- 
ters, by the same mother with Alexander and 
Aristobulus, and whom Pheroras neglected to 
marry, he gave the one in marriage to Antipa- 
ter, the king’s sister’s son, and the other to Phia- 
saelus, his brother’s son.* And this was the 
posterity of Herod. 


CHAPTER II. 


Concerning Zamaris, the Babyloman Jew. Con- 
cerning the plots laid by Antipater against his 
Sather; and somewhat about the Pharisees. 


§ 1. And now it was that Herod, being de- 
sirous of securing himself on the side of the 
Trachonites, resolved to build a village as large 
as a city for the Jews, in the middle of that 
country, which might make his own country 
difficult to be assaulted, and whence he might 
be at hand to make sallies upon them, and do 
them a mischief. Accordingly, when he un- 
derstood that there was a man that was a Jew 
come out of Babylon, with five hundred horse- 
men, all of whom could shoot their arrows as 
they rode on horseback, and with a hundred of 
his relations, had passed over Euphrates, and 
now abode at Antioch by Dapline of Syria, 
where Saturninus, who was then president, 
had given them a place for habitation, called 
Valatha, he sent for this man, with the multi- 
tude that followed him, and promised to give 
him land in the toparchy called Batanea, which 
country is bounded by Trachonitis, as desirous 
to make that his habitation a guard to himself. 
He also engaged to let him hold the country 
free from tribute, and that they should dwell 
entirely without »*ying such customs as used 
to be nsid, ecu gave it him tax free. 

2. The Babylonian was induced by these of- 
fers to come hither; so he took possession of 
the iand, and built in it fortresses and a village, 
and named it Batnyra. Whereby this man be- 
came a Sareguard to the inhabitants against the 
Trachonites, and preserved those Jews who 
caine out of Babylon to offer their sacrifices at 
Jerusalem, from being hurt by the Traehonite 
robbers; so that a great number came to him 
from all those parts were the ancient Jewish 
laws were observed, and the country became 

* Those who have a mind to know all the family and de- 
scendants of Antipater, the Idumean, and of Herod the 
Great, his son, and have a memory to preserve them all dis- 


tinctly, may consult Josephus, Antiq. b. xviii. ch. v. sect. 4, 
wad Of the War, b. i. ch. xxviii. sect. 4, and Noldius in 


full of’ people, by reason of their universal free. 
dom from taxes. This continued during the 
life of Herod; but when Philip, who was [te 
trarch] after hima, took the government, he made 
them pay some small taxes, and that for a little 
while only; and Agrippa the Great, and his son 
of the same name, although they harrassed 
them greatly, yet would they not take their lib- 
erty away. Irom whom, when the Romans 
liave now taken the government into their own 
hands, they still give them the privilege of their 
freedom, but oppress them entirely with the 
imposition of taxes. Of which matter I shall 
treat more accurately in the progress cf this 
history.* 

3. At length Zamaris, the Babylonian, to 
whom Herod had given that country for a pos 
session, died; having lived virtuously, and left 
children of'a good character behind him; one of 
whom was Jacimus, who was famous for his va- 
lor, and taught his Babylonians how to ride their 
horses; and atroop of them were guards to the 
forementioned kings. And when Jacimus was 
dead _ in his old age, he left a son whose name 
was Philip, one of great strength in his hands, 
and in other respects also more eminent for his 
valor than any of his contemporaries: on which 
account there was a confidence and firm friend- 
ship between him and king Agrippa. He had 
also an army which he maintained as great 
as that of a king; which he exercised and led 
wheresoever he had occasion to march. 

4. When the affairs of Herod were in the 
condition J have described, all the public af 
fairs depended upon Antipater; and his power 
was such, that he could do good turns to as 
many as he pleased, and this by his father’s con- 
cession, in hopes of his good will and fidelity 
to him; and this till he ventured to use his pow 
ers still farther, because his wicked designs 
were concealed from his father, and he made 
him believe every thing he said. He was also 
formidable to all, not so much on account of 
the power and authority he had, as for the 
shrewdness of his vile attempts beforehand, | 
but he who principally cultivated a friendship 
with him was Pheroras, who received the like 
marks of his friendship: while Antipater had 


| curmingly encompassed him about by a com 


pany of women, whom he placed as guards — 
about hin; for Pheroras was greatly enslaved 
to his wife, and to her mother, and to her sister; } 
and this notwithstanding the hatred he bore _ 
them, for the indignities they had offered to his _ 
virgin daughters. Yet did he bear them, and ‘ 
nothing was to be done without the women, 
who had got this man into their cirele, and con- c 
tinued still to assist each other in ell things, in- . 
somuch that Antipater was entirely addicted to _ 
them, both by himself and by his mother; for _ 
these four woment said all one and the same 
thing; but the opinions of Pheroras and Anti- 
pater were different in some points of no con- — 
sequence. But the king’s sister [Salome} waa 
Havercainp’s edition, p. 336, and Spanheim, i. p.403—406. 
and Reland, Palestin. part i. p. 175, 176. iF 
* This is now wanting. Me 


¢ Pheroras’s wife, and ter mother and sistes aod Doria, y 
Antipater’s mother. | 


‘4 4 


BOOK XVII.—CHAPTER U1. 


their antagonist, who for a good while had 
looked about all their affairs, and was apprized 
that this their friendship was made in order to 
di Herod some mischief, and was disposed to 
inform the king of it. And since these people 
knew that their friendship was very disagreea- 
ole to Herod, as tending to do him a mischief, 
they contrived that their meeting should not be 
liscovered; so they pretended to hate one 
another, and to abuse one another when ume 
served, and especially when Herod was present, 
or when any one was there that would tell him; 
but still their intimacy was firmer than ever 
when they were in private. And this was the 
rourse they took;. but they could not conceal 
fom Salome, neither their first contrivance, 
when they set about these their intentions, 
nor when they had made some progress in 
them; but she searched out every thing; and, 
aggravating the relations to her brother, declar- 
ed tohim. “As well their secret assemblies 
and compotations, as their counsels taken in a 
clandestine manner, which, if they were not 
in order to destroy him, they might well enough 
have been open and public. But, to appear- 
ance, they are at variance, and speak about one 
another as if they intended one another a mis- 
chief, but agree so well together when they 
are out of the sight of the multitude; for when 
they are alone by themselves they act in con- 
cert, and profess that they will never leave off 
their friendship, but will fight against those 
from whom they conceal their designs.” And 
thus did she search out these things, and get a 
perfect knowledge of them, and then told her 
brother of them, who understood also of him- 
self a great deal of what she said, but still durst 
not depend upon it, because of the suspicions 
he had of his sister’s calumnies. For there 
was a certain sectof men that were Jews, who 
valued themselves highly upon the exact skill 
they had in the law of their fathers, and made 
men believe they were highly favored by God 
by whom this set of women were inveigled. 
These are those that are called the sect of the 
Pharisees, who were in a capacity of greatly 
opposing kings. A cunning sect they were, 
and soon elevated to a pitch of open fighting, 
and doing mischief. Accordingly, when all 
the people of the Jews gave assurance of their 
good will to Cesar, and to the king’s govern- 
ment, these very men did not swear, being 
above six thousand; and when the king impos- 
ed.a fine upon them, Pheroras’s wife paid their 
fine for them. In order to requite which kind- 
ness of hers, since they were believed to have 
the foreknowledge of things to come by divine 
Inspiration, they foretold how God had decreed 
that Herod’s government should cease, and his 
posterity should be deprived of it; but that the 
kingdom should come to her and Pheroras, and 
to their children. These predictions were not 
zoncealed from Salome, but were told the king; 
‘as-also how they had perverted some persons 
about the palace itself so the king slew such 
of the Pharisees as were principally accused, 
‘and Bagoas, the eunuch, and one Carus, who 
exceeded all men of that time in comeliness, 
ran 53) 


41? 


and one that was his catanite. He slew alse 
those of his own family, who had censented te 
what the Pharisees foretold; and for Bagoas, 
he had been puffed up by them as though he 
should be narned the father and the benefactor 
of him who, by the prediction, was foretold to 
be their appointed king; for that this king would 
have all things in his power, and would enable 
Bagoas to marry and to have children of his 
own body begotten. 


CHAPTER III. 


Concerning the enmity between Herod and Phe- 
roras; how Herod sent Antipater to Cesar: 
and of the death of Pheroras. 


§ 1. When Herod had punished those Pha 
risees who had been convicted of the forego- 
ing crimes, he gathered an assembly together 
of his friends, and accused Pheroras’s wifes 
and ascribing the abuses of the virgins to the 
impudence of that woman, brought an accusa- 
tion against her for the dishonor she had brought 
upon them; that “she had studiously introduced 
a quarrel between him and his brother, and, 
by her ill temper, had brought them into a state 
of war, both by her words and actions; that 
the fines which he had laid had not been paid, 
and the offenders had escaped punishment by 
her means; and that nothing which had of late 
been done had been done without her: for 
which reason Pheroras would do well, if he 
would, of his own accord, and by his own com- 
mand, and not at my entreaty, or as following 
my opinion, put this his wife away, as one that 
willstill be the occasion of war between thee 
and me. And now, Pheroras, if thou valuess 
thy relation to me, put this wife of thine away; 
for by this means thou wilt continue to be a bro- 
ther to me, and wilt abide in thy love to me.” 
Then said Pheroras, (although he were press. 
ed hard by the former words,) that “as he 
would not do so unjust a thing as to renounce 
his brotherly relation to him, so would he not 
leave off his affection for his wife; that he 
would rather choose to die than to live and be 
deprived of a wife that was so dear unto him.” 
Hereupon Herod put off his anger against Phe- 
roras on these accounts, although he himself 
thereby underwent a very uneasy punishment. 
However, he forbade Antipater and his mother 
to have any conversation with Pheroras, and 
bade them to take care to avoid the assemblies 
of the women: which they promised to do 
but still got together when occasion served, and 
both Pheroras and Antipater had their own 
merry meetings. The report went also, that 
Antipater had criminal conversation with Phe- 
roras’s wife, and that they were brougbt toge- 
ther by Antipater’s mother. 

2. But Antipater had now a suspicion of hig 
father, and was afraid that the effects of his 
hatred to him might increase: so he wrote to 
his friends at Rome, and bade them to send te 
Herod, that he would immediately send Anti- 
pater #» Szsar; which, when it was done, He- 
rod sat Antipater thither, and sent most noble 
preses.ts along with him; as also his testament, 
whe «in Antipater was appointes 0 be his suc- 


418 


eessor; and that if Autipater should die first, 
his son {Herod Philip} by the high priest’s 
daughter should succeed. And, together with 
Antipater, there went to Rome, Sylleus the Ara- 
bian, although he had done nothing of all that 
Ceesar had enjoined. Antipater also accused 
him of the same crimes of which he had been 
formerly accused by Herod. Sylleus was also 
accused by Aretas, that without his consent he 
ha} slain many of the chief of the Arabians at 
Petra; and particularly Sobemus, a man that 
deserved to be honored by all men; and that 
he had slain Fabatus, a servant of Czeesar. 
"hese were the things of which Sylleus was 
accused; and that on the occasion following: 
there was one Corinthus, belonging to Herod, 
of the guards of the king’s body, and one who 
was greatly trusted by him. Sylleus had _per- 
suaded this man with the offer of a great sum 
of money, to kill Herod; and he had promised 
to do it. When Fabatus had been acquainted 
with this, for Sylleus had himself told him of 
it. he informed the king of it; who caught Co- 
rinithus, and put him to the torture, and thereby 
got out of him the whole conspiracy. He also 
eaught two other Arabians, who were discover- 
ed by Corinthus; the one the head of a tribe, 
an the other a friend to Sylleus, who both were 
by the king brought to the torture, and confess- 
ed that they were come to encourage Corin- 
thus not to fail of doing what he had under- 
taken to do; and to assist him with their own 
hands in the murder, if need should require 
their assistance. So Saturninus, upon Herod’s 
discovering the whole to him, sent them to 
Rome. 

3. Atthis time, Herod commanded Pheroras, 
that since he was so obstinate in his affection 
for his wife, he should retire into his own te- 
trarchy; which he did very willingly, and swore 
many oaths that he would not come again, till 
he heard that Herod was dead. And indeed, 
when upon a sickness of the king, he was de- 
sired to come to him before he died, that he 
might intrust him with some of bis injunctions, 
he had such a regard to his oath, that he would 
net come to him; yet did not Herod so retain 
his hatred to Pheroras, but remitted of his 
purpose [not to see him,] which he before had, 
and that for such great causes as have been al- 
ready mentioned; but as soon as he began to 
be ill, he came to him, and this without being 
sent for: and when he was dead, he took care 
of his funeral, and had his body brought to 
Jerusalem, and buried there, and appointed a 
golemn mourning for him. This [death of 
Pheroras] became the origin of Antipater’s 
mistortunes, although he had already sailed 
for Lome, God now being about to punish him 
for the murder of his brethren. 1 will explain 
the history of this matter very distinctly, that 
it may be for a warning to mankind, that they 
take care of conducting their whole lives by 
the rules of virtue. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Pheroras’s wife is accused by his freed-men as 
ruilty of poisoning him; and how Herod, upon 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ae 








examining the matter by torture, found ¢ 
poison; but so that it had been prepared for 
himself by his son .Antipater; and, upon ¢ 
inquiry by torture, he discovered the dangerou 
designs of Antipater. 


§ 1. As soon as Pheroras was dead, and his 
funeral was over, two of Pheroras’s freed-men, 
who were much esteemed by him, came to 
Herod, and entreated him not to leave the 
murder of his brother without avenging it, but 
to examine into such an unreasonable and un- 
happy death. When he was moved with 
these words, for they seemed to him to be true 
they said, that “Pheroras supped with his wife 
the day before he fell sick, and that a certain 
potion was brought him in such a sort of food 
as he was not used to eat, but that when he 
had eaten he died of it; that this potion was 
brought out of Arabia by a woman, under 
pretence indeed as a love potion, for that was 
its name, but in reality to kill Pheroras; for 
that the Arabian women are skilful in making 
such poisons; and the woman to whom they 
ascribe this, was confessedly a most intimate 
friend of one of Sylleus’s mistresses, and that 
both the mother and the sister of Pheroras’s 
wife had been at the places where she live, 
and had persuaded her to sell them this potion, 
and had come back and brought it with thei 
the day before that of his supper.” Hereupon 
the king was provoked, and put the women 
slaves to the torture, and some that were free, 
with them; and as the fact did not yet appear, 
because none of them would confess it, at 
length one of them, under the utmost agonies, 
said no more but this, that “she prayed that 
God would send the like agonies upon Antipa- 
ter’s mother, who had been the occasion of 
these miseries to all of them.” ‘This prayet 
induced Herod to increase the woman’s tor- 
tures, till thereby all was discovered: “their 
merry meetings, their secret assemblies, and 
the disclosing of what he had said to his son 
alone unto Pheroras’s women.”* (Now whet 
Herod had charged Antipater to conceal, was 
the gift of a hundred talents to him not to have 
any conversation with Pheroras.) “And wha 
hatred he bore to his father; and that he com 
plained to his mother how very long his fathet 
lived; and that he was himself almost an old 
man, insomuch, that if the kingdom should 
once come to him, it would not afford him any 
great pleasure; and that there were a great 
many of his brothers, or brothers’ childrer, 
bringing up, that might have hopes of the 
kingdom, as well as himself, all which made 
his own hopes of it uncertain; for that ever 
now, if he should himself not live, Herod had 

* His wife, her mother, and sister.—It seems to me, bY 
this whole story put together, that Pheroras was not sell 
poisoned as is commonly supposed; for Antipater had per- 
suaded him to poison Herod, ch. v. sect. 1, which would 
fall to the ground, if he were himself poisoned; nor could 
the poisoning of Pheroras serve any design that appear 
going forward. It was only the supposal of two of his fre 
men, that this love potion, or poison, which they knew 
brought to Pheroras’s wife, was made use of for 


him; whereas it appears to have been brought for her _ 
band to poison Herod withall, as the future examinations 

y 

s : | 







monstrate 


BOOK XVII—CHAPTER V. 


erdained that the government should be con- 
ferred, not on his son, but rather on a brother. 
He also had accused the king of great barbari- 
ty, and of the slaughter of his sons; and that 
it was out of the fear he was under, lest he 
should do the like to him, that made him con- 
trive this his journey to Rome, and Pheroras 
contrive to go to his own tetrarchy.” 

2. There confessions agreed with what his 
sister had told him, and tended greatly to cor- 
roborate her testimony, and to free her from 
the suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him. 
So the king having satisfied himself of the 
spite which Doris, Antipater’s mother as well 
as himself, bore to him, took away from her 
all her fine ornaments, which were worth many 
talents, and then sent her away; and entered 
into friendship with Pheroras’s women. But 
he who most of all irritated the king against 
his son, was one Antipater, the procurator of 
Antipater the king’s son, who, when he was 
tortured among other things said, that Antipa- 
ter had prepared a deadly potion, and given it 
10 Pheroras, with his desire that he would give 
it to his father during his absence, and when 
he was too remote to have the least suspicion 
east upon him thereto relating; that Antiphilus, 
one of Antipater’s friends, brought that potion 
out of Egypt, and that it was sent to Pheroras 
by Theudion, the brother of the mother of 
Antipater the king’s son, and by that means 
came to Pheroras’s wife, her husband having 
given it her to keep. And when the king ask- 
ed her about it, she confessed it; and as she 
was running to fetch it, she threw herself down 
from the house-top, yet did she not kill herself, 
because she fell upon her feet: by which means, 
when the king had comforted her; and had pro- 
mised her and her domestics pardon, upon con- 
dition of their concealing nothing of the truth 
from him, but had threatened her with the ut- 
most miseries if she proved ungrateful, [and 
concealed any things} so she promised and 
swore that she would speak out every thing, 
and tell after what manner every thing was 
done; and said, what many took to be entirely 
true, that “The potion was brought out of 
Egypt by Antiphilus; and that his brother who 
was a physician, had procured it; and that 
when Theudion brought it us, she kept it up- 
on Pheroras committing it to her; and that it 
was prepared by Antipater for thee. When, 
therefore, Pheroras was fallen sick, and thou 
camest to him, and tookest care of him, and 
when he saw the kindness thou hadst for him, 
his mind was overborn thereby. So he called 
me to him, and said to me; ‘O woman! Anti- 

ter hath circumvented me in this affair of 

is father and my brother, by persuading me 
to have a murderous intention to him, and pro- 
curing a potion to be subservient thereto, do 
thou, therefore, go and fetch my potion, (since 
my brother appears to have still the same vir- 
tuous disposition towards me which he had 
formerly, and I do not expect to live long my- 
self, and that I may not defile my forefathers 
by the murder of a brother,) and burn it before 
my face: that accordingly she immediately 


41% 


brought it, and did as her husband bade her; 
and that she burnt the greatest part of the po 
tion; but that a little of it was left, that if the 
king, after Pheroras’s death, should treat her 
ill, she might poison herself, and thereby 
get clear of her miseries.” Upon her sa 
ing thus, she brought out the potion, and the 
box in which it was, before them all. Nay, 
there was another brother of Antphilus, and 
his mother also, who, by the extreme of pain 
and torture, confessed the same things, and 
owned the box [to be that which hex . een 
brought out of Egypt.}) The w.gn pitest’s 
daughter also, who was the king’s wife, was 
accused to have been conscious of all this, and 
had resolved to conceal it; for which reason 
Herod divorced her, and blotted her son out of 
his testament, wherein he had been mentioned 
as one that was to reign after him; and he took 
the high priesthood away from his father-in- 
law, Simeon the son of Boethus, and appointed 
Mattathias the son of Theophilus, who was 
born at Jerusalem, to be high priest in his room 
3. While this was doing, Bathyllus, also An- 
tipater’s freed-man, carne from Rome, and 
upon the torture, was found to have brought 
another potion, to give it into the handsof An- 
tipater’s mother, and of Pheroras, that if the 
former potion did not operate upon the king, 
this at least might carry him off. There came 
also letters from Herod’s friends at Rome, by 
the approbation and at the suggestion of Anti- 
pater, to accuse Archelaus and Philip, asif they 
calumniated their father on account of the 
slaughter of Alexander and Aristobulus, and 
as if they commiserated their deaths; and as if, 
because they were sent for home, (for their 
father had already recalled them,) they con 
cluded they were themselves also to be de- 
stroyed. These letters had been procured by 
great rewards by Antipater’s friends; but Anti 
pater himself wrote to his father about them, 
and laid the heaviest things to their charge; yet 
did he entirely excuse them of any guilt, and 
said, they were but young men, and so imput- 
ed their words to their youth. But he said, 
that he had himself been very busy in the af- 
fair relating to Sylleus, and in getting interest 
among the great men; and on that account had 
brought splendid ornaments to present them 
withall, which cost him two hundred talents. 
Now, one may wonder how it came about, that 
while so many accusations were laid against 
him in Judea during seven months before this 
time, he was not made acquainted with any of 
them. The causes of which were, that the roads 
were exactly guarded, and that men hated An- 
tipater; for there was nobody who would run 
any hazard himself, to gain him any advantages, 


CHAPTER V 

Antipater’s navigation from Rome to his father, 
and how he was accused by Nicolaus of Da- 
mascus,and condemned to die by his father, and 
by Quintilius Varus, who was then president 
of Syria; and how he was bound till Cesar 
should be informed of his cause. 
§ 1. Now Herod, upon Antipater’s writing 


£20 


to him, hat having done all that he was to do, 
and this in the manner he was to do it, he would 
suddenly come to him, concealed his anger 
against him, and wrote back to him, and bade 
aim not delay his journey, lest any harm should 
befall himself in his absence. At the same 
time also he made some little complaint about 
his mother, but promised that he would lay 
those complaints aside when he should return. 
He withall expressed his entire affection for 
him, as fearing lest he should have some sus- 
picion of him, and defer his journey to him, 
and lest, while he lived at Rome, he should lay 
plots for the kingdom, and, moreover, do some- 
what against himself. This letter Antipater 
met with in Cilicia; but had received an ac- 
count of Pheroras’s death before at Tarentum. 
This last news affected him deeply; not out of 
any affection for Pheroras, but because he was 
dead without having murdered his father, 
which he had promised him to do. And when 
he was at Celenderis in Cilicia, he began to 
deliberate with himself about his sailing home 
as being much grieved with the ejection of his 
mother. Nowsome of his friends advised him 
that he should tarry a while somewhere, in ex- 
pectation of further information. But others 
advised him to sail home without delay; for that 
if he were once come thither, he would soon 
put an end to all accusations, and that nothing 
afforded any weight to his accusers at present 
but his absence. He was persuaded by these last, 
and sailed on, and landed at the haven called 
Sebastus, which Herod had built at vast ex- 
penses in nonor of Ceesar, and called Sebastus. 
And now was Antipater evidently in a misera- 
ble condition, while nobody came to him nor 
saluted him, as they did at his going away; with 
good wishes or joyful acclamations; nor was 
there now any thing to hinder them from enter- 
taining him, on the contrary, with bitter curses, 
while they supposed he was come to receive 
his punishment for the murder of his brethren. 

2. Now Quintilius Varus was at this time 
at Jerusalem, being sent to succeed Saturninus, 
as president of Syria, and was come as an as- 
sessor to Herod, who had desired his advice in 
his present affairs; and as they were sitting 
together, Antipater came upon them, without 
knowing any thing of the matter; so he came into 
the palace clothed in purple. The porters in- 
deed received him in, but excluded his friends. 
And now he was in great disorder, and pre- 
gently understood the condition he was in; 
while upon his going to salute his father he 
was repulsed by him, who called him a mur- 
derer of his brethren, and a plotter of destruc- 
tion against himself, and told him that Varus 
should be his auditor and his judge the very 
next day; so he found, that what misfortune he 
now heard of was already upon him, with the 
greatness of which he went away in confusion: 
upon which his mother and his wife met him 
(which wife was the daughter of Antigonus 
who was king of the Jews before Herod,) from 
whom he learned all circumstances which con- 
“agg him, and then prepared himself for his 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. e i 


ne 
seat 
f 


3. On the next day Varus and the king sat 
together in judgment; and both their friends 
were also called in, as also the king’s relationa, 
with his sister Salome, and as many as could 
discover any thing, and such as had been tor. 
tured; and besides these some slaves of Anti- 
pater’s mother, who were taken up a little be- 
fore Antipater’s coming, and brought with them 
a written letter, the sum of which was this: 
that “He should not come back, because all 
was come to his father’s knowledge; and that 
Cesar was the ony refuge he had left to pre- 
vent both his and her delivery into his father’s 
hands.” ‘Then did Antipater fall down at his 
father’s feet, and besought hin “not to prejudge 
his cause, but that he might be first heard by 
his father, and that his father would keep him 
still unprejudiced,” So Herod ordered him to 
be brought into the midst, and then “lamented 
himself about his children, from whom he had 
suffered such great misfortunes; and because 
Antipater fell upon him in his old age. He 
also reckoned up what maintenance and what 
education he had given them; and what sea 
sonable supplies of wealth he had afforded 
them, according to their own desires; none of 
which favors had hindered them from contriy- 
ing against him, and from bringing his very 
life into danger, in order to gain his kingdom, 
after an impious manner, by taking away his 
life before the course of nature, their father’s 
wishes, or justice required that that kingdom, 
should come to them; and that he wondered 
what hopes could elevate Antipater to such a 
pass, as to be hardy enough to attempt such 
things; that he had by his testament in writing 
declared him his successor in the government; 
and while he was alive he was in no respect 
inferior to him, either in his illustrious dignity, 
or in power and authority, he having no less 
than fifty talents for his yearly income, and ha: 
received for his journey to Rome no fewer than 
thirty talents, He also objected to him the 
case of his brethren, whom he had accused; 
and if they were guilty, he had imitated their 
example; and if not, he had brought him 
groundless accusations against his near rela- 
tions; for that he had been acquainted with all 
those things by him, and by nobody else, and 
had done what was done by his approbation, 
and whom he now absolved from all that was 
criminal, by becoming the inheritor of the guilt 
of such their parricide.” 

4. When Herod had thus spoken, he fell « 
weeping, and was not able to say any more, 
but at his desire Nicolaus of Damascus, bee 
the king’s friend, and always conversant wi 
him, and acquainted with whatsoever {xe did. 
and with the circumstances of his affairs pro 
ceeded to what remained, and explained al! 
that concerned the demonstrations and eyi- 
dences of the facts. Upon which Antipater, in 
order to make his legal defence, turned himself 
to his father, and “enlarged upon the many in- 
dications he had given of his good will to him; 
and instanced in the honors that had been done 
him, which yet had not been done, had he not 
deserved them by his virtuous concern abou 


Ff 


BOOK: XVIL—CHAPTER V. 


cum; for that he had made provision for every 
thing that wes fit to be foreseen beforehand, as 
to giving him his wisest advice; and whenever 
there was occasion for the labor of his own 
hands, he had not grudged any such pains for 
him. And that it was almost impossible that 
he who had delivered his father froin so many 
treacherous contrivances laid against him, 
ghiould be himself in a plot against him, and so 
lose all the reputation he had gained for his 
virtue, by his wickedness which succeeded it, 
aud this while he had nothing to prohibit him, 
who was already appointed his successvr, to 
enjoy the royal honor with his father also at 
present; and that there was no likelihood that 
a person who had the one-half of that authority 
without any danger, and with a good charac- 
ter, should hunt after the whole with infamy 
and danger, and this when it was doubtful 
whether he could obtain it or not; and when 
he saw the sad example of his brethren before 
him, and was both the informer and the ac- 
cuser against them, at a time when they might 
not otherwise have been discovered; nay, was 
the author of the punishment inflicted upon 
them, when it appeared evidently that they 
were guilty of a wicked attempt against their 
father; and that even the contentions there 
rere in the king’s family, were indications that 
ne had ever managed affairs out of the sincer- 
est affection to his father. And as to what he 
had done at Rome, Cesar was a witness there- 
to; who yet was no more to be imposed upon 
than God himself: of whose opinions his letters 
sent hither are sufficient evidence, and that it 
was not reasonable to prefer the calumnies of 
such as proposed to raise disturbances before 
those letters; the greatest part of which calum- 
nies had been raised during his absence, which 
gave scope to his enemies to forge them, which 
they had not been able to do if he had been 
there. Moreover, he showed the weakness of 
the evidence obtained by torture, which was 
commonly false; because the distress men are 
in under such tortures naturally obliges them to 
gay many things in order to please those that 
govern them. He also offered hinself to the 
torture.” 

5. Hereupon there was a change observed 
in the assembly, while they greatly pitied An- 
tipater, who, by weeping and putting on a 
countenance suitable to his sad case, made them 
commiserate the same; insomuch that his very 


enemies were moved to compassion; and it ap- | 


peared plainly that Herod himself was affected 
m his own mind, although he was not willing 
it should L2 taken notice of. Then did Nico- 
la 2s begin to prosecute what the king had be- 
gun, and that with great bitterness; and sum- 
med up all the evidence which arose from the 
tortures, or from the testimonies. “He princi- 
pally and largely cried up the king’s virtues, 
which he had exhibited in the maintenance 
‘and education of his sons, while he never could 
gain any advantage thereby, but still fell from 
ene misfortune to another. Although he own- 
ed that he was not so much surprised with that 
thoughtless behavior of his former sous, who 


44h 
were but young, and were besides corrupted 
by wicked counsellors, who were the occasion 
of their wiping out of their minds all the 
righteous dictates of nature, and this out of a 
desire of coming to the government sooner 
than they ought to do; yet that he could not 
but justly stand amazed at the horrid wicked 
ness of Antipater, who, although he had nog 
only had great benefits bestowed on him by 
his father, enough to tame his reason, yet could 
not be more tamed than the most envenomed 
serpents; whereas even those creatures admit 
of some mitigation, and will not bite their bene- 
factors, while Antipater hath not let the mis+ 
fortunes of his brethren be any hinderance te 
him, but he hath gone on to imitate their bar- 
barity notwithstanding, Yet wast thou, O An- 
tipater! (as thou hast thyself confessed,) the 
informer as to what wicked actions they had 
done, and the searcher out of the evidence 
against them, and the author of the punishment 
they underwent upon their detection. Nor de 
we say this as accusing thee for being so zea- 
lous in thy anger against them, Lut are aston- 
ished at thy endeavors to imitate their profli- 
gate behavior, and we discover thereby, that 
thou didst not act thus for the safety of thy 
father, but for the destruction of thy brethren, 
that by such outside hatred of their impiety, 
thou mightest be believed a lover of thy father, 
and mightest thereby get thee power enough 
to do mischief with the greatest impunity, 
which design thy actions indeed demonstrate, 
It is true, thou tookest thy brethren off, be- 
cause thou didst convict them of their wicked 
designs; but thou didst not yield up to justice 
those who were their partners; and thereby 
didst make it evident to all men, that thow 
madest covenant with them against thy father, 
when thou choosest to be the accuser of thy 
brethren, as desirous to gain to thyself alone 
this advantage of laying plots to kill thy father, 
and so to enjoy double pleasure, which is truly 
worthy of thy evil disposition, which thou hast 
openly showed against thy brethren: on which 
account thou didst rejoice, as having done a 
most famous exploit, nor was that behavior 
unworthy of thee. But if thy intention were 
otherwise, thou art worse than they; while 
thou didst contrive to hide thy treachery against 
thy father, thou didst hate them, not as plotters 
against thy father, for in that case thou hadst 
not thyself fallen upon the Jike crime, but as 
successors of his dominions and more worthy 
of that succession than thyself. Thou wouldest 
kill thy father after thy brethren, lest thy lies 
raised against them might be detected: and lest 
thou shouldest suffer what punishment thou 
hadst deserved, thou hadst a mind to exact that 
punishment of. thy unhappy father, and didst 
devise such a sort of uncommon parricide as 
the world never yet saw. For thou, who art 
his son, did not only lay a treacherous design 
against thy father, and didst it while he loved 
thee, and had been thy benefactor, had made 
thee in reality his partner in the kingdom, and 
had openly declared thee his successor, while 
tly yu wast not forbidden to taste tiie sweetness 


~ 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


oh 
oh 


af authority already, and hadst the firm hope of | the accusations of the former witnesses, ana 


what was future by thy father’s determination, 
and the security of a written testament. But 
for certain thou didst not measure these things 
according to thy father’s various disposition, 
but according to thy own thoughts and ineli- 
nations; and was desirous to take the part that 
remained away from thy too indulgent father, 
and soughtest to destroy him with thy deeds, 
whom thou in words pretendedst to preserve. 
Nor wast thou content to be wicked thyself, 
dut thou filledst thy mother’s head with thy de- 
vices, and raisedst disturbances among thy 
brethren, and hadst the boldness to call thy 
father a wild beast; while thou hadst thyself a 
mind more cruel than any serpent, whence 
thou sentest out that poison among thy nearest 
kindred and greatest benefactors, and invitedst 
them to assist thee and guard thee, and didst 
hedge thyself in on all sides bv the artifices of 
both men and women, against an old man; as 
though that mind of thine was not sufficient 
of itself to support so great a hatred as thou 
bearest tohim. And here thou appearest, after 
the tortures of freemen, of domestics, of men 
and women, which have been examined on 
thy account, and after the informations of thy 
fellow-conspirators, as making haste to contra- 
dict the truth; and hast thought on ways not 
only to take thy father out of the world, but 
to disannul that written law which is against 
thee, and the virtue of Varus, and the nature 
of justice; nay, such is that impudence of thin 
on whic ou confidest, that thou desirest to 
pe pat to the torture thyself, while thou allegest 
that the tortures of those already examined 
thereby have made them tell lies; that those 
that have been the deliverers of thy father 
may not be allowed to have spoken the truth; 
but that thy tortures may be esteemed the dis- 
coverers of truth. Wilt not thou, O Varus! 
deliver the king from the injuries of his kin- 
dred? Wilt not thou destroy this wicked wild 
beast, which hath pretended kindness to his 
father, in order to destroy his brethren; while 
ea he is himself alone ready to carry off the 

ingdom immediately, and appears to be the 
most bloody butcher to him of them all? For 
thou art sensible, that parricide is a general in- 
jury both to nature and to common life, and 
that the intention of parricide is not inferior to 
ts perpetration: and he who does not punish 
it, is injurious to nature itself.” 

6. Nicolaus added farther what belonged to 
Autipater’s mother, and whatsoever she had 
prattled like a woman; as also about the pre- 
dictions and the sacrifices relating to the king; 
and whatsoever Antipater had done lascivi- 
ously in his cups and his amours among Phe- 
roras’s women; the examination upon torture; 
and whatsoever concerned the testimonies of 
the witnesses, which were many and of vari- 
ous kinds; some prepared beforehand, and 
others were sudden answers, which farther de- 
clared and confirmed the foregoing evidence, 
For those men who were acquainted with An- 
tipater’s practices, but had concealed them out 
of fear when they saw that he was exposed to 


that his great good fortune, which had support-- 
ed him hitherto, had now evidently betrayed 
him into the hands of his enemies; who were 
now insatiable in their hatred to him, told all 
they knew of him. And his ruin was now hast- 
ened, not so much by the enmity of those that 
were his accusers, as by his gross, and impu- 
dent, and wicked contrivances, and by his il)” 
will to his father and his brethren; while he 
had filled their house with disturbance, and 
caused them to murder one another; and was 
neither fair in his hatred, nor kind in his friend- 
ship; but just so far as served his own turn. 
Now, there were a great number who for a lor, 
time beforehand had seen all this: and especi 
ally such as were naturally disposed to judge 
of matters by the rules of virtue; because they 
were used to determine about affairs without 
passion, but had been restrained from making 
any open complaints before; these, upon the 
leave now given them, produced all they knew 
before the public. The demonstrations also 
of these wicked facts could noway be disproy- 
ed; because the many witnesses there were did 
neither speak out of favor to Herod, nor were 
they obliged to keep back what they had to 
say, out of suspicion of any danger they were 
in; but they spoke what they knew, because 
they thought such actions very wicked, and 
that Antipater deserved the greatest punish 
ment; and jndeed not so much for Herod’s 
safety, as on account or tne man’s Own wick. 
edness. Many things were also said, and those 
by a great number of persons who were noway 
obliged to say them: insomuch that Antipater, 
who used generally to be very shrewd in his 
lies and impudence, was not able to say one 
word to the contrary. When Nicolaus had left 
off speaking, and had produced the evidence, 
Varus bade Antipater to betake himself to mak- 
ing his defence, if he had prepared any thing 
whereby it might appear that he was not guilty 
of the crimes he was accused of; for that, as he 
was himself desirous, so did he know that his 
father was in like manner desirous also to have 
him found entirely innocent. But Antipater 
fell down on his face, and appealed to God, 
and to all men, for testimonials of his innocency, 
desiring that God would declare by some evi- 
dent signals, that he had not laid any plot 
against his father. This being the usual meth- 
od of all men destitute of virtue, that when 
they set about any wicked undertakings, they 
fall to work according to their own inclinations, 
as if they believed tltat God was unconcerned 
in human affairs but when once they are found 
out and are in danger of undergoing the pun-~ 
ishment due to their crimes, they endeavor to 
overthrow all the evidence against them, bj 
appealing to God; which was the very th.ng 
which Aistipater now did; for whereas he had 
done every thing as if there were no God in 
the world; when he was on all sides distressed 
by justice, and when he had no other advan- 
tage to expeet from legal proofs, by which he 
might disprove the accusations laid against him, 
he impudently abused the majesty of God, ane 


bal 


a | 


a Ae 
Pe 


sacribed it to nis power that he had been pre- 
served hitherto: and produced before them all 
what difficulties he had ever undergone in his 
gold acting for his father’s preservation. 

7. So when Varus, upon asking Antipater 
what he had to say for himself, found that he 
had nothing to say besides his appeal to God, 
and saw that there was no end of that, he bade 
thein bring the potion before the court, that he 
might see what virtue still remained in it; and 
when it was brought, and one that was con- 
Jemned to die had drunk it by Varus’s com- 
mand, he died presently. Then Varus got up, 
and departed out of the court, and went away 
he day following to Antioch, where his usual 
esidence was, because that was the palace of 
he Syrians; upon which Herod laid his son in 
jonds. But what were Varus’s discourses to 
Herod, was not known to the generality, and 
ypon what words it was that he went away; 
hough it was also generally supposed, that 
whatsoever Herod did afterward about his son, 
was done with his approbation. But when 
Herod had bound his son, he sent letters to 
Rome to Ceesar about him, and such messen- 

rs withall as should, by word of mouth, in- 
orm Cesar of Antipater’s wickedness. Now, 
it this very time there was seized a letter of 
Antiphilus, written to Antipater out of Egypt, 
for he lived there,) and, when it was opened 
yy the king, it was found to contain what fol- 
ows: “I have sent thee Acme’s letter, and 
1azarded my own life; for thou knowest that 
(am in danger from two families, if I be dis- 
overed. I wish thee good success in thy af- 
air.” ‘These were the contents of this letter: 
jut the king made inquiry about the other let- 
er also, for it did not appear, and Antiphilus’s 
lave, who brought that letter which had been 
ead, denied that he had received the other. 
But, while the king was in doubt about it, one 
¥f Herod’s friends, seeing a seam upon the in- 
ler cout of the slave, and a doubling of the 
loth, (for he had two coats on,) he guessed 
hat the letter might be within that doubling, 
which accordingly proved to be true. So they 
ook out the letter, and its contents were these: 
‘Acme to Antipater. .I have written such a 
etter to thy father as thou desiredst. me. I have 
iso taken a copy and sent it, as if it came 
ro, Salome to my lady [Livia;] which, when 
hou readest, [know that Herod will punish 
Salome, as plotting against him.” Now, this 
retended letter of Salome’s to her lady was 
“mposed by Antipater, in the name of Salome, 
is to its meaning, but in the words of Acme. 
he letter was this: “Acme to king Herod. [| 
wave done my endeavor that nothing that is 
lone against thee should be concealed from 
hee. So upon my finding a letter of Salome 
Written to my lady against thee, I have written 
ut a copy, and sent it to thee, with hazard to 
ae but for thy advantage. The reason 
why she wrote it was this, that she had a mind 
jo be married to Sylleus. Do thou, therefore, 
ear this letter in pieces, that I may not come 
mto danger of my life.” Now Acme had 


BOOK XVII—CHAPTER VI. 


Ep 


that, in compliance with his command, she 
had both herself written to Herod, as if Salome 
had laid a sudden plot entirely against him, and 
had herself sent a copy of an epistle, as com- 
ing from Salome to her lady. Now, Acme 
was a Jewess by birth, and a servant to Julia 
Ceesar’s wife; and did this out of her friend- 
ship for Antipater, as having been corrupted by 
him with a large present of money, to assist in 
his pernicious designs against his father and 
his aunt. 

8. Hereupon Herod was so amazed at the 
prodigious wickedness of Antipater, that he 
was ready to have ordered him to be slain im- 
mediately, asa turbulent person in the most im- 
portant concerns, and as one that had laid a plot 
not only against himself, but against his sister 
also, and even corrupted Cesar’s own domes- 
tics. Salome also provoked him to it, beating 
her breast, and bidding him kill her, if he could 
produce any credible testimony that she had 
acted in that manner. Herod also sent for his 
son, and asked him about this matter, and bade 
him contradict it if he could, and not suppress 
any thing he had to say for himself; and, when 
he had not one word to say, he asked him, since 
he was every way caught in his villairy, that 
he would make no farther delay, but discover 
his associates in these his wicked designs. So 
he laid all upon Antiphilus; but discovered no- 
body else. Hereupon Herod was in such 
great grief, that he was ready to send his son to 
Rome to Cesar, there to give an account of 
these his wicked contrivances. But i.e soon 
became afraid, lest he might there, by the as- 
sistance of his friends, escape the danger h 
was in: so he kept him bound as before, an 
sent more ambassadors and letters Ae Rome] 
to accuse his son, and an account of what as- 
sistance Acme had given him in his wicked 
designs with copies of the epistles before men- 
tioned. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Concerning the disease that Herod fell into, and 
the sedition which the Jews raised. thereupon 
with the punishment of the seditious. 


§ 1. Now Herod’s ambassadors made haste to 
Rome; but sent as instructed beforehand, what 
answers they were to make to the questions 
put to them. They also carried the epistles 
with them. But Herod now fell into a disteii- 
per, and made his will, and bequeathed his 
kingdom to [Antipas] his youngest son; and this 
out of that hatred to Archelaus and Phili 
which the calumnies of Antipater had vied 
against them. He also bequeathed a thousand 
talents to Cesar; five hundred to Julia, Ca. 
sar’s wife, to Ceesar’s children and friends, and 
freed-men. Healso distributed among his sons 
and their sons, his money, his revenues, and 
his lands. He also made Salome his sister very 
rich, because she had continued faithful to him 
in all his circumstances, and was never so rash 
as to do him any harm: and as he despaired of 
recovering, for he was about the seventieth 
year of his age, he grew fierce, and indulged 


written to Antipater himself, and informed him | the bitterest anger upon all vecastons. the cause 





£24 


whereof was this, that he thought himself des- 
pised, ana that the nation was pleased with his 
misfortunes; besides which, he resented a sedi- 
tion which some of the lower sort of men ex- 
cited against him, the occasion of which was 
as follows: 

2. There was one Judas, the son of Sari- 
pheeus, and Matthias, the son of Margalothus, 
two of the most eloquent men among the Jews, 
and the most celebrated interpreters of the 
Jewish laws, and men well beloved by the peo- 

le, because of their education of their youth; 
or all those that were studious of virtue fre- 
quented their lectures every day. ‘These men, 
when they found that the king’s distemper was 
incurable, excited the young men that they 
would pull down all those works which the 
king had erected contrary to the law of their 
fathers, and thereby obtain the rewards which 
the law will confer on them for such actions of 
piety, for that it was truly on account of He- 
rod’s rashness in making such things as the 
law had forbidden, that his other misfortunes, 
and this distemper also which was so unusual 
among mankind, and with which he was now 
afflicted, came upon him; for Herod had caused 
such things to be made, which were contrary 
to the law, of which he was accused by Judas 
and Matthias; for the king had erected over 
‘the great gate of the temple a large golden 
eagle, of great value, and had dedicated it to 
the temple. Now, the law forbids those that 
propose to live according to it, to erect images* 
or representations of any Jiving creature. So 
these wise men persuaded [their scholars] to 
pull down the golden eagle; alleging, that “al- 
though they should incur any danger, which 
might bring them to their deaths, the virtue of 
the action now proposed to them would appear 
much more advantageous to them than the 
pleasures of life; since they would die for the 
preservation and observation of the law of their 
fathers; since they would also acquire an ever- 
lasting fame and commendation: since they 
would be both commended by the present gen- 
eration, and leave an example of life that would 
never be forgotten to posterity; since that com- 
mon calamity of dying cannot be avoided by 
our living so as to escape any such dangers; 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


Se ee ee ee ee Se en eee eee 





that therefore it is a right thing for those who 
are in love with a virtuous conduct, to wait for | 
that fatal hour by such a behavior as may carry | 
them out of the world with praise and honor; | 
and that this willalleviate death to a great degree, 
thos to come at it by the performance of brave | 
sections, which brings us into danger of it; and 
at the same time, to leave that reputation behind 
the: to their children, and to all theif relations, 
whether they be men or women, which will be 
ef great advantage to them afterward.” 

3. And with such discourses as this, did | 
these men excite the young men to this action; 
and a report being come to them that the king 
was dead, this was an addition to the wise 
men’s persuasions; so, in the very middle of 





* That the making of images, without an intention to 
worship them, was not unlawful to de Jews, see the note 
em Anw:, ®. viii. ch, vii. sect. 5 


| twenty-five years of their government, had 


j 
| 


the day, they got upon the place; they pull 
down the eagle, and cut it into pieces with 
axes, while a great number of the people were 
in the temple. And now the king’s captain, 
upon hearing what the undertaking was, and 
supposing it was a thing of a higher nature 
than it proved to be, came up thither, having 
a great band of soldiers with him, such as was 
sufficient to put a stop to the multitude of 
those who pulled down what was dedicated te 
God; so he fell upon them unexpectedly, and 
as they were upon this bold attempt, in a fool | 
ish presumption rather than a cautious circum- 
spection, as is usual with the multitude, and 
while they were in disorder, and incautious of 
what was for their advantage; so he caught no 
fewer than forty of the young men, who haa 
the courage to stay behind when the rest ran 
away, together with the authors of this bold 
attempt, Judas and Matthias, who thought it 
an ignominious thing to retire upon his ap- 
proach, and led them to the king. And when 
they were come to the king, and he had asked 
them if they had been so bold as to pull down 
what he had dedicated to God? “Yes, said 
they, what was contrived, we contrived, and 
what hath been performed, we performed it 
and that with such a virtuous courage as be- 
comes men; for we have given our assistance 
to those things which are dedicated to the ma- 
jesty of God, and we have provided for wha 
we have learned by hearing the law; and | 
ought not to be wondered at, if we esteem 
those laws which Moses had suggested to him, 
and were taught him by God, and which he 
wrote and left behind him, more worthy of 
observation than thy commands. Accordingly 

we will undergo death, and all sorts of punish 
ment which thou canst inflict upon us, with 
pleasure, since we are conscious to ourselves 
that we shall die, not for any unrighteous ac- 
tions, but for our love to religion.” And th 
they all said, and their courage was still equ 

to their profession, and equal to that with 
which they readily set about this undertaking. 
And when the king had ordered them to be 
bound, he sent them to Jericho, and called to- 
gether the principal men among the Jews; and 
when they were come, he made them assemble 
in the theatre, and because he could not hit 
self stand, he lay upon a couch, and enumerat 
ed the many labors that he had long endured 
on their account, and his building of the tent 
ple, and what a vast charge that was to him 
while the Asamoneans, during the hundred and 












not been able to perform any so great a work 
for the honor of God as that was; that he hed 
also adorned it with very valuable donations, 
on which account he hoped that he had left 
himself a memorial, and procured himself 
reputation after his death. He then cried out 
that these men had not abstained from affront 
ing him, even in his lifetime, but that, in th 
very day-time, and in the sight of the multitude 
they had abused him to that degree, as to fall 
upon what he had dedicated, and in that way 
of abuse had pulled it down to the | 


a ‘| 
eh | 


| They pretended, indeed, that they did it to af- 
‘front him; but if any one consider the thing 


truly, they will find that they were guilty of 


sacrilege against God therein.” 

4. But the people, on account of Herod’s 
barbarous temper, and for fear he should be so 
-eruel as to inflict punishment on them, said, 
“What was done, was done without their ap- 
probation, and that itseemed to them that the 

actors might well be punished for what they 
hed done.” Butas for Herod, he dealt more 
mildly with others [of the assembly;} but he 
deprived Matthias of the high priesthood, as in 
part on occasion of this action, and made Joazer, 
who was Matthias’s wife’s brother, high priest 
in his stead. Now it happened, that during 
the time of the high priesthood of this Mat- 
thias, there was another person made high 
priest forasingle day, that very day which 
the Jews observed as a fast. The occasion 
was this: this Matthias the high priest, on the 
night before that day, when the fast was to be 
celebrated, seemed in a dream* to have con- 
versation with his wife; and because he could 
not officiate himself on that account, Joseph, 
the son of Ellemus, his kinsman, assisted him 
in that sacred office. But Herod deprived this 
Matthias of the high priesthood, and burnt the 
‘other Matthias who had raised the sedition, 
with his companions, alive. And that very 
night there was an eclipse of the moon. 

5. But now Herod’s distemper greatly in- 
creased upon him after a severe manner, and 
this by God’s judgment upon him for his sins; 
for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not 
so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it 
augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought 
upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which 
he could not avoid to supply with one sort of 
food or other. His entrails were also exulcer- 
ated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on 
his colon; aqueous and transparent liquor also 
had settled itself about his feet, and alike mat- 
ter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. 
Nay, farther, his privy member was_putrified, 
and produced worms; and when he sat up- 
right, he had a difficulty of breathing, which 
was very loathsome, on account of the stench 
of his breath, and the quickness of its returns; 


_ * This fact, that one Joseph was made high priest for a 
single day, on occasion of the action here specified, that be- 
fell Matthias, the real high priest, in his sleep, the night be- 
‘fore the great day of expiation, is attested to both in the 
Mishna and Talmud, as Dr. Hudson here informs us. And 
fudeed, from this fact, thus fully attested, we may confute 
that pretended rule in the Talmud here mentioned, and en- 
deavored to be excused by Reland, that the high priest was 
not suffered to sleep the night before the great day of expia- 
don; which watching would surely rather unfit him for the 
many important duties he was to perform on that solemn day, 
than dispose him dwy to perform them. Nor dosuch Tal- 
mudical rules, when unsupported by better evidence, much 
tess when contradicted thereby, seem to me of weight enough 
to deserve that so great a man as Reland should spend his 
time in endeavors at their vindication. 

+ This eclipse of the moon (which is the only eclipse of 
either of the luminaries mentioned by our Josephus in any 
ot Ais writings) is of the greatest consequence for the de- 

itrmination of the time for the death of Herod and Antipa- 
wr, and for the birth and entire chronology of Jesus Christ. 
ti happened March 13th, in the year of the Julian period 
4710, and the fourth year before the Christian era. See its 
gaiculation by the rules of astronomy, at the end of the 
_ Asvonoinical Tectures; edit. Lat. page 451, 452. 
. | 54 


4 ' 
HY 


BOOK XVII—CHAPTER VI. 


”, 


42S 


he had also convulsions in all parts of his body, 
which increased his strength to au unsuffera- 
ble degree. It was suid by those who pretend- 
ed to divine, and who were endued with 
wisdom to foretell such things, that God inflict- 
ed this punishment on the king on account of 
his great impiety; yet was he still in hopes of 
recovering, though lis afflictions seemed greater 
than any one could bear. He also sent for 
physicians, and did not refuse to follow what 
they prescribed for his assistance, and went 
beyond the river Jordan, and bathed bimself 
in the warm baths that were at Callirrhoe, 
which, besides their other general virtues, were 
also fit to drink; which water runs into the lake 
called Asphaltitis. And when the physicians 
once thought fit to have him bathed in a vessel 
full of oil, it was supposed that he was just dy- 
ing; but upon the lamentable cries of his do- 
mestics, he revived; and having no longer the 
least hopes of recovering, he gave order that 
every soldier should be paid fifty drachmeae; and 
he also gave a great deal to their commanders, 
and to his friends, and came again to Jericho, 
where he grew so choleric, that it brought him 
to do all things like a madman; and though 
he were near his death, he contrived the fol- 
lowing wicked designs. He commanded that 
all the principal men of the entire Jewish na- 
tion, wheresoever they lived, should be called 
to him. Accordingly, they were a great num- 
ber that came, because the whole nation was 
called, and all men heard of this call, and death 
was the penalty of such as should despise the 
epistles that were sent to callthem. And now 
the king was in a wild rage against them all, 
the innocent as well as those that had afforded 
ground for accusations; and when they were 
come, he ordered them to be all shut up in the 
hippodrome,* and sent for his sister Salome, 
and her husband Alexis, and spoke thus to 
them: “I shall die ina little time, so great are 
my pains; which death ought to be cheerfully 
borne, and to be welcomed by all men; but 
what principally troubles me is this, that I shal’ 
die without being lamented, and without such 
mourning as men usually expect at a king’s 
death. For that he was not unacquainted with 
the temper of the Jews, that his death would be 
a thing very desirable, and exceedingly accept- 
able to them; because during his lifetime they 
were ready to revolt from him, and to abuse 
the donations he had dedicated to God; that it 
was therefore their business to resolve to afford 
him some alleviation of his great sorrows on 
this occasion; for that, if they do not refuse 
him their consent in what he desires, he shall 
have a great mourning at his funeral, and such 
as never any king had before him, for then the 
whole nation would mourn from their very 
soul, which otherwise would be aone in spor, 
and mockery only. He desired, therefore, that 
as soon as they see he hath given up the ghost, 
they shall place soldiers round the hippodrome, 
while they do not know that he is dead; and 
that they shall not declare his death to the muk 
titude till this is done, but that they shall give 
A place for the horse-races. 


£26 


orders to have those that are in custody shot 
with their darts; and that this slaughter of them 
all will cause that he shall not miss to rejoice 
on a double account; that as he is dying, they 
will make him secure that his will shall be ex- 
ecuted in what he charges them todo; and that 
he shall have the honor of a memorable mourn- 
ing at his funeral. So he deplored his condi- 
tion, with tears in his eyes, and obtested them 
by the kindness due from them, as of his 
kindred, and by the faith they owed to God, 
and begged of them that they would not hinder 
him of this honorable mourning at his funeral.” 
So they promised him not to transgress his 
commands. 

6. Now, any one may easily discover the 
temper of this man’s mind, which not only 
took pleasure in doing what he had done’ for- 


merly against his relations, out of the love of 


life, but by those commands of his which 
savored of no humanity, since he took care 
when he was departing out of this life, that 
the whole nation should be put into mourning, 
and indeed made desolate of their dearest kin- 
dred, when he gave order that one out of every 
family should be slain, although they had done 
nothing that was unjust, or that was against 
him, nor were they accused of any other crimes; 
while it is usual for those who have any regard 
to virtue, to lay aside their hatred at such a 
time, even with respect to those they justly es- 
teemed their enemies. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Herod has thoughts of killing himself with his 
own hand; and alittle afterward he orders An- 
tipater to be slain. 


' § 1. Ashe was giving these commands to his 
relations, there came letters from his ambassa- 
dors, who had been sent to Rome unto Cesar, 
which, when they were read, their purport was 
this: that “Acme was slain by Cesar, out of his 
indignation at what hand she had in Antipater’s 
wicked practices; and that as to Antipater him- 
self, Ceesar left it to Herod to act as became a 
father and a king, and either to banish him or 
take away his life, which he pleased.” When 
Herod heard this he was somewhat better, out 
of the pleasure he had from the contents of the 
letters, and was elevated at the death of Acme, 
and at the power that was given him over his 
son; but, as his pains were become very great, 
he was now ready to faint for want of something 
to eat; so he called for an apple, and a knife; 
for it was his custom formerly to pare the apple 
himseif, and soon afterward to cut it, and eat it. 
When he had got the knife, he looked about, 
and hed a mind to stab himself with it; and he 
‘sad done it, hac! not his first cousin, Archiabus, 
prevented him, and held his hand, and cried 
out loudly. Whereupon a woful lamentation 
echoed through the palace, and a great tumult 
was made, as if the king was dead. Upon 
which, Antipater, who verily believed his father 
was deceased, grew bold in his discourse, as 
hoping to be immediately and entirely released 
from his bonds, and to take the kingdom into 
his hands, without any more ado; so he dis- 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


Ria | 
coursed with the jailer about letting him go 
and in that case promised him great thingg 
both now and hereafter, as if that were the on- 
ly thing now in question. But the jailer did 
not only refuse to do what Antipater would 
have him, but informed the king of his inten- 
tions, and how many solicitations he had had 
from him Ne that — Hereupon Herod, 
who had formerly no affection nor good will 
towards his son to restrain him, when he heard 
what the jailer said, he cried out, and beat nis 
head, although he was at death’s door, and > 
raised himself upon his elbow, and sent for 
some of his guards, and commanded them to 
kill Antipater without any further delay, and to 
do it presently, and to bury nim in an ignoble 
manner at Hyrcania. . 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Concerning Herod’s Death, and Testament, and 
Burial. 


§ 1. And now Herod altered his testament 
upon the alteration of his mind; for he appoint- 
ed Antipas, to whom he had before left the 
kingdom, to be tetrarch of Galilee and Per 
and granted the kingdom to Archelaus. He 
also gave Gaulonitis, and Trachonitis, and Pa- 
neas, to Philip, who was his son, but own broth- 
er to Archelaus,* by the name of a tetrarchy; 
and bequeathed Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Pha- 
saelis, to Salome his sister, with five hundred — 
thousand [drachmee] of silver that was coined, 
He also made provision for all the rest of his 
kindred, by giving them sums of money and 
annual revenues, and so left them all in a 
wealthy condition. He bequeathed also to Ca 
sar ten millions of [drachmee] of coined mo- 
ney, besides both vessels of gold and silver, 
and garments exceeding costly, to Julia, Ce 
sar’s wife; and to certain others, five millions 
When he had done these things, he died, the 
fifth day after he had caused Antipater to be 
slain; having reigned since he had procured 
Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years;+ but 
since he had been declared king by the Romans, — 
thirty-seven, A man he was of great barbarity 
towards all men equally, and a slave to his pas 
sion; but above the consideration of what was 
right: yet was he favored by fortune as muck 
as any man ever was, for from a private man 


he became a king: and though he were encom — 
passed with ten thousand dangers, he got clear — 


of them all, and continued his life to a very 


oldage, Butthen, as to the affairs of his family — 


and children, in which, indeed, according to — 


“ 
uy 


* When it is here said, that Philip the tetrarch, and Ar- 


chelaus the king or ethnarch, were adsccos yvmrs08 OF gente 


ine brothers; if those words mean own brothers, or born of 
the same father and mother, there must be here some mis- 
take; because they had indeed the same father, Herod, but 
different mothers; the former Cleopatra, and Archelaus 
Malthace. ‘They were indeed brought uy aitogether private- 
ly at Rome like own brothers; and Philip was Archelaus’s 


4 


; 
A 
d 


deputy when he went to have his kingdom confirmed to him 


at Rome; ch. ix. sect. 5, and Of the War, b. ii. ch. ii. sect. — 
1, which intimacy is perhaps all that Josephus mtended by 
the words before us. : 


t These numbers of years for Herod’s reign, 34; and 37, 


are the very same with those Of the War 
sect. 8, and are among the princi chronol 
belonging to the reign or death of Herod. See Harm. of the 
Evang. p. 150—155, 


- ch. xxii, 
ogical characters — 








BOOK XVIL—CHAPTER LX. 


his own opinion, he was also very fortunate, 
because he was able to conquer his enemies, 
yet, in my opinion, he was herein very unfor- 
_tunate. : 

2. But then Salome and Alexas, before the 

king’s death was made known, dismissed those 
‘that were shut up in the hippodrome, and told 
them that the king ordered them to go away to 
their own lands, and take care of their own 
affairs, which was esteemed by the nation a 
_great benefit. And now the king’s death was 
“made public, when Salome and Alexas gather- 
ed the soldiery together in the amphitheatre at 
Jericho; and the first thing they did was, they 
read Herod’s letter, written to the soldiery, 
thanking them for their fidelity and good will 
to him, and exhorting them to afford his son 
Archelaus, whom he had appointed for their 
king, like fidelity and good will. After which, 
Ptolemy, who had the king’s seal intrusted to 
him, read the king’s testament, which was to 
be of force no otherwise than as it should stand 
when Cesar had inspected it; so there was 
presently an acclamation made to Archelaus, 
as king, and the soldiers came by bands, and 
their commanders with them, and promised 
the same good will to him, and readiness to 
serve him, which they had exhibited to Herod; 
_and they prayed God to be assistant to him. 

3. After this was over, they prepared for his 
funeral, it being Archelaus’s care that the pro- 
cession to his father’s sepulchre should be very 

‘sumptuous. Accordingly, he brought out all 
‘his ornaments to adorn the pomp of the fu- 
neral. The body was carried upon a golden 
bier, embroidered with very precious stones of 
great variety, and it was covered over with 
purple, as well as the body itself: he had a 
diadem upon his head, and above it a crown of 
gold; he also had a sceptre in his right hand. 

bout the bier were his sons and his numerous 
relations; next to these were the soldiery, dis- 
tinguished according to their several countries 
and denominations; and they were put into 
the following order: first of all went his guards; 
then the band of Thracians; and after them 
the Germans; and next the band of Galatians; 
every one in their habiliments of war; and be- 
hind these marched the whole army in the 
game manner as they used to go out to war, 
and as they used to be put in array by their 
muster-masters and centurions; these were fol- 
lowed by five hundred of his domestics, car- 
rying spices. So they went eight furlongs* 
to Herodium; for there by his own command 
he was to be buried. And thus did Herod end 
nis life. 

4, Now Archelaus paid him so much respect 
as to continue his mourning till the seventh 
‘day; for so many days are appointed for it by 
_ the law of our fathers. And when he had 
| given a treat to the multitude, and left off his 
» mourning, he went up into the temple; he had 
also acclamations and praises given him, which 
way soever he went, every one striving with 


* At eight stadia or furlongs a day, as here, Herod’s funeral, 
conducted to Herodium (which lay at the distance from 
icbe where he died, of 200 stadia or furlongs: Of the 


48 


the rest who should appear to use the loudest 
acclamations. So he ascended a high eleva 
tion made for him, and took his seat, in a 
throne made of gold, and spoke kindly to the 
multitude, and declared, “with what joy he re- 
ceived their acclamations, and the marks of 
the good will they showed to him; and return 

ed them thanks that they did not remember 
the injuries his father had done them, to [ua 
disadvantage; and promised them he would 
endeavor not to be behindhand with them in 
rewarding their alacrity in his service, after a 
suitable manner; but that he should abstain at 
present from the name of king, and that le 
should have the honor of that dignity if Casar 
should confirm and settle that testament which 
his father had made; and that it was on this 
account, that when the army would have put 
the diadem on him at Jericho, he would not 
accept of that honor, which is usually so much 
desired, because it was not yet evident that he 
who was to be principally concerned in be- 
stowing it, would give it him; although, by his 
acceptance of the government, he should not 
want the ability of rewarding their kindness to 
him; and that it should be his endeavor, as to 
all things wherein they were concerned, to 
prove in every respect better than his father.” 
Whereupon the multitude, as it is usual with 
them, supposed that the first days of those that 
enter upon such governments, declare the in- 
tentions of those that accept them; and so by 
how much Archelaus spoke the more gently 
and civilly to them, by so much did they more 
highly commend him, and made application to 
him for the grant of what they desired. Some 
made a clamor that he would ease them of 
some of their annual payments; but others de- 
sired him to release those that were put into 
prison by Herod, who were many, and had 
been put there at several times; others of them 
required that he would take away those taxes 
which had been severely laid upon what was 
publicly sold and bought. So Archelaus con- 
tradicted them in nothing, since he pretended 
to do all things so as to get the good will of the 
multitude to him, as looking upon that good 
will to be a great step towards the preservation 
of his government. Hereupon he went and 
offered sacrifice to God, and then betook him- 
self to feast with his friends, 


CHAPTER IX. 


F*.ao the people raised a sedition against Arche- 
laus, and how he sailed to Rome. 


§ 1. At this time also it was, that some of 
the Jews got together out of a desire of inno- 
vation. ‘They lamented Matthias, and those 
that were slain with him by Herod, who had 
not any respect paid them by a funeral mourn- 
ing, out of the fear men were in of that mang 
they were those who had been condemned for 
pulling down the golden eagle. The people 
made a great clamor and lamentation hereupon 
and cast out some reproaches against the king 


War, b. i. ch. xxxiii. sect. 9,) must have taken up no \ees tam 
twenty-five days. 


algo, as if that tended to alleviate the miseries 
of the deceased. The people assembled to- 
gether, and desired of Archelaus, that in way 
of revenge on their account, he would in- 
flict punishment on those who had been ho- 
nored by Herod: and that, in the first and prin- 
cipal place, he would deprive that high priest 
whom Herod had made, and would choose one 
more agreeable to the law, and of greater 
purity, to officiate as high priest. This was 
granted by Archcelaus, although he was mightily 
offended at their importunity, because he pro- 
posed to himself to go to Rome immediately, 
to look after Ceesar’s determination about him. 
However, he sent the general of his forces to 
use persuasions, and to tell them that the death 
which was inflicted on their friends was ac- 
cording to the law; and to represent to them, 
that their petitions about these things were 
carried to a great height of injury to him; that 
the time was not now proper for such petitions, 
but required their unanimity until such time as 
he should be established in the government by 
the consent of Ceesar, and should then be come 
back to them; for that he would then consult 
with them in common concerning the purport of 
their petitions; but that they ought at present to 
be quiet, lest they should seem seditious persons. 

2. So when the king had suggested these 
things, and instructed his general in what he 
was to say, lie sent him away to the people; 
but they made a clamor, and would not give 
him leave to speak, and put him in danger of 
his life, and as many more as were desirous to 
venture upon saying openly any thing which 
might reduce thein to a sober mind, and pre- 
vent them going on in their present courses; 
because they had more concern to have all 
their own wills performed than to yield obedi- 
ence to their governors; thinking it to be a thing 
insufferable, that, while Herod was alive, they 
should lose those that were the most dear to 
them, and that when he was dead, they could 
not get the actors to be punished. So they 
went on with their designs after a violent 
tanner, and thought all to be lawful and right 
which tended to please them, and being un- 
skilful in foreseeing what dangers they incur- 
red; and when they had suspicion of such a 
thing, yet did the present pleasure they took 
in the punishment of those they deemed their 
enemies, overweigh all such considerations; 
and although Archelaus sent many to speak to 
them, yet they treated them not as messengers 
sent by him, but as persons that came of their 
awn accord to mitigate their anger, and would 
oot let one of them speak. ‘The sedition also 
was made by such as were in a great passion; 
and it was evident that they were proceeding 
farther in seditious practices, by the multitude’s 
running so fast upon them. 

&. Now, upon the approach of that feast of 
unleavened bread, which the law of their fa- 
thers had appointed for the Jews at this time, 
which feast is called the Passover,* and is a 


* This Passover, when the sedition here mentioned was 
aioved against Archelaus, was not one, but thirteen montis, 
after the eclipse of the moon already mentioned 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt 
(when they offer sacrifices with great ity 
and when they are required to slay more sacre 
fices in number than at any other festival, and 
when an innumerable multitude came thither 
out of the country, nay, from beyond its limits 
also, in order to worship God;) the seditious | 
lamented Judas and Matthias, those teachers 
of the laws, and kept together in the temple, 
and had plenty of food, because these seditious 
persons were not ashamed to beg it. And as 
Archelaus was afraid lest some terrible thing 
should spring up by means of these men’s mad- 
ness, he sent a regiment of armed men, and 
with them a captain of a thousand, to suppress 
the violent efforts of the seditious, before the 
whole multitude should be infected with the 
like madness: and gave them this charge, that 
if they found any much more openly seditious 
than others, and more busy in tumultuous prac- 
tices, they should bring them to him. But 
those that were seditious on account of those 
teachers of the law, irritated the people by the 
noise and clamors they used to encourage the 
people in their designs; so they made an as 
sault upon the soldiers, and came up to them, 
and stoned the greatest part of them, although 
some of them ran away wounded, and their 
captain among them; and when they had thus 
done, they returned to the sacrifices which 
were already in their hands. Now Archelaus 
thought there was no way to preserve the en- 
tire government, but by cutting off those whe 
made this attempt upon it; so he sent out ths 
whole army upon them, and sent the horsemen 
to prevent those that had their tents without the 
temple, from assisting those that were within the 
temple, and to kill such as ran away from the 
footmen when they thought themselves out 
danger, which horsemen slew three thousand 
men, while the rest went to the neighboring 
mountains, Then did Archelaus order procla- 
mation to be made to them all, that they should 
retire to their own homes; so they went away, 
and left the festival out of fear of somewhat 
worse which would follow, although they haa 
been so bold by reason of their want of instruc- 
tion. So Archelaus went down to the sea with 
his mother, and took with him Nicolaus and 
Ptolemy, and many others of his friends, } 
left Philip, his brother, as governor of all things 
belonging both to his own family and to the 
public. There went out also with him Sa- 
lome, Herod’s sister, who took with her her 
children, and many of her kindred were with, 
her; which kindred of her’s went, as they pre 
tended, to assist Archelaus in gaining the king- 
dom, but in reality to oppose him, and chiefly 
to make loud complaints of what he had cco 
in the temple. But Sabinus, Czsar’s ste z 
for Syrian affairs, as he was making haste in 
Judea to preserve Herod’s effects, met with 
Archelaus at Casarea; but Varus (president 
of Syria) came at that time, and restraine 
him from meddling with them, for he | 
there as sent for by Archelaus, by the means 
of.Ptolemy. And Sabinus, out of regard to 
Varns, did neither seive upon any. of the cas 






BOOK XVII-—CHAPTER IX. 


des that were among the Jews, nor did he seal 
ap the treasures in them, but permitted Ar- 
chelaus to have them, until Ceesar should de- 
clare his resolution about them; so that, upon 
this his promise, he tarried still at Cesarea. 
But after Archelaus was sailed for Rome, and 
Varus was removed to Antioch, Sabinus went 
to Jerusalem, and seized on the king’s palace. 
He also sent for the keepers of the garrisons, 
and for all those that had the charge of Herod’s 
effects, and declared publicly, that he should 
require them to give an account of what they 
had: and he disposed of the castles in the man- 
ner he pleased; but those who kept them did 
not neglect what Archelaus had given them in 
command, but continued to keep all things in 
the manner that had been enjoined them; and 
their pretence was, that they kept them all for 
Cesar. 
4, At the same time, also, did Antipas, ano- 
ther of Herod’s sons, sail to Rome, inorder to 
in the government; being buoyed up by Sa- 
_lome with promises, that he should take the go- 
vernment; and that he was a much honester 
and fitter man than Archelaus for that authority; 
since Herod had, in his former testament, deem- 
ed him the worthiest to be made king, which 
ought to be esteemed more valid than his lat- 
ter testament. Antipas also brought with him 
his mother, and Ptolemy the brother of Nico- 
laus, one that had been Herod’s most honored 
friend, and was now zealous for Antipas: but it 
_was Ireneus the orator, and one who on ac- 
count of his reputation for sagacity, was in- 
trusted with the affairs of the kingdom, who 
most of all encouraged him to attempt to gain 
the kingdom; by whose means it was, that 
when some advised him to yield to Archelaus, 
as to his elder brother, and who had been de- 
celared king by their father’s last will, he would 
not submit so to do. And when he was come 
to Rome, all his relations revolted to him: not 
out of their good will to him, but out of their 
hatred to Archelaus; though indeed they were 
most of all desirous of gaining their liberty, 
and to be put under a Roman governor; but if 
_ there were too great an opposition made to that, 
they thought Antipas preferable to Archelaus, 
and so joined with him, in order to procure the 
kingdom for him. Sabinus also, by letters, ac- 
_ cused Archelaus to Cesar. 
___ 5. Now, when Archelaus had sent in his pa- 
_ pers to Ceesar, wherein he pleaded his right to 
_the kingdom, and his father’s testament, with 
_ the accounts of Herod’s money, and with Pto- 
ny, who brought Herod’s seal, he so expect- 
ed the event: but when Cesar had read these 
papers, and Varus’s and Sabinus’s letters, with 
the account of the money, and what were the 
_ annual revenues of the kingdom, and under- 
_ stood that Antipas had also sent letters to lay 
claim to the kingdom, he summoned his friends 
| together, to know their opinions, and with them 
‘Vaius, the son of Agrippa, and of Julia his 
daughter, whom he had adopted, and took him 
and made him sit first of all, and desired such 
as pleased to speak their minds about the af- 
fairs now before them. Now Antipater, Sa- 









420 


lome’s son, a very subtle orator anda bitter 
enemy to Archelaus, spoke first to tais purposet 
that “it was ridiculous in Archelaus to plead 
now to haye the kingdom given him, since he 
had in reality taken already the power over it 
to himself, before Czesar had granted it to him: 
and appealed to those bold actions of his, im 
destroying so many at the Jewish festival, and, 


if the men had acted unjustly, it was but fit the | 


punishing of them should have been reserved to 
those that were out of the country, but had the 
power to punish them, and not been executed 
by a man that, if he pretended to be a king, be 
did an injury to Ceesar, by usurping that au- 
thority before it was determined for him by 
Cesar, but, if he owned himself to be a private 
person, his case was much worse, since he 
who was putting in for the kingdom, could by 
no means expect to have that power granted 
him, of which he had already deprived Ceesar 
[by taking it to himself.] He also touched 
sharply upon him, and appealed to his chang- 
ing the commanders in the army, and his sit- 
ting in the royal throne beforehand, and his 
determination of lawsuits; all done as if he were 
no other than a king. He appealed also to his 
concessions to those that petitioned him on a 
public account, and indeed doing such things 
than which he could devise no greater if he 
had been already settled in the kingdom by 
Cesar. He also ascribed to him the releasing 
of the prisoners that were in the hippodrome. 
and many other things, that either had been 
certainly done by him, or were believed to be 
done, and easily might be believed to have been 
done, because they were of such a nature, as 
to be usually done by young men, and by such 
as, out cf a desire of ruling, seize upon the 
government too soon. He also charged him 
with the neglect of the funeral mourning for 
his father, and with having merry meetings the 
very night in which he died; and that it was 
thence the multitude took the handle of raising 
a tumult; and if Archelaus could thus requite 
his dead father, who had bestowed such bene- 
fits upon him, and bequeathed such great 
things to him, by pretending to shed tears for 
him in the day-time, like an actor on the stage, 
but every night making mirth for having got- 
ten the government, he would appear to be the 
same Archelaus with regard to Cesar, if he 
granted him the kingdom, which he hath beer 
to his father; since he had then dancing and 
singing, as though an enemy of his were fall 
en, and not as though a man were carried te 
his funeral, that was so nearly related, and had 
been so great a benefactor tohim. But he said 
that the greatest crime of all was this, that he 
came now before Cesar to obtain the govern 
ment by his grant, while he had before acted 1m 
all things as he could have acted if Caesar him- 
self, who ruled all, had fixed him firmly in the 
government. And what he most aggravated 
in his pleading, was the slaughter of those about 
the temple, and the impiety of it, as done at 
the festival: and how they were slain like sa- 
crifices themselves, some of whom were fo 
reigners, and others of their own country, cB 


430 


the temple was full of dead bodies: and all this 
was done, not by an alien, but by one who pre- 
tended to the lawful title of a king, that he 
might complete the wicked tyranny which his 
nature prompted him to, and which is hated by 
all men. On which account his father never 
so much as dreamed of making him his suc- 
cessor in the kingdom, when he was of a 
sound mind, because he knew his disposition; 
and in his former and more authentic testament, 
he appointed his antagonist Antipas to succeed; 
but that Archelaus was called by his father to 
that dignity, when he was in a dying condition, 
both of body and mind, while Antipas was 
called upon when he was ripest in his judg- 
ment, and of such strength of body as made 
him capable of managing his own affairs; and 
if his father had the like notion of him for- 
merly that he hath now showed, yet hath he 
iven a sufficient specimen what a king he is 
ikely to be, when he hath [in eo deprived 
Cesar of that power of disposing of the king- 
dom, which he justly hath, and hath not ab- 
stained from making a terrible slaughter of his 
fellow-citizens in the temple, while he was but 
& private person.” 

6. So when Antipater had made this speech, 
and had confirmed what he had said by pro- 
ducing many witnesses from among Arche- 
laus’s own relations, he made an end of his 
pleading. Upon which Nicolaus arose up to 

lead for Archelaus, and said, “That what had 
back done at the temple was rather to be attri- 
buted to the mind of those that had been killed, 
than to the authority of Archelaus; for that 
those, who are the authors of such things; are 
not only wicked in the injuries they do of 
themselves, but in forcing ‘sober persons to 
avenge themselves upon them. Now, it is evi- 
dent that what these did in way of opposition 
was done under pretence indeed against Arche- 
faus, but in reality against Cesar himself; for 
they, after an injurious manner, attacked’ and 
slew those who were sent by Archelaus, and 
who came only to puta stop to their doings. 
They had no regard, either to God or to the 
festival, whom Antipater yet is not ashamed to 
patronize, whether it be out of his indulgence 
of an enmity to Archelaus, or out of his hatred 
of virtue and justice. For as to those who be- 
gin such tumults, and first set about such un- 
righteous actions, they are the men who force 
those that punish them to betake themselves to 
arms even against their wills. So that Anti- 
pater in effect ascribes the rest of what was 
done to all those who were of counsel to the 
accusers, for nothing which is here accused of 
injustice has been done, but what was derived 
fron. them as its authors; nor are those things 
evil in themselves, but so represented only in 
order to do harm to Archelaus. Such are these 
men’s incling.ions to do an injury to a man 
that is of their kindred, their father’s benefac- 
tor, and familiarly acquainted with them, and 
hath ever lived in friendship with them; for 
that, as to this testament, it was made by the 
king when he was of a sound mind, and so 
eught to be of more authority than his former 


! 


' 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 






/ 


testament: and that for this reason, bocaaall 
Cesar is therein left to be the judge and dis 


poser of all therein contained; and for Cesar, — 


he will not, to be sure, at all imitate the unjust 


proceedings of those men, who, during Herod s 
whole life, had on all occasions been joint par- 
takers of power with him, and yet do zealously 
endeavor to injure his determination, while 
they have not themselves had the same regard 

to their kinsmen [which Archelaus had.] Ca- 

sar will not, therefore, disannul the testament 
of a man whom he had entirely supported, of 

his friend and confederate, and that which is 

committed to him in trust, to ratify; nor will 
Ceesar’s virtuous and upright disposition, which 

is known and uncontested through all the ha- 

bitable world, imitate the wickedness of these 

men in condemning a king as a madman, and 

as having lost his reason, while he hath be- 

queathed the succession to a good son of his, 
and to one who flies to Ceesar’s upright deter- 

mination for refuge. Nor can Herod at any 

time have been mistaken in his judgment about 

a successor, while he showed so much pru- 

dence as to submit all to Ceesar’s determina- 

tion.” 

7. Now when Nicolaus had laid these things 
before Ceesar, he ended his plea; whereupon 
Cesar was so obliging to Archelaus, that he 
raised him up when he had cast himself down 
at his feet, and said, that “he well deserved the 
kingdom;” and he soon let him know, that he 
was so far moved in his favor, that he would 
not act otherwise than his father’s testament 
directed, and than was for the advantage of 
Archelaus. However, while he gave this en- 
couragement to Archelaus to depend on him 
securely, he made no full determination about 
him; and, when the assembly was broken u 
he considered by himself, whether he should 
confirm the kingdom to Archelaus, or whether 
he should part it among all Herod’s posterity; 
and this because they all stood in need of much 
assistance to support them. 


CHAPTER X. 


A sedition of the Jews against Sainus; and how 
Varus brought the authors of it to punishment. 


§ 1. But before these things could be brought — 
to a settlement, Malthace, Archelaus’s mother, - 
fell into a distemper, and died of it; and let-— 
ters came from Varus, the president of Syria, 
which informed Cesar of the revolt of the, 
Jews; for, after Archelaus was sailed, the whole} 
nation was in a tumult. So Varus, since he 
was there himself, brought the authors of the 
disturbance to punishment; and when he had — 
restrained them for the most part from this se 
dition, which was a great one, he took his jour- — 
ney to Antioch, leaving one legion of his army 
at Jerusalem to keep the Jews quiet, who were 
now very fond of innovation. Yet did net 
this at all avail to put an end to that their se 
dition; for after Varus was gone away, Sabinus, 
Ceesar’s procurator, staid behind, and greatly 
distressed the Jews, relying on the forces that — 






were left there, that they would by their muk 
titude protect him: for he made use of them, 


( 


; 


@ 


 gides, 





BOOK XVII—CHAPTER xX. 


and armed them as his guards, thereby so op- 
pressing the Jews, and giving them so great 
disturbance, that at length they rebelled; for he 
used force in seizing the citadels, and zealously 
pressed on the search after the king’s money, 
in order to seize upon it by force, on account 
of his love of gain, and his extraordinary 
covetousness. 

2. But on the approach of Pentecost, which 


is a festival of ours, so called from the days of 
our forefathers, a great many ten thousands of 


men got together; ner did they come only to 
celebrate the festival; but out of their indigna- 
tion at the madness of Sabinus, and at the in- 
juries he offered them. A great number there 
was of Galileans, and Idumeans, and many men 
from Jericho, and others who had passed over 
the river Jordan, and inhabited those parts. 
This whole multitude joined themselves to all 
the rest, and were more zealous than the others 
in making an assault on Sabinus, in order to be 
avenged on him; so thcy parted themselves 
into three bands, and encamped themselves in 
the places following: some of them seized 
upon the hippodrome; and of the other two 
bands, one pitched themselves from the north- 
ern part of the temple to the southern, on 
the east quarter; but the third band held the 
western part of the city where the king’s pa- 
lace was, 'Their work tended entirely to be- 
siege the Romans, and to enclose them on all 
Now, Sabinus was afraid of these men’s 
number, and of their resolution, who had little 


__tegard to their lives, but were very desirous 


not to be overcome, while they thought it a 
point of puissance to overcome their enemies; 
80 he sent immediately a letter to Varus, and, 
as he used to do, was very pressing with him, 
and entreated him to come quickly to his assist- 
ance; because the forces he had left were in 
imminent danger, and would probably, in no 
long time, be seized upon, and cut to pieces; 
while he did himself get up to the highest tower 
of the fortress Phasaelus, which had been built 
in honor of Phasaelus, king Herod’s brother, 
and called so when the Parthians had brought 
him to his death.* So Sabinus gave thence a 
signal to the Romans to fall upon the Jews, 
although he did not himself venture so much 


_ 85 to come down to his friends, and thought 


he might expect that the others should expose 
themselves first to die, on account of his avarice. 
However, the Romans ventured to make a sally 
out of the place, and a terrible battle ensued: 
wherein, though it is true the Romans beat their 


' adversaries, yet were not the Jews daunted in 


their resolutions, even when they had the sight 


| of that terrible slaughter that was made of 


them, but they went round about, and got upon 
those cloisters which encompassed the outer 
court of the temple, were a great fight was 


| till continued, and they cast stones at the Ro- 


“Mans, partly with their hands and partly with 
slings, as being much used to those exercises. 
All the archers also in array did the Romans a 
great deal of mischief; because they used their 


* Bee Antiq. book xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 10, and Of the War b. 
Sch. 413i. sect. 9. 







431 


hands dexterously from a place superior to the 
others, and because the others were at an utter 
loss what to do; for when they tried to shoot 
their arrows against the Jews “apwards, these 
arrows could not reach them ‘nsormuch that 
the Jews were easily too hard for their enemies. 
And this sort of fight lasted a great while, ‘till 
at last the Romans, who were greatly distress- 
ed by what was done, set fire to the cloisters 
so privately, that those who were gotten upon 
them did not perceive it. This fire being fed 
by a great deal of combustible matter,* caught 
hold immediately on the roof of the cloisters; 
so the wood, which was full of pitch and wax, 
and whose gold was laid on it with wax, yielded 
to the flame presently, and those vast works, 
which were of the highest value and esteem, 
were destroyed utterly, while those that were 
on the roof unexpectedly perished at the same 
time; for, as the roof tumbled down some of 
these men tumbled down with it, and others of 
them were killed by their enemies who en- 
compassed them. ‘There was a great number 
more, who, out of despair of saving their lives, 
and out of astonishment at the misery that 
surrounded them did either cast themselves 
into the fire, or threw themselves upon their 
own swords, and so got out of their misery. 
But as to those that retired behind the same 
way by which they ascended, and thereby es- 
caped, they were all killed by the Romans, as 
being unarmed men, and their courage failing 
them; their wild fury being now not able to 
help them, because they were destitute of ar- 
mor; insomuch that, of those that went up to 
the top of the roof, not oneescaped. The Ro- 
mans also rushed through the fire, where it 
gave them room soto do, and seized on that 
treasure where the sacred money was reposited; 
a great part of which was stolen by the soldiers, 
and Sabinus got openly four hundred talents. 
3. But this calamity of the Jews’ friends, 
who fell in this battle, grieved them, as did also 
this plundering of the money dedicated to God 
in the temple. Accordingly, that body of them 
which continued best together, and was the most 
warlike, encompassed the palace, and threat- 
ened to set fire to it, and kill all that were in it 
Yet still they commanded them to go out pre- 
sently, and promised, that if they would do so 
they would not hurt them, nor Sabinus neither, 
at which time the greatest part of the king’s 
troops deserted to them, while Rufus and Gra- 
tus, who had three thousand of the most war- 
like of Herod’s army with them, who were 
men of active bodies, went over to the Romana. 
There was also a band of horsemen under the 
command of Rufus, which itse'f went over to 
the Romans also. However, the Jews went 
on with the siege, and dug mines under the 
palace walls, and besought those that were 
gone over to the other side, not to be their 
hinderance, now they had such a proper op- 


* These great devastations made about the temple here. 
and Of the War, b. ii. ch. iii. sect. 3, seem not to have been 
fully re-edified in the days of Nero; till whose time there 
were 18,000 workmen continually employed in rebuilding 
and repairing that temple, as Josephus informs us Antiq. b 
xx. ch, ix. sect. 7; see the note on that place. 


i 


portunity for the recovery of their country’s 
ancient siberty; and for Sabinus, truly he was 
desir>us of going away with his soldiers, but 
was not able to trust himself with the enemy, 
on account of what mischief he had already 
done them; and he took this great renee 
lenity of theirs for an argument why he shouk 
not comply with them: and so, because he ex- 
pected that Varus was coming, he still bore 
the siege. 
; 4. Now, at this time there were ten thou- 
» sand other disorders in Judea, which were like 
' tumults; because a great number put them- 
selves into a warlike posture either out of hopes 
of gain to themselves, or out of enmity to the 
Jews. In particular, two thousand of Herod’s 
old soldiers, who had been already disbanded, 
got together in Judea itself, and fought against 
the king’s troops; although Archiabus, Herod’s 
first cousin, opposed them; but as he was 
driven out of the plains into the mountainous 
arts, by the military skill of those men, he 
Leys himself in the fastnesses that were there, 
and saved what he could. 

5. There was also Judas, the son of that 
Ezekias* who had been head of the robbers; 
which Ezekias was a very strong man, and had 
'with great difficulty been caught by Herod. 
This Judas having gotten together a multitude 
of men of a profligate character about Sep- 
oe in Galilee, made an assault upon the pa- 
ace [there,] and seized upon all the weapons 
that were laid up in it, and with them armed 
every one of those that were with him, and 
carried away what money was left there; and 
he became terrible to all men, by tearing and 
rending those that came near him; and all this 
in order to raise himself, and out of an ambi- 
tious desire of the royal dignity; and he hoped 
to obtain that as a reward, not of his virtuous 
skill in war, but of his extravagance in doing 
injuries. 

6, There was also Simon, who had been a 
slave of Herod the king, but in other respects 
a comely person, of a tall and robust body; he 
was one that was much superior to others of 
his order, and had had great things committed 
to his care. This man was elevated at the dis- 
orderly state of things, and was so bold as to put 
a diadem on his head, while a certain number 
of the people stood by him, and by them he 
was declared to be a king, and thought himself 
more worthy of that dignity than any one else. 
He burnt down the royal palace at Jericho, and 
plundered what was left in it. He also set fire 
to many others of the king’s houses in several 
places of the country, and utterly destroyed 
them, and permitted those that were with him 
to take what was left in them for a prey; and 
he would have done greater things, unless care 
had been taken to repress him immediately; 


* Unless this Judas, the son of Ezekias, be the same with 
fat Theudas, mentioned Acts v. 36, Josephus must have 

- omitted him; for that other Theudas, whom he afterward 
mentions under Fadus, the Roman governor, b. xx. ch. v. 
sect. 1,is much too late to correspond to him that is men- 
tionedinthe Acts. The names Theudas, Thadeus, and Judas, 
differ but little. See Archbishop Usher’s Annals at A. M. 
#001. However, since Josephus does not pretend to reckon 
wp the heads of all those ten thousand disorders in Judea, 


ANTIQUIT:ES OF THE JEWS. 


¥ 
a 
. 
ee 
f ’ 
: 
4 
J 


for Gratus, when he had joined hiniself 
some Roman soldiers, took the forces he hag 
with him, and met Simon, and after a great 
and long fight, no small part of those that came 
from Perea, who were a disordered body of 

men, and fought rather in a bold than ina skil- 

ful manner, were destroyed; and although Si- 

mon had saved himself by flymg away through 

a certain valley, yet Gratus overtook him, anJ 

cut off his head. The royal palace also m 

Amathus, by the river Jordan, was burnt down 
by a party of men that were got together, as 

were those belonging to Simon. And thus 
did a great and wild fury spread itself over the 

nation, because they had no king to keep the. 
multitude in good order, and because those fo- 

reigners, who came to reduce the seditious to 

sobriety, did, on the contrary, set them more 

in a flame, because of the injuries they oftered 

them, and the avaricious management of thei 

affairs. 

7. At this time also Athronges, a person 
neither eminent by the dignity of his progeni- 
tors, nor for any great wealth he was possessed 
of, but one that had in all respects been a shep- 
herd only, and was not known by any body; 
yet because he was a tall man, and excelled 
others in the strength of his hands, he was so. 
bold as to set up for king. This man thought: 
it SO sweet a thing to do more than ordinary 
injuries to others, that although he should be 
killed, he did not much care if he Jost his life 
in so great a desi He had also four breth- 
ren, who were tall men themselves, and were. 
believed to be superior to others in the strength 
of their hands, and thereby were encouraged 
to aim at great things, and thought that strength 
of theirs would support them in retaining the 
kingdom. Each of these ruled over a band of 
men of his own; for those that got together to 
them were very numerous. ‘They were every 
one of them also commanders; but, when they 
came to fight, they were subordinate to him, 
and fought for him, while he put a diadem 
about his head, and assembled a council to de- 
bate about what things should be done, and al} 
things were done according to his pleasure. 
And this man retained his power a great while; 
he was also called king, and had nothing to 
hinder him from doing what he pleased. He 
also, as well as his brethren, slew a great many, 
both of the Romans and of the king’s forces, 
and managed matters with the like hatred to 
each of them. The king’s forces they fell 
upon, because of the licentious conduct they 
had been allowed under Herod’s government 
and they fell upon the Romans, because of the 
injuries they had so lately received from them. 
But in process of time, they grew more cruel” 
to all sorts of men, nor could any one escape 
from one or other of these seditions, since they 


which he tells us were then abroad, see sect. 4, and 8, the 
Theudas of the Acts might be at the head of one of those 
seditions, though not particularly named by him. Thus he 
informs us here, sect. 6, and Of the War, b. ii. ch. iv. sect. 
2, that certain of the seditious came and burnt the royal 
palace at Amathus, or Bethramphta, upon the river Jordan. 
Perhaps their leader-who is not named by Josephus, might 
be this Theudas. “ 


Bg 
2 


a 


~ 


slew some out of the hopes of gain, and others, 


_ from a mere custom of slaying men. They 
once attacked a company of Romans at Em- 
| maus, who were bringing corn and weapons to 


of the best of his foot-soldiers; but the rest of 


the army, and fell upon Arius, the centurion, 
who commanded the company, and shot forty 


them were affrighted at their slaughter, and left 


their dead behind them, but saved themselves 


by the means of Gratus, who came with the 
' king’s troops that were about him to their assist- 


ance. Now, these four brethren continued the 


war a long while by such sort of expeditions, 


and much grieved the Romans; but did their 


‘Own nation also a great deal of mischief. Yet 


were they afterward subdued; one of them in 
a fight with Gratus; another with Ptolemy; 
Archelaus also took the eldest of them prison- 
er, while the ust of them was so dejected at 
the others’ misfortune, and saw so plainly that 


_he had no way now left to save himself, his 
army being worl away with sickness and con- 


tinual labors, that he also delivered himself up 


to Archelaus, upon his promise and oath to | 


God [to preserve his life.] But these things 
came to pass a good while afterward. 
8. And now Judea was full of robberies; and, 


-as the several companies of the seditious lit 
upon any one to head them, he was created a 
_king immediately, in order to do mischeif to the 


_ their city. 


public. They were in some small measure in- 
eed, and in smal] matters, hurtful to the Ro- 


mans; but the murders they committed upon 


their own people lasted a long while. 

9. As soon as Varus was once informed of the 
state of Judea by Sabinus’s writing to him, he 
was afraid for the legion he had left: so he took 
the two other legions, (for there were three le- 
gions in all belonging to Syria,) and four troops 
of horsemen, with the several auxiliary forces 
which either the kings or certain of the tetrarchs 
afforded him, and made what haste he could 
to assist those that were then besieged in Judea. 
He also gave order, that all that were sent out 
for this expedition, should make haste to Ptole- 
mais. The citizens of Berytus also gave him 
fifteen hundred auxiliaries, as he passed through 
Aretas also, the king of Arabia Pe- 
trea, out of his hatred to Herod, and in order 
to purchase the favor of the Romans, sent him 
n0 small assistance, besides their footmen and 
horsemen; and, when he had now collected all 
his forces together, he committed part of them 
to his son, and to a friend of his, arf sent them 
upon an expedition into Galilee, which lies in 
the neighborhood of Ptolemais, who made an 
attack upon the enemy, and put them to flight, 
and took Sepphoris, and made its inhabitants 


slaves, and burnt the city. But Varus himself 


pursued his march for Samaria with his whole 


army; yet did not he meddle with the city of 


_ that name, because it had not at all joined with 


the seditious; but pitched his camp at a cer- 
tain village that belonged to Ptolemy, whose 
name was Arus, which the Arabians burnt, out 
of their hatred to Herod, and out of the ernmity 


they bore to his friends; whence they marched 


to another village, whose name was Sampho, 
> Ys) 


rs 


BOOK XVII.—CHAPTER XL 


43? 


which the Arabians plundered and burnt, ak 
though it was a fortified and a strong placey 
and all along this march nothing escaped them 
but all places were full of fire and of slaughter 
Emmaus was also burnt by Varus’s order, after 
its inhabitants had deserted it, that he might 
avenge those that had there been destroyed. 
From thence he now marched to Jerusalem; 
whereupon those Jews whose camp lay there, 
and who had besieged the Roman .egion, now 
hearing of the coming of this army, iett the siege 
imperfect: but as to the Jerusalem Jews, when 
Varus reproached them bitterly for what had 
been done, they cleared tt.emselves of the ac- 
cusation, and alleged, thay the conflux of the 
people was occasioned by the feast, that the 
war was not made with their approbation, but 
the rashness of the strangers, while they were 
on the side of the Roouans, and besieged toge- 
ther with them, rather than having any ineJ:na- 
tion to besiege them. There also came be- 
forehand to meet Varus, Joseph, the consin 

german of king Herod, as also Gratus ard Ru- 
fus, who brought their soldiers along with them 
together with those Romans who had ! een be- 
sieged; but Sahinus did not come i.e Varus’s 
presence, but stole out of the city privately, 
and went to the sea-side. . 

10. Upon this, Varus sent a pan af his army 
into the country, to seek out those that had 
been the authors of the revolt: aad when they 
were discovered, he punished some of them 
that were most guilty, and some he distnissed: 
now the number of those that were crucified 
on this account were two thousand. After 
which he disbanded his army, which he ‘found 
nowise useful to him in the affairs he came 
about: for they behaved themselves very  cis- 
orderly, and disobeyed his orders, and what 
Varus desired them to do, and this out of re- 
gard to that gain which they made by the mis- 
chief they did. As for himself, when he was 
informed that ten thousand Jews had gotten to- 
gether, he made haste to catch them; but they 
did not proceed so far as to fight him, but, by 
the advice of Archiabus, they came together, 
and delivered themselves up to him: hereupon 
Varus forgave the crime of revolting to the 
multitude, but sent their several commanders 
to Ceesar; many of them Ceasar dismissext: 
ut for the several relations of Herod who liad 
been among these men in this war, they were 
the only persons whom he punished, who, with- 
out the least regard to justice, fought againas 
their own kindred. 


CHAPTER Xl. 


An embassage of the Jews to Cesar, and how 
Cesar confirmed Hero's testament. 


§ 1. So when Varus had settled these affairs, 
and had placed the former legion at Jerusalem, 
he returned back to Antioch: but as for Arche- 
laus, he had new sources of trouble come upon 
him at Rome, on the occasions following: for 
an embassage of the Jews was come to Rome, 
Varus having permitted the nation to send it, 
that they might petition for the liberty of hving 


434 


by their own laws.* Now, the number of the 
anibassadors that were sent by the authority of 
the nation was fifty, to which they joined above 
eight thousand of the Jews chat were at Rome 
already. Hereupon Cesar assembled his friends 
and the chief men among the Romans, in the 
temple of Apollo,t which he had built at a vast 
charge; whither the ambassadors came, and a 
multitude of the Jews that were there already 
eaine with them, as did also Archelaus and his 
friends; but as for the several kinsmen which 
Archelaus had, they would not join themselves 
with him, out of their hatred to him; and yet 
they thought it too gross a thing for them to 
assist the ambassadors [against him] as sup- 
posing it would be a disgrace to them in Ce- 
sar’s opinion to think of thus acting in opposi- 
tion to a man of their own kindred. {Philip 
also was come hither out of Syria, by the per- 
suasion of Varus, with this principal intention 
to assist his brother [Archelaus;} for Varus 
was his great friend; but still so, that if there 
should any change happen in the form of go- 
vernment, (which Varus suspected there would) 
and if any distribution should be made on ac- 
count of the number that desired the liberty of 
living by their own laws, that he might not be 
disappointed, but might have his share in it. 

2. Now upon the liberty that was given to 
the Jewish ambassadors to speak, they who 
hoped to obtain a dissolution of kingly govern- 
ment, betook themselves to accuse Herod of 
his iniquities; and they declared, “that he was 
indeed in name a king, but that he had taken 
to himsélf that uncontrollable authority which 
tyrants exercise over their subjects, and had 
made use of that authority for the destruction 
of the Jews, and did not abstain from making 
many innovations among them besides, accord- 
ing to his own inclinations; and that whereas 
there were a great many who perished by that 
destruction he brought upon them, so many 
indeed as no other history relates, they that 
survived were far more miserable than those 
that suffered under him, not only by the anxiety 
they were in from his looks and disposition to- 
wards thei, but from the danger their estates 
were in of being tnken away by him: that he 
did never leave off adorning those cities that 
Jay in their neighborhood, but were inhabited 
by foreigners; but so thatthe cities belonging 
to his own govertument were ruined, and ut- 
terly destroyed: that whereas, when he took 
the kingdom, it was in on extraordinary flou- 
rishing condition, he had filled the nation with 
the utmost degree of poverty; and when, upon 
Unjust pretences, he had slain any of the no- 
bility, he took away their estates; and when 
he permitted any of them to live, he condemn- 
ed tem to the forfeiture of what they pos- 
eessed. And, besides the annual iimpositions 
which he laid upon every one of them, they 
were to make liberal presents to himself, to 
his domestics and friends, and to such of his 
®iaves as were youchsafed the favor of being 


* See Of the War, b. fi. ch. ii. sect. 3. 
} See the note, Of the War, b. ii. ch vi. sect. 1. 
{ te was tetrarch afterward. 


ANTIQUITIES ( F THE JEWS. 


his tax-gatherers; because there was no 


of obtaining a freedom from unjust violence 
without giving either gold or silver for it 
That they would say nothing of the corrup- 
tion of the chastity of their virgins, and the re- 
proach laid on their wives for incontinency 
and those things acted after an insolent an 
inhuman manner; because it was not a smaller 
pleasure to the sufferers to have such things 
concealed than it would have been not te 
have suffered them. ‘That Herod had pu 
such abuses upon them as a wild beast would 
not have put on them, if he had power given 
him to rule over us; and that although their 
nation had passed through many subversions 
and alterations of government, their history 
gave no account of any calamity they had 
ever been under, that could be compared 
with this which Herod had brought upon their 
nation; that it was for this reason that they 
thought they might justly and gladly salute Ar- 
chelaus as king, upon this supposition, that 
whosoever should be set over their kingdom, 
he would appear more mild to them than He- 
rod had been; and that they had joined with 
him in the mourning for his father, in order to 
gratify him, and were ready to oblige him in 
other points also, if they could meet with any 
degree of moderation from him; but that he 
seemed to be afraid lest he should not be 
deemed Herod’s own son, and so, without any 


3 
> 


delay, he immediately let the nation understand 


his meaning, and this before his dominion was 
well established, since the power of disposing 
of it belonged to Cesar, who could either give 
it to Lim or not, as he pleased. That he had 
given a specimen of his future virtue to his 
subjects, and with what kind of moderation 
and good administration he would'govern them, 
by that his first action which concerned them, 
his own citizens, and God himself also, when 
he made the slaughter of three thousand of his 
own countrymen at the temple. How, then, 
could they avoid the just hatred of him who, 
to the rest of his barbarity had added this as 
one of our crimes, that we have opposed and 
contradicted him in the exercise of his authori- 
ty?” Now, the main thing they desired was 
this, “That they might be delivered from kingly 
and the like forms of government,* and might 
be added to Syria, and be put under the au- 
thority of such presidents of theirs as should 
be sent to them; for that it would thereby be 
made evident, whether they be really a seditious — 
* If any one compares that divine prediction concerning 
the tyrannical power which Jewish Kings would exercise — 
over them, if they would be so foolish as to prefer it be — 
fore their ancient theocracy or aristocracy, 1 Sam. viii. 1—@% 
Antiq. b. viii. chap. iv. sect. 4, he will soon find that it was 
superabundantly fulfilled in the days of Herod, and that to 
such a degree, that the nation now at lust seem sorely to re- 
pent of such their ancient choice in opposition to God’s bet 
ter choice for thein, and had much rather be subject to even — 
a Pagan Roinan government, and their deputies, than to b 
any longer under the oppression of the family of Herod, — 
which request of theirs Augustus did not now grant then 
but did it for the one-half of that nation in a few years al 
terward, upon fresh complaints by the Jews made agai 
Archelaus; who, under the more humble name of ethnarcit, — 
which Augustus only would now allow him, soon took upon 
him the insolence and tyranny of his father king Herod, as 


the remaining part of this book will inform us, and partic 
larly ch. xiii. sect. &. me! 








‘ 


BOOK XVIL—CHAPTER XII. 


people, and generally fond of innovations, or 
‘whether they would live in an orderly manner, 
if they might have governors of any sort of 
‘moderation set over them.” 

_ 3. Now, when the Jews had said this, Nico- 
taus vindicated the kings from those accusa- 
tions, and said, “That, as for Herod, since he 
had never been thus accused all the time of 
his life,* it was not fit for those that might have 
accused him of lesser crimes than those now 
mentioned, and might have procured him to be 
punished during his lifetime, to bring an accu- 
gation against him now he is dead. He also 
attributed the actions of Archelaus to the Jews’ 
injuries to him, who affecting to govern con- 
trary to the laws, and going about to kill those 
that would have hindered them from acting 
unjustly, when they were by him punished for 
what they had done, made their complaints 
ayainst him; so he accused them of their at- 
tempts for innovation, and of the pleasure they 
took in sedition, by reason of their not having 
learned to submit to justice, and to the laws, 
but still desiring to be superior in all things.” 
This was the substance of what Nicolaus said. 
_ 4, When Cesar had heard these pleadings, 
he dissolved the assembly; but a few days 
afterward he appointed Archelaus, not indeed 
to be king of the whole country, but ethnarch 
of one-half of that which had been subject to 
Herod, and promised to give him the royal 
dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtu- 
ously. But as for the other half he divided it 
into two parts, and gave it to two other of He- 
rod’s sons, to Philip and to Antipas, that An- 
tipas who disputed with Archelaus for the 
whole kingdom. Now, to him it was that Pe- 
rea and Galilee paid their tribute, which 
amounted annually to two hundred talents,t 
while Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Au- 
ranitis, with a certain part of what was called 
the house of Zenodorus,} paid the tribute of 


* This is not true. See Antiq. b. xiv. ch. ix. sect 3, 4, 
and ch. xii. sect. 2, and ch. xiii. sect.1,2. Antiq. b. xv. ch. 
ui. sect. 5, and ch. x. sect.2,3. Antiq. b. xvi. ch. ix, sect. 3. 
- ¥ Since Josephus here informs us that Archelaus had one- 
half of the kingdom of Herod, and presently informs us 
farther, that Archelaus’s annual income, after an abatement 

‘of one-quarter for the present, was 690 talents, we may 
therefore gather pretty nearly what was Herod the Great's 
yearly income; I mean about 1600 talents, which, at the 
nown value of 3000 shekels to a talent, and about 2s. 10d. 
‘to a shekel, in the days of Josephus, see the note on Antiq. 
. iii. ch. viii. sect. 2, amounts to £60,000 sterling per an- 
num: which income, though great in itself, bearing no pro- 
portion to his vast expenses everywhere visible in Josephus, 
and to the vast sums he left behind him in his will, chap. viii. 
sect. 1 and chap. xii. sect. 1, the rest must have arisen either 
‘from his confiscation of those great men’s estates whom he 
te to death, or made to pay a fine for the saving of their 
lives, or from some other heavy methods of oppression which 
‘such savage tyrants usually exercise upon their miserable 
‘subjects; or rather from these several methods put together, 
‘all which yet seem very much too small for his expenses, 
being drawn from no larger a nation than that of the Jews, 
‘which was very populous, but without the advantage of 
‘trade to bring them riches; so that I cannot but strongly sus- 
pect that no small part of this his wealth arose from another 
‘source: I mean from some vast sums he took out of David’s 
/sepulchre, but concealed from the people; see the note on 
- Antiq. b. vii. ch. xv. sect. 3. 
| Take here a very useful note of Grotius, on Luke, ch. 
ti. ver. 1, here quote: by Dr. Hudson: ‘When Josephus 
ays, that some part of the house [or possession] of Zeno- 
-dorus (i. e. Abilene,) was allotted to Philip, he therefore de- 
elares that the larger part of it belonged to another; this 
ether was Lysanias, whom Luke mentioned, of the posterity 


438 


one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, 
and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid 
tribute to Archelaus, but had now a fourth 
part of that tribute taken off by the order of 
Czesar, who decreed them that mitigation, be- 
cause they did not join in this revolt with the 
rest of the multitude. There were also certain 
of the cities which paid tribute to Archelaug 
Strato’s Tower, and Sebaste, with Joppa and 
Jerusalem; for as to Gaza, and Gadara, and 
Hippos, they were Grecian cities, which Coesar 
separated from his government, and added 
them to the province of Syria. Now the tri- 
bute-money thatcame to Archelaus every year 
from his own dominions, amounted to six hun- 
dred talents. 

5. And so much came to Herod’s sons from 
their father’s inheritance. But Salome, besides 
what her brother left her by his testament, 
which were Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasae- 
lis, and five hundred thousand [drachme] of 
coined silver, Cesar made her a present of a 
royal habitation at Askelon; in all, her reve- 
nues amounted to sixty talents by the year, and 
her dwelling-house was within Archelaus’s go- 
vernment. ‘The restalso of the king’s relations 
received what his testament allotted them. 
Moreover, Czesar made a present to each of 
Herod’s two virgin daughters, besides what 
their father left them, of two hundred and fifty 
thousand [drachme] of silver, and married 
them to Pheroras’s sons; he also granted all 
that was bequeathed to himself to the king’s 
sons, which was one thousand five hundred 
talents, excepting a few of the vessels, which 
he reserved for himself; and they were accepta- 
ble to him, not so much for the great value 
they were of, as because they were memorials 
of the king to him. 


CHAPTER XII. 


Concerning a spurious Alexander. 


§ 1. When these affairs had been thus set- 
tled by Cesar, a certain young man, by birtha 
Jew, but brought up by a Roman freed-man 
in the city of Sidon, ingrafted himself into the 
kindred of Herod, by the resemblance of his 
countenance, which those that saw him attest- 
ed to be that of Alexander the son of Herod. 
whom he had slain; and this was an incite- 
ment to him to endeavor to obtain the govern- 
ment, so he took to him, as an assistant, a 
man of his own country, (one that was well ac- 
quainted with the affairs of the palace, but or 
other accounts an ill man, and one whose na: 
ture made him capable of causing great disturb 
ances to the public, and one that became 


of that Lysanias who was possessed of the same country 
called Abilene, from the city Abila, and by others Chalcidene, 
from the city Chalcis, when the government of the east was 
under Antonius, and this after Ptolemy, the son of Mennié- 
us, from which Lysanias, this county came to be commonly 
called the Country of Lysanias; and as, after the death of the 
former Lysanias, it was called the tetrarchy of Zenoderus, 
so, after the death of Zenodorus; or when the time for 
which he hired it was ended, when another Lysanias, of the 
same name with the former, was possessed of the same 
country, it began to be called again the tetrarchy of Lysani- 
as.2?> However, since Josephus elsewhere, Antiq. b. xx. ch 
vii. sect. 1, clearly distinguishes Abilene from Chalcidene 
Grotius must be here so far mistaken. 


£35 


teacher of such a mischievous contrivance to 
the other,) and declared himself to be Alexan- 
der the son of Herod, but stolen away by one 
of those that were sent to slay him, who, in 
reality, slew other men in order to deceive the 
spectators, but saved both him and his brother 
Aristobulus. Thus was this man elated, and 
able to impose on those that came to him; and 
when he was come to Crete, he made all the 
Jews that came to discourse with him believe 
him [to be Alexander.} And when he had 
getten much money which had been present- 
ed to him there, he passed over to Melos, 
where he got much more money than he had 
before, out of the belief they had that he was 
of the royal family, and their hopes that he 
would recover his father’s principality, and re- 
ward his benefactors; so he made haste to 
Rome, and was conducted thither by those 
strangers who entertained him. He was also 
so fortunate, as upon his landing at Dicearchia, 
to bring the Jews that were there into the same 
delusion; and not only other people, but also 
all those that had been great with Herod, or 
had a kindness for him, joined themselves to 
this man as to their king. The cause of it was 
this, that men were glad of his pretences, which 
were seconded by the likeness of his counte- 
nance, which made those that had been ac- 
quainted with Alexander strongly to believe 
that he was no other but the very same person, 
which they also confirmed to others by oath; 
insomuch that when the report went about 
him that he was coming to Rome, the whole 
multitude of the Jews that werethere went out 
to meet nim, ascribing it to divine Providence 
that he had so unexpectedly escaped, and being 
very joyful on account of this mother’s family. 
And whien he was come, he was carried in a 
royal litter through the streets, and all the or- 
naments about him were such as kings are 
adorned withall; and this was at the expense of 
those that entertained him. The multitude also 
flocked about him greatly, and made mighty 
acclamations to him, and nothing was omitted 
which could be thought suitable to such as 
had been so unexpectedly preserved. 

2. When this thing was told Cesar he did 
not believe it, because Herod was not so easily 
td be impused upon in such affairs as were of 
great concern to him; yet, having some suspi- 
tion it might be so, he sent one Celadus, a freed- 
inan of his, and one that had conversed with 
the young men themselves, and bade him bring 
Alexander into his presence; so he brought him, 
being no more accurate in judging about him 
than the rest of the multitude. Yet did not he 
deceive Cesar; for although there was a resem- 
blance between him and Alexander, yet was 
it not so exact as to impose on such as were 
prudent in discerning; for this spurious Alex- 
ander had his hands rough by the labors he 
had been put to, and instead of that softness of 
body which the other had, and this as derived 
from his delicate and generous education, this 
man, for the contrary reason, had a rugged body. 
When, therefore, Cesar saw how the master 
and the scholar agreed in this lying story, and 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


rae 


in a bold way of talking, he inquired about Aris 
tobulus, and asked what became of him, who, 
it seems, was stolen away together with him, 
and for what reason it was that he did not 
come along with him, and endeavor to recover 
that dominion which was due to his high birth 
also? And when he said, that “he had been 
left in the isle of Crete, for fear of the dangers 
of the sea, that, in case any accident should 
come to himself, the posterity of Mariamne 
might not utterly perish, but that Aristobulns 
might survive, and punish those that laid sueh 
treacherous designs against them.” And when 
he persevered in his affirmations, and the au- 
thor of the imposture agreed in supporting it, 
Cesar took the young man by himself, and said 
to him, “If thou wilt not impose upon me, thou 
shalt have this for thy reward, that thou shalt 
escape with thy life; tell me, then, who thou 
art, and who it was that had boldness enough 
to contrive such a cheat as this; for this con- 
trivance is ico considerable a piece of villainy 
to be undertaken by one of thy age.” Ae 
cordingly, because he had no other way to take, 
he told Ceesar the contrivance, and after what 
manner, and by whom, it was laid together, 
So Cesar, upon observing the spurious Alex- 
ander to be a strong active man, and fit to work 
with his hands, that he might not break his 
promise to him, put him among those that 
were to row among the mariners; but slew him 
that induced him to do what he had done; for 


‘as for the people of Melos, he thought them 


sufficiently punished, in having thrown away 
so much of their money upon this spurious 
Alexander. And such was the ignominious 
conclusion of this bold contrivance about the 
spurious Alexander. ~ 


CHAPTER XIII. 
How Archelaus, upon a second accusation, was 
banished to Vienna. 


§ 1. When Archelaus was entered on his 
ethnarchy, and was come into Judea, he ac- 
cused Joazer, the son of Boethus, of assisting 
the seditious, and took away the high priest- 
hood from bim, and put Eleazar his brother ia 
his place. He also magnificently rebuilt the 
royal palace that had been at Jericho, and he 
diverted half the water with which the village 
of Neara used to be watered, and drew off that 
water into the plain, to water those palm-trees 
which he had there planted: he also built a vil- 
lage, and put hisown name upon it, and call- 
ed it Archelaus, Moreover, he trans . 
the law of our fathers,* and married Glaphyra, 
the daughter of Archelaus, who had been the 
wife of his brother Alexander, which Alexap- 
der had three children by her, while it was & 
thing detestable among the Jews, to marry the 
brother’s wife; nor did this Eleazar abide tong 
in the high priesthood: Jesus, the son of Sie, 
being put in his room while he was still living. 

2. But in the tenth year of Archelaus’s go- 
vernment, both his brethren, and the principal 

* Spanheim seasonably observes here, that it was forbid- 
den the Jews to marry their brother’s wife, when she had 


children by her first husband, and that Zenoras[cites or] 


terprets the clause before us accordingly, x & 


“a E, 


BOOK XVIIL—CHAPTER 1. 


meu of Judea and Samaria, not being able to 


bear his barbarous and tyrannical usage of 


‘them, accused him before Cesar, and that es- 
‘pecially because they knew he had broken the 
‘commands of Czesar, which obliged him to be- 
‘have himself with moderation among them. 
‘Whereupon, Cesar, when he heard it, was very 
angry, and called for Archelaus’s steward, who 
‘took care of his affairs at Rome, and whose 
name was Archelaus also, and thinking it be- 
‘neath him to write to Archelaus, he bade him 
sail away as soon as possible, and bring him to 
Rome: sc the man made haste in his voyage, 
and when he came into Judea he found Ar- 
chelaus feasting with his friends; so he told 
him what Cesar had sent him about, and hast- 
ened him away. And when he was come [to 
Rome, |Cesar, upon hearing what certain accu- 
sers of his had to say, and what reply he could 
make, both banished him, and appointed Vien- 
na, a city of Gaul, to be the place of his habita- 
tion, and took his money away from him. 

3. Now, before Archelaus was gone up to 
Rome upon this message, he related this dream 
to his friends, that “he saw ears of corn, in 
number ten, full of wheat, perfectly ripe, which 
ears, as itseemed to him, were devoured by 
oxen.” And when he was awake and gotten 
up, because the vision appeared to be of great 
importance to him, he sent for the diviners, 
whose study was employed about dreams. 
And while some were of one opinion, and some 
of another, (for all their interpretations did 
‘not agree,) Simon, a man of the sect of the 
Essenes, desired leave to speak his mind free- 
ly, and said, that “the vision denoted a change 
in the affairs of Archelaus, and that not for 
the better; that oxen, because that animal takes 
uneasy pains in his labors, denoted afflictions, 
and indeed denoted further, a change of affairs; 
because that land which is ploughed by oxen 
cannotremain in its former state; and that the 
ears of corn being ten, determined the like 
number of years, because an ear of corn grows 
in One year; and that the time of Archelaus’s 
government was over.” And thus did this man 
expound the dream. Now, on the fifth day 
after this dream came first to Archelaus, the 
: other Archelaus, that was sent to Judea by Cx- 
gar to cal] him away, came.-hither also 
| 4. The like accident befell Glaphyra his 


| 





BOOK 





CHAPTER I. 


» Gow aus was sent by Casar to make a 
_ taxation of Syria and Judea; and how Co- 
ponius was sent to be procurator 2f Judea: 
concerning Judas of Galilee, and co werning 
_ fhe sects that were among the Jews. 


$1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and 
ene who had gone throurh other magistracies, 






4H 


wife, who was the daughter of king Archelaug 
who, as | said before, was married, while she 
was a virgin, to Alexander the son of Herod, 
and brother of Archelaus; but since it fell out 
so that Alexander was slain by his father, she 
was married to Juba, the king of Lydia, and 
when he was dead, and she lived in widow- 
hood in Cappadocia with her father Arche- 
laus divorced his former wife Mariamne, and 
married her, so great was his affection for this 
Glaphyra; who during her marriage to him, 
saw the following dream. She thought “she 
saw Alexander standing by her, at which she 
rejoiced, and embraced him with great affec- 
tion; but that he complained of her, and _ said, 
O Glaphyra! thou provest that saying to be true, 
which assures us that women are not to be 
trusted. Didst not thou pledge thy faith to me? 
and wast not thou married to me when thou 
wast a virgin? and had we not children be- 
tween us? Yet hast thou forgotten the affec- 
tion I bore to thee, out of the desire of a se- 
cond husband. Nor hast thou been satisfied 
with that injury thou didst me, but thou hast 
been so bold as to procure thee a third husband 
to lie by thee, and in an indecent and impru- 
dent manner hast entered into my house, and 
hast been married to Archelaus, thy husband, 
and my brother. However, I will not forget 
thy former kind affection for me, but will set 
thee free from every such reproachful action, 
and cause thee to be mine again, as thou once 
wast.” When she had related this to her female 
companions, in a few days’ time she departed 
this life. 

5. Now, I do not think these histories im- 
proper for the present discourse, both because 
my discourse now is concerning kings; and 
otherwise also on account of the advantage 
hence to be drawn, as well as for the confirma- 
tion of the immortality of the soul, as of the 
providence of God over human affairs, I thought 
them fit to be set down; but if any one does 
not believe such relations, let him indeed enjoy 
his own opinion, but let him not hinder another, 
that would thereby encourage himself in vir- 
tue. So Archelaus’s country was laid to the 
province of Syria; and Cyrenius, one that had 
been consul, was sent by Cesar to take account 
of the people’s effects in Syria, and to sell the 
house of Archelaus. 





XVIII. 


. OONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS.—FROM THE BANISHMENT OF ARCEELAUS 
TO THE DEPARTFRE OF THE JEWS FROM BABYLON. 





and had passed through them till he had bees 
consul, and one who, on other accounts, was 
of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, 
with a few others, being sent by Cesar to bea 
judge of that nation, and to take an account of 
their substance; Coponius also a man of the 
equestrian order, was sent together with him, te 
have the supreme power over the Jews. More- 
over, Cyrenius came himself into Judea, whieb 


438 


was now added to the province of Syria, to 
take an account of their substance, and to dis- 
pose of Archelaus’s money: but the Jews al- 
though at the beginning they took the report of 
a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any 
further opposition to it, by the persuasion of 
Joazar, who was the son of Boethus, and high 
priest; so they being over-persuaded by Joa- 
zar’s words, gave an account of their estates, 
without any dispute about it, Yet was there 
one Judas,* a Gaulonite, of a city whose name 
was Gamala, who taking with him Saddouk,t 
a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a 
revolt, who both said, that this taxation was no 
better than an introduction to slavery, and ex- 
horted the nation to assert their liberty, as if 
they could procure them happiness and secu- 
rity for whiat they possessed, and assured en- 
joyment of a still greater good, which was that 
of the honor and glory they would thereby, ac- 
quire for magnanimity. ‘They also said, that 
God would not otherwise be assisting to them, 
than upon their joining with one another in 
such counsels as might be successful, and for 
their own advantage; and this especially, if 
they would set about great exploits, and not 
grow weary in executing the same: so men re- 
ceived what they said with pleasure, and this 
bold attempt proceeded to a great height. All 
sorts of misfortunes also sprang from these 
men, and the nation was infected with this doc- 
trine to an incredible degree: one violent war 
came upon as after another, and we lost our 
friends who used to alleviate our pains; there 
were also very great robberies and murders of 
our principal men. ‘This was done in pretence 
indeed for the public welfare, but in reality 
from the hopes of gain to themselves; whence 
arose seditions, and from them murders of 
men, which sometimes fell on those of their 
own people, (by the madness of these men to- 
wards one another, while their desire was that 
none of the adverse party might be left,) and 


* Since St. Luke once, Acts v. 37, and Josephus four sever- 
al times, once here, sect. 6, and b. xx. ch. v. sect. 2; Of the 
War, b. ii. chap. vili. sect. 1; and ch. xvii. sect 8; calls this 
Judas, who was the pestilent author of that seditious doc- 
trine and temper which brought the Jewish nation to utter 
destruction, a Galilean; but here, sect. 1, Josephus calls him 
a Gaulonite, of the city Gamala; it is a great question where 
this Judas was born, whether in Galilee, on the west side, 
or in Gaulonitis, on the east side of the river Jordan; while 
in the place just now cited out of the Antiquities, b. xx. ch. v. 
sect. 2, he is not only called a Galilean, butit is added to his 
story, as I have signified in the books thut go before these, as 
if he had still called him a Galilean in those Antiquities be- 
fore, as well as in that particular place, as Dean Aldrich ob- 
serves, On the War, b. ii. ch. viii. sect. 1. Nor can one 
well imagine why he should here call him a Gawonite, when 
m the 6th section following here, as well as twice Of the 
War, he still calls him a Galilean. As for the city of Ga- 
mala, whence this Judas was derived, it determines nothing, 
since there were two of that name, the one in Gaulonitis, 
the other in Galilee. See Reland on the city or town of that 
name. 

¢ It seems not very improbable to me, that this Sadduc, 
the Pharisee was the very same man of whom the Rabbins 
speak, as the unhappy but undesigning occasion of the im- 
‘piety or infidelity of the Sadducees: nor perhaps had the 
men this name of Sadducees till this very time though they 
were a distinct sect long before; see the note on b. xiii. 
ehap. x. sect 5; and Dean Prideaux, as there quoted; nor do 
we, that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety 
or infidelity of these Sadducees before this time, the Recog- 
nitions assuring us that they began about the days of John 
the Baptist b.i. ch. iv. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. a 


sometimes on their enemies; a famine alse 
coming upon us, reduced us to the last degre 
of despair, as did also the taking and demolish- 
ing of cities; nay, the sedition at last increased 
so high, that the very temple of God was burnt 
down by their enemies’ fire. Such were the 
consequences of this, that the customs of our 
fathers were altered, and such a change was 
made, as added a mighty weight toward bring- © 
ing all to destruction, which these men occa-— 
sioned by their thus conspiring together; for 
Judas and Saddouk,* who excited a fourth 
philosophic sect among us, and had a great 
many followers therein, filled our civil govern- 
ment with tumults at present, and laid the foun- 
dations of our future miseries by this system of — 
philosophy, which we were before unacquaint- 
ed withall, concerning which we will discourse 
a little, and this the rather, because the infection - 
which spread thence among the younger sort, 
who were zealous for it, brought the public to” 
destruction. 

2. The Jews had for a great while had three 
sects of philosophy peculiar to themselves, the 
sect of the Essenes, and the sect of the Saddu- 
cees, and the third sort of opinions was that of 
those called Pharisees; of which sect, although 
I have already spoken in the second book of 
the Jewish war, yet will I a little touch upon 
them now. . 

3. Now, for the Pharisees, they live meanly, 
and despise delicacies in diet, and they follow 
the conduct of reason; and what that prescribes" 
to them as good for them, they do; and they 
think they ought earnestly to strive to observe 
reason’s dictates for practice. ‘They also pay a 
respect to such as are in years; nor are they so” 
bold as to contradict them in any thing which 
they have introduced; and when they determine 
that all things are done by fate, they do not take 
away the freedom from men of acting as they 
think fit; since their notion is, that it hath 
pleased God to make a temperament, whereby 
what he wills is done, but so that the will of 
man can act virtuously or viciously. They also 
believe, that souls have an immortal vigor in 
them, and that under the earth there will be 
rewards or punishments, according as they have 
lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and 
the latter are to be detained in an everlasting 
prison, but that the former shall have power to 
revive and live again, on account of whicli 
doctrines, they are able greatly to persuade the 
body of the people, and whatsoever they do 
about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, 
they perform them according to their direction 
insomuch that the cities give great attestatio 
to them on account of their entire vi 
conduct, both in the actions of their lives, a 


their discourses also. | i 








4, But the doctrine of the Sadducees is 
that souls die with the bodies; nor do they 
gard the observation of any thing besides 
the law enjoins them; for they think it an 1 
stance of virtue to dispute with those teache 
of philosophy whom they frequent; but _ 
doctrine is received but by a few yet by th 

* See the preceding note, . 





BOOK XVIh— 


CHAPTER II. 438 


sull of tne greatest dignity. But they are able | “heirs is well known to a great many, I shal 


to do almost nothing of themselves; for when 
aM become magistrates, as they are unwill- 
ingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, 
they addict themselves to the notions of the 
Pharisees, because the multitude would not 
otherwise bear them. 

5. The doctrine of the Essenes is this, that all 
things are best ascribed to God. They teach 
the immortality of souls, and esteem that the 
rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly 
striven for; and when they send what they 
have dedicated to God into the temple, they do 
not offer sacrifices, because they have more 
pure lustrations of their own;* on which ac- 
count they are excluded from the common 
court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices 
themselves; yet is their course of life better 
than that of other men; and they entirely ad- 
dict themselves to husbandry. It also deserves 
our admiration, how much they exceed all 
other men that addict themselves to virtue, and 
this in righteousness: and indeed to such a de- 
gree, that as it hath never appeared among any 
other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no, 
not for a little time, so hath it endured for a 
long while among them. This is demonstrated 
by that institution of theirs, which will not suf- 
fer any thing to hinder them from having all 
things in common; so that a rich man enjoys 
no more of his own wealth than he who hath 
nothing at all. There are about four thousand 
men that live in this way; and neither marry 
wives, nor are desirous to keep servants; as 
thinking the latter tempts men to be unjust, and 
the former gives the handle to domestic quar- 
rels, but as they live by themselves, they minis- 
ter one to another. They also appoint certain 
sewards to receive the incomes of their reven- 
ues, and of the fruits of the ground; such as 
are good men and priests; who are to get their 
‘corn and their food ready for them. They 
none of them differ from others of the Es- 
genes in their way of living, but do the most 
resemble those Dace, who are called Poliste,t 
{dwellers in cities.] 

6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish philoso- 
phy, Judas the Galilean was the author. These 
men agree in all other things with the Phari- 
gaic notions; but they have an inviolable attach- 
ment to liberty, and say, that God is to be their 
only Rulerand Lord. They also do not value 
dying any kinds of death, nor indeed do they 
heed the deaths of their relations and friends, 
nor can any such fear make them call any man 

ord, And since this immoveable resolution of 


*Itseems by what Josephus says here, and Philo himself 
Stsewhere, Op. p. 676, that these Essenes did not use to go 
up to the Jewish festivals at Jerusalem, or to offer sacrifices 
there, which may be one great occasion why they are never 
mentioned in the ordinary books of the New Testament; 
though in the Apostolical Constitutions they are mentioned 
as those that observe the customs of their forefathers, and 
that without any such ill character laid upon them as is there 
laid upon the other sects among that people. 

¢ Who these Uoasrxs in Josephus, or Krécr: in Strabo, 
among the Pythagoric Dace were, itis not easy to determine. 
ie iger offers no improbable conjecture, that some of these 

_ Dace lived alone like monks, in tents or caves; but that 


| thers of them lived together in built cities, and tience were 


galled by such names as implied the same. 


- xeak no farther about that matter; nor am } 
1. fraid that any thing I have said of them should 
ke disbelieved, but rather fear that what I have’ 
aid is beneath the resolution they show when 
they undergo pain. And it was in Gessiug 
Florus’s time that the nation began to grow 
nad with this distemper, who was our procu- 
retor, and who occasioned the Jews to go wild 
w-th it by thg abuse of his authority, and to 
make them revélt from the Romans, And these 
a: 3 the sects of Jewish philosophy 


CHAPTER II. 


Brew Herod and Philip built several cites m 
honor of Cesar. Concerning the succession 
of priests and procurators; as also what befeR 

hraates and the Parthians. 


§ 1. When Cyrenius had now disposed of 
Archelaus’s money, and when the taxings were 
come to a conclusion, which were made in the 
thirty-seventh of Cesar’s victory over Antony 
at Actium, he deprived Joazer of the high 
priesthood, which dignity had been conferred 
on him by the multitude, and he appointed 
Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; 
while Herod and Philip had each of them re- 
ceived their own tetrarchy, and settled the af- 
fairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about 
Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,} 
and made it the metropolis of the country. 
He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, 
which was itself a city also, and called it Ju- 
lias, from the name of the emperor’s wife, 
When Philip also had built Paneas, a city at 
the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarca. 
He also advanced the village Bethsaida, situate 
at the lake of Gennesareth, unto the dignity of 
a city, both by the number of inhabitants it 
contained, and its other grandeur, and called it 
by the name of Julias, the same name with 
Ceesar’s daughter. 

2. As Coponius, who we told you was sen 
along with Cyrenius, was exercising his office 
of procurator, and governing Judea, the follow- 
ing accidents happened. As the Jews were 
celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, which 
we call the Passover, it was customary for the 
priests to open the temple gates just after 
midnight. When, therefore, those gates were 
first opened, some of the Samaritans came pri- 
vately into Jerusalem, and threw about the 
dead men’s bodies in the’ cloisters; on which 
account the Jews afterward excluded them out 
of the temple, which they had not used to do 
at such festivals; and on other accounts also 
they watched the temple more carefully than 
they had formerly done. A little after which 
accident, Coponius returned to Rome, snd 
Marcus Ambivius came to be nis successor im 
that government; under whom Salome, the 
sister of king Herod, died, and left to Julia 
[Cesar’s wife,] Jamnia, all its toparchy, and 
Phasaelis in the plain, and Archelais, where is 
a great plantation of palm-trees, and their fruit 
is excellent in its kind. After him came An- 
nius Rufus, under whom died Cesar, the se: 

'cond emperor of the Romans, the duration of 


24G 


whose reign was fifty-seven years, besides six 
months and two days, (of which time Anto- 
nius ruled together with him fourteen years; 
but the duration of his life was seventy-seven 
years:) upon whose death Tiberius Nero, his 
wife Julia’s son, succeeded. He was now the 
third emperor; and he sent Valerius Gratus 
to be procurator of Judea, and to succeed: An- 
mius Rufus. ‘This man deprived Ananus of 
the high priesthood, and appointed Ishmael, 
the son of Phabi,to be high priest. He also 
de; rived him ina little time, and ordained Ele- 
azir, the son of Ananus, who had been high 
priest before, to be high priest; which office, 
when he had held it for a year, Gratus deprived 
hiin of,and gave the high priesthood to Si- 
mon, the son of Camithus, and, when he had 

ossessed that dignity no longer than a year, 
Fisoish Caiaphas was made his ‘successor. 
When Gratus had done these things, he went 
back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea 
eleven years, when Pontius Pilate came as his 
successor. 

3. And now Herod the tetrarcl, who was in 
great favor with Tiberius, built a city of the 
Birne name with him, and called it ‘Tiberias. 
He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the 
lake of Gennesareth. There are warm baths 
at a little distance from it, in a village named 
Emmaus, Strangers came, and inhabited this 
city; a great number of the inhabitants were 
Galileans also; and many were necessitated by 
Herod to come thither out of the country be- 
longing to him, and were by force compelled 
te be its inhabitants; some of them were per- 
sons of condition. He also admitted poor peo- 
ple, such as those that were collected from all 
parts, to dwell in it. Nay, some of them were 
not quite free-men, and these he was a benefac- 
tor to, and made them free in great numbers; 
but obliged them not to forsake the city, by 
building them very good houses at his own ex- 
pense, and by giving them land also; for he 
was sensible, that to make this place a habita- 
tion was to transgress the ancient Jewish laws, 
because many sepulchres were to be here taken 
away, in order to make room for the city Ti- 
berias;* whereas our laws pronounce that such 
miabitants are unclean for seven days.f 

4. About this time died Phraates, the king of 
the Parthians, by the treachery of Phraataces 


his son, upon the occasion following: When . 
Phraates had had legitimate sons of his own, | 


he had also an Italian maid-servant, whose 
kame was Thermusa, who had been formerly 
gent to him by Julius Cesar, among other pre- 
gents. He first made her his concubine, but he 
being a great admirer of her beauty, in pro- 
eess of time having a son by her, whose name 
was jiraataces, he made her his legitimate wife, 
and hada great respect for her. 
* \WWe may here take notice, as well asin the parallel parts 
# ‘the books Of the War, b. ii. chap. ix. sect. 1, that after the 
death of Herod the Great, and the succession of Archelaus, 
Josephus is very brief in his accounts of Judea, till near his 
ewn time. ] suppose the reason is that after the large history 
of Nicolaus of Damascus, including the life of Hered, and 
chet the succession and first actions of his sons, he had 
t 


few good histories of those times before him. 
+ Numb. xix 11--14 


Now, she , 
. Artabanus, king of Media, to 


‘him to contradict her commands. 


: 


cm 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


was able to persuade him to do any thing thas — 
she said, and was earnest in procuring the go- — 
vernment of Parthia for her son; but still she — 
saw that her endeavors would not succeed, un 
less she could contrive how to remove Phraates’s 
legitimate sons [out of the kingdom;] so she 
persuaded him to send those his sons as pledges 
of his fidelity to Rome; and they were sent to 
Rome accordingly, because it was not easy for 
Now, while 
Pliraataces was alone brought up in order to- 
succeed in the government, he thought it very 
tedious to expect that government by his fath- 
er’s donation [as his successor;] he therefore 
forined a treacherous design against his father 
by his mother’s assistance, with whom, as the 
report went, he had criminal conversation also, 
So he was hated for both these vices, while his 
subjects esteemed this Eeessp love of his 
mother to be noway inferior to his parricide; 
and he was by them, in a sedition, expelled out 
of the country before he grew too great, and 
died. But, as the best sort of Parthians agreed 
together, that it was impossible they should be 
governed without a king, while also it was their 
constant practice to choose one of the family of 
Arsaces, [nor did their law allow of any others; 
and they thought this kingdom had been suf- 
ficiently injured already by the marriage with 
an Italian concubine, and by her issue,] they 
sent ambassadors, and called Orodes [to take 
the crown;] for the multitude would not other- 
wise have borne them; and though he were 
accused of very great cruelty, and was of an 
untractable temper, and prone to wrath, yet 
still he was one of the family of Arsaces. 
However, they made a conspiracy against him, 
and slew him, and that, as some say at a festi- 
val, and among their sacrifices; (for it is the 
universal custom there to carry their swords 
with them:) but as the more general report is, 
thev slew him when they bad drawn him out 
u.unting. So they sent ambassadors to Rome, 
and desired: they would send one of those that 
were there as pledges, to be their king. Ac- 
cordingly, Vonones was preferred before the 
rest, and sent to them; (for he seemed capable 
of such great fortune, which two of the great- 
est kingdoms under the sun now offered him, 
his own, anda foreign one.) However, the _ 
barbarians soon changed their minds, they be- _ 
ing naturally of a mutual disposition, upon the _ 
supposal, that this man was not worthy to be _ 
their governor; for they could not think of — 
obeying the commands of one that had been a 
slave, (for so they called those that had been — 
hostages,) nor could they bear the ignominy of 
that name; and this was the more intolerable, 
because then the Parthians must have such 
king set over them, not by right of war, 
in time of peace. So they presently invit 
tie the’ king, he 
being also of the race of Arsaces. Artabanus 
complied with the offer that was made him 
and came to them with an army. So Vono- 
nes met him; and at first the multitude of th 
Parthians stood on his side, and he put his ar 
my in array; but Artabanus was beaten, 


— 









Uh 


i BOOK XVULI—CHAPTER HL. 


fied to the mountains of Media. Yet did hea 
aittle while after gather a great army together, 
and fought with Vonones, and beat him; where- 
upon Vonones fled away on horseback, with a 
few of his attendants about hirn, to Seleucia, 
‘upon Tigris.] So when Artabanus had slain 
a great number, and this after he had gotten 
the victory, by reason of the very great dismay 
the barbarians were in, he retired to Ctesiphon 
with a great number of his people; and so he 
‘pow reigned over the Parthians. But Vono- 
nes fled away to Armenia: and as soon as he 
eame thither, he had an inclination to have the 
government of the country given him, and 
gent ambassadors to Kome [for that purpose.] 
But because Tiberius refused it him, and be- 
cause he wanted courage, and because the 
Parthian king threatened him, and sent ambas- 
sadors to him to denounce war against him if 
he proceeded, and because he had no way to 
take to regain any other kingdom, (for the peo- 
le of authority among the Armenians about 
Riphates joined themselves to Artabanus,) he 
delivered up himself to Silanus, the president 
of Syria, who, out of regard to his education 
at Rome, kept him in Syria, while. Artabanus 
ve Armenia to Oroles one of his own sons. 
5. At this time died Antiochus, the king of 
Commagene; whereupon the multitude con- 
tended with the nobility, and both sent ambas- 
sadors [to Rome;] for the men of power were 
desirous that their form of government might 
be changed into that of a [Roman] province; 
as were the multitude desirous to be under 
kings, as their fathers had been. So the senate 
made a decree, that Germanicus should besent 
to settle the affairs of the east, fortune hereby 
taking a proper opportunity for depriving him 
of his life; for when he had been in the east, 
and settled all affairs there, his life was taken 
away by the poison which Piso gave him, as 
hath been related elsewhere.* 


CHAPTER III. 


A sedition of the Jews against Pontius Pilate. 
Concerning Christ, and what befell Paulina 
and the Jews at Rome. 


§ 1. But now Pilate, the procurator of Ju- 
dea, removed the army from Cesarea to Jeru- 
salem, to take their winter-quarters there, in 
order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he in- 
troduced Ceesar’s effigies, which were upon the 
ensigns, and brought them into the city; where- 
as our law forbids us the very making of images; 
on which account the former procurators were 
wont to make their entry into the city with 
such ensigns as had not those ornaments. P1- 
late was the first who brought those images to 
‘Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was 
‘done without the knowledge of the people, be- 
cause it was done in the night-time; but as soon 
‘8s they knew it, they came in multitudes to 
Czesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days 
| that he would remove the images; and when 
| he would not grant their requests, because it 
would tend to the injury of Cesar, while yet 
they persevered in their request, on the sixth 
* This citation 










is now “wanting. 
56 


441 


day he ordered his soldiers to have tneir wea- 
pons privately while he came and sat upon his 
judgment-seat, which place was so prepared 
in the open place of the city, that it concealed 
the army that lay ready to oppress them; and 
when the Jews petitioned him again; he gave 
a signal to the soldiers to encompass them 
round, and threatened that their punishment 
should be no less than inimediate death, unless 
they would leave off disturbing him, and go 
their ways home. But they threw themselves 
upon the ground, and Jaid their necks bare, 
and said they would take their death very will- 
ingly rather than the wisdom of their laws 
should be transgressed; upon which Pilate was 
deeply affected with their firm resolution to 
keep their laws inviolable, and presently com- 
manded the images to be carried back from Je- 
rusalem to Caesarea. 

2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of 
water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred 
money, and derived the origin of the stream 
from the distance of two hundred furlongs, 
However, the Jews* were not pleased with 
what had been done about this water; and 
many ten thousands of the people got together 
and made a clamor against him, and insisted 
that he should leave off that design. Some of 
them also used reproaches, and abused the man, 
as crowds of such people usually do. So he 
habited a great number of his soldiers in their 
habit, who carried daggers under their gar- 
ments, and sent them to a place where they 
might surround them. So he bade the Jews 
himself go away; but they boldly casting re- 
proaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that 
signal which had been beforehand agreed on; 
who laid upon them with much greater blows 
than Pilate had commanded them, and equally 
punished those that were tumultuous, and those 
that were not; nor did they spare them in the 
least: and since the people were unarmed, and 
were caught by men prepared for what they 
were about, there were a great number of them 
slain by this means, and others ran away wound 
ed. And thus an end was put to this sedition. 

3. Now, there was about this time Jesus, a 
wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for 
he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher 
of such men asreceive the truth with pleasure 


* These Jews, as they are here called, whose blood Pilate 
shed on this occasion, may very well be those very Galilean 
Jews whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; 
Luke xiii. 1, 2; these tumults being usually excited at some 
of the Jews? great festivals, when they slew abundance of 
sacrifices, and the Galileans being commonly much more 
busy in such tumults than those of Judea and Jerusalem, aa 
we learn from the history of Archelaus, Antiq. b. xvii. chap. ix. 
sect. 3, and ch. x. sect. 2, 9; though indeed Josephus’s presemj 
copies say not one word of those eighteen upon whom the tower 
in Siloam fell, and slew them, which the 4th verse of the same 
13th chapter of St. Luke informs us of. But since our gospel 
teaches us, Luke xxiii. 6, 7, that when Pilate heard of Galilee 
he asked whether Jesus were a Galilean? And as soon as he 
knew that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to 
Herod. And ver. 12, The same day Pilate and Herod were 
made friends together; for before they had been at enmity 
between themselves. Take the very probable key of this mat 
ter in the words of the learned Noldius, de Herod. No. 249 
“The cause of the enmity between Herod and Pilate, says 
he, seems to have been this, that Pilate had intermeddled with 
the tetrarch’s jurisdiction, and had slain some of his Galileas 
subjects, Luke xiii. 1; and, as he was willing to sorrect that 
error, he sent Christ to Herod at this time.” 


442 


He drew over to him both many of the Jews, 
and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] 
Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion 
of the principal men amongst us, had condemn- 
ed him to the cross,* those that loved him at 
the first did not forsake him; for he appeared 
to them alive again the third day,} as the divine 
prophets had foretold these and ten thousand 
other wonderful things concerning him. And 
the tribe of Christians, so named from him, 
are not extinct at this day. 

4, About the same time, also another sad 
calamity put the Jews into disorder, and cer- 
tain shameful practices happened about the 
temple of Isis that was at Rome. I will now 
first take notice of the wicked attempt about 
the temple of Isis, and will then give an ac- 
count of the Jewish affairs. There was at 
Rome a woman whose name was Paulina; 
one who, on account of the dignity of her an- 
cestors, and by the regular conduct of a virtu- 
ous life, had a great reputation; she was also 
very rich, and although she was of a beautiful 
countenance, and in that flower of her ese 
wherein women are the most gay, yet diu se 
lead a life of great modesty. She was mar- 
ried to Saturninus, one that was every way an- 
swerable to her in an excellent character, De- 
cius Mundus fell in love with this woman, who 
was a man very high in the equestrian order; 
and as she was of too great dignity to. be 
caught by presents, and had already rejected 
them, though they had been sent in great abun- 
dance, he was still more inflamed with love to 
her, insomuch that he promised to give her 
two hundred thousand Attic drachme for one 
night’s lodging; and when this would not pre- 
vail upon her, and he was not able to bear this 
misfortune in his amors; he thought it the best 
way to famish himself to death for want of food, 
on account of Paulina’s sad refusal; and he de- 
termined with himself to die after such a man- 
ner, and he went on with his purpose accord- 
ingly. Now, Mundus had a freed-woman, 
who had been made free by his father, whose 
name was Ide, one skilful in all sorts of mis- 
chief. This woman was very much grieved at 
the young man’s resolution to kill himself, (for 
he did not conceal his intentions to destroy 
himself from one and came to him, and en- 
coiraged him by her discourse; and made 
him to hope, by some promises she gave him, 
that he might obtain a night’s lodging with Pau- 
lina; and when he joyfully hearkened to her 
entreaty, she said she wanted no more than fifty 
thousand drachme for the entrapping of the 
woman. So when she had encouraged the 
young man, and gotten as much money as she 
required, she did not take the same methods as 
had been taken before, because she perceived 
that the woman was by no means to be tempt- 
ed: by money; but as she knew that she was 
very much given to the worship of the goddess 
Isis, she devised the following stratagem: She 
went to some of Isis’s priests, and upon the 
strongest assurances [of concealment,] she per- 
suaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer 

* A. D. 33. April 3. t April 5. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


of money, of twenty-five thousand drachme 
in hand, and as much more when the thing 
had taken effect, and told them the passion iil 
the young man, and persuaded them to use al} 
means possible to heguilethe woman. So they 
were drawn in to promise so to do, by tha 
large sum of gold they were to have. Ac- 
cordingly, the oldest of them went imme 
diately to Paulina, and, upon his admittance, he 
desired to speak with her by herself. When 
that was granted him, he told her, that “he was 
sent by the god Anubis, who was fallen in love 
with her, and enjoined her to come to him? 
Upon this she took the message very kindly, 
and valued herself greatly upon this condescen- 
sion of Anubis, and told her husband, that she 
had a message sent her, and was to sup and Jie 
with Anubis; so he agreed to her acceptance of 
the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his 
wife. Accordingly, she went to the temple, 
and after she had supped there, and it was the 
hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the doors of 
the ternple, when, in the holy part of it, the 
lights were also put out. Then did Mundus 
leap out, (for he was hidden therein,)and did 
not fail of enjoying her, who was at his ser- 
vice all the night long, as supposing he was the 
god, and when he was gone away, which was 
before those priests who knew nothing of this 
stratagem were stirring, Paulina came early 
to her husband, and told him how the god 
Anubis had appeared to her among her friends, 
also, she declared how great a value she put 
upon this favor, who partly disbelieved the 
thing, when they reflected on its nature, and 
partly were amazed at it, as having no pretence 
for not believing it, when they considered the 
modesty and the dignity of the person. But 
now, on the third day after what had been 
done, Mundus met Paulina, and said, “Nay, 
Paulina, thou hast saved me 200,000 drachma, 
which sum thou mightest have added to thy 
own family; yet hastthou not failed to be at 
my service in the manner I invited thee. As 
for the reproaches thou hast laid upon Mundus 
I value not the business of names; but I re 
joice in the pleasure I reaped by what I di 
while I took to myself the name of Anubis. 
When he had said this, he went his way. But. 
now she began to come to the sense of the 
grossness of what she had done, and rent her 
garments, and told her husband of the horrid | 
nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed 
him not to neglect to assist her in this case. § 
he discovered the fact to the emperor; wh 
upon Tiberius inquired into the matter 
roughly, by examining the priests about it, 
rdered them to be crucified, as well as Ide, 
who was the Sccasion of their perdition, and 
who had contrived the whole matter, whi i} 
was so injurious to the woman. He also 
molished the temple of Isis, and gave 
that her statue should be thrown into 7e} 
Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did 
no more to him, because he supposed that what 
crime he had committed was done out of the 
passion of love. And these were the circum 
stances which concerned the temple of Isis 















BOOK XVIIlL—CHAPTER IV 


and the injuries occasioned by her priests. | 
now return to the relation of what happened 
about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I for- 
merly told you I would. 

5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had 
peen driven away from his own country by an 
accusation laid against him for transgressing 
their laws, and by the fear he was under of 
punishment for the same; but in all respects a 
wicked man. He, then living at Rome, pro- 
fesse 1 to instruct men in the wisdom of the 
aw of Moses. He procured also three other 
men, entirely of the same character with him- 
self, to be his partners. These men persuaded 


Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that 


had embraced the Jewish religion, to send pur- 
ple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem, and 
when they had gotten them, they employed 
them for their own uses, and spent the money 
themselves, on which account it was that they 
at first required it of her. Whereupon Tiberi- 
us, who had been informed of the thing by 
Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who desir- 


ed inquiry might be made about it, ordered all 


the Jews to be banished out of Rome; at 
which time the consuls listed 4000 men out of 
them, and sent them to the island of Sardinia,* 
but punished a great number of them, who 
were unwilling to become soldiers, on account 
of keeping the laws of their forefathers. Thus 
were these Jews banished out of the city by the 
wickedness of four men. 


CHAPTER IV. 

How the Samaritans made a tumult, and Pilate 
destroyed many of them: how Puate was ac- 
cused, and what things were done by Vitellius 
relating to the Jews and the Parthians. 

-§ 1. But the nation of the Samaritans did 

not escape without tumults. The man who ex- 


-cited them to it, was one who thought lying a 


thing of little consequence, and who contrived 
every thing so that the multitude might be 
pleased: so he bade them to get together upon 
mount Gerizzim, which is by them looked upon 
as the most holy of all mountains, and assured 
them, that when they were come thither, he 
would show them those sacred vessels which 
were laid under that place, because Moses} put 


* Of the banishment of these 4000 Jews into Sardinia by 
Tiberius, see Suetonius in Tiber. sect. 36. But as for Mr. 
Reland’s note here, which supposes that Jews could not 
consistently with their laws, be soldiers, it is contradicte 


_ by one branch of the history before us, and contrary to innu- 


merable instances of their fighting, and proving excellent 


soldiers in war; and indeed many of the best of them, and 


> a - 


ven under heathen kings themselves, did so, those [ mean 
who allowed them their rest on the Sabbath-day, and other 
olemn festivals, and let them live according to their own 
Yaws, as Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies of Egpmt 
lid. ‘It ia true, they could not always obtain those privilegus, 
and then they got excused as well as they could, or some- 
times absolutely refused to fight, which seems to have been 
the case here, as to the major part of the Jews now banish- 
ed, but nothing more; see several of the Roman decrees in 
their favor as to such matters, b. xiv. ch. x. 
} Since Moses never came himself beyond Jordan, nor 
lapaatth to mount Gerizzim, and since these Samaritans 
ave a tradition among them related here by Dr. Hudson, from 
Reland, who was very skilful in Jewish and Samaritan learn- 
ing, that in the days of Uzzi or Ozzi the high priest, 1 Chron. 


; vi.6, the ark and other sacred vessels were, by God’s coimn- 


mand, laid up or hidden in mount Gerizzim, itis highly pro- 
bable that this was the foolish foundation the present Samari- 


4a 


them there. So they caine thither armed, and 
thought the discourse of the man probable, 
and as they abode at a certain village, which 
was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together 
to them and desired to go up the mountain 
in @ great multitude together: but Pilate pre- 
vented their going up, by seizing upon the 
roads with a great band of horsemen and foot- 
men, who fell upon those that were gotten to- 
gether in the village; and when it came to an 
action, some of them they slew, and others of 
them they put to flight, and took a great many 
alive, the principal of whom, and also the most 
potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered 
to be slain. 

2. But when this tumult was appeased, the 
Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, 
a man that had been consul, and who was now 
president of Syiia, and accused Pilate of the 
murder of those that were killed, for that they 
did not go to 'Tirathaba in order to revolt from 
the Romans, but to escape the violence of P}- 
late. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of 
his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and or- 
dered Pilate to go to Rome, to answer before 
the emperor to the accusation of the Jews. So 
Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, 
made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to 
the order of Vitellius, which he durst not con- 
tradict; but before he could get to Rome, Ti- 
berius was dead. 

3. But Vitellius came into Judea, and went 
up to Jerusalem: it was at the time of that fes- 
tival which is called the Passover. Vitellius 
was there magnificently received, and released 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem from all the taxes 
upon the fruits that were bought and sold, and 
gave them leave to have the care of the high 
priest’s vestments, with all their ornaments, 
and to have them under the custody of the 
priests in the temple, which power they used 
to have formerly, although at this time they 
were laid up in the tower of Antonia, the cita- 
del so called, and that on the occasion follow- 
ing: there was one of the [high] priests, nain- 
ed Hyrcanus, and as there were many of that 
name, he was the first of them; this man built 
a tower near the temple, and when he had so 
done, he generally dwelt in it, and had these 
vestments with him; because it was iawful for 
him alone to put them on, and he had them 
there reposited when he went down into the 
city, and took his ordinary garments; the same 
things were continued to be done by his sons, 
and by their sons after them. But when He- 
rod came to be king, he rebuilt this tower 
which was very conveniently situated, inamag . 
nificent manner: and because he was a friene 
to Antonius, he called it by the name of Anto- 
nia. And as he found these vestments lying 
there, he retained them in tne same place, as 
believing that while he had them in his custo- 
dy, the people would make no innovations 
against him. The like to what Herod did was 
done by his son Archelaus, who was made 


tans went upon in the sedition here described, and that we 
should read here, Qosws, instead of Movcsms, in the text 
Josephus. i 


444 


king after him; afte: whom the Romans, when 
they entered on the government, took posses- 
sion of these vestments of the high priest, and 
had them reposited in a stone chamber, under 
seal of the priests, and of the keepers of the 
temple, the captain of the guard lighting a 
lainp there every day; and seven days beforea 
festival they were delivered to them by the cap- 
tain of the guard,* when the high priest having 
purified them, and made use of them, laid them 
up again in the same chainber where they had 
been laid up before, and this the very next day 
after the feast was over. This was the practice 
at the three yearly festivals, and on the fast 
day: but Vitellius put these garments into our 
own power, as in the days of our forefathers, 
and ordered the captain of the guard not to 
trouble himself to inquire where they were laid, 
or when they were to be used; and this he did 
as an act of kindness, to oblige the nation to 
him. Besides which, he also deprived Joseph, 
who was also called Caiaphas, of the high 
priesthood, and appointed Jonathan, the son of 
Ananus, the former bigh priest, to succeed him. 
After which, he took his journey back to Anti- 
och. 

4. Moreover, Tiberius sent a letter to Vitel- 
lius, and commanded him to make a league of 
friendship with Artabanus, the king of Par- 
thia; for, while he was his enemy, he terrified 
him, because he had taken Armenia away from 
him, lest he should proceed farther, and told 
him he should no otherwise trust him than upon 
his giving him hostages, and especially his son 
Artabanus. Upon Tiberius’s writing thus to Vi- 
tellius, by the offer of great presents of money, 
he persuaded both the king of Iberia, and the 
king of Albania, to make no delay, but to fight 
against Artabanus; and although they would 
not do it themselves, yet did they give the 
Scythians a passage through their country, and 
opened the Caspian gates to them, and brought 
them upon Artabanus, So Armenia was again 
taken from the Parthians, and the country of 
Parthia was filled with war, and the principal 
of their men were slain, and all things were in 
disorder among them: the king’s son also him- 
self fell in these wars, together with many ten 
thousands of hisarmy. Vitellius had also sent 
such great sums of money to Artabanus’s fath- 
er’s,kinsmen and friends, that he had almost 

rocured him to be slain by the means of those 
fahee which they had taken. And when Ar- 
tabanus perceived that the plot laid against him 
Was not to be avoided, because it was laid by 
the principal men, and those a great many in 
number, and that it would certainly take effect; 
when he had estimated the number of those 
that were truly faithful to him, as also of those 
who were already corrupted, but were deceit- 
ful in the kindness they professed to him, and 

* This mention of the high priest’s sacred garments receiv- 
ed seven days before a festival, and purified in those days 
against a festival, as having been polluted, by being in the 
eustody of heathens, in Josephus, agrees weil with the tra- 
ditions of the Talmudists, as Reland here observes. Nor is 
there any question but the three feasts here mentioned 
were the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of Tabernacles; and 


the fast, so called, by way of distinction, as Acts xxvii. 9, 
was the great day of expiation. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 4 
were likely, upon trial, to go over to his ene — 


mies, he made his escape to the upper pro- 
vinces, where he afterward raised a great 


army 
out of the Dabee and Sace, and fought with : 


his enemies, and retained his principality. 

5. When Tiberius had heard of these things, 
he desired to have a league of friendship made 
between him and Artabanus; and when, upon 
this invitation he received the proposal kindly — 
Artabanus and Vitellius wentto Euphrates, and 
as a bridge was laid over the river, they each 
of them came with their guards about them, 
and met one another on the midst of the bridge. 
And when they had agreed upon the terms of 
peace, Herod the tetrarch erected a rich tent in 
the midst of the passage, and made them a 
feast tnere. Artabanus also not long- after- 
ward, sent his son Darius, as a hostage, with 
many presents, among which there was a man 
seven cubits tall,a Jew he was by birth, and his 
name was Eleazar, who, for his tallness, was 
called a giant. After which Vitellius went to 
Antioch, and Artabanus to Babylon; but Herod 
[the tetrarch] being desirous to give Ceesar the 
first information that they had obtained hos- 
tages, sent posts with letters, wherein he had ac- 
curately described all the particulars, and had 
left nothing for the consular Vitellius to inform 
him of. But when Vitellius’s letters were sent, 
and Ceesar had let him know that he was ac-_ 
quainted with the affairs already, because He- 
rod had given him an account of them befo 
Vitellius was very much troubled at it; an 
supposing that he had been thereby a greater 
sufferer than he really was, he kept up a secret 
anger upon this occasion, till he could be re- 
venged on him, which was after Caius had ta 
ken the government. 

6. About this time it was that Philip, He- 
rod’s brother, departed this life, in the twen- 
tieth year of the reign of Tiberius,* after he 
had been tetrarch of Trachonitis, and Gauloni- 
tis, and of the nation of the Bataneans also, 
thirty-seven years. He had showed himself a 
person of moderation and quietness in the con- 
duct of his life and government; he constantly 
lived in that country which was subject to 
him;} he used to make his progress with a few 
chosen friends; his tribunal also, on which he 
sat in judgment, followed him in his progress 
and when any one met him who wanted his 
assistance, he made no delay, but had his tri- 


a 


5 
4 


bunal set down immediately, wheresoever he — 


happened to be, and sat down upon it, and — 


heard his complaint: he there ordered the 


uilty — 
that were convicted to be punished, ail ab 
solved those that had been accused unjustly 
He died at Julias; and when he was carried te 4 


that monument which he had already erected 


‘ 
‘ 


j 


a 


* This calculation from all Josephus’s Greek copies is ex- _ 
actly right; for since Herod died about September, in the 4th 


year before the Christian era, and Tiberius begin is wed 


known, Aug. 19, A. D. 14, it is evident that the 


berius, or near the end of A. D. 33, (the very year of our Sa- _ 
vior’s death also, or, however, in the beginning of the 
year, A. D. 34.) This Philip the tetrarch seems to have 
the best of all the posterity of Herod, for his love of peace, — 
and his love of justice. ; 
{ An excellent example this. 


th year of Fi 
Philip, reckoned from his father’s death, was the 20th of Te _ 4 
a ; 


om) | 





for himself beforehand, he was buried with 

t pomp. His principality Tiberius took, 

he left no sons behind him, and added it to 

the province of Syria, but gave order that the 

tributes which arose from it should be collect- 
ed, and laid up in his tetrarchy. 


CHAPTER V. 


Herod, the tetrarch, makes war with Aretas, the 
king of Arabia, and is beaten by him; as also 
concerning the death of John the Baptist; how 
Vitellius went up to Jerusalem; together with 
some account of Agrippa, and of the posterity 
of Herod the Great. 


§ 1. About this time Aretas, the king of Ara- 
bia Petrea, and Herod had a quarrel on the ac- 
count following: Herod, the tetrarch, had mar- 
ried the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with 
her a great while; but when he was once at 
Rome, he lodged with Herod, who was his 
brother indeed, but not by the same mother; 
for this Herod* was the son of the high priest 
Simon’s daughter. However, he fell in love 
with Herodias, this last Herod’s wife, who was 
the daughter-of Aristobulus, their brother, and 
the sister of Agrippa the Great; this man ven- 
tured to talk to her about a marriage between 
them, which address when she admitted, an 
agreement was made for her to change her 
habitation, and come to him as soon as he should 
return from Rome: one article of this marriage 
also was this, that he should divorce Aretas’s 
daughter. So Antipas, when he had made this 
agreement, sailed to Rome; but when he had 
done there the business he went about, and was 
returned again, his wife having discovered the 
agreement he had made with Herodias, and 
having learned it before he had notice of her 
knowledge of the whole design, she desired 
him to send her to Macherus, which is a place 
in the borders of the dominions of Aretas and 
Herod, without informing him of any of her in- 
tentions. Accordingly Herod sent her thither, 
as thinking his wife had not perceived any thing. 
Now, she had sent a good while before to Ma- 
cherus, who was subject to her father, and so 
all things necessary for her journey were made 
ready for her by the general of Aretas’s army; 
and by that means she soon came into Arabia, 
under the conduct of the several generals, who 
carried her from one to another successively, 
and she soon came to her father, and told him 
of Herod’s intentions. So Aretas made this 
the first occasion of his enmity between him 
and Herod, who had also some quarrel with 
him about their limits at the country of Gama- 
litis. So they raised armies on both sides, and 
prepared for war, and sent their generals to 
fight instead of themselves; and when they 
had joined battle, all Herod’s army was destroy- 
ed by the treachery of some fugitives, who, 
though they were of the tetrarchy of Philip, 
__* This Herod seems to have had the additional name of 
Philip, as Antipas was named Herod Antipas, and as Anti- 
pas and Antipater seems to be in a manner the very same 
game, yet were the names of twosons of Herod the Great; 
_ 80 might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod-Philip be two 
different sons of the same father, all which Grotius observes 


On Matt. xiv. 3. Nor was it, as I agree with Grotius and 
‘thers of the learned, Philip the tetrarch, but this Herod- 


BOOK XVIIL—CHAPTER V. 


443 


joined with Aretas’s army. So Herod wrote 
about these affairs to Tiberius, who, being very 
angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to 
Vitellius to make war upon him, and either te 
take him alive, and bring him to him in bonds 
or to kill him, and send him his head. This 
was the charge that Tiberius gave to the presi- 
dent of Syria. 

2. Now, some of the Jews thought that the 
destruction of Herod’s army came from God 
and that very justly, as a punishment of what 
he did against John, that was called the Bap- 
tist, for Herod slew him, who was a good man, 
and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, 
both as to righteousness towards one another, 
and piety towards God, and so to come to bap- 
tism; for that the washing [with water] would 
be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, 
not in order to the putting away [or the remis- 
sion] of some sins [only,] but for the purifica 
tion of the body; supposing still that the soul 
was thoroughly purified beforehand by righte- 
ousness. Now, when [many] others came in 
crowds about him, for they were greatly moved 
Ng pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who 
eared lest the great influence John had over 
the people might put it into his power and in- 
clination to raise rebellion, (for they seemed to 
do any thing he should advise,) thought it best, 
by putting him to death, to prevent any mis- 
chief he might cause, and not bring himself 
into difficulties, by sparing a man who might 
make him repent of it when it should be too 
late. Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out 
of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the 
castle I before mentioned, and was there put to 
death. Now, the Jews had an opinion that the 
destruction of this army was sent as a punish- 
ment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s dis- 
pleasure against him. — 

3. So Vitellius prepared to make war with 
Aretas, having with him two legions of armed 
men: he also took with him all those of light 
armature, and of the horsemen which belonged 
to them, and were drawn out of those king- 
doms which were under the Romans, and 
made haste for Petra, and came to Ptolemais, 
But as he was marching very busily, and lead- 
ing his army through Judea, the principal men 
met him, and desired that he would not thua 
march through their land; for that the laws of 
their country would not permit them to over. 
look those images which were brought into it, 
of which there were a great many in their en- 
signs; so he was persuaded by what they said, 
and changed that resolution of his, which he 
had before taken in this matter. Whereupon 
he ordered the army to march along the greaz 
plain, while he himself, with Herod the te- 
trarch, and his friends, went up to Jerusalem 1 
offer sacrifices to God, an ancient festival of 
the Jews, then just upproaching; and when he 
Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had married, and 
that in her first husband’s lifetime, and when her first hus 
band had issue by her; for which adulterous and incestuous 
marriage, John the Baptist justly reproved Herod the te 
trarch, and for which reproof Salome the daughter of Here- 


dias, by her first husband Herod-Plalip, who was still alive, 
occasioned him to be unjustly beheaded. 


446 


had been there, and been honorably entertain- 
ed by the multitude of the Jews, he made a 
stay there for three days, within which time 
he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood, 
and gave it to his brother Theophilus. But 
when on the fourth day letters came to him, 
which informed him of the death of Tiberius, 
he obliged the multitude to take an oath of 
fid 2lity to Caius; he also recalled his army, and 
made them every one go home, and take their 
winter-quarters there, since upon the devolu- 
tion of the empire upon Caius, he had not the 
like authority of making this war which he 
had before. It was also reported, that when 
Aretas heard of the coming of Vitellius to fight 
him, he said, upon his consulting the diviners, 
that it was impossible that this army of Vitel- 
lius’s could enter Petra; for that one of the rulers 
would die, either he that gave orders for the 
war, or he that was marching at the other’s de- 
sire, in order to be subservient to his will, or 
else he against whom this army is prepared. 
So Vitellius truly retired to Antioch; but Agrip- 
pa, the son of Aristobulus, went up to Rome, 
a year before the death of Tiberius, in order to 
treat of some affairs with the emperor, if he 
might be permitted so to do. I have nowa 
mind to describe Herod and his family, how it 
fared with them, partly because it is suitable to 
this history to speak of that matter, and partly 
because this thing is a demonstration of the 
mterposition of Providence, how a multitude 
of children is of no advantage, no more than 
any other strength that mankind set their hearts 
upon, besides those acts of piety which are 
done towards God; for it happened, that, within 
the revolution of a hundred years, the posterity 
of Herod, who were a great many in number, 
were, excepting a few, utterly destroyed.* 
One may well apply this for the instruction of 
mankind, and learn thence how unhappy they 
were; it will also shew us the history of Agrip- 
pa, who, as he was a person most worthy of 
admiration, so was he from a private man, be- 
ent all the expectation of those that knew 
im, advanced to great power and authority. 
I have said something of them formerly, but I 
shall now also speak accurately about them. 

4. Herod the Great had two daughters by 
Mariamne, the [grand] daughter of Hyrcanus; 
the one was Salampsio, who was married to 
Phiasaelus, her first cousin, who was himself 
the son of Phasaelus, Herod’s brother, her 
father making the match; the other was Cy- 
pros, who was herself married also to her first 
cousin Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod’s 
wisisr, Phasaelus had five children by Sa- 
4m psio, Antipater, Herod, and Alexander; and 
two daughters, Alexandra and Cypros; which 
last, Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, married, 
and Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra; he 
was a man of note, but had by her no children. 


* Whether this sudden extinction of almost the entire 
“neage of Herod the Great, which was very numerous, as 
we are both here and in the next section informed, was not 
@ part as a punishment for the gross incests they were fre- 
quently guilty of, in marrying their own nephews and nieces, 
well deserves to be considered. See Levit. xviii. 6, 7; xxi. 
0, and Noldius, de Herod. No. 269, 270. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


® 


é ¥5 
ral 
- 
ver 


Agrippa had by Cypros two sons, and three 
daughters, which daughters were named Ber- 
nice, Mariamne, and Drusilla; but the names 
of the sons were Agrippa and Drusus, of whom 
Drusus died before he came to the years of 
puberty; but their father, Agrippa, was brought 
up with his other brethren, Herod and Aristo- 
bulus, for these were also the sons of Herod 
the Great, by Bernice; but Bernice was the 
daughter of Costobarus and of Salome, wh 
was Herod’s sister, Aristobulus left these in- 
fants, when he was slain by his father, together 
with his brother Alexander, as we have y 
related. But when they were arrived at years 
of puberty, this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, 
married Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias, 
who was the daughter of Herod the king, and 
of Joseph, the son of Joseph, who was brother 
to Herod the king, and had by her a son, Aris- 
tobulus; but Aristobulus, the third brother of. 
Agrippa, married Jotape, the daughter of Samp- 
sigeramus, king of Emesa;* they had a daughter 
who was deaf, whose name also was Jotape: 
and these hitherto were the children of the 
male line. But Herodias, their sister, was 
married to Herod [Philip,] the son of Herod 
the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the 
daughter of Simeon the high priest, who had 
a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Hero- 
dias took upon her to confound the laws of our 
country, and divorced herself from her hus- 
band while he was alive, and was married to 
Herod [Antipas,] her husband’s brother hy the 
father’s side; he was tetrarch of Galilee: but 
her daughter Salome was married 10 Philip, 
the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis, 
and, as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son 
of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; 
they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aris- 
tobulus; and this was the posterity of Phasaelus 
and Salampsio. But the daughter of Antipa- 
ter by Cypros, was Cypros, whom Alexas Sel- 
cias, the son of Alexas, married; they had a 
daughter, Cypros; but Herod and Alexander 
who, as, we told you, were the brothers of An- 
tipater, died childless. As to Alexander, the 
son of Herod the king, who was slain by his 
father, he had two sons, Alexander and Ti- 
granes, by the daughter of Archelaus, king of 
Cappadocia; Tigranes, who was king of Ar- 
menia, was accused at Rome, and died child- 
less; Alexander had a son of the same name 
with his brother Tigranes, and was sent to take 
possession of the kingdom of Armenia by 
Nero; he had a son, Alexander, who married 
Jotape,* the daughter of Antiochus, the kin 
of Commagena; Vespasian made him king of 
an island in Cilicia. But these descendants of 
Alexander, soon after their birth, deserted ths 
Jewish religion, and went over to that of thc 
Greeks; but for the rest of the daughters of 
Herod the king, it happened that they diea 
childless, And as the descendants of Herod, 
whom we have enumerated, were in being i 


* There are coins still extant of this Emesa, 


ys 4 
as Spanheim — 
informs us. ’ 


t Spanheim also informs us of a coin still extant of this o_ 
tape, daughter of the king of Commagena. in 
: 


BOOK XVIT1.—CHAPLER VI. 


the same time that Agrippa the Great took the 
kingdom, and J have now given an account of 
them, it now remains that J relate the several 
hard fortunes which befel] Agrippa, and how 
se got clear of them, and was advanced to the 
greatest height of dignity and power. 


CHAPTER VI. 

Of the namgation of king Agrippa to Rome, to 
Tiberius Cesar; and how, upon his being ac- 
cused by has own freed-man, he was bound; 
how also he was set at liberty by Caius, after 
Tiberius’s death, and was made king of the 
tetrarchy of Philip. 

§ 1. A little before the death of Herod the 
king, Agrippa lived at Rome, and was generally 
brought up and conversed with Drusus, the 
emperer Tiberius’s son, and contracted a friend- 
ship with Antonia, the wife of Drusus the 
Great, who had his mother Bernice in great es- 
teem, and was very desirous of advancing her 
son. Now, as Agrippa was by nature magna- 
niimous and generous in the presents he made, 
while his mother was alive, this inclination of 
his mind did not appear, that he might be able 
to avoid her anger for such his extravagance; 
but when Bernice was dead, and he was left to 
his own conduct, he spent a great deal extra- 
vagantly in his daily way of living, and a great 
dea! in the immoderate presents he made, and 
those chiefly among Ceesar’s freed-men, in 
order to gain their assistance, insomuch that he 
was ina little time reduced to poverty, and 
could not Jive at Rome any longer. Tiberius 
also forbade the friends of his deceased son to 
come into his sight, because on seeing them he 
should be put in mind of his son, and his grief 
would thereby be revived. 

2. For these reasons he went away from 
Rome, and sailed to Judea, but in evil circum- 
stances, being dejected with the loss of that 
money which he once had, and because he had 
not wherewithal to pay his creditors, wlio were 
many in number, and such as gave him no 
room for escaping them. Whereupon he knew 
not what to do; so, for shame of his present 
soudition, he retired to a certain tower, at Ma- 
latha, in Idumea, and had thoughts of killing 
himnself, but his wife Cypros perceived his in- 
te1itions, and tried all sorts of methods to divert 
him from taking such a course: so she sent a 
retter to his sister Herodias, who was now the 
wite of Herod the tetrarch, and let her know 
Agrippa s present design, and what necessity it 

-was which drove him thereto, and desired her, 
as a kinswoman of his, to give him her help, 
ani to engage her husband to do the same, 
‘since she saw how she alleviated these her 
-husband’s troubles all she could, although she 
had not the like wealth to do it withall. So 
they sent for him, and allotted him Tiberias 
for his habitation, and appointed hun some in- 
come of money for his maintenance, and made 
‘nim a magistrate of that city, by way of honor 
to hira. Yet did not Herod long continue in 
‘that resolution of supporting han, though ever 
“that support was not sufficient for him; foi, as 


ence they were x ‘feast at ‘T'yre, und in their | 
’ 


447 


cups, and reproaches were cast upon one ano- 
ther, Agrippa thought that was not to be borne, 
while Herod hit him in the teeth with his po- 
verty, and with his owing his necessary food to 
him. So he went to Flaccus, one that had 
been consul, and had been a very great friend 
to him at Rome formerly, and was now presi- 
dent of Syria. 

3. Hereupon Flaccus received him kindly, 
and he lived with him. Flaccus had also with 
him there Aristobulus, who was indeed Agrip 
pa’s brother, but was at variance with him; ye 
did not their enmity to one another hinder the 
friendship of Flaccus to them both, but stil 
they were honorably treated by him. How 
ever, Aristobulus did not abate of his ill will tc 
Agrippa, till at length he brought him into il 
terms with Flaccus: the occasion of bringing 
on which .estrangement was this: the Damas- 
cenes were at difference with the Sidonians 
about their limits, and when Flaccus was about 
to hear the cause between them, they under- 
stood that Agrippa had a mighty influence. on 
him: so they desired that he would be of their 
side, and for that favor promised him a great 
deal of money; so he was zealous in assisting 
the Damascenes as far as he was able. Now, 
Aristobulus had gotten intelligence of this pro- 
mise of money to him, and accused him to 
Flaccus of the same; and when, upon a tho- 
rough examination of the matter, it appeared 
plainly so to be, he rejected Agrippa out of the 
number of his friends. So he was reduced to 
the utmost necessity, and came to Ptolemais; 
and because he knew not where else to get a 
livelihood, he thought to sail to Italy; but as he 
was restrained from so doing by want of mo- 
ney, he desired Marsyas, who was his freed- 
man, to find some method for procuring him 
so much as he wanted for that purpose, by 
borrowing such a sum of some person or other. 
So Marsyas desired of Peter, who was the 
freed-man of Bernice, Agrippa’s mother, and 
by the rigbt of her testament was bequeathed 
to Antonia, to lend so much upon Agrippa’s 
own bond and security; but he accused Agrippa 
of having defrauded him of certain sums of 
money, and so obliged Marsyas, when he made 
the bond of 20,000 Attic drachme, to accept 
of 2,500 drachme®* less than what he desired, 
which the other allowed of, because he could 
not help it. Upon the receipt of this money, 
Agrippa came to Anthedon, and took shipping 
and was going to set sail; but Herennius Capito, 
who was the procurator of Jamnia, sent a band 
of soldiers to demand of him 300,000 drachmss 
of silver, which were by him owing to Cesar’s 
treasury while he was at Rome, and so forced 
him to stay. He then pretended that he would 
do as he bade him: but when night came on, 
he cut his cables, and went off, and sailed to 
Alexandria, where he desired Alexander the 
alabarcht to lend him 200,000 drachmee; but 
he said he would not lend it to him, but would 


* Spanheim observes, that we have here an instance of the 


| Attic quantity of use-money, which was the eighth part of 


the original sum, or 12 1-2 per cent, for such is the proportion 
of 2,500 to 20,000. 
+ The governor of the Jews there. 


448 


not refuse it to Cypros. as greatly astonished at 
her affection to her husband, and at the other 
instances of her virtue; so she undertook to 
repay it. Accordingly, Alexander paid them 
five talents at Alexandria, and promised to pay 
them the rest of that sum at Dicearchia [ Pu- 
teoli;} and this he did out of the fear he was 
in that Agrippa would soon spend it. So this 
Cypros set her husband free, and dismissed 
him to go on with his navigation to Italy, while 
she and her children departed for Judea. 

4. And now Agrippa was come to Puteoli, 
whence he wrote a letter to Tiberius Cesar, 
who then lived at Caprew, and told him, that 
he was come so far in order to wait on hin, 
and to pay him a visit; and desired that he 
would give him leave to come over to Caprea; 
so Tiberius made no difficulty, but wrote to 
him in an obliging way in other respects, and 
withall told him, he was glad of his safe re- 
turn, and desired him to come to Caprea; and 
when he was come, he did not fail to treat him 
as kindly as he had promised him in his letter 
todo. But the next day came a letter to Ca- 
sar from Herennius Capito, to inform him that 
Agrippa had borrowed 300,000 drachme, and 
not paid it at the time appointed; but, when it 
was demanded of him, he ran away like a fu- 
gitive, out of the places under his government, 
and put it out of his power to get the money 
of him. When Cesar had read this letter, he 
was much troubled at it, and gave order that 
Agrippa should be excluded from his presence 
until he had paid that debt: upon which he was 
noway daunted at Ceesar’s anger, but entreated 
Antonia, the mother of Germanicus, and of 
Claudius, who was afterward Cvesar himself, 
to lend him those 300,000 drachmee, that he 
might not be deprived of Tiberius’s friendship; 
80, out of regard to the memory of Bernice his 
mother, (for these two women were very fami- 
liar with one another,) and out of regard to his 
and Claudius’s education together, she lent him 
the money; and, upon the payment of this 
debt, there was nothing to hinder Tiberius’s 
friendship to him. After this, Tiberius Cesar 
recommended to him his grandson,* and or- 
dered that he should always accompany him 
when he went abroad. But, upon Agrippa’s 
kind reception by Antonia, be betook himself 
to pay his respects to Cains, who was her grand- 
son, and in very high reputation, by reason of 
the good will they bore his father.t “Now there 
was one Thallus, a freed-man of Cesar, of 
whom he borrowed a million of drachmae, and 
thenee repaid Antonia the debt he owed her; 
and by spending the overplus in paying his 
court to Caius, became a person of great au- 
thority with him. 

5. Nowas the friendship which Agrippa had 
for Caius was come toa great height, there 
happened some words to pass between them, 
a8 they once were in a chariot together, con- 
cerning Tiberius; Agrippa praying [to God,] 
(for they two sat by themselves,) that Tiberius 
might soon go off the stage, and leave the go- 
vernment to Caius, who was in every respect 


* Tiberius junior +t Germanicus. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


more worthy of it. Now, Euthychus, who w. 
Agrippa’s freed-man, and drove his charic 
heard these words, and at that time said not! 
ing of them: but when Agrippa accused hi 
of stealing some garments of his, (which wi 
certainly true,) he ran away from him; bi 
when he was caught, and brought before Pis 
who was governor of the city, and the me 
was asked why he ran away? he replied, th; 
he had somewhat to say to Caesar, that tende 
to his security and preservation: so Piso boun 
him, and sent him to Capree. But Tiberiu 
according to his usual custom, kept him still j 
bonds, being a delayer of affairs, if ever ther 
was any other king or tyrant that was so; fork 
did not admit ambassadors quickly, and no suc 
cessors were despatched away to governors ¢ 
procurators of the provinces, that had bee 
formerly sent, unless they were dead; whene 
it was, that he was so negligent in hearing th 
causes of prisoners; insomuch, that when h 
was asked by his friends, what was the reaso 
of his delay in such cases? he said, that ‘“h 
delayed to hear ambassadors, lest upon thei 
quick disinission, other ambassadors should b 
appointed, and return upon him; and so h 
should bring trouble upon himself in their pub 
lic reception and dismission: that he permitte 
those governors who had been once sent fron 
their government [to stay there a great while, 
out of regard to the subjects that were unde 
them; for that all governors are naturally dis 
posed to get as much as they can, and that thos 
who are not to fix there, but to stay a shor 
time, and that at an uncertainty, when they 
shall be turned out, do the more severely hu 
themselves on to fleece the people; but that, if 
their government be long continued to them 
they are at last satiated with the spoils, as hay. 
ing gotten a vast deal, and so become at lengtk 
less sharp in their pillaging; but that if sue 
cessors are sent quickly, the poor subjects, whe 
are exposed to them as a prey, will not be able 
to bear the new ones, while they shall not have 
the same time alluwed them, wherein thei 
predecessors had filled themselves, and so grow 
more unconcerned about getting more; and this 
because they are removed before they have had 
time [for their oppressions.] He gave them an 
example to show his meaning: “A great num 
ber of flies came about the sore places of a 
man that had been wounded; upon which one 
of the standers by pitied the man’s misfortune; 
and thinking he was not able to drive those 
flies away himself, was going to drive them 
away for him; but he prayed him to let them 
alone: the other, by way of reply, askec him 
the reason of such a preposterous proceeding, 
in preventing relief from his present misery; 
to which he answered, If thou drivest these 
flies away, thou wilt hurt me worse; for, as 
these are already full of my blood, they donot 
crowd about me, nor pain me so much as be- 
fore, but are sometimes more remiss, while the 
fresh ones that come almost famished, and find 
me quite tired down already, will be my de 
struction. For this cause, therefore, it is, thar 
Cam myself careful not to send such new go 


4, 


Aa 


yernors perpetually to those my subjects, who 
are already sufficiently harassed by many op- 
pressions, as may, like these flies further dis- 
tress them; and so, besides their natural desire 
of gain, may have this additional incitement to 
it, that they expect to be suddenly deprived of 
that pleasure which they take in it.” And, as 
a further attestation to what I say of the dila- 
tory nature of Tiberius, I appeal to this his 
practice itself} for although he were emperor 
twenty-two years, he sent in all but two pro- 
curators to govern the nation of the Jews. 
Gratus, and his successor in the government, 
Pilate. Nor was he in one way of acting with 
respect to the Jews, and in another with respect 
to the rest of his subjects. He further inform- 
ed them, that even in the hearing of the causes 
of prisoners, he made such delays, “because 
immediate death to those that must be con- 
demned to die, would be an alleviation of their 
present miseries, while those wicked wretches 
have not deserved any such favor; but I do it, 
that, by being harassed with the present ca- 
lamity, they may undergo greater misery.” 

6. On this account it was that Eutychus 
could not obtain a hearing, but was kept still 
in prison. However, some time afterward, 
Tiberius came from Capree to Tusculanum, 
which is about a hundred furlongs from Rome. 
Agrippa then desired of Antonia, that she 
would procure a hearing for Eutychus, let 
the matter whereof he accused him prove what 
it would. Now, Antonia was greatly esteemed 
by Tiberius on all accounts, for the dignity of 
her relation to him, who had been his 

tusus’s wife, and from her eminent chastity;* 
for though she were still a young woman, she 
continued in her widowhood, and refused all 
other matches, although Augustus had enjoin- 
ed her to be married to some body else; yet did 
she all along preserve her reputation free from 
reproach. She had also been the greatest ben- 
efactress to Tiberius, when there was a very 
dangerous plot laid against him by Sejanus, a 
man who had been her husband’s friend, and 
who had the greatest authority, because he was 
general of the army, and when many members 
of the senate, and many of the freed-men join- 
ed with him, and the soldiery was corrupted, 
and the plot was come to a greatyheight. Now 
Sejanus had certainly gained his point, had 
not Antonia’s boldness been more wisely con- 
ducted than Sejanus’s malice; for, when she 
had discovered his designs against Tiberius, 
She wrote him an exact account of the whole, 
and gave the letter to Pallus, the most faithful 
‘of her servants, and sent him to Capree to Ti- 


Ai who, when he understood it, slew Se- 
1 Dee 

' * This high commendation of Antonia for marrying but 
-bnce, given here, and supposed elsewhere, Antiq. b. xvii. 
zhap. xiii. sect. 4, and this notwithstanding the strongest 
temptations, shows how honorable single marriages were 
doth among the Jews and Romans, in the days of Josephus 
and of the apostles, and takes away much of that surprise 
which the modern Protestants have at those laws of the 
‘aposties, where no widows, but those who had been the 
wives of one husband only, are taken into the church list; 
‘and no bishops, priests, or deacons, are allowed to marry 
more than once, without leaving off to officiate as clergy- 
men any longer. See Luke ii. 36; 1 Tim. v. 11, 12; iii. 2, 12; 
Ot i. 8; Constit. Apos. b. ii. sect. 1,2; b. vi. seet. 17; Can, 


\, he 
abi 








7, 


s. 


: wis 
ad 5 


Re BOOK XVIIL—CHAPTEE Vi. 






Janus and his confederates; so that ‘Liberius, 
who had her in great esteem before, now loolk- 
ed upon her with still greater respect, and de- 
pended upon her in al! things. So when fi- 
berius was desired by this Antonia to examine 
Eutychus, he answered, “If indeed Eutychus 
hath falsely accused Agrippa in what he hath 
said of him, he hath had sufficient punishmens 
by what I have done to him already; but if, 
upon examination, the accusation appears to be 
true, let Agrippa have a care, lest, out of Jesire 
of punishing his freed-man, he do not rathe1 
bring a punishment upon himself” Now when 
Antonia told Agrippa of this, he was still much 
more pressing that the matter might be exam- 
ined into; so Antonia, upon Agrippa’s lying 
hard at her continually to beg his favor, took 
the following opportunity: As Tiberius Jay 
once at his ease upon his sedan, and was car- 
ried about, and Caius, her grandson, and Agrip- 
pa, were before him after dinner, she walked 
by the sedan, and desired him to call Eutychus, 
and have him examined; to which he replied, 
“OQ Antonia! the gods are my witnesses, that [ 
am induced to do what lam going to do, not 
by my own inclination, but because 1 am forced 
to it by thy prayers” When he had said 
this, he ordered Macrv, who succeeded Sejanus, 
to bring Eutychus vo him; accordingly, with- 
out any delay, he was brought. ‘Then Ti- 
berius asked him, what he had to say against a 
man who had given him his liberty? Upon 
which he said, “O my lord! this Caius, and 
Agrippa with him, were once riding in a cha- 
riot, when [ sat at their feet, and among other 
discourses that passed, Agrippa said to Caius, 
O that the day would once come, when this 
old fellow will die, and name thee for the go- 
vernor of the habitable earth! for then this 'Ti- 
berius, his grandson, would be no hinderance, 
but would be taken off by thee; and that earth 
would be happy, and [ happy also.” Now, Ti- 
berius took these to be truly Agrippa’s words, 
and bearing a grudge withall at Agrippa, be- 
cause, when he had commanded him to pay 
his respects to Tiberius his grandson, and the 
son of Drusus, Agrippa had not paid him that 
respect, but had disobeyed his commands, and 
transferred all his regard to Caius; he said toe 
Macro, “Bind this man.” But Macro, not dis- 
tinctly knowing which of them it was whom 
he bade him bind, and not expecting that he 
would have any such thing done to Agrippa, 
he forbore, and came to ask more distinctly 
what it was that he said? But, when Ceesar 
had gone round the hippodrome, he found 
Agrippa standing: “For certain,” said he, “Ma- 
cro, this is the man I meant to have bound;” 


b. xvii.; Grot. in Luke ii. 36; and Respons. ad Consult. Cas- 
sand. p. 44, and Cotelet. in Constitut. b. vi. sect. 17. 

note, that Tertullian owns this law, against second marri- 
ages of the clergy, had been once at least executed in hi 
time; and heavily complains elsewhere, that the breaehk 
thereof had not been always punished by the Catholics, as & 
ought to have been, Jerome, speaking of the ill reputation 
of marrying twice, says, that no such person could be chosen 
into the clergy in his days; which Augustine testifies also: 
and for Epiphanius, rather earlier, he is clear and full to the 
same purpose, and. says, that law obtained over the whole 
Catholic church in his days; as the places in the forecited 
authors infor us. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


a 


bt 


and when h2still asked, “Which of these is to | for such predictions, when they come to fal 


be bound?” he said, “Agrippa.” 
Agrippa betook himself to make supplication 
for himself, putting him in mind of his son, 
with whom he was brought up, and of Ti- 
berius [his grandson] whom he had educated; 
but all to no purpose, for they led him about 
bound even in his purple garments. It was 
also very hot weather, and they had but little 
wine to their meals, so that he was very thirsty; 
he was also in a sort of agony, and took this 
treatment of him heinously; as, therefore, he 
saw one of Caius’s slaves, whose name was 
Thaumastus, carrying some water ina vessel, 
he desired that he would let him drink; so the 
servant gave him some water to drink, and he 
drank heartily, and said, “O thou boy! this ser- 
vice of thine to me will be for thy advantage; 
for, if I once get clear of these my bonds, I 
will soon procure thee thy freedom from Caius, 
who hast not been wanting to minister to me, 
now I am in bonds, in the same manner as 
when I was in my former state and dignity.” 
Nor did he deceive him in what he promised 
him, but made him amends for what he had 
now done; for, when afterward Agrippa was 
come to the kingdom, he took particular care 
of Thaumastus, and got him his liberty from 
Caius, and made him the steward over his 
own estate; and when he died, he left him to 
Agrippa his son, and to Bernice his daughter, 
to minister to them in thesame capacity. The 
man also grew old in that honorable post, 
and therein died. But all this happened'a good 
while later. 

7. Now Agrippa stood in his bonds before 
the royal palace, and leaned on a certain tree 
for grief, with many others, who were in bonds 
also; and as a certain bird sat upon the tree on 
which Agrippa leaned, (the Romans call this 
vird bubo,) [an owl,] one of those that were 
bound,a German by nation, saw him, and ask- 
ed a soldier what that man in purple was? and 
when he was informed that his name was 
Agrippa, and that he was by nation a Jew, and 
one of the principal men of that nation, he 


Upon which | make the grief at last, and in earnest, mor 


bitter than if the party had never heard of aw 
such thing. However, though I run the ha 
zard of my own self, I think it fit to declare t 
thee the prediction of the gods. Jt cannot b 
that thou shouldst long continue in these bonds 
but thou wilt soon be delivered from them, an 
wilt be promoted to the highest dignity am 
power, and thou wilt be envied by all thos 
who now pity thy hard fortune; and thou wil 
be happy till thy death, and wilt leave thy hap 
piness to the children whom thou shalt have 
But, do thou remember, when thou seest thi 
bird again, that thou wilt then live but fiv 
days longer. This event will be brought t 
pass by that God who hath sent this bird hithe 
to be a sign unto thee. And I cannot bu 
think it unjust to conceal from thee what | 
foreknow concerning thee, that, by thy knowin, 
beforehand what happiness is coming upot 
thee, thou mayest not regard thy present mis 
fortunes. But when this happiness shall ae 
tually befall thee, do not forget what misery | 
am in myself, but endeavor to deliver me. 
So, when the German had said this, he made 
Agrippa laugh at him as much as he afterwart 
appeared wortby of admiration. But now 
Antonia took Agrippa’s misfortune to heart 
however, to speak to Tiberius on his behalf 
she took to be a very difficult thing, and indeec 
quite impracticable, as to any hope of success 
yet did she procure of Macro, that the sol 
diers that kept him should be of a gentle na 
ture, and that the centurion who was ove! 
them, and was to diet with him, should be of the 
same disposition, and that he might have leave 
to bathe himself every day, and that his freed. 
men and friends might come to him, and thai 
other things that tended to ease him might be 
indulged him. So his friend Silas came in te 
him, and two of his freed-men, Marsyas and 
Stechus, brought him such sorts of food as he 
was fond of, and indeed took great care of him 
they also brought him garments, under pretence 
of selling them, and, when the night came on. 


asked leave of the soldier to whorn he was | they laid them under him; and the soldiers as 


bound,* to let him come nearer to speak with 
him; for that he bad a mind to inquire of him 
ebout some things relating to his country; 
which liberty when he had obtained, and as 
he stood near him, he said thus to him by an 
interpreter, that “This sudden change of thy 
condition, O young man! is grievous to thee, 
ee bringing on thee a manifold and very great 
adversity; nor wilt thou believe me, when I 
foretell how thou wilt get clear of this misery 
which thou art now under, and how divine 
Providence will provide for thee. Know, 
therefore, (and I appeal to my own country 
pods, as well as to the gods of this place, who 
ave awarded these bonds to us,) that all I am 
poing to say about thy concerns, shall neither 
said for favor nor bribery, nor out of an en- 
deavor to make thee cheerful without cause; 


* Dr. Hudson here takes notice, out of Seneca, Epistle 
_w. that this was the custom of Tiberius, to couple the pri- 
tore’ and the soldier that guarded him together in the same 


sisted them, as Macro had given them order te 
do beforehand. And this was Agrippa’s con- 
dition for six months’ time, and in this cage 
were his affairs. 
8. But for Tiberius, upon his return to Ca- 
prez, he fell sick. At first his distemper was 
but gentle; but as that distemper increased 
upon him, he had small or no hopes of re 
covery. Hereupon he bade Euodus, who 
that freed-man whom he most of all respected 
to bring the children* to him; for that he wan 
ed to talk to them before he died. Now te 
had at present no sons of his own alive; fo 
Drusus, who was his only son, was dead; bu 
Drusus’s son Tiberius was still living, whose 
additional name was Gemellus: there was als 
living Caius, the sont of Germanicus, who wa 
the son of his brother [Drusus.] He was ne 
* Tiberius his own grandson, and Caius his brother Dt 
sus’s grandson. a | 


t So I correct Josephus’s copy, which calls Germa 7 
his brother, who was his brother 8 son. 








BOOK XVIII.—CHAPTER VI. 


_ grown up, and had a liberal education, and was 
well improved by it, and was in esteem and fa- 
_ ¥or with the people, on account of the excel- 
tent character of his- father Germanicus, who 
had attained the highest honor among the mul- 
titude, by the firmness of his virtuous beha- 
vior, by the easiness and agreeableness of his 
conversing with the multitude, and because 
the dignity he was in did not hinder his fa- 
miliarity with them all, as if they were his 
equals; by which behavior he was not only 
Agha esteemed by the people and the senate 

ut by every one of those nations that were 
subject to the Romans; some of whom were 
affected, when they came to him, with the 
gracefulness of their reception by him, and 
others were affected in the same manner by 
the report of the others that had been with 
bim: and upon his death there was a lamenta- 
tion made by all men; not such a one as was 
to be made in way of flattery to their rulers, 
while they did but counterfeit sorrow, but such 
as was real; while every body grieved at his 
death, as if they had lost one that was near to 
them. And truly such had been his conversa- 
tion with men, that it turned greatly to the ad- 
vantage of hisson among all; and, among others, 
the soldiery were so peculiarly affected to him, 
that they reckoned it an eligible thing, if need 
were, to die themselves, if he might but attain 
to the government. 

9. But when Tiberius had given order to 
Euodus to bring the children to him the next 
day in the morning, he prayed to his country 
gods to show him a manifest signal, which of 
those children should come to the government; 
being very desirous to leave it to his son’s son, 
but still depending upon what God should fore- 
show concerning them, more than upon his 
Dwn opinion and inclination; so he made this 
to be the omen, that the government should be 
left to him who should come to him first the 
next day. When he had thus resolved within 
himself, he sent to his grandson’s tutor, and 
ordered him to bring the child to him early in 
the morning, as supposing that God would 
permit him to be made emperor. But God 
pared opposite to his designation; for while 

iberius was thus contriving matters, and as 
soon as it was at all day, he bade Euodus to call 
in that child which should be there ready. 
So he went out, and found Caius before the 
door, for Tiberius was not yet come, but staid 

waiting for his breakfast; for Kuodus knew 
nothing of what his lord intended; so he said 
to Caius, “Thy father calls thee,” and then 
brought him in. As soon as Tiberius saw 
Caius, and not before, he reflected on the pow- 
er of God, and how the ability of bestowing 
the government on whom he would, was en- 
tirely taken from him; and thence he was not 
able to establish what he had intended. Sohe 
greatly lamented that his power of establishing 
what he had before contrived was taken from 
him, and that his grandson Tiberius was not 
only to lose the Roman empire by his fatality, 
but his own safety also, because his preserva- 
tion would now depend upon such as would be 


451 


more potent than himself, who would think i 
a thing not to be borne, that a kinsman should 
live with them, and so his relation would not 
be able to protect him: but he would be fear- 
ed and hated by him who had the supreme au- 
thority, partly on account of his being next to 
the empire, and partly on account of his per- 
petually contriving to get the government, but 
in order to preserve himself, and to be at the 
head of affairs also. Now Tiberius had beer 
very much given to astrology,* and the calcu- 
lation of nativities, and had spent his life in the 
esteem of what predictions had proved true 
more than those whose profession it was. Ac- 
cordingly, when he once saw Galba coming in 
to him, he said to his most intimate friends, that 
“there came in a man that would one day have 
the dignity of the Roman empire.” So that 
this Tiberius was more addicted to all such 
sorts of diviners than any other of the Roman 
emperors, because he had found them to have 
told him truth in his own affairs. And indeed 
he was now in great distress upon this accident 
that had befallen him, and was very much 
gnieved at the destruction of his son’s son, 
which he foresaw, and complained of himself, 
that he should have made use of such a ime- 
thod of divination beforehand, while it was in 
his power to have died without grief by his 
knowledge of futurity; whereas, he was now 
tormented by his foreknowledge of the mis- 
fortunes of such as were dearest to him, and 
must die under that torment. Now, although 
he were disordered at this unexpected revolu- 
tion of the government to those for whom he did 
not intend it, he spoke thus to Caius, though 
unwillingly, and against his own inclination: 
“QO child! although Tiberius be nearer related 
to me than thou art, I, by my own determina- 
tion, and the conspiring suffrage of the gods, 
do give, and put into thy hands, the Roman 
empire; and I desire thee never to be unmind- 
ful when thou comest to it, either of my kind- 
ness to thee, who set thee in so high a dignity, or 
of thy relation to Tiberius. Butas thou know- 
est that Iam, together with, and after the gods, 
the procurer of so great happiness to thee, so 
I desire that thou wilt make me a return for 
my readiness to assist thee, and wilt take care 
of Tiberius because of his near relation to thee, 
Besides which, thou art to know, that, while 
Tiberius is alive, he will be a security to thee, 
both as to empire and as to thy own preserva- 
tion; but, if he die, that will be but a prelude 
to thy own misfortunes; for to be alone, under 
the weight of such vast affairs, is very danger- 
ous; nor will the gods suffer those action 

which are unjustly done, contrary to that law 
which directs men to act otherwise, to go off 
unpunished.” This wasthe speech which Ti 

berius made, which did not persuade Caius te 
act accordingly, although he promised so to do: 
but when he was settled in the government he 
took off this Tiberius, as was predicted by the 
other Tiberius; as be was also himself in ne 


* This is a known thing among the Roman historians ane 
poets, that Tiberius was greatly given to astrology and divi 
nation. 


ong time afterward slain by a secret plot laid 
inst him. 

10. So when Tiberius had at this time ap- 
pointed Caius to be his successor, he lived but a 
few days, and then died, after he had held the 
government twenty-two years, five months, and 
three days: now Caius was the fourth emperor. 
But when the Romans understood that Tibe- 
rius was dead, they rejoiced at the good news, 
but had not courage to believe it; not because 
they were unwilling it should be true, for they 
would have given large sums of money that it 
might be so, but because they were afraid, that 
if they had showed their joy, when the news 
proved false, their joy should be openly known, 
and they should be accused for it, and be there- 
by undone. For this Tiberius had brought a 
vast number of miseries on the best families of 
the Romans, since he was easily inflamed with 
passion in all cases, and was of such a temper 
as rendered his anger irrevocable, till he had 
executed the same, although he had taken a 
hatred against men without reason; for he was 
by nature fierce in all the sentences he gave, 
and made death the penalty for the slightest 
offences; insomuch, that when the Romans 
heard the rumor about his death gladly, they 
were restrained from the enjoyment of that 
pleasure by the dread of such miseries as they 
foresaw would follow, if their hopes proved ill 
grounded. Now Marsyas, Agrippa’s freed- 
man, as soon as he heard of Tiberius’s death, 
came running to tell Agrippa the news; and 
finding him going out to the bath, he gave him | 
a nod, and said, in the Hebrew tongue, “The 
lion is dead;”* who, understanding his mean- 
ing, and being overjoyed at the news, “Nay, 
said he, but all sorts of thanks and happiness 
attend thee for this news of thine: only [ wish 
that what thou sayest may prove true.” Now 
the centurion, who was set to keep Agrippa, 
when he saw with what haste Marsyas came, 
and what joy Agrippa had from what he said, | 
he had a suspicion that his words implied some 
great innovation of affairs, and he asked them 
about what was said. They at first diverted 
the discourse; but upon his further pressing, 
Agrippa, without more ado, told him, for he 
was already become his friend; so hgjoined 
with him in that pleasure which this news oc- 
casioned, because it would be fortunate to 
Agrippa, and made him a supper. But as they 
weré feasting, and the cups went about, there 
came one who said, that “Tiberius was still 
alive, and would return to the city in a few 
days.”” At which news the centurion was ex- 
eeedingly troubled, because he had done what 
might cost him his life, to have treated so joy- 
fully a prisoner, and this upon the news of the 
death of Cesar; so he thrust Agrippa from the 
couch whereon he lay, and said, “Dost thou 
think to cheat me by a lie about the emperor 
without punishment? and shalt not thou pay 


* The name of a lion is often given to tyrants, especially by 
sie Jews, suchas Agrippa, and probably his freed-man Mar- 


lar Na effect were. Ezek. xix. 1—9; Esth. xiv. 13; 2 Tim. | him till the reign of Claudius as we learn, 


iv. 17. They are also sometimes compared to, or represent- 
ed by, wild beasts, of which the lion is the principal. Dan. 
vi. 3-8, Apoc. xiii 


“ 1, 2. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


o*” 
-) 7 
ral 
f 


% 
for this thy malicious report at -he price ef — 
thine head?” When he had so said, he ordered — 
Agrippa to be bound again, (for he had loosed — 
him before,) and kept a severer guard over him — 
than formerly, and in that evil condition was 
Agrippa that night; but the next day the rumor > 
increased in the city, and confirmed thé news 
that Tiberius was certainly dead; insomuch 
that men durst now openly and freely talk 
about it; nay, some offered sacrifices on that 
account. Several letters also came from Caius, 
one of them to the senate, which informed 
them of the death of Tiberius, and of his own 
entrance on the government; another to Piso,} 
the governor of the city, who told him the 
same thing. He also gave order that Agrippa 
should be removed out of the camp, and go to” 
that house where he lived before he was put in” 
prison; so that he was now out of fear as to his” 
own affairs; for, although he were still in cus- 
tody, yet it was now with ease as to his own 
affairs. Now, as soon as Caius was come to 
Rome, and had brought Tiberius’s dead body 
with him, and had made a sumptuous funeral 
for him, according to the laws of his country, 
he was much disposed to set Agrippa at liberty 
that very day, but Antonia hindered him, not— 
out of any ill will to the prisoner, but out of — 
regard to decency in Caius, lest that should 
make men believe that he received the death — 
of Tiberius with pleasure, when he loosed one 
whom he had bound immediately. However, 
there did not many days pass ere he sent for 
him to his house, and had him shaved, and 
made him change his raiment, after which he 
put his diadem upon his head, and appointed — 
him to be king of the tetrarchy of Philip. ee | 
also gave him the tetrarchy of Lysanias,* and] 
changed his iron chain for a golden one of 
equal weight. He also sent Marullus to be 
procurator of Judea. x 

11. Now, in the second year of the reign of _ 
Caius Cesar, Agrippa desired leave to be given 
him to sail home, and settle the affairs of his 
government, and he promised to return again, — 
when he had _ put the rest in order, as it ought | 
to be put. So, upon the emperor’s permission, 
he came into his own country, and appear 
to them all unexpectedly as a king, and thereby 
demonstrated to the men that saw him the 
power of fortune, when they compared hia 
former poverty with his present happy afflu-— 
ence; so some called him a happy man, and — 
others could not well believe that things were — 
so much changed witn him for the better. 


CHAPTER VIL. 
How Herod the tetrarch was bamshed. 
§ 1. But Hlerodias, Agrippa’s sister, who 
now lived as wife to that Herod who was te 
trarch of Galilee and Perea, took this authority 
of her brother in an envious manner, particu 
larly when she saw that he had a greater dig 










* Although Caius now promised to give Agripps the te 
trarchy of Lysanias, yet it was not ee ae i 
tig b. ax eb 


v. sect. 1. 


BOOK XVIIIL—CHAPTER VIII. 
nity bestowed on him than her husband had; 


since, when he ran away, he was not able to 
pay his debts; and now he was come back, it 


wes because he was in a way of dignity, and of 


great good fortune. She was therefore grieved, 
and much displeased at so great a mutation of 
his affairs, and chiefly when she saw him 
marching among the multitude with the usual 
ensigns of royal authority, she was not able to 
conceal how miserable she was, by reason of 
the envy she had towards him; but she excited 
her husband, and desired him that he would 
sail to Rome, to court honors equal to his: for 
she said, that “she could not bear to live any 
longer, while Agrippa, the son of that Aristo- 
bulus who was condemned to die by his father, 
one that came to her husband in such extreme 
poverty, that the necessaries of life were forced 
to be entirely supplied him day by day; and 
when he fled away fiom his creditors by 
sea, he now returned a king; while he was 
himself the son of a king, and while the near 
relation he bore to royal authority, called upon 
him to gain the like dignity, he sat still, and 
was contented with a private life. But then, 
Herod, although thou wast formerly not con- 
cerned to be in a lower condition than thy fa- 
ther, from whom thou wast derived, had been; 
yet do thou now seek after the dignity which 
thy kinsman hath attained to; and do not thou 
bear this contempt, thata man who admired 
thy riches should be in greater honor than thy- 
self, nor suffer his poverty to show itself able 
to purchase greater things than our abundance; 
nor do thou esteem it other than a shameful 
thing to be inferior to one, who, the other day, 
lived upon thy charity. But, let us go to Rome, 
and Jet us spare no pains nor expenses, either 
of silver or gold, since they cannot be kept for 
any better use, than for the obtaining of a king- 
dom.” 

2. But, for Herod, he opposed her request at 
this time, out of the love of ease, and havinga 
suspicion of the trouble he should have at 
Rome; so he tried to instruct her better. But 
the more she saw him draw back, the more she 
pressed him to it, and desired him to leave no 
stone unturned in order to be king: and at last 
she left not off tillshe engaged him, whether he 
would or not, to be of her sentiments, because 
he could no otherwise avoid her importunity. 
So he got all things ready, after as sumptuous 
a manner as he was able, and spared for noth- 
ing, and went up to Rome, and took Herodias 
along with him. But Agrippa, when he was 
made sensible of their intentions and prepara- 
tions also prepared to go thither; and as soon 
as he heard they set sail, he sent Fortunatus, 
one of his freed-men, to Rome, to carry pre- 
vents to the emperor, and letters against Herod, 
and to give Caius a particular account of those 
matters, if he should have any opportunity. 
This man followed Herod so quick, and had 
80 prosperous a voyage, and came so little after 
Herod, that while Herod was with Caius he 
came himself, and delivered his letters; for they 
both sailed to Dicearchia, and found Caius at 
Baise, which is itself a little city of Campania, 


~ 


430 


at the distance of about five furlongs trom Di- 
cearchia. There are in that place royal pa- 
laces, with sumptuous apartments, every em- 
peror still endeavoring to outdo his predeces- 
sor’s magnificence, the place also affords warm 
baths, that spring out of the ground of their 
own accord, which are of advantage for the re- 
covery of the health of those that make use of 
them, and besides, they minister to men’s luxury 
also. Now Caius saluted Herod, for he first 
met with him, and looked upon the letters 
which Agrippa had sent him, and which were 
written in order to accuse Herod, wherein he 
accused him, that he had been in confederacy 
with Sejanus, against Tiberius’s government, 
and that he was now confederate with Arta- 
banus the king of Parthia, in opposition to the 
government of Caius; as a demonstration of 
which he alleged, that he had armor sufficient 
for seventy thousand men ready in his armory. 
Caius was moved at this information, and asked 
Herod whether what was said about the ar- 
mor was true: and when he confessed there 
was such armor there, for he could not deny 
the same, the truth of it being too notorious, 
Caius took that to be a sufficient proof of the 
accusation, that he intended to revolt. So he 
took away from him his tetrarchy, and gave it 
by way of addition to Agrippa’s kingdom; he 
also gave Herod’s money to Agrippa, and by 
way of punishment, awarded him a perpetual 
banishment and appointed Lyons, a city of 
Gaul, to be his place of habitation. But when 
he was informed that Hercdias was Agrippa’s 
sister, he made her a present of what money 
was her own; and told her, that “it was her 
brother who prevented her being put under the 
same calamity with her husband.” But she 
made this reply, “Thou, indeed, O emperor! 
actest after a magnificent manner, and as _ be- 
comes thyself in what thou offerest me; but the 
kindness which I have for my husband, hin- 
ders me from partaking of the favor of thy gift; 
for itis not just, that I, who have been made a 
partner in his prosperity, should forsake him 
in his misfortunes.” Hereupon Caius was an- 
gry at her, and sent her with Herod into banish- 
ment, and gave her estate to Agrippa. And 
thus d*' God punish, Herodias for her envy at 
her brother, and Herod also for giving ear to 
the vain discourses of a woman. Now, Caius 
managed public affairs with great magnanimity 
during the first and second year of his reign, 
and behaved himself with such moderation, 
that he gained the good will of the Romans 
themselves, and of his other subjects. But, in 
process of time, he went beyond the bounds of 
human nature, in his conceit of hitnself, and 
by reason of the vastness of his dominiona 
made himself a god, and took upon himself to 
act in all things to the reproach of the Deitv 


itself. 
CHAPTER VIII. 


Concerning the embassage of the Jews to Caius,” 
and how Caius sent Petionius into Syria, to 


* This is a most remarkable chapter, as containing suck 
instances of the interposition of Providence, as have been 
always very rare among the other idolatrous nations, but of 


454 


make war against the Jews, unless they would 
receive his statue. 


§ 1. There was now a tumult arisen at Alex- 
andria, between the Jewish inhabitants and 
the Greeks; and three ambassadors* were cho- 
sen out of each party that were at variance, 
who came to Caius. Now, one of these am- 
bassadors from the people of Alexandria was 
Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against 

lthe Jews; and among other things that he said, 

he charged them with neglecting the honors 
that belonged to Cesar; for that while all who 
were subject to the Roman empire, built altars 
and temples to Caius, and in other regards, 
universally received him as they received the 
gods, these Jews alone thought it a dishonora- 
ble thing for them to erect statues in honor of 
him, as well as to swear by his name. Many 
of these severe things were said by Apion, by 
which he hoped to provoke Caius to anger at 
the Jews, as he was likely to be; but Philo, 
the principal of the Jewish embassage, a man 
eminent on all accounts, brother to Alexander 
the alabarch,} and one not unskilful in philoso- 
phy, was ready to betake himself to make his 
defence against those accusations; but Caius 
prohibited him, and bade him begone: he was 
also in such a rage, that it openly appeared he 
was about to do them some very great mis- 
chief. So Philo, being thus affronted, went 
out, and said to those Jews who were about 
him, that “they should be of good courage, 
since Caius’s words indeed showed anger at 
them, but in reality had already set God against 
himself.” 

2. Hereupon Caius, taking it very heinously 
that he should thus be despised by the Jews 
alone, sent Petronius to be president of Syria, 
and successor in the government to Vitellius, 
and gave’him order to make an invasion into 
Judea with a great body of troops; and if they 
would admit of his statue willingly, to erect it 
in the temple of God; but jf they were obsti- 
nate, to conquer them by war, and then to do it. 
Accordingly, Petronius took the government 
of Syria, and made haste to obey Ceesar’s epis- 
tle. He got together as great a number of 
auxiliaries as he possibly could, and took with 
him two legions of the Roman army, and came 
to Ptolemais, and there wintered, as intending 


old very many among the posterity of Abraham, the wor- 
shipers of the true God; nor do these seem much inferior 
to those in the Old Testament, which are the more remark- 
able, because, among all their other follies and vices, the 
Jews were not at this time idolaters; and the deliverances 
h2re mentioned were done in order to prevent their relapse 
into that idolatry 

* Josephus here assurcs us, that the ambassadors from Al- 
exandria to Caius were on each part no more than three in 
number, for the Jews and for the Gentiles, which are but six 
in all; whereas Philo, who was the principal ambassador 
from the Jews, as Josephus here confesses (as was Apion, 
‘rom the Gentiles,) says, the Jews’ ambassadors were them- 
selves no fewer than five, towards the end of his legation to 
Caius; which, if there be no mistake in the copies, must be 
supposed the truth; nor, in that case, would Josephus have 
contradicted so authentic a witness, had he seen that ac- 
count of Philo, which that he ever did does not appear. 

t This Alexander, the alabarch, or governur of the Jews 
at Alexandria, and brother to Philo, is suppused by bishop 
Pearson, in Act. Apost. p. 41, 42, to be the same with that 
Alexander who is mentioned by St. Luke, i.s of the kindred 
‘ef the high priests, Acts iv. 6. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS 


to set about the war in the spring. He alsc 
wrote word to Caius what he had resolved to 
do, who commended him for his alacrity, and 
ordered him to go on, and to make war with 
them in case they would not obey his com- 
mands. But there came many ten thousands 
of the Jews to Petronius, to Ptolemais, to offer 
their petitions to him, that “he would not com 
pel them to transgress and violate the law of 
their forefathers; but if, said they, thou art 
entirely resolved to bring this statue, and erect 
it, do thou first kill us, and then do what thou 
hast resolved on; for while we are alive, we 
cannot permit such things as are forbidden 1s 
to be done by the authority of our legislator, 
and by our forefathers’ determination, that such 
prohibitions are instances of virtue.” But Pe- 
tronius was angry at them, and said, “If indeed 
I were myself emperor, and were at liberty to 
follow my own inclination, and then had de- 
signed to act thus, these your words would be 
justly spoken to me; but now Cesar hath sent 
to me, I am under the necessity of being subser- 
vient to his decrees, because a disobedience to 
them will bring upon me inevitable destruc- 
tion.” ‘Then the Jews replied, “Since, there- 
fore, thou art so disposed, O Petronius! that 
thou wilt not disobey Caius’s epistles, neither 
will we transgress the commands of our law; 
and as we depend upon the excellency of our 
laws, and, by the labors of our ancestors, 
have continued hitherto without suffering them 
to be transgressed, we dare not by any means 
suffer ourselves to be so timorous as to trans- 
gress those laws out of the fear of death, which 
God hath determined are for our advantage, 
and if we fall into misfortunes, we will bear 
them, in order to preserve our laws, as know- 
ing, that those who expose themselves to dan- 
gers, have good hope of escaping them, be- — 
cause God will stand on our side, when, out of — 
regard to him, we undergo afflictions, and sus- 
tain the uncertain turns of fortune. Butif we 
should submit to thee, we should be greatly re- 
proached for our cowardice, as thereby show- — 
ing ourselves ready to transgress our law; and 
we should incur the great anger of God also, 
who, even thyself being judge, is superior to 
Caius.” ; : 
3. When Petronius saw by their words that — 
their determination was hard to be removed, 
and that without a war, he should not be able 
to be subservient to Caius in the dedication of — 
his statue, and that there must be a great deal 
of bloodshed, he took his friends, and the yer-_ 
vants that were about him, and hasted to Ti — 
berias, as wanting to know in what posture the 
affairs of the Jews were; and many ten thou- 
sands of the Jews met Petronius again, when” 
he was come to Tiberias. These thought they 
must run a mighty hazard if they should have — 
a war with the Romans, but judged that the 
transgression of the law was of much greater 
consequence, and made supplication to him, 
that he would by no means reduce them te 
such distresses, nor defile their city with ta _ 
dedication of the statue. ‘Then Petronius sa { 
to them, “Will you then make war with Cees: , 







a1 Ce 
if 
hes 


BOOK XVIIIL—CHAPTER VIII. 


without considering his great preparations for 
war, and your own weakness?” ‘They replied, 
‘We will not by any means make war with 
‘him, but still we will die before we see our 
laws transgressed.” So they threw themselves 
down upon their faces, and stretched out their 
throats, and said they were ready to be slain; 
‘md this they did for forty days together, and 
in the mean time left off the tilling of their 
ground, and that while the season of the year 
required them to sow it.* Thus they continued 
firm in their resolution, and proposed to them- 
selves to die willingly, rather than to see the 
dedication of the statue. 

_ 4, When matters were in this state, Aristo- 
bulus, king Agrippa’s brother, and Helcias the 
Great, and the other principal men of that 
family with them, went in unto Petronius, and 
besought him, that “since he saw the resolution 
of the multitude, he would not make any altera- 
tion, and thereby drive them to despair; but 
would write to Caius that the Jews had an in- 
superable aversion to the reception of the statue, 
and how they continued with him, and left off 
the tillage of their ground: that they were not 
willing to goto war with him, because they 
‘were not able to do it, but were ready to die 
with pleasure, rather than suffer their laws to 
be transgressed: and how, upon the lands con- 
tnuing unsown, robberies would grow up, on 
the inability they would be under of paying 
their tributes; and that perhaps Caius might be 
therebv moved to pity, and not order any bar- 
barous action to be done to them, nor think of 
destroying the nation; that if he continues in- 
flexible in his former opinion to bring a war 
upon them, he may then set about it himself.” 
And thus did Aristobulus, and the rest with 
him, supplicate Petronius. So Petronius,} 
partly on account of the pressing instances 
which Aristobulus and the rest with him made, 
and because of the great consequence of what 
they desired, and the earnestness wherewith 
they made theirsupplication; partly on account 
of the firmness of the opposition made by the 
Jews, which he saw, while he thought it a hor- 
tible thing for him to be such a slave to the 
madness of Caius, as to slay so many ten thou- 
sand men, only because of their religious dis- 
eon towards God, and after that to pass his 
ife in expectation of punishment: Petronius, I 
‘ay, thought it much better to send to Caius, 
‘and to let bim know how intolerable it was to 
him to bear the anger he might have against 
him for not serving him sooner, in obedience 
io his epistle, for that perhaps he might per- 
suade him: and that if this mad resolution con- 
finued, he might then begin the war against 


* What Josephus here, and sect. 6, relates as done by the 
Jews, before seed-time, is in Philo, nor far off the time when 
he corn «as ripe, who, as Le Clere notes, differ here one 
1 the other. This is another indication that Josephus, 
when he wrote this account, had not seen Philo’s Legat. ad 
on Otherwise he would hardly have herein differed 


{This Publius Petronius was, after this, still president of 
os eg under Claudius, and, at the desire of Agrippa, publish- 
& severe decree against the inhabitants of Dora, who, in 
‘asort of imitation of Caius, had set up a statue of Claudius 
faa Jewish synagogue there. This decree is extant b. xix. 
h. vi. sect. 3, and yreatly confirms the present accounts ¢f 


sf : 
' tay, > 
A 


them; nay, that in case he should .arn his he 
tred against himself, it was fit for virtuous per. 
sons even to die for thesake of such vast mul - 
titudes of men. Accordingly, he determined 
to hearken to the petitioners in this matter. 

5. He then called the Jews together to Ti- 
berias, who came, many ten thousands in num- 
ber: he also placed that army he now had with 
him opposite to them; but did not discover his 
own meaning, but the commands of the empe- 
ror, and told them, that “his wrath would, with- 
out delay, be executed on such as had the cou- 
rage to disobey what he had commanded, and 
this immediately; and that it was fit for him, 
who had obtained so great a dignity by his 
grant, not to contradict him in any thing;” yet 
said he, “I do not think it just to have sucha re- 
gard to my safety and honor, as to refuse to sacr- 
fice them for your preservation, who are so many 
in number, and endeavor to preserve the regard 
that is due to your law, which as it hath come 
down to you from your forefathers, so do you 
esteem it worthy of your utmost contention te 
preserve it; nor with the supreme assistance 
and power of God, will I be so hardy as te 
suffer your temple to fall into contempt by the 
means of the imperial authority. I will, there- 
fore, send to Caius, and let him know what your 
resolutions are, and will assist your suit as far 
as I am able; that you may not be exposed to 
suffer on account of the honest designs you 
have proposed to yourselves; and may God be 
your assistant, for his authority is beyond all 
the contrivance and power of men; and may 
he procure you the preservation of your an 
cient laws, and may not he be deprived, thouz 
without your consent, of his accustomed hon- 
ors. But if Caius be irritated, and turn. the 
violence of his rage upon me, I will rather un- 
dergo all that danger and that affliction that 
may come either upon my body or my soul, 
than to see so many of you to perish, while 
you are acting in so excellenta manner. De 
you, therefore, every one of you, go your way 
about your own occupations, and fall to the 
cultivation of your ground; I will myself send 
to Rome, and will not refuse to serve you in all 
things, both by myself and by my friends.” 

6. When Petronius had said this, and had 
dismissed the assembly of the Jews, he desir- 
ed the principal of them to take care of their 
husbandry, and to speak kindly to the people, 
and encourage them to have a good hope of 
their affairs. Thus did he readily bring the 
multitude to be cheerful again. And now did 
God show his presence* to Petronius, and sig- 
nify to him, that he would afford him his as- 
sistance in his whole design; for he had no 


Josephus, as to the other decrees of Claudius, reiating to the 
like Jewish affairs, b. xix. ch. v. sect. 2, 3, to which I refer 
the inquisitive reader. 

* Josephus here uses the solemn New Testament sehich 
parousia and epiphaneia, the presence and appearance 
God, for the manifestation of his power and providence ta 
Petronius, by sending rain in a time of distress, immediately 
upon the resolution he had taken to preserve the temple un- 
polluted at the hazard of his own life, without any othes 
miraculous appearance at all in that case; which well de 
serves to be taken notice of here, and greatly illustrates 
several texts, both in the Old and New Testaments. 


156 


soone? finished the speech that he made to the 
Jews, but God sent down great showers of 
rain, contrary to human expectation, for that 
day was a clear day, and gave no sign, by the 
appearance of the sky, of any rain; nay, the 
whole year had been subject to a great drought, 
and made nen despair of any water from 
above, even when at any time they saw the 
heavens overcast with clouds; insomuch, that 
wher such a great quantity of rain came, and 
thet 2 an unusual manner, and without any 
“her expectation of it, the Jews hoped that 
®etronius would by no means fail in his _peti- 
tion for thern. But as to Petronius, he was 
mightily surprised when he perceived that God 
evidently took care of the Jews, and gave very 
plain signs of his appearance,* and this to such 
a degree, that those that were in earnest much 
inclined to the contrary, had no power left to 
contradictit. This was also among those other 
particulars which he wrote to Caius, which all 
tended to dissuade him, and by all means to 
entreat him not to make so many ten thousands 
of these men go distracted, whom if he should 
slay, (for without war they would by no means 
suffer the laws of their worship to be set aside,) 
he would lose the revenue they paid him, and 
would be publicly cursed by them for all fu- 
ture ages. Moreover, that God, who was their 
governor, bad shown his power most evidently 
on their account, and that such a power of his 
as left no room for doubt about it. And this 
was the business that Petronius was now en- 
gaged in. 

7. But king Agrippa,who now lived at Rome, 
was more and more in the favor of Caius; and 
when he had once made him a supper, and 
was careful to exceed all others, both in ex- 
penses and in such preparations as might con- 
tribute most to his pleasure; nay, it was so far 
from the ability of others, that Caius himself 
could never equal, much less exceed it; (such 
care had he taken beforehand to exceed all 
men, and particularly to make all agreeable to 
Ceesar;) hereupon Caius admired his under- 
standing and magnificence, that he should 
force himself to do all to please him, even be- 
yond such expenses as he could bear, and was 
desirous not to be behind with Agrippa in that 
generosity which he exerted in order to please 
him. So Caius, when he had drunk wine 
plentifully, and was merrier than ordinary, 
said thus during the feast, when Agrippa had 
drunk to him: “I knew before now how great 
@ respect thou hast had for me,t and how great 
kindness thou hast shown me, though with 
those hazards to thyself, which thou under- 
wentest under Tiberius on that account; nor 
hast thou omitted any thing to show thy good 
will towards us, even beyond thy ability; 
whence it would be a base thing for me to be 
conquered by thy affection. I am, therefore, 
desirous to make thee amends for every thing 
in which I have been formerly deficient, for 
all that I have bestowed on thee, that may be 


* See the preceding note. 

ft This behavior of Caius to Agrippa is very like that of 
Berod Antipas, his uncle, to Herodias, Agrippa’s sister, about 
John the Baptist, Matt. xiv. 6—11. 


ANTIQUIITES OF THE JEWS. 






called my gifts, is but little. Every thing t 
may contribute to thy happiness shall be at thy 
service, and that cheerfully, and so far as my 
ability will reach.” And this was what Caius: 
said to Agrippa, thinking he would ask for 
some large country, or the revenues of certain 
cities. But, although he had prepared before~ 
hand what he would ask, yet had he not dis-- 
covered his intentions, but made this answer 
to Caius inimediately, that “it was not out 
of any expectation of gain that he formerly _ 
paid his respects to him, contrary to the com 
mands of Tiberius, nor did he now do any 
thing relating to him out of regard to his own 
advantage, and in order to receive any thing 
from him: that the gifts he had already be. 
stowed upon him were great and beyond the 
hopes of even a craving man; for, although — 
they may be beneath thy power, [who art t 
donor,] yet are they greater than my inclina-_ 
tion and dignity, who am the receiver.” And, 
as Caius was astonished at Agrippa’s inclina- — 
tions, and still the more pressed him to make_ 
his request for somewhat which he might gra-_ 
tify him with, Agrippa replied, “Since thou, O— 
my lord! declarest such is thy readiness to 
grant, that I am worthy of thy gifts, I will ask 
nothing relating to my own felicity; for what — 
thou hast already bestowed on ine has made 
me excel therein; but I desire somewhat which © 
may make thee glorious for piety, and render 
the Divinity assistant to thy designs, and may _ 
be for an honor to me among those that inquire — 
about it, as showing that I never once fail of . 
obtaining what I desire of thee; for my peti” 
tion is this, that thou wilt no longer think of | 
the dedication of that statue which thou hast” 
ordered to be set up in the Jewish temple by _ 
Petronius.” | 
8. And thus did Agrippa venture to cast the | 
die upon this occasion, so great was the affair | 
in his opinion, and reality, though he knew | 
how dangerous a thing it was so to speak; for, - 
had not Caius approved of it, it had tended to. 
no less than the loss of his life. So Caius, whe 
was mightily taken with Agrippa’s obliging be- 
havior, and on other accounts thinking it a dis- _ 
honorable thing to be guilty of falsehood be- | 
fore so many witnesses, is points wherein he 
had with such alacrity forced Agrippa to be- | 
come a petitioner, and that it would look as if 
he had already repented of what he had said 
and because he greatly admired Agrippa’s vir- 
tue, in not desiring him at all to augment his 
own dominions, either with large revenues, or 
other authority, but took care of the pubti¢ 
tranquillity, of the laws, and of the Divinity 
itself, he granted him what he had requested 
He also wrote thus to Petronius, commending 
him for assembling his army, and then cor.sult- 
ing him about these affairs. “If, therefore, 
said he, thou hast already erected my statue, 
let it stand; but, if thou hast not yet dedicated 
it, do not trouble thyself farther about it but 
dismiss thy army, go back, and take care of 
those affairs which I sent thee about at first, for 
I have now no occasion for the erection of t 
statue. ‘This I have granted asa favor to Ag 















BOVUK XVUL—CHAPTER IX. 


a man whom [ honor so very greatly, that 
am not able to contradict what he would 


have, or what he desired me to do for him.” And 


this is what Caius wrote to Petronius, which 


_ was before he received his letter, informing 


him that the Jews were very ready to revolt 
about the statue, and that they seemed resolv- 
ed to threaten war against the Romans, and 
nothing else. When therefore Caius was much 
displeased that any attempt should be made 
against his government, as he was a slave to 
base and vicious actions on all occasions, and 
nad no regard to what was virtuous and honor- 


able, and against whomsoever he resolved to 


show his anger, and that for any cause whatso- 
ever, he suffered not himself to be restrained 
by any admonition, but thought the indulging 
his anger to be a real pleasure, he wrote thus 
to Petronius; “Seeing thou esteemest the pre- 
sents made thee by the Jews to be of greater 
value than my commands, and art grown inso- 
lent enough to be subservient to their pleasure, 
I charge thee to become thy own judge, and to 
consider what thou art to do, now thou art un- 


der my displeasure; for J will make thee an ex- 


ample to the present and to all future ages, that 
they may not dare to contradict the commands 
of. their emperor.” 

9. That was the epistle which Caius wrote to 
Petronius, but Petronius did not receive it 
while Caius was alive; that ship which carried 
it sailed so slow, that other letters came to Pe- 
tronius before this, by which he understood that 
Caius was dead; for God would not forget the 
dangers Petronius had undertaken on account 
of the Jews, and of hisownhonor. But when 
he had taken Caius away, out of his indigna- 
tion of what he had so insolently attempted in 
assuming to himself divine worship, both Rome 


and all that dominion conspired with Petro- 


nius, especially those that were of the senatorian 
order, to give Caius his due reward, because he 
had been unmercifully severe to them; for he 
died not long after he had written to Petro- 
nius that epistle which threatened him with 
death. But as for the occasion of his death, 
and the nature of the plot against him, I shall 
relate them in the progress of this narration. 
Now, that epistle which informed Petronius of 


Caius’s death, came first, and a little afterward 
‘came that which commanded him to kill him- 


self with his own hands. Whereupon he re- 
Bpiced at this coincidence as to the death of 

aius, and admired God’s providence, who 
without the least delay, and immediately, gave 
him a reward for the regard he had to the tem- 

le, and the assistance he afforded the Jews 
or avoiding the dangers they were in. And 
by this means Petronius escaped the danger of 
death, which he could not foresee. 


CHAPTER IX. 


What befeli the Jews that were mn Babylon, on 
occasion of Asineus and Anileus, two brothers. 


§ 1. A very sad calamity now befell the Jews 


_ that were in Mesopotamia, and especially those 


that dwelt in Babylonia. Inferior it was to 


none of the calamities which had gone before, 
Sal 


457 


and came together with a great slaugher of 
them, and that greater than any upon record 
before; concerning all which I shall speak accu- 
rately, and shall explain the occasions whence 
those miseries came upon them. There wasa 
city in Babylonia called da; not only a 
very populous one, but one that had a good 
and a large territory about it, and, besides its 
other advantages, full of menalso. It was, be- 
sides, not easily to be assaulted by enemie 
from the river Euphrates encompassing it al 
round, and from the walls that were built about 
it. ‘There was also the city Nisibis, situate on 
the same current of the river. For which 
reason the Jews, depending on the natural 
strength of these places, deposited in them that 
half shekel which every one, by the custom of 
our country, offers unto God, as well as they did 
other things devoted to him; for they made use 
of these cities as a treasury, whence. at a pro- 
per time, they were transmitted to Jerusalems 
and many ten thousand men undertook the 
carriage of those donations, out of fear of the 
ravages of the Parthians, to whom the Baby- 
lonians were then subject. Now, there were 
two men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city 
Neerda by birth, and brethren to one another. 
They were destitute of a father, and their 
mother put them to learn the art of weaving 
curtains, it not being esteemed a disgrace among 
them for men to be weavers of cloth. Now, he 
that taught them that art, and was set over 
them, complained that they came too late to 
their work, and punished them with stripes; but 
they took this just punishment as an affront, and 
carried off all the weapons which were kept in 
that house, which were not a few, and went 
into a certain place where was a partition of 
the rivers, and was a place naturally very fit for 
the feeding ef cattle, and for preserving such 
fruits as were usually laid up against winter, 
The poorest sort of the young men also resort- 
ed to them, whom they armed with the wea- 
pons they had gotten, and became their cap- 
tains; and nothing hindered them from being 
their leaders into mischief; for, as soon as they 
were become invincible, and had built them a 
citadel, they sent to such as fed cattle and or- 
dered them to pay them so much tribute out of 
them as might be sufficient for their mainte- 
nance, proposing also that they would be their 
friends if they would submit to them, and that 
they would defend them from all their other 
enemies on every side, but that they would 
kill al! the cattle of those that refused to obey 
them. So they hearkened to their proposals 
(for they could do nothing else,) and sent them 
as mnany sheep as were required of them, 
whereby their forces grew greater, and they 
became lords over all they pleased, because 
they marched suddenly, and did them a mis- 
chief; insomuch, that every body who had to 
do with them, chose to pay them respect, and 
they became formidable to such as came to as- 
sault them, till the report about them came t 
the ears of the king of Parthia himself. 

2. But when the governor of Babylonia un- 
derstood this. and had a mind to put a stop te 


them before they grew greater, and before 
greater mischiefs should arise from them, he 
got together as great an army as he could, both 
of Parthians and Babylonians, and marched 
against them, thinking to attack them, and de- 
stroy them before any one should carry them 
the news that he had gotan army together. He 
then encamped at a lake, and lay still; but, on 
the next day, (it was a Sabbath, which is among 
the Jews a day of rest from all sorts of work,) 
he supposed that the enemy would not dare to 
fight him thereon, but that he would take them 
and carry them away prisoners without fight- 
ing. He, therefore, proceeded gradually, and 
thought to fall upon them on the sudden. Now 
Asineus was sitting with the rest, and their 
weapons lay by them; upon which he said, 
“Sirs, I hear a neighing of horses: not of such 
es are feeding, but such as have men on their 
backs: I also hear such a noise of their bridles, 
that I am afraid that some enemies are coming 
upon us to encompass usround. However, let 
some body go to look about, and make report 
of what reality there is in the present state of 
things;* and may what I have said prove a 
false alarm.” And when he said this, some of 
them went to spy out what was the matter, and 
they came again immediately, and said to him, 
that “neither hast thou been mistaken in telling 
us what our enemies were doing, nor will those 
enemies permit us to be injurious to people any 
longer. We are caught by their intrigues like 
brute beasts, and there is a large body of cavalry 
marching upon us, while we are destitute of 
hands to defend ourselves withall, because we 
are restrained from doing it by the prohibition 
of our law, which obliges us to rest [on this 
day.”] But Asineus did not by any means agree 
with the opinion of his spy as to what was to 
be done, but thought it more agreeable to the 
law to pluck up their spirits in this necessity 
they were fallen into, and break their law by 
avenging themselves, although they should die 
in the action, than by doing nothing to please 
their enemies in submitting to be slain by them. 
Accordingly, he took up his weapons, and in- 
fused courage into those that were with him to 
act as courageously as himself. So they fell 
upon their enemies, and slew a great many of 
them, because they despised them, and came as 
to a certain victory, and put the rest to flight. 
3. But when the news of this fight came to 
the king of Parthia, he was surprised at the 
boldness of these brethren, and was desirous to 
see them, and speak withthem. He, therefore, 
tik the most trusty of all his guards to say 
thus tothem, “That king Artabanus, although 
he hath been unjustly “ ieated By You, who 
have made an attempt against his government, 
be hath he more regard to your courageous 
ehavior than to the anger he bears to you, and 
hath sent me to give you his right hand,} and 


* Enestekoton is here, and in very many other places of 
Josephus, immediutely at hand, and is to be so expounded, 2 
Thess. ii. 2, when some falsely pretended that St. Paul had 
said, either by word of mouth or by an epistle, or by both, 
that the day of Christ was immediately at hand, for St. Paul did 
then plainly think that day not very many years future. 

* The ,oining of the right hands was esteemed among the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


% 


security, and he permits you to come to him 
safely, and without any violence upon the e 
and he wants to have you address yourselves — 
to him as friends, without meaning any guile — 
or deceit to you. He also promises to make you — 
presents, and to pay you those respects which — 
will make an addition of his power to your 
courage, and thereby be of advantage to you.” 
Yet did Asineus himself put off his journe 
thither, but sent his brother Auileus with all 
such presents as he could prucure.. So ue 
went, and was admitted to the king’s presence; 
and when Artabanus saw Anileus coming alone, 
he inquired into the reason why Asineus avoid- 
ed to come along with him; and when he un- 
derstood that he was afraid, and staid by the 
lake, he took an oath by the gods of his coun- 
try, that he would do them no harm, if they 
came to him upon the assurances he gave therm, 
and gave them his right hand.* This is of the 
greatest force there with all these barbarians, 
and affords a firm security to those who con- 
verse with them; for none of them will i) 


a. 


ceive you, when once they have given you their 
right hands, nor will any one doubt of their 
fidelity, when that is once given, even though 
they were before suspected of injustice. When 
Artabanus had done this, he sent away Anileus 
to persuade his brother to come to him. Now 
this the king did, because he wanted to curb 
his own governors of provinces by the courage 
of these Jewish brethren, lest they should make 
a league with them: for they were ready for a 
revolt, and were disposed to rebel, had they 
been sent on an expedition against them. He 
was also afraid, lest, when he was engaged in 
a war in order to subdue those governors of 
provinces that had revolted, the party of Asi- 
neus, and those in Babylonia should be aug- 
mented, and either make war upon him when 
they should hear of that revolt, or, if they — 
should be disappointed in that case, they would 
not fail of doing farther mischief to him. 

4, When the king had these intentions, he 
sent away Anileus, and Anileus prevailed on 
his brother [to come to the king,] when he had 
related to him the king’s good will, and the 
oath that he had taken. Accordingly, they — 
made haste to go to Artabanus. who received 
them, when they were come with pleasure, and 
admired Asineus’s courage in the actions he 
had done, and this because he was a little man 
to see to, and at first sight appeared contempt+ 
ble also, and such as one might deem a person” 
of no value at all. He also said to his friends, 
how, upon a comparison, he showed his sou} — 
to be in all respects superior to his bedy, and — 
when, as they were drinking together, he cnce — 
showed Asineus to Abdagases, one of the gene 
rals of his army, and told him his name, and — 
described the great courage he was of in war, — 
and Abdagases had desired leave to kill him, 


Persian [and Parthians] in particular, a most inviolabie oblit- 
gation to fidelity, as Dr. Hudson here observes, and refers to _ 
the commentury on Justin, b. xi. ch. xv. forits confirmation 
We often meet with the like use of it in Josephus. i 
* See the preceding note. . 








and thereby to inflict on him a punishment for 
those injuries he had done to the Parthian go- 
vyernment, the king replied, “I will never give 
thee leave to kill a man who hath depended on 
my faith, especially not after I have sent him 
my right hand, and endeavored to gain his be- 
lief by oaths made by the gods. But if thou 
‘beest a truly warlike man, thou standest not in 
need of my perjury. Gothou then and avenge 
the Parthian government; attack this man, 
when he is returned back, and conquer him by 
the forces that are under thy command, with- 
out my privity.” Hereupon the king called 
for Asineus, and said to him, “It is time for 
thee, O thou young man, to return home, and 
not*provoke the indignation of the generals of 
my army in this place any farther, lest they at- 
tempt to murder thee, and that without my ap- 
probation. I commit to thee the country of 


Babylonia in trust, that it may, by thy care, be 
preserved free from robbers, and from other 


-mischiefs. I have kept my faith inviolable to 
thee, and that not in trifling affairs, but in those 

that concerned thy safety, and do therefore de- 
serve thou shouldest be kind to me.” When 
_he had said this, and given Asineus some pre- 


_ gents he sent him away immediately; who, when 


he was come home, built fortresses, and became 
great in a little time, and managed things with 
such courage and success, as no other person, 
that had no higher a beginning, ever did before 
‘him. Those Parthian governors also, who 
Were sent that way, paid him great respect; and 
the honor that was paid him by the Babylo- 
Mians seemed to them too small, and beneath 
his deserts, although he were in no small dig- 
nity and power there; nay, indeed, all the af- 
fairs of Mesopotamia depended on him, and he 
more and more flourished in this happy condi- 
tion of his for fifteen years. 
5. But as their affairs were in so flourishing 
a state, there sprang up a calamity among 
them on the following occasion. When once 
they had deviated from that course of virtue 
whereby they had gained so great a power, 
they affronted and transgressed the Jaws of 
their forefathers, and fell under the dominion 
of their lusts and pleasures. A certain Par- 
thian, who came as general of an army into 
those parts, had a wife following him, who 
had a vast reputation for other accomplish- 
ments, and particularly was admired above all 


} other women for her beauty; Anileus, the 


brother of Asineus, either heard of that her 


| beauty from others, or perhaps saw her him- 


“elf also, and so became at once her lover and 
fer enemy; partly because he could not hope 
t enjoy this woman but by obtaining power 
over her as a captive, and partly because he 


| thought he could not conquer his inclinations 


“sr her; as soon therefore as her husband had 
peen declared an enemy to them, and was 
fallen in the battle, the widow of the deceased 
‘was married to this her lover. However, this 
“woman did not come into their house without 


himself and to Asineus also, but brought great 
mischiefs upon them on the occasion following: | ch. v. sect 3. 


tiie 


BOOK XVIIL—CHAPTER IX. 


producing great misfortunes both to Anileus | 


Since she was led away captive, upon the 
death of her husband, she concealed the images 
of those gods which were their country gods 
common to her husband and to herself: now it 
is the custom* of that country for all to have 
the idols they worship in their own houses, 
and to carry them along with them when they 
go into a foreign land; agreeable to which cus- 
tom of theirs she carried her idols with her. 
Now at first she performed her worship to 
them privately, but when she became Anileus’s 
married wife, she worshipped them in her ac 
customed manner, and with the same appoint- 
ed ceremonies which she used in her former 
husband’s days; upon which their most es- 
teemed friends blamed him at first that he did 
not act after the manner of the Hebrews, nor 
perform what was agreeable to their laws, in 
marrying a foreign wife, and one that trans- 
gressed the accurate appointments of their sa- 
crifices and religious ceremonies; that he ought 
to consider, lest by allowing himself in many 
pleasures of the body, he might lose his prin- 
cipality, on account of the beauty of a wife, 
and that high authority which, by God’s bless- 
ing, he had arrived at. But, when they pre- 
vailed not at all upon him, he slew one of 
them for whom he had the greatest respect, 
because of the liberty he took with him; who, 
when he was dying out of regard to the laws, 
imprecated a punishment upon his murderer, 
Anileus, and upon Asineus also, and that all 
their companions might come to a like end 
from their enemies; upon the two first as the 
principal actors of this wickedness, and upon 
the rest as those that would not assist him 
when he suffered in the defence of their laws, 
Now these latter were sorely grieved, yet did 
they tolerate these doings, because they re- 
membered that they had arrived at their pre- 
sent happy state by no other means than their 
fortitude. But when they also heard of the 
worship of those gods whom tlie Parthians 
adore, they thought the injury that Anileus of- 
fered to their laws was to be borne no longer; 
and a great number of them came to Asineus, 
and Joudly complained of Anileus, and toid 
him, that “it had been well that he had of him- 
self seen what was advantageous to them, but 
that however it was now high time to correct 
what had been done amiss, before the crime 
that had been committed proved the ruin of 
himself and of all the rest of them. They 
added, that the marriage of this weman was 
made without their consent, and without a re- 
gard to their own laws; and that the worshtv 
which this woman paid [to her gods] was 2 
reproach to the God whom they worshipped. ’ 
Now Asineus was sensible of his brother’s of- 
fence, that it had been already the cause of 
great mischiefs, and would be so foi the time 


* This custom of the Mesopotamians to carry their house- 
hold gods along with them wherever they travelled, is as old 
as the days of Jacob, when Rachel his wife did the same, 
Gen. xxxi. 19, 30—35; nor is it to pass here unobserved, what 
great miseries came on these Jews, because they suffered 
one of their leaders to marry an idolatrous wife, contrary to 


the law of Moses. Of which matter, see he note on b. xix 


 atains 


#60 


to come, yet did he tolerate the same froin the 
good will he had to so near a relation; and for- 
giving it to him, on account that his brother 
was quite overborne by his wicked inclinations. 
But as more and more still came about him 
every day, and the clamors about it became 
greater, he at length spoke to Anileus about 
these clamors, reproving him for his former 
actions, and desiring him for the future to leave 
them off, and send the woman back to her re- 
lations. But nothing was gained by these re- 
proofs: for as the woman perceived what a tu- 
nult was made among the people on her ac- 
count, and was afraid for Anileus, lest he should 
come to any harm for his love to her, she in- 
fused poison into Asijneys’s. food, and thereby 
took him off, and was now secure of prevail- 
ing, when her lover was to be judge of what 
should be done about her. 

6. So Anileus took the government upon 
himself alone, and led his army against the vil- 
lages of Mithridates, who was a man of prin- 
cipal authority in Parthia, and had married 
king Artabanus’s daughter; he also plundered 
them, and among that prey was found much 
money, and many slaves, as also a great num- 
ber of sheep, and many other things, which, 
when gained, make men’s condition happy. 
Now, when Mithridates, who was there at this 
time, heard that his villages were taken, he 
was very much displeased to find that Anileus 
had first begun to injure him, and to affront 
him in his present dignity, when he had not 
offered any injury to him beforehand; and he 
got together the greatest body of horsemen he 
was able, and those out of that number which 
were of an age fit for war,and came to fight 
Anileus; and when he was-arrived at a certain 
village of his own, he lay still there, as intend- 
ing to fight him on the day following, because 
it was tlre Sabbath, the day on which the Jews 
rest. And when Anileus was informed of this 
by a Syrian stranger of another village, who 
not only gave him an exact account of other 
circumstances, but told him where Mithridates 
would have a feast, he took his supper at a pro- 
per time, and marched by night, with an intent 
of falling upon the Parthians while they were 
unapprized what they should do; so he fell upon 
them abont the fourth watch of the night, and 
some of them he slew while they were asleep, 
and others he put to flight, and took Mithridates 
alive, and set him naked upon an ass,* which, 
among the Parthians, is esteemed the greatest 
reproach possible. And when he had brought 
him into a wood with such a resolution, and 
his friends desired him to kill Mithridates, he 
soon told them his own mind to the contrary, 
and said, that “it was not right to kill a man 
who was one of the principal families among 
the Parthians, and greatly honored with match- 
ing into the royal family; that so far as they 
had hitherto gone was tolerable, for although 
they had injured Mithridates, yet if they pre- 
served his life, this benefit would be remem- 


* This custom in Syria and Mesopotamia, of setting men 
pon an ass, by way of disgrace, is still kept up at Damascus 
wm Syria; where in order to show their despite against the 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


a 
ee 





bered by him to the advantage of those — 
gave ithim, but that if he were once put— 
death, the king would not be at rest till he had 
made a great slaughter of the Jews that dwelt 
at Babylon; to whose safety we ought to have a 
regard, both on account of our relation to them, 
and because if any misfortune befall us, we 
have no other place to retire to, since he hath 

gotten the flower of their youth under him” 
By this thought, and this speech of his made 
in council, he persuaded them to act accord- 
ingly, so Mithridates was let go. Put, wher 
he was got away, his wife reprcached him — 
that although he was son-in-law to the king, 
he neglected to avenge himself ca those that 
had injured him, while he took no care about 
it, but was contented to have beer, made a cap- 
tive by the Jews, and to have escaped them; 
and she bade him either go back like a man of 
courage, or else she swore by the gods of their 
royal family, that she would certainly dissolve 
her marriage with him.” Upon which, partly 
because he could not bear the daily trouble of 

her taunts, and partly because he was afraid of 
her insolence, lest she should in earnest dissolve 
her marriage, he unwillingly, and against his 
inclinations, got together again as great an ar- 
my as he could, and marched along with them, 
as himself thinking it a thing not to be borne 
any longer, that he a Parthian, should owe his 
preservation to the Jews, when they had been 
too hard for him in the war. 

7. But as soon as Anileus understood that 
Mithridates was marching with a great army 
against him, he thought it too ignominious a 
thing to tarry about the lakes, and not to take 
the first opportunity of meeting his enemies, 
and he hoped to have the same success, and to 
beat their enemies as they did before; as also 
he ventured boldly upon the like attempts 
Accordingly, he led out his army, and a great 
many more joined themselves to that army, iD 
order to betake themselves to plunder the peo- 
ple, and in order to terrify the enemy again by 
their numbers. But when they had marched 
ninety furlongs, while the road had been through | 
dry [and sandy] places, and about the midst of 
the day, they were become very thirsty; and 
Mithridates appeared, and fell upon them, as 
they were in distress for want of water, on 
which account, and on account of the time of. 
the day, they were not able to bear their wea-, 
pons. So Anileus and his men were put to an 
ignominious rout, while men in despair were 
to attack those that were fresh and in good 
plight; so a great slaughter was made, 
many ten thousand men fell. Now Anileus, 
and all that stood firm about him, ran away as 
fast as they were able, into a wood, and afford 
ed Mithridates the pleasure of having gained 
great victory over them. But there now came 
to Anileus a conflux of bad men, who regard 
ed their own lives very little, if they might b 
gain some present ease, insomuch that they, by 
thus coming to him, compensated the multituc 






















Christians, the Turks will not suffer them to hire horses, ba 
asses Only, when they go abroad to see the country, as Mp 
Maundrell assures us p 128. es. 


B 


Ls 
avi 


of those that perished in the fight. Yet were 


’ not these men like to those that fell, because 


| they were rash, and unexercised in war; how- 
| ever, with these he came upon the villages of 


‘the Babylonians, and a mighty devastation of 


all things was made there by the injuries that 


 Anileus did them. 
| those that had already been in the war, sent to 


So the Babylonians, and 


' Neerda to the Jews there, and demanded Ani- 


' Jeus. 


But, although they did not agree to their 


' demands, (for if they had been willing to de- 


liver him up, it was not in their power so to 
dlo,) yet did they desire to make peace with 
hem. ‘To which the other replied, that they 
also wanted to settle conditions of peace with 
them, and sent men together with the Babylo- 
nians, who discoursed with Anileus about them. 
But the Babylonians, upon taking a view of his 
situation, and having learned where Anileus 
and his men lay, fell secretly upon them as 


_ they were drunk, and fallen asleep, and slew 


all that they caught of them, without any fear, 


_,and killed Anileus himself also. 


8. The Babylonians were now freed from 
Anileus’s heavy incursions, which had been a 
eat restraint to the effects of that hatred they 
ore to the Jews, for they were almost always 
at variance, by reason of the contrariety of 


_ their laws; and which party soever grew bold- 


est before the other, they assaulted the other; 


and at this time in particular it was, that upon 


the ruin of Anileus’s party, the Babylonians 
attacked the Jews, which made those Jews so 


vehemently to resent the injuries they received 


from the Babylonians, that being neither able | 


to fight them, nor bearing to live with them, 
they went to Seleucia, the principal city of 
those parts, which was built by Seleucus Nica- 
tor. 
donians, but by more of the ‘Grecians; not a 
few of the Syrians also dwelt there; and thith- 
er did the Jews fly, and lived there five years, 
without any misfortunes. But on the sixth 
year, a pestilence came upon those at Babylon, 
which occasioned new removals of men’s hab- 


_itations out of that city; and because they came 


to Seleucia, it happened that a still heavier ca- 
SO ay 


It was inhabited by many of the Mace- | 


BOOK XIX.—CHAPTE) | 





461 


lamity came upon them on that account, which 
I am going to relate immediately. 

9. Now the way of living of the people of 
Seleucia, who were Greeks and Syrians, was 
commonly quarrelsome, aud full of discords, 
though the Greeks were too hard for the Sy 
rians. When, therefore, the Jews were come 
thither and dwelt among them, there arose » 
sedition, and the Syrians were too hard for the 
other, and by the assistance of the Jews, whe 
are men that despise dangers, and very ready 
to fight upon any occasion. Now, when the 
Greeks had the worst in this sedition, and saw 
that they had but one way of recovering their 
former authority, and that was, if they could 
prevent the agreement between the Jews and 
the Syrians, they every one discoursed with 
such of the Syrians as were formerly their ac- 
quaintance, and promised they would be at 
peace and friendship with them. Accordingly, 
they gladly agreed so to do; and when this was 
done by the principal men of both nations, they 
soon agreed to a reconciliation, and when they 
were so agreed, they both knew that the great 
design of such their union would be their com 
mon hatred tothe Jews. Accordingly, they fell 
upon them, and slew about 50,000 of them; nay. 
the Jews were all destroyed, excepting a few 
who escaped, by the compassion which their 
friends or neighbors afforded them, in order to 
let them fly away. These retired to Ctesiphon, 
a Grecian city, and situate near to Seleucia, 
where the king [of Parthiaj jives in winter 
every year, and where the greatest part of his 
riches are reposited, but the Jews had here no 
certain settlement, those of Seleucia having 
little concern for the king’s honor. Now the 
whole nation of the Jews were in fear both of 
the Babylonians and of the Seleucians, because 
all the Syrians that lived in those places agreed 
with the Seleucians in the war against the Jews 
s0 the most of them gathered themselves togeth 
er, and went to Neerda, and Nisibis, and obtain- 
ed security there by the strength of those cities; 
besides which, their inhabitants who were a great 
many, were all warlike men. And this was the 
state of the Jews at this time in Babylonia. 


BOOK XIX. 


_ OONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THREE YEARS AND A HALF.—FROM THE DEPARTURE OF THE 
JEWS OUT OF BABYLON, TO FADUS, THE ROMAN PROCURATOR. 


CHAPTER L 
How Carus was slain by Cherea.* 


_ §1. Now this Caiust did not demonstrate 
mis madness in offering injuries only to the 
Jews at Jerusalem, or to those that dwelt in 


* In this an . the three next chapters, we have, I think, a 
larger and more distinct account of the slaughter of Caius, 
and the succession of Claudius, than we have of any such 


- ancient facta whatsoever elsewhere. Some of the occasions 


ef which probably were, Josephus’s bitter hatred against ty- 
yvanny, and the pleasure he took in giving the bistory of the 
‘slaughter of such a barbarous tyrant as was this Caius Cali 


the neighborhood, but suffered it to extend it- 
self through all the earth and sea, so far as was 
in subjection to the Romans, and filled it with 
ten thousand mischiefs, so many indeed m 
number as no former history relates. But 
Rome itself felt the most dismal effects of what 


gula, as also the deliverance his own nation had by thas 
slaughter, of which he speaks, sect. 2, together with the 
great intimacy he had with Agrippa junior, whose father was 
deeply concerned in the advancement of Claudius, upor 
the death of Caius; from which Agrippa junior, Josephey 
might be fully informed of this history. 

+ Called Caligula bv the Romans 


462 


he did, while he deemed that not to be any 
way more honorable than the rest of the cities; 
but he pulled and hauled its other citizens, but 

cially the senate, and particularly the no- 
bility, and such as had been dignified by illus- 
trious ancestors; he also had ten thousand de- 
vices against such of the equestrian order, as 
it was styled, who were esteemed by the citi- 
zens equal in dignity and wealth with the se- 
nators, because out of them the senators were 
themselves chosen; these he treated after an 
ignominious manner, and removed them out of 
his way, while they were at once slain, and 
their wealth plundered; because he slew men 
generally in order to seize on their riches. He 
also asserted his own divinity, and insisted on 
greater honors to be paid him by his subjects, 
than are due to mankind. He also frequented 
that temple of Jupiter which they style the 
Capitol, which is with them the most holy of 
all temples, and had boldness enough to call 
himself the brother of Jupiter. And other 
pranks he did like a madman; as when he laid 
a bridge from the city of Dicearchia, which 
belongs to Campania, to Minesum, another city 
upon the seaside, from one promontory to 
another, of the length of thirty furlongs, as 
measured over the sea. And this was done, 
because he esteemed it to be a most tedious 
thing to row over it inasmall ship, and thought 
withall, that it became him to make that bridge, 
since he was lord of the sea, and might oblige 
it to give marks of obedience as weil as the 
earth; so he enclosed the whole bay within his 
bridge, and drove his chariot over it, and 
thought that, as he was a god, it was fit for 
him to travel over such roads as this was, 
Nor did he abstain from the. plunder of any of 
the Grecian temples, and gave order that all 
the engravings and sculptures, and the rest of 
the ornaments of the statues and donations 
therein dedicated, should be brought to him, 
saying, that “the best things ought to be set 
nowhere but in the best place, and that the city 
of Rome was that best place.” He also adorn- 
ed his own house and his gardens with the 
curiosities brought from those temples, to- 
gether with the houses he lay at when he tra- 
velled all over Italy; whence he did not scruple 
to give a command, that the statue of Jupiter 
Olympius, so called because he was honored 
at the olympian games by the Greeks, which 
was the work of Phidias the Athenian, should 
be brought to Rome. Yet did not he compass 
1is end, because the architects told Memmius 
Regulus, who was commanded to remove that 
‘atue of Jupiter, that the workmanship was 
sucn as would be spoiled, and would not bear 
he removal. It was also reported that Mem- 
nius, both on that account, and on account of 
some such mighty prodigies as are of an in- 
credible nature, put off the taking it down, 
and wrote to Caius those accounts, as his apo- 
logy for not having done what his epistle re- 
quired of him; and that when he was thence 
in danger of perishing, he was saved by Caius 
Heer dead himself, before he had put him to 


ew UCO*£F 


ANTIQUITIES OF ‘THE JEWS. a ae 


2. Nay, Caius’s madness came to this heigh © 
that when he had a daughter born, he carrieu 
her into the Capitol, and put her upon the knee 
of the statue, and said, “that the child was 
common to him and to Jupiter, and determined | 
that she had two fathers, but which of these — 
fathers was the greatest, he left undetermined: 
and yet mankind bore with him in such his 
pranks. He also’ gave leave to slaves to ac- 
cuse their masters of any crimes whatsoever 
they pleased; for all such accusations were ter- 
rible, because they were in great part made to 
please him, and at his suggestion, insomuch 
that Pollux, Claudius’s slave, had the boldness 
to lay an accusation against Claudius himself, 
and Caius was not ashamed to be present at 
his trial of life and death, to hear that trial of 
his own uncle, in hopes of being able to take 
him off, although he did not succeed to his 
mind. But when he had filled the whole ha- 
bitable world, which he governed, with false 
accusations and miseries, and had occasioned 
the greatest insults of slaves against their mas 
ters, who, indeed, in a great measure ruled 
them, there were many secret plots now laid 
against him, some in anger, and in order for 
men to revenge themselves on account of the 
miseries they had already undergone from 
him; and others made attempts upon him, in 
order to take him off, before they should fall 
into such great miseries; while his death came 
very fortunately for the preservation of the 
laws of all men, and had a great influence 
upon the public welfare; and this happened 
most happily for our nation in particular. 
which had almost utterly perished if he had 
not been suddenly slain. And I confess I nave 
a mind to give a full account of this matter, 
particularly because it will afford great as- 
surance of the power of God, and great com- 
fort to those that are under afflictions, and wise 
caution to those who think their happiness will 
never end, nor bring them at length to the 
most lasting miseries, if they do not conduct 
their lives by the principles of virtue. 

3. Now there were three several conspiracies 
made, in order to take off Caius, and each of 
these three was conducted by excellent persons. 
Emilius Regulus, born at Cerduba, in Spain, 
got some men together, and was desirous to 
take Caius off either by them, or by himself. 
Another conspiracy there was laid by them, 
under the conduct of Cherea Cassius, the tri- 
bune [of the Petronian band;] Minucianus An- 
nius was also one of great consequence among 
those that were prepared to oppose his tyranny 
Now the several occasions of these men’s ha- 
tred and conspiracy against Caius were these: 
Regulus had indignation and hatred against all 
injustice, for he had a mind naturally amgry 
and bold, and free, which made him not cen- 
ceal his counsels; so he communicated them 
to many of his friends, and to others, who 
seemed to him persons of activity and vi 
Minucianus entered into this conspiracy, be 
cause of the injustice done to Lipidus, his par 
ticular friend, and one of the best characters of 
all the citizens, whom Caius had slain, as ig 






te 


BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER 1. 


secause he was afraid of himself, since Caius’s 


wrath tended to the slaughter of all alike; and 


fer Cherea, he came in, because he thought it 


adeed worthy of a free ingenuous men to kill 
Caius, and was ashamed of the reproaches he 
lay under from Caius, as though he were a 
coward; as also because he was himself in dan- 
ger every day from his friendship with him, 


"and the observance he paid him. These men, 





proposed this attempt to all the rest that were 
concerned, who saw the injuries that were of- 
fered them, and were desirous that Caius’s 
glaughter might succeed by their mutual assist- 
ance of one another, that they might them- 
selves escape being killed by the removal of 


Caius; that perhaps they should gain their 


point, and that it would bea happy thing if they 
should gain it, to approve themselves toso many 
excellent persons as earnestly wished to be 
partakers with them in their design, for the 
delivery of the city and of the government, 
even at the hazard of their own lives. But 
still Cherea was the most zealous of them all, 
both out of a desire of getting himself the 
greatest name, and also by reason of his access 
to Caius’s presence with less danger, because 
he was tribune, and could, therefore, the more 
easily kill him. 

4. Now at this time came on the horse-races 
[Circensian games,] the view of which games 
was eagerly desired by the people of Rome, for 
they came with great alacrity into the hippo- 
drome [circus] at such times, and petition their 


- emperors, in great multitudes, for what they 


mand in need of; who usually did not think fit 
to deny them their requests, but readily and 
gratefully granted them. Accordingly they 
most importunately desired, that Caius would 
now ease them in their tributes, and abate some- 
what of the rigor of the taxes imposed upon 
them; but he would not hear their petition; and, 
when their clamors increased, he sent soldiers, 
some one way, and some another, and gave 
order that they should lay hold on those that 
made the clamors, and, without any more ado, 
bring them out, and put them to death. These 
were Caius’s commands, and those who were 
commanded executed the same; and the num- 


per of those who were slain on this occasion 


was very great. Now the people saw this, and 
bore it so far, that they left off clamoring, be- 


 .@ause they saw with their own eyes, that this 


petition to be relieved, as to the payment of 
-heir money, brought immediate death upon 
them. These things made Cherea more reso- 
lute to go on with his plot in order to put an 
end to this barbarity of Caius against men. He 
then, at several times, thought to fall upon 
Caius even as he was feasting; yet did he re- 
strain nimself by some considerations; not that 
ne had any doubt on him about killing him, but 
as watching for a proper season, that the at- 
tempt might not be frustrated, but that he might 
give the blow so as might certainly gain his 
purpose. 

3. a had been in the army a long time, 
yet was he not pleased with conversing 80 
mach with Caius. But Caius had sent him to 


AGS 


require the tributes, and other dues, which, 
when not paid in due time, were forfeited to 
Ceesar’s treasury; and he had made some de- 
lays in requiring them, because those burdens 
had been doubled, and had rather indulged his 
own mild disposition, than performed Caius’s 
command; nay, indeed, he provoked Caius tc 
anger by his sparing men, and pitying the hard 
fortunes of those from whom he demanded the 
taxes, and Caius upbraided him with his sloth 
and effeminacy in being so long about collect- 
ing the taxes. And indeed he did not only at- 
front him in other respects, but when he gave 
him the watchword of the day, to whom it was 
to be given by his place, he gave him feminine 
words, and those of a nature very reproachful 
and these watchwords he gave out, as having 
been initiated in the secrets of certain myste- 
ries, which he had been himself the author of. 
Now, although he had sometimes put on wo- 
man’s clothes, and had been wrapt in some em- 
broidered garments to them belonging, and 
done a great many other things, in order to 
make the company mistake him for a woman; 
yet did he, by way of reproach, object the like 
womanish behavior to Cherea. But when Che- 
rea received the watchword from him, he haa 
indignation at it, but had great indignation at 
the delivery of it to others, as being laughed at 
by those that received it; insomuch that his fel- 
low-tribunes made him the subject of their droll- 
ery; for they would foretell that he would 
bring them some of his usual watchwords 
when he was about to take the watchword 
from Ceesar, and would thereby make him ri- 
diculous; on which accounts he took the cou- 
rage of assuming certain partners to him, as 
having just reasons for his indignation against 
Caius. Now there was one Pompedins,.. 
senator, and one who had gone through almost 
all posts in the government, but otherwise an 
epicurean, and for that reason loved to lead an 
inactive life. Now Timidius, an enemy of his, 
had informed Caius that he had used indecent 
reproaches against him, and he made use of 
Quintilia, for a witness to them; a woman she 
was, much beloved by many that frequented 
the theatre, and particularly by Pompedius, on 
account of her great beauty. Now this woman 
thought it a horrible thing to attest to an accu. 
sation that touched the life of her lover, which 
was also a lie. 'Timidius, however, wanted to 
have her brought to the torture. Caius was ir- 
ritated at this reproach upon him, and com- 
manded Cherea, without any delay, to torture 
Quintilia, as he used to employ Cherea in such 
bloody matters, and those that required the tor 
ture, because he thought he would do it the 
more barbarously, in order te avoid that impu- 
tation of effeminacy which he had laid upon 
him. But Quintilia, when she was brought te 
the rack, trod upon the foot of one of her as- 
sociates, and let him know, that he might be of 
good courage, and not be afraid of the conse- 
quence of her tortures; for that she would bear 
thern with magnanimity. Cherea tortured this 
woman after a cruel manner: unwillingly in- 
deed, but because he could not help it. He 


ee a © 
asd ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. P| 
then brought ner, without being in the least | berty of all and at the same time to resoive w 
moved at what she had suffered, into the pre- | free ourselves from dangers.” ) 
sence of Caius, and that in such a state as was} 7. Hereupon Clement openly commended 
sad to behold; and Caius, being somewhat af- | Cherea’s intentions; but bade him “hold his 
fected with the sight of Quintilia; who had her | tongue; for that in case his words should get 
body miserably disordered by the pains she had | out among many, and such things should be 
undergone, freed both her and Pompedius of | spread abroad as were fit to be concealed, the 
the crime laid to their charge. He also gave | plot would come to be discovered before it was 
her money to make her an honorable amends, | executed, and they should be brought to pun- 
and comfort her for that maiming of her body | ishment: but that they should leave all to fu 
which she had suffered; and for her glorious | turity, and the hope which then arose, that some 
patience under such unsufferable torments. _| fortunate event would come to their assistance: 
6. This matter sorely grieved Cherea, as hav- | that, as for himself, his age would not permit 
ing been the cause, as far as he could, or the | him to make any attempt in that case. However, 
instrument, of those miseries to men, which | although perhaps I could suggest what may be 
seemed worthy of consolation to Caius him- | safer than what thou, Cherea, hast contrived 
self; on which account he said to Clement and | and said, yet how is it possible for any one to 
to Papinius, (of whom Clement was general | suggest what is more for thy reputation?” So 
of the army, and Papinius was a tribune,) “To | Clement went his way home with deep reflec- 
be sure, Clement we have noway failed in our | tions on what he had heard, and what he Lad 
guarding the emperor; for as to those that have | himself said. Cherea was also under a con- 
made conspiracies against his government, some | cern, and went quickly to Cornelius Sabinus, 
have been slain by our care and pains, and| who was himself one of the tribunes, and 
some have been by us tortured, and this to such | whom he otherwise knew to be a worthy mat, 
a degree, that he hath himself pitied them. How | and a lover of liberty, and on that account very 
great then is our virtue in submitting to con-| uneasy at the present management of public 
duct his armies!” Clement held his peace, but | affairs, he being desirous to come immediate 
showed the shame he was under in obeying |! to the execution of what had been determin 
Caius’s orders, both by his eyes and his blush- | and thinking it right for him to propose it to 
ing countenance, while he thought it by no | the other, and afraid lest Clement should dis 
means right to accuse the emperor in express | cover them, and besides looking upon delays 
words, lest their own safety should be endan- | and puttings off to be next to desisting from the 
gered thereby. Upon which Cherea took | enterprise. 
courage, and spoke to him without fear of the} 8. But as all was agreeable to Sabi who 
dangers that were before him, and discoursed | had himself, equally with Cherea, the same de- 
largely of the sore calamities under which the | sign, but had been silent for want of a person 
city and the government then labored, and said, | to whom he could safely communicate that de- 
“We may indeed pretend in .words, that Caius | sign; so having now met with one, who not 
is the person unto whom the cause of such | only promised to conceal what he heard, but 
miseries ought to be imputed; but, in the opi-| who had already opened his mind to him, he 
nion of such as are able to judge uprightly, it} was much more encouraged, and desired of 
is I, O Clement, and this Papinius, and before | Cherea, that no delay might be made therein. 
us thou thyself, who bring these tortures upon | Accordingly they went to Minucianus, who 
the Romans, and upon all mankind. It is not | was as virtuous a man, and as zealous to de 
done by our being subservient to the commands | glorious actions as themselves, and suspected 
of Caius, but it is done by our own consent; /| by Caius on occasion of the slaughter of Le 
for whereas it is in our power to put an end to | pidus; for Minucianus and Lepidus were inti 
the life of this man, who hath so terribly in- | mate friends, and both in fear of the dangers 
jured the citizens and his subjects, we are his | that they were under; for Caius was terrible to— 
guard in mischief, and his executioners instead | all the great men, as appearing ready to act a 
of his soldiers, and are the instruments of his | mad part towards each of them in particular, © 
cruelty. We bear the weapons, not for our liber- | and towards all of them in general: and these ~ 
ty, not forthe Roman government, but only for | men were afraid of one another, while they — 
his preservation, who hath enslaved both their | were yet uneasy at the posture of affairs, but— 
bodies and their minds; and we are every day | avoided to declare their mind and their hatred 
polluted with the blood that we shed, and the | against Caius to one another, out of fear of the > 
tormerits we inflict upon others; and this we |dangers they might be in thereby, although | 
do, till somebody becomes Caius’s instrument in | they perceived by other means their mutuas 
bringing the like miseries upon ourselves. Nor | hatred against Caius, and on that account were 








docs he thus employ us, because he hath a|not averse to mutual kindness one towards — 
kindness for us, but rather because he hath a | another. ; (e 
suspicion of us, as also because when abun-| 9%. When Minucianus and Cherea had met — 
darice more have been killed, (for Caius will | together, and saluted one another, (asthey had — 
set no bounds to his wrath, since’ he aims to | been used in former conversations to give the 
do all, not out of regard to justice, but to his | upper hand to Minucianus, both on account of - 
own pleasure,) we shall also ourselves be ex- | his eminent dignity, for he was the noblest of — 
posed to his cruelty; whereas we ought to be | all the citizens, and highly commended by ak — 
the means of confirming the security and li-! men, especially when he made speeches te 








them,) Minucianus.began first and asked Che- 
rea, what was the watchword he had received 
‘that day from Caius? for the affront which was 
offered Cherea, in giving the watchwords, was 
‘famous over the city. But Cherea made no de- 
lay, so long as to reply to that question, out of 
the joy he had that Minucianus would have 
such confidence in him as to discourse with 
him. “But do thou, said he, give me the watch- 
word of Liberty. And I return thee my thanks, 
that thou hast so greatly encouraged me to ex- 
ert myself after an extraordinary manner; nor 
do I stand in need of many words to encourage 
me, since both thou and J are of the same mind, 
and partakers of the same resolutions, and this 
before we have conferred together. I have in- 
deed but one sword girt on, but this one will 
serve us both. Come on, therefore, let us set 
about the work. Do thou go first, if thou hast 
a mind, and bid me follow thee, or else I will 
go first, and thou shalt assist me, and we will 
assist one another, and trust one another. Nor 
is there a necessity for even one sword to such 
as have a mind disposed to such works, by 
which mind the sword uses to be successful. 
lam zealous about this action, nor am I solici- 
tous what ] may myself undergo, for I am not 
at leisure to consider the dangers that may 
come upon myself, so deeply am I troubled at 
the slavery our once free country is now under, 
and at the contempt cast upon our excellent laws, 
and at the destruction which hangs over all men 
by the means of Caius. I wish that I may be 
judged by thee, and that thou mayest esteem 
me worthy of credit in these matters, seeing 
we are both of the same opinion, and there is 
herein no difference between us.” 

10. When Minucianus saw the vehemency 
with which Cherea delivered himself, he gladly 
embraced him, and: encouraged him in his bold 
attempt, commending him, and embracing him; 
so he let him go with his good wishes: and 
some affirm that he thereby confirmed Minu- 
cianus in the prosecution of what had been 


BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER 1. 



















| from among the multitude to encourage him, 
| which bade him finish what he was about, and 
| take the opportunity that Providence afforded: 
and that Cherea at first suspected that some 
| one of the conspirators had betrayed him, and 
| he was caught, but at length perceived that it 
was by way of exhortation. Whether some- 
body,* that was conscious of what he was 
about gave a signal for his encouragement, or 
| whether it were God himself, who looks upon 
tne actions or men, that encouraged him to go 
en boldly in his design, is uncertain. The plot 
was now communicated to a great many, and 
they were all in their armor; some of the con- 
| Spirators being senators, and some of the eques- 
trian order, and as many of the soldiery as 
Were made acquainted with it, for there was 
not one of them who would not reckon it a part 
of his happiness to kill Caius, and on that ac- 


* Just such a voice as this is related to be, came, and that 

an unknown original also, to the famous Polycarp, 

he was going to martyrdom, bidding him “play the man;”’ as 
ay 59 


a? oy eo 





Se SS Se 


1 


count they were all very zealous m the affair, 
by what means soever any one could come at 
it, that he might not be behindhand in these 
virtuous designs, but might be ready with all 
his alacrity or power, both by words and ac- 
tions, to complete this slaughter of a tyrant. 
And besides these, Callistus also, who was « 
freed-man of Caius, and was the only man 
that had arrived at the greatest degree of pow- 
er under him; such a power, indeed, as was in 
a manner equal to the power of the tyrant 
himself, by the dread that all men had of him, 
and by the great riches he had acquired; for he 
took bribes most plenteously, and committea 
injuries without bounds, and was more extrava- 
gant in the use of his power in unjust proceed- 
ings than any other; he also knew the disposi- 
tion of Caius to be implacable and never to be 
turned from what he had resolved on. He had 
withall many other reasons why he thought 
himself in danger, and the vastness of his 
wealth was not one of the least of them, on 
which account he privately ingratiated himself 
with Claudius, and transferred his courtship to 
him, out of this hope, that in case, upon the 
removal of Caius, the government should come 
to him, his interest in such changes should lay 
a foundation for his preserving his dignity 
under him, since he laid in beforehand a stock 
of merit, and did Claudius good offices in his 
promotion. He had also the boldness to pre- 
tend, that he had been persuaded to make 
away with Claudius, by poisoning him, but had 
still invented ten thousand excuses for delaying 
to do it. But it seems probable to me, that 
Callistus only counterfeited this in order to in 

gratiate himself with Claudius, for if Caius 
had been in earnest resolved to take off Clau- 
dius, he would not have admitted of Callistus’s 
excuses, nor would Callistus, if he had been 
enjoined to do such an act as was desired hy 
Caius, have put it off, nor, if he had disobeyed 
those injunctions of his master, had he escap- 
ed immediate punishment: while Claudius waa 


| agreed among them; for, as Cherea, entered | preserved from the madness of Caius by a cer- 
| into the court, the report runs, that a voice came | tain divine Providence, and Callistus pretend- 


ed to such a piece of merit as he noway de- 
served. 

11. However, the execution of Cherea’s de- 
signs was put off from day to day, by the sloth 
of many therein concerned; for as to Cherea 
himself, he would not willingly make any delay 
in that execution, thinking every time a fit 
time for it; for frequent opportunities offered 
themselves; as when Caius went up to the cupt- 
tol to sacrifice for his daughter, or when he 
stood upon his royal palace, and threw gold 
and silver pieces of money among the people, 
he might be pushed down headleng because 
the top of the palace, that looks towards the 
market-place, was very high; and also when 
he celebrated the mysteries, which he had ap- 
pointed at that time; for he was then noway se- 
cluded from the people, but solicitous to do 
every thing carefully and decently, and was 


the church of Smyrna assures ws in the accounts of that his 


as | martyrdom, sect. 9. 


666 ANTIQUITIES 


free from all suspicion that he should be then 
assaulted by any body; and although the gods 
should afford him no divine assistance to ena- 
ble him to take away his life, yet had he strength 
himself sufficient to despatch Caius, even with- 
eut a sword: thus was Cherea angry at his fel- 
low-conspirators, for fear they should suffer a 
proper opportunity to pass by; and they were 
themselves sensible that he had just cause to 
pe angry at them, and that his eagerness was 
for their advantage; yet did they desire he 
would have a little longer patience, lest, upon 
any disappointment they might meet with, they 
should put the city into disorder, and an in- 
quisition should be made after the conspiracy, 
and should render the courage of those that 
were to attack Caius without success, while he 
would then secure himself more carefully than 
ever against them; that it would, therefore, be 
the best to set about the work when the shows 
were exhibited in the palace, ‘These shows 
were acted in honor of that Ceesar* who first 
of all changed the popular government, and 
transferred it to himself; galleries being fixed 
before the palace, where the Romans that were 
patricians became spectators, together with 
their children and their wives, and Cesar him- 
self was to be also a spectator; and they reck- 
oncd, among those many ten thousands, who 
would there be crowded into a narrow compass, 
they should have a favorable opportunity to 
make their attempt upon him as he came in; 
because his guards that should protect him, if 
any of them should have a mind to do it, would 
not here be able to give him any assistance. 
12. Cherea consented to this delay, and when 
the shows were exhibited, it was resolved to do 
the work the first day. But fortune, which al- 
lowed a farther delay to his slaughter, was too 
hard for their foregoing resolutions, and, as 
three days Of the regular times for these shows 
were now over, they had much ado to get the 
business done on the last day. Then Cherea 
called the conspirators together, and spoke thus 
to them: “So much time passed away without 
effect is a reproach to us, as delaying to go 
through such a virtuous design as we are en- 
ged in; but more fatal will this delay prove, 
if we be discovered, and the design be frus- 
trated; for Caius will then become more cruel 
in his unjust proceedings. Do not we see how 
long we deprive all our friends of their liberty, 
and give Caius leave still to tyrannize over 


chem? while we ought to have procured them | fastened together, as it used to be every yea), it 
security for the future, and by laying a founda- | the manner following: it had two doors, the on 
tion for the happiness of others, gain to our-| door led to the open air, the other was for go 
selves great admiration and honor, for all time | ing into, or going out of the cloisters, that those 
to come.” Now while the conspirators had | within the theatre might not be thereby 


nothing tolerable to say by way of contradic- 
tion, and yet did not quite relish what they were 
doing, but stood silent and astonished, he said 
farther, “O my brave comrades! why do we 
make such delays? Do not you see that this is 
the last day of these shows, and that Caius is 
about to go to sea? for he is preparing to sail 
to Alexandria in order to see Egypt. Is it there- 


- *Here Josephus supposes that it was Augustus, and not | into a monarchy; for these shows were in honor of A 


Julius Cesar, who first changed the Roman commonwealth 


OF THE JEWS 


| 
| 
| 
/ 
| 
/ 
| 


| 





| aS occasion served. 


4 
fore for your honor to .et a man go out of 
your hands who is a reproach to mankind, and 
to permit him to go after a pompous manner, 
triumphing both at land and sea? Shall not 
we be justly ashamed of ourselves, if we give 
leave to some Egyptian or other who shall 
think his injuries insufferable to freemen, to 
kill him? As for myself, I will no longer beat 
your slow proceedings, but will expose mysel — 
to the dangers of the enterprise this very day 
and bear cheerfully whatsoever shall be th — 
consequence of the attempt; nor let them be 
ever so great, willI put them off any longey 
for to a wise and courageous man, what cag 
be more miserable than that, while I am alive 
any one else should ki!l Caius, and deprive me 
of the honor of so virtuous an action.” | 

13. When Cherea had spoken thus, he zeal 
ously set about the work, and inspired courage 
into the rest to go on with it, and they were afl 
eager to fall to it without farther delay. So 
he was at the palace in the morning, with his 
equestrian sword girt on him; for it was the 
custom that the tribunes should ask for the 
watchword with their swords on, and this was 
the day on which Cherea was, by custom, to 
receive the watchword; and the multitude were 
already come to the palace, to be soon enough 
for seeing the shows, and that in great crowds, 
and one tumultuously crushing another, while 
Caius was delighted with this eagerness of the 
multitude; for which reason there was no order 
observed in the seating men, nor was any pe 
culiar place appointed for the senators, or for 
the equestrian order, but they sat at random, 
men and women together, and free men wer 
mixed with the slaves. So Caius came out in 
a solemn manner, and offered sacrifice to Au- 
gustus Ceesar, in whose honor indeed these 
shows were celebrated. Now it happened, 
upon the fall of acertain priest, that the gar- 
ment of Asprenas, a senator, was filled with 
blood, which made Caius laugh, although this 
was an evident omen to Asprenas, for he was 
slain at the same time with Caius. It is also ra= 
lated, that Caius was that day, contrary to his” 
usual custom, so very affable and good natu 
in his conversation, that every one of those that 
were present were astonished at it. After the 
sacrifice was over, Caius betook himself to see 
the shows, and sat down for that purpose, a 
did also the principal of his friends sit near 
him. Now the parts of the theatre were so 













turbed; but out of one gallery there was ai 
inward passage, parted into partitions also, 
which led into another gallery, to give room to” 
the combatants, and to the musicians, to go out 
When the multitude 
set down, and Cherea with the other tribune 
were set down also, and the right corner of the 
theatre was allotted to Cesar, one Vatinius, 8 


tus, as we shall learn in the next section but one 








te 


4 iy; 


potas 


SAMSON IN CAPTIVITY. 





(See page 136.) 





‘senator commander of the pretorian band, 
asked of Cluvius, one that sat by him, and was 
-of consular dignity also, “Whether he had 
‘heard any thing of the news or not?” but took 
care that nobody should hear what he said; 
-and when Cluvius replied, that “he had heard 
no news.” “Know then,” said Vatinius, “that 
‘the gnme of the slaughter of tyrants isto be 
‘played this day.” But Cluvius replied, “O 
Seve comrade! hold thy peace, lest some other 
of the Achaians hear thy tale.’ And as there 
was abundance of autumnal fruit thrown 
among the spectators, and a great number of 
birds, that were of great value to such as pos- 
sessed them, on account of their rareness, 
Caius was pleased with the birds fighting tor 
the fruits, and with the violence wherewith 
the spectators seized upon them; and here he 
erceived two prodigies that happened there; 
‘for an actor was introduced, by whom a leader 
of robbers was crucified, and the pantomime 
‘brought in a play called Cyniras, wherein he 
himself was to be slain; as well as his daughter 
Myrrha, and wherein a great deal of fictitious 
blood was shed, both about him that was cruci- 
fied, and also about Cyniras. It is also confess- 
ed, that this was the same day wherein Pau- 
ganias, a friend of Philip, the son of Amyntas, 
who was king of Macedonia, slew him as he 
was entering into the theatre. And now Caius 
‘was in doubt whether he would tarry to the 
end of the shows, because it was the last day, 
or whether he should not go first to the bath, 
‘and to dinner, and then return and sit down 
as before. Hereupon Minucianus, who sat over 
Caius, and was afraid that the opportunity 
should fail them, got up, because he saw that 
Cherea was already gone out, and made haste 
out, to confirm him in his resolution; but Caius 
took hold of his garment, in an obliging way, 
and said to him, “O brave man! whither art 
‘thou going?” Whereupon, out of reverence 
to Cesar, as it seemed, he sat down again; but 
his fear prevailed»ver him, and in a little time 
he got up again, and then Caius did noway op- 
pose his going out, as thinking that he went 
but to perform some necessities of nature. 
And Asprenas, who was one of the confede- 
fates, persuuded Caius to go out to the bath, and 
to dinner, and then to come in again, as desir- 








brought to a conclusion immediately. 


in order, as the time would permit them, and 
they were obliged to labor hard, that the place 


‘them; but they had an indignation at the te- 


| were about should be put off any longer, for it 
was already about the ninth* hour of the day, 
| and Cherea, upon Caius’s tarrying so Jong, had 
& great mind to go in, and fall upon him in his 
seat, although he foresaw that this could not be 
| done without much bloodshed, both of the se- 
nators, and of those of the equestrian order that 


- * Suetonius says, Caius was slain about the seventh hour 
ef the day: Josephus about the ninth. The series of the 
warration favors Josephus. 


* BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER |. 


which was appointed them should not be left by | 


463 


were present; and although he knew that thi 
must happen, yet bad he a great mind to de 
so, as thinking it a right thing to procure se- 
curity and freedom to all, at the expense of 
such as might perish at the same time. And 
as they were just going back into the entrance 
to the theatre, word. was brought them that 
Jaius was arisen, whereby a tumult was made; 
hereupon the conspirators thrust away the 
crowd, under pretence as if Caius was angry 
at them, but in reality as desirous to have a 
quiet place, that should have none in it to de 
fend him, while they set about Caius’s slaugliter. 
Now Claudius, his uncle, was gone out before, 
and Marcus Vinitius, his sister’s husband, as 
also Valerius of Asia; whom, though they had 
had such a mind to put out of their places, the 
reverence of their dignity hindered them so to 
do; then followed Caius, with Paulus Arrun- 
tius; and because Caius was now gotten within 
the palace, he left the direct road, along which 
those his servants stood that were in waiting, 
and by which road Claudius had gone out be- 
fore; Caius turned aside into a private narrow 
passage, in order to go to the place for bathing, 
as also in order to take a view of the boys that 
came out of Asia, who were sent thence, partly 
to sing hymns in those mysteries which were 
now celebrated, and partly to dance in the 
Pyrrhic way of dancing upon the theatre. 
So Cherea met him, and asked him for the 
watchword; upon Caius’s giving him one of 
his ridiculous words, he immediately reproach- 
ed him, and drew his sword, and gave him a 
terrible stroke with it, yet was not this stroke 
mortal. And although there be those that say, 
it was so contrived on purpose by Cherea, that 
Caius should not be killed at one blow, but 
should be punished more severely by a multi- 
tude of wounds; yet does this story appear te 
me incredible, because the fear men are under 
in such actions does not allow them to use 
their reason. And if Cherea was of that 
mind, I esteem him the greatest of all fools, in 
pleasmg himself in bis spite against Caius, 
rather than immediately procuring safety to 
himself and to his confederates from the dan- 
gers they were in; because there might many 
things still happen for helping Caius’s escape, 
if he had not already given up the ghost; for 


ous that what had been resolved on might be| certainly Cherea would have regard, not so 


much to the punishment of Caius, as to the 


14. So Cherea’s associates placed themselves | affliction himself and his friends were in, while 
| it was in his power, after such success, to keep 
| silent, and to escape the wrath of Caius’s de- 


fenders, and not to leave it to uncertainty 
whether be should gain the end he aimed at 


diousness of the delays, and that what they | or not, and after an unreasonable manner to act 


as if he had a mind to ruin himself, and lose 
the opportunity that lay before him; but every 
body may guess as he pleases about this mat- 
ter. However, Caius was staggered with the 
pain that the blow gave him, for the stroke of 
the sword falling in the middle between the 
shoulder and the neck, was hindered by the 
first bone of the breast from proceeding any 
farther. Nor did he either cry out, in such as- 
tonishment was he, nor did he call out for any 


468 


of his frends; whether it were that he had no 
eonfidence in them, or that his mind was other- 
wise disordered, but he groaned under the pain 
he endured, and presently went forward and 
fled; when Cornelius Sabinus, who was al- 
ready prepared in mind so to do, thrust him 
down upon his knee, where many of them 
stood round about him, and struck him with 
their swords, and they cried out, and encourag- 
ed one another all at once to strike him again; 
but all agree that Aquila gave him the finish- 
ing stroke, which directly killed him. Butone 
may justly ascribe this act to Cherea; for al- 
taough many concurred in the act itself, yet 
was he the first contriver of it, and began long 
before all the rest to prepare for it, and was the 
first man that boldly spoke of it to the rest; and 
upon their admission of what he said about it, 
he got the dispersed conspirators together; he 
prepared every thing after a prudent manner, 
and, by suggesting good advice, showed him- 
self far superior to the rest, and made obliging 
speeches to them, insomuch that he even com- 
pelled them all to go on, who otherwise had 
not courage enough for that purpose; and when 
opportunity served to use his sword in hand, he 
appeared first of all ready so to do, and gave 
the first blow in this virtuous slaughter; he also 
brought Caius easily into the power of the rest, 
and almost killed him himself: insomuch that 
it is but just to ascribe all that the rest did, to 
the advice, and bravery, and labors of the hands 
of Cherea. 

15. Thus did Caius come to his end, and lay 
dead, by the many wounds which had been 
given him. Now Cherea and his associates, 
upon Caius’s slaughter, saw that it was impos- 
sible for them to save themselves, if they should 
all go the same way, partly on account of the 
astonishment they were under: for it was no 
small danger they had incurred by killing an 
emperor, who was honored and loved by the 
madness of the people, especially when the 
soldiers were likely to make a bloody inquiry 
after his murderers. The passages also were 
narrow wherein the work was done, which 
were also crowded with a great multitude of 
Caius’s attendants, and of such of the soldiers 
as were of the emperor’s guard that day: 
whence it was that they went by other ways, 
and came to the house of Germanicus, the fath- 
er of Caius, whom they had now killed, (which 
house adjoined tothe palace; for while the edi- 
fice was one, it was built in its several parts by 
those particular persons who had been empe- 
rors, and those parts bore the names of those 
that built them, or the name of him who had 
begun to build any of its parts.) So they got 
away from the insults of the multitude, and 
then were for the present out of danger, that 
is, so long as the misfortune which had over- 
taken the emperor was not known. 'The Ger- 
mans were the first that perceived that Caius 
wasslain. ‘These Germans were Caius’s guard, 
and carried the name of the country whence 
they were chosen, and composed the Celtic le- 
gion. The men of thatcountry are naturally pas- 
sionate, which is commonly the temper of some 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. mS 





at 


other of the barbarous nations also, a8 not 06 — 
ing used to consider much about what they do _ 
they are of robust bodies, and fall upon their 
enemies as soon as ever they are attacked by 
them; and which way soever they go, they per. © 
form great exploits. When, therefore, these 
German guards understood that Caius was 
slain, they were very sorry for it, because they — 
did not use their reason in judging about public © 
affairs, but measured all by the advantages them- 
selves received, Caius being beloved by them, 
because of the money he gave them, by which 
he had purchased their kindness to him, so 
they drew their swords, and Sabinus Jed them 
on. He was one of the tribunes, n¢_ by the 
means of the virtuous actions of his progen 
tors, for he had been a gladiator, but he had ob-- 
tained that post in the army by his having s 
robust body. So these Germans marched 
along the houses in quest of Casar’s murder 
ers, and cut Asprenas to pieces, because he was 
the first man they fell upon, and whose gar 
ment it was that the blood of the sacrifice stain 
ed, as I have said already, and which foretold 
that this his meeting the soldiers would not be 
for his good. Then did Norbanus meet them, 
who was one of the principal nobility of the 
city, and could show many generals of armies 
among his ancestors, but they paid no regard 
to his dignity; yet was he of such great strength, 
that he wrested the sword of the first of those 
that assaulted him out of his hands, and ap 
peared plainly not to be willing to die without 
a struggle for his life, until he was surrounded 
by a great number of assailants, and died by 
the multitude of the wounds which they gave 
him. The third man was Anteius, a senator, 
and a few others with him. He did not meet 
with these Germans by chance, as the rest did 
before, but came to show his hatred to Caius, 
and because he loved to see Caius lie dead with 
his own eyes, and took a pleasure in that sight; 
for Caius had banished Anteius’s father, who 
was of the same name with himself, and, being 
not satisfied with that, he sent out his soldiers, 
and slew him: so he was come to rejoice at 
the sight of him, now he was dead. But as 
the house was now all ina tumult, when he 
was aiming to hide himself, he could not es 
cape that accurate search which the Germans 
made, while they barbarously slew those ue 
were guilty and those that were not guilty, and. 
this equally also, And thus were these [three 
persons slain. 1. 
16. But when the rumor that Caius was 
slain reached the theatre, they were astonishe 
at it, and could not believe it: even some th 
entertained his destruction with great pleasure 
and were more desirous of its happening thar 
almost any other satisfaction that could come 
to them, were under such a fear, that they couk 
not believe it. There were also those whe 
greatly distrusted it, because they were unwilk 
ing that any such thing should come to Caius 
nor could believe it, though it were ever #8 
true, because they thought no man could pot 
sibly have so much power as to kill Camus 
These were the women, and he children, an¢ 










we 


0 


o 


~ BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER I. 


nee 408 
the slaves, and some of the soldiery. This last 


went out, but according to the supposals of the 


_gort had taken his pay, and ina manner tyran- 
nized with him, and had abused the best of his 
_ citizens, in being subservient to his unjust com- 


mands, in order to gain honors and advantages 


to themselves; but for the women, and the youth, 
they had been inveigled with shows, and the 


fightings of the gladiators, and certain distri- 


butions of flesh meat among them, which 


things in pretence were designed for the pleas- 


‘ing of the multitude, but in reality to satiate 


the barbarous cruelty and madness of Caius. 
The slaves also were sorry, because they were 


_ by Caius allowed to accuse and to despise their 


masters, and they could have recourse to his 


assistance when they had unjustly aftronted 


them; for he was very easy in believing them 
against their masters, even when they accused 
them falsely; and, if they would discover what 


_money their masters had, they might soon ob- 
tain both riches and liberty,as the rewards of 
_ their accusations, because the reward of these 


-substance.* 


informers was the eighth part of the criminal’s 
As to the nobles, although the re- 


< appeared credible to some of them, either 


1-5 


cause they knew of the plot beforehand, or 
because they wished it might be true; however, 


they concealed not only the joy they had atthe 
relation of it, but that they had heard any thing 
atall about it. These last acted so out of the 


fear they had, that if the report proved false, 


they should be punished, for having so soon let 


-men know their minds. 


But those that knew 
Caius was dead, because they were partners 


_ with the conspirators, they concealed all still 





more cautiously, as not knowing one another’s 
minds; and fearing lest they should speak of it 
to some of those to whom the continuance of 


_ tyranny was advantageous; and, if Caius should 


against, and punished. And another report | 


prove to be alive, they might be informed 


went about, that although Caius had been 
wounded indeed, yet was not he dead, but alive, 
and under the physicians’ hands. Nor was 





-any one looked upon by another as faithful 


enough to be trusted, and to whom any one 


_ would open his mind; for he was either a 


F 
| 

' 
i 





friend to Caius, and therefore suspected to fa- 
vor his tyranny, or he was one that hated him 
who therefore might be suspected to deserve 
the less credit, because of his ill will to him. 
Nay, it was said by some, (and this indeed it 
was that deprived the nobility of their hopes, 
and made them sad,) that Caius was in a condi- 
tion to despise the dangers he had been in, and 


accusers, and of the judges. 

17. But now a multitude of Germans had 
surrounded the theatre, with their swords 
drawn; all the spectators looked for nothing 
but death, and at every one’s coming in, a fear 
seized upon them, as if they were to be cut in 
pieces immediately; and in great distress they 
were, as neither having courage enough to ga 
out of the theatre, nor believing themselves 
safe from dangers if they tarried there. And 
when the Germans came upon them, the. ery 
was so great, that the theatre rang again with the 
entreaties of the spectators to the soldiers: 
pleading that they were entirely ignorant of 
every thing that related to such seditions, and 
that if there were any sedition raised, they 
knew nothing of it; they therefore begged that 
they would spare them, and not punish those 
that had not the least hand in such bold crimes 
as belonged to other persons, while they ne- 
glected to search after such as had really done 
whatsoever it be that hath been done. Thus 
did these people appeal to God, and deplore 
their infelicity with shedding of tears, and 
beating their faces, and said every thmg that 
the most imminent danger, and the utmost 
concern for their lives, could dictate to them. 
This broke the fury of the soldiers, and made 
them repent of what they minded to do to the 
spectators, which would have been the greatest 
instance of cruelty. And so it appeared to 
even these savages, when they had once fixed 
the heads of those that were slain with Aspre- 
nas upon the altar; at which sight the specta- 
tors were sorely afflicted, both upon the con- 
sideration of the dignity of the persons, and 
out of a commiseration of their sufferings; 
nay, indeed, they were almost in as great dis- 
order at the prospect of the danger themselves 
were in, seeing it was still uncertain whether 
they should entirely escape the like calamity 
Whence it was, that such as thoroughly and 
justly hated Caius, could yet noway enjoy the 
pleasure of his death, because they were them- 
selves in jeopardy of perishing together with 
him, nor had they hitherto any firm assurance 
of surviving. 

18. There was at this time one Euarstns 
Arruntius, a public crier in the market, and 
therefore of a strong and audible voice, who 
vied in wealth with the richest of the Romans, 
and was able to do what he pleased in the city, 
both then and afterward. This man put him- 
self into the most mournful habit he could, 










took no care of healing his wounds, but was 
) gotten away into the market-place, and, bloody 
a8 he was, was making a harangue to the peo- 
‘ple. And these were the conjectured reports 
. of those that were so unreasonable as to endea- 
_ Vor to raise tumults, which they turned differ- 
} ent ways, according to the opinions of the 
| hearers. Yet did they mot leave their seats, for 
y fear of being accused, if they should go out 
) before the rest; for they should not be sentenced 
y accurding to the real intention with which they 


although he had a greater hatred against Caius 
than any one else; his fear and his wise contriv- 
ance to gain his safety taught him so to do, and 
prevailed over his present pleasure; so he put 
on such a mournful dress as he would have 
done had he lost his dearest friend in the world, 
this man came into the theatre, and informea 
them of the death of Caius, and by this means 
put an end to that state of ignorance the men 


had been in. penulus also went round about 
the pillars, and called out to the Germans, as 
 * Te rewards proposed by the Roman laws to informers | here, and sometimes a fourth part, as Spanheim assures ua 
' were sumtimes an eighth pait of the crimmal’s goods, as ' from Suetonius and Tacitus. 


jo’ 


470 


did the tribunes with hia, bidding them put 
up their sworus, and telling them that Caius 
was dead. And this proclamation it was, 
plainly, which saved those that were collected 
together in the theatre, and all the rest who 
any way met the Germans; for, while they had 
hopes that Caius had still any breath in him, 
they abstained from no sort of mischief; and 
such an abundant kindness they still had for 
Caius, that they would willingly have prevent- 
ed the plot against him, and procured his es- 
cape from so sad a misfortune, at the expense 
of their own lives, But they now left off the 
warm zeal they had to punish his enemies, now 
they were fully satisfied that Caius was dead, 
heca ise it was now in vain for them to show 
their zeal and kindness to him, when he that 
should reward them was perished. _ They were 
also afraid that they should he punished by the 
senate, if they should go on in doing such in- 
juries, that is, in case the authority of the su- 
preme governor should revert to them. And 
thus at length a stop was put, though not with- 
out difficulty, to that rage, which possessed the 
Germans on account of Caius’s death. 

19. But Cherea was so much afraid for Mi- 
aucianus, lest he should light upon the Ger- 
mans, now they were in their fury, that he 
went and spoke to every one of the soldiers, 
and prayed them to take care of his preserva- 
tion, and made himself great inquiry about him, 
lest he should have been slain. And for Cle- 
ment, he let Minucianus go when he was 
brought to him, and, with many other of the 
senators, affirmed the action was right, and 
commended the virtue of those that contrived 
it, and had courage enough to execute it; and 
said, that “tyrants do indeed please themselves, 
and look big for a while, upon having the pow- 
er to act unjustly; but do not however go hap- 
pily out of the world, because they are hated 
by the virtuous; and that Caius, together with 
all his unhappiness, was become a conspirator 
against hunself, before these other men who 
attacked him dil so; and by becoming intolera- 
ble, in setting aside the wise provision the 
laws had made, had taught his dearest friends 
to treat him as an enemy; insomuch that al- 


though in common discourse these conspira- | 


tors were those that slew Caius, yet, that in 
reality, he lies now dead as perishing ky his 
own self.” 

20. Now by this time the people in the thea- 
tre were arisen from their seats, and those that 
were within made a very great disturbance; 
the cause of which was this, that the specta- 


tors. were too hasty in getting away. There | 


who hurried | \ PRC 
| consultations, and they executed the same im 


| mediately. ) 
|upon suddenly by the soldiery But Cneas 


was also one Alcyon, a physician, 
away, as if to cure those that were wounded, 
and under that pretence, he sent those that 
were with him to fetch what things were ne- 
cessary for the healing of those wounded per- 
sons, but in reality, to get them clear of the pre- 
gent dangers they were in. 
during this interval, had met, and the people 
also assembled together in the accustomed form, 
and were both employed in searching after the 
murderers of Caius. The people did it very 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


|Sentius Saturninus, although he understoo 
that Claudivs was seized, and that he intendé 


Now the senate, | 





| eh, xi. sect. 1, Seutiks Saturninus, and Pomyonius Sec 
| dus, as Spanheim noces hvre. 






zealously, but the senate im appearance t 
for there was present Valerius of Asia, one that 
had been consul; this man went to the people 
as they were in disorder, and very uneasy that 
they could not yet discover who they were that 
murdered the emperor; he was then earnestly 
asked by them all, “who it was that had done 
it.” He replied, “I wish I had been the man,” 
The consuls* also published an edict wherein 
they accused Caius, and gave order to the peo 
ple then got together, and to the soldiers, to 
home, and gave the people hopes of the abate- 
ment of the oppressions they lay under; and 
promised the soldiers if they lay quiet as they 
used to do, and would not go abroad to do mis- 
chief unjustly, that they would bestow rewards 
upon them; for there was reason to fear lest 
the city might suffer harm by their wild and 
ungovernable behavior, if they should once 
betake themselves to spoil the citizens, or plun- | 
der the temples. And now the whole multi- | 
tude of the senators were assembled together, 
and especially those that had conspired to take 
away the life of Caius, who put on at this tims 
an air of great assurance, and appeared with | 
great magnanimity, as if the administration of | 
the public affairs were already devolved upon 
them. 


CHAPTER II. 


How the Senators dete~mined to restore the de 
mocracy; but the soldiers sere or preserving 
the monarchy. Concerning the slaughter cf 
Caus’s wife and daughter. A character of — 
Caius’s morals. | 
§ 1. When the public affairs were in this” 

posture, Claudius was on the sudden hurried | 

away out of his house: for the soldiers had ad 


meeting together, and when they had debated — 
about what was to be done, they saw that a 
democracy was incapable of managing suck a 
vast weight of public affairs, and that if it 
should be set up, it would not be for their ad- 
vantage; and in case any one of those already 
in the government should obtain the supreme 
power, it would in all respects be to their grief, 
if they were not assisting to him in his 

vancement: that it would therefore be right for 
them, while the public affairs were unsettled, 
to choose Claudius emperor, who was uncle’ 
the deceased Caius, and of a superior dignity 
and worth to every one of those that were as- 
sembled tegether in the senate, both on account 
of the virtues of his ancestors, and of t 
learning he had acquired by his education, ané 
who if once settled in the empire, would re 
ward them according to their deserts, and be 
stow largesses upon them. ‘These were theif 





















Claudius was, therefore, seized 


to claim the government, unwillingly indee 
in appearance, but in reality by his own tm 


* These consuls are named ia the wers of the Jews, >. a 


~ 


Qrae ssecen of the fi 
mer of them is set down in the nex* chanter, sect 2 


BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER II. 


consent, stood up in the senate, and, without 
being dismayed, made an exhortatory oration 
to them, and such a one indeed as was fit for 
men of freedom and generosity, and spoke 
thus: 

2 “Although it be a thing incredible, O Ro- 
mans, because of the great length of time, that 
so unexpected an event hath happened, yet are 
*ye now in possession of liberty. How long in- 
deed this will last is uncertain, and lies at the 
disposal of the gods, whose grant it is; yet such 
it is ass sufficient to make us rejoice, and be 
happy for the present, although we may soon be 
deprived of it; for one hour is sufficient to 
those that are exercised in virtue, wherein we 
may live with a mind accountable to ourselves, 
in our own country, now free, and governed 
by such laws as this country once flourished 
under. As tor myself, | cannot remember our 
former time of liberty, as being born after it 
was gone; but | am beyond measure filled with 
joy at the thoughts of our present freedom. I 
also esteem those that were born and bred up 
in that our former liberty, happy men, and that 
those men are worthy of no less esteem than 
the gods themselves, who have given us a taste 
of it in this age; and I heartily wish, that this 
quiet enjoyment of it, which we have at pre- 
sent, might continue to all ages. However, 
this single day may suffice for our youth, as 
well as for us that are in years. It will seem 
an age to our old men, if they might die du- 
ring its hapwy duration; it may also be for the 
instruction of the younger sort, what kind of 
virtue those men, from whose loins we are de- 
rived, were exercised in. As for ourselves, 
our business is, during the space of time, to 
live virtuously, than which nothing can be more 
to our advantage; which course of virtue it is 
‘alone that can preserve our liberty; for, as to 
our ancient state, I have heard of it by the rela- 
tion of others, but as to our later state, during 
my lifetime, I have known it by experience, 
and I learned thereby what mischiefs tyrannies 
have brought upon this commonwealth, dis- 
couraging all virtue, and depriving persons of 
magnanimity of their liberty, and proving the 
teachers of flattery and slavish fear, because it 
leaves the public administration not to be go- 
verned hy wise laws, but by the humor of those 
that govern. For since Julius Cesar took it 
into his head to dissolve our democracy, and 
by overbearing the regular system of our laws 
to bring disorders into our administr ation, and 
to get above right and justice, and to be aslave 
to hie own inclinations, there is no kind of 
misery but what hath tended to the subver- 
sion of this city; while all those that have suc- 
ceeded him have striven one with another to 
overthrow the ancient laws of their country, 
and have left it destitute of such citizens as 
were of generous principles because they 
_thought it tended to their safety to have vicious 
“men to conyerse withall; and not only to break 
the spirits of those that were best esteemed for 


-» their vrtue «it to resolve upon their utter de- 


struction. Of all which emperors, who have 
heen many in number, and who laid upon us 


4 
insufferable hardships during the tines of the 
government, this Caius, who hath been slain to- 
day, hath brought more terrible calamities upon 
us than did all the rest, not only by exercising 
his ungoverned rage upon his fellow-citizeng 
but also upon his kindred and friends, an@ 
alike upon all others, and by inflicting still great- 
er miseries upon them, as punishments, which 
they never deserved, he being equally furious 
against men and against the gods. For tyrante 
are not content to gain their sweet pleasure 
and this by acting injuriously, and in the vexa- 
tion they bring both upon men’s estates and 
their wives; but they look upon that to be their 
principal advantage, when they can utterly 
overthrow the entire families of their enemies; 
while all lovers of liberty are the enemies of 
tyranny. Nor can those that patiently endure 
what miseries they bring on them, gain their 
friendship; for as they are conscious of the 
abundant mischiefs they have brought on these 
men, and how magnanimously they have borne 
their hard fortunes, they cannot but be sensible 
what evils they have done, and thence only de- 
pend on security from what they are suspi- 
cious of, if it may be in their power to take 
them quite out of the world. Since, then, we 
are now gotten clear of such great misfortunes, 
and are only accountable to one another, (which 
form of government affords us the best assu- 
rance of our present concord, and promises us 
the best security from evil designs, and will be 
most for our own glory in settling the city in 
good order,) you ought every one of you in 
particular to make provision for his own, and 
in general for the public utility; or on the coa- 
trary, they may declare their dissent to such 
things as have been proposed, and this with- 
out any hazard of danger to come upon thein, 
because they have now no lord set over thetn, 
who, without fear of punishment, could do 
mischief to the city, and bad an uncontrollable 
power to take off those that freely Ceclare their 
opinions. Nor hasany thing so much contribu- 
ted to this increase of tyranny of late as sloth, 
and a timorous forbearance of contradicting 
the emperor’s will; while men had an over 
great inclination to the sweetness of peace, and 
had learned to live like slaves; and as many of 
us as either heard of intolerable calamities that 
happened ata distance from us, or saw the 
miseries that were near us, out of the dread of 
dying virtuously, endured a death jomed with 
the utmost infamy. We ought, then, in the 
first place, to decree the greatest honors we are 
able to those that have taken off the tyrant, es 
pecially to Cherea Cassius; for this one man, 
with the assistance of the gods, hath by his 
counsel, and by his actions, been the procurer of 
our liberty. Nor ought we to forget him now 
we have recovered our liberty, who, under the 
foregoing tyranny, took counsel beforehand, 
and beforehand hazarded himself for our lib- 
erties, but ought to decree him proper honors, 
and thereby freely declare, that he from the 
beginning acted with our approbation And 
certainly “it is a very excellent thing, and what 
becomes freemen. to requite their benefactors 


472 


as this man hath been a benefactor to us all, 
though not at all like Cassius and Brutus, who 
slew Caius Julius (Cesar;] for those men laid 
the foundations of sedition and civil war in 
our city, but this man, together with hisslaughter 
of the tyrant, hath set our city.free from all those 
sad miseries which arose from the tyranny.”* 

3. And this was the purport of Sentiugs’s 
eration, which was received with pleasure by 
the senators, and: by as many of the equestrian 
order as were present. And now one Trebel- 
lius Maximus rose up hastily, and took off 
Sentius’s finger a ring, which had a stone, with 
the image of Caius engraven upon it, and which 
in his zeal in speaking, and his earnestness in 
doing what he was about, as it was supposed, 
he had forgotten to take off himself. This 
sculpture was broken immediately. But, as it 
was now far in the night, Cherea demanded 
of the consuls the watchword, who gave him 
this word—Liberty. These facts were the sub- 
jects of admiration to themselves, and almost 
meredible; for it was a hundred years} since 
the democracy had been laid aside, when this 

iving the watchword returned to the consuls; 
for, before the city was subject to tyrants, they 
were the commanders of the soldiers. But, 
when Cherea had received that watchword, he 
delivered it to those who were on the senate’s 
side, which were four regiments, who esteemed 
the government without emperors to be prefer- 
able to tyranny. So these went away with 
their tribunes. The people also now departed 
very joyful, full of hope and of courage, as 
having recovered their former democracy, and 
were no longer under an emperor, and Cherea 
was in very great esteem with them. 

4. And now Cherea was very uneasy that 
Caius’s daughter and wife were still alive, and 
that all his family did not perish with him, since 
whosoever was left of them must be left for the 
ruin of the city and of the laws. Moreover, 
in order to finish this matter with the utmost 
zeal, and in order to satisfy his hatred of Caius, 
he sent Julius Lupus, one of the tribunes, to 
kill Caius’s wife and daughter. They propos- 
ed this office to Lupus, as to a kinsman of Cle- 
ment, that he might be so far a partaker of this 
murder of the tyrant, and might rejoice in the 
virtue of having assisted his fellow-citizens, 
and that he might appear to have been a par- 
taker with those that were first in their designs 
against him. Yet did this action appear to 
some of the conspirators to be too cruel, as to 
this using such severity to a woman, because 
Caits did more indulge his own ill nature, than 
use her advice in all that he did; from which 
Hl nature it was that the city was in such a des- 

* In this oration of Sentius Saturninus, we may see the 
great value virtuous men put upon public liberty, and the sad 
misery they underwent, while they were tyrannized over by 
wach emperors as Caius; see Josephus’s own short but pithy 
reflections at the end of the chapter: “So difficult,” says he, 
“4t is for those to obtain the virtue that is necessary to a wise 


man, who have the absolute power to do what they please 
without control.’ 


t Hence we learn that, in the opinion of Saturninus, the 
sovereign authority of the consuls and senate had been taken 
away just 100 years before the death of Caius, A. D. 41, or 
im the 60th year before the Christian era, when the first tri- 
emvirate began under Cesar Pompey, and Crassus. 


a | 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


perate condition with the miseries that were 
brought on it, and the flower of the city was 
destroyed. But others accused her of givin 
her consent to these things: nay, they aserib 
all that Caius had done to her as the cause of it, 
and said she had given a potion to Caius, which 
had made him obnoxious to her, and had tied 
him down to love her by such evil methods 
insomuch that she, having rendered him dis- 
tracted, was become the author of all the mis 
chiefs that had befallen the Romans, and that 


habitable world which was subject to them. © 


So that at length it was determined that she 
must die; nor could those of the contrary opi- 
nion at all prevail to have her saved: and Lu- 
pus was sent accordingly. 
delay made in executing what he went about, 
but he was subservient to those that sent him 
on the first opportunity, as desirous to be no- 
way blameable in what might be done for the 
advantage of the people. So when he was 
come into the palace, he found Cesonia, who 
was Caius’s wife, lying by her hushand’s dead 


body, which also lay down on the ground, and 


destitute of all such things as the law allows 
to the dead, and all over herself besmeared with 
the blood of her husband’s wounds, and _ be- 
wailing the great affliction she was under, her 
daughter lying by her also: and nothing else 
was heard in these her circumstances, but her 
complaint of Caius, as if he had not regarded 
what she had often told him of beforehand; 
which words of hers were taken in a different 
sense even at that time, and are now esteemed 
equally ambiguous by those that hear of them 
and are still interpreted according to the dif- 
ferent inclinations of people. Now some said 
that the words denoted, that she had advised 


ves 


* 
¥ 


ED 


\ 


Nor was there any | 


him to leave off his mad behavior and his bar-_ 


barous cruelty to the citizens, and to govern the 
public with moderation and virtue, lest he 
should perish by the same way, upon their using 
him as he had used them. But some said, that, 
as certain words had passed concerning the 


conspirators, she desired Caius to make no de- 


lay, but immediately to put them all to death, 
and this whether they were guilty or not, and 
that thereby he would be out of the fear of 
any danger; and that this was whatshe reproach- 
ed him for, when she advised him so to do; but 
he was too slow and tender inthe matter. And 
this was what Cesonia said, and what the opi- 
nions of men were about it. But, when she saw 


Lupus approach, she showed him Caius’s dead R. 


body, and persuaded him to come nearer with 
lamentation and tears: and as she perceived 


that Lupus was in disorder, and approached 


her in order to execute some design disagreea- 
ble to himself, she was well aware for what pur- 
pose he came, and stretched out her naked 
throat, and that very cheerfully to him, bewail 


ing her case, like one utterly despairing of her — 


life, and bidding him not to boggle at finishing 
the tragedy they had resolved upon relating to 
her. Soshe boldly received her death’s wound 
at the hand of Lupus, as did the daughter after 
her. So Lupus made haste to inform Cherea 
of what he had done 


bs Dee At 


; 





% 


a 


_ 5. This was the end of Caius, after he had 
ed feur years within four months. He 
was, even before he came to be emperor, ill 


natured, and one that had arrived at the utmost | 
pitch of wickedness; a slave to his pleasures, | 


and a lover of calumny; greatly affected by 
every terrible accident, and on that account of 
a very murderous disposition, where he durst 
show it. He enjoyed his exhorbitant power to 
this only purpose, to injure those who least de- 
served it, with unreasonable insolence, and got 
his wealth by murder and injustice. He labor- 
ed to appear above regarding either what was 
divine or agreeable to the laws, but was aslave 
to the commendations of the populace; and 
whatsoever the laws determined to be shameful, 
and punished, that he esteemed more honorable 
than what was virtuous. He was unmindful 
of his friends, how intimate soever, and though 
they were persons of the highest character; and, 
if he was once angry at any of them, he would 
inflict punishment upon them on the smallest oc- 
easions, and esteemed every man that endeavor- 
ed to lead a virtuous life hisenemy. And what- 
goever he commanded, he would not admit of 
any contradiction to his inclination: whence it 
was that he had criminal conversation with his 
own sister;* from which occasion chiefly it was 
slso, that a bitter hatred first sprang up against 
him among the citizens, that sort of incest not 
having been known of a long time; and so this 
provoked men to distrust him, and to hate him 
that was guilty of it. 
royal work that he ever did, which might be 
for the present and for future ages, nobody can 
name any such, but only the haven that he 
made about Rhegium and Sicily, for the recep- 
tion of the ships that brought corn from Egypt; 
which was indeed a work without dispute very 
t in itself, and of very great advantage to 

e navigation. Yet was not this work brought 
to perfection by him, but was the one-half of it 
left imperfect, by reason of his want of appli- 
cation to it; the cause of which was this, that 
he emp/oyed his studies about useless matters, 
and that by spending his money upon such 
pleasur's as concerned no one’s benefit but his 
own, he could not exert his liberality in things 
that wre undeniably of great consequence. 
Otherw se he was an excellent orator, and tho- 
roughly acquainted with the Greek tongue, as 
well as vith his own country or Roman lan- 
guage. He was also able, off hand and readily, 
to give a aswers to compositions made by others, 
of consi lerable length and accuracy. He was 
also more skilful in persuading others to very 
great thiags than any one else, and this from a 
natural affability of temper, which had been 
improved by much exercise and painstaking; 
for as he was the grandson} of the brother of 


* Spanheim here notes from Suetonius, that the name of 
Caius’s sister, with whom he was guilty of incest, was Dru- 
‘silla; and that Suetonius adds, he was guilty of the same 

€rime with all his sisters also. He notes farther that Sue- 
‘tonius omits the mention of the haven for ships, which our 
‘author esteems the only public work for the good of the pre- 
(sent and future ages which Caivs left behind him, though in 
‘an imperfect condition. 

4 This Caius was the son of that excellent person Ger- 
‘manicus, who was the son of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius 


xe ; 
AL 


BOOK XIX.-—CHAPTER ITI. 


And for any great or | 


EY) 


| Tiberius, whose successor he was; this was a 
strong inducement to his acquiring of learnin 

because Tiberius aspired after the highest pite 

of that sort of reputation; and Caius aspires 
after the like glory for eloquence, being indue- 
ed thereto by the letters of his kinsman and his 
emperor. He was also among the first rank of 
his own citizens. But the advantages he re- 
ceived from his learning did not countervail 
the mischief he brought upon himseif in the 
exercise ef his authority; so difficult it is for 
those to obtain the virtue that is necessary for 
a wise man, who have the absolute power to 
do what they please without control. At the 
first he got himself such friends as were in all 
respects the most worthy, and was greatly be- 
loved by them, while he imitated their zeaious 
application to the learning and to the gloriou. 
actions of the best men; but when he becamn 
insolent towards them, they laid aside the kind- 
ness they had for him, and began to hate him, 
from which hatred came that plot which they 
raised against him, and wherein he perished. 


CHAPTER III. 
How Claudius was seized upon, and brought 
out of his house, and brought to the camp, and 
how the senate sent an embassage to him. 


§ 1. Now Claudius, as I said above, went 
out of that way along which Caius was gone; 
and, as the family was in a mighty disorder 
upon the sad accident of the murder of Caius, 
he was in great distress how to save himself, 
and was found to have hidden himself in a cer- 
tain narrow place,* though he had no other 
oceasion for suspicion of any dangers, besides 
the dignity of his birth; for, while he was a 
private man, he behaved himself with modera- 
tion, and was contented with his present for- 
| tune, applying himself to learning, and espe- 
cially to that of the Greeks, and keeping him- 
self entirely clear from every thing that might 
| bring on any disturbance. But as at this time 
| the multitude were under a consternation, and 
the whole palace was full of the soldiers’ mad- 
ness, and the very emperor’s guards seemed 
under the like fear and disorder with private 
persons, the band called pretorian, which was 
the purest part of the army, was in consulta- 
| tion what was to be done at this juncture 
| Now all those that were at this consultation, 
had little regard to the punishment Caius had 
suffered, because he justly deserved such hia 
fortune; but they were rather considering their 
own circumstances, how they might take the 
best care of themselves, especially while the 
Germans were busy in punishing the murder- 
ers of Caius; which yet was rather done te 
gratify their own savage temper, than for the 
| good of the public: all which things disturbee 
| Claudius, who was afraid of his ~wn safety, 

and this particularly because he saw the heads 
of Asprenas and his partners carried about 
His station had been on a certain elevated place, 
whither a few steps led him, and whither he 
- retired in the dark by himself. But when 














* This first place Claudius came to was inhabited, and 
called Hermeum, as Spanheim here informs us from Suete 
nius in Claud. chap. x. 


474 


Gratus, who was one of the soldiers that be- 
longed to the palace, saw him, but did not well 
know by his countenance who he was because 
it was dark, though he could well judge that it 
was aman who was privately there on some 
design, he came nearer to him,and when Clau- 
dius desired that he would retire, he discovered 
who he was, and ovrned him to be Claudius. 
So he said to his followers, “This is a Ger- 
manicus;* come on, let us choose him for our 
emperor ” Hut when Claudius saw that they 
were making preparations for taking him away 
by force, and was afraid they would kill him, 
as they had killed Caius, he besought them to 
spare him, putting them in mind how quietly 
he had demeaned himself, and that he was un- 
acquainted with what had been done. Here- 
upon Gratus smiled upon him, and took him 
py the right hand, and said, “Leave off, sir, 
these low thoughts of saving yourself, while 
you oughtto have greater thoughts, even of 
obtaining the empire, which the gods, out of 
their concern for the habitable world, by tak- 
ing Caius out of the way, committo thy virtu- 
ous conduct. Go to, therefore, and accept of 
the throne of thy ancestors.” So they took 
him up and carried him, because he was not 
then able to go on foot, such was his dread and 
his joy at what was told him. 

2. Now there was already gathered together 
about Gratus a great number of the guards; 
and when they saw Claudius carried off, they 
looked with a sad countenance, as supposing 
that he was carried to execution for the mis- 
chiefs that had been lately done; while yet they 
thought him a man who never meddled with 
public affairs all his life long; and one that had 
met with no contemptible dangers under the 
reign of Caius; and some of them thought it 
reasonable that the consuls should take cogniz- 
ance of these matters; and, as still more and 
more of the soldiery got together, the crowd 
about hin-ran away, and Claudius could hardly 
go on, his body was then so weak; and those 
who carried his sedan, upon an inquiry that 
was made about his being carried off, ran away 
and saved themselves, as despairing of their 
lord’s preservation. But when they were come 
into the large court of the palace, (which, as 
the report goes about it, was inhabited first of | 
all the parts of the city of Rome,) and had just 
reached the public treasury many more soldiers 
came about him, as glad to see Claudius’s face 
and thought it exceeding right to make him 
emperor, on account of their kindness for Ger- 
manicus, who was his brother, and had left be- 
hind him a vast reputation among all that were 
acquainted with him. ‘They reflected also on 
the covetous temper of the leading men of the 
senate, and what great errors they had been 
guilty of, when the senate had the government 
formerly; they also considered the impossibility 
of such an undertaking, as also what dangers 
they should be in, if the government should 
come to a single person, and that such a one 


* How Claudius, another son of Drusus, which Drusus 
was the father of Germanicus, could be here himself called 
Sermanicus, Suetonius informs us, when he assures us that, 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. > a 








should possess it as they had no hand m a 
vancing, and not to Claudius, who would tak 
it as their grant, and as gained by their goo 
will to him, and would remember the favor 
they had done him, and would make thems 
sufficient recompense for the same. i 
3. These were the discourses the soldiers had 
one with another by themselves, and they com- 
municated them to all such as came unto them 
Now, those that inquired about this matter, 
willingly embraced the invitation that was m 
to them to join with the rest: so they carri 
Claudius into the camp, crowding about him 
as his guard, and encompassing him about, one 
chairman still succeeding another, that their 
vehement endeavors might not be hindered 
But as to the populace and senators, they disa- 
greed in their opinions. ‘The latter were very 
desirous to recover their former dignity, fe 
were zealous to get clear of the slavery tliat 
had been brought on them by the injurious treat- 
ment of the tyrants, which the present oppor- 
tunity afforded them; but for the people, who 
were envious against them, and knew that the 
emperors were capable of curbing their covet 
ous temper, and were a refuge from them, 
they were very glad that Claudius had been 
seized upon, and brought to them, and thought 
that if Claudius was made emperor, he wow 
prevent a civil war, such as there was in the 
days of Pompey. But, when the senate knew 
that Claudius was brought into the camp uy 
the soldiers, they sent to him those of thei 
body which had the best character for th 
virtues, that they might inform him, “that he 
ought to do nothing by violence, in order to 
gain the government: that he who was a sif- 
gle person, one either already, or hereafter to 
a member of their body, ought to yield tot 
senate, which consisted of so great a number 
that he ought to let the law take place in the 
disposal of all that related to the public order, 
and to remember how greatly the former ty 
rants had aftlicted their city; and what danger 
both he and they had eseaped under Caius, and 
that he ought not to hate the heavy burden of 
tyranny, when the injury is done by others 
while he did himself wilfully treat his country 
after a mad and insolent manner; that if Ii 
would comply with them, and demonstrate thé 
his firm resolution was to live quietly and ¥ 
tuously, he would have the greatest honors de 
creed to him that a free people could -bestov 
and by subjecting himself to the law, woul 
obtain this branch of commendation, that bh 
acted like a man of virtue, both as a ruler and 
subject; but that if he would act foolishly, am 
learn no wisdom by Caius’s death, they wou 
not permit him to go on; that a great part of th 
army was got together for them, with plenty a 
weapons, and a great number of slaves, whic 
they could make use of: that good hope was 
great matter in such cases, as was also goo 
fortune, and that the gods would never ass 
any others but those that undertook to act w. 




















by a decree of the senate, the surname of Germanicus, W 
bestowed upon Drusus, and his posterity also. In U'au 
ch. i. 


BOOK XIX. CHAPTER IV 


vinnie and goodness, who can be no other than 
such as fight for the liberty of their country.” 
4, Now the ambassadors, Veranius and Broc- 
chus, who were both of them tribunes of the 
people, made this speech to Claudius, and fall- 
mg down upon their knees, they begged of 
him, that he would not throw the city into wars 
and misfortunes; but when they saw what a 
multitude of soldiers encompassed and guard- 
ed Claudius, and that the forces that were with 
the consuls were, in comparison of them, per- 
fectly inconsiderable, they added, that “if he 
did desire the government, he should accept 
of it as given by the senate; that he would 
rosper better, and be happier, if he came to 
it, not by the injustice, but by the good will of 
those that would bestow it upon him. 


CHAPTER IV. 

What things king Agrippa did for Claudius, and 
how Claudius, when he had taken the govern- 
ment, commanded the murderers of Carus to be 
slain. 


§ 1. Now Claudius, though he was sensible 
after what an insolent manner the senate had 
sent to him, yet did he, according to their ad- 
vice, behave himself for the present with mode- 
ration; but not so far that he could not recov- 
er himself out of his fright: so he was encou- 
raged [to claim the government] partly by the 
boldness of the soldiers, and partly by the per- 
suasion of king Agrippa, who exhorted him 
not to let such a dominion slip out of his 
hands, when it came thus to him of its own 
accord. Now, this king Agrippa, with rela- 
‘ion to Caius, did what became one that had 
been so much honored by him; for he embrac- 
3d Caius’s body after he was dead, and laid it 
upon a bed, and covered it as well as he could, 
and went out to the guards, and told them that 
Caius was still alive; but he said that they 
should call for physicians, since he was very 
ill of his wounds. But when he had learned 
that Claudius was carried away violently by 
the soldiers, he rushed through the crowd to 
him, and when he found that he was in dis- 
order, and ready to resign up the government 
to the senate, he encouraged him, and desired 
him to keep the government; but when he had 
gaid this to Claudius, he retired home. And, 
upon the senate’s sending for him, he anointed 
his head with ointment, as if he had lately 
companied with his wife, and had dismissed 
her, and then came to them: he also asked of 
the senators what Claudius did; who told him 
the present state of affairs, and then asked his 
opinion about the settlement of the public. 
He told them in words, that he was ready to 
lose his life for the honor of the senate, but 
desired them to consider what was for their’ 
adva tage, without any regard to what was | 
most agreeable to them; for that those who 
grasp at government, will stand in need of 
weapons, and soldiers to guard them, unless 
they wil! set up without any preparation for it, 
and so fa}l into danger. And when the senate | 
repued, that “they would bring him weapons | 
in abuzdante, and money, and that as to an! 





§73 


army, a part of it was already collected togeth- 
er for them, and they would raise a larger one 
by giving the slaves their liberty.” Agrippa 
made answer, “O senators! may you be able te 
compass what you have a mind to; yet will I 
immediately tell you my thoughts, because they 
tend to your preservation: take notice, then, 
that the army which will fight for Claudius 
hath been long exercised in warlike affairs: but 
our army will be no better than a rude multi 
tude of raw men, and those such as have been 
unexpectedly made free from slavery, and un- 
governable; we must then fight against those 
that are skilful in war, with men who know 
not so much as how to draw their swords. Se 
that my opinion is, that we should send some 
persons to Claudius, to persuade him to lay 
down the government, and [ am ready to be 
one of your ambassadors,” 

2. Upon this speech of Agrippa, the senate 
complied with him, and he was sent amon 
others, and privately informed Claudius of the 


disorder the senate was in, and gave mstrue- 


tions to answer them in a somewhat command- 
ing strain, and as one invested with dignity 
and authority. Accordingly, Claudius said to 
the ambassadors, that “he did not wonder the 
senate had no mind to have an emperor over 
them, because they had been harassed by the 
barbarity of those that had formerly been at 
the head of their affairs; but that they rhould 
taste of an equitable government under hiin, 
and moderate times, while he should only he 
their ruler in name, but the authority sould 
be equally common to them all; and since he 
had passed through many and various scenes 
of life before their eyes, it would be good for 
them not to distrust him.” So the ambassa- 
dors, upon their hearing this his answer, were 
dismissed. But Claudius disconrsed with the 
army which was there gathered together, who 
took oaths that they would persis: in their fi- 
delity to him; upon which he gave the guards 
every man five thousand dracinne apiece,* and 
a proportional quantity to vheir captains, and 
promised to give the same to the rest of the 
armies wheresoever they were. 

3. And now the consuls called the senate to- 
gether into the temple of Jupiter the Conquer- 
or, while it was still night; but some of those 
senators concealed themselves in the city, be 
ing uncertain what to do, upon the hearing ¢ 
this summons, and some of them went out o 
the city to their own farms, as foreseeing whither 
the public affairs were going, and despairing 
of liberty; nay, these supposed it much better 
for them to be slaves without danger to them- 
selves, and to live a lazy and inactive life, than, 
by claiming the dignity of their forefathers, to 
run the hazard of their own safety. However, 
a hundred, and no more, were gotten together; 
and as they were in consultation about the pre- 


* This number of drachme# to be distributed to eachgprt- 
vate soldier, 5000 drachme, equal to 20,000 sesterces, or 
£161 sterling, seems much too large, and directly contradicts 
Suetonius, chap. x. who makes them in all but 15 sesterces, 
or2s.4d. Yet might Josephus have this number from Agnp- 
pa junior, though I doubt the thousands, or at least the hun- 
dreds, have been added by the transcribers, of which we 
have had several examples already in Josephus. 


476 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. - 


% 
7 


gent posture of affairs, a sudden clamor was| drew their swords, and took up their ensigns, 


made by the soldiers that were on their side, 
“desiring that the senate would choose them an 
emperor, and not bring the government into 
ruin by setting up a multitude of rulers.” So 
they fully declared themselves to be for the 
giving the government not to all, but to one; 
but they gave the senate leave to look out for a 
person worthy to be set over them, insomuch, 
that now the affairs of the senate were much 
worse than before; because they had not only 
failed in the recovery of their liberty, which 
they boasted themselves of, but were in dread 
of Claudius also, Yet were there those that 
hankered after the government, both on account 
of the dignity of their families, and that accru- 
ing to them by their marriages; for Marcus 
Minurianus was illustrious, both by his own 
nobility, and by his having married Julia, the 
sister of Caius, who accordingly was very 
ready to claim the government, although the 
consuls discouraged him, and made one delay 


after another in proposing it: that Minucianus 
also, who was one of Caius’s murderers, re- 
strained Valerius of Asia from thinking of such 
things; and a prodigious slaughter there had 
been, if Jeave had been given to these men to set 
up for themselves, and oppose Claudius. There 
were also a considerable number of gladiators 
besides, and of those soldiers who kept watch 
by night in the city, and rowers of ships, who 
all ran into the camp; insomuch, that of those 
who put in for the government, some left off 
their pretensions in order to spare the city, and 
others out of fear for their own persons. 

4, But as soon as ever it was day, Cherea, 
and those that were with him, came into the 
senate, and attempted to make speeches to the 
soldiers. However, the multitude of those 
soldiers, when they saw that they were mak- 
ing signals for silence with their hands, and 
were ready to begin to speak to them, grew tu- 
multuous, and would not let them speak at all 
because they were all zealous to be under a 
monarchy; and they demanded of the senate 
one for their ruler, as not enduring any longer 
delays; but the senate hesitated about either 
their own governing, or how they should them- 
selves be governed, while the soldiers would not 
admit them to govern, and the murderers of 
Caius would not permit the soldiers to dictate 
to them. When they were in these circum- 
stances, Cherea was not able to contain the an- 
ger he had, and promised, that if they desired 
an emperor, he would give them one, if any 
one would bring him the watchword from 
Eutychus. Now, this Eutychus was charioteer 
of the green-band faction, styled Prasine, and 
a great friend of Caius, who used to harass the 
soldiery with building stables for the horses, 
and spent his time in ignominious labors, which 
occasioned Cherea to reproach them with him, 
and to abuse them with much other scurrilous 
language; and told them, “he would bring them 
the nead of Claudius; and that it was an amaz- 
ing thing, that after their former madness, 
they should commit the government to a fool.” 
Yet were they not moved with his words, but 


Ss Ses 


and went to Claudius, to join in taking the oath — 
of fidelity to him. So the senate were left — 
without any body to defend them, and the very — 
consuls differed nothing from private persons — 
They* were also under consternation and sor- 
row, men not knowing what would become of 
them, because Claudius was very angry al 
them; so they fell to reproaching one another, 
and repented of what they had done At — 
which juncture Sabinus, one of Caius’s mur- — 
derers, threatened that he would sooner come \ 
into the midst of them and kill nimself, than 
consent to make Claudius emperor, and see 
slavery returning upon them; he also abused 
Cherea for loving his life too well, while he 
who was the first in his contempt of Caius, 
could think it a good thing to live, when, even 
by all that they had done for the recovery of 
their liberty, they found it impossible to do it. 
But Cherea said, he had no manner of doubt 
upon bim about killing -himself; that yet he 
would first sound the intention of Claudius be- 
fore he did it. 

5. These were the debates [about the senate] 
but in the camp every body was crowding on | 
all sides to pay their court to Claudius, and the 
other consul, Quintus Pomponius, was re 
proached by the soldiery, as having rather ex- 
horted the senate to recover their liberty; 
whereupon they drew their swords, and were 
going to assault him, and they had done it, if 
Claudius had not hindered them, who snatched 
the consul out of the danger he was in, and 
set him by him. But he did not receive that 
part of the senate which was with Quintus in 
the like honorable manner; nay, some of them 
received blows, and were thrust away as they 
came to salute Claudius; nay, Aponius went 
away wounded, and they were all in danger. - 
However, king Agrippa went up to Claudius, 
and desired he would treat the senators more — 
gently; for if any mischief should come to 
the senate, he would have no others over whom 
to rule. Claudius complied with him, and — 
called the senate together into the palace, and — 
was carried thither himself through the city, — 
while the soldiery conducted him, though this 
was to the great vexation of the multitude; for — 
Cherea and Sabinus, two of Caius’s murderers, — 
went in the fore-front of them, in an open — 
manner, while Pollio, whom Claudius a little — 
before had made captain of his guards, had — 
sent them an epistolary edict, to forbid them to — 
appear in public. Then did Claudius, upon — 
his coming to the palace, get his friends to — 
gether, and desired their svffrages about Che f 
rea, ‘They said, that the work he had done 
was a glorious one, but they accused him that 
he did it of perfidiousness, and thought @ 
just to inflict the punishment [of death] upon — 
him, to discountenance such actions for the 
time to come. So Cherea was led to his exe- 
cution, and Lupus, and many other Romane 
with him; now it is reported that Cherea bore — 
his calamity courageously, and this, not only 
by the firmness of his own behavior under it, 
but by the reproaches he laid upon Lupus 












i" y 
who fell into tears; for when Lupus had laid 


‘his garment aside and complained of the cold,* 


he said, that cold was never hurtful to Lupus, 


: 


“same to the place, he asked the soldier, who 
was to be their executioner, whether this office 


) 


‘ous did not meet with such good fortune in 


{i.e.a wolf.] And as a great many men went 
along with them to see the sight, when Cherea 


was what he was used to? or whether this was 
the first time of his using his sword in that 
manner, and desired him to bring him that very 
sword with which he himself slew Caius. So 
he was happily killed at one stroke. But Lu- 


gving out of the world, since he was timorous, 


-and had many blows levelied at his neck, be- 
‘cause he did not stretch it out boldly [as he 


ought to have done.] 

6. Now, a few days after this, as the parental 
solemnities were near at hand, the Roman 
multitude made their usual oblations to their 
several ghosts, and put portions into the fire, in 
honor of Cherea, and besought him to be mer- 


-ciful to them, and not continue his anger against 


‘ 


them for their ingratitude. And this was the 
end of the life that Cherea came to. But for 
Sabinus, although Claudius not only set him at 
liberty, but gave him leave to retain his former 


command in the army; yet did he think it 


would be unjust in him to fail of performing 
his obligations to his fellow-confederates; so 
he fell upon his. sword, and killed himself, 
the wound reaching up to the very hilt of the 
sword.+ 


CHAPTER V. 


How Claudius restored to Agrippa his grand- 
father’s kingdoms, and augmented his domi- 
nions; and how he published an edict in behalf 
of the Jews. 


§ 1. Now, when Claudius had taken out of 
the way all those soldiers whom he suspected, 
which he did immediately, he published an 
edict, and therein confirmed the kingdom to 


* This piercing cold, here complained of by Lupus, agrees 
well to the time of the year when Claudius began his reign; 
it being for certain about the months of November, Decem- 
ber, or January, and most probably a few days after Jan. 
@4th, and a few days before the Roman Parentalia. 

+ It is both here and elsewhere very remarkable, that the 


murderers of the vilest tyrants, who yet highly deserved to 


die, when those murderers were under oaths or other the 


like obligations of fidelity to them, were usually revenged, 
and the murderers were cut off themselves, and that after a 
remarkable manner; and this sometimes, as in the present 
ease, by those very persons who were not sorry for such 
murders, but got kingdoms by them. ‘The examples are very 
Bumerous both in sacred and profane histories, and seem 


general indications of divine vengeance on such murderers. 


or is it unworthy of remark, that such murderers of tyrants 


’ fo it usually on such ill principles, in such a cruel manner, 


‘aad as ready to involve the innocent with the guilty, which 
‘wss the case here, chap. i. sect. 14, and chap. ii. sect. 4, as 
justly deserved the divine vengeance upon them. Which 
seems to have been the case of Jehu also, when, besides the 
house of Ahab, for whose slaughter he had a commission 


_ fem God, without any such commission, any justice or com- 


miseration, he killed Ahab’s great nen, and acquaintances, 
and priests, and forty-two of the kindred of Ahaziah, 2 Kings 
‘x. 1I—14.; see Hos. i. 4. I do not mean here to condemn 
Ehud or Judith, or the like executioners of God’s vengeance 
on those wicked tyrants, who had unjustly oppressed God’s 


_ ®wn people under their theocracy; who, as they appear 


still to have had no selfish designs nor intentions to slay 
the innocent, so had they still a divine commission, or @ 
divine impulse, which was their commission for what they 


- did, Judg iii 15, 19, 20; Judith ix. 2; Test. Levi. sect. 5, in 
_ Authent. Ree © 312 see also p. 432. 


W 


i 


BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER V. 


47? 


Agrippa, which Caius had given him, and 
therein commended the king highly. He alse 
made an addition to it, of all that country over 
which Herod, who was his grandfather, haa 
reigned, that is, Judea and Samaria: and this 
he restored to him as due to his family. But 
for Abila,* of Lysanias, and all that lay at 
mount Libanus, he bestowed them upon him, 
as out of his own territories. He also made e 
league with Agrippa, confirmed by oaths, in 
the middle of the forum, in the city of Rome: 
he also took away from Antiochus that king- 
dom which he was possessed of, but gave him 
a certain part of Cilicia and Commegena: he 
also set Alexander Lysimachus, the alabarch, 
at liberty, who had been his old friend, and 
steward to his mother, Antonia, but had been 
imprisoned by Caius, whose son [Marcus] 
married Bernice, the daughter of Agrippa 
But when Marcus, Alexander’s son, was dead, 
who had married her when she was a virgin, 
Agrippa gave her in marriage to his brother 
Herod, and begged for him of Claudius the 
kingdom of Chalcis. 

2. Now, about this time, there was a sedition 
between the Jews and the Greeks, at the city 
of Alexandria; for, when Caius was dead, the 
nation of the Jews, which had been very much 
mortified under the reign of Caius, and redu. 
ced to very great distress by the people of Al- 
exandria, recovered itself, and immediately 
took up their arms to fight for themselves. Sc 
Claudius sent an order to the president of Kgypt 
to quiet that tumult: he also sent an edict, ai 
the request of king Agrippa and king Herod, 
both to Alexandria and to Syria, whose con- 
tents were as follows: “Tiberius Claudius Ce- 
sar Augustus Germanicus, high priest and tri- 
bune of the people, ordains thus: Since I am 
assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called 
Alexandrians, have been joint-inhabitants in 
the earliest times with the Alexandrians, and 
have obtained from their kings equal privile- 
ges with them, as is evident by the public re- 
cords that are in their possession, and the edicts 
themselves; and that after Alexandria had been 
subjected to our empire by Augustus, ‘their 
rights and privileges have been preserved by 
those presidents who have at divers times been 
sent thither; and that no dispute had been rais- 
ed about those rights and privileges, even when 
Aquila was governor of Alexandria; and that 
when the Jewish ethnarch was dead, Augus- 
tus did not prohibit the making such ethnarchs. 
as willing that all men should be so subject 
the Romans,] as to continue in the observation 
of their own customs, and not be forced to 
transgress the ancient rules of their own coun- 
try religion; but that, in the time of Caius, the 
Alexandrians became insolent towards the 


* Here St. Luke is in some measure confirmed, when he 
informs us, ch. iii. 1, that Lysanias was some time before che 
tetrarch of Abilene, whose capital was Abila; as he is farthes 
confirmed by Ptolemy, the great geographer, which Spanheim 
here observes, when he calls that city bila of Lysantus, 
see the note on b xvii. ch. xi. sect. 4,and Prid. at the yeara 
36 and 22. I esteem this principality to have belonged to 
the land of Canaan originally, to have been the burying-place 
of Abel, and referred to as such, Matt. xxiii. 35; Luke xi. 51, 
see Authent. Rec. part ii. p. 883—885. 


478 


Jews that were among them, which Caius, out 
of his great madness and want of good under- 
standing, reduced the nation of the Jews very 
‘ow, because they would not transgress the 
religious worship of their country, and call him 
a god. I will, therefore, that the nation of the 
Jews be not deprived of their rights and privi- 
leges, on account of the madness of Caius; but 
that those rights and privileges which they for- 
merly enjoyed, be preserved to them, and that 
they may continue in their own customs. And 
{ charge both parties to take very great care 
that no troubles may arise after the promulga- 
uon of this edict.” 

3 And such were the contents of this edict 
on behalf of the Jews that were sent to Alex- 
andria. But the edict that was sent into the 
ather parts of the habitable earth was this which 
follows: “Tiberius Claudius Czesar. Augustus 
Germanicus, high priest, tribune of the people, 
chosen consul the second time, ordains thus: 
Upon the petition of king Agrippa and king 
Herod, who are persons very dear to me, that 
I would grant the same rights and privileges 
should be preserved to the Jews which are in 
all the Roman empire, which I have granted 
to those of Alexandria, I very willingly comply 
therewith; and this graut I make not only for 
the sake of the petitioners, but as judging those 
Jews for whom I have been petitioned worthy 
of such a favor, on account of their fidelity 
and friendship to the Romans. I think it also 
very Just that no Grecian city should be de- 
prived of such rights and privileges, since they 
were preserved to them under the great Au- 

ustus. It will, therefore, be fit to permit the 
prtin who are in all the world under us, to 
keep their ancient customs, without being hin- 
dered so to do. And J do charge them also to 
use this my kindness to them with moderation, 
and not to show a contempt of the supersti- 
tious observances of other nations, but to keep 
their own laws only. And I will that this de- 
cree of mine be engraved on tables by the ma- 
gistrates of the cities and colonies, and muni- 
cipal places, both those within Italy, and those 
without it, both kings and governors, by the 
means of the ambassadors, and to bave them 
exposed to the public for full thirty days, in 
such a place,* whence it may plainly be read 
from the ground.” 


CHAPTER VI. 
What things were done by preps at Jerusa- 
lem, when he was returned back into Judea; 


sand what tt was that Petronius wrote to the 
inhabitants of Doris, in behalf of the Jews. 


§ 1. Now Claudius Cesar, by those decrees 
ef his which were sent to Alexandria, and to 
all the habitable earth, made known what opi- 
mion he had of the Jews. So he soon sent 
Agrippa away to take his kingdom, now he was 
adyanced to a more illustrious dignity than be- 

* This form was so known and frequent among the Ro- 
mans, as Dr. Hudson here tells us, from the great Selden, 
that it used to be thus represented at the bottom of their edicts 
by the initial letters only U. D. P. R. L. P. Unde De Plano 


e Legi Possit, “Whence it may plainly be read from the 
ground.” 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


2, ¥ ‘| 


fore, and sent letters to the presidents and pro 
curators of the provinces, that they should 
treat him very kindly. Accordingly he return 
ed in haste, as was likely he would, now he re- 
turned in so much greater prosperity than he 
had before. He also came to Jerusalem, and 
offered all the sacrifices that belonged to him, 
and omitted nothing which the law required;# 
on which account he ordained that many of 
the Nazarites should have their heads shorn, 
And for the golden chain which had heen 
given him by Caius, of equal weight with that 
iron chain wherewith his royal hands had been 
bound, he hung it up within the limits of the 
temple, over the treasury,} that it might be a 
memorial of the severe fate he had lain under, 
and a testimony of his change for the better; 
that it might be a demonstration how the great- 
est prosperity may have a fall, and that God 
sometimes raises up what is fallen down: for 
this chain, thus dedicated, afforded a document 
to all men, that king Agrippa had been once 
bound in a chain, for a small cause, but recoy- 
ered his former dignity again; and a little while 
afterward got out of his bonds, and was ad- 
vanced to be a more illustrious king than he was 
before. Whence men may understand that all 
that partake of human nature, how great so- 
ever they are, may fall; and that those that fall 
inay gain their former illustrious dignity again, 

2. And when Agrippa had entirely finished 
all the duties of the divine worship, be removed 
Theophilus, the son of Ananus, from the high 
priesthood, and bestowed that honor of bis on 
Simon the sou of Boethus, whose vame was 
also Cantheras, whose daughter king Herod 
married, as I have related above. Simon, 
therefore, had the [high] priesthood with his’ 
brethren, and with his father, in like manner 
as the sons of Simon, the son of Onias, who 
were three, had it formerly under the govern-— 
ment of the Macedonians, as we have related 
in a former book. 

3. When the king bad settled the high priest- 
hood after this manner, he returned the kind- 
ness which the inhabitants of Jerusalem had 
showed him; for he released them from the 
tax upon houses, every one of whom paid it 
before, thinking it a good thing to requite the 
tender affections of those that loved bim. He 
also made Silas the general of his forces, who 
was a man who had partaken with him in many 
of bis troubles. But after a very little while, 
the young men of Doris preferring a rash ate 
tempt before piety, and being naturally bold~ 
and insolent, carried a statue of Ceesar into a 
synagogue of the Jews, and erected it thera 


* Josephus shows both here and ch. vii. sect. 3 that he 
had a much greater opinion of king ippa I. than Simon 
the learned Rabbi, than the people of Caesarea and Seb 4 
chap. vii. sect. 4, and ch. ix. sect. 1, and indeed than an 
double dealing between the senate and Claudius, ch. iv. sect. _ 
2, than his slaughter of James, the brother of John, and his 
imprisonment of Peter, or his vainglorious behavior before 
he died, both in Acts xii, 1, 2, 3, and here, ch. iv. sect. 1, 
will justify or allow. Josephus’s character was prob 
taken from his son, Agrippa, jun. 

t This treasury chamber seems to have been the very if 
in which our Savior taught, and where the people offered 
their charity money for the repairs or other uses of the t 
ple. Mark xii. 41, &c.; Luke xxii. 1; John viii. 20. 







BOOK XIX.—CHAPTER Vn. 


Yhis procedure of theirs greatly provoked 
Agrippa; for it plainly tended to the dissolution 
agi the laws of his country. So he came with- 
out delay to Publius Petronius, who was then 
president of Syria, and accused the people of 
oris. Nor did he less resent what was done 
than did Agrippa; for he judged it a piece of 
impiety to transgress the laws that regulate the 
actions of men. So he wrote the following 
letter to the people of Doris in an angry strain: 
“Publius Petronius, the president under Tibe- 
rius Claudius Cesar Augustus Germanicus, to 
the magistrates of Doris, ordains as follows: 
Since some of you have had the boldness, or 
madness rather, after the edict of Claudius Cz- 
sar Augustus Germanicus was published for 
permitting the Jews to observe the laws of their 
country, not to obey the same, but have acted 
in entire opposition thereto, as forbidding the 
Jews to assemble together in the synagogue, by 
removing Cesar’s statue, and setting it up there- 
in, and thereby have offended not only the 
Jews, but the emperor himself, whose statue 
is more commodiously placed in his own tem- 
ple than in a foreign one, where is the place 
of assembling together; while it is but a part 
of natural justice, that every one should have 
the power over the place belonging peculiarly 
to themselves, according to the determination 
of Cesar; to say nothing of my own deter- 
mination, which it would be ridiculous to men- 
tion after the emperor’s edict, which gives the 
Jews leave to make use of their own customs, 
as also gives order, that they enjoy equally the 
rights of citizens with the Greeks themselves. 
I therefore ordain, that Proculus Vitelius, the 
centurion, bring those men to me, who, con- 
trary to Augustus’s edict, have been so insolent 
as to do this thing, at which those very men, 
who appear to be of principal reputation among 
them, have an indignation also, and allege for 
themselves, that it was not done with their con- 
sent, but by the violence of the multitude, that 
they might give an account of what hath been 
done. I also exhort the principal magistrates 
among them, unless they have a mind to have 
this action esteemed to be done with their con- 
sent, to inform the centurion of those that were 
guilty of it, and take care that no handle be 
thence taken for raising a sedition or quarrel 
among them; which those seem to me to hunt 
after who encourage such doings; while both |] 
myself and king Agrippa, for whom I have the 
highest honor, have nothing more under our 
eare, than that the nation of the Jews may have 
no occasion given them of getting together un- 
der the pretence of avenging themselves, and 
become tumultuous. And that it may be more 
publicly known what Augustus hath resolved 
about this whole matter, I have subjoined those 
edicts which he hath lately caused to be pub- 
lished at Alexandria, and which, although they 
may be well known to all, yet did Agrippa, for 
whom i have the highest honor, read them at 
that time before my tribunal, and pleaded that 
the Jews ought not to be deprived of those 
rights which Augustus had granted them. I 
therefore charge you, that you dc not, fo: the 


178 


time to come, seek for any occasion of sedi 
tion or disturbance, but that every one be ab 
lowed to follow their own religious customs.” 

4, Thus did Petronius take care of this mat- 
ter, that such a breach of the law might be 
corrected, and that no such thing might be at- 
tempted afterward against the Jews. And 
now king Agrippa took the [high] priesthood 
away from Simon Cantheras, and put Jona- 
than, the son of Ananus, into it again, and 
owned that he was more worthy of that dig- 
nity than the other. But this was not a thing 
acceptable to him, to recover that his former 
dignity. So he refused it, and said, “O king! 
I rejoice in the honor that thou hast for me, 
and take it kindly that thou wouldst give me 
such a dignity of thy own inclinations, al- 
though God hath judged that 1 am not at all 
worthy of the high priesthood. I am satisfied 
with having once put on the sacred garments; 
for I then put them on after a more holy man 
ner, than | should now receive them again 
But, if thou desirest that a person more worthy 
than myself should have this honorable em- 
ployment, give me leave to name thee such a 
one. I havea brother that is pure from all sin 
against God, and of all offences against thy- 
self; I recommend him to thee, as one that is 
fit for this dignity.” So the king was pleased 
with these words of his, and passed by Jona- 
than, and, according to his brother’s desire, be- 
stowed the high priesthood upon Matthias 
Nor was it long before Marcus succeeded Pe 
tronius as president of Syria. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Concerning Silas, and on what account it was 
that king Agrippa was angry at him. Hou 
Agrippa began to encompass Jerusalem with a 
wall; and what benefits he bestowed on the in- 
hahitants of Berytus. 


§ 1. Now Silas, the general of the kinga 
horse, because he had been faithful to him un- 
der all his misfortunes, and had never refused 
to be a partaker with him in any of his dan- 
gers, but had oftentimes undergone the most 
hazardous dangers for him, was full of assu- 
rance, and thought he might expect a sort of 
equality with the king, on account of the firm- 
ness of the friendship he had shown to him, 
Accordingly, he would nowhere let the king 
sit as his superior, and took the like liberty m 
speaking to him upon all occasions; till he be- 
came troublesome to the king, when they 
were merry together, extolling himself beyond 
measure, and oft putting the king in mind of 
the severity he had undergone, that he might, 
by way of ostentation, demonstrate what zeal 
he had showed in hisservice; and was continu- 
ally harping upon this string, what pains he 
had taken for him, and much enlarged still 
upon that subject. The repetition of this a0 
frequently seemed to reproach the king, inso- 


‘much that he took this ungovernable liberty of 


talking very ill at his hands. For the comme- 
moration of times when men have been under 
ignominy, is by no means agreeable to them; 
and he is a very silly man, who is perpetually 


480 ANTIQUITIES 


relaiig to a person what kindness he hath 
«ob2 him. At last, therefore, Silas had so 
thoroughly provoked the king’s indignation, 
that he acted rather out of passion than good 
consideration, and did not only turn Silas out 
of his place, as general of his horse, but sent 
him in bonds into his own country. But the 
edge of his anger wore off by length of time, 
end made room for more just reasonings, as to 
his judgment about this man, and he consid- 
ered how many labors he had undergone for 
his sake. So when Agrippa was solemnizing 
his birthday, and he gave festival entertainments 
to all his subjects, he sent for Silas on the sud- 
den to be his guest. But as he was a very 
frank inan, he thought he had now a just han- 
dle given him to be angry; which he could not 
conceal from those that came for him, but said 
to them, “What honor is this the king invites 
me to which [ conclude will soon be over? for 
the king hath not let me keep those original 
marks of the good will I bore him, which I 
once had from him; but he hath plundered 
me, and that unjustly also. Does he think, 
that I can leave off that liberty of speech, 
which upon the consciousness of my deserts, I 
shall use more loudly than before, and shall re- 
late how many misfortunes I have delivered 
~ him from; how many labors I have undergone 
for him, whereby I procured him deliverance 
and respect; as a reward for which I have 
borne the hardships of bonds and a dark prison. 
I shall never forget this usage. Nay, perhaps, 
my very soul, when it is departed out of the 
body, will not forget the glorious actions I did 
on hisaccount.” ‘This was the clamor he made, 
and he ordered the messengers to tell it to the 
king. So he perceived that Silas was incurable 
in his folly, and still suffered him to lie in prison. 

2. As for the walls of Jerusalem, that were 
adjoining to the new city [Bezetha,] he repair- 
ed them at the expense of the public, and 
built them ‘wider in breadth, and higher in alti- 
tude; and he had made them too strong for all 
human power to demolish, unless Marcus, the 
then president of Syria, had by letter informed 
Claudius Cesar of what he was doing. And 
when Claudius had some suspicion of attempts 
for innovation, he sent to Agrippa to leave off 
the building of those walls presently. So he 
obeyed; as not thinking it proper to contradict 
Claudius. 

3. Now, this king was by nature very bene- 
ficent, and liberal in his gifts, and very ambi- 
tieus to oblige people with such large dona- 
tions; and he made himself very illustrious by 
the many chargeable presents he made them. 
He took delight in giving, and rejoiced in liy- 
ing with good reputation. He was not at all 
like that Herod who reigned before him; for 
that Herod was ill natured, and severe in his 
ices ggler and had no mercy on them that 

e hated; and every one perceived that he was 
more friendly to the Greeks than to the Jews; 
for he adorned foreign cities with large pre- 
sents in money; with building them baths and 
theatres besides; nay, in some of those places 
he erecte? temples, and porticos in ethers; but 


JF THE JEWS. 


he did not vouchsafe to raise one of the te; 
edifices in any Jewish city, or make them any 
donation that was worth mentioning. But 
Agrippa’s temper was mild, and equally liberal 
to all men. He was humane to foreigners, and _ 
made them sensible of his liberality. He wag 
in like manner rather of a gentle and compas- 
sionate temper. Accordingly he loved to live 
continually at Jerusalem, and was exactly — 
careful in the observance of the laws of his — 
country. He therefore kept himself entirely — 
pure; nor did any day pass over his head 
without its appointed sacrifice. 

4, However, there was a certain man of the 
Jewish nation at Jerusalem, who appeared to 
be very accurate in the knowledge of the law, 
His name was Simon. This man got together 
an assembly, while the king was absent at Ce- 
sarea, and had the insolence to accuse him as 
not living holily, and that he might justly be 
excluded out of the temple, since it belonged 
only to native Jews. But the general of Agrip- — 
pa’s army informed him, that Simon had made — 
such a speech to the people. So the king sent 
for him; and as he was sitting in the theatre, he — 
pade him sit down by him, and said to him with — 
a low and gentle voice, “What is there done 
in this place that is contrary to the law.” But 
he had nothing to say for himself, but begged — 
his pardon. So the king was more easily re- — 
conciled to him than one could have imagined, 
as esteeming mildness a better quality in a king — 
than anger, and knowing that moderation is 
more becoming in great men than ‘on 
So he made Simon a small present, and dis 
missed him. . 

5. Now, as Agrippa was a great builder im 
many places, he paid a peculiar regard to the 
people of Berytus; for he erected a theatre for 
them, superior to many other of that sort, both 
in sumptuousness and elegance, as also an am- 
phitheatre built at vast expenses; and besides 
these, he built them baths and porticos, and 
spared for no cost in any of his edifices to ren- 
der them both handsome and large. He also — 
spent a great deal upon their dedication, and — 
exhibited shows upon them, and brought thither 
musicians of all sorts, and such as made the 
nost delightful music of the greatest variety. 
tle also showed his magnificence upon the 
theatre, in his great number of gladiators; 
there it was that he exhibited the several an- 
tagonists, in order to please the spectators; no 
fewer indeed than seven hundred men to fight _ 
with seven hundred other men,* and allotted 
all the malefactors he had for this exercise, that 
both the malefactors might receive their pun- 
ishment, and that this operation of war might 
be a recreation in peace. And thus were the 
criminals all destroyed at once. 


CHAPTER VIIL. 
What other acts were done by 





se 



















§ 1. When Agrippa had finished what I have 
above related at Berytus, he removed to Tik 


* A strange number of condemned criminals to be unde 
sentence of death at once no fewer, it seems, than 1400. 


BOOK XIX.— CHAPTER VIII. 48} 


fias, a city of Galilee. Now he was in great 

esteem among other kings. Accordingly, there 
-eame to him Antiochus, king of Commagena, 
Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa, and Cotys, 
who was king of the Lesser Armenia, and 
Polemo, who was king of Pontus, as also He- 
rod his brother, who was king of Chalcis. 
All these he treated with agreeable entertain- 
mefits, and after an obliging manner, and so as to 
exhibit the greatness of his mind, and to ap- 
pear worthy of those respects which the kings 
pan! to him, by coming thus to see him. How- 
ever, while these kings staid with him, Mar- 
cus the president of Syria came thither. So 
the king. in order to preserve that respect that 
was due to the Romans, went out of the city 
to meet him, as far as seven furlongs. But 
this proved to be the beginning of a difference 
between him and Marcus; for he took with him 
in his chariot those other kings as his assessors. 
But Marcus had a suspicion what the meaning 
could be of so great a friendship of these 
kings one with another, and did not think so 
close an agreement of so many potentates to be 
for the interest of the Romans. He, therefore, 
sent some of his domestics to every one of 
them, and enjoined them to go their ways home 
without farther delay. This was very ill taken 
by Agrippa, who after that became his enemy. 
And now he took the high priesthood away 
from Matthias, and made Elioneus, the son of 
Cantheras, high priest in his stead. 

2. Now, when Agrippa had _ reigned three 
years over all Judea, he came to the city Ce- 
sarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tow- 
er; and there he exhibited shows in honor 
of Cesar, upon his being informed that there 
was a certain festival celebrated to make vows 
for his safety. At which festival a great mul- 
titude was gotten together of the principal per- 
sons, and such as were of dignity through his 

rovince. On the second day of which shows 

@ put ona garment made wholly of silver, 
and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came 
into the theatre early in the morning; at which 
time the silver of his garment being illuminat- 
ed by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays 
upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and 
was so resplendent as to spread a horror over 
those that looked intently upon him, and pre- 
_ sently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, 
and another from another, (though not for his 
good,) that “he was a god;” and they added, be 
thou merciful to us; for although we have 
hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet 
shall we henceforth own thee as superior to 
mortal nature.” Upon this the king did neith- 
er rebuke them, nor reject their impious flatte- 
ry. But as he presently afterward looked up, 
he saw an owl’ sitting on a certain rope over 


his head, and immediately understood that this 
bird was the messenger of ill tidings, as it had 
once been the messenger of good tidings te 
him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A se- 
vere pain also arose in his belly, and began in 
@ most violent manner. He therefore looked 
upon his friends, and said, “I whom ye call a 
god, am commanded presently to depart this 
life; while Providence thus reproves the lying 
words you just now said to me; and I, whe 
was by you called immortal, am immediatelv 
to be hurried away by death. But I am bound 
to accept of what Providence allots, as it 
pleases God; for we have by no means lived 
ill, but ina splendid and happy manner.” When 
he had said this, his pain was become violent. 
Accordingly, he was carried into the palace, 
and the rumor went abroad everywhere, that 
he would certainly die in a little time. But 
the multitude presently sat in sackcloth, with 
their wives and children, after the law of their 
country, and besought God for the king’s re- 
covery. All places were also full of mourn- 
ing and lamentation. Now the king rested in 
a high chamber, and as he saw them below 
lying prostrate on the ground, he could not 
himself forbear weeping. And when he had 
been quite worn out by the pain in his belly 
for five days, he departed this life, being in the 
fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh 
year of his reign; for he reigned four years 
under Caius Ceesar, three of them were over 
Philip’s tetrarchy only, and on the fourth he 
had that of Herod added to it, and he reigned, 
besides those, three years under the reign of 
Claudius Cesar. In which time he reigned 
over the forementioned countries, and also had 
Judea added to them, as well as Samaria and 
Cesarea. The revenues that he received out 
of them were very great, no less than twelve 
millions of drachme.* Yet did he borrow 
great sitms from others; for was so very liberal 



































senger, formerly of good, but now of bad news, to Agrippa. 
This accusation is a somewhat strange one in the case of the 
great Eusebius, who is known to have so accurately and 
faithfully produced a vast number of other ancient records, 
and particularly not a few out of our Josephus also, withont 
any suspicion of prevarication. Now, not to allege how uncer- 
tain we are, whether Josephus’s and Eusebius’s copies of the 
4th century were just like the present in’ this clause, which we 
have no distinct evidence of, the following words, preserved 
still im Eusebius,will not admit of any such exposition. ‘This 
[bird] (says Eusebius,) Agrippa presently perceived to be the 
cause of ill fortune, as it was once of good fortune to him,” 
which can only belong to that bird the owl, which, as it h 
formerly foreboded his happy deliverance from imprisonment, 
Antiq. b. xviii. chap. vi. sect. 7; so was it then foretold to 
prove afterward the unhappy forerunner of his death in five 
days’ time. If the improper word «+rsov or cause, be chang- 
ed for Josephus’s proper word a77sA0v angel or messenger, 
and the foregoing words, SsSwvae-srs oyorves rivos, be 
inserted, Eusebius’s text will truly represent that in Jose- 
phus. Had this imperfection been in some heathen author 
that was in good esteem with our modern critics, they would 
have readily corrected these, as barely errors in the copies; 
but being in an ancient Christian wniter, not so well relishe 
by many of these critics, nothing will serve but the ill-ground- 
ed supposal of wilful corruption and prevurication. 

* This sum of 12,000,000 drachme, which is equal te 
3,000,000 shekels, i. e. at 2s. 10d. a shekel, equal to £425,000 
sterling, was Agrippa the Great’s yearly income, or about 
three quarters of his grandfather Herod’s income; he havin 
abated the tax upon houses at Jerusalem, ch. vi. sect. 3, end 


* Welave a mighty cry made here by some critics, as if 
the great Eusebius had on purpose falsified this account of 
ong preg so as to make it agree with the parallel account in 

the Acts of the Apostles; because the present copies of his 

Citation of it, Hist. Eccles. b. ii. ch. x. omit the words 6x6 wv 

471 TX0bvex, THv0G, i, C. an Owl—on a certuin rope, which 

Josephus’s present copies retain, and only have the explana- 

ory word «7>#Acv or angel, as if he meant that angel of the | was not so tyrannical as Herod had been to the Jews. See 

Lord which St. Luke mentions a3 smiting Herod, Acts xii. | the note on Antiq. b. xvii. ch. xi, sect. 4. A large sum this! 
_ 83, and not that ow! which Josephus called an angel or mes- | but not, it Feems, sufficient for his extravagant expenses. 


\ 
- 


“Wroa cure | 


£82 


that his ex} nses exceeded his income, and his 
generosity was boundless, * 

3. But before the multitude were made ac- 

ainted with Agrippa’s being expired, Herod 
the king o Chalcis, and Helcias the master of 
nis horse, and the ting’s friend, sent Aristo, 
one of the king’s most faithful servants, and 
alew Silas, who had |.een their enemy, as if it 
had been done by the king’s own command 


CHATTER IX. 
What things were done after the death of Agrip- 
a; and how Clawdins, on account of the youth 
and unskufulness of .terippa junior, sent Cus- 
pius Fadus to be prosurator of Judea, and of 
the enfire kingdom. 


§ 1. And thus did king Agrippa depart this 
fife. But he left behind him a son, Agrippa by 
name, a youth in the seventeenth year of his 
age, and three daughters: one of whom, Ber- 
nice, was married to Herod, his father’s brother, 
and was sixteen years old; the other two, Ma- 
mamne and Drusilla, were still virgins; the for- 
mer was ten years old, and Drusilla six. Now 
these his daughters were thus espoused by their 
father, Mariamne to Julius Archelaus Epi- 
phanes, the son of Antiochus, the son of Chel- 
cias, and Drusilla to the king of Commagena. 
But when it was known that Agrippa was de- 
parted this life, the inhabitants of Casarea and 
of Sebaste forgot the kindness he bad bestowed 
on them, and acted the part of the bitterest 
enemies; for they cast such reprogches upon the 
deceased as were not fit to be syoken of; and 
so many of them as were then soldiers, which 
were a great number, went to ms house, and 
hastily carried off the ststues} of this king’s 
daughters, and all at once carried them into 
the brothel-houses, and, when they had set them 
on the tops of those houses, they abused them 
to the utmost of their puwer, and did such 
things to them as are too indecent to be re- 
lated. ‘They also laid themselves down in pub- 
lic pisces, and celebrated general feastings, with 
garlands on their heads, and with ointments 
and ubations to Charon, and drinking to one 

* Reland takes notice here, not ca ask that Josephus 
emits the reconciliation of this Herod Agrippa to the Tyrians 
and Sidonias, by the means of Blastus the king’s chamber- 
jain, mentioned Acts xii. 20. Nor is there any history in the 
world so eae jain, as to omit nothing that other historians 


take notice of, unless the one be taken out of the other and 
accommodated to it. 

t Photius, who made an extract out of this section, says, 
they were not the statues or images, but the ladies them- 
selves, who were thus basely abused by the soldiers. Cod. 
2@xxxVviil. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. ! 7 


another for joy that the king was expired. Nay 
they were not only unmindful of Agrippa, whe 


had extended his liberality to them in abun-— 


! 


7 


dance, but of bis grandfather Herod also, wha _ 
had himself rebuilt their cities, and had raised — 


them havens and temples at vast expenses, 

2. Now Agrippa, the son of the deceased 
was at Rome and brought up with Claudius 
Cesar. 
Agrippa was dead, and that the inhabitants of 
Sebaste and Ceesarea had abused him, he was 


sorry for the first news, and was displeased — 


with the ingratitude of those cities. He was 
therefore disposed to send Agrippa junior away 
presently to succeed his father in the kingdom, 
and was willing to confirm him in it by his 
oath. But those freed-men and friends of bis, 
who had the greatest authority with him, dis- 
suaded him from it, and said that “it was a 
dangerous experiment to permit so large a king- 
dom to come under the government of so very 
young a man, and one hardly yet arrived at 
years of discretion, who would not be able to 
take sufficient care of its administration; while 
the weight of a kingdom is heavy enough to a 
grown man.” So Cesar thought what they 
said to be reasonable Accordingly, he sent 
Cuspius [’adus to be procurator of Judea, and 
of the entire kingdom, and paid that respect to 
the deceased, as not to introduce Marcus, who 
had been at variance with him, into his king- 
dom. But he determined, in the first place, to 
send orders to Fadus, that he should chastise 
the inhabitants of Czesarea and Sebaste for 
those abuses they had offered to him that was 
deceased, and their madness towards his daugh- 
ters that were still alive; and that he should re- 
move that body of soldiers that were at Ceesa- 


And when Ceesar was informed thag- 


rea and Sebaste, with the five regiments, into — 


Pontus, that they might do their military duty 
there, and that he should choose an equal num- 
ber of soldiers out of the Roman legions that 
were in Syria, to supply their place. Yet were 
not those that had such orders actually remoy- 
ed; for by sending ambassadors to Claudius, 


they mollified him, and got leave to abide in~ 


Judea still; and these were the very men that 
became the source of very great calamities to 


the Jews in after times, and sowed the seeda 


of that war which began under Florus, whence 


it was, that when Vespasian had subdued the — 


country, he removed them out of his province, 
as we shall relate hereafter.* 
* This history is now wanung. 





BOOK XX. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS.—FROM FADUS, THE PROCURATOR, 
TO FLORUS. 





, CHAPTER I. 

A sedition of the Philadelphians against the Jews; 
and also concerning the vestments of the high 
est. 

$1. Upon the death of king Agrippa, which 

we have related in the foregoing book, Clau- 


to Marcus, out of regard to the memory of 


(Ms 


} " 
dius Cesar sent Cassius Longinus as successor 


a 


j 


king Agrippa, who had often desired of him 


by letters, while he was alive, that he would — 
not suffer Marcus to be any longer president — 
of Syria. But Fadus, as soon as he was come — 


4 


(a 


a 





procurator into Judea, found quarrelsome do- 
mgs between the Jews that dwelt in Perea, 
and the people of Philadelphia, about their 
borders, at a village called Mia, that was filled 
with men of a warlike temper; for the Jews of 
Perea had taken up arms without the consent 
of their principal men, and had destroyed 
many of the Philadelphians. When Fadus 
was informed of this procedure, it provoked 
him very much that they had not left the de- 
termination of the matter to hn, if they thought 
that the Philadelphians had done them any 
wrong, but had rashly taken up arms against 
them. So he seized upon three of their prin- 
cipal men, who were also the causes of this 
sedition, and ordered them to be bound, and 
afterward had one of them slain, whose name 
was Hannibal, and he banished the other two, 
Amram and Eleazar. Tholomy also, the arch- 
robber, was, after some time, brought to bim 
bound, and slain, but not till he had done a 
werld of mischief to Idumea and the Arabians. 
And indeed, from that time, Judea was cleared 
of robberies by the care and providence of 
Fadus. He also at this time sent for the high 
priests and the principal citizens of Jerusalem, 
and this at the command of the emperor, and 
admonished them, that they should lay up the 
long garment, and the sacred vestinent, which 
it is customary for nobody but the high priest 
to wear, in the tower of Antonia, that it might 
be under the power of the Romans, as it had 
been formerly. Now the Jews durst not con- 
tradict what he said, but desired Fadus, how- 
ever, and Longinus, (which last was come to 
Jerusalem, and had brought a great army with 
nim, out of a fear that the [rigid] injunctions 
of Fadus should force the Jews to rebel,) that 
they might, in the first place, have leave to 
send ambassadors to Ceesar, to petition him 
that they may have the holy vestments under 
their own power, and that, in the next place, 
they would tarry till they knew what answer 
Claudius would give to that their request. So 
they replied, that they would give them leave 
to send their ambassadors, provided they would 
give them their sons as pledges [for their 
peaceable behavior.} And when they had 
agreed so to do, and had given the pledges they 
desired, the ambassadors were sent accordingly. 
But when, upon their coming to Rome, Agrip- 
pa junior, the son of the deceased, understood 
the reason why they came, (for he dwelt with 
Claudius Cesar, as we said before,) he besought 
Cesar to grant the Jews their request about 
the holy vestments, and to send a message to 
Fadus accordingly. 

2. Hereupon, Claudius called for the am- 
bassadors, and told them, that “he granted their 
request;” and bade them to return their thanks 
to Agrippa for this favor which had been be- 
‘stowed on them upon this entreaty. And be- 
sides these answers of his, he sent the following 
letter by them: “Claudius Cesar Germanicus, 
‘tribune of the people the fifth time, and de- 
‘®igned consul the fourth time, and imperator 
the tenth time, the father of his country, to the 
Magistrates, senate and people, and the whole 





BOOK XX.—CHAPTER IL 


nation of the Jews, sendeth greetunmg. Upon 
the presentation of your ambassadors to me 
by Agrippa, my friend, whom I have brought 
up, and have now with me, and who is a per- 
son of very great piety, who are come to give 
me thanks for the care J have taken of your 
nation, and to entreat me, in an earnest and 
obliging manner, that they may have the holy 
vestments, with the crown belonging t< them, 
under their power; I grant their request, as 
that excellent person Vitellius, who is very 
dear to me, had done before me. And I have 
complied with your desire, in the first place, 
out of regard to that piety which I profess, 
and because I would have every one worship 
God according to the laws of their own country, 
and this I do also because I shall hereby highly 
gratify king Herod, and Agrippa junior, whose 
sacred regards to me, and earnest good will to 
you, I am well acquainted with, and with 
whom I have the greatest friendship, and 
whom I highly esteem, and look on as persons 
of the best character. Now I have written 
about these affairs to Cuspius Fadus, my pro- 
curator. The names of those that brought 
me your letters are, Cornelius, the sou of Cero, 
Trypho, the son of Theudio, Dorotheus the 
son of Nathaniel, and John, the son of John. 
This was dated before the fourth of the ka 
lends of July, when Rufus and Pompeius Syl 
vanus were consuls.” 

3. Herod also, the brother of the deceased 
Agrippa, who was then possessed of the royal 
authority over Chalcis, petitioned Claudius 
Cesar for the authority over the temple, and 
the money of the sacred treasure, and the 
choice of the high priests, and obtained al] that 
he petitioned for. So that after that time this 
authority continued* among all his descendants 
till the end of the war. Accordingly, Herod 
removed the last high priest, called Cantheras, 
and bestowed that dignity on his successor 
Joseph, the son of Camus. 


CHAPTER II. 


How Helena, the queen of Adiabene, and her son 
kzates, embraced the Jewish religion; and how 
Helena supplied the poor with corn, when there 
was a great famine at Jerusalem. 


§ 1. About this time it was that Helena, 
queen of Adiabene, and her son Izates, chang 
ed their course of life, and embraced the Jew- 
ish customs, and this on the occasion following: 
Monobazus, the king of Adiabene, who had 
also the name of Bazeus, fell in love with his 
sister Helena, and took her to be his wife, and 
begat her with child. But as he was in bed 
with her one night, be laid his hand upon his 
wife’s belly, and fell asleep and seemed to hear 
a voice, which bade him take his hand off hie 
wife’s belly, and not hurt the infant that was 
therein, which, by God’s providence, would be 


* Here is some error in the copies, or mistake in Josep! 
for the power of appointing high priests, after Herod king 
Chalecis was dead, and Agrippa junior was made king of 
Chalcis in his room, belonged to him, and he exercised the 
same all along till Jerusalem was destroyed, as Sos, Ta 
elsewhere informs us, ch. viii sect. 8, 11, ch. ix. sect. 1, 4 


9 fe 


484 


safely born, and have a happy end. ‘This voice 
put him into disorder; so he awaked immedi- 
ately, and told the story to his wife; and when 
his son was borne, he called him Izates. He 
had indeed Monobazus, his elder brother, by 
Helena also, as he had other sons by other 
wives besides. Yet did he openly place all 
his affections on this his only begotten* son 
Izates, which was the origin of that envy, 
while on this account they hated him more and 
more, and were all under great affliction that 
their father shou d prefer Izates before all them. 
Now although their father was very sensible of 
these their passions, yet did he forgive them, 
as not indulging those passions out of an ill 
disposition, but out of a desire each of them 
had to be beloved by their father. However, 
he sent Izates with many presents to Abenne- 
rig, the king of Charax-Spasini, and that out 
of the great dread he was in about him, lest 
he should come to some great misfortune by 
the hatred his brethren bore him; and he com- 
mitted his son’s preservation to him. Upon 
which Abennerig gladly received the young 
man, and had a great affection for him, and mar- 
ried him to his own daughter, whose name 
was Samacha: he also bestowed a country 
upon him, from which he received large re- 
venues. 

2. But when Monobazus was grown old, and 
saw that he had but a little time to live, he had 
a mind to come to the sight of his son before 
he died. So he sent for him and embraced 
him after the most affectionate manner, and be- 
stowed on him the country called Carree; it 
was a soil that bore amomum in great plenty; 
there are also in it the remains of that ark, 
wherein it is related that Noah escaped the de- 
luge, and where they are still shown to such as 
are desirous to see them.t Accordingly, Iza- 
tes abode in that country until his father’s death. 
But the very day that Monobazus died, queen 
Helena sent for all the grandees, and governors 
of the kingdom, and for those that had the ar- 
mies committed to their command: and when 
they were come, she made the following speech 
to them: “I believe you are not unacquainted 
that my husband was desirous Izates should 
succeed him in the government, and thought 
him worthy so to do. However, I wait your 
determination; for happy is he who receives a 
kingdom not from a single person only, but 
from the willing suffrages of a great many.” 
This she said in order to try those that were 

‘invited, and to discover their sentiments. Upon 
the hearing of which, they first of all paid their 
homage to the queen, as their custom was, and 
then they said “that they confirmed the king’s 
determination and would submit to it; and 
they rejoiced that Izates’s father had preferred 
him before the rest of his brethren, as being 


* Josephus here uses the word “ovoysvx, an only begotten 
—o for no other than one best beloved, as does both the Old 
and New Testament, | mean where there were one or more 
sons besides, Gen. xxii. 2. Heb. xi. 17.; see the note on b. i 
eh. xiii. sect. ' 

¢ It is very rematkable, that the remains of Noah’s ark 
were believed to be still in being in the days of Josephus; see 
the note on b. i. ch. iii. sect. 5. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 






agreeable to all their wishes: but that they 
desirous first of all to slay his brethren 
kinsmen, that so the government might com 
securely to Izates; because if they were once 
destroyed, all that fear would be over which 
might arise from their hatred and envy to him? 
Helena replied to this, that “she returned them 
her thanks for their kindness to herself, and to 
Izates; but desired that they would however 
defer the execution of this slaughter of Izates’s 
brethren till he should be there himself, and 
give his approbation to it.” So, since these men 
had not prevailed with her when they advised 
her to slay them, they exhorted her at least to 
keep them in bonds till he should come, and 
that for their own security; they also gave her 
counsel to set up some one whom she should put 
the greatest trust in, a8 a governor of the king- 
dom in the mean time. So queen Helena com- 
plied with this counsel of theirs, and set up 
Monobazus, the eldest son, to be king, and put 
the diadem upon his head, and gave him his 
father’s ring, with its signet; as also the orna 
ment which they call Sampser, and exhorted 
him to administer the affairs of the kingdom 
till his brother should come; who came sud- 
denly upon hearing that his father was dead, 
and succeeded his brother Monobazus, whe 
resigned up the government to him. % 
3. Now during the time Izates abode at 
Charax-Spasini, a certain Jewish merchant 
whose name was Ananias, got among the wo- 
men that belonged to the king, and taught them 
to worship God according to the Jewish reli- 
gion. He, moreover, by their means, became 
known to Izates, and persuaded him 1n like 
manner to embrace that religion: he also, at 
the earnest entreaty of Izates, accompanied 
him when he was sent for by his father te 
come to Adiabene; it also happened that He- 
lena, about the same time, was instructed by # 
certain other Jew, and went over to them. 
But when Izates had taken the kingdom, and 
was come to Adiabene, and there saw his 
brethren and other kinsmen in bonds, he was 
displeased at it; and as he thought it an im- 
stance of impiety either to slay or imp 
them, but still thought it a hazardous thing for 
to let them have their liberty with the remem- 
brance of the injuries that had been offered 
them, he sent some of them and their children 
for hostages to Rome, to Claudius Caesar, and 
sent the others to Artabanus, the king of cd 
thia, with the like intentions. ze 
4, And when he perceived that his mother 
was highly pleased with the Jewish custome 
he made haste to change, and to embrace the 
entirely; and, as he supposed that he coul 
not be thoroughly a Jew unless he were et 
cumcised, he was ready to have it done. bt 
when his mother understood what he ¥ 
about, she endeavored to hinder him 
doing it, and said to him, that “this thing w 
bring him into danger, and that, as he was # 
king, he would thereby bring himself int 
great odium among his subjects, when the 
should understand that he was so fond of ri 
that were to them strange and foreign: al 

















* 
4: 


| pat they would never bear to be ruled over by 


ty Jew.” 


This it was that she said to him, and 


‘forthe present persuaded him to forbear. And 


when he had related what she had said to Ana- 
nias, he confirmed what his mother had said, 
and when he had also threatened to leave him, 


‘unless he complied with him, he went away 


from him, and said, that “he was afraid lest 
such an action being once made public to all, he 
should himself be in danger of punishment, for 
having been the occasion of it, and having been 
the king’s instructor in actions that were of ill 
reputation; and he said, that he might worship 
God without being circumcised, even though 
he did resolve to follow the Jewish law entirely, 


“which worship of God was of a superior na- 


ture to circumcision. He added, that God would 
forgive him, though he did not perform the op- 
eration, while it was omitted out of necessity, 
and for fear of his subjects.” So the king at 
that time complied with these persuasions of 
Ananias. But afterward, as he had not quite 
left off his desire of doing this thing, a certain 
other Jew that came out of Galilee, whose name 
was Eleazar, and who was esteemed very skil- 
ful in the learning of his country, persuaded 
him to do the thing; for as he entered into his 
lace to salute him, and found him reading the 
aw of Moses, he said to him, “Thou dost not 
consider, O king! that thou unjustly breakest 
the principal of those laws, and art injurious to 
God himself, [by omitting to be circumcised;] 
for thou oughtest not only to read them, but 
chiefly to practice what they enjoin thee. How 
tong wilt thou continue uncircumcised? But, 
if thou hast not yet read the law about circum- 
cision, and dost not know how great impiety 
thou art guilty of by neglecting it, read it now.” 
When the king had heard what he said, he de- 
layed the thing no longer, but retired to another 
room, and sent for a surgeon, and did what he 
was commanded to do. He then sent for his 
mother, and Ananias, his tutor, and informed 
them that he had done the thing, upon which 
they were presently struck with astonishment 
and fear, and that toa great degree, lest the 
thing should be openly discovered and censur- 
ed, and the king should hazard the loss of his 
kingdom, while his subjects would not bear to 
be governed by a man who was so zealous in 
another religion; and lest they should them- 
selves run some hazard, because they would be 
supposed the occasion of his so doing. But it 
was God himself who hindered what they fear- 
ed from taking effect; for he preserved both 
Izates himself, and his sons, when they fell 
into many dangers, and procured their deliver- 
ance when it seemed to be impossible, and de- 
monstrated thereby, that the fruit of piety does 
ot perish as to those that have regard to him, 


and fix their faith upon him only.* But these 
_ events we shall relate hereefter. 


{ 


_ 5. But as to Helena, the king’s mother, when 
the saw that the affairs of I7 *tes’s kingdom were 


ah * Josephus is very full and express in these three chapters, 


‘Wi. iv. and v. in observing how carefully divine Providence 
‘preserved this Izates, king of Adiabene and his sons, while 


e did what he thought was his bounden duty, notwithstand- 


= the strongest political motives to the contrarv. 


ar) 


‘BOOK XX.—CHAPTER LIL. 


483 


in peace, and that her son was a happy man, 
and admired among all men, and even among 
foreigners, by the means of God’s providence 
over him, she had a mind to go to the city of 
Jerusalem, in order to worship at that temple 
of God which was so very famous among al! 
men, and to offer her thank-offerings there. 
So she desired her son to give her leave to ge 
thither: upon which he gave his consent te 
what she desired very willingly, and made great 
preparations for her dismission, and gave her a 
great deal of money, and she went down to the 
city of Jerusalem, her son conducting her on 
her journey a great way. Now her coming 
was of very great advantage to the people of 
Jerusalem, for whereas a famine did oppress 
them at that time, and many people died for 
want of what was necessary to procure food 
withall, queen Helena sent some of her ser- 
vants to Alexandria with money to buy a great 
quantity of corn, and others of them to Cy- 
prus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And as 
soon as they were come back, and had brought 
those provisions, which was done very quickly, 
she distributed food to those that were in want 
of it, and left an excellent memorial behind her 
of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our 
whole nation. And when her son Izates was 
informed of this famine, he sent great sums of 
money to the principal men in Jerusalem. 
However, what favors this king and queen con- 
ferred upon our city of Jerusalem, shall be far- 
ther related hereafter. 


CHAPTER III. 


How Artabanus, the king of Parthia, out of 
fear of the secret contrivances of his subjects 
against him, went to Fzates, and was by him 
reinstated in his government; as also hou 
Bardanes, his son, denoun<d war against 
kzates. 


§ 1. But now Artabanus, king of the Par- 
thians, perceiving that the governors of the pro- 
vinces had framed a plot against him, did not 
think it safe for him to continue among them, 
but resolved to go to Izates, in hopes of find- 
ing some way for his preservation by his means, 
and if possible, for his return to his own do- 
minions. So he came to Izates, and broughta 
thousand of his kindred and servants with him, 
and met him upon the road, while he well 


* This farther account of the benefactions of Izates and 
Helena to the Jerusalem Jews, which Josephus here pro- 
mises, is, I think, nowhere performed by him in his present 
works. But of this terrible famine itself in Judea, take Dr. 
Hudson’s note here:—“This, says he, is that famine foretold 
by Agabus, Acts xi. 28, which happened when Claudius waa 
consul the fourth time, and not that other which happened 
when Claudius was consul the second time, and Ca:aina waa 
his colleague, as Scaliger says upon Eusebius, p. 17~.”? Now 
when Jesephus had said a little atterward, chap. v. sect. 2 
that “‘Tiberins Alexander succeeded Cuspius Fadus as pre- 
curator,’ he immediately subjoins, ‘That under these pro- 
curators there happened a great famine in Judea.’? Whence 
it is plain that this famine continued for many years, on ace- 
count of its duration under these two procurators. Now 
Fadus was not sent into Judea till after the death of kin 
Agrippa, i. e. towards the latter end of the fourth year 
Claudius: so that this famine foretold by Agabus, happened 
upon the 5th, 6th, and 7th years of Claudius, as says Valesius 
on Euseb. ii. 12. Of this famine also, and queen Helena’s 
supplies, and her monument, see Moses’s Choronensis, p 
144, 145, where it is observed in the notes that Pausanins 
mentions her monument also. 


486. 


knew Izates, but Izates did not know him. 
When Artabanus stood near him, and, in the 
first place worshiped him, according to the cus- 
tom, he then said to him, “O king! do not thou 
overlook me thy servant, nor do thou proudly 
reject the suit I make thee: for as I am redu- 
‘ed to a low estate by the change of fortune, 
and of aking am become a private man, I stand 
in need of thy assistance. Have regard, there- 
fore, unto the uncertainty of fortune, and es- 
teem the care thou shalt take of me to be tak- 
en of thyself also; for if I be neglected, and 
my subjects go off unpunished, many other 
subjects will become the more insolent towards 
other kings also.” And this speech Artabanus 
made with tears in his eyes, and with a deject- 
ed countenance. Now as soon as Izates heard 
Artabanus’s name, and saw him stand as asup- 
plicant before him, he leaped down from his 
horse immediately, and said to him, “Take 
courage, O king! nor be disturbed at thy pre- 
sent calamity, as if it were incurable; for the 
change of thy sad condition shall be sudden, 
for thou shalt find me to be more thy friend 
and thy assistant than thy hopes can promise 
thee, for I will either re-establish thee in the 
kingdom of Parthia, or lose my own.” 

2, When he had said this, he set Artabanus 
upon his horse, and followed him on foot, in 
honor of a king whom he owned as greater 
than himself; which, when Artabanus saw, he 
was very uneasy at it, and swore by his pre- 
sent fortune and honor, that he would get down 
from his horse, unless Izates would get upon 
his horse again, and go before him. So he com- 
plied with his desire, and leaped upon bis horse: 
and when he had brought bim to his royal pa- 
lace, he showed him all sorts of respect, when 
they sat together, and he gave him the upper 
place at festivals, also, as regarding not his pre- 
sent fortune, but his former dignity, and that 
upon this consideration also, that the changes 
of fortune are common to all men. He also 
wrote to the Parthians, to persuade them to re- 
ceive Artabanus again; and gave them his right 
nand and his faith, that he should forget what 
was past and done, and that he would under- 
take for this asa mediator between them. Now 
the Parthians did not themselves refuse to re- 
ceive him again, but pleaded that it was nut 
now in their power so to do; because they had 
committed the government to another person, 
who had accepted of it, and whose name was 
Cinnanius, and that they were afraid lest a civil 
war should arise on this account. When Cin- 
namus understood their intentions, he wrote to 
Artabanus himself, for he had been brought up 
by him, and was of a nature good and gentle 
also and desired him to put confidence in him, 
and to come and take hisown dominions again. 
Accordingly Artabanus trusted him, and re- 
turned home; when Cinnamus met him, wor- 
shipped him, and saluted: him as king, and 
took the diadem off his own head, and put it 
on the head of Artabanus. 

3 And thus was Artabanus restored to his 
kingdom again by the means of Izates, when 
be liad lost it by the means of the grandees of 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


the kingdom. Nor was he unmindful of tae 
benefits he had conferred upon him, but re- 
warded him with such honors as were of the 
greatest esteem among them; for he gave him 
leave to wear his tiara upright,* and to sleep 
upon a golden bed, which are privileges and 
and marks of honor peculiar to the kings of 
Parthia, He also cut off a large and fruitful 
country from the king of Armenia, and be- 
stowed it upon him. The name of the coun- 
try is Nisibis, wherein the Macedonians had 
formerly built that city which they called An- 
tioch of Mygdonia. And these were the ho- 
nors that were paid Izates by the king of the 
Parthians. 

4, But in no long time Artabanus died, and 
left his kingdom to his son Bardanes. Now 
this Bardanes came to Izates, and would have 
persuaded him to join him with his army, and 
to assist him in the war he was preparing to 
make with the Romans, but he could not pre- 
vail with him. For Izates so well knew the 
strength and good fortune of the Romans, that 
he took Bardanes to attempt what was impossi- 
ble to be done; and having besides sent his 
sons, five in number, and they but young also, 
to learn accurately the language of our nation, 
together with our learning, as well as he had 
sent his mother to worship at our temple, as ] 
have said already, he was the more backward 
to a compliance; and restrained Bardanes, tell- 
ing him perpetually of the great armies and 
famous actions of the Romans, and thought 
thereby to terrify him, and desired thereby to 
hinder him from that expedition. But the Par- 
thian king was provoked at this his behavior, 
and denounced war immediately against Izates. 
Yet did he gain no advantage by this war, be- 
cause God cut off all his hopes therein; for the 
Parthians, perceiving Bardanes’s intention, and 
how he had determined to make war with the 
Romans, slew him, and gave his kingdom to 
his brother Gotarzes. He also in no long time 
perished by a plot made against him, and Vo- 
logases, his brother, succeeded him, who com 
mitted two of his provinces to two of his bro- 
thers by the same father; that of the Medes to 
the elder, Pacorus; and Armenia to the younger, 


Tiridates. 
CHAPTER IV. 
es how 


How Izates was befits by his own 

and fought against by the Arabians; 

Izates, by the providence of God, was deliverea 

out of their hands. f 

§ 1. Now when the king’s brother, Mone. 
bazus, and his other kindred, saw how Izateé 
by his piety to God, was become greatly es 
teemed by all men, they also had a desire to 
leave the religion of their country, and to em- 
brace the customs of the Jews; but that act of 
theirs was discovered by Izates’s subjects 
Whereupon the grandees were much displ 
ed, and could not contain their anger at 1 
but had an intention, when they should find 

4 


* This privilege of wearing the tiara upright, or with the 
tip of the cone erect, is known to have been of old li 
to (great) kings, from Xenophon and others. as Dr. oad 


‘a 2 


observes here. 


BOOK XX.—CHAPTER IV. 
proper opportunity, to inflict a punishment 


upon them. Accordingly, they wrote to Abia, 
king of the Arabians, and promised him great 
sums of money, if he would make an expedi- 


tion against their king; and they farther pro- 


mised him, that on the first onset they would 
desert their king, because they were desirous 
to punish him, by reason of the hatred he had 
to their religious worship; then they obliged 
themselves, by oaths, to be faithful to each 
other, and desired that he would make haste in 
this design. The king of Arabia complied 
with their desires, and brought a great army 
into the field, and marched against Izates: and 
in the beginning of the first onset, and before 
they came to a close fight, those grandees, as 


if they had a panic terror upon them, all de- 


serted Izates, as they had agreed to do, and 
turning their backs upon their enemies, ran 
away. Yet was not Izates dismayed at this: 
but when he understood that the grandees had 
betrayed him, he also retired into his camp, 


well as he could, he awaited the coming of the 
enemy. And when the king of Parthia was 
come with a great army of footmen and horse- 
men, which he did sooner than was expected, 
(for he marched in great haste,) and had cast 
up a bank at the river that parted Adiabene 
from Media; Izates also pitched his camp not 
far off, having with him six thousand horse- 
men. But there came a messenger to Izates, 
sent by the king of Parthia, who told him, 
“how large his dominions were, as reaching 
from the river Euphrates to Bactria, and enu- 
merated that king’s subjects: he also threatened 
him, that he should be punished, as a person 
ungrateful to his lords; and said, that the God 
whom he worshiped could not deliver him 
out of the king’s hands.” When the messen- 
ger had delivered this his message, Izates re- 
plied, that “he knew the king of Parthia’a 
power was much greater than his own; but 
that he knew also, that God was much more 
powerful than all men.” And when he had 


and made inquiry into the matter; and as soon | returned this answer, he betook himself to 


~as he knew who they were that made this con- | make supplication to God,* and threw hituself 


spiracy with the king of Arabia, he cut off} upon the ground, and put ashes upon his head, 
those that were found guilty; and renewing | in testimony of his confusion, and fasted, to- 


the fight on the next day, he slew the greatest | gether with his wives and children. 


rt of his enemies, and forced all the rest to 
etake themselves to flight. He also pursued 
their king, and drove him into a fortress called 
Arsamus, and following on the siege vigorously, 
he took that fortress. And when he had plun- 
dered it of all the prey that was in it, which 
was not small, he returned to Adiabene; yet 
did he not take Abia alive; because, when he 
found himself encompassed ou every side, be 
slew himself. 
2. But although the grandees of Adiabene 


had failed in their first attempt, as being de- 


livered up by God into their king’s hands, yet 
would they not even then be quiet, but wrote 
again to Vologases, who was then king of Par- 
thia, and desired that he would kill Izates, and 
set over them some other potentate, who should 
be of a Parthian family; for they said, that 
“they hated their own king for abrogating the 
laws of their forefathers, and embracing fo- 
reign customs.” When the king of Parthia 
heard this, he boldly made war upon Izates; 
and as he had just pretence for this war, he 


‘sent to him, and demanded back those honora- 


ble privileges which had been bestowed on 
him by his father, and threatened, on his re- 
fusal, to make war upon him. Upon hearing 
of this, Izates was under no smal] trouble of 
mind, as thinking it would be a reproach upon 
hin), to appear to resign those privileges that had 
been bestowed upon him, out of cowardice; yet 
because he knew, that though the king of Par- 
thia should receive back those honors, yet 
would he not be quiet, he resolved to commit 


himself +» God, his protector, in the present 


danger he was in of his life: and as he es- 
teemed him to be his principal assistant, he in- 


trusted his children and his wives to a very 


strong fortress, and laid up his corn in his cita- 
dels, and set the hay and the grass on fire. 
Ani wihien he had thus put things in order as 


Then he 
called upon God, and said, “O Lord and Go- 
vernor, if I have not in vain committed myself 
to thy goodness, but have justly determined 
that thou only art the Lord and Principal of 
all beings, come now to my assistance, and de 
fend me from my enemies, not only on my 
own account, but on account of their insolent 
behavior with regard to thy power, while they 
have not feared to lift up their proud and arro- 
gant tongue against thee.” Thus did he la- 
ment and bemoan himself, with tears in his 
eyes; whereupon God heard his prayer. And 
immediately, that very night, Vologases receiv- 
ed letters, the contents of which were these, 
that a great band of Dahe, and Sace desp's- 
ing him, now he was gone so long a journey 
from home, had madean expedition, and_ laid 
Parthia waste; so that he [was forced to] retire 
back, without doing any thing. And thus it 
was that Izates escaped the threatenings of the 
Parthians, by the providence of God. 

3. It was not long ere Izates died, when he 
had completed fifty-five years of his life, and 
had ruled his kingdom twenty-four years. He 
left behind him twenty-four sons and twenty- 
four daughters. However, he gave order that 
his brother Monobazus should succeed in the 
government, thereby requiting him, because, 
while he was himself absent after their father’s 
death, he had faithfully preserved the govern- 
ment for him. But when Helena his mother, 
heard of her son’s death, she was in great hea- 
viness, as was but natural upon her loss of such 
a most dutiful son; yet was it a comfort to her 
that she heard the succession came to her eld- 
estson. Accordingly she went to him in haste, 

* This mourning, and fasting, used by Izates, with pros 
tration of his body, and ashes upon his head, are plain signs 
that he was become either a Jew, or an Ebionite Christian, 
whwu indeed differed not much from proper Jews; see ch. vi. 


sect. 1. However his supplications were heard, and he wae 
providentially delivered froin that imminent danger he was ie 


13e ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 7 


and when she was come into Adiabene, she 
did not long outlive her son Izates. But Mo- 
nobazus sent her bones, as well as those of Izates, 
his brother, to Jerusalem, and gave order that 
they should be buried at the pyramids* which 
their mother had erected; they were three in 
number, and distant no more than three fur- 
longs from the city of Jerusalem. But for the 
actions of Monobazus the king, which he did 
during the rest of his life, we will relate them 
hereafter * . 


CHAPTER V. 


Concerning Theudas, and the sons of Judas the 
Galilean; as also what calamity fell wpon the 
‘wos on the day of the Passover. 


y 1. Now it came to pass, while Fadus was 
yrocurator of Judea, that a certain magician, 
whose name was Theudas,} persuaded a great 
part of the people to take their effects with 
them, and to follow him to the river Jordan; for 
he told them that he was a prophet, and that he 
would, by his own command, divide the river, 
and afford them an easy passage over it: and 
many were deluded by his words, However, 
Fadus did not permit them to make any ad- 
vantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of 
horsemen out against them: who, falling upon 
them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and 
took many of them alive. They also took 
Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and car- 
ried it to Jerusalem. This was what befell the 
Jews in the time of Cuspius Fadus’s govern- 
ment. 

2. Then came Tiberius Alexander as suc- 
tessor to F'adus; he was the son of Alexander 
‘the alabarel of Alexandria, which Alexander 
was a principal person among all his contem- | 
poraries, both for his family and wealth: he | 
was also. more eminent for his piety than this 
his son Alexander, for he did not continue in 
the religion of his country. Under these pro- 
curators that great famine happened in Judea, 
in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt, 
at a very great expense, and distributed it to 
those that were in want, as I have related al- 
ready. And besides this, the sons of Judas of 
Galilee were now slain; I mean of that Judas 
who caused the people to revolt, when Cyre- 
nius came to take an account of the estates of 
the Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing 
book. ‘The names of those sons were James 
end Simon, whom Alexander commanded to | 
be crucified. But now Herod, king of Chalcis, 
removed Joseph the son of Camydus, from the 
high priesthood, and made Ananias the son of 
Nebedeus, his successor. And now it was that 
Cumanus came as successor to Tiberius Alex- 


* These pyramids, or pillars, erected by Helena, queen of 
Adiabene, near Jerusalem, three in number, are mentioned 
by Eusebius in his Eccles. Hist. b. ii. ch. 12; for which Dr. 
Hudson refers us to Valesius’s notes upon that place. They 
are also mentioned by Pausanias, as hath been already noted, 
ehap. ji. sect. 6. Reland guesses that that now called Absa- 
jom’s pillar may be one of them. 

I is account is now wanting. 

This Theudas, who arose under Fadus the procurator, 
about A. D. 45, or 46, could not be that Theudas who arose 
im the days of the taxing, under Cyrenius; or about A. D. 3 
Acts v. 36, 37. Who that earlier Theudas Was, see the note 
@m 0. xvii. cu. x. sen*. 5. 





ander; as also that Herod, brother of Agrippa 
the great king, departed this life, in the eighth 
year of the reign of Claudius Cesar. He left 
behind him three sons, Aristobulus, whom he. 
had by his first wife, with Bernicianus and 
Hyrcanus, both whom he had by Bernice, his’ 
brother’s daughter. But Claudius Cesar be- 
stowed his dominions on Agrippa junior. 

3. Now, while the Jewish affairs were under 
the administration of Cumanus, there happen- 
ed @ great tumult at the city of Jerusalem, and’ 
many of the Jews perished therein. But I 
shall first explain the occasion whence it was 
derived. When that feast which is called the 
Passover was at hand, at which time our cus 
tom is to use unleavened bread, and a great mul- 
titude was gathered together from all parts to 
that feast, Cumanus was afraid lest some at- 
tempt of innovation should be then made by 
them; so he ordered that one regiment of the 
army shculd take their arms, and stand in the 
temple ¢ visters, to repress any attempts of in- 
novation, f perchance any such should begin: 
and this was no more than what the former 
procurators of Judea did at such festivals. But 
on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier 
let down his breeches, and exposed his privy 
members to the multitude, which put those that 
saw him into a furious rage and made them 
ery out, that this impious action was not done 
to reproach them, but God himself; nay, some 
of them reproached Cumanus, and pretended 
that the soldier was set on by him, which, when 
Cumanus heard, he was also himself not a lit- 
tle provoked at such reproaches laid upon him 
yet did he exhort them to leave off such sedi- 
tious attempts, and not to raise a tumult at the 
festival. But when he could not induce them 
to be quiet, for they still went on in their re-— 
proaches to him, he gave order that the whole 


army should take their entire armor, and come 
|to Antonia, which was a fortress, as we have 


said already, which overlooked the temple; but 
when the multitude saw the soldiers there, they | 
were affrighted at them, and ran away hastily: 
but as the passages out were but narrow, and as 
they thought their enemies followed them, they 
were crowded together in their flight, and a ‘ 
great number were pressed to death in these _ 
narrow passages; nor indeed was the number 
fewer than twenty thousand that perished in 
this tumult. So, instead of a festival, they had — 
at last a mournful day of it; and they all of 
them forgot their prayers and sacrifices, and 
betook themselves to lamentation and weeping 
so great an affliction did the impudent obseene _ | 
ness of a single soldier bring upon them.” 

4. Now before this their first mourning was 
over, another mischief befell them also; for 
some of those that raised the foregoing tumult — 
when they were travelling along the public — 
road, about a hundred furlongs from the city 










* This and many more tumults and seditions, which arose 
at the Jewish festivals, in Josephus, illustrate the cautious 
procedure of the Jewish governors, when they said, Math 
xxvi. 5. “Letus wot take Jesus on the feast-day, lest there _ 
be an uproar among the people,” as Reland well observes on 
this place. Josephus also takes notice of the sane thing, O 
the War. b. i. ch. iv. sect. 3. 


4 


a 


< 
robbed Stephanus, a servant of Cesar, as he 
“was journeying, and plundered him of all that 


he had with him. Which things when Cu- 


' manus heard of, he sent soldiers immediately, 


“among them in bonds to him. 


and ordered them to plunder the neighboring 
villages, and to bring the most eminent persons 
Now, as this 
devastation was making, one of the soldiers 


seized the laws of Moses that lay in one of those 


villages, and brought them out before the eyes 


of all present, and tore them to pieces; and 


this was done with reproachful language, and 


“much scurrility, Which things when the Jews 


this manner. 


heard of, they ran together, and that in great 
numbers, and came down to Cesarea, where 
Cumanus then was, and besought him that he 
would avenge, not themselves, but God him- 
self, whose laws had been affronted; for that 
they could not bear to live any longer, if the 
Jaws of their forefathers must be affronted after 
Accordingly, Cumanus, out of 
fear lest the multitude should go into a sedi- 
tion, and by the advice of his friends also, took 
care that the soldier who had offered the af- 
front to the laws should be beheaded, and there- 
by put a stop to the sedition which was ready 
to be kindled a second time. 


CHAPTER VI. 


How there happened a quarrel between the Jews 
and the Samaritans, and how Claudtus put an 
end to their differences. 


§ 1. Now there arose a quarrel between the 
Samaritans and the Jews, on the occasion fol- 
lowing: it was the custom of the Galileans, 
when they came to the holy city at the festi- 
vals, to take their journey through the country 
of the Samaritans;* and at this time there lay, 
m the road they took, a village that was called 
Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Sa- 
maria and the great plain, where certain per- 
sons thereto belonging fought with the Gali- 
leans, and killed a great many of them. But, 
when the principal of the Galileans were in- 
formed of what had been done, they came to 
Cumanus, and desired him to avenge the mur- 
der of those that were killed: but he was in- 
duced by the Samaritans, with money, to do 
nothing in the matter: upon which the Gali- 
leans were much displeased, and persuaded 
the multitude of the Jews to betake themselves 
to arms, and to regain their liberty, saying, that 
“slavery was in itself a bitter thing, but that, 
when it was joined with direct injuries, it was 
perfectly intolerable.” And when their prin- 
cipal men endeavored to pacify them, and pro- 
Mised to endeavor to persuade Cumanus to 
avenge those that were killed; they would not 
hearken to them, but took their weapons, and 
entreated the assistance of Eleazar, the son of 
Dineus, a robber, who had many years made 
his abode in the mountains, with which assist- 


* This constant passage of the Galileans through the coun- 
try of Samaria, as they went to Judea and Jerusalem, illas- 
fates several passages in the gospels to the same purpose, 
as Dr. Hudson rightly ebserves; see Luke xvii. 11; John iv. 
4 see also Josephus it his own life sect. 52, where thot 

_ joumey is determined to three dav 


uv aer 
y C2 


‘7 


; BOOK XX.-CHAPTER V. 


1S 


ance they plundered many villages of the Sa- 
maritans. When Cumanus heard of this ac- 
tion of theirs, he took the band of Sebasie, with 
four regiments of footmen, and armed the Sa- 
maritans, and marched out against the Jews, 
and caught them, and slew many of them, and 
took a great number of themalive; whereupon 
those that were the most eminent persons at 
Jerusalem, and that both in regard to the re- 
spect that was paid them, and the families they 
were of, as soon as they saw to what a height 
things were gone, puton sackcloth, and heaped 
ashes upon their heads, and by all possible 
means besought the seditious, and persuaded 
them that they would set before their eyes the 
utter subversion of their country, the confia- 
gration of their temple, and the slavery of theme 
selves, their wives, and children,* which would 
be the consequences of what they were doing, 
and would alter their minds, would cast away 
their weapons, and for the future be quiet, and 
return to theirown homes. These persuasions 
of theirs prevailed upon them. So the peo 
ple dispersed themselves, and the robbers went 
away again to their places of strength; and af- 
ter this time all Judea was overrun with rob- 
beries. 

2. But the principal of the Samaritans went 
to Ummidius Quadratus, the president of Sy- 
ria, who at that time was at Tyre, and accused 
the Jews of setting their villages on fire, and 
plundering them; and said withall, that “they 
were not so much displeased at what they had 
suffered, as they were at the contempt thereby 
shown to the Romans; while, if they had _ re- 
ceived any injury, they ought to have made 
them the judges of what had been done, and 
not presently to make such devastation, as if 
they had not the Romans for their governors; 
on which account they came to him, in order 
to obtain the vengeance they wanted.” ‘This 
was the accusation which the Samaritans 
brought against the Jews. But the Jews af 
firmed, that the Samaritans were the authors 
of this tumult and fighting, and that, in the 
first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by 
their gifts, and passed over the murder of those 
that were slain in silence. Which allegations 
when Quadratus heard, he put off the hearing 
of the cause, and promised that he would give 
sentence when he should come into Judea, 
and should have a more exact knowledge of 
the truth of that matter. So these men went 
away without success, Yet was it not long 
ere Quadratus came to Samaria, where, upom 
hearing the cause, he supposed that the Sa 
maritans were the authors of that disturbance, 
But, when he was informed that certain of 
the Jews were making imnovations, he or 
dered those to be crucified whom Cumanus 
had taken captives. From whence he came 
to a certain village called Lydda, which was 


* Our Savior had foretold that the Jews’ rejection of his 
gospel would bring upon them, among other miseries, these 
three, which they themselves here show they expecteé 
would be the consequences of their present tumults and se 
ditions; the utter subversion of their country, the conflagre 
tion of their temple, and the slavery of themszlves, thet 
wives, and children; see Luke xxi. 6-23. 


490 


not less than a city in largeness, and there 
heard the Samaritan cat.se a second time be- 
fore his tribunal, and there learned from a cer- 
tain Samaritan, that one of the chief of the 
Jews, whose name was Dortus, and some 
other innovators with him, four in number, 
versuaded the multitude to a revolt from the 
Romans, whom Quadratus ordered to be put 
to death; but still ne sent away Ananias the 
high-priest, and Ananus the commander [of 
the temple,] in bonds to Rome, to give an ac- 
® unt of what they had done to Claudius Cw- 
ser. He also ordered the principal men, both 
of the Samaritans and of the Jews, as also 
Cumanus the procurator, and Celer the tri- 
bune, to go to Italy to the emperor, that he 
might hear their cause, and determine their 
differences one with another. -But he came 
again to the city of Jerusalem, out of his fear 
that the multitude of the Jews should attempt 
some innovations: but he found the city in a 
peaceable state, and celebrating one of the 
usual festivals of their country toGod. So he 
’ believed that they would not attempt any inno- 
vations, and left them at the celebration of the 
festival, and returned to Antioch. 

3. Now Cumanus, and the principal of the 
Samaritans, who were sent to Rome, had a 
day appointed them by the emperor, whereon 
they were to have pleaded their cause about 
the quarrels they had one with another. But 
now Ceesar’s freed-men, and his friends, were 
very zealous on the behalf of Cumanus and 
the Samaritans; and they had prevailed over 
the Jews, unless Agrippa junior, who was then 
at Rome, had seen the principal of the Jews 
hard set, and had earnestly entreated Agrip- 
pina, the emperor’s wife, to"persuade her hus- 
band to hear the cause, so as was agreeable to 
his justice, and to condemn those to be punish- 
ed who were really the authors of this revolt 
from the Roman government. Whereupon, 
Claudius .was so well disposed beforehand, 
that when he had heard the cause, and found 
that the Samaritans had been the ring-leaders 
in those mischievous doings, he gave order, 
that those who came up to him should be 
slain, and that Cumanus should be banished, 
He also gave order, that Celer the tribune 
should be carried back to Jerusalem, and 
should be drawn through the city in the sight 
of all the people, and then should be slain. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Felix vs made procurator of Judea; as also con- 
corning Agrippa junior and his sisters. 


» 1 So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of 
Pallans, to take care of the affairs of Judea; 
an when ‘:e had already completed the twelfth 
year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa 
the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, and add- 
ed thereto Trachonitis, with Abila; which last 
had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he 
took from him Chalcis, when he had been go- 
vernor thereof four years. And when Agrippa 


had received these countries as the gift of Ce-! 


sar, he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to 
4zizus, king of Emesa, upon his consent to be 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


circumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of 
Antiochus, had refused to marry her because 
ufier he had promised her father formerly to 
come over to the Jewish religion, he would 
not now perform that promise. He also gave 
Mariamne in marriage to Archelaus, the sone 
Helcias, to whom she had formerly been be. 
trothed by Agrippa her father; from which 
marriage was derived a daughter, whose name 
was Bernice. I 
2. But for the marriage of Drusilla with 






-Azizus, it was in no long time afterward dis | 


solved upon the following occasion: While Fe- 
lix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Dru- 
silla, and fell in love with her; for she did in- 
deed exceed all other women in beauty, and 
he sent to her a person whose name was Sé | 
mon,* one of his friends; a Jew he was, and 
by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to 
be a magician, and endeavored to persuade her 
to forsake her present husband, and marry hing 
and promised, that if she would not refuse him, 
he would make her a happy woman. Accord-_ 
ingly she acted ill, and beeause she was desir- 
ous to avoid her sister Bernice’s envy, for she 
was very ill treated by her on account of her 
beauty, was prevailed upon to transgress the 
laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix; 
and, when he had had a son by her, he named_ 
him Agrippa. But after what manner that 
young man, with his wife, perished at the con- 
flagration of the mountain Vesuvius,} in the 
days of Titus Cesar, shall be related hereaf 
ter.t 
3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a — 


* This Simon, a friend of Felix, a Jew, born in rus, — 
though he pretended to be a magician, and seems to have — 






















—— 


been wicked enough, could hardly be that famous Simon 
the magician, in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 9, &c. as 
Acts was not properly a Jew, but a Samaritan, of the town | 
of Gitte, in the country of Samaria, as the Apostolical Con- _ 
tin Martyr, himself born in the country of Samaria, Apolo 
gy, i. 34, inform us. 
ancient Jewish, but of the first Gentile heresies, as the fore 
mentioned authors assure us. So! suppose him a differens: 
sis, that Josephus was not misinformed as to his benny . 
Cypriot Jew; for otherwise the time, the name, the profes 

ly i | 
cline one to believe them the very same. As to that Drusilla, 3 
the sister of Agrippa junior, as Josephus informs us here, _ 
this Simon mentioned by Josephus persuaded to leave 
former husband, Azizus king of Eimesa, 
citus, Hist. v. 9, supposes her to be a leathen, and the grané 
Luke and Josephus. Now Tacitus lived somewhat too re 
mote, both as to time and place, to be compared with either 
Judea in their own days, and concerning a sister of Agrippa” 
junior, with which Agrippa Josephus was himself so well 
he informs us that this Felix (why had in all three wives ¢ hh 
queens, as Suetonius in Claudius, sect. 28, assures us,) did 
and finding the name of one of them to have beea Drusil ay 
he mistook her for that other wie, whose name ne did ne 


some are ready to suppose. This Simon mentioned in the | 
stitutions, vi. 7, the Recognitions of Clement, ii. 6, and Jas 
He was also the author, not o any | 
j 
person from the other. I mean this only upon the hypothe 
sion, and the wickeduess of them both would strong 
and a Jewess, as St. Luke informs us, Acts xxiv. 24, whom 
a proselyte of Jus 
tice, and to marry Felix, the heathen procurator of Judea; Ta _ 
daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra, contrary both to ~ 
of those Jewish writers, in a matter concerning the Jews 
acquainted. Itis probable that Tacitus may say tree when 
once marry such a grandchild of Antonius and Cleopatra, 
know. 


{ This eruption of Vesuvius was one of the greatest we 
have in history; see Bianchini’s curious and important ob 
servations on this Vesuvius, and as seven severai great erup 
tions, with their remains vitrified. and still existing, in 
many different strata under ground, till the diggers came 
the antediluvian waters, with thes proportionable intersti 
implying the deluge to have been above 2,500 years before 
the Christian era according to our exactest chronelogy, 

t This is now wanting. ie 


Nay 
th » BOOK XX.---CHAPTER VIII. 


ped while after the death of Herod [king of | 
' Chalcis,] who was both her husband and her 
uncle; out when the report went that she had 
_ eriminal conversation with her brother, [ Agrip- 
7 ee gary she persuaded Polemo, who was 
_ king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry 

her, as supposing that by this means she should 


her this requital, not only for being torn of 
her, but by bringing it so about by her contr+ 
vances that he obtained the Roman empire. 
He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many 
other illustrious persons, under the pretence — 
that they plotted against him. 

3. But I omit any further discourse about 


- he those calumnies upon her to be false; and 
_ Polemo was prevailed upon, and that chiefly 
on account of her riches. Yet did not this 
“matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Pole- 
~ mo, and, as was said, with impure intentions, 
Bo he forsook at once this matrimony, and the 
Jewish religion: and, at the same time, Mari- 
amne put away Archelaus, and was married to 
Demetrius, the principal men among the Alex- 
andrian Jews, both for his fatnily and his 
wealth; and indeed he was then their alabarch. 
So she named her son whom she had by him 
Agrippinus. But of all those particulars we 
shall hereafter treat more exactly.* 


CHAPTER VIII. 


After what manner, upon the death of Claudius, 
Nero succeeded in the government; as also 
what barbarous things he did. Concerning 
the robbers, murderers, and impostors that arose 
while Feax and Festus were procurators of 
Judea. 


§ 1. Now Claudius Cesar died when he 
had reigned thirteen years, eight months, and 
twenty days;} and a report went about that he 
‘was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her fa- 
ther was Germanicus, the brother of Cesar. 
Her husband was Domitius Avnobarbus, one of 
the most illustrious persons that was in the 
city of Rome; after whose death, and her long 
continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her 
to wife: she brought along with her a son, Do- 
mitius. of the same name with his father. He 
had before this slain his wife Messalina, out of 
jealousy, by whom he had his children Britan- 
nicus and Octavia; their eldest sister was An- 
tonia, whom he had by Pelina his first wife. 
He also married Octavia to Nero; for that was 
the name that Cesar gave him afterward, upon 
adopting him for his son. 

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when 
Britannicus should come to iman’s estate, he 
should succeed his father in the government, 
and desired to seize upon the principality be- 
forehand for her own son [Nero;] upon which 
the report went, that she thence compassed 
the death of Claudius. Accordingty, she sent 
Burrhus, che general of the army, immediately, 
nd with him the tribunes, and such also of the 
freed-men as were of the greatest authority, to 
oring Nero away into the camp, and to salute 
him emperor. And when Nero had thus ob- 
tamed the government, le got Britannicus to 
be su poisoned, that the multitude should not 
‘perceive it; although he publicly put his own 
mother to death, not long afterward, making 

~ * This also is now wanting. 

+ This duration of the reign of Claudius agrees with Dio, as 
Dr. Hudson here remarks; as he also remarks, that Nero’s 
‘Bame, which was at first L. Domitius /Enobarbus, after 
Claudius had adopted him, was Nero Ciautius Cesar Dru- 


wes Germanicus. 





these affairs, for there have been a great many 
who have composed the history of Nero; some 
of whom have departed from the truth of facts 
out of favor, as having received benefits from 
him; while others, out of hatred to him, and 
the great ill will which they bore him, have so 
impudently raved against him with their lies, 
and they justly deserve to be condemned: nor 
do I wonder at such as have told lies of Nero, 
since they have not in their writings preserved 
the truth of history as to those faets that were 
earlier than his time, even when the actors 
could have noway incurred their hatred, since 
those writers lived a long time after them. 


| But as to those that have no regard to truth, 


they may write as they please; for in that they 
take delight: but as to ourselves, who have 
made truth our direct aim, we shall briefly 
touch upon what only belongs remotely to this 
undertaking, but shall relate what hath hap- 
pened to us Jews with great accuracy, and 
shall not grudge our pains in giving an account 
both of the calamities we have suffered, and 
of the crimes we have been guilty of. J will 
now, therefore, return to the relation of our 
own affairs. 

4, For in the first year of the reign of Nerv, 
upon the death of Azizus, king of Emeza, 
Soemus,* his brother, succeeded in his king- 
dom, and Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king 
of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero with the 
government of Lesser Armenia. Cesar also 
bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, 
Tiberias, and Tariches,} and ordered them to 
submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also 
Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen villages 
that lay about it. 

5. Now, as for the affairs of the Jews, they 
grew worse and worse continually; for the 
country was again filled with robbers and im- 
postors, who deluded the multitude. Yet did 
Felix catch and put to death many of those 
impostors every day, together with the robbers. 
He also caught Eleazar, the son of Dineas, 
who had gotten together a company of robbers; 
and this he did by treachery; for he gave him 
assurance that he should suffer no harm, and 
thereby persuaded him to come to him; but 
when he came he bound him, and ser. him te 
Rome. Felix also bore an il} will te Jona 
than, the high priest, because he frec aently 
gave him admonitions about governig we 
Jewish affairs better than he did, lest he should 
himself have complaints made of him by the 


* This Soemus is elsewhere mentioned {by Josephus in his 
own Life, sect. 1], as also] by Dio Cassius and Tacitus, as 
Dr. Hudson informs us. 

7 This agrees with Josephus’s frequent accounts else- 
where in ‘his own Life, that Tiberius, and Tarichew, and 
Gamala were wider this Agrippa junior, till Justus, the som 
of Pistus, seized upon them for the Jews 1pon the breaking 
out of the war. 


#92 


muitizide, since he it was who had desired 
Cesar to send him as procurator of Judea. So 
Felix contrived a method whereby he might 
get rid of him, now he was become so con- 
tinually troublesome to him; for such continual 
admonitions are grievous to those who are dis- 
posed to act unjustly. Wherefore Felix per- 
suaded one of Jonathan’s most faithful friends, 
a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, 
to bring the robbers upon Jonathan, in order 
to kill him; and this he did by promising to 
ive him a great deal of money for so doing. 
ae complied with the proposal, and con- 
tiived matters so, that the robbers might mur- 
der him after the following manner: Certain 
of those robbers went up to the city, as if they 
were going to worship God, while they had 
daggers under their garments, and, by thus 
mingling themselves among the multitude, 
they slew Jonathan,* and as this murder was 
pever avenged, the robbers went up with the 
greatest security at the festivals after this time, 
and having weapons concealed in lixe manner 
before, and mingling themselves among the 
multitude, they slew certain of their own ene- 
mies, and were subservient to other men for 
money, and slew others, not only in remote 
parts of the city, but in the temple itself also; 
for they had the boldness to murder men there, 
without tinking of the impiety of which they 
were guilty. And this seems to me to have 
been the reasons why God, out of his hatred of 
these men’s wickedness, rejected our city, and 
as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it 
sufficiently pure for him to inhabit therein, but 
brought the Romans upon us, and threw a fire 
upon the city to purge it, and brought upon us, 
our wives and children, slayery, as desirous to 
make us wiser by our calamities. 
6. These works that were done by the rob- 
bers, filled the city with all sorts of impiety. 


* This treacherous and barbarous murder of the good high 
priest Jonathan, by the contrivance of this wicked procura- 
tor Felix, was the immediate occasion of the ensuing mur- 
ders by the Sicarii or ruffians, and one great cause of the fol- 
lowing horrid cruelties and miseries of the Jewish nation, as 
Josephus here supposes, whose excellent reflection on the 
gross wickedness of that nation, as the direct cause of their 
terrible destruction, is well worthy the atuention of every 
Jewish and of every Christian reader. And, since we are 
soon coming to the catalogue of the Jewish high priests, it 
may not be amiss, with Reland, to insert this Jonathan 
among them, and to transcribe his particular catalogue of the 
last twenty-eight high priests, taken out of Josephus, and 
begin with Ananelus, who was made by Herod the Great; 
see Antiq. b. xv. ch. ii. sect. 4, and the note there. 1. Ana- 
nelus. 2. Aristobulus. 3. Jesus, the sonof Fabus. 4. Si- 
mon, the son of Boethus. 5. Matthias, the son of Theophi- 
lus. 6. Joazer, the son of Boethus. 7. Eleazar, the son of 
Boethus. & Jesus, the sonofSie. 9. [Annas, or] Ananus, 
the son of Seth. 10. Ismael, the son of Fabus. 11. Elea- 
zar, the son of Ananus. 12. Simon, the son of Camithus. 
13. Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in-law to Ananus. 14. Jo- 
nathan, the son of Ananus. 15. Theophilus, his brother, 
and son of Ananus. 16. Simon, the son of Boethus. 17, 
Matthias, the brother of Jonathan, and son of Ananus. 18. 
Aljoneus. 19. Josephus, the son of Camydus. 20. Ana- 
nias, the son of Nebedeus. 21. Jonathan. 22. Ishmael, 
the son of Fabi. 23. Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon. 24. 
Ananus, the sonof Ananus. 25. Jesus, the son of Dam- 
neus. Jesis, the son of Gamaliel. 27. Matthias, the 
son of Theophilus. 28. Phannias, the son of Samuel. 
As for Ananus and Josephus Caiaphas, here mentioned about 
the middle of this catalogue, they are no other than those 
Ananus and Caiaphas, so often mentioned in the four gos- 
pels; and that Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, was that high 

iest before whom St. Paul pleaded his own cause; Acts 
Exiy. 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. — . 





And now these impostors,* and deceivers per 
suaded the multitude to follow them into the 
wilderness, and pretended that they would ex- 
hibit manifest wonders and signs that should 
be performed by the providence of God. And 
many that were prevailed on by them suffered 
the punishment of their folly; for Felix brought 
them back, and then punished them. More 
over, there came out of Egypt,t about this: 
time, to Jerusalem, one that said he was a pro- 

phet, and advised the multitude of the common 

people to go along with him to the mount c% 


‘Olives, as it was called, which lay over against 


the city, and at the distance of five furlongs, 
He said further that he would shew them from 
thence, how, at his command, the walls of Je 
rusalem would fall down; and he promised 
them, that he would procure them an entrance 
into the city through those walls, when they 
were fallen down. Now, when Felix was in- 
formed of these things, he ordered his soldiers 
to take their weapons, and came against them 
with a great number of horsemen and foe*men 
from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian and 
the people that were with him. He also slew 
four hundred of them, and took two hundred 
alive. But the Egyptian himself escaped out 
of the fight, but did not appear any more. And 
again the robbers stirred up the people to make 
war with the Romans, and said, that they 
onght not to obey them at all; and,when any 
person would not comply with them, they set 
fire to their villages, and plundered them. 

7. And now it was that a great sedition arose 
between the Jews that inhabited Caesarea, and 
the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning 
their equal right to the privileges belonging te 
citizens, for the Jews claimed the pre-emi- 
nence, because Herod their king was the build 
er of Ceesarea, and because he was by birth a 
Jew. Now, the Syrians did not deny what 
was alleged about Herod; but they said that 
Cvesarea was formerly called Strato’s Tower, 
and that then there was not one Jewish inhabit 
ant. When the presidents of that country 
heard of these disorders, they caught the au- 
thors of them on both sides, and tormented 
them with stripes, and by that means put astop 
to the disturbance for a time. But the Jewish 
citizens, depending on their wealth, and on that 
account despising the Syrians. reproached them 
again, and hoped to provoke them by such ree 
proaches. However, the Syrians, though they 
were inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves 
highly ou this account, that the greatest part of 
the Roman soldiers, that were there, were eith 
er of Caesarea or Sebaste, they also for some 
time used reproachful language to the Jews 
also; and thus it was, till at length they came 
throwing stones at one another, and several 
were wounded, and fell on both sides, though 
still the Jews were the conquerors. But whe 
Felix saw that this quarrel was become a ki 














* Of these Jewish impostors and false prophets, with many 
other circumstances and miseries of the Jews, till the 
utter destruction foretold by our Savior, see Lit. Accomph 
of Proph. p 58—75. . 

+ Of this Egyptian impostor, and the number of his 
lowers in Josephus, see Acts xxi. 38. 


desired the Jews to desist, and when they re- 
fused so to do, he armed his soldiers, and sent 


| them out upon them, and slew many of them, 
‘and took more of them alive, and permitted 


his soldiers to plunder some of the houses of 


iS the citizens, which were full of riches. 


Bof Fabi. 


Now 
those Jews that were more moderate, and of 
principal dignity among them, were afraid of 
themselves, and desired of Felix that he would 
sound a retreat to his soldiers, and spare them 
for the future, and afford them room for repent- 
ance for what they had done; and Felix was 
prevailed upon so to do. 

8. About this time king Agrippa gave the 
high priesthood to Ishmael, who was the son 
And now arose a sedition between 
the high priests and the principal men of the 
multitude of Jerusalem, each of whom got 
them a company of the boldest sort of men, 
and of those that loved innovations, about them 
and became leaders to them; and when they 
struggled together, they did it by casting re- 
proachful words one against another, and by 
throwing stones also. And there was nobody 
to reprove them; but these disorders were done 
after a licentious manner in the city, as if it had 
no government over it. And such was the im- 
pudence and boldness that had seized on the 
high priests, that they had the hardiness to 
send their servants into the thrashing-floors, to 
take away those tithes that were due to the 


priests; insomuch that it so fell out that the poor- 


est sort of the priests died for want.* To this 


_ degree did the violence of the seditious prevail 


greatest honor’ by him. 


over all right and justice! 

9. Now, when Porcius Festus was sent as 
successor to Felix by Nero, the principal of the 
Jewish inhabitants of Czesarea went up to Rome 
to accuse Felix; and he had certainly been 
brought to punishment, unless Nero had yield- 
ed to the importunate solicitations of his bro- 
ther Pallas, who was at that time had in the 
Two of the principal 

yrians in Ceesarea persuaded Burrhus, who 
was Nero’s tutor, and secretary for his Greek 
epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, 


- todisannul that equality of the Jewish privileges 
__ of citizens which they hitherto enjoyed. So 


_ to that purpose. 


Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained leave of 
the emperor that an epistle should be written 
This epistle became the oc- 
easion of the following miseries that befell our 


‘nation; for, when the Jews of Caesarea were 


S je) 


informed of the contents of this epistle to the 
Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, 
till a war was kindled. 

10. Upon Festus’s coming into Judea, it hap- 
pened that Judea was afflicted by the robbers, 
while all the villages were set on fire, and plun- 
dered by them. And then it was that the Si- 


eariil, as they were called, who were robbers, 


grew numerous. They made use of small 


* The wickedness here was very peculiar and extraordi- 
nary, that the high priests should so oppress their brethren the 


iests, as to starve the poorest of them to death; see the ; 


ike presently, ch. ix. sect. 2 Such fatal crimes are cove- 


_ tousness and tyranny 1a the clergy, as well as in the laity, in 


all ages. 





BOOK XX.—CHAPTER VIII 
_ wf war, he came upon them on the sudden, and 


493 


swords, not much different in length from the 
Persian acinace, but somewhat crooked, and 
like the Romans sice [or sickles,] as they were 
called: and from these weapons these robbers 
got their denomination, and with those wea- 
pons they slew a great many; for they mingled 
themselves among the multitude at their fest 
vals, when they were come up in crowds from 
all parts to the city to worship God, as we said 
before, and easily slew those that they had a 
mind toslay. They also came frequently apon 
the villages belonging to their enemies, with 
their weapons, and plundered them, and set 
them on fire. So Festus sent forces, both horse- 
men and footmen, to fall upon those that had 
been seduced by a certain impostor, who pro- 
mised them deliverance and freedom from the 
miseries they were under, if they would but 
follow him as far as the wilderness. Accord- 
ingly those forces that were sent destroyed both 
him that had deluded them, and those that were 
his followers also. 

11. About the same time king Agrippa built 
himself a very large dining-room in the royal 
palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now 
this palace had been erected of old by the chil- 
dren of Asmoneus, and was situate upon an ele- 
vation, and afforded a most delightful prospect 
to those that had a mind to take a view of the 
city, which prospect was desired by the king; 
and there he could lie down, and eat, and 
thence observe what was done in the temple 
which things, when the chief men of Jerusa- 
lem saw, they were very much displeased at 
it: for it was not agreeable to the institutions of 
our country or laws, that what was done in the 
temple should be viewed by others, especially 
what belonged to the sacrifices. They. there- 
fore erected a wall upon the uppermost build- 
ing which belonged to the inner court of the 
temple towards the west, which wall, when it 
was built, did not only intercept the prospect 
of the dining-room in the palace, but also of 
the western cloisters that belonged to the outer 
court of the temple also, where it was that the 
Romans kept guards for the temple at the fes- 
tivals. At these doings both king Agrippa, 
and principally Festus the procurator, were 
much displeased: and Festus ordered them to 
pull the wall down again; but the Jews peti- 
tioned him to give them leave to send an em- 
bassage about this matter to Nero; for they said 
they could not endure to live, if any part of 
the temple should he demolished; and when 
Festus had given them leave so to do, they sent 
ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ish- 
mael the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of 
the sacred treasure. And when Nero had 
heard what they had to say, he not only for 
gave them what they had already done * but als 

| gave them leave to let the wall they had buil 


* We have here one eminent example of Nero’s mildnese 
and goodness in his government towards the Je vs, during the 
five first years of his reign, so famous in antiquity; we have 
perhaps another in Josephus’s own Life, sect. 3; and a third, 

though of a very different nature, here, in sect. 9, just before. 
However, both the generous acts of kindness were obtained 
of Nero by his queen Poppea, who was a religious lady, and 
perhaps privately a Jewish proselyte, and so were not owing 
‘ entirely to Nero’s own goodness. 





494 


stand. This was granted them, in order to gra- 
tify Poppea, Nero’s wife, who was a religious 
woman, and had requested these favors of Nero, 
and who gave order to the ten ambassadors to 

o their way home; but retained Helcias and 
shmael as hostages with herself. As soon as 
the king heard this news, he gave the high 
priesthood to Joseph, who was called Cabi, the 
son of Simon, formerly high priest. 


CHAPTER IX. 


Concerning Albinus, under whose procuratorship 
James was slain; as also what edifices were 
but by Agrippa. 

§ 1. And now Cesar, upon hearing of the 
death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as 
procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of 
the high priesthood, and bestowed the succes- 
sion to that dignity on the son of Ananus, who 
was also liimself called Ananus. Now the re- 
port goes, that this elder Ananus proved a most 
fortunate man; for he had five sons, who had 
all performed the office of a high priest to God 
and he had himself enjoyed that dignity for- 
merly, a long time, which had never happened 
to any other of our high priests. But this young- 
er Ananus, who, as we have told you already, 
took the high priesthood, was a bold man m 
his temper, and very insolent; he was also of 
the sect of the Sadducees,* who are very rigid 
in judging offenders above the rest of the Jews, 
as we have already observed: when, therefore, 
Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he 
had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his 
authority.} Festus was now dead, and Albi- 
nus was put upon the road; so he assembled 
the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before 
them the brother of Jesus, -who was called 
Christ, whose name was James, and some oth- 
ers, (or some of his companions.] And when he 
had formed an accusation against them as 
breakers of the law, he delivered them to be 
stoned; but as for those who seemed the most 
equitable of the citizens, and such as were the 
most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they 
disliked what was done; they also sent to the 
king, [Agrippa,] desiring him to send to Ana- 
nus that he should act so no more, for that what 
he had already done was not to be justified: nay, 
some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he 
was upon his journey from Alexandria, and in- 
formed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to 
assemble a sanhedrim without his consent.t 
Whereupon Albinus complied with what they 
said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threat- 


« It here evidently appears, that Sadducees might be high 
priests in the days of Josephus, and that these Sadducees 
were usually very severe and inexorable judges, while the 
Pharisees were much milder, and more merciful, as appears 
by Reland’s instances in his note on this place, and on Jose- 
phus’s Life, sect. 34; and those taken from the New T'esta- 
ment, from Josephus himself, and from the Rabbins; nor do 
we niecet with any Sadducees later than this high priest in 
all Josephus. 

t Of this condemnation of James the Just, and its causes, 
as also that he did not die till long afterward, see wgim. 
Christ. Revived, vol. iii. ch. 43—46. The sanhedrim ¢on- 
denned our ~avior, but could not put him to death without 
the approbation of the Roman Procurator; nor could, there- 
fore, Ananias and his sanhedrim do more here, since they 
dite aN Albinus’s approbation for the putting this James 
to deat), 


ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 


ened that he would bring him to punishmen — 


for what he had done; on which king AeTIPP he 


took the high priesthood from him wher 
had ruled but three months, and made Jesus 
the son of Damneus high priest. 


3 


” 
a 


. 


é 


2. Now as soon as Albinus was come to the — 


city of Jerusalem, he used all his endeavors 
and care that the country might be kept in 
peace, and this by destroying many of the Si- 
carii. But as for the high priest Ananias,* he 


increased in glory every day, and this to a great : 


degree, and had obtained the favor and esteem 
of the citizens in a single manner, for he was 
a great hoarder up of money; he therefore cul 
tivated the friendship of Albinus, and of the 
high priest [Jesus,] by making them presents; 
he also had servants who were very wicked, 
who joined themselves to the boldest sort of 
the people, and went to the thrashing-floors, 
and took away the tithes that belonged to the 
priests by violence, and did not refrain from 
beating such as would not give these tithes to 
them. So the other high priests acted in the 
like manner, as did those his servants, without 
any one’s being able to prohibit them; so that 
[some of the] priests that of old were wont to be 
supported with those tithes, died for want of 
food. 

3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by 
night, just before the festival, which was now 
at hand, and took the scribe belonging to the 
governor of the temple, whose name was Elea- 
zar, Who was the son of Ananus[Ananias] the 
high priest, and bound him, and carried him 
away with them; after which they sent to Ana- 
nias, and said that they would send the scribe 


to him, if he would persuade Albinus to release — 


ten of those prisoners which he had caught of 
their party; so Ananias was plainly forced to 
persuade Albinus, and gained his request of 
him. This was the beginning of greater cala- 
tnities; for the robbers perpetually contrived to 
catch some of Ananias’s servants, and when 
they had taken them alive, they would not let 
them go, till they thereby recovered some of 
their own Sicarii. And as they were again 


become no small number, they grew bold, and — 


were a great affliction to the whole country. 
4. About this time it was that king Agrippe 
built Caesarea Philippi larger than it was be- 


fore, and, in honor of Nero, named it Nero- — 


And when he had built a theatre at Be- 


nias. 


rytus, with vast expense, he bestowed on them — 


shows, to be exhibited every year, and spent 
therein many ten thousand [drachme;] he also 


* This Ananias was not the son of Nebedeus, as I take 
but he who was called Annas, or Ananus the elder, the 
in the catalogue, and who had been esteemed high priest for 
a long time, and, besides Caiaphas his son-in-law, had five 
of his own sons high priests after him, which were those of 


numbers 11, 14, 15, 17, 24, in the foregoing catalogue. Nor, — 


Ought we to pass slightly over what Josephus here says of — 


this Annas or Ananias, that he was high priest a longtime __ 
before his children were so; he was the son of Seth, and is — 


set down first for high priest in the foregoing catalogue, under — 


number 9, He was made by Quirinus and continued tit — ] 


Ishmael, the 10th in number, for about twenty-three years, 
which long duration of his high priesthood, joined to the 


succession of bis son-in-law, and five children of his owm 


made him a sort of perpetual high priest, and was t 
the occasion that former high priests kept their tites eves 
afterward; for | believe it is hardly «wet with before hua —_ 








~ a 


e the people a largess of corn, and distri- 
Bate oil among them, and adorned the entire 
city with statues of his own donation, and 
with original images made by ancient hands; 
nay, he almost transferred all that was most 
ornamental in his own kingdom thither. This 
made him more than ordinarily hated by his 
subjects; because he took those things away 
that belonged to them, to adorn a foreign city. 
And now Jesus the son of Gamalie] became 
the successor of Jesus, the son of Damneus, 
in the high priesthood, which the king had 
taken from the other; on which account a se- 
dition arose between the high priesis, with re- 

rd to one another; for they got together 

dies of the boldest sort of the people, and 
frequently came, from reproaches, to throwing 
of stones at each other. But Ananias was too 
hard for the rest by his riches, which enabled 
him to gain those that were most ready to re- 
ceive. Costobarus, also, and Saulus, did them- 
selves get together a multitude of wicked 
wretches, and this because they were of the 
royal family; and so they obtained favor among 
them, because of their kindred to Agrippa; but 
still they used violence with the people, and 
were very ready to plunder those that were 
weaker than themselves. And from that it 
principally came to pass, that our city was 
greatly disordered, and that all things grew 
worse and worse among us. 

5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius 
Florus was coming to succeed him, he was de- 
sirous to appear to do somewhat that might be 

teful to the people of Jerusalem; so he 

rought out all those prisoners who seemed to 
him to be the most plainly worthy of death, 
and ordered them to be put to death accord- 
ingly. But as to those who had been put into 
prison on some trifling occasions, he took mo- 
ney of them, and dismissed them; by which 
means the prisons were emptied, but the coun- 
try was filled with robbers. 

6. Now, as many of the Levites,* which is 
a tribe of ours, as were singers of hymns, per- 
suaded the king to assemble a sanhedrim, and 
to give them leave to wear linen garments, as 
as the priests; for they said, that this would 
be a work worthy the times of his govern- 
ment, that he might have a memorial of such a 
novelty, as being his doing. Nor did they fail 
of obtaining their desire; for the king, with the 
suffrages of those that came into the sanhe- 
drim, granted the singers of hymns this privi- 
lege, that they may lay aside their former gar- 
‘ments, and wear such a linen one as they de- 
sired; and as a part of this tribe ministered in 
the temple, he also permitted them to learn 
those hymns as they had besought him for. 
‘Now all this was contrary to the laws of our 
country, which, whenever they have been 
‘transgressed, we have never been able to avoid 
_ the punishment of such transgressions. 


} 


_ * This insolent petition of some of the Levites, to wear 
‘the sacerdotal garments when they sung hymns to God in 
, fe temple, was very probably owing to the great depression 
‘and contempt the haughty high priests had now brought their 
‘brethren the priests into; of which see ch. vil. sect 1; and 
‘th. ix. sect. 2. 


he: D 
Di 


ra, 


BOOK XX.—CHAPTER IX. 





| temple, ch. xiii. 


7. And now it was that the temple was 
finished.* So when the people saw that the 
workmen were unemployed, who were above 
eighteen thousand, and that they, receiving no 
wages, were in want, because they had earned 
their bread by their labors about the temple, 
and while they were unwilling to keep them 
by the treasures that were there deposited, out 
of fear of [their being carried away by] the 
Romans; and while they had a regard to the 
making provision for the workmen, they hada 
mind to expend those treasures upon thems 
for if any one of them did but labor for a 
single hour, he received his pay immediately; 
so they persuaded him to rebuild the eastern 
cloisters. These cloisters belonged to the outer 
court, and were situated in a deep valley, and 
had walls that reached four hundred cubits [in 
length,] and were built of square and ve 
white stones, the length of each of whan 
stones was twenty cubits, and their height six 
cubits. This was the work of king Solomon,} 
who first of all built the entire temple. But 
king Agrippa, who had the care of the temple 
committed to him by Claudius Cesar, con- 
sidering that it is easy to demolish any build- 
ing, but hard to build it up again, and that it 
was particularly hard to do it to these cloisters, 
which would require a considerable time, and 
great sums of money, he denied the petitioners 
their request about that matter; but he did not 
obstruct them when they desired the city might 
be paved with white stone. He also deprived 
Jesus the son of Gamaliel of the high priest- 
hood, and gave it to Matthias, the son of Theo- 
philus, under whom the Jews’ war with the 

tomans took its beginning. 
CHAPTER X. 
An enumeration of the high priests. 

§ 1. And now I think it proper and agreea- 
ble to this history, to give an account of our 
high priests; how they began, who those are 
which are capable of that dignity, and how 
many of them there had been at the end of 
the war. In the first place, therefore, history 
informs us, that Aaron, the brother of Moses, 
officiated to God as a high priest, and that after 
his death, his sons succeeded him immediately; 
and that this dignity hath been continued down 
from them all to their posterity. Whence it is 
a custom of our country, that no one should 
take the high priesthood of God, but he who 
is of the blood of Aaron, while every one tha 
is of another stock, though he were a king, 
can never obtain that high priesthood. Ac- 
cordingly, the number of all the high priests 
from Aaron, of whom we have spoker already, 
as of the first of them, until Phanus, who was 
made high priest during the war by the sedi- 
tious, was eighty-three; of whom thirteen offi- 
ciated as high priests in the wilderness, from 
the days of Moses, while the tabernacle waa 

* Of this finishing, not of the Nxo>, or holy house, but of 
the s:ecv, or courts, about it, called in general the temple, see 
the note on b. xvii. ch. x. sect. 2. 

¢ Of these cloisters of Solomon, see the description of the 


They seein, by Josephus’s words, to haws 
been built from the bottom of the valley. 


606 


standing, until the people came into Judea, 
when king Solomon erected the temple to 
God: for at the first they held the high priest- 
hood till the end of their life, although after- 
ward they had successors while they were alive. 
Now these thirteen, who were the descend- 
ants of two of the sons of Aaron, received 
this dignity by succession, one after another; 
for their form of government was an aristo- 
eracy, and after that a monarchy, and in the 
third place the government was regal. Now, 
the number of years during the rule of these. 
thirteen, from the day when our fathers de- 
parted out of Egypt, under Moses their leader, 
until the building of that temple which king 
Solomon erected at Jerusalem, were six hun- 
dred and twelve. After those thirteen high 
priests, eighteen took the high priesthood at 
Jerusalem, one in succession to another, from 
the days of king Solomon, until Nebuchadnez- 
zar, king of Babylon, made an expedition 
against that city, and burnt the temple, and re- 
moved our nation into Babylon, and then took 
Josedek, the high priest, captive; the times of 
these high priests were four hundred sixty-six 
years six mouths and ten days, while the Jews 
were still under the regal government But 
after the term of seventy years’ captivity 
under the Babylonians, Cyrus, king of Persia, 
sent the Jews from Babylon to their own 
land again, and gave them leave to rebuild 
their temple; at which time, Jesus, the son 
of Josedek, took the high priesthood over 
the captives when they were returned home. 
Now he and his posterity, who were in all fif- 
teen, until king Antiochus Eupator, were under 
a democratical government for four hundred 
and fourteen years; and “then the foremen- 
tioned Antiochus, and Lysias the general of his 
army, deprived Onias, who was also called Me- 
nelaus, of the high priesthood, and slew him 
at Berea, and driving away the son [of Onias 
the third,] put Jacimus into the place of the 
high priest, one that was indeed of the stock 
of Aaron, but not of the family of Onias. On 
which account, Onias, who was the nephew of 
Onias that was dead, and bore the same name 
with his father, came into Egypt, and got into 
the friendship of Ptolemy Philometer, and 
Cleopatra his wife, and persuaded them to make 
him the high priest of that temple which he 
built to God in the prefecture of Heliopolis, 
and this in imitation of that at Jerusalem; but 
as for that temple which was built in Egypt, we 
have spoken of it frequently already. Now, 
when Jacimus had retained the high priesthood 
thrée years, he died, and there was no one that 
succeeded him, but the city continued seven 
years without a high priest; but then the pos- 
terity of the sons of Asmoneus, who had the 
government of the nation conferred upon them, 
when they had beaten the Macedonians, in war, 
appointed Jonathan to be their high priest, who 
ruled over them seven years. And when he 
nad been slain by the treacherous contrivance 
of Trypho, as we have relaced somewhere, Si- 
mon his brother took the high priesthood; and 
when he was destroyed »* feast by the trea- 


~ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. 







chery of his son-in-law, his own son, whoae 
name was Hyrcanus, succeeded him, after 
had held the high priesthood one year long 
than his brother. This Hyreanus enjoyed 
dignity thirty years, and died an old man, les 
ing the succession to Judas, who was also ca 
ed Aristobulus, whose brother Alexander wa 
his heir; which Judas died of a sore distemper 
after he had kept the priesthood, together with 
the royal authority, (for this Judas was the first 
that put on his head a diadem,) for one yes 
And when Alexander had been both king a 
high priest for twenty-seven years, he departed 
this life, and permitted his wife Alexandra te 
appoint him that should be high priest; so she 
gave the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, but re- 
tained the kingdom herself nine years, and ther 
departed this life. The like duration [and n 
longer] did her son Hyrcanus enjoy the high 
priesthood; for after her death his brother Aris 
tobulus fought against him, and beat him, ane 
deprived him of his principality; and he dic 
himself both reign, and perform the office of 
high priest to God. But when he had reignee 
three years and as many months, Pompey came 
upon him, and not only took the city of Jeru- 
salem by force, but put him and his children ir 
bonds, and sent them to Rome. He also re- 
stored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, anc 
made him governor of the nation, but forbade 
him to wear a diadem. This Hyreanus ruled 
besides his first nine years, twenty-four years 
more, when Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the 
generals of the Parthians, passed over Euphra- 
tes, and fought with Hyreanus, and took him 
alive, and made Antigouus, the son of Aris 
tobulus, king; and when he had reigned three 
years and three months, Sosius and Hero¢ 
besieged him, and took him, when Antony 
had bim brought to Antioch, and slain there 
Herod was then made king by the Romani 
but did no longer appoint high priests out 0} 


the family of Asmoneus: but made certain 
men to be so that were of no eminent fami 
lies, but barely of those that were priest 
excepting that he gave that dignity to Arist 
bulus; for when he had made this Aristobulus 
the grandson of that Hyrcanus who was the 
taken by the Parthians, and had taken his sis 
ter Mariamne to wife, he thereby aimed to wi 
the good will of the people, who had a kin 
remembrance of Hyrcanus yee grandfather. 
Yet did he afterward, out of his zear lest th 

should all bend their inclinations to Aristobulus 
put himi to death, and that by contriving to have 
him suffocated as he was swimming at Jerick 
as we have already related that matter; but a 
ter this man he never intrusted the high prie: 
hood to the posterity of the sons of Asmoneus 
Archelaus also, Herod’s son, did like his fath 
in the appointment of the high priests, | 
did the Romans also, who took the government 
over the Jews into their hands~ afterwa 

Accordingly the numbers of the high pries 
from the days of Herod until the day whe 
Titus took the temple and the city, and bur 
them, were in all twenty-eight; the time a! 
that belonged to them was a hundred a 




















Lf 


ri 
seven years. Some of these were the political 
governors of the people under the reign of 
Bod, and under the reign of Archelaus his 
son, although, after their death, the government 
became an aristocracy,and the high priests were 
intrusted with a dominion over the nation. And 
thus much may suffice to be said concerning 


our high priests. 
CHAPTER XI. 


Concerning Florus the procurator, who necesst- 
tated the Jews to take wp arms against the Ro- 
mans. The conclusion. 


§ 1. Now Cessius Florus, who was sent as 
successor to Albinus by Nero, filled Judea with 
abundance of miseries. He was by birth of 
the city of Clazomene, and brought along with 
him his wife Cleopatra, (by whose friendship 
with Poppea, Nero’s wife, he obtained this go- 
vernment,) who was noway different from him 
in wickedness. This Florus was so wicked, 
and so violent in the use of his authority, that 
the Jews took Albinus to have been [compara- 
tively] their benefactor; so excessive were the 
mischiefs that he brought upon them. For Al- 
binus concealed his wickedness, and was care- 
ful that it might not be discovered to all men; 
but Gessius Florus, as though he had been sent 
on purpose to show his crimes to every body, 
made a pompous ostentation of them to our 
Nation, as never omitting any sort of violence, 
hor any unjust sort of punishment; for he was 
not to be moved by pity, and never was satis- 
fied with any degree of gain that came in his 
way; nor had he any more regard to great than 
to small acquisitions, but becaine a partner with 
the robbers themselves. For a great many fell 
then into that practice without fear, as having 
him for their security, and depending on him; 
that he would save them harmless in their par- 
ticular robberies; so that there were no bounds 
set to the nation’s miseries; but the unhappy 
Jews, when they were not able to bear the de- 
vastations which the robbers made among them, 
were all under a necessity of leaving their 
own habitations and of flying away, as hoping 
to dwell more easily anywhere else in the 
world among foreigners, [than in their own 
country ] And what need I say any more upon 
this head? since it was this Florus who neces- 
sitated us to take up arms against the Romans, 
while we thought it better to be destroyed at 
once, than by little and little. Now this war 
began in the second year of the government of 
Flo-us, and the twelfth year of the reign of 
Nerv. But then what actions we were forced 
to do, or what miseries we were enabled to suf- 
fer, nay be accurately known by such as will 

ruse those books which I have written about 

ne Jewish war. 

2. I shall now, therefore, make an end here 
of my Antiquities; after the conclusion of 
which events, I began to write that account of 
the war; and these Antiquities contain what 
hath been delivered down to us from the ori- 
ginal creation of man, until the twelfth year 
of the reign of Nero, as to what hath befallen 
the Jews, as well in Egypt as iz Syria and in 





BOOK XX.—CHAPTER X1. 


A 


4M 


Palestine, and what we have suffered fiom the 
Assyrians and Babylonians, and what afflictic re 
the Persians and Macedonians, and after them 
the Romans, have brought upon us; for I think 
J inay say that T have composed this history 
with sufficient accuracy in all things. I have 
attempted to enumerate those high priests that 
we have had during the interval of two thou- 
sand years: I have also carried down the suc- 
cession of our kings, and related their actions, 
and political administrations, without [consid- 
erable] errors, as also the power of our mo- 
narchs; and all according to what is written in 
our sacred books; for this it was that I promis- 
ed to doin the beginning cf this history. And 
Iam so bold as to say, now J have so completely 
perfected the work I proposed to myself to do, 
that no other person, whether he were a Jew or 
a foreigner, had he ever so great an inclination 
to it, could so accurately deliver these accounts 
to the Greeks as is done in these books. For 
those of my own nation freely acknowledge, 
that I far exceed them in the learning belong. 
ing to Jews; I have also taken a great deal of 
pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and 
understand the elements of the Greek lan- 
guage, although | have so long accustomed 
myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot 
pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for 
our nation does not encourage those that learn 
the languages of many nations, and so adorn 
their discourses with the smoothness of their 
periods; because they look upon this sort of ac- 
complishment as common, not only to all sorts 
of free men, but to as many of the servants as 
please to learn them. But they give him the 
testimony of being a wise man, who is fully 
acquainted with our laws, and is able to inter- 
pret their meaning; on which account, as there 
have been many who have done their endeav- 
ors with great patience to obtain this learning, 
there have yet hardly been so many as two or 
three that have succeeded therein, who were 
immediately well rewarded for their pains. 

3. And now it will not be perhaps an invi- 
dious thing, if I treat briefly of my own family, 
and of the actions of my own life,* while there 
are still living such as can either prove what I 
say to be false, or can attest that it is true; with 
which accounts [ shall put an end to these 
Antiquities; which are contained in twenty 
books, and sixty thousand verses. And if Godt 


* The Life here referred to, will be found at the beginning 
of the work. 

{ What Josephus here declares his intention to do, if God 
permitted, to give the public again an ubridgment of the Jew- 
ish War, and to add what befell them further to that very day, 
the 13th of Domitian, or A. D. 93, is not, that | have observ- 
ed, taken distinct notice of by any one; nor do we ever hear 
of it elsewhere, whether he performed what he now intend- 
ed or not. Some of the reasons of this design of his might 
possibly be his observation of the many errors he had been 
guilty of in the two first of those seven books of the War. 
which were written when he was comparatively young, an 
Jess acquainted with the Jewish Antiquities than he now 
was, and in which abridgment we might have hoped to find 
those many passages which himself, as well as those several 
passages which others refer to, as written by him, but whieh 
are not extant in his present works. However, since many 
of his own references to what he had written elsewhere, a 
well as most of his own errors, belong to such early times 
as could not wel come into this abridgment of the Jewisb 
War; and since none of those that quote things not now er 


ie 


permit me, 1 will briefly run over this war 
again, with what befell us therein to this 
very day, which is the thirteenth year of the 
reign of Cesar Domitian, and the fifty-sixth 
year of my own life. I have also an intention 


tant in his works, including himself as wel] as others, ever 
eite any such abridgment, I am forced rather to suppose that 
he never did publish any such work at all, I mean as distinct 
from his own life, written by himself, for an appendix to 
these Antiquities, and this at least seven years after these 
Antiquities, were finished. Nor indeed does it appear to 
me, that Josephus ever published that other work here men- 
tivaed, as intended by him for the public also. I mean the 
\hree or four books concerning God and his essence, and con- 


WARS OF ‘THE JEWS. 







to write three books concerning our Jew 
opinions about God and his essence, and a 
our laws; why, according to them, some thi 
are permitted us to do, and others are prohi 
bited. % 
were permitted the Jews, and others prohibited; which last 
seems to be the same work which Josephus had also pro 
mised, if God permitted, as the conclusion of his preface te 
these Antiquities; nor do [ suppose that he ever published 
any of them. The death of all his friends at court, Vespa 

sian, Titus, and Domitian, and the coming of those he iad 
no acquaintance with to the crown, I mean Nerva and Tra 
jan, together with his removal from Rome to Judea, with 
what followed it, might easily interrupt such his intenticas, 


serning the Jew'ss aws; why, according to them, some things | and prevent his publication of those works. 





—— 





THE WARS OF THE JEWS; 


OR, THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. 


PREFACE. 


$ 1. Waereas® the war which the Jews 
made with the Romans hath been the greatest 
of all those, not only that have been in our 
times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were 
heard of: both of those wherein cities have 
fought against cities, or nations against nations; 
while some men who were not concerned in 
the affairs themselves, have gotten together 
vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and 
have written them down after a sophistical 
manner; and while those that were there pre- 
sent have given false accounts of things, and 
this either out of humor or. flattery to the Ro- 
mans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and 
while their writings contain sometimes accu- 
gations and sometimes encomiums, but no- 
where the accurate truth of the facts; [ have 
proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live 
under the government of the Romans, to trans- 
late those books into the Greek tongue, which 
[ formerly composed in the language of our 
eountry, and sent to the Upper Barbarians.} _[, 


* { have already observed more than once, that this his- 
sry of the Jewish war was Josephus’s first work, and pub- 
lished atvyit A. D. 75. when he was but 38 years of age: and 
that when he wrote i: he was not thoroughly acquainted 
with several circumstances of history from the days of An- 
tlochus Epiphanes with which it begins, till nearly his own 
times, contained in the first and former part of the second 
book, and so committed many involuntary errors therein. 
That he published his Antiquities 18 years afterward, in the 
13th year of Domitian, A. D. 93, when he was much more 
edmpletely acquainted with those ancient umes, and after he 
kad perused those most authentic histories, the first book 
ef the Maccabees, and wrote the chronicles of the priest- 
hood of John Hyrcanus, &c. That, accordingly, he then re- 
viewed those parts of this work, and gave the public a more 
faithful, complete, and accurate account of the facts therein 
related, and honestly corrected the errors he had before run 
into. 

{ Who those Upper Barbarians, remote from the sea, were, 
Josephus himself will inform us, sect. 2, viz. the Parthians 
and Babylonians, and remotest Arabians {or the Jews among 
them;] besides the Jews beyond Euphrates, and the Adia- 
beni or Assyrians. Whence we also learn, that those Par- 
@ians, Babylonians, the remotest Arabians, for at least the 
4ews among them,] as also the Jews beyond Euphrates, and 
the Adiabeni or Assyrians, understood Josephus’s Hebrew, 
er rather Chaldaic books of the Jewish War, before they 
were put into the Greek language. 


Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a He 
brew, a priest also, and one who at first fought 
against the Romans myself, and was forced te 
be present at what was done afterward, [1 am 
the author of this work. ]} . 
2. Now at the time when this great concus 
sion of affairs happened, the affairs of the Ro- 
mans were theinselves in great disorder. Those 
Jews also, who were for innovations, then arose 
when the times were disturbed; they were also 
in a flourishing condition for strength and 
riches, insomuch that the affairs of the east 
were then exceedingly tumultuous, while some 
hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss, 
in such troubles; for the Jews hoped that all of 
their nation who were beyond Euphrates, 
would have raised an insurrection together 
with them. The Gauls also, in the neighborhood 
of the Romans, were in motion, and the Celts 
were not quiet; but all was in disorder after 
the death of Nero. And the opportunity now 
offered induced many to aim at the royal power; 
and the soldiery affected change out of the hopes: 
of getting money. 1 thought it therefore an’ 
absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs 
of such great consequence and to take no no= 
tice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Ro- 
mans that were not in the wars to be ignore 
of these things, and to read either flatteries or 
fictions, while the Parthians and the Babylo- 
nians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of 
our nation beyond Euphrates, with the Adie 
abeni, by my means, knew accurately both 
whence the war begun, what miseries it bro ight 
upon us, and after what manner itended. 
3. It is true, these writers have the confide 
to call their accounts histories, wherein 
they seem to me to fail of their own purpose, 
as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For 
they have a mind to demonstrate the greatne 
of the Romans, while they still diminish and 
lessen the actions of the Jews; as not disce: 
ing how it cannot be that those must ap 










“a 
mi 


q 


‘ PREFACE, 


ths 

be great who have only conquered those that 
were little. Nor are they ashamed to over- 
took the length of the war, the multitude of the 
Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or 
the might of the commanders; whose great la- 
bors about Jerusalem will be deemed inglori- 
ous, if what they achieved be reckoned but a 
small matter. 

4 However, I will not go to the other ex- 
treme out of opposition to those men who ex- 
tol the Romans, nor will I determine to raise 
the actions of my countrymen too high; but I 
will prosec:ite the actions of both parties with 
accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the 
passions | am under, as to the affairs | describe, 
and must be allowed to indulge some lamenta- 
tions upon the miseries undergone by my own 
country. For that it wasa seditious temper of 
our own that destroyed it, and that they were 
the tyrants among the Jews who brought the 
Roman power upon us, who unwillingly at- 
tacked us, and occasioned the burning of our 
holy temple; Titus Cesar, who destroyed it, is 
himself a witness, who, during the entire war, 
pitied the people, who were kept under by the 
seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the 
taking of the city, and allowed time to the 
siege, in or’er to let the authors have opportu- 
nity for repentance. But if any one makes an 
unjust accusation against us, when we speak so 
passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, 
or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our country, 
et him indulge my affections herein, though 
jt be contrary to the rules for writing history; 
because it had so come to pass, that our city, 
Jerusalem, had arrived at a higher degree of 
felicity than any other city under the Roman 
government, and yet at last fell into the sorest 
calamities again. Accordingly, it appears to 
me, that the -misfortunes* of all men, from the 
beginning of the world, if they be compared 
to these of the Jews, are not so considerable 
as they were; while the authors of them were 
not foreigners neither. ‘This makes it impossi- 
ble for me to contain iny lamentations. But, 
if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, 
let him attribute the facts themselves to the 
historical part, and the lamentations to the wri- 
ter himself only. 

5. However, I may justly blame the learned 
men among the Greeks, who, when such great 
actions have been done in their own times, 
which, upon the comparison, quite eclipsed 
the old wars, do yet sit as judges of those af- 
fairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors 
of the best writers of antiquity; which mo- 
derns, although they may be superior to the 
old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior 
to taem in the execution of what they intended 
to do. While these also write new histories 
‘about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the an- 
‘tient writers had not described their affairs as 
they ought to have done; although these be as 
far inferior to them in abilities, as they are dif- 

ferent in their notions from them, For of old, 


_* That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Sa- 
_ vior’s murderers were to be the greatest that had ever been 
since the beginning of the world, our Savior had directly 
BD) 


i 
iia 
see 


40s 
every one took upon them to write what hap 
pened in his own time; where their immediate 
concern in the actions made their promises ot 
value; and where it must be reproachful te 
write lies, when they must be known by the 
readers to be such. But then, an undertaking 
to preserve the memory of what hath not been 
before recorded, and to represent the affairs of 
one’s own time to those that come afterward, 
is really worthy of praise and commendation. 
Now, he is to he esteemed to have taken good 
pains in earnest, not who does no more than 
change the disposition and order of other 
men’s works, but he who not only relates what 
had not been related before, but composes an 
entire body of history of his own; accordingly, 
I have been at great charges, and have taken 
very great pains [about this history,] though | 
be a foreigner: and do dedicate this work, as a 
memorial of great actions, both to the Greeks 
and to the Barbarians. But, for some of our 
own principal men, their mouths are wide 
open, and their tongues loosed presently, for 
gain and lawsuits, but quite muzzled up when 
they are to write history, where they must 
speak truth and gather facts together with a 
great deal of pains; and so they leave the wri- 
ting such histories to weaker people, and to 
such as are not acquainted with the actions of 
princes. Yet shall the real truth of bistorical 
facts be preferred by us, how much soever it 
be neglected among the Greek historians. 

6. To write concerning the Antiquities of 
the Jews, who they were [originally,] and how 
they revolted from the Egyptians, and what 
country they travelled over, and what coun- 
tries they seized upon afterward, and how 
they were removed out of them, I think this 
not to be a fit opportunity, and, on other ac- 
counts also, superfluous; and this because many 
Jews before me have composed the histories 
of our ancestors very exactly; as have some 
of the Greeks done it also; and have translated 
our histories into their own tongue, and have 
not much mistaken the truth in their histories. 
But then, where the writers of these affairs, and 
our prophets leave off, thence shal] I take my 
rise, and begin my history. Now as to what 
concerns that war, which happened in my own 
time, I will go over it very largely, and with 
all the diligence Iam able; but for what preced- 
ed mine own age, that I shall run over briefly 

7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antio- 
chus, who was named Epiphanes, took Jeru- 
salem by force, and held it three years and 
three months, and was then ejected out of the 
country by the sons of Asmoneus; after that 
how their posterity quarrelled about the go 
vernment, and brought upon their settlemen, 
the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the 
son of Antipater, dissolved their government, 
and brought Sosius upon them; as also how 
our people made a sedition upon Herod’s 
death, while Augustus was the Roman emperor 
and Quintilius Varus was in that country; and 


foretold, Matt. xxiv. 21; Mark xiii. 19; Luke xxi. 23, 24, am 
that they proved to be such accordingly, Josephus is here 
most authentic witness. 


500 


how the war broke ont in the twelfth year of 
Nero, witl: what happened to Cestius; and 
what places the Jews assaulted in a hostile 
manner in the first sallies of the war. 

8. As also, [I shall relate] how they built 
walls about the neighboring cities; and how 
Nero, upon Cestius’s defeat, was in fear of the 
entire event of the war, and thereupon made 
Vespasian general in this war; and how this 
Vespasian, with the elder of his sons, [‘Titus,] 
made an expedition into the country of Judea; 
what was the number of the Roman army, 
that he made use of} and how many of his 
auxiliaries were cut off in all Galilee; and how 
he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, 
and others of them by treaty, and on terms, 
Now, when I come so far, I shall describe the 
good order of the Romans in war, and the dis- 
cipline of their legions; the amplitude of both 
the Galilees, with its nature, and the limits of 
Judea. And, besides this, I shall particularly 

o over what is peculiar to the country, the 
akes and fountains that are in them, and what 
miseries happened to every city as they were 
taken, and all this with accuracy as I saw the 
things done, or suffered in them. For I shall 
not conceal any of the calamities I myself en- 
dured, since I shall relate them to such as 
know the truth of them. 

9. After this, [I shall relate) how, when the 
Jews’ affairs were become very bad, Nero died; 
and Vespasian, when he was going to attack 
Jerusalem, was called back to take the govern- 
ment upon him, what signs happened to him 
relating to his gaining that government, and 
what mutations of government then happened 
at Rome, and how he was unwillingly made 
emperor by his soldiers, and how, upon his 
departure to Egypt, to take upon him the go- 
vernment of the empire, the affairs of the 
Jews became very tumultuous; as also how 
the tyrants rose up against them, and fell into 
dissensions amongst themselves. 

10. Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus 
marched out of Egypt into Judea the second 
time; as also how, and where, and how many 
forces he got together, and in what state the 
city was, by the means of the seditious, at his 
coming; what attacks he made, and how many 
ramparts he cast up: of the three walls that 
encompassed the city, and of their measures; 





BOOK I. 


OONTAINING THE.INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS.—FROM THE TARE 
OF JERUSALEM BY ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES, TO THE DEATH OF HEROD THE GREAT. 





CHAPTER LI. | 
How the city of Jerusalem was taken, and the 
“ temple pilbaged [by Antiochus Epiphanes.| As 


also concerning the actions of the Maccabees, 
Matthias, and Judas; and concerning the death 
of Judas. 


; l. Ar the same time that Antiochus, who 
ta called Epiphanes, had a quarrel with the 


WARS OF THE JEWS. a 





of the strength of the city, and the structure ot 
the temple, and holy house; and besides, the 
measures of those edifices, and of the altar 
and all accurately determined. A description 
also of certain of their festivals, and seven pu- 
rifications of purity,* and the sacred ministra: 
tions of the priests, with the garments of the 
priests and of the high priests, and of the na- 
ture of the most holy place of the temple, 
without concealing any thing, or adding any 
thing to the known truth of things. \, 
11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of 
the tyrants towards the people of their own na= 
tion, as well as the indulgence of the Romans 
in sparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out 
of his desire to preserve the city and the tem 
ple, invited the seditious to come to terms of 
accommodation. I shall also distinguish the 
sufferings of the people, and their calamities; 
how far they were afilicted by the seditious, an 
how far by the famine, and at length were ta 
ken. Nor shall | omit to mention the misfor- 
tunes of the deserters, nor the punishments in 
flicted on the captives: as also how the temple 
was burnt, against the consent of Cesar, and 
how many sacred things that had been laid up 
in the temple, were snatched out of the fire; 
and the destruction also of the entire city, “= 
the signs and wonders that went before it; and 
the taking the tyrants captives, and the mul- 
titude of those that were made slaves, and int» 
what different misfortunes they were every one 
distributed. Moreover, what the Romans did 
to the remains of the war; and how they 
demolished the strongholds that were in the 
country; and how Titus went over the whole 
country, and settled its affairs; together 
his return into Italy, and his triumph. ¢ 
12. I have comprehended all these things in 
seven books; and have left no occasion for con 
plaint or accusation to such as have been ac- 
quainted with this war; and I have written 
down for the sake of those that love truth, but 
not for those that please themselves [with fie 
titious relations.}] And I will begin my ae 
count of these things with what I call my First 
Chapter. 7s 








* These seven, or rather five, degrees of purity, or 
cation, are enumerated hereafter, b. v. chap. v. sect. 6. 
Rabbins make ten degrees of them, as Reland there 
us. 


sixth Ptolemy about his right to the whole 
country of Syria, a great sedition fell amor 


contention about obtaining the governmer 
while each of those that were of dign ty coul 
not endure to be subject to their equals, How 
ever, Onias, one of the high priests, got the 
ter, and castthe sons of Tobias out of the ei 
who fled to Antiochus, and beseught bin 





BOOK I.—CHAPTER I. 


make use of them: for his leaders, and to make 
™ expedition into Judea, The king being 
thereto disposed beforehand, complied with 
them, and came upon the Jews with a great 
army, and took their city by force, and slew a 
areat multitude of those that favored Ptolemy, 
and sent out his soldiers to plunder them with- 
out mercy. He also spoiled the temple, and 
put a stop to the constant practice of offering 
adaily sacrifice of expiation for three years 
and six months. But Onias, the high priest, 
fled to Ptolemy, aid received a place from him 
in the Nomus of Heliopolis, where he built a 
city resembling Jerusalem, and a temple that 
was. like its temple;* concerning which we 
shall speak more in its proper place hereafter. 

2. Now Antiochus was not satisfied either 
with his unexpected taking the city, or with its 
pillage, or with the great slaughter he had 
made there; but being overcome with his vio- 
lent passions, and remembering what he had 
suffered during the siege, he compelled the 
Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, 
and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and 
to sacrifice swine’s flesh upon the altar; against 
which they all opposed themselves, and the 
most approved among them were put to death. 
Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the for- 
tresses, having these wicked commands, joined 
to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts 
of the extremest wickedness, and tormented 
the worthiest of the inhabitants, man by man, 
and threatened the city every day with open 
destruction; till at length he provoked the poor 
sufferers, by the extremity of his wicked do- 
ings, to avenge themselves. 

3. Accordingly, Matthias, the son of Asmone- 
us, one of the priests who lived in a village 
called Modin, armed himself, together with 
his own family, which had five of his own sons 
in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers; and 
thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons 
[of the enemy,] he fled to the mountains, and 
so many of the people followed him, that he 
was encouraged to come down from the moun- 
tains, and to give battle to Antiochus’s generals, 
when he beat them, and drove them out of Ju- 
dea. So he came tothe government by this 
his success, and became the prince of his own 

ople by their own free consent, and then 
fied, leaving the government to Judas, his el- 
dest son. 

4. Now Judas, supposing that Antiochus 
would not lie still, gathered an army out of his 
own countrymen, and was the first that made 
a league of friendship with the Romans, and 
drove Epiphanes out of the country when he 
had made a second expedition into it, and this 
by giving hima great defeat there; and when 
he was warmed by this great success, he made 
an assault upon the garrison that was in the 
tity, for it had not been cut off hitherto; so 
he ejected them out of the Upper City, and 
drove the soldiers into the Lower, which part 


_ * 1 see little difference in the several accounts in Josephus 
about the Egyption temple Onion, of which large complaints 
‘are made by his Commentators. Onias, it seems, hoped to 
‘Rave it made very like that at Jerusalem, and of the same 


i 


501 


of the city was called the Citadel. He then 
got the temple under his power, and cleansed 
the whole place, and walled it round about, and 
made new vessels for sacred ministrations, and 
brought them into the temple, because the for- 
mer vessels had been profaned. He also built 
another altar, and began to offer the sacrifices; 
and when the city had already received its sa- 
cred constitution again, Antiochus died; whose 
son Antiochus succeeded him in the kingdom, 
and in his hatred to the Jews also. 

5. So this Antiochus got together fifty thou- 
sand footmen, and five thousand horsemen 
and fourscore elephants, and marched through 
Judea into the mountainous parts. He then 
took Bethsura, which was a small city; but at 
a place called Bethzacharias, where the passage 
was narrow, Judas met him with his army 
However, before the forces joined battle, Ju- 
das’s brother, Eleazar, seeing the very highest 
of the elephants adorned with a large tower, 
and with military trappings of gold to guard 
him, and supposing that Antiochus himself 
was upon him, he ran a great way before his 
own army, and cutting his way through the 
enemies’ troops, he got up t6 the elephant; yet 
could he not reach him who seemed to be the 
king, by reason of his being so high; but still 
he ran his weapon into the belly of the beast, 
and brought him down upon himself, and was 
crushed to death, having done no more than 
attempted great things, and showed that he 
preferred glory before life. Now he that go- 
verned the elephant was but a private man, 
and had he proved to be Antiochus, Eleazar 
had performed nothing more by this bold 
stroke than that it might appear he chose to 
die, when he had the bare hope of thereby 
doing a glorious action; nay, this disappoint- 
ment proved an omen to his brother [Judas] 
how the entire battle would end. It is true 
that the Jews fought it out bravely for a long 
time, but the king’s forces being superior in 
number, and having fortune or their side, ob- 
tained the victory. And when a great many 
of his men were slain, Judas took the rest 
with him, and fled to the topareny of Gophna. 
So Antiochus went to Jerusalem, and stayed 
there but a few days, for he wanted provisions, 
and so he went his way. He left indeed a 
garrison behind him, such as he thought suf- 
ficient to keep the place, but drew the rest of hig 
army off, to take their winter quarters in Syria 

6. Now, after the king was departed, Judas 
was not idle; for as many of his own nation 
came to hitn, so did he gather those that had 
escaped out of the battle together, and gave 
battle again to Antiochus’s generals at a village 
called Adasa, and being too hard for his ene 
mies in the battle, and killing a great numbes 
of them, he was at last himself slain also. No 
was it many days afterward that his brothe 
John had a plot laid against him by Antiochus’ 
party, and was slain by them. 


dimensions; and so he appears to have reaKy done as fa 
as he was able, and thought proper. Of this temple, ee 
Antiq. er ch. iti, sect. 1, 2, 3; and Of the War, b. vil. ch. 
x. séct 


502 


CHAPTER II. 
Concernng the successors of Judas, who were 
Jonathan, Simon, and John Hyrcanus. 
§ 1. When Jonathan, who was Judas’s bro- 
ther, succeeded him, he behaved himself with 

at circumspection in other respects, with re- 
Elion to his own people; and he corroborated 
his authority by preserving his friendship with 
the Romans. He also made a league with 
Antiochus the son. Yet was not all this suffi- 
eient for his security; for the tyrant Trypho, 
who was guardian to Antiochus’s son, laid a 
plot agaiust him; and, besides that, endeavored 
to take off his friends, and caught Jonathan by 
a wile, as he was going to Ptolemais to Antio- 
chus, with a few persons in his company, and 
put them in bonds, and then made an expedi- 
tion against the Jews; but wher he was after- 
ward driven away by Simon, who was Jona- 
than’s brother, and was enraged at his defeat, 
he put Jonathan to death. 

2. However, Simon managed the public af- 
fairs after a courageous manner, and took Ga- 
zara, and Joppa, and Jamnia, which were cities 
in the neighborhegd. He also got the garrison 
under, and deniMhished the citadel. He was 
afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against 
Trypho, whom he besieged in Doro, before he 
went on his expedition against the Medes; yet 
could not he make the king ashamed of his 
ambition, though he had assisted him in killing 
Trypho; for it was not long ere Antiochus sent 
Cendebeus, his general, with an army to lay 
waste Judea, and to subdue Simon; yet he, 
though he were now in years, conducted the 
war as if he were a much younger man. He 
also sent his sons with a band of strong men 
against Antiochus, while he took part of the 
army himself with bim, and fell upon him 
from another quarter: he also laid a great many 
men in ambush in many places of the moun- 
tains, and was superior in all his attacks upon 
them, and when he had been conqueror after 
so glorious a manner, he was made high priest, 
and also freed the Jews from the dominion of 
the Macedonians, after a hundred and seventy 
years of the empire [of Seleucus.] 

3. This Simon had also a plot laid against 
him, and was slain at a feast by his son-in-law 
Ptolemy who put his wife and two sons in 
prison, and sent some persons to kill John, 
who was also called Hyrcanus.* But when 
the young man was informed of their coming 
beforehand, he made much haste to get to the 
city, as having a very great confidence in the 
people there, both on account of the memory 


of the glorious actions of his father, and of 


the hatred they could not but bear to the in- 
justice of Ptolemy. Ptolemy also made an 
attempt to get into the city by another gate; 
but was repelled by the people, who had just 
then admitted Hyreanus; so he retired pre- 
sently to one of the fortresses that were about 
Jericho, which was called Dagon. Now, when 

* Why this John the son of Simon, tie high priest, and 
governor of the Jews, was called Hyrcanus, Josephus no- 
where informs us; nor is he called other than John at the 


end of the first book of the Maccabees. However, Sixtus 
Senensis when he gives us an epitome of the Greek version 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


‘see Dean Aldrich’s note here. 







Hyreanus had received the high priesthooq 
which his father had held before, and had of 
fered sacrifice to God, he made great haste to 
attack Ptolemy, that he might afford relief t 
his mother and brethren. 
4. So he laid siege to the fortress, and wa 
superior to Ptolemy in other respects, but wag 
overcome by him as to the just affection fhe | 
had for his relations;] for when Ptolemy was 
distressed, he brought forth nis mother and his. 
brethren, and set them upon the wa.., and beat | 
them with rods in every body’s sight, and threat » 
ened, that unless he would go away immediate 
ly, he would throw them down headlong; at 
which sight Hyreanus’s commiseration and - 
concern were too hard for his anger. But his 
mother was not dismayed, neither at the stripes | 
she received, nor at the death with which she 
was threatened; but stretched out her han 
and prayed her son not to be moved with the 
injuries that she had suffered to spare the 
wretch, since it was to her better to die by the 
means of Ptolemy than to live ever so long, 
provided he might be punished for the injuries. 
he had done to their family. Now John’s case 
was this; when he considered the courage of 
his mother, and heard her entreaty, he set about — 
his attacks; but when he saw her beaten, and - 
torn to pieces with the stripes, he grew feeble, 
and was entirely overcome by his affectiona 
And as the siege was delayed by this means, 
the year of rest came on, upon which the Jews 
rest every seventh year, as they do on every 
seventh day. On this year, therefore, Ptolemy . 
was freed from being besieged, and slew the : 
brethren of John, with their mother, and fled 
to Zeno, who was also called Cotylas, who was 
the tyrant of Philadelphia. ¥ 
5. And now Antiochus was so angry at wh 
he had suffered from Simon, that he made a 
expedition into Judea, and sat down before Je 
rusalem, and besieged Hyreanus; but Hyreanu 
opened the -sepulchre of David, who was th 
richest of all kings, and took thence about three 
thousand talents in money, and induced Antio- 
chus, by the promise of three thousand talen 
to raise the siege. Moreover, he was the first 
of the Jews that had money enough, and be- 
gan to hire foreign auxiliaries also, | 
6. However, at another time, when Antiochus 
was gone upon an expedition against the Medes, 
and so gave Hyrcanus an opportunity of being 
revenged upon him, he immediately made an 
attack upon the cities of Syria, as thinking 
what proved to be the case with them, th 





















So he took Medeba and Samea, with the to m 
in their neighborhood, as also Shechem ani 
Gerizzim; and besides these [he subdued] thi 


that temple which was built in imitation of the 
temple at Jerusalem; he also took a great man 
other cities of Idumea, with Adoreon and M: 
rissa. Ae 
of the book here abridged by Josephus, or of the chronic 
of this John Hyreanus, then extant, assures us that h 


called Hyreanus, from his conquest of one of that nam 
Authent. Ree. part. i. p. 27. But of this younger Antioch 


_ %. Healso proceeded as far as Samaria, where 
is now the city Sebaste, which was built by 
Herod the king, and encompassed it all round 
with a wall, and set his sons Aristobulus and 
-Antigonus over the siege; who pushed it on so 
hard, that a famine so far prevailed within the 
city that they were forced to eat what never 
was esteemed food. They also invited Antio- 
chus, who was called Cyzicenus, to come to 
their assistance; whereupon he got ready, and 
complied with their invitation, but was beaten 
by Aristobulus and Antigonus; and indeed he 
was pursued as far as Scythopolis by these bre- 
threu, and fled away from them. So they re- 
turned back to Samaria, and sent the multitude 
again within the wall; and when they had taken 
the city, they demolished it, and made slaves 
of its inhabitants. And, as they had still great 
-success in their undertakings, they did not suf- 
fer their zeal to cool, but marched with an ar- 
ny as far as Scythopolis, and made an incur- 
sion upon it, and laid waste all the country that 
lay withm mount Carmel. 
8. But then, these successes of John and of 
his sons made them be envied, and occasioned 
a sedition in the country, and many there were 
who got together, and would not be at rest till 
they broke out into open war, in which war 
they were beaten. So John lived the rest of 
his life very happily, and administered the go- 
vernment after a most extraordinary manner, 
and this for thirty-three entire years together. 

He died, leaving five sons behind him. He 

was certainly a very happy man, and afforded 

ne occasion to have any complaint made of 

‘fortune on his account. He it was who alone 
‘had three of the most desirable things in the 
world, the government of his nation, and fhe 
‘iigh priesthood, and the gift of prophecy. For 
the Deity conversed with him, and he was not 
‘ignorant of any thing that was to come after- 
“ward; insomuch, that he foresaw and foretold 
that his two eldest sons would not continue 
masters of the government; and it will highly 
‘deserve our narration, to describe their catas- 
‘trophe, and how far inferior these men were to 
their father in felicity. 

CHAPTER III. 

How Aristobulus was the first that put a diadem 
about his head, and after he had put his mother 
and brother to death, died himself, when he had 

reigned no more than a year. 

§ 1. For after the death of their father, the 
_ elder of them, Aristobulus, changed the govern- 
- ment intoa kingdom, and was the first that put 
» a diadem upon his head, four hundred seventy 
/ and one years and three months after our peo- 
ple came down into this country, when they 
- were set free from the Babylonian slavery. 
' Now, of his brethren, he appeared to have an 
. affection for Antigonus who was next to him, 
/ and made him his equal; but for the rest, he 
bound them, and put them in prison. He also 
- put his mother in bonds, for her contesting the 
| government with him; for John had left her 
to be the governess of public affairs. He also 
‘proceeded to that degree of barbarity as to 
eause her tc be pined to death in prison. 
Hy 









BOOw I.—-CHAPTER IT. 508 


2. But vengeance circumvented him in the 
affair of his brother Antigonus, whom he loy- 
ed, and whom he made his partner in the king- 
dom; for he slew him by the means of the ca- 
lumnies which ill men about the palace contriv- 
ed against him. At first indeed, Aristobulug 
would not believe their reports, partly out of the 
affection he had for his brother, and partly be- 
cause he thought that a great part of these tales 
were owing to the envy of their relators; how 
ever, as Antigonus came once in a splendid 
manner from the army to that festival where- 
in our ancient custom is to make tabernacles 
for God, it happened, in those days, that Aris- 
tobulus was sick, and that, at the conclusion of 
the feast, Antigonus came up to it, with his 
armed men about him; and this, when he was 
adorned in the finest manner possible, and that, 
in a great measure, to pray to God on the be- 
half of his brother. Now, at this very time it 
was, that these ill men came to the king, and 
told him in what a pompous manner the arm 
ed men came, and with what msolence Anti- 
gonus marched, and that such his insolence 
was too great for a private person, and that ac- 
cordingly he was come with a great band of 
men to kill hing, for that he could not endure 
this bare enjoyment of royal honor, when it 
was in his power to take the kingdom himself. 

3. Now Aristobulus, by degrees, and unwill- 
ingly gave credit to these accusations; and ac- 
cordingly he took care not to discover his sus- 
picion openly, though he provided to be secure 
against any accidents: so he placed the guards 
of his body in a dark subterranean passage, for 
he lay sick in a place called formerly the Cita 
del, though afterward its name was changed to 
Antonia; and he gave orders, that if Antigonus 
came unarmed, they should let bim alone; but 
if he came to him in his armor, they should ki. 
him. He alsosent some to let him know be- 
forehand, that he should come unarmed. But, 
upon this occasion, the queen very cunningly 
contrived the matter with those that plotted hie 
his ruin, for she persuaded those that were sent, 
to conceal the king’s message; but to tell Anti 
gonus how his brother had heard he had got a 
very fine suit of armor made, with fine mar 
tial ornaments, in Galilee; and because his pre- 
sent sickness hindered him from coming and 
seeing all that finery, he very much desired to 
see him now in his armor; “because, said he, 
in a little time thou art going away from me, 

4. Assoon as Antigonus heard this, the good 
temper of his brother not allowing him tosus 
pect any harm from him, he came along with 
his armor on, to show it to his brother; but 
when he was going along that dark passage 
which was called Strato’s Tower, he was slain 
by the body guards, and became an eminent 
instance how calumny destroys all good will 
and natural affection, and how none of our 
good affections are strong enough to resist envy 
perpetually. 

5. And truly any one would be surprised 
Judas upon this occasion. He was of the sect 
of the Essenes, and had never failed or deceiv- 
ed men in his predictions before. Now, th’ 


man saw Antigonus as he was passing along by 
the temple, and cried out to his acquaintance, 
{they were not a few who attended upon him 
as his scholars,) “O strange!” said he; “it is 
od for me to die now, since truth is dead be- 
ore me, and somewhat that I have foretold 
hath proved false; for this Antigonus is this 
day alive, who ought to have died this day; 
and the place where he ought to be slain, ac- 
cording to that fatal decree, was Strato’s Tow- 
ei, which is at the distance of six hundred fur- 
longs from this place; and yet four hours of 
this day are over already, which point of time 
renders the prediction impossible to be fulfill- 
ed.” And, when the old man had said this, he 
was dejected in his mind, and so continued. 
But, in a little time, news came that Antigonus 
was slain in a subterraneous place, which was 
itself also called Strato’s Tower, by the same 
name with that of Casarea which lay by the 
seaside, and this ambiguity it was which 
caused the prophet’s disorder. 
6. Hereupon Aristobulus repented of the 
great crime he had been guilty of, and this 
ve occasion to the increase of his distemper. 
Hie also grew worse and worse, and his soul 
wns constantly disturbed at the thoughts of 
what he had done, till his vefy bowels being 
torn to pieces by the intolerable grief he was 
upder, he threw up a great quantity of blood. 
And, as one of those servants that attended 
hyn carried out that blood, he, by some super- 
natural providence, slipped and fell down in 
the very place where Antigonus had been 
slnin; and so he spilt some of the murderer’s 
blood upon the spots of the blood of him that 
had been murdered, which still appeared. 
Hereupon a lamentable ery arose among the 
spectators, as if the servant had spilled the 
blood on purpose in that place; and as the king 
heard that ery, he inquired what was the cause 
of it? and while nobody durst tell him, he 
ressed them so much the more to let him 
now what was the matter; so, at length, when 
he had threatened them, and forced them to 
speak out, they told; whereupon, he burst into 
tears, and groaned, and said, “So I perceive I 
am not like to escape the all-seeing eye of 
God, as to the great crimes I have committed; 
but tne vengeance of the blood of my kinsman 
eit me hastily. O thou most impudent 
dy! how long wilt thou retain a soul that 
ought to die on account of that punishment it 
ought to suffer for a mother and a brother 
alain? how long shall I myself spend my blood 
drop by drop? let them take it all at once, and 
et their ghosts no longer be disappointed by a 
few parcels of my bowels offered to them.” 
As soon as he had said these words, he pre- 
sently died, when he had reigned no longer 
than a year. 


CHAPTER IV. 


What actions were done by Alexander Janneus, 
who reigned twenty-seven years. 

§ 1. And now the king’s wife loosed the 

king’s brethren, and made Alexander king, 

who appeared both elder in age, and more 


WARS OF THE JEWS. or, 


However, he was then too hard for them, and_ 


a 


‘public affairs. 








moderate in his temper than the rest; wao 
when he came to the government, slew one of 
his brethren, as affecting to govern himself — 
but had the other of them in great esteem, an— 
loving a_ quiet life, without meddling with 


2. Now it happened that there was a bata 
between him and Ptolemy, who was called La- 


thyrus, who had taken the city Asochis. He 


indeed slew a great many of his enemies, but 
the victory rather inclined to Ptolemy. But — 
when this Ptolemy was pursued by his mother _ 
Cleopatra, and retired into Egypt, Alexander 
besieged Gadara, and took it; as also he did” 
Amathus, which was the strongest of all the 
fortresses that were about Jordan, and therein — 
were the most precious of all the possessions” 
of ‘Theodorus, the son of Zeno. Whereupon” 
Theodorus marched against him, and took 
what belonged to himself as well as the king’s” 


4 
ie 


baggage, and slew ten thousand of the Jews, — 


However, Alexander recovered this blow, and 
turned his forces towards the maritime parts, 
and took Raphia and Gaza, with Anthedon 
also, which was afterward called Agrippias by 
king Herod. ; 
3. But when he had made slavesof the cit — 
zens of all these cities, the nation of the Jews 
made an insurrection against him ata festivak 
for at those feasts seditions are generally begun, 
and it looked as if he should not be able to— 
escape the plot they had laid for him, had not his” 
foreign auxiliaries, the Pisidians and Cilicians, 
assisted him; for, as to the Syrians, he never 
admitted them among his mercenary troops, on 
account of their innate enmity against the Jew-— 
ish nation. And when he had slain more than— 
six thousand of the rebels, he made an incur 
sion into Arabia, and when he had taken that” 


country, together with the Gileadites and Mo- 


abites, he enjoined them to pay him tribute, 
and returned to Amathus; and, as Theodorus 


° ° s 
was surprised at his great success, he took the 


fortress, and demolished it. 


ie | 
4. However, when he fought with Oboduas, 
king of the Arabians, who laid an ambush for 








him near Golan, and a plot against him, he lost: 
9 5 | 


his entire army, which was crowded together | 


in a deep valley, and broken to pieces by the 
multitudes of camels. And, when he h : 
made his escape to Jerusalem, he provoked the 


multitude, who hated him before, to make an | 





insurrection against him, and this on account of — 
the greatness of the calamity that he was under, - 


in the several battles that were fought on both 
sides, he slew no fewer than fifty thousand of — 
the Jews, in the interval of six years. Yet had 
he no reason to rejoice in these victories, singe 
he did but sonsume his own kingdom; till at_ 
length he fell off fighting, and endeavored to” 
come to a composition with them, by talking 
with his subjects. But this mutability and | 
regularity of his conduct made them hate him 
still more. And, when he asked them why 
they so hated him, and what he should do in” 
order to appease them? they said, by killi 
himself; for that it would be then all they cou k 


He BOON 1. 
fg’ 

do to be reconciled to him, who had done such 
tragical things to them, even when le was dead. 
At the same time they invited Deietrius, who 
was called Eucerus, to assist them; and as he 
readily complied with their request, in hopes 
of great advantages, and came with his army, 
the Jews joined with those their auxiliaries 
about Shechem. 

5. Yet did Alexander meet both these forces 
with one thousand horsemen, and eight thou- 
gand mercenaries that were on foot. He had 
also with him that part of the Jews which fa- 
vored him, to the number of ten thousand; while 
the adverse party had three thousand horsemen, 
and fourteen thousand footmen. Now, before 
they joined battle, the kings made proclamation, 
and endeavored to draw off each other’s sol- 
diers, and make them revolt: while Demetrius 
hoped to induce Alexander’s mercenaries to 
leave him, and Alexander hoped to induce the 
Jews that were with Demetrius to leave him. 
But, since neither the Jews would leave off 
their rage, nor the Greeks prove unfaithful, 
they came to an engagement, and to a close fight 
with their weapons. In which battle Deme- 
trius was the conqueror, although Alexander’s 
mercenaries showed the greatest exploits, both 
in soul and body. Yet did the upshot of this 
battle prove different from what was expect- 
ed, as to both of them; for neither did those 
that invited Demetrius to come to them con- 
tinue firm to him, though he was conqueror; 
and six thousand Jews, out of pity to the change 
of Alexander’s condition, when he was fled to 
the mountains, came overto him. Yet could 
not Demetrius bear this turn of affairs, but sup- 
posing that Alexander was already become a 
match for him again, and that all the nation 
would [at length] run to him, he left the coun- 
ty and went his way. 

6. However, the rest of the [Jewish] multi- 
tude did not lay aside their quarrels with him, 
when the [foreign] auxiliaries were gone; but 
they had a perpetual war with Alexander, un- 
til he had slain the greatest part of them, and 
driven the rest into the city Bemeselis; and 
when he had demolished that city, he carried 
the captives to Jerusalem. Nay, his rage was 
grown so extravagant, that his barbarity pro- 
ceeded to the degree of impiety, for, when he 
had ordered eight hundred to be hung upon 
erosses ir the midst of the city, he had the 
throats of their wives and children cut before 
their eyes; and these executions he saw as he 
was drinking and lying down with his concu- 
tunes. Upon which so deep a surprise seized on 
the people that eight thousand of his opposers 
fled away the very next night, out of all Judea, 
whose flight was only terminated by Alexander’s 
death: so at last, though not till late and with 

great difficulty, he, by such actions, procured a 
quiet kingdom, and left off fighting any more. 
- 7. Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called 
Dionysius, become an origin of troubles again. 
This man was the brother of Demetrius, and 
the last of the race of the Seleucide.* Alex- 


__ * Josephus here calls this Antiochus the last of the Se- 

ide, although there remained still a shadow of another 
_ ‘Mang of that family, Antiochus Asiaticus, or Commagenus 
ay 64 


| 
7 
.. 


ALAPTER V 


ander was afraid of him, when he was march- 
ing agaist the Arabians; so he cut a deep 
trench between Antipatris, which was near the 
mountains, and the shores of Joppa; he also 
erected a high wall before the trench, and built 
wooden towers in order to hinder any sudden 
approaches. But still he was not able to ex 
clude Antiochus, for he burnt the towers and 
filled up the trenches, and marched on with his 
army. And as he looked upon taking his re- 
venge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop 
him, as a thing of less consequence, he march- 
ed directly against the Arabians, whose king 
retired Into such parts of the country as were 
fittest for engaging the enemy, and then on the 
sudden made his horse turn back, which were 
in number ten thousand, and fell upon Antio- 
chus’s army while they were in disorder, and 
a terrible battle ensued. Antiochus’s troops, so 
long as he was alive fought it out, although a 
mighty slaughter was made among them by 
the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in 
the fore-front, in the utmost danger in rallying 
his troops, they all gave ground, and the great- 
est part of his army was destroyed, either in 
the action or the flight; and for the rest, who 
fled to the village of Cana, it happened that they 
were al] consumed by want of necessaries, a 
few only excepted. 

8. About this time it was that the people of 
Damascus, out of their hatred to Ptolemy, the 
son of Menneus, invited Aretas [to take the go- 
vernment,] and made him king of Celosyria. 
This man also made an expedition against Ju- 
dea, and beat Alexander in battle; but after- 
ward retired by mutual agreement. But Alex- 
ander, when he had taken Pella, marched to 
Gerasa again out of the covetous desire he haa 
of Theodorus’s possessions; and when he had 
built a triple wall about the garrison, he took 
the place by force. He also demolished Go- 
Jan, and Seleucia, and what was called the Val- 
ley of Antiochus; besides which, he took the 
strong fortress of Gamala, and stripped Deme- 
trius, who was governor therein, of what he 
had, on account of the many crimes laid to his 
charge, and then returned into Judea, after be 
had been three whole years in this expedition. 
And now he was kindly received of :he na 
tion, because of the good success he haa. So, 
when he was at rest from war, he fe. into a 
distemper; for he was afflicted with a quartan 
ague, and supposed that by exercising himself 
again in martial affairs, he should get rid of 
this distemper; but by making such expedi- 
tions at unseasonable times, and forcing hw 
body to undergo greater hardships than it was 
able to bear, he brought himself to his end. 
He died, therefore, in the midst of his troubles, 
after he had reigned seven and twenty years 


CHAPTER V. 


Alexandra reigns nine years, during which time 
the Pharisees were the real rulers of the na- 
tion. 

§ 1. Now Alexander left the kingdom ts 


who reigned, or rather lay hid, till Pompey quite turned him 
out, as Dean Aldrich here notes, fron Appian and Justin. 


5U6 


Alexandra his wife, and depended upon it that 
the Jews would now very readily submit to 
her, because she had been very averse to such 
cruelty as he had treated them with, and had 
opposed his violation of their laws, and had 
thereby got the good will of the people. Nor 
was he mistaken as to his expectations; for 
this woman kept the dominion,.by the opin- 
ion that the people had of her piety; for she 
chiefly studied the ancient customs of her 
country, and cast those men out of the govern- 


ment that offended against their holy laws. 


And, as she had two sons by Alexander, she 
made Hyrcanus the elder high priest, on ac- 
count of his age, as also on account of his in- 
active temper, which noway disposed him to 
disturb the public. But she retained the young- 
er, Aristobulus, with her, as a private person, 
by reason of the warmth of his temper. 

2. And now the Pharisees joined themselves 
to her, to assist her in the government. These 
are a certain sect of the Jews that appear more 
religious than others, and seem to interpret the 
laws more accurately. Now, Alexandra heark- 
ened to them to an extraordinary degree, as 
being herself a woman of great piety towards 
God. But these Pharisees artfully insinuated 
themselves into her favor by little and little, 
and became themselves the real administrators 
of the public affairs: they banished and reduc- 
ed whom they pleased; they bound and loosed 
[men] at their pleasure,*} and, to say all at 
once, they had the enjoyment of the royal au- 
thority, whilst the expenses and the difficulties 
of it belonged to Alexandra. She was a saga- 
cious woman in the management of great af- 
fairs, and intent always upon gathering soldiers 
together; so that she increased the army the 
one-half, and procured a great body of foreign 
troops, till her own nation became not only 
powerful at home, but terrible also to foreign 
potentates, while she governed other people, 
and the Pharisees governed her. 

3. Accordingly they themselves slew Dioge- 
nes, a person of figure, and one that had been a 
friend to Alexander: and accused him as hav- 
ing assisted the king with his advice, for cruci- 
fying the eight hundred men [before mention- 
ed.] They also prevailed with Alexandra to 
put to death the rest of those who had irritated 
him against them. Now, she was so supersti- 
tious as to comply with their desires, and ac- 
cordingly they slew whom they pleased them- 
selves; but the principal of those that were in 
danger fled to Aristobulus, who persuaded his 
mother tu spare the men on account of their 
dignity but to expel them out of the eity, un- 
less she took them to be innocent; so they 
were suffered to go unpunished, and were dis- 
persed all over the country. But when Alex- 
andra sent out her army to Damascus, under 
pretence that Ptolemy was always oppressing 
that city, she got possession of it; nor did it 
make any considerable resistance. She also 

* Matt. xvi. 19; xvi. 18. 

t Here we have the oldest ana most authentic Jewish ex- 

tion of binding and loosing, for punishing or absolving 


n, not for declaring actions lawful or unlawful, as some 
more modern Jews and Christians vainly pretend. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 







prevailed with Tigranes, king of Armenia, w 
lay with his troops about Ptolemais, and } 
sieged Cleopatra,* by agreements and presen 
to goaway. Accordingly, Tigranes soon aro; 
from the siege, by reason of those domestie 
tumults which happened upon Lucullus’s ex 
pedition into Armenia. a 

4. In the mean time, Alexandra fell sick, and | 
Aristobulus, her younger son, took hold of thig | 
opportunity with his domestics, of which he 
had a great many, who were all of them bis’ 
friends, on account of the warmth of ther’ 
youth, and got possession of all the fortresses | 
He also used the sums of money he found in 
them, to get together a number of mercen 
soldiers, and made himself king; and beside 
this, upon Hyrcanus’s complaint to his mother, ' 
she compassionated his case, and put Aristo- | 
bulus’s wife and sons under restraint in Anto-. 
nia, which was a fortress that joined to i 
north part of the temple. It was, as I have | 
already said, of old called the Citadel; but af © 
terward got the name of Antonia, when Autony | 
was lord [of the East,] just as the other cities, 
Sebaste and Agrippa, had their names changed, 
and these given them, from Sebastus | 
Agrippa. But Alexandra died before she could — 
punish Aristobulus for his disinheriting his 
brother, after she had reigned nine years. 

CHAPTER VI. , | 
When Hyrcanus, who was Alexandra’s heir, re | 
ceded from his claim of the crown, Aristobulus 

ts made king and afterward the same a- 

nus, by means of Antipater, is brought back 

by Aretas. .tt lasi Pompey is made the arb- 
trator of the caspute between the brothers. 

§ 1. Now Hyreanus was heir to the kingdom, 
and to lim did his mother commit it before 
she died; but Avistobulus was superior to him 
in power and magnanimity; and when there 
was a battle between them, to decide the dix | 
pute about the kingdom, near Jericho, the 
greatest part deserted Hyrcanus, and went over 
to Aristobulus; but Hyrcanus, with those of — 
his party who staid with him, fled to Antonia, 
and got into his power the hostages that might 
be for his preservation, (which were Aristobu- 
lus’s wife, with her children,) but they came to 
an agreement, before things should come 6 
extremities, that Aristobulus should be 
and Hyrcanus should resign that up, but retait 
all the rest of his dignities, as being the king’s 
brother. Hereupon they were reconciled to 
each other in the temple, and embraced om 
another in a very kind manner, while the peo- 
ple stood round about them: they also changes 
their houses, while Aristobulus went to th 
royal palace, and Hyrcanus retired to the house 
of Aristobulus. - 


* Strabo, b. xvi. p. 740, relates that this Selene Cleop 
tra was besieged by Tigranes, not in Ptolemais, as he 
but after she had left Syria in Seleucia, a citadel in Mesor 
tamia; and adds, that when he had kept her awhile in priso 
he put her to death. Dean Aldrich supposes here that Str 
bo contradicts Josephus, which does not appear to me; | 
although Josephus says both here and in the Antiquities, 
xii. ch. xvi. sect. 4, that Tigranes besieged her now in Pte 
mais, and that he took the city, as the Antiquities info 
us, yet does he nowhere intimate that he now took the que 
herself; so that both the narrations of Strabo and Joseph 
may still be true notwithstanding. 


a 























\ 


aad 


y' 


‘i 


2. Now, those other people who were at va- 


" riance with Aristobulus were afraid upon his 


_ anexpected obtaining the government; and es- 
“specially this concerned Antipater,* whom Aris- 


« 


tobulus hated of old. He was by birth an 
Idumean, and one of the principal of that na- 
tion on account of his ancestors and riches, and 
ather authority to him belonging; he also per- 


~ suaded Hyrcanus to fly to Aretas the king of 


Arabia, and to lay claim to the kingdom; as 


_ alsc he persuaded Aretas to receive Hyrcanus, 


and to bring him back to his kingdom: he also 


_ east great reproaches upon Aristobulus, as to 


his morals, and gave great commendations to 
Hyrcanus, and exhorted Aretas to receive him, 
and told him how becoming a thing it would 
be for him, who ruled so great a kingdom, to af- 
ford his assistance to such as are injured; al- 
leging that Hyrcanus was treated unjustly, by 
being deprived of that dominion which be- 
iouged to him by the prerogative of his birth. 


_ And when he had predisposed them both to do 


what he would have them, he tock Hyrcanus 
by night, and ran away fromthe city, and con- 
tinuing his flight with great swiftness, he es- 
caped to the place called Petra, which is the 
royal seat of the king of Arabia, where he put 
Hyrcanus into Aretas’s hand; and by discours- 
ing much with him, and gaining upon him 
with many presents, he prevailed with him to 
give him an army that might restore him to his 
kingdom. This army consisted of fifty thou- 


sand footmen and horsemen, against which 


ny 


> 


‘come and seasonably interposed himself, and 


Aristobulus was not able to make resistance, but 
was deserted in his first onset, and was driven 


to Jerusalem: he also had been taken at first by 


force, if Scaurus, the Roman general, had not 


raised the siege. ‘This Scaurus was sent into 
Syria from Armenia by Pompey the Great, 
when he fought against Tigranes: so Scaurus 


came to Damascus, which had been lately tak- 


en by Metellus and Lollius, and caused them 
‘to leave the place; and upon his hearing how 
the affairs of Judea stood, he made haste thither 
as to a certain booty. 

3. As soon, therefore, as he was come into 
the country, there came ambassadors from both 
the brothers, each of them desiring his assist- 


ance; but Aristobulus’s three hundred talents 


nad more weight with him than the justice of 
the cause; which sum, when Scaurus, had re- 
ceived, he sent a herald to Hyreanus and the 
Arabians, and threatened them with the resent- 
ment of the Romans, and of Pompey, unless 

hey would raise the siege. So Aretas was 


~errified, and retired out of Judea to Philadel- 


hia, as di’ Seaurus return to Damascus again: 


“nor was Aristobulus satisfied with escaping 


: tg of his brother’s hands,] but gathered all his 
forces together, and pursued his enemies, and 


fought them at a place called Papyron, and slew 


about six thousand of them, and, together with 
‘them, Antipater’s brother, Phalion. 
4. When Hyreanus and Antipater were thus 


* That this Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, was 


fi an Idumean, as Josephus atfirms bere, see the note on An- 


4g. b xiv. ch. xv. sect. 2 


Lo 


BOOK 1—CHAPTER VI. 


507 


deprived of their hopes from the Arabians 
they transferred the same to their adversaries; 
and because Pompey had passed through Syria, 
and was come to Damascus, they fled to him 
for assistance; and without any bribes,* they 
made the same equitable pleas that they had 
used to Aretas, and besought him to hate the 
violent behavior of Aristobulus, and to bestow 
the kingdom upon him to whom it justly be- 
longed, both on account of his good character, 
and on account of his superiority in age. How- 
ever, neither was Aristobulus wanting to him 
self in this case, as relying on the bribes that 
Scaurus had received: he was also there him- 
self and adorned himself after a manner the 
most agreeable to royalty that he was able. 
But he soon thought it beneath him to come in 
such a servile manner, and could not endure 
to serve his own ends in a way so much more 
abject than he was used to, so he departed from 
Diospolis. 

5. At this his behavior Pompey had great in- 
dignation; Hyrcanus also and his friends made 
great intercession to Pompey; so he took uot 
only his Roman forces, but many of his Syrian 
auxiliaries, and marched against Aristobulus. 
But when he had passed by Pella and Scythopo- 
lis, and was come to Corea, where you enter 
into the country of Judea, when you go up 
through the Mediterranean parts, he heard that 
Aristobulus was fled to Alexandrium, which is 
a stronghold fortified with the utmost magnifi- 
cence, and situated upon a high mountain, and 
he sent to him and commanded him to come 
down. Now his inclination was to try his for 
tune in a battle, since he was called in such ao 
imperious manner, rather than to comply with 
that call. However, he saw the multituds 
were in great fear, and his friends exhorted 
him to consider what the power of the Romana 
was, and how it was irresistible; so he compl+ 
ed with their advice, and came down to Pom- 
pey; and when he had made a long apology 
for himself, and for the justness of his cause 
in taking the government, he returned to the 
fortress. And when his brother invited him [to 
plead his cause,] he came down and spoke 
about the justice of it, and then went away 
without any hinderance from Pompey; se he 
was between hope and fear. And when he 
came down it was to prevail with Pompey to 
allow him the government entirely: and when 
he went up to the citadel, it was that he might 
not appear to debase himself too low How- 
ever, Pompey commanded him to give up his 
fortified places, and forced him to write to every 
one of their governors to yield them up; they 
having had this charge given them, to obey no 
letters but what were of his own handwriting. 
Accordingly he did what he was ordered to do, 
but sti had an indignation at what was done, 

* itis somewhat probable, as Havercamp supposes, and 
partly Spanheim also, that the Latin copy is here the truest, 
that Pompey did take the many presents offered him by Hyr 
canus, as he would have done the others from Aristobulus. 
sect. 6; although his remarkable abstinence from the 2006 
talents that were in the Jewish temple, when he took & 
a little afterward, chap. vii. sect. 6; and Antig. b. xiv. ch 


iv. sect. 4, will hardly permit us to desert the Greek copier 
al) which agree that he did not take them 


and retired to Jerusalem, and prepared to fight 
with Pompey. 

6. But Pompey did not give him time to 
make any preparations [fora siege,] but follow- 
ed him at his heels; he was also obliged to 
make haste in his attempt, by the death of 
Mithridates, of which he was informed about 
Jericho. Now here is the most fruitful coun- 
try of Judea, which bears a vast number of 
palm-trees, besides, the balsam-tree* whose 
sprouts they cut with sharp stones, and at the 
incisions they gather the juice, which drops 
down like tears. So Pompey pitched his camp 
in that place one night, and then hasted away 
‘he next morning to Jerusalem; but Aristobu- 
ius was so affrighted at his approach, that he 
came and met him by way of supplication. He 
also promised him money, and that he would 
deliver up both himself and the city into his 
disposal, and thereby mitigated the anger of 
Pompey. Yet did not he perform any of the 
conditions he had agreed to; for Aristobulus’s 

rty would not so much as admit Gabinius 
into the city, who was sent to receive the mo- 
ney that he had promised, 


CHAPTER VIL 
How eee had the city of Jerusalem delivered 
up to him, but took the temple [by force.] How 
he went into the holy of holies; as also, what 
were his other explovts in Judea. 


4 1. At thistreatment Pompey was very an- 
By and took Aristobulus into custody. And 
when he was come to the city, he looked about 
where he might make his attack; for he saw 
the walls were so firm, that it would be hard to 
overcome them, and that the valley before the 
walls wus terrible; and that the temple, which 
was within that valley, was itself encompassed 
with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the 
city were taken, the temple would be a second 
place of refuge for the enemy to retire to. 

2. Now, as he was long in deliberating about 
this matter, a sedition arose among the people 
within the city: Aristobulus’s party being will- 
ing to fight, and to set their king at liberty, 
while the party of Hyrcanus were for opening 
the gates to Pompey; and the dread people 
were in occasioned these last to be a very nu- 
merous party, when they looked upon the ex- 
cellent order the Roman soldiers were in. So 
Aristobulus’s party was worsted, and retired 
into the ternple, and cut off the communication 
between the temple and the city, by breaking 
down the bridge that joined them together, and 

epared to make an opposition to the utmost; 

ut as the others had received the Romans into 
the city, and had delivered up the palace to 
him, Pompey sent Piso, one of his great of- 
ficers, into that palace with an army, who dis- 
tributed a garrison about the city, because he 
eould not persuade any one of those that had 
fled to the temple to come to terms of accom- 
modation; he then disposed all things that 
were round about them so as might favor 

* Of the famous palm-trees and balsam about Jericho and 
Engaddi, see the notes in Havercamp’s edition, both here and 


b. li. ch ix. sect. 1. They are somewhat too long to be 
transcribed in this place. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 
their attacks, as Laving Hyreanus’s party very 


ready to afford them both counsel and assistance, 

3. But Pompey himself filled up the ditch 
that was on the north side of the temple, and 
the entire valley also, the army itself being 
obliged to carry the materials for that purpose. 
And indeed it was a hard thing to fill up thag 
valley, by reason of its immense depth, espe- 
cially as the Jews used all the means possible 
to repel them from their superior station, noi 
had the Romans succeeded in their endeay ors, 


-had not Pompey taken notice of the seventh 


days, on which the Jews abstain from all sorts 
of work on a religious account, and raised his 
bank, but restrained his soldiers from fighting 
on those days; for the Jews only acted defen- 
sively on Sabbath-days. But as soon as Pom- 
pey had filled up the valley, he erected high 
towers upon the bank, and brought those en- 
gines which they had fetched from Tyre near 
to the wall, and tried to batter it down, and the 
slingers of stones beat off those that stood above 
them, and drove them away; but the towers on 
this side of the city made very great resistance, 
and were indeed extraordinary both for large- 
ness and magnificence. 

4. Now, here it was, that upon the many 
hardships which the Romans underwent, Pom 
pey could not but admire not only at the other 
instances of the Jews’ fortitude, but especially 
that they did not at all intermit their religious 
services, even when they were encompassed 
with darts on all sides; for, as if the city were 
in full peace, their daily sacrifices and purifica 
tions, and every branch of their religious wor 
ship, was still performed to God with the ut- 
most exactness. Nor indeed, when the temple 
was actually taken, and they were every day 
slain about the altar, did they leave off the in- 


stances of their divine worship that were ap- — 


pointed by their law; for it was in the third 
month of the siege before the Romans could 
even with great difficulty overthrow one of 
the towers, and get into the temple. Now he 
that first of all ventured. to get over the wall 
was Faustus Cornelius, the son of Sylla; and 
next after him were two centurions, Furius 
and Fabius; and every one of these was fol 
lowed by a cohort of his own, who encom 
passed the Jews on all sides, and slew some of 


them as they were running for shelter to the _ 


temple, and others as they, for a while, fought 
in their own defence. 
5. And now did many of the priests, even 


when they sew their enemies assailing them — 


with swords in their hands, without any dis 
turbance, go on with their divine worship, and 
were slain while they were offering their drink- 
offerings, and burning their incense, as J 
ferring the duties about their worship to dod, 
before their own preservation. The greatest 


part of them were slain by their own country- 
men, of the adverse faction, and an innumera- 


ble multitude threw themselves down prec — 


pices; nay, some there were who were so dis 
tracted among the insuperable difficulties 
were under, that they set fire to the buil 
that were near to the wall, and were burnt: 






: 
? 

Uf 

a 

if 
y 
PY A 


— 


ifore4 7? 
wu 


gether with them. 


Now of the Jews were 


slain twelve thousand; but of the Romans very 
few were slain, but a greater number was 


wounded. 

6. But there was nothing that affected the na- 
tion so much, in the calamities they were then 
under, as that their holy place which had been 


\ hitherto seen by none, should be laid open to 


strangers; for Pompey,* and those that were 


about him, went into the temple itself, whither 
it was not lawful for any to enter but the high 
priest, and saw what was reposited therein, the 
candlestick with ‘ts lamps, and the table, and 
the pouring vessel s, and the censers, all made en- 
tirely of gold, as ¢ iso, a great quantity of spices, 
heaped together, with two thousand talents of 
sacred money. {et did not he touch that mo- 
ney, nor any thir g else that was there reposit- 
ed; but he comm anded the ministers about the 
temple, the very next day after he had taken it, 


_ to cleanse it and io perform their accustomed 


sacrifices. Morc over, he made Hyrcanus high 
priest, as one thet not only in other respects 
had showed grert alacrity on his side during 
the siege, but es he had been the means of 
hindering the multitude that was in the coun- 
try from fighting for Aristobulus, which they 
were otherwise very ready to have done; by 
which means he acted the part of a good gen- 
eral, and reconciled the people to him more by 
benevolence than by terror. Now among the 
captives, Aristobulus’s father-in-law was taken, 
who was also his uncle: so those that were the 
most guilty he punished with decollation; but 
rewarded Faustus, and those with him that had 
fought so bravely, with glorious presents, and 
laid a tribute upon the country, and upon Jeru- 
salem itself: 

7. He also took away from the nation all 
those cities they had formerly taken, and that 
belonged to Ceelosyria, and made them sub- 
ject to him that was at that time appointed to 
e the Roman presiden. there; and reduced 
Judea within its proper bounds. He also re- 
built Gadara,} that had been demolished by the 
Jews, in order to gratify one Demetrius, who 
was of Gadara, and was one of his own freed- 
men. He also made other cities free from 
their dominion, that lay in the midst of the 
country, such, I mean, as they had not demol- 
ished before that time, Hippos, and Scythopolis, 
as also Pella, and Samaria, and Marissa: and 
besides these Ashdod, and Jamnia, and Are- 
thusa; and in like manner dealt he with the 
maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and 
that which was anciently called Strato’s Tower; 
‘but was afterward rebuilt with the most magni- 


ficent edifices, and had its name changed to 


Czsarea by king Herod. All which he re- 
stored totheir own citizens, and put them un- 
der the province of Syria; which province, 
* Thus, says Tacitus, Cn. Pompeius first of afl subdued 


the Jews, and went into their temple, by right of conquest, 
Hist. b. v. ch. ix ; nor did he touch any of its riches, as has 


_ been observed on the parallel place of the Antiquities, b. 
; Tiv. ch. iv. sect. 4; out of Cicero himself. 


_{ The coin of this Gadara still extant, with its date from 
era, is a certain evidence of this its rebuilding by Pom- 
pey, as Spanheim here assures us. 


BOOK I.—CHAPTER VIII. 


together with Judea, and the countries as far 
as Egypt and Euphrates, he committed to 
Scaurus as their governc: and gave him two 
legions to support him; ™: ile he made all the 
haste he could himself to g» through Cilicia, ir 
his way to Rome, having Aristobulus and his 
children along with him, as his captives. They 
were two daughters and two sons; the one of 
which sons, Alexander, ran away as he was 
going; but the younger, Antigonus, with his 
sisters, were carried to Rome. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, who ran 
away from Pompey, makes an expedition 
against Hyrcanus; but being overcome by Ga- 
binius, he delivers up the fortresses to him. Af- 
ter this Aristobulus escapes from Rome, and 
gathers an army together; but being beaten 
the Romans, he is brought back to Rome; with 
other things reluting to Gabinius, Crassus ama 
Cassius. 


§ 1. In the mean time, Scaurus made an ex 
pedition into Arabia, but was stopped by 
the difficulty of the places about Petra. How- 
ever, he laid waste the country about Pella, 
though even there he was under great hardships 
for his army was afflicted with famine. [nor 
der to supply which want, Hyrcanus afforded 
him some assistance, and sent him provisions 
by the means of Antipater; whom also Scau- 
rus sent to Aretas, as one well acquainted witn 
him, to induce him to pay him money to bu 
his peace. The king of Arabia* complied anh 
the proposal, and gave him three hundred te,- 
lents; upon which Scaurus drew his army cut 
of Arabia. 

2. But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobu- 
lus who ran away from Pompey, in some tire 
he got a considerable band of men together, 
and lay heavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Ju- 
dea, and was likely to overturn him quickly, 
and indeed he had come to Jerusalem, and had 
ventured to rebuild its wall that was thrown 
down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who was 
sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, show- 
ed his bravery, as in many other points, so in 
making an expedition against Alexander; who, 
as he was afraid that he would attack him, so 
he got together a large army, composed of 
ten thousand armed footmen, and fifteen lun- 
dred horsemen. He also built walls about 
proper places, Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium. 
and Macherus, that lay upon the mountains of 
Arabia. 

3. However, Gabinius sent before him Mar- 
cus Antonius, and followed himself with his 
whole army; but for the select body of soldiers 
that were about Antipater, and another body 
of Jews under the command of Malichus and 
Pitholaus, these Joined themselves to those cap- 

* Take the like attestation to the truth of the submissiog 
of Aretas, king of Arabia, to Scaurus the Roman general, im 
the words of Dean Aldrich. ‘Hence,’ says he, “‘is derived 
that old and famous Denarius belonging to the ASmilian fami- 
ly [represented in Havercamp’s edition,] wherein Aretas ap- 
pears ina posture of supplication, and taking hold of a ca 
mel’s bridle with his left hand, and with his right hand pre- 


senting a branch of the frankincense-tree, with this inscrip- 
tion, M.SCAURUS EX S.C. and beneath REX ARETAS,* 


$10 


tains that were about Marcus Antomius, and 
met Alexander; to which body came Gabinius 
with his main army soon afterward; and as 
Alexander was not able to sustain the charge 
of the enemies’ forces, now they were joined, he 
etired. But when he was come near to Jeru- 
salem, he was forced to fight, and lost six thou- 
sand men in the battle; three thousand of whom 
fell down dead, and three thousand were taken 
alive; so he fled with the remainder to Alexan- 
drium, 

4. Now when Gabinius was come to Alex- 
andrium, because he found a great many there 
encamped, he tried, by promising them pardon 
for their former offences, to induce them to 
come over to him, before it came to a fight; but 
when they would hearken to no terms of ac- 
commodation, he slew a great number of them, 
and shut upa great number of them in thie cita- 
del. Now Marcus Antonius their leader, sig- 
nalized himself in this battle, who, as he al. 
ways showed great courage, so did he never 
show it so much as now; but Gabinius, leav- | 
ing forces to take the citadel, weut away hitn- 
self, and settled the cities that had not been de- 
molished, and rebuilt those that had been de- 
stroyed. Accordingly, upon his injunction, the 
following cities were restored: Scythopolis, 
Samaria, Anthedon, Apollonia, Jamnia, Raphia, 
Marissa, Adoreus, Gamala, Ashdod, and many 
others; while a great number of men readily | 
ran to each of them, and became their inhabit- | 
ants, 

5. When Gabinius had taken care of these 
cities, he returned to Alexandrium, and _press- 
ed on the siege. So when Alexander despair- 
ed of ever obtaining the government, he sent 
ambassadors to him,and prayed him to forgive 
what he had offended him in, and gave up to 
him the remaining fortresses, Hyrcanium and 
Macherus, as he put Alexandrium into his hands 
afterward: all which Gabinius demolished, at 
the persuasion of Alexander’s mother, that they 
might not be receptacles of men in a second 
war. She was now there in order to mollify 
Gabinius, out of her concern for her relations 
that were captiver at Rome, which were her 
husband and her © ther children, After this 
Gabinius broug! . 7 ¢rcanus to Jerusalem, and 
committed the car: of the temple to him; but 
ordained the othe; + olitical government to be 
by an aristocracy. He also parted the whole 
nation into five conventions, assigning one por- 
tion to Jerusalem, another to Gadara, that 
another should belong to Amathus, a fourth to 
Jericho, and to the fifth division was allotted 
Sepphoris, a city of Galilee. So the people 
were glad to be thus freed from monarchical go- 
vernment, and were governed for the future by 
an aristocracy. 

6. Yet did Aristobulus afford another foun- 
dation for new disturbances. te fled away 
from.Rome, and got together again many of 
the Jews that were desirous of a change, such 
as had borne an affection to him of old; and 











when he had taken Alexandrium in the first | away privately, but gave it out among the sok 
lace, he attempted to build a wall about it;| diers that they had run away. 


t as soon as Gabinius had sent an army 


i 
? 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 7 


against him under Sisenua, Antonius, and Ser — 
vilius, he was aware of it, and retreated to 
Macherus. And as for the unprofitable mult — 
tude, he dismissed them, and only marched va — 
with those that were armed, being to the num-— 
ber of eight thousand, amoug whom was Pitho- 
laus, who had been the lieutenant at Jerusalem, — 
but deserted to Aristobulus with a thousand of 

his men: so the Romans followed him, and 

when it came to a battle, Aristobulus’s party” 
for a long time fought courageously: but at 


length they were overborne by the Romans, 


and of them five thousand fell down dead, and 
about two thousand fled to a certain little hill, 
but the thousand that remained with Aristo- 
bulus broke through the Roman army, and 
marched together to Macherus; and, when the 
king had lodged the first night upon its ruins, 
he was in hopes of raising another army, i 
the war would but cease awhile; accordingly, 
he fortified that stronghold, though it were 
done after a poor manner. But, the Romans 
falling upon him, he resisted, even beyond his 
abilities, for two days, aud then was taken, and 
brought a prisoner to Gabinius, with Antigo- 
nus his son, who had fled away together with 
him from Rome, and from Gabinius he was- 
carried to Rome again. Wherefore the senate 
put him under confinement, but returned his 
children back to Judea, because Gabinius in-- 
formed him by letters, that he had promised 
Aristobulus’s mother to do so, for her deliver. 
ing the fortresses up to him. . 
. But now, as Gabinius was marching to” 
the war against the Parthians, he was hindered 
by Ptolemy, whom, upon his return from Eue 
phrates, he brought back into Egypt, making: 
use of Hyrcanus aud Antipater, to provide 
every thing that was necessary for this expe-— 
dition; for Antipater furnished him with mo- 
ney, and weapons, and corn, and auxiliaries 
he also prevailed with the Jews that were there, 
and guarded the avenues at Pelusium, to let 
them pass. But now, upon Gabinius’s ab- 
sence, the other part of Syria was in motion, 
and Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, brought 
the Jews to revolt again. Accordingly, he got 
together a very greatarmy, and set about killing” 
all the Romans that were in the country; here- 
upon Gabinius was afraid, (for he was come 
back already out of Egypt, and obliged to” 
come back quickly by these tumults,) and sent_ 
Antipater, who prevailed with some of the re- 
volters to he quiet. However, thirty thousand 
still continued with Alexander, who was him- 
self eager to fight also; accordingly, Gabinius” 
went out to fight, when the Jews met him, an 
as the battle was fought near mount Tabor, ten’ 
thousand of them were slain, and the rest of — 
the multitude dispersed themselves, and fled 
away. So Gabinius came to Jerusalem, and 
settled the government as Antipater would 
have it; thence he marched, and fought and 
beat the Nabateans. As for Mithridates 
Orsanes, who fled out of Parthia, he sent them 








8. In the mean time Crassus came as su 


a BOOK I1—CHAPTER [X. 


ot to Gabinius in Syria. He took away all 


. 51 
son of Menneus, who was then ruler of Chalcie 


_ the rest of the gold belonging to the temple of | under Libanus, took his brethren to him, by 


Jerusalem, in order to furnish himself for his 
expedition against the Parthians. He also took 
“away the two thousand talents which Pompey 
‘had not touched; but when he had passed 
over Euphrates, he perished himself, and his 
army with him; concerning which affairs this 
is not a proper time to speak [more largely.] 
9. But now Cassius, after Crassus, put a stop 
to the Parthians, who were marching in order 
to enter Syria. Cassius had fled into that pro- 
vince, and when he had taken possession of 
the same, he made a hasty march into Judea; 
and, upon his taking Tarichex, he carried 
thirty thousand Jews into slavery. He also 
‘slew Pitholaus, who had supported the sedi- 
tious followers of Aristobulus, and it was An- 
tipater who advised him soto do. Now this 
Antipater married a wife of an eminent family 
among the Arabians, whose name was Cypros, 
and had four sons born to him by her, Phasae- 
lus and Herod, who was afterward king, and, 
besides these, Joseph and Pheroras; and he 
had a daughter whose name was Salome. 
Now, as he made himself friends among the 
men of power everywhere, by the kind offices 
he did them, and the hospitable manner that 
he treated them; so did he contract the greatest 
friendship with the king of Arabia, by marry- 
ing his relation; insomuch, that when he made 
war with Aristobulus, he sent and intrusted 
his children with him. So, when Cassius had 
forced Alexander to come to terms and to be 
quiet, he returned to Euphrates, in order to 
prevent the Parthians from repassing it; con- 
cerning which matter we shall speak else- 
where.* 
CHAPTER IX. 

Aristobulus is taken off by Pompey’s friends, as 
is his son Alexander by Scipio. Antipater cul- 
twates a friendship with Cesar, after Pom- 
pey’s death; he also performs great actions in 
that war, wherein he assisted Mithridates. 


§ 1. Now, upon the flight of Pompey, and 
of the senate, beyond the Ionian Sea, Cesar 
got Rome and the empire under his power, 
and released Aristobulus from his bonds. He 
also committed two legions to him, and sent 
him in haste into Syria, as hoping that by his 
means he should easily conquer that country, 
and the parts adjoining to Judea. But envy 
prevented any effect of Aristobulus’s alacrity, 
and the hopes of Cesar; for he was taken off 
by poison given him by those of Pompey’s 
party, and, for along while, he had notso much 
asa burial vouchsafed him in his own coun- 
try; but his dead body lay [above ground,] pre- 
‘served in honey; until it was sent to the Jews 
py Antony, in order to be buried in the royal 
_sepulchres. 

_ 2. His son Alexander also was beheaded by 
| Bcipio at Antioch, and that by the command of 
Pompey, and upon an accusation laid against 
nim before his tribunal, for the mischiefs he 
bad done to the Romans. But Ptolemy the 


* This citation is now wanune 


sending hisson Philippio for them to Ascalon, 
who took Antigonus, as well as his sisters, 
away frem Aristobulus’s wife, and brought 
them to his father; and falling in love with the 
younger daughter, he married her, and was af 
terward slain by his father, on her account; for 
Ptolemy himself, after he had slain his son, 
married her, whose name was Alexandra; on 
account of which marriage, he took the greater 
care of her brother and sister. 

3. Now, after Pompey was dead, Anupater 
changed sides, and cultivated a friendship with 
Cesar. And since Mithridates of Pergamus, 
with the forces he led against Egypt, was ex- 
cluded from the avenues about Pelusium, and 
was forced to stay at Ascalon, he persuaded 
the Arabians, among whom he had lived, to as- 
sist him, and came himself to him, at the head 
of three thousand armed men. He also encou- 
raged the men of power in Syria to come to 
his assistance, as also of the inhabitants of Li- 
banus, Ptolemy, and Jamblicus, and another 
Ptolemy; by which means the cities of that 
country came readily into this war; insomuch 
that Mithridates ventured now, in dependence 
upon the additional strength that he had gotten 
by Antipater, to march forward to Pelusium; 
and when they refused him a passage through 
it, he besieged the city: in the attack of which 
place, Antipater principally signalized himself, 
for he brought down that part of the wall 
which was over against him, and leaped first 
of all into the city, with the men that were 
about him. 

4, Thus was Pelusium taken. But still, as 
they were marching on, those Egyptian Jews 
that inhabited the country, called the country 
of Onias, stopped them. Then did Antipater 
not only persuade them not to stop them, but 
to afford provisions for their army; on which 
account even the people about Memphis would 
not fight against them, but of their own accord 
joined Mithridates. Whereupon he went round 
about Delta, and fought the rest of the Egyp- 
tians ata place called the Jews’ Camp: nay, 
when he was in danger in the battle with all his 
right wing, Auntipater wheeled about, and came 
along the bank of the river to him: for he had 
beaten those that opposed him as he led the left 
wing. After which success he fell upon those 
that pursued Mithridates, and slew a great 
many of them, and pursued the remainder se 
far that he took their camp, while he lost no 
more than fourseore of his own men; as Mith- 
ridates lost, during the pursuit that was made 
after him, about eight hundred. He was also 
himself saved unexpectedly, and became an ir- 
reproachable witness to Ceesar, of the great ac- 
tions of Antipater. 

5. Whereupon Cesar encouraged Antipater 
to undertake other hazardous enterprises for 
him, and that by giving him great commenda- 
tions, and hopes of reward. In all which en- 
terprises he readily exposed himself to many 
dangers, and became a most courageous war- 
rior, and had many wounds, almost all over 


$12 


his body, as demonstrations of hisvalor. And 
when Ceesar had settled the affairs of Egypt, 
and was returning into Syria again, he gave 
him the privilege of a Roman citizen, and free- 
dom from taxes, and rendered him an object 
of admiration by the honors and marks of 
friendship he bestowed upon him, On this ac- 
count it was that he also confirmed Hyrcanus 
in the high priesthood. 


CHAPTER X. 


Cesar makes Antipater procurator of Judea; as 
does Antipater appoint Phasaelus to be go- 
vernor of Jerusalem, and Herod governor of 
Galilee; who, in some time, was called to an- 
swer for himself (beforethe Sanhedrim,] where 
he is acquitted. Sextus Cesar is treacherously 
killed by Bassus, and is succeeded by Marcus. 


§ 1. About this time it was that Antigonus, 
the son of Aristobulus, came to Cesar, and be- 
came, in a surprising manner, the occasion of 
Aujipater’s farther advancement; for, whereas, 
he ought to have lamented that his father 
appeared to have been poisoned on account 
of his quarrels with Pompey, and to have 
complained of Scipio’s barbarity towards his 
brother, and not to mix any invidious passion 
when he was suing for mercy; besides those 
tnings, he came before Cesar, and accused 
Hyrcanus and Antipater, how they had driven 
him and his brethren entirely out of their native 
country, and had acted in a great many in- 
stances unjustly and extravagantly with regard 
to their nation, and that as to his assistance 
tney had sent him into Egypt, it was not done 
out of good will to him, but out of the fear 
they were in from former quarrels, and in order 
to gain pardon for their friendship to [his 
enemy] Pompey. 

2. Hereupon Antipater threw away his gar- 
ments, and showed the multitude of the wounds 
he had, and said, that “as to his good will to 
Ceesar he had no occasion to say a word, be- 
eause his body cried aloud, though he said 
nothing himself: that he wondered at Antigo- 
nus’s boldness, while he was himself no other 
than the son of an enemy to the Romans, and 
of a fugitive, and had inheritance from his 
father to be fond of innovations and seditions, 
that he should undertake to accuse other men 
before the Roman governor, and endeavor to 
gain some advantage to himself, when he ought 
to be contented that he was suffered to live; for 
that the reason of his desire of governing 
public affairs, was not so much because he was 
in want of it, but because, if he could once 
obtain the same, he might stir up a sedition 
among the Jews, and use what they should 
gain from the Romans, to the disservice of 
those that gave it him.” 

3. When Cesar heard this, he declared Hyr- 
eanus to be the most worthy of the high priest- 
hood, and gave leave to Antipater to choose 
wnat authority he pleased; but he left the 
determination of such dignity to him that be- 
stowed the dignity upon him; so he was con- 
stituted procurator of all Judea, and obtain- 
ad leave, moreover, to rebuild those walls of 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 









his country that had been thrown down.® 
These honorary grants Ceesar sent orders to 
have engraved in the capitol, that they might 
stand there as indications of his own, justice, 
and of the virtue of Antipater. 
4, But as soon as Antipater had conducted 
Cesar out of Syria, he returned to Judea, and 
the first thing he did, was to rebuild that wall 
of his own country, [Jerusalem,] which Pom-_ 
pey had overthrown, and then to go over the 
country, and to quiet the tumults that were™ 
therein; where he partly threatened, and partly | 
advised every one, and told them, that, “in case 
they would submit to Hyrcanus, they would 
live happily and peaceably, and enjoy what 
they possessed, and that with universal peace — 
and quietness; but that, in case they hearken-_ 
ed to such as had some frigid hopes, by raising ‘ 
new troubles, to get themselves some gain, they 
should then find him to be their lord instead” 
of their procurator; and find Hyreanus to be 
a tyrant instead of a king; and both the Ro-~ 
mans and Cesar to be their enemies, instead — 
of rulers; for that they would not suffer him 
to be removed from the government, whom — 
they had made their governor.” And, at the- 
same time that he said this, he settled the affairs” 
of the country by himself, because he saw that— 
Hyrcanus was inactive, and not fit to manage 
the affairs of the kingdom. So he constituted 
his eldest son, Phasaelus, governor of Jerusa-— 
lem, and of the parts about it; he also sent his” 
next son, Herod, who was very young} with 
equal authority into Galilee. ; 
5. Now Herod was an active man, and soon 
found proper materials for his active spirit to” 
work upon. As, therefore, he found that He- 
zekias, the head of the robbers, ran over the 
neighboring parts of Syria with a great band 
of men, he caught him and slew him and many 
more of the robbers with him; which exploit 
was chiefly grateful to the Syrians, insomuch - 
that hymns were sung in Herod’s commenda- 
tion, both in the villages and in the cities, as hav- 
ing procured their quietness, and having pre- 
served what they possessed to them; on which 
occasion he became acquainted with Sextus 
Cesar, a kinsman of the great Cesar, and pre- 
sident of Syria. A just emulation of his glo- 
rious actions excited Phasaelus also to imitate” 
him. Accordingly, he procured the good will 
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by his own 
management of the city affairs, and did not 
abuse his power in any disagreeable manner: 
whence it came to pass, that the nation paid 
Antipater the respects that were due only to # 
king, and the honors they all yielded him were 
equal to the honors due to an absolute lord 
yet did he not abate any part of that good will 
or fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus. | 


* What is bere noted by Hudson and Spanheim, the this 
grant of leave to rebuild the walls of the cities of Judea 
made by Julius Cesar, not as here to Antipater, but to Ayr 
canus, Antiq. b. xiv. ch. viii. sect. 5, has hardly an appear 
ance of a contradiction; Antipater being now, perhaps, com- 
sidered only as Hyrcanus’s deputy and minister; although 
afterward made a cipher of Hyreanus, and under great de- 
cency of behavior to him took the real authority to himself, 

+ Or 25 years of age; see the note on Antiq. b. i, chap 
xii. sect. 3, and on b. xiv. chap. ix. sect 2; and Of the War 
b. ii. ch. xi. sect. 6; and Polyb. b. xvii. p. T85. 
























4 


' 


BOOK 1—CHAPTER XI. 


6. However, he found it impossible to escape 
envy in such his prosperity; for the glory of 
these young men affected even Hyrcanus him- 
self already privately, though he said nothing 
of it to any body; but what he principally was 
grieved at, was the great actions of Herod, and 
that so many messengers came one before ano- 
ther, and informed him of the great reputa- 
tion he got in all his undertakings. There 
were also many people in the royal palace it- 
self who inflamed his envy at him: those I 
mean, who were obstructed in their designs by 
the prudence either of the young men or of 
Antipate:. These men said, that by commit- 
ting the public affairs to the management of 
Antipater and his sons, he sat down with noth- 
ing but the bare name of a king without any of 
its authority; and they asked him how long he 
would so far mistake himself, as to breed up 
kings against his own interest? for that they 
did not now conceal their government of af- 
fairs any longer, but were plainly lords of the 
nation, and had thrust him out of his authority; 
that this was the case when Herod slew so 
many men without his giving him any com- 
mand to do it, either by word of mouth, or by 
his letter, and this in contradiction to the law 
of the Jews; who, therefore, in case he be not 
a king, but a private man, still ought to come 
to his trial, and answer it to him, and to the 
‘aws of his country, which do not permit any 
gne to be killed, till he hath been condemned 
mn judgment. 

7. Now Hyrcanus was by degrees inflamed 
with these discourses, and at length could bear 
a0 longer, but summoned Herod to take his 
trial. Accordingly, by his father’s advice, and 
as soon as the affairs of Galilee would give 
him leave, he came up [to Jerusalem,] when 
he had first placed garrisons in Galilee; how- 
ever, he came with a sufficient body of soldiers, 
80 many, indeed, that he might not appear to 
have with him an army able to overthrow 
Hyrcanus’s government, nor yet so few as to 
expose him to the insults of those that envied 
him. However, Sextus Cesar was in fear for 
the young man, lest he should be taken by his 
enemies, and brought to punishment; so he 
sent some to denounce expressly to Hyrcanus, 


that he should acquit Herod of the capital 


charges against him; who acquitted him accord- 
ingly, as being otherwise inclined also so to do, 
for he loved Herod. 
8. But Herod, supposing that he had escaped 
punishment without the consent of the king, 
retired to Sextus, to Damascus, and got every 
thing ready, in order not to obey him, if he 
should summon him again; whereupon those 
that were evil disposed irritated Hyrcanus, and 
told him, that Herod was gone away in anger, 
and was prepared to make war upon him; and 
as the king believed what they said, he knew 
not what to do, since he saw that his antagonist 
was stronger than he was himself. And now, 
since Herod was made general of Ceelosyria 
and Samaria by Sextus Cesar, lie was formida- 
ble, not only from the good will which the na- 


a 
ee ee EEE EE aE EEIS RARE SUES SESE EERE! 


513 


insomuch, that Hyrcanus fell into the utmost 
degree of terror, and expected he would pre- 
sently march against him with his army. 

9. Nor was he mistaken in the conjecture he 
made, for Herod got his army together, out of 
the anger he bure him for his threatening him 
with the accusation in a public court, and led 
itto Jerusalem, in order to throw Hyrcanus 
down from his kingdom: and this he had soon 
done, unless his father and brother had gone 
out together, and broken the force of his fury, 
and this by exhorting him to carry his revenge 
no farther than to threatening and affrighting, 
but to spare the king, under whom he had been 
advanced to such a degree of power; and that 
he ought not to be so much provoked at his be- 
ing tried, as to forget to be thankful that he 
was acquitted; nor so long to think upon what 
was of a melancholy nature, as to be _ungrate- 
ful for his deliverance; and if we ought to 
reckon that God is the arbitrator of success m 
war, an unjust cause is of more disadvantage 
than an army can be of advantage: and that 
therefore he ought not to be entirely confident 
of success in a case where he is to fight against 
his king, his supporter, and one that had often 
been his benefactor, and that had never been 
severe to him, any otherwise than as he had 
hearkened to evil counsellors, and this no far- 
ther than by bringing a shadow of injustice 
upon him. So Herod was prevailed upon by 
these arguments, and supposed that what he 
had already done was sufficient for his future 
hopes, and that he had enough shown his power 
to the nation. 

10. In the mean time, there was a disturbance 
among the Romans about Apamia, and a civil 
war occasioned by the treacherous slaughter of 
Sextus Cesar,* by Cicilius Bassus, which he 
perpetrated out of his good will to Pompey 
he also took the authority over his forces: but 
as the rest of Cesar’s commanders attacked 
Bassus with their whole army, in order to pun- 
ish him for the murder of Cesar, Antipater 
also sent them assistance by his sons, both on 
account of him that was murdered, and on ac- 
count of that Cesar who was still alive, both 
of whom were their friends; and as this war 
grew to be of aconsiderable léngth, Marcus 
came from Italy as successor to Sextus. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Herod 1s made procurator of all Syria; Mals- 
chus is afraid of him, and takes Antipater off 
by poison; whereupon the tribunes of the sol- 
diers are prevailed with to kill him. 


§ 1. There was at this time a mighty war 
raised among the Romans, upon the sudden 
and treacherous slaughter of Caesar by Cassius 
and Brutus, after he had held the government 
for three years and seven months.+ Upon this 
murder there were very great agitations, and 

* Many writers of the Roman history give an account of 
this murder of Sextus Cesar, and of the war at Apamia upon 
that occasion. They are cited in Dean Aldrich’s note. 

+ In the Antiquities, b. xiv. ch. xi. sect. 1, the duration of 
the reign of Julius Cesar is 3 years 6 months, but here 2 


years 7 months, beginning rightly, says Dean Aldrich, from 
his second dictatorship. It is probable the rea) duratior 


tion bore him, but by the power he himself had; | might be 3 years and between 6 and 7 months. 
= 


ov 


514 


the great ren were mignuly at difference one 
with another, and every one betook himself to 
that party where they had the greatest hopes 
of advancing themselves, Accordingly, Cas- 
sius came into Syria, in order to receive the 
forcesthat were at Apamia, where he procured 
a reconciliation between Bassus and Marcus, 
and the legions which were at difference with 
him; so he raised the siege of Apamia, and 
took upon him the command of the army, and 
went about exacting tribute of the cities, and 
demanding their money to such a degree as they 
were not able to bear. 

2. So he gave command that the Jews should 
kring in seven hundred talents; whereupon An- 
t-pater, out of his dread of Cassius’s threats, 
parted the raising of this sum among his sons, 
and among others of his acquaintance, and to 
be done immediately, and among them he re- 
quired one Malichus, who was at enmity with 
him, to do his part also, which necessity forced 
him to do. Now Herod, in the first place, mi- 
tigated the passion of Cassius, by bringing his 
share out of Galilee, which was a hundred ta- 
lents, on which account he was in the highest 
favor with him, and when he reproached the 
rest for being tardy, he was angry at the citiés 
themselves; so he made slaves of Gophna and 
Emmaus, and two others of less note; nay, he 
proceeded as if he would kill Malichus, because 
he had not made greater haste in exacting his 
tribute; but Antipater prevented the ruin of this 
man, and of the other cities, and got into Cas- 
sius’s* favor, by bringing in a hundred talents 
immediately. 

3 However, when Cassius was gone, Mali- 
chus forgot the kindness that Antipater had 
done him, and laid frequent -plots against him 
that had saved him, as making haste to get him 
out of the way, who was an obstacle to his 
wicked practices; but Antipater was so much 
afraid of the power and cunning of the man, 
that he went beyond Jordan, in order to get an 
army to guard himself against his treacherous 
designs; but when Malichus was caught in his 
plot, he put upon Antipater’s sons by his im- 

udence; for he thoroughly deluded Phasae- 
us, who was the guardian of Jerusalem, and 


Herod, who was intrusted with the weapons of 


war, and this by a great many excuses and 
oaths, and persuaded them to procure his re- 
sonciliation to their father. ‘Thus was he pre- 
served again by Antipater, who dissuaded Mar- 
eus, the then president of Syria, from his reso- 
lujion of killing Malichus on account of his at- 
tempts for innovation. 

4, Upon the war between Cassius and Bru- 
tus, on one, side, against the younger Cesar 
{Augustus] aud Antony, on the other, Cassius 
and Marcus got together an army out of Syria; 
and because Herod was likely to have a great 
share in providing necessaries, they then made 
bim procurator ofall Syria, and gave him an ar- 


my, of foot and horse. Cassius promised him | depose Hyrcanus, and get the crown for himse 


*Tt appears evidently by Josephus’s accounts, both here 
and in his Antiquities, b. xiv. ch. xi. sect. 2, that this Cassius, 
ene of Cesar’s mnurderers, was a bitter oppressor and ex- 
acter of tribute in Judea. These 700 talents amount to 
about £300,000 sterling, and are about half the yearly reven- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. oa. 










also, that after the war was over, he would 
make him king of Judea: but it so happened, 
that the power and hopes of his son became the — 
cause of his perdition; for as Malichus was — 
afraid of this, he corrupted one of the king’s 
cupbearers with money to give a poisoned o- — 
tion to Antipater; so he became a sacrifice to ; 
Malichus’s wickedness, and died at a feast. 
He was a man in other respects active in the — 
management of affairs, and one that recovered — 
the government to Hyreanus, and preserved it 
in his hands. . 

5. However, Malichus, when he was suspect- 
ed of poisoning Antipater, and when the multi- — 
tude was angry with him for it, denied it, and — 
made the people believe he was not guilty. He — 
also prepared to make a great figure, and raised — 
soldiers; for he did not suppose that Herod ~ 
would be quiet, who indeed came upon him — 
with an army presently, in order to revenge his — 
father’s death; but upon hearing the advice of — 
his brother Phasaelus, not to punish him in an — 
open manner, lest the multitude should fall into — 
a sedition, he admitted of Malichus’s apolo- 
gy, and professed that he cleared him of the 
suspicion; he also made a pompous funeral for 
his father. | 

6. So Herod went to Samaria, which was — 
then in a tumult, and settled the city in peace; 
after which, at the [Pentecost] festival, he re- 
turned to Jerusalem, having his armed men 
with him; hereupon Hyrcanus, at the request — 
of Malichus, who feared his approach, forbade 
them to introduce foreigners to mix themselves — 
with the people of the country, while they — 
were purifying themselves; but Herod despised — 
the pretence, and him that gave that command, — 
and came in by night. Upon which Malichus — 
came to him, and bewailed Antipater; Herod — 
also made him believe [he admitted of his la-_ 
mentations, as real,] although he had much — 
ado to restrain his passion at him; however, he ~ 

: 
4 


did himself bewail the murder of his. father, 
in his letters to Cassius, who, on other accounts, 
also hated Malichus; Cassius sent him word — 
back that he should avenge his father’s death — 
upon him, and privately gave order to the tri- — 
bunes that were under him, that they should — 
assist Herod in a righteous action he was about. — 
7. And because upon the taking of Laodicea 
by Cassius, the men of power were gotten to~— 
gether from all quarters, with presents and 
crowns in their hands, Herod allotted thistime 
for the punishment of Malichus. When Ma 
lichus suspected that, and was at Tyre, he re-~ 
solved to withdraw his son privately from 
among the Tyrians, who was a hostage there, 
while he got ready to fly away into Judea; the 
despair he was in of escapmg excited him 
to think of greater things; for he hoped that 
he should raise the nation to a revolt from the 
Romans, while Cassius was busy about the 
war against Antony, and that he should easi 


oe 



















ues of king Herod afterward; see the note on Antiq. b. xvii. 
cb. xi. sect. 4. It also appears, that Galilee then paid ne 
more than 100 talents, or the 7th part of the enthe sum te 
levied in all the country. 


4 
Bh 


y 

" 

wal! 
A 


iy 
) 
4h 
y 


it 


: 


& 
ve 


and killed him with many wounds. 


8. But fate laughed at the hopes he had; for 
Herod foresaw what he was so zealous about, 


and invited both Hyrcanus and him to supper; 


but calling one of the principal servants that 
stool by him, to him, he sent him out, as 
though it were to get things ready for supper, 
but in reality to give notice beforehand, about 
the plot that was laid against him; accordingly 


_ they called to mind what orders Cassius had 


iven them, and went out of the city with 
eir swords in their hands upon the seashore, 
where they encompassed Malichus round about 
Upon 
which Hyrcanus was immediately affrighted, 


ull he swooned away, and fell down at the sur- 


rise he was in; and it was with difficulty that 
a was recovered, when he asked who it was 
that had killed Malichus? and when one of the 
tribunes replied that it was done by the com- 


- mand of Cassius, “Then, said he, Cassius hath 


” 


} 
} 
} 
is 
i 
t 
“ 


saved both me and my country, by cutting off 
one that was laying plots against them both.” 
Whether he spoke according to his own senti- 
ments, or whether his fear was such, that he 
was obliged to commend the action by saying 
se, is uncertain; however, by this method Herod 
inflicted punishment upon Malichus. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Phasaelus is too hard for Felix; Herod also 
overcomes /intigonus in batile; and the Jews 
accuse both Herod and Phasaelus, but Anto- 
nius acquits them, and makes them tetrarchs. 


§ 1. When Cassius was gone out of Syria, 
another sedition arose at Jerusalem, wherein 
Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an army, that 
he might avenge the death of Malichus upon 
‘Herod, by falling upon his brother. Now He- 
rod happened then to be with Fabius, the go- 
-vernor of Damascus, and as he was going to 
his brother’s assistance, he was detained by 
sickness; in the mean time, Phasaelus was by 
himself too hard for Felix, and reproached 
Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude both 
for what assistance he had afforded Malichus, 
and for overlooking Malichus’s brother, when 
he possessed himself of the fortresses; for he had 
gotten a great many of them already, and 


“among them the strongest of them all, Masada. 


y 
if 


2. However, nothing could be sufficient for 
‘him against the force of Herod, who as soon 


as he was recovered, took the other fortresses 


! 


{ 





f 
A 


| lee, when he had already possessed himself of 


ie 
x 


‘again, and drove him out of Masada in the 

posture of a supplicant; he also drove away 
Marion, the tyrant of the T'yrians, out of Gali- 
‘three fortified places; but as to those Tyrians 
whom he had caught, he preserved them all 
‘alive; nay, some of them he gave presents to, 
2nd so sent them away, and thereby procured 
‘good will to himself from the city, and hatred 
‘tothe tyrant. Marion had indeed obtained that 


‘tyrannical power of Cassius, who set tyrants 
' over ail Syria,” and out of hatred to Herod it 
“was that he assisted Antigonus, the son of Aris- 


- 


b 


_ *Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over ali Syria; so 


‘ _ that 
<a 


his assisting to destroy Cesar does not seem to have 
igre from his true zeal for publie liberty, but from a 
lesire to be a tyrant himself. 


Lo 


ieee 
Aan 


BOOK L—CHAPTER XII _ 


tobulus, and principally on Fabius’s acvount 
whom Antigenus had made his assistant by 
money, and had him accordingly on his side 
when he made his descent; but it was Ptolem 
the kinsman of Antigonus, that supplied 
that he wanted. 

3. When Herod had fought against thes 2 
the avenues of Judea, he was conqueror in tne 
battle, drove away Antigonus, and returned to 
Jerusalem beloved by every body, for the glo- 
rious action he had done; for those who did 
not before favor him, did join themselves te 
him now, because of his marriage into the fa- 
mily of Hyrcanus; for ashe had formerly mar- 
ried a wife out of his own country of no igno- 
ble blood, who was called Doris, of whom he 
begot Antipater; so did be marry Mariamne, 
the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristo- 
bulus, and the granddaughter of Hyrcanus, 
and was become thereby a relation of the king. 

4. But when Cesar and Antony had slain 
Cassius near Philippi, and Ceesar was gone to 
Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of 
the cities which sent ambassadors to Antony, 
into Bithynia, the great men of the Jews came 
also, and accused Phasaelus, and Herod, that 
they kept the government by force, and that 
Hyrcanus had no more than an honorable 
name. Herod appeared ready to answer this 
accusation, and, having made Antony his friend 
by the large sums of money which he gave 
him, he brought him to such atemple as not to 
hear the others speak against him, and thus did 
they part at this time. 

3. However, after this there came a hundred 
of the principal men among the Jews to Daphne 
by Antioch to Antony, who was already in love 
with Cleopatra to the degree of slavery; these 
Jews put those men that were the most potent, 
both in dignity and eloquence, foreiost, and 
accused the brethren.* But Messala opposed 
them, and defended the brethren, and that while 
Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his re- 
lation to them. When Antony had heard both 
sides, he asked Hyrcanus which party was the 
fittest to govern? who replied, that Herod and 
his party were the fittest. Antony was glad of 
that answer, for he had been formerly treated 
in a hospitable and obliging manner by his 
father Antipater, when he marched into Judea 
with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren 
tetrarchs, and committed to them the govern- 
ment of Judea. 

6. But when the ambassadors had indigna- 
tion at this procedure, Antony took fifteen of 
them, and put them into custody, whom: he was 
also going to kill presently, and the rest he 
drove away with disgrace, on which occasion 
a still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem: se 
they sent again a thousand ambassadors te 
Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was 
marching to Jerusalem; upon these men, whe 
made a clamor, he sent out the governor of 
Tyre, and ordered hin: to punish all that he 
could catch ot them, and to settle those in the 
administration whom he had made ‘etrarcha. 

7. But before this, Herod and Hyr:anus 

Phasaelus and Herod. 


316 


went out upon the seashore, and earnest.y de- 
sired of those ambassadors that they would 
neither bring ruin upon themselves, nor war 
upon their native country, by their rash con- 
tentions; and when they grew still more out- 
rageous, Antony sent out armed men, and slew 
a great many, and wounded more of them; of 
whom those that were slain were buried by 
Hyrcanus, as were the wounded put under the 
care of physicians by him: yet would not those 
that had escaped be quiet still, but put the af- 


fairs of the city into such disorder, and so pro-- 


voked Antony, that he slew those whom he 
had in bonds also. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


The Parthians bring Antigonus back into Judea, 
and cast Hyrcanus and Phasaelus into prison. 
The flight of Herod and the taking of Jerusa- 
lem, and what Hyrcanus and Phasaelus suf- 
fered. 


§ 1. Now two years afterward, when Bar- 
gapharnes, a governor among the Parthians, 
and Pacorus, the king’s son, had possessed 
themselves of Syria, and when Lysanias had 
already succeeded, upon his father Ptolemy the 
son of Menneus’s death, in the government (of 
Chalcis,] he prevailed with the governor, by a 
promise of a thousand talents, and five hun- 
dred women, to bring back Antigonus to his 
kingdom, and to turn Hyrcanus out of it. 
Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, 
and marched along the seacoast, while he or- 
dered Barzapharnes to fall upon the Jews as 
he went along the Mediterranean part of the 
country; but of the maritime people, the Tyrians 
would not receive Pacorus, although those of 
Ptolemais and Sidon had received him: so he 
committed a troop of his horse to a certain cup- 
bearer belonging to the royal family, of his 
ewn name [Pacorus,] and gave him orders to 
march into Judea, in order to learn the state of 
affairs among their enemies, and to help Anti- 
gonus when he should want his assistance. 

2. Now, as these men were ravaging Carmel, 
many of the Jews ran together to Antigonus, 
and showed themselves ready to make an in- 
cursion into the country; so he sent them be- 
fore into that place called Drymus,* [the wood- 
land,] to seize upon the place; whereupon a 
battle was fought between them, and they drove 
the enemy away, and pursued them, and ran 
after them as far as Jerusalem, and as their 
numbers increased, they proceeded as far as 
the king’s palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasae- 

us received them with a strong body of men, 
there happened a battle in the market-place, in 
which Herod’s party beat the enemy, and shut 
them up inthe temple, and set sixty men in 
the houses adjoining as a guard onthem. But 
the people that were tumultuous against the 
brethren came in, and burnt those men; while 
Herod in his rage for killing them, attacked 
and slew many of the people, till one party 

* This large and noted wood or woodland belonging to 
Carmel, called drumos by the Septuagint, is mentioned in 
the Old Testament, 2 Kings xix. 23, and Isaiah x. 18, and by 


surabo, b. xvi. p. 758, as both Aldrich and Spanheim here re- 
mark very pertinently. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


made incursions on the other by turns, ier by 
day, in the way of ambushes, and slaughters 
were made continually among them. Z 
3. Now, when that festival which we call 
Pentecost was at hand, all the places about the 
temple, and the whole city, were full of a mul 
titude of people that were come out of the 
country, and who were the greatest part of © 
them armed also, at which time Phasaelus” 
guarded the wall, and Herod, with a few, 
guarded the royal palace; and when he made~ 
an assault upon his enemies, as they were out 
of their ranks, on the north quarter of the city, 
he slew a very great number of them, and put. 
them all to flight, and some of them he shut 
up within the city, and others within the cut 
ward rampart. In the mean time, Antigonug 
desired that Pacorus might be admitted to bea 
reconciler between them; and Phasaelus was 
prevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the 
city with five hundred horse, and to treat him 
in a hospitable manner, who pretended that he 
came to quell the tumult, but in reality he came 
to assist Antigonus; however, he laid a plot for 
Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an am- 
bassador to Barzapharnes, in order to put an 
end to the war, although Herod was very earn- 
est with him to the contrary, and exhorted 
him to kill the plotter, but not expose himself 
to the snares he had laid for him, because the” 
barbarians are naturally perfidious. However, 
Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, 
that he might be the less suspected; he also lef 
some of the horsemen, called the Freemen,® 
with Herod, and conducted Phasaelus with the 
rest. , 
4. But now, when they were come to Gali- 
lee, they found that the people of that country 
had revolted, and were in arms, who came 
very cunningly to their leader, and besought 
him to conezal his treacherous intentions by an 
obliging behavior to them; accordingly, he at 
first made them presents, and afterward, as 
they went away, laid ambushes for them; and, 
when they were come to one of the maritime 
cities called Ecdippon, they perceived that a 
plot was laid for them; for they were there in- 
formed of the promise of a thousand talents, 
and how Antigonus had devoted the greatest 
number of the women that were there with 
them, among the five hundred, to the Parthians; 
they also perceived that an ambush was always 
laid for them by the barbarians in the night-— 
time; they had also been seized cn beio 
this, unless they had waited for the :eizure of © 
Herod first at Jerusalem, because if he wi 
once informed of this treachery of theirs, he 
would take care of himself; nor was this 
mere report, but they saw the guards already 
not far off them. A 
5. Nor would Phasaelus think of forsaking 
Hyrcanus and flying away, although Ophellius 
earnestly persuaded himto it: for this man had 
learned the whole scheme of the plot from Sa- 
* These accounts, both here and Antiq. b. xiv. ch. 
sect. 5, that the Parthians fought chiefly on horse 
that only some few of their soldiers were freemer, C 


agree with Trogus Pompeius, in Justin, b. xli. 2, 3, as Deas 
Aldrich well observes on this place. ; 


BOOK I—CHAPTER XIII. 


‘samella, the richest of all the Syrians. But 
Phasaelus went up to the Parthian governor, 
and reproached him to his face for laying this 
treacherous plot against them, and chiefly be- 
cause he had done it for money; and he pro- 
mised him, that he would give him more mo- 
ney for their preservation than Antigonus had 
pe vied to givefor the kingdom. But thesly 

arthizn endeavored to remove all this suspi- 
cion by apologies and by oaths, and then went 
to [the other] Pacorus; immediately after which 
those Parthians who were left, and had it in 
eharge, seized upon Phasaelus and Hyrcanus, 
who could do no more than curse their perfi- 
diousness and their perjury. 

6. In the mean time the cupbearer, was sent 
{back, and laid a plot how to seize upon He- 
rod, by deluding him, and getting him out of 
the city, as he was commanded to do. But 
Herod suspected the barbarians from the begin- 
ning, and having then received intelligence 
that a messenger, who was to bring him the 
letters that informed him of the treachery in- 
tended, had fallen among the enemy, he would 
not go out of the city; though Pacorus said 
very positively, that he ought to go out, and 
meet the messengers that brought the letters, 
for that the enemy had not taken them, and 
that the contents of them were not accounts 
of any plots upon them, but of what Phasae- 
lus had done; yet had he heard from others 
that his brother was seized; and Alexandra* 
the shrewdest woman in the world, Hyrcanus’s 
daughter, begged of him that he would not go 
jut, nor trust himself to those barbarians, who 
were how come to make an attempt upon him 
dpenly. 

7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were con- 
sidering how they might bring their plot to 
bear privately, because it was not possible to cir- 
cumvent a man of so great prudence, by openly 
attacking him, Herod prevented them, and 
went off with the persons that were the most 
aearly related to him by night, and this with- 
out their enemies being apprized of it. But, 
assoon as the Parthians perceived it, they pur- 
sued after them, and as he gave orders for his 
mother, and sister, and the young woman who 
was betrothed to him, with her mother, and 
his youngest brother, to make the best of their 
way, he himself, with his servants, took all the 
care they could to keep off the barbarians; and 
when at every assault he had slain a great many 
of them, he came to the stronghold of Masada. 

8. Nay, he found by experience that the Jews 
fell more heavily upon him than did the Par- 
thians, and created him troubles perpetually, 

and this ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs 
from the city; these sometimes brought it to 
a sort of regular battle. Now, in the place 
where Herod beat them, and killed a great 
number of them, there he afterward built a 
citadel, in memory of the great actions he did 
there, and adorned it with the most costly pa- 
_ faces, and erected very strong fortifications, and 
- called it from hisown name Herodium. Now, 
a2 chey were in their flight, many joined them- 
* Marianne here, in the copies. 


517 


selves to him every day; and at a place callea 
Thressa of Idumea, his brother Joseph met 
him, and advised him to ease himself of a great 
number of his followers; because Masada would 
not contain so great a multitude, which were 
above nine thousand. Herod complied with 
this advice, and sent away the most cumber- 
some part of his retinue, that they might go 
into Idumea, and gave them provisiors for their 
journey; but he got safe to the fortress with his 
nearest relations, and retained with him only 
the stoutest of his followers; and there it was 
that he left eight hundred of his men as a guard 
for the women, and provisions sufficient for a 
siege, but he made haste himself to Petra of 
Arabia. 

9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they 
betook themselves to plundering, and fell upon 
the houses of those that were fled, and upon 
the king’s palace; and spared nothing but Hyr- 
canus’s money, which was not above three hun- 
dred talents. They lighted on other men’s 
money also, but not so much as they hoped 
for; for Herod, having a long while had a sus- 
picion of the perfidiousness of the barbarians 
had taken care to have what was most splen- 
did among his treasures conveyed into Idumea, 
as every one belonging to him had in like man- 
ner done also. But the Parthians proceeded to 
that degree of injustice, as to fill all the country 
with war without denouncing it, and to demol- 
ish the city Marissa, and not only to set up 
Antigonus for king, but to deliver Phasaelus 
and Hyrcanus bound into his hands, in order 
to their being tormented by him. Antigonus 
himself also bit off Hyrcanus’s ears with his 
own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to 
him, that so he might never be able upon any 
mutation of affairs, to take the high priest- 
hood again, for the high priests that officiated 
were to be complete and without blemish. 

10. However, he failed in his purpose of 
abusing Phasaelus by reason of his courage, 
for though be neither had the command of his 
sword nor of his hands, he prevented all abu- 
ses by dashing his head against a stone; so he 
demonstrated himself to be Herod’s own bro- 
ther, and Hyrcanus a most degenerate relation, 


-and died with great bravery, and made the end 


of his life agreeable to the actionsof it. ‘There 
is also another report about his end, viz. that 
he recovered of that stroke, and that a surgeon, 
who was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled 
the wound with poisonous ingredients, and so 
killed him; whichsoever of these deaths he came 
to, the beginning of it was glorious. It isalso 
reported, that before he expired he was inform- 
ed by a certain poor woman how Herod had 
escaped out of their hands, and that he said 
thereupon, “I now die with comfort, since I 
leave behind me one alive, that will avenge me 
of mine eneinies.” 

11. This was the death of Phasaelus’ bua 
the Parthians, although they had failed of the 
women they chiefly desired, yet did they put 
the government of Jerusalem into the hands 
of Antigonus, and took away Hyrcan ts, and 
hound him, and carried him to Parthia. 


518 WARS OF THE JEWS. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


When Herod is rejected in Arabia, he makes haste 
to Rome, where Antony and Cesar join their 
interest to make him king of the Jews. 


§ 1 Now Herod did the more zealously 
pursue his journey into Arabia, as making haste 
to get money of the king, while his brother 
was yet alive, by which money alone it was 
that he hoped to prevail upon the covetous tem- 
ver of the barbarians to spare Phasaelus; for 
ne reasoned thus with himself, that if the Ara- 
bian king was too forgetful of his father’s 
friendship with him, and was too covetous to 
make him a free gift, he would, however, bor- 
row of him as much as might redeem his bro- 
ther, and put into his hands, as a-pledge, the 
son of him that was to be redeemed; accord- 
ingly he led his brother’s son along with him, 
who was of the age of seven years. Now he 
was ready to give three hundred talents for his 
brother; and intended to desire the intercession 
of the Tyrians to get them accepted; however, 
fate had been too quick for his diligence; and 






might be persuaded to be commander of her 
forces in the expedition she was now aboug— 
but he rejected the queen’s solicitations, and be — 
ing neither affrighted at the height of that — 
storm which then happened, nor at the tumults — 
that were now in Italy, he sailed for Rome. 

3. But as he was in ‘peril about Pamphylia, — 
and obliged to cast out the greatest part of the 
ship’s lading, he, with difficulty, got safe te- 
Rhodes, a place which had been grievously ha- 
rassed in the war with Cassius. He was there’ 
received by his friends, Ptolemy and Sappinius; 
and, although he was then in want of money, 
he fitted up a three-decked ship of very great 
magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed” 
to Brundusium,* and went thence to Rome 
with all speed; where he first of all went to” 
Antony, on account of the friendship his father 
had with him, and laid before him the calami- 
ties of himself and his family, and that he had 
left his nearest relations besieged in a fortress, 
and had sailed to him through a storm, to make 
supplication to him for his assistance. 4 

4. Hereupon Antony was moved to com 


since Phasaelus was dead, Herod’s brotherly | passion at the change that had been made in 


love was now in vain. Moreover, he was not 


Herod’s affairs, and this both upon his calling 


able to find any lasting friendship among the | to mind how hospitably he had been treated by 
Arabians; for their king, Malichus, sent to} Antipater, but more especially on account of 
him immediately, and commanded him to re-| Herod’s own virtue; so he then resolved to get 


turn back out of his country, and used the 
name of the Parthians asa pretence for so do- 
ing, as though these had denounced to him by 
their ambassadors to cast Herod out of Arabia; 
while in reality they had a mind to keep back 
what they owed to Antipater, and not be obliged 
to make requitals to his sons for the free gifts 
the father had made them.~' He also took the 
imprudent advice of those who, equally with 
himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what 
Antipater had deposited among them; and 
these men were the most potent of all whom 
he had in his kingdom. 

2. So when Herod had found that the Ara- 
bians were his enemies, and this for those very 
reasons whence he hoped they would have 
heen the most friendly, and had given them 
such an answer as his passion suggested, he re- 
turned back and went for Egypt. Now he 
lodged the first evening at one of the temples 
of that country, in order to meet with those 
whom he left behind; but on the next day word 
was brought him as he was going to Rhinocu- 
rura, that his brother was dead, and how he 
aame by his death; and when he had lament- 
ea him as much as his present circumstances 
could bear he soon laid aside such cares, and 
proceeded on his journey. But now, after some 
time, the king of Arabia repented of what he 
had done, and sent presently away messengers 
to call him back: Herod had prevented them, 
and was come to Pelusium, where he could not 
obtain a passage. from those that lay with the 
flect, so he besought their captains to let him 
go by them; accordingly, out of the reverence 
they bore to the fame and dignity of the man, 
they conducted him to Alexandria; and when 
he came into the city he was received by Cle- 
epatra with great splendor, who hoped he 


| 


him made king of the Jews, whom he had him- 
self formerly made tetrarch. The contest also 
that he had with Antigonus was another in- 
ducement; and that of no less weight than the 
great regard he had for Herod; for he looked 
upon Antigonus as a seditious person, and an en- 
emy of the Romans; and as for Cesar, Herod 
found him better prepared than Antony, as re- 
membering very fresh the wars he had gone 
through together with his father, the hospitable 
treatment he had met with from him, and the 
entire good will he had shown him; besides the 
activity which he saw in Herod himself. Se 
he called the senate together, wherein Messa- 
les, and after him Atratinus, produced Herod 
before them, and gave a full account of the 
merits of his father, and his own good will to 
the Romans. At this same time they demon- 
strated that Antigonus was their enemy, not 
only because he soon quarrelled with them, 
but because he now overlooked the Romans, 

and took the government by the means of the 

Parthians. These reasons greatly moved the 
senate; at which juncture Antony came in, ane 
told them, that it was for their advantage in the 
Parthian war that Herod should be king; so 
they all gave their votes for it. And when the 
senate was separated, Antony and Cesar went 
out, with Herod between them; while the con 
sul and the rest of the magistrates went before 
them in order to offer sacrifices, and to lay the 
decree in the capitol: Antony also made a feast 
for Herod on the first day of his reign. 


CHAPTER XV. 
Antigonus besieges those that were in Masaua 
whom Herod frees from confinement when h 


* This Brentesium or Brundusium, has coins still pre 
served, on which is written BPENOHSTN, as Spanheim 
informs us, ’ 

















, . 


to Jerusalem, where he finds Silo corrupted by 

bribes. 

§ 1. Now during this time Antigonus besieg- 
ad those that were in Masada, who had all 
other necessaries in sufficient quantity, but 


' ‘were in want of water; on which account Jo- 


seph, Herod’s brother, was disposed to run 
gway to the Arabians, with two hundred of his 
own friends, because he had heard that Mali- 
chus repented of his offences, with regard to 
Herod; and he had been so quick as to have 
been gone out of the fortress already, unless on 
that very night when he was going away, there 
had fallen a great deal of rain, insomuch that 
his reservoirs were full of water, and so he was 
under no necessity of running away. After 


which, therefore, they made an irruption upon 


Antigonus’s party, and slew a great many of 


_ them, some in open battles, and some in private 


ambush; nor had they always success in their 
attempts, for sometimes they were beaten and 
man away. 
2. In the mean time Ventidius, the Roman 
neral, was sent out of Syria, to restrain the 


-Incursions of the Parthians, and after he had 


done that, he came into Judea, in pretence in- 
deed to assist Joseph and his party, but in real- 
ity to get money of Antigonus: and when he 


had pitched his camp very near to Jerusalem, 


as soon as he had got money enough, he went 


_ away with the greatest part of his forces; yet 


— ee 


still did he leave Silo with some part of them, 
lest if he had taken them all away, his taking 
of bribes might have been too openly discovered. 
Now Antigonus hoped that the Parthians would 
come again to his assistance, and therefore cul- 
tivated a good understanding with Silo in the 
mean time, lest any interruption should be 
given to his hopes. 

3. Now by this time Herod had sailed out of 
Italy, and was come to Ptolemais; and as soon 
as he had gotten together no smnallarmy of fo- 
reigners, and of his own countrymen, he march- 
ed through Galilee against Antigonus, wherein 
he was assisted by Ventidius and Silo, both 
whom Dellius,* a person sent by Antony, per- 
suaded to bring Herod [into his kingdom.} 
Now Ventidius was at this time among the 
titics, and composing the disturbances which 
had happened by means of the Parthians, as 
was Silo in Judea corrupted by the bribes that 
Antigonus had given him; yet was not Herod, 
himself destitute of power, but the number of 
his forces increased every day as he went along, 
and all Galilee, with few exceptions, joined 
themselves to him. So he proposed to himself 
to set about his most necessary enterprise, anc 
that was Masada, in order to deliver his rela- 
tions from the siege they endured. But still 
Joppa stood in his way, and hindered his going 
thither; for it was necessary to take that city 
first, which was in the enemies’ hands, that when 
he should go to Jerusalem, no fortress might 
be left in the enemies’ power behind him. Silo 


_ * This Dellius is famous, or rather infamous, in the histo- 
az of Mark Antony, as Spanheim and Aldrich here note 
§®m the coins of Plutarch and Dio. 


Le 
a) 


BOOK 1-—-CHAPTER XV. 
came back from Rome, and presently marches | also willingly joined him, 


i 


518 


! as having now a plau 
sible occasion of drawing off his forces [from 
Jerusalem;] and when the Jews pursued him 
and pressed upon him [in his retreat,] Herod 
made an excursion upon them with a small 
body of his men, and soon put them to flight, 
and saved Silo when he was in distress 

4. After this Herod took Joppa, ad them 
made haste to Masada, to free his relations 
Now as he was marching, many came in to 
him; some induced by their friendship to his 
father, some by the reputation he had already 
gained himself, and some in order to repay the 
benefits they had received from them both; but 
still what engaged the greatest number on his 
side, was the hopes from him, when he should 
be established in his kingdom; so that he had 
gotten together already an army hard to be 
conquered. But Antigonus laid an ambush 
for him as he marched out, in which he did 
little or no harm to his enemies. However, he 
easily recovered his relations again that were 
in Masada, as well as the fortress Ressa, and 
then marched to Jerusalem, where the soldiers, 
that were with Silo joined themselves to his 
own, as did many out of the city, from a dread 
ef his power. 

o. Now when he had pitched his camp on the 
west side of the city, the guards that were there 
shot their arrows, and threw their darts at them, 
while others ran out in companies, and attack- 
ed those in the forefront; but Herod command- 
ed proclamation to be made at the wall, that 
“he was come for the good of the people and 
the preservation of the city, without any de- 
sign to be revenged on his open enemies, but 
to grant oblivion to them, though they had 
been the most obstinate against him.” Now 
the soldiers that were for Antigonus made a 
contrary clamor, and did neither permit any 
body to hear that proclamation, nor to change 
their party; so Antigonus gave order to his 
forces to beat the enemy from the walls; ae- 
cordingly, they soon threw their darts at them 
from the towers, and put them to flight 

6. And here it was that Silo discovered he 
had taken bribes: for he set many of the sob 
diers to clamor about their want of necessa- 
ries, and to require their pay, in order to buy 
themselves food, and to demand that he would 
lead them into places convenient for their win 
ter-quarters; because all the parts about the 
city were laid waste by the meansof Antigo- 
nus’s army, which had taken all things away 
By this he moved the army, and attempted to 
get them off the siege; but Herod went to the 
captains that were under Silo, and to a great 
many of the soldiers, and begged of them not 
to leave him who was sent hither by Ceesar. 
and Antony, and the senate, for that he would 
take care to have their wants supplied that very 
day. After the making of which entreaty, he 
went hastily into the country, and brought 
thither so great an abundance of necessaries, 
that he cut off all Silo’s pretences; and in or- 
der to provide that for the following days they 
should not want supplies, he sent to the people 
that were about Samaria, (which city had ‘cin- 


320 


ed itself to him,) to bring corn, and wine, and 
vil, and cattle to Jericho. When Antigonus 
heard of this, he sent some of his party with 
orders to hinder, and lay ambushes for these 
collectors of corn. This command was obey- 
ed, and a great multitude of armed men were 
gathered together about Jericho, and lay upon 
the mountains to watch those that brought the 
provisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took 
with him ten cohorts, five of them were Ro- 
mans, and five Jewish cohorts, together with 
some mercenary troops intermixed among 
them, and besides those a few horsemen, and 
eame to Jericho; and when he came he found 
the city deserted, but that there were five hun- 
dred men, with their wives and children, who 
had taken possession of the tops of the moun- 
tains; these he took and dismissed them, while 
the Romans fell upon the rest of the city, and 
plundered it, having found the houses full of 
all sorts of good things. So the king left a 

rrison at Jericho, and came back and sent the 
Souian army into those cities which were come 
over to him, to take their winter-quarters there, 
viz. in Judea, [or Idumea,] and Galilee, and 
Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained 
of Silo to let a part of his army be received at 
Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Herod takes Sepphoris, and subdues the robbers 
that were in the caves; he after that avenges 
himself upon Macherus, as upon an enemy of 
us, and goes to Antony as he was besieging 
Samosata. 


§ 1. So the Romans lived in plenty of all 
things, and rested from war. _However, Herod 
did not lie at rest, but seized upon Idumea, 
and kept it, with two thousand footmen and 
four hundred horsemen; and this he did by 
sending his brother Joseph thither, that no in- 
novation might be made by Antigonus. Healso 
removed his mother, and all his relations who 
had been in Masada, to Samaria; and when he 
had settled them securely, he marched to take 
the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive 
away the garrisons placed there by Antigonus. 

2. But when Herod had reached Sepphoris,* 
im a very great snow, he took the city without 
any difficulty, the guards, that should have 
kept it, flying away before it was assaulted; 
where he gave an opportunity to his followers 
that had been in distress to refresh thetnselves, 
there being in that city a great abundance of 
aecessaries. After which he hasted away to 
the robbers that were in the caves, who over- 
rar. a great part of the country, and did as 
great mischief to its inhabitants as a war itself 
could have done. Accordingly, he sent before- 
hand three cohorts of footmen and one troop 
of horsemen to the village Arbela, and came 
himself forty days afterward} with the rest of 


* This Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, so often men- 
noned by Josephus, has coins still remaining, © E112: PHNQN, 
as Spanheim here informs us. 

t This way of speaking, after forty days, is interpreted by 
Josephus himself on the fortieth day; Antiq. b. xiv. ch. xv. 
sect. 4, in like manner, when Josephus says, ch xxxiii. sect. 
&, that Herod live j after he had ordered Antipater to be slain 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


P 


Bi 


his forces. Yet were not the enemy afftight — 
ed at this assault, but met him in arms, for their — 
skill was not that of warriors; but their bold- 
ness was the boldness of robbers: when there 
fore, it came toa pitched battle, they put to 
flight Herod’s left wing with the right one, 
but Herod, wheeling about on the sudden from 
his own right wing, came to their assistance, 
and both made his own left wing return back 
from its flight, and fell upon the pursuers, and 
cooled their courage, till they could not bear 
the attempts that were made directly upon them, 
and so turned back and ran away. 

3. But Herod followed them, and slew them 
as he followed them, and destroyed a great part 
of them, till those that remained were scattered 
beyond the river [Jordan,] and Galilee was 
freed from the terrors they had been under, 
excepting from those that remained, and lay 
concealed in caves, which required longer time 
ere they could be conquered. In order to 
which, Herod, in the first place, distributed the — 
fruits of their former labors to the soldiers, and 
gave every one of them a hundred and fifty 
drachme of silver, and a great deal more to 
their commanders, and sent them into their 
winter-quarters. He also sent to his youngest 
brother Pheroras, to take care of a good market 
for them, where they might buy themselves pro-_ 
visions, and to build a wall about Alexandrium, 
who took care of both those injunctions accord- 
ingly. 

4. In the mean time Antony abode at Athens, 
while Ventidius called for Silo and Hered to 
come to the war against the Parthians, but or- 
dered them first to settle the affairs of Judea; 
so Herod willingly dismissed Silo to go to Ven- 
tidius, but he made an expedition himselfagainst 
those that lay in the caves. Now these caves 
were in the precipices of craggy mountains, 
and could not be come at from any side, since 
they had only some winding pathways, very 
narrow, by which they got up to them; but the 
rock that lay on their front had beneath it val 
leys of a vast depth, and of an almost perpen- — 
dicular declivity; insomuch that the king was 
doubtful for a long time what to do, by reason ~ 
ofa kind of impossibility there was of attacking 
the place. Yet did he at length make use of a 
contrivance that was subject to the utmost ha- 
zard; for he let down the most hardy of his 
men in chests, and set them at the mouths of 
the dens. Now these men slew the robbers 
and their families, and when they made resist- — 
ance, they sent in fire upon them, [and burnt 
them,] and as Herod was desirous of saving 
some of them, he had proclamation made,.that — 
they should come and deliver themselves up to — 
him, but not one of them came willingly, and — 
of those that were compelled to come, many 
preferred death to captivity. And here a cer- — 
tain old man, the father of seven children, 


five days, this is by himself interpreted, Antiq. b. cvii. ch 
viii. sect. 1, that he died on the fifth day afterward. So alse 
what is in this book, chap. xiii. sect. 1, after two years, is 
Antiq. b. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 3,0n the second year. And Dean 
Santi here notes that this way of speaking is familar tu 
Josephus. " 


whose children, together with their mother, 
desired him to give them leave to go out, upon 
‘the assurance and right hand that was offered 
‘them, slew them after the following manner: 
he ordered every one of them to go out, while he 
stood himself at the cave’s mouth, and slew 
‘that son of his perpetually who went out. He- 
fod was near enough to see this sight, and his 
bowels of compassion were moved at it, and 
‘he stretched out his right hand to the old man, 
‘and besought him to spare his children; yet 
did he not relent at all upon what he said, but 
over and above reproached Herod on the low- 
ness of his descent; and slew his wife as well 
as his children; and when he had thrown their 
dead bodies down the precipice, he at last 
threw himself down after them. 

5. By this means Herod subdued these caves, 
and the robbers that were in them. He then 
left there a part of his army, as many as 

he thought sufficient to prevent any sedition, 
and made Ptolemy their general, and returned 
to Samaria: he led also with him three thousand 
‘armed footmen, and six hundred horsemen, 
against Antigonus. Now here, those that used 
t raise tumultsin Galilee, having liberty so 
to do upon his departure, fell unexpectedly 
upon Ptolemy, the general of his forces, and 
slew him: they also laid the country waste, and 
then retired to the bogs, and to places not easily 
to be found. But when Herod was informed 
of this insurrection, he came to the assistance 
of the country immediately, and destroyed a 
great number of the seditious, and raised the 
sieges of all those fortresses they had besieged, 
he also exacted the tribute of a hundred talents 
of his enemies, as a penalty for the mutations 
they had made in the country. 

6. By this time the Parthians being already 
driven out of the country, anc Pacorus slain, 
Ventidius, by Antony’s command, sent a thou- 
gand horsemen and two legions, as auxiliaries 
to Herod, against Antigonus. Now Antigonus 
besought Macheras, who was their general, by 
letters, to come to his assistance, and made a 
great many mournful complaints about Herod’s 
violence, and about the injuries he did to the 
kingdom: and promised to give him money 
for such his assistance: but he complied not 
with his invitation to betray his trust, for he 
did not contemn him that sent him, especially 
while Herod gave him more money [than the 
other offered.] So he pretended friendship to 
Antigonus, but came as a spy to discover his 
affairs although he did not herein comply with 
Herod who dissuaded him from so doing. 
But Antigonus perceived what his intentions 
were beforehand, and excluded him out of the 
city, and defended himself against him, as 
against an enemy from the walls; till Mache- 
yas was ashamed of what he had done, and re- 
tired to Emmaus to Herod; and, as he was in a 
rage at his disappointment, he slew all the Jews 
whom he met with, without sparing those that 


were for Herod, but using them all as if they | 


were for Antigonus. 


7 Hereupon Herod was very angry at him, | 


apd was going to fight against Macheras as 


Gh 
f 


BOOK I—CHAPTER XVII. 


521 


his enemy; but he restrained his indignatio 
and marched to Antony to accuse Macheras of 
mal-administration. But Macheras was made 
sensible of his offences, and followed after the 
king immediately, and earnestly begged and 
obtained that he would be reconciled to him. 
However, Herod did not desist from his resolu- 
tion of going to Antony, but when he heard 
that he was besieging Samosata* with a great 
army, which isa strong city near to Euphra- 
tes, he made the greater haste, as observing that 
this was a proper opportunity for showing at 
once his courage, and for doing what would 
greatly oblige Antony. Indeed, when he came, 
he soon made an end of that siege, and slew a 
great number of the barbarians, and took from 
them a large prey; insomuch that Antony, who 
admired his courage formerly, did now ad- 
mire it still more. Accordingly, he heaped 
many more honors upon him, and gave him 
more assured hopes that he should gain his 
kingdom: and now king Antiochus was forced 
to deliver up Samosata. 
| 


CHAPTER XVII. 


The death of Joseph, [Herod’s brother,] which 
had been signified to Herod in dreams. How 
Herod was preserved twice, after a wonderful 
manner. He cuts off the head of Pappus, 
who was the murderer of his brother, and sends 
that head to [his other brother] Pheroras. And 
in no long time he besieges Jerusalem, and mar- 
ries Mariamne. 


§ 1. In the mean time, Herod’s affairs in Ju- 
dea were in an ill state. He had left his bro- 
ther Joseph with full power, but had charged 
him to make no attempts against Antigonus till 
his return; for that Macheras would not be such 
an assistant as he could depend on, as it appear- 
ed by what he had done already; but as soon 
as Joseph heard that his brother was at a very 
great distance, he neglected the charge he had 
received, and marched towards Jericho with 
five cohorts, which Macheras sent with him 
This movement was intended for seizing on the 
corn, as it was now in the midst of summer 
but when his enemies attacked him in the 
mountains, and in places which were difficult 
to pass, he was both killed himself, as he was 
very bravely fighting in the battle, and the en- 
tire Roman cohorts were destroyed; for these 
cohorts were new raised men, gathered out of 
Syria, and there was no mixture of those call 
ed veteran soldiers among them, that might 
have supported those that were unskilful in 
war. 

2. This victory was not sufficient for Anti- 
gonus, but he proceeded to that degree of rage, 
as to treat the dead body of Joseph barbarously; 
for when he had gotten possession of the be- 
dies of those that were slain, he cut off his 
head, although his brother Pheroras would 
have given fifty talents asa price of redemp- 
tion for it. 


And now the affairs of Galilee 
hus 
* This Samosata, the metropolis of Commagena, is well 
| known from its coins, as Spanheim here assures us. Dean 
Aldrich also confirms what Josephus here notes, that Herod 
| Was a great means of taking the city by Antony, and that 
trom Piutarch and Dio. 


S22 


were put in such disorder after this victory of 


Antigonus, that those of Antigonus’s party 
brought the principal meu: that were on Herod’s 
side to the lake, and there drowned them. 
There was a great change made also in Idumea, 
where Macheras was building a wall about one 
of the fortresses, which was called Gittha. But 
Herod had not yet been informed of these 
things; for after the taking of Samosata, and 
when Antony had set Sosius over the affairs of 
Syria, and given him orders to assist Herod 
against Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; but 
Susius sent two legions before him into Judea 
to assist Herod, and followed himself soon after 
with the rest of his army. 

3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by 
Antioch, he had some dreams which clearly 
foreboded his brother’s death, and as he leaped 
out of his bed in a disturbed manner, there 
came messengers that acquainted him with that 
calamity. So when he had lamented this mis- 
fortune for a while, he put off the main part 
of his mourning, and made haste to march 
against his enemies; and when he had perform- 
ed a march that was above his strength, and 
was gone as far as Libanus, he got him eight 
hundred men of those that lived near to that 
mountain, as his assistants, and joined with 
them one Roman legion, with which, before it 
was day, he made an irruption into Galilee, and 
met his enemies, and drove them back to the 
place which they had left. He also made an 
immediate and continual attack upon the for- 
tress. -Yet was he forced by a most terrible 
storm to pitch his camp in the neighboring vil- 
Jages, before he could take it: but when, after 
a few days’ time, the second legion that came 
from Antony, joined themselves to him, the 
enemy were affrighted at his power, and left 
their fortifications in the night-time. 

4. After this he marched through Jericho, as 
making what haste he could to be avenged on 
his brother’s murderers; where happened to 
him a providential sign, out of which, when he 
had unexpectedly escaped, he had the reputa- 
‘tion of being very dear to God; for that even- 
ing there feasted with him many of the princi- 
pal men, and after that feast was over, and all 
the guests were gone out, the house fell down 
immediately. And as he judged this to be a com- 
mon signal of what dangers he should undergo, 
-and how he should escape them in the war that 
he was going about, he, in the morning, set 
forward with his army, when about six thou- 
gand of his enemies came running down from 
the mountains, and began to fight with those 
in Lis forefront, yet durst they not be so very 
bold as to engage the Romans hand to hand, 
put threw stones and darts at them at a distance; 
by which means they wounded a considerable 
nutnber; in which action Herod’s own side was 
wounded with a dart, 

“5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear 
to exceed Herod, not only in the courage, but 
in the number of his men, he sent Pappus, one 
of his companions, with an army against Sa- 
maria, whose fortune it was to oppose Mache- 
ras; but Herod overran the enemies’ country, 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





Py 






and demolished five little cities, and destroyed 
two thousand men that were in them, and burn 
ed their houses, and then returned to his camp; 
but his head-quarters were at the village called 
Cana. + 
6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted 
to him every day, both out of Jericho, and the 
other parts of the country. Some were moy- 
ed so to do out of their hatred to Antigonus, 
and some out of regard to the glorious actions 
Herod had done; but others were led on by an 
unreasonable desire of change; so he fell upon 
them immediately. As for Pappus and _ his 
party, they were not terrified at either their 
number or at their zeal, but marched out with 
great alacrity to fight them, and it came toa 
close fight. Now other parts of their army 
made resistance fora while; but Herod run- 
ning the utmost hazard out of the rage he was 
in at the murder of his brother, that he might 
be avenged on those that had been the authors 
of it, soon beat those that opposed him, and, 
after he had beaten them, he always turned his 
forces against those that stood to it still, and 
pursued them all; so that a great slaughter was 
made, while some were forced back into that 
village whence they came out; he also pressed 
hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast 
number of them; he also fell into the village 
with the enemy, where every house was filled 
with armed men, and the upper rooms were 
crowded with soldiers for their defence; and 
when he had beaten those that were on the out- 
side, he pulled the houses to pieces, and pluck- 
ed out those that ‘were within; upon many he 
had the roofsshaken down, whereby they per- 
ished by heaps, and as for those that fled out of 
the ruins, the soldiers received them with their 
swords in their hands, and the multitude of 
those slain, and lying on heaps, was so great 
that the conquerors *could not pass along the 
roads. Now the enemy could not bear this 
blow, so that when the multitude of them which 
was gathered together, saw that those in the 
village were slain, they dispersed themselves and 
fled away; upon the confidence of which vic- 
tory, Herod had marched immediately to Jeru- 
salem, unless he had been hindered by the 
depth of winter [coming on.] This was the 
impediment that lay in the way of this his er- 
tire glorious progress, and was what hindered 
Antigonus from being now conquered, who 
was already disposed to forsake the city. 3 
7. Now when at the evening, Herod had al 
ready dismissed his friends to refresh them 
selves after their fatigue, and when he w 
gone himself, while he was still hot in his ar= 
mor, like a common soldier, to bathe aimself 
and had but one servant that attended hin., and 
before he was gotten into the bath, one of .2@ 
enemies met him in the face with a swerd in 
his hand, and then a second, and then a third, 
and after that more of them; these were men 
who had run away out of the battle into 
bath in their armor, and they had lain there ft 
some time in great terror, and in privacy; and 
when they saw the king, the y trembled for fear, 
and ran by him in a fright, (although he w 








2. Nowas for the robberies which were com- 
mitted, the king contrived that ambushes should 
be so laid, that they might restrain their excur- 
sions; and as for the want of provisions, he pro- 
vided that they should be brought to them from 
He was also too hard for the 


p BOOK L--CHAPTER XVIII. 
naked) and endeavored to get off into the pub- 
\ lic road: now there was by chance nobody else 
| at hand that might seize upon these men, and 
‘ as for Herod, he was contented to have come 
to no harin himself, so that they all got away 





in safety 
| 8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus’s 
head cut off, who was the general for Antigo- 
_ nus, and was slain in the battle, and sent it to his 
brother Pheroras by way of punishment for 
their slain brother, for he was the man that 
slew Joseph. Now as winter was going off, 
' Herod marched to Jerusalem, and brought his 
‘army to the wall of it; this was the third year 
‘since he had been made king at Rome; so he 
‘pitched his camp before the temple, for on that 
side it might be besieged, and there it was that 
Pompey took the city. So he parted the work 
among the army, and demolished the suburbs, 
and raised three banks, and gave orders to have 
_ towers built upon those banks, and left the most 
~Taborious of his acquaintance at the works. 
_ But he went himself to Samaria, to take the 
_ daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, 
_ to wife, who had been betrothed to him before, as 
_ we have already said; and thus he accomplish- 
ed this, by the by, during the siege of the city, 
_ for he had his enemy in great contempt already. 
__ 9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he 
came hack to Jerusalem with a greater army; 
Sosius also joined him with a large army, both 
of horsemen and footmen, which he sent be- 
_ fore him through the midland parts, while he 
marched himself along Phoenicia; and when the 
whole army was gotten together, which were 
eleven regiments of footmen and six thousand 
horsemen, besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which 
“was no small part of the army, they pitched 
their camp near to the north wall. Herod’s de- 
‘pendence was upon the decree of the senate, 
by which he was made king, and Sosius relied 
upon Antony , who sent the army that was un- 
der him to Herod’s assistance. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


How Herod and Sosius took Jerusalem by force; 
_ and what death Antigonus came to. Also, con- 
cerning Cleopatra’s avaricious temper. 
_ § 1. Now the multitude of the Jews that were 
in the city were divided into several factions; 
for the people that crowded about the temple, 
being the weaker part of them, gave it out, that, 
-as the times were, he was the happiest and most 
religious man who should die first. But as to 
_he more bold and hardy men, they got togeth- 
er in bodies, and fell to robbing others after 
¥arious manners, and these particularly plun- 
‘dered the places that were about the city, and 
his because there was no food left either for 
‘the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike 
‘men who were used to fight regularly, were 
‘appointed to defend the city during the siege, 
and these drove those that raised the banks 
_ away from the wall, and these were always in- 
venting one engine or another to be a hinder- 
ance to the engine of the enemy, nor had they 
_ ®© much success any way as in the mines un- 
: ‘a ground. 


e 





great distances, 
Jews, by the Romans’ skill in the art of war; 
although they were bold to the utmost degree. 
Now they durst not come to a plain battle with 
the Romans, which was certain death, but 
through their mines under ground they would 
appear in the midst of them on the sudden, and 
before they could batter down one wall, they 
built them another in its stead; and, to sum up 
all at once, they did not show any want either 
of painstaking or contrivance, as having re 

solved to hold out to the very last. Indeed, 
though they had so great an army lying round 
about them, they bore a siege of five months, 
till some of Herod’s chosen men ventured to 
get upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did 
Sosius’s centurions after them; and now they 
first of all seized upon what was about the 
temple, and upon the pouring in of the army, 
there was slaughter of vast multitudes every- 
where, by reason of the rage the Romans were 
in at the length of this siege, and by reason that 
the Jews who were about Herod earnestly en- 
deavored that none of their adversaries might 
remain; so they were, cut to pieces by great 
multitudes, as they were crowded together in 
narrow streets, and in houses, or were running 
away to the temple; nor was there any mercy 
shown either to infants, or to the aged, or to the 
weaker sex; insomuch, that although the king 
sent about and desired them to spare the peo- 
ple; nobody could be persuaded to withhold 
their right hand from slaughter, but they slew 
people of allages like madmen. 'Taen it was 
that Antigonus, without any regard to his for- 
mer or to his present fortune, canie from the 
citadel, and feli down at Sosius’s feet, who 
without pitying him at all upon the change of 
his condition, laughed at him beyond measure, 
and called him Antigona.* Yet did he not treat 
him like a woman, or let him go free, but put 
him into bonds, and kept him in custody. 

3. But Herod’s concern at present, now he 
had gotten his enemies under his power, was 
to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries 
for the multitude of the strange people were 
very eager to see the temple, and what was 
sacred in the holy house itself; but the king 
endeavored to restrain them, partly by his ex- 
hortations, partly by his threatenings, nay, 
partly by force, as thinking the victory worse 
than a defeat to him, if any thing that ought 
not to be seen were seen by them. He also 
forbade, at the same time, the spoiling of the 
city, asking Sosius, in the most earnest manner, 
whether the Romans, by thus:emptying the 
city of money and men, had a mind to leave 
him king of a desert? and told him, “That he 
judged the dominion of the habitable earth toe 
small a compensation for the slaughter of se 
many citizens.” And when Sosius said, ‘That 
it was but just to allow the soldiers this plup 

* Thatis a woman, not a man 


der, as a reward for what they suffered during 
the siege,” Herod made answer, that “he would 
give every one of the soldiers a reward out of 
his own money.” So he purchased the de- 
liverance of his country, and performed his 
promises to them, and made presents after a 
magnificent manner to each soldier, and pro- 
portionably to their commanders, and with a 
most royal bounty to Sosius himself, whereby 
nobody went away but in a wealthy condition. 
Hereupon, Sosius dedicated a crown of gold 
to God, and then went away from Jerusalem, 
leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; 
then did the axe* bring him to his end, who 
atill had a fond desire of life, and some frigid 
hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly be- 
havior well deserved to die by it. 

4, Hereupon king Herod distinguished the 
multitude that was in the city; and for those 
that were of his side, he made them still more 
his friends by the honors he conferred on them: 
but for those of Antigonus’s party, he slew 
them; and as his money ran low, he turned all 
the ornaments he had into money, and sent it 
to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could 
he not hereby purchase an exemption from all 
sufferings; for Antony was now bewitched by his 
love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered 
by her charms. Now, Cleopatra had put to 
death all her kindred, till no one near her in 
blood remained alive, and after that she fell to 
slaying those noway related to her. So she 
calumniated the principal men among the Sy- 
rians to Antony, and persuaded him to have 
them slain, that so she might easily gain to be 
mistress of what they had; nay, she extended 
her avaricious humor to the Jews and Arabians, 
and secretly labored to have Herod and Mali- 
chus, the kings of both those nations, slain by 
his order. 

5. Now as to these her injunctions to An- 
tony, he complied in part: for though he es- 
teemed it too abominable a thing to kill such 
good and great kings, yet was he thereby alie- 
nated from the friendship he had for them. 
He also took away a great deal of their coun- 
try: nay, even the plantation of palm-trees at 
Jericho, where also grows the balsam-tree, and 
bestowed them upon her: as also all the cities 
on this side the river Eleutherus, Tyre and 
Sidon excepted.t And when she was become 

«mistress of these, and had conducted Antony 
in his expedition against the Parthians, as far 
as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Da- 
raascus into Judea: and there did Herod pacify 
her indignation at him by large presents. He 
also hired of her those places that had been 
torn away from his kingdom, at the yearly rent 
of two hundred talents. He conducted her 
also as far as Pelusium, and paid her all the 
respect possible. Now, it was not long after 
this, that Antony was come back from Parthia, 
and led with him Artabazes, Tigranes’s son, 
captive, as a present for Cleopatra; for this Par- 

* This death of Antigonus is confirmed by Plutarch and 
Strabo; the latter of whom is cited for it by Josephus him- 
self, Antiq. b. xv. ch. i. sect. 2, as Dean Aldrich here ob- 


verves. 
+ This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon unde the Ro- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 















thian was presently given her, with his 
and all the prey that was taken with him. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


How Antony, at the persuasion of Cleop 
sent Herod to fight against the Arabians; h 
after several batdeenie at length got the victory 
As also concerning a great earthquake. 4 


§ 1. Now when the war about Actium was 
begun, Herod prepared to come to the assist. 
ance of Antony, as being already freed front 
his troubles in Judea, and having gained Hyre 
cania, which was a place that was held by Am 
tigonus’s sister. However, he was cunnin 
hindered from partaking of the hazards th 
Antony went through by Cleopatra; for since, 
as we have already noted, she laid a plot against 
the kings of [Judea and Arabia,] she prevail 
with Antony to commit the war against the 
Arabians to Herod; that so, if he got, the better, | 
she might become mistress of Arabia, or, if he 
were worsted, of Judea, and that she might 
destroy one of those kings by the other. 5 

2. However, this contrivance tended to the 
advantage of Herod; for at the very first | 
took hostages from the enemy, and got together | 
a great body of horse, and ordered them to 
march against them about Diospolis,and he con- 
quered that army, although it fought resolutely 
against him. After which defeat, the Arabians — 
were in great motion, and assembled themselves 
together at Kanatha, a city of Coelosyria, in | 
vast multitudes, and waited for the Jews. And | 
when Herod was come thither, he tried to ma: . 
nage this war with particular prudence, and 
gave orders that they should build a wall about 
their camp; yet did not the multitude compl 
with those orders, but were so emboldened 
their foregoing victory, that they attacked the 
Arabians, and beat them at the first onset, and 
then pursued them; yet there were snares laid 
for Herod in that pursuit; while Athenio, who — 
was one of Cleopatra’s generals, and always an 
antagonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the. 
men of that country against him, for, upon this_ 
fresh onset, the Arabians took courage, and re- 
turned hack, and both joined their numerous” 
forces about stony places, that were hard to be 
gone over, and there put Herod’s men to the 
rout, and made a great slaughter of them; buf 
those that escaped out of the battle fled to Or 
miza, where the Arabians surrounded thei 
camp, and took it, with all the men in it. 

3. Ina little time after this calamity Herod 
came to bring them succors; but he came toe 
late. i 



















Now the occasion of that blow was this, 
that the officers would not obey orders; for had 
not the fight begun sc si.idenly, Athenio had 
not found a proper season for the snares he 
laid for Herod: however, he was even with the 
Arabians afterward, and overran their country, 
and did them more harm than their single vie 
tory could compensate. But as he wasaveng 
ing himself on his enemies, there fell upon him 


mans, taken notice of by Josephus, both here and Antiq. & 
xv. ch. iv. sect. 1, is confirmed by the testimony ef Stra 
b. xvi. page 757, as Dean Aldrich remarks; although, as 
justly adds, this liberty lasted but a little while longer, wh 
Augustus took it away from them. 


BOOK I—CHAPTER XIX. 


another providentia! calamity; for in the se- 


_ harm, because it lay in the open air. 


~ 


venth year of his reign,* when the war about 
Actium was at the height, at the beginning 


of the spring, the earth was shaken, and 


destroyed an immense number of cattle, with 
thirty thousand men; but the army received no 
In the 
mean time, the fame of this earthquake eleva- 
ted the Arabians to greater courage, and this 
by augmenting it to a fabulous height, as is 
constantly the case in melancholy accidents, 
and pretending that all Judea was overthrown; 
upon this supposal, therefore, that they should 
easily get a land that was destitute of inhabit- 
ants into their power, they first sacrificed those 
ambassadors who were come to them from the 
Jews, and then rarched into Judea immediate- 
ly. Now the Jewish nation were affrighted 
at this invasion, and quite dispirited at the great- 


ness of their calamities one after another; whom 


Herod yet got together, and endeavored to en- 
courage them to defend themselves, by the fol- 
owing speech which he made to them: 

4. “The present dread you are under, seems 
to me to have seized upon you very unreasona- 
bly It is true, you might justly be dismayed 
at that providential chastisement which hath 
befallen you; but to suffer yourselves to be 
equally terrified at the invasion of men, is un- 
manly. As for myself, I am so far from being 
affrighted at our enemies after this earthquake, 
that I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait 
for the Arabians, that we may be avenged on 
them; for their present invasion proceeds more 
from our accidental misfortunes, than that they 
have any great dependence on their weapons, or 
their own fitness for action. Now that hope 
which depends not on men’s own power, but on 
other’s ill suceess, is a very ticklish thing: for 
there is no certainty among men, either in their 
bad or good fortunes; but we may easily ob- 
serve that fortune is mutable, and goes from 


-one side to another; and this you may readily 


learn from examples among yourselves, for 
when you were once victors in the former fight, 
your enemies overcame you at last; and very 
likely it will now happen so, that those who 
think themselves sure of beating you, will them- 


selves be beaten. For when men are ver n- 
_ fident, they are not Paonia waaat while (ene 


victory. 


t és men act ution; insomuch, 
that I venture to from your very _timor- 


ousness, that you ought to take courage: for 
when you were more bold than you_ought-to 
have heen, and than I would have had you, and 
marched on, Athenio’s treachery, took place; 
bus your present slowness and seeming dejec- 
tion of mind, is to me a pledge and assurance of 
And indeed it is proper beforehand 


_ to be thus provident; but when we come to ac- 


tion, we ought to erect our minds, and to make 


* This seventh year of the reign of Herod [from the con- 


_ quest, or death of Antigonus] with the great earthquake 


re 


in the beginning of the same spring, which are here fully 
implied to be not much before the fight of Actium, between 
Octavius and Antony, und which is known from the Roman 


historians to have been in the beginning of September, in the 


Sst vear before the Christian era, determines the chronolo- 
of Josephus as to the reign of Herod, viz. that he began 
the year 37, »eyond rational contradiction Nor is it 


our enemies, be they ever so wicked, believe 
that neither any human, no, nor any prov 
dential misfortune, can ever depress the cou- 
rage of Jews while they are alive; nor will 
any of them ever overlook an Arabian, or suf- 
fer such a one to become lord of his good things, 
whom he has in a manner taken captive, and 
that at many times also. And do not you dis- 
turb yourselves at the quaking of inanimate 
creatures, nor do you imagine that this earth 
quake is a sign of another calamity; for suck 
affections of the elements are according to the 
course of nature, nor does it import any thing 
farther to men, than what mischief it does im- 
mediately of itself. Perhaps there may come 
some short sign beforehand in the case of pes 
tilences, and famines, and earthquakes; but 
these calamities themselves have their force 
limited by themselves, [without foreboding any 
other calamity.] And indeed what greater 
mischief can the war, though it should be s 
violent one, do to us, than the earthquake has 
done? Nay, there isa signal of our enemies’ 
destruction visible, and that a very great one 
also; and this is not a natural one, nor derived 
from the hand of foreigners neither, but it is 
this, that they have barbarously murdered our 
ambassadors, contrary to the common law of 
mankind, and they have destroyed so many, as 
if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, in re- 
lation to this war. But they will not avoid his 
great eye, nor his invincible right hand; and 
we shall be revenged of them presently, in case 
we still retain any of the courage of our fore- 
fathers, and rise up boldly to punish these co- 
venant breakers. Let every one therefore go 
on and fight, not so much for his wife or his 
children, or for the danger his country is in, as 
for these ambassadors of ours; those dead am- 
bassadors will conduct this war of ours better 
than we ourselves who are alive. And if you 
will be ruled by me, I will myself go before 
you into danger; for you know this well enough, 
that your courage is irresistible, unless you hurt 
yourselves by acting rashly.”* | 

5. When Herod had encouraged them by 
this speech, and he saw with what alacrity they 
went, he offered sacrifice to God; and after 
that sacrifice, he passed over thé river Jordan 
with his army, and pitched his camp about 
Philadelphia, near the enemy, and about a for- 
tification that lay between them. He then shot 
at them at a distaiice, and was desirous to come 
to an engagement presently; for some of them 
had been sent beforehand to seize upon that 
fortification: but the king sent some, who im- 
mediately beat them out of the fortification 
while he himself went in the forefront of the 
army, which he put in battle array every day, 
and invited the Arabians to fight. But asnone 
of them came out of their camp, for they were 
quite unwortby of our notice, that this seventh year of the 
reign of Herod, or the 3lst before the Christian era, contain- 
ed the latter part of a Sabbatic year; on which Sabbatic year, 
therefore, it is plain this great earthquake happened in Judea 

* This speech of Herod is set down twice by Josephus, 
here and Antig. b. xv. ch. v. sect 3, to the very same pwr- 
pose, but by no means in the same words; whence it. ap 


pears, that the sense was Herod’s but the composition Je 
sephus’s. 


526 
im a terrible fright, and their general, Elthimus, 
was not able to say a word for fear; so Herod 
came upon them, and pulled their fortification 
to pieces, by which means they were compel- 
led to come out to fight, which they did in dis- 
order, and so that the horsemen and footmen 
were mixed together. They were indeed su- 
perior to the Jews in number, but inferior as 
to their alacrity, although they were obliged to 
expose themselves to danger by their very de- 
spair of victory. 

6. Now while they made opposition, they 
nad not a great number slain; but as soon as 
they turned their backs, a great many were 
trodden to pieces by the Jews, and a great 
many by themselves, and so perished, till five 
thousand were fallen down dead in their flight, 
while the rest of the multitude prevented their 
immediate death, by crowding into the fortifi- 
cation. Herod encompassed these around, and 
besieged them; and while they were ready to 
be taken by their enemies in arms; they had 
another additional distress upon them, which 
was thirst and waut of water: for the king 
was above hearkening to their ambassadors, 
and when they offered five hundred talents, as 
the price of their redemption, he pressed still 
harder upon them. And as they were burnt 
up by their thirst, they came out and volun- 
tarily delivered themselves up by multitudes to 
the Jews, till in five days’ time four thousand of 
them were put in bonds; and on the sixth day 
the multitude that were left despaired of ever 
saving themselves, and came out to fight; with 
these Herod fought, and slew again about 
geven thousand, insomuch, that he punished 
Arabia so severely, and so far extinguished the 
spirits of the men, that he was chosen by the 
nation for their ruler. 


CHAPTER XX, 


Herod 1s confirmed in his kingdom by Cesar, 
and cultivates a friendship with the emperor by 
magnificent presents; while Cesar returns his 
kindness by ane on him that part of his 
kingdom which had been taken away from it 
by Cleopatra, with the addition of Zenodor- 
us’s country also. 


§ 1. But now Herod was under immediate 
concern about a most important affair, on ac- 
count of his friendship with Antony, who was 
already overcome at Actiuin by Cesar; yet he 
was more afraid than burt; for Cesar did not 
think he had quite undene Antony while He- 
rod continued his assistance to him. However, 
the king resolved to expose himself to danger: 
accordingly he sailed to Rhodes, where Ceesar 
then abode, and came to him without his dia- 
dem, and in the habit and appearance of a pri- 
vate person, but in his behavior asa king. So 
he concealed nothing of the truth, but spoke 
thus before his face: “O Ceesar, as I was made 
king of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess 
that | have used my royal authority in the best 
manner, avd entirely for his advantage; nor will 
I conceal this farther, that thou hadst certainly 
found me in arms, and an inseparable com- 
pewion of his, had not the Arabians hindered 


WARS OF THE JEWS 








a 
me. However, I sent him as many auxiliaries 
as I was able, and many ten thousand [cori] 
of corn. Nay, indeed, I did not desert my 
benefactor after the blow that was given him 
at Actium; but | gave him the best advice I 
was able, when I was no longer able to assist 
him in the war; and I told him that there was 
but one way of recovering his affairs, and that 
was to kill Cleopatra; and I promised him, that _ 
if she were once dead, I would afford him 
money ald walls for his security, with an ariny 
and myself to assist him in his war against thee: 
but his affections for Cleopatra stopped his ears _ 
as did God himself also, who hath bestowed | 
the government on thee. Town myself also 
to be overcome together with him, and with) 
his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem, | 
and am come hither to thee, having my hopés- | 
of safety in thy virtue; and I desire that thou . 
wilt first consider how faithfula friend, and not 
whose friend, I have been.” n 
2. Cesar replied to him thus: “Nay, thou 
shalt not only be in safety, but shalt be a king; 
and that more firmly than thou wert before; . 
for thou art worthy to reign over a great many 
subjects, by reason of the fastness of thy friend- 
ship: and do thou endeavor to be equally con-_ 
stant in thy friendship to me, upon my good 
success, which is what I depend upon from 
the generosity of thy disposition. However, 
Antony hath done well in preferring Clespateal 
to thee; for by this means we have gained thee 
by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to” 
be my friend before I began to be thine; on 
which account Quintus Dedius hath written to 
me that thou sentest him assistance against the 
gladiators, Ido therefore assure thee, that 1 
will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree; 




















1 


shall also endeavor to do thee some further 
kindness hereafter, that thou mayest find no 
loss in the want of Antony.” 

3. When Cesar had spoken such obligi 
things to the king, and had put the diadem 
again about his head, he proclaimed what he 
had bestowed on him by a deeree, in which he 
enlarged in the commendation of the man after 
a magnificent manner. Whereupon Hered 
obliged him to be kind to him by the presents 
he gave him, and be desired him to forgive 
Alexander, one of Antony’s friends, who had 
become a supplicant to him. But Cesar’s” 
anger against hin prevailed, and he complained 
of the many and very great offences the matt 
whom he petitioned for had been guilty of; and_ 
by that means he rejected his petition, After 
this, Cesar went from Egypt through Syria, 
when Herod received him with royal and rich 
entertainments; and then did he first of all ride 
along with Cesar, as he was reviewing his 
army about Ptolemais; and feasted him with 
all his friends, and then distributed among the 
rest of the army what was necessary to feast 
them withall. He also made a plentiful prove 
sion of water for them, when they were & 
march as far as Pelusium, through a dry ecoun- 
try, which he did also in like manner at their 
return thence; nor were there any necessaries 
wanting to that army It was, therefore, 


~ 


| BOOK I—CHAPTER XX1 






mnion both of Casar and of his soldiers, that 
lerod’s kingdom was too small for those 
nerous presents he made them; for which 
*eason, when Cesar was come into Egypt, and 
Wleopatra and Antony were dead, he did not 
only bestow other marks of honor upon him, 
but made an addition to his kingdom, by giving 
him, not only the country which had been 
taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that, 
Gadara, and Hippos, and Samaria; and more- 
over, of the maritime cities, Gaza,* and Anthe- 
aon, and Joppa, and Strato’s Tower. He also 
made him a present of four hundred Galls 
[Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they 
had been to Cleopatra before. Nor did any 
thing so strongly induce Cesar to make these 
presents as the generosity of him that received 
em. 

_ 4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, 
he added to his kingdom both the region called 
‘Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood, 
Batanea, and the country of Auranitis, and that 
on the following occasion: Zenodorus, who had 
hired the house of Lisanias, had all along sent 
robbers out of Trachonitis among the Damas- 
‘cenes; who thereupon had recourse to Varro, 
the president of Syria, and desired of him that 
he would represent the calamity they were in 
to Cesar; when Cesar was acquainted with it, 
he sent back orders that this nest of robbers 
should be destroyed. Varro, therefore, made 
an expedition against them, and cleared the 
land of those men, and took it away from Ze- 
nodorus. Cesar did also afterward bestow it 
on Herod, that it might not again become a 
receptacle for those robbers that had come 
against Damascus. He also made him a pro- 
‘curator of all Syria, and this on the tenth year 
afterward, when he came again into that pro- 
Vince; and this was so established, that the 
other procurators could not do any thing in the 
‘administration without his advice; but when 
Zenodorus was dead, Cesar bestowed on him 
all that land which lay between Trachonitis 
and Galilee. Yet what was still of more con- 
sequence to Herod, he was beloved by Cesar 
next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after 
Cesar; whence he arrived at a very great de- 
gree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of his 
soul exceed it, and the main part of his magna- 
Simity was extended to the promotion of piety. 


CHAPTER XXI. 
Of the [temple and] cities that were built by He- 
_ rod, and erected from the very foundations; 
as also of those other edifices that were erected | 
by him: and what magnificence he showed to 
_ foreigners; and how fortune was in all things 
favorable to him. 


' $1. Accordingly, in the fifteenth year of his 


i 


I A ee ee ee ee ne 


_ * Since Josephus, both here, and in his Antiq. b. xv. ch. 
wil. sect. 3, reckons Gaza, which had been a free city, among 
the cities given Herod by Augustus, and yet implies that He- 
god had made Costobanis a governor of it before, Antiq. b. 
_Xy¥. chap. vii. gect. 9; Harduin has some pretence for saying 
that Josephus here contradicted himself. But, perhaps, He 
_ god thought he had sufficient authority to put a government 
into Gaza, after he was made tetrarch or king, in times of 
war, before the city was entirely delivered into his hands by 






527 


reign, Herod rebuilt the temp.e, and encom- 
passed a piece of land about it with a wall, 
which land was twice as large as that before 
enclosed. The expenses he laid out upon it 
were vastly large; and the riches about it were 
also unspeakable. A sign of which you have 
in the great cloisters that were erected abuut 
the temple, and the citadel which was on its 
north side.* The cloisters he built from the 
foundation, but the citadel he repaired at a vast 
expense, nor was it other than a royal palace, 
which he called Antonia, in honor of Antony. 
He also built himself a palace in the upper 
city, containing two very large and most beau- 
tiful apartments, to which the holy house it- 
self could not be compared [in largeness. 

The one apartment he named Ceesareum, an 

the other he named Agrippium, from his [two 
great] friends. 

2. Yet did he not preserve their memory by 
particular buildings only, with their na: \es 
given them, but his generosity went as fa as 
entire cities; for when he had built a n st 
beautiful wall round a country in Sama.ia, 
twenty furlongs long, and had brought six 
thousand inhabitants into it, and had alloted 
to ita most fruitful piece of land, and in che 
midst of this city, thus built, had erected a 
very large temple to Ceesar, and had laid round 
about it a portion of sacred jand of three fur- 
longs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, 
from Sebastus or Augustus, and settled the af 
fairs of the city after a most regular manner. 

3. And when Cesar had further bestowe 
upon him another additional country, he built 
there also a temple of white marble, hard by 
the fountains of Jordan: the place is called 
Panium, where is a top of a mountain that z 
raised to an immense height, and at its side. 
beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave opens it- 
self; within which there is a horrible precipice, 
that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it con- 
tains a mighty quantity of water which is im 
moveable; and when any body lets down any 
thing to measure the depth of the earth be- 
neath the water, no length of cord is sufficient 
to reach it. Now the fountains of Jordan rise 
at the roots of this cavity outwardly; and, as 
some think, this is the utmost origin of Jordan: 
but we.shall speak of that matter more accu- 
rately in our following history. 

4, But the king erected other places at Jeri- 
cho also, between the citadel Cypros and the 
former place, such as were better and more 
useful than the former for travellers, and named 
them from the same friends of his. To say 
all at once, there was not any place of his 
kingdom fit for the purpose, that was permitted 
to be without somewhat that was for Ceesar'’s 
honor, and when he had filled his own country 


* This fort was first built, as is supposed, by John Hyrca- 
nus, see Prid. at the year 107, and called Baris, the Tower 
or Citadel. It was afterward rebuilt, with great improve- 
ments, by Herod, under the government of Antonius, and 
was named from him the Tower of Antonia; and about the 
time when Herod rebuilt the temple, he seems to have pur 
his last hand to it; see Antiq. b. xviii. ch. v. sect. 4; Of the 
War, b. i. ch iii, sect. 4; and ch. v. sect. 4. It lay on the 
northwest side of the temple, and was a quarter as large. 


723 


with temples, he poured out the like plentiful 
marks of his esteem into his provinces, and built 
many cities which he called Ceesareas. 

5. And when he observed that there was a 
city by the seaside that was much decayed, (its 
name was Strato’s Tower,) but that the place, 
by the happiness of its situation, was capa- 
ble of great improvements from his liberality, 
he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned 
it with several most splendid palaces, wherein 
he especially demonstrated his magnanimity; for 
the case was this, that all the seashore between 
Dora and Joppa, in the middle, between which 
this city is situated, had no good haven, inso- 
much that every one that sailed from Pheenicia 
for Egypt was obliged to lie in the stormy sea, 
by reason of the south winds that threatened 
them; which wind, if it blew but a little fresh, 
such vast waves are raised, and dash upon the 
rocks, that upon their retreat, the sea is in a 
great ferment foralong way. But the king, by 
the expenses he was at, and the liberal disposal 
of them, overcame nature, and built a haven 
larger than was the Pyrzeum [at Athens;]* and 
in the other retirements of the water he built 
other deep stations [for the ships also.] 

6. Now, although the place where he built 
was greatly opposite to his purposes, yet did he 
so fully struggle with that difficulty, that the 
firmness of his building could not easily be con- 
quered by the sea; and the beauty and orna- 
ment of the works was such, as though he had 
not had any difficulty in the operation; for 
when he had measured out as large a space as 
we have before mentioned, he let down stones 
into twenty fathom water, the greatest part of 
which were fifty feet in length, and nine in 
depth, and ten in breadth, and some still larger. 
But when the haven was filled up to that depth, 
he enlarged that wall which was thus already 
extant above the sea, till it was two hundred 
feet wide, one hundred of which had _ build- 
ings before it, in order to break the force of the 
waves, whence it was called Procumatia, or the 
- first breaker of the waves; but the rest of the 
ma was under a stone wall that ran round it. 

n this wall were very large towers, the prin- 
cipal and most beautiful of which was called 
Drusium, from Drusus, who was son-in-law to 
Cesar. 

7. There were also a great number of arch- 
es, where the mariners dwelt; and all the places 
before them round about was a large valley, or 
walk, for a quay [or landing place] to those that 
came on shore; but the entrance was on the 
north, because the north wind was there the 
most gentle of all the winds. At the mouth of 
the haven were on each side three great Colos- 
si, supported by pillars, where those Colossi 
that are on your left hand, as you sail into the 
port, are supported by a solid tower, but those 
on the right hand are supported by two upright 

* That Josephus speaks truth when he assures us, that 
*the haven of this Cesarea was made by Herod not less 
naj’, rather larger than that famous haven at Athens called 
the Pyreum,” will appear, says Dean Aldrich, to him who 
compares the description of that at Athens in Thucydides 
and Fausanias with this of Caesarea in Josephus here, and 


‘n me Antiq. » xv. chap. ix. sect. 6; and b. xvii. chap. ix. 
~Pet. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 






stones joined together, which stones were large 
than that tower which was on the other side of 
the entrance. Now there were continual edi- 
fices joined to the haven, which were also them 
selves of white stone; and to this haven did the 
narrow streets of the city lead, and were buil; 
at equal distances one from another. And over 
against the mouth of the haven, upon an ele: 
vation, there was a temple for Cesar, which 
was excellent both in beauty and largeness; and 
therein was a Colossus of Cesar, not less than 
that of Jupiter Olympius, which it was madé 
to resemble. The other Colossus of Rome was 
equal to thatof Junoat Argos. So he dedicat- 
ed the city to the province, and the havent 

the sailors there, but the honor of the building 
he ascribed to Cesar,* and named it Ceesarea 
accordingly. 

8. He also built the other edifices, the am- 
phitheatre, and theatre, and market-place, in a 
manner agreeable to that denomination; and ap- 
pointed games every fifth year, and called them, 
in like manner, Ceesar’s games; and he first 
himself proposed the largest prizes upon the 
hundred ninety-second olympiad; in whieh 
not only the victors themselves, but those that 
came next to them, and even those that came 
in the third place, were partakers of his royal 
bounty. He also rebuilt Anthedon, a city that 
lay on the coast, and had been demolished in 
the wars, and named it Agrippium. Moreover, 
he had so very great a kindness for his friend 
Agrippa that he had his name engraven upon 
that gate which he had himself erected in the 
temple. 

9, Herod was also a lover of his father, if any 
other person ever was so; for he made a monu- 
ment for his father, even that city which he built 
in the finest plain that was in his kingdom, and 
which had rivers and trees in abundance, and 
named it Antipatris. He also built a wall about 
a citadel that lay above Jericho, and was a ve 
strong and very fine building, and dedicated 
to his mother, and called it Cypros. Moreover, 
he dedicated a tower that was at Jerusalem, 
and called it by the name of his brother Pha~ 
saelus, whose structure, largeness, and magni-~ 
ficence, we shall describe hereafter. He also 
built another city in the valley that leads north- 
ward from Jericho, and named Phasaelis, 

10. And as he transmitted to eternity his fa- 
mily and friends, so did he not neglect a memo- 
rial for himself, but built a fortress opoH 
mountain towards Arabia, and named it from 
himself Herodium;} and he called that hill tha | 
was of the shape of a woman’s breast, and we 
sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, by 
same name. He also bestowed much curi | 










*These buildings of cities by tne name of Cesar, al 
institution of solemn games in hor.or of Augustus Cesat, 
here and in the Antiquities, related of Herod by Joseph 
the Roman historians attest to as things then frequent im 
provinces of that empire, as Dean Aldrich observes on 
ehapter. : ; 

¢ These were two cities or citadels called Herodium 
Judea, and both mentioned by Josephus, not only here 
Antiq. b. xiv. chap. xiii. sect. 9; b. x. ch. ix. sect. 9; of 
War, b. i. chap. xiii. sect. 8; b. iii. ch. iii. sect. 5. One 
them was 200, and the other 60 peg = distant from Ji 
salem. One of them is mentioned by Pliny, Hist. Nat. b. 
eb xiv as Dean Aldrich observes here, , 


eae 








‘ast upon it, with great ambition, and built round 
towers all about the top of it, and filled up the 
remaining space with the most costly palaces 
round about, insomuch, that not only the sight 
fan inner apartments was splendid, but great 
‘wealth was laid out on the outward walls, and 
oe and roofs also. Besides this, he 
brought a mighty quantity of water from a 
= distance, and at vast charges, and raised 
whitest marble, for the hill was itself moderate- 
ty high, and entire'y factitious. He also built 
other palaces about the roots of the hill, suf- 
ficient to receive the furniture that was put 
into them, with his friends also; insomuch, that 
on account of its containing all necessaries, the 
fortress might seem to be a city, but, by the 
bounds it had, a palace only. 

11. And when he had built so much, he 
showed the greatness of his soul to no small 
number of foreign cities. He built places for 
exercise at Tripoli, and Damascus, and Prtole- 
mais; he built a wall about Byblus, as also 
large rooms, and cloisters, and temples, and 
market-places at Berytus and Tyre, with thea- 
tres at Sidon and Damascus. He also built 
aqueducts for those Laodiceans who lived by 
the seaside; and for those of Ascalon he built 
baths and costly fountains, as also cloisters 
round a court, that were admirable both for 
their workmanship and Jargeness. Moreover, 
he dedicated groves and meadows to some peo- 
ple: nay, not a few cities there were who had 
lands of his donation, as if they were parts of 
his own kingdom. He also bestowed annual 
revenues, and those for ever also, on the settle- 
ments for exercises, and appointed for them, 
as well as for the people of Cos, that such re- 
‘wards should never be wanting. He also gave 
corn to allsuch as wanted. it, and conferred 
upon Rhodes large sums of money for build- 
ing ships, and this he did in many places, and 
frequently also. And when Apollo’s temple 
had been burnt down, he rebuilt it at his own 
charges, after a better manner than it was be- 
fore. What need I speak of the presents he 
‘made to the Lyceans and Samnians? or of his 
great liberality through all Ionia? and that ac- 
‘cording to every body’s wants of them. And 
are not the Athenians, and Lacedemonians, and 
Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in 
Mysia, full of donations that Herod presented 
them withall? And as for that large open place 
‘belonging to Antioch in Syria, did not he pave 
‘it with polished marble, though it were twenty 
‘farlongs long? and this when it was shunned 
‘by all men before, because it was full of dirt 
‘and filthiness, when he besides adorned the 
‘same place with a cloister of the same length. 
12. It is true, a man may say, these were fa- 
Vors peculiar to those particular places, on 
which he bestowed his benefits; but then what 
‘favors he bestowed on fhe Eleans was a dona- 
‘tion not only in common to all Greece, but to 
‘all the habitable earth, as far as the glory of the 
“Olympic games reached. For when he per- 
Ceived that they were come to nothing for want 
of money. and that the only remains of ancient 


: < ‘en 


BOOK {.—CHAPTER XXII. 


ascent to it of two hundred steps of the’ 


-Rome. 


Greece were in a manner gone, he not only be- 
came one of the combatants in that return of 
the fifth year games, which in his sailing to 
Rome he happened to be presentat, but he settled 
upon them revenues of money for perpetuity 
insomuch, that his memorial as a combatant 
there can never fail. It would be an infinite 
task if I should go over his payments of peo- 
ple’s debts, or tributes, for them, as he eased 
the people of Phasaelus, of Batanea, and of the 
small cities about Cilicia, of those annual peu- 
sions they before paid. However, the fear he 
was in much disturbed the greatness of his 
soul, lest he should be exposed to envy, or seem 
to hunt after greater things than he ought, 
while he bestowed more liberal gifts upon these 
cities, than did their owners themselves. 

13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, 
and was ever a most excellent hunter, where he 
generally had good success; by the means of his 
great skill in riding horses; for in one day he 
caught forty wild beasts;* that country breeds 
also bears, and the greatest part of it is reple- 
nished with stags and wild asses. He was al- 
so such a warrior as could not be withstood; 
many men, therefore, there are who have stood 
amazed at his readiness in his exercises, when 
they saw him throw the javelin directly for- 
ward, and shoot the arrow upon the mark. And 
then, besides these performances of his, depund- 
ing on his own strength of mind and budy, 
fortune was also very favorable to him; for he 
seldom failed of success in his wars; and when 
he failed, he was not himself the occasion of 
such failings, but he either was betrayed by 
some, or the rashness of his own soldiers pro- 
cured his defeat. ; 


CHAPTER XXII. 
The murder of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, the 
igh prests; as also of Mariamne, the queen. 


§ 1. However, fortune was avenged on He- 
rod in his external great successes, by raising 
lim up domestic troubles; and he began to 
have wild disorders in his family, on account 
of his wife, of whom he was so very fond. 
For when he came to the government, he sent 
away her whom he had _ before married when 
he was a private person, and who was born at 
Jerusalem, whose name was Doris, and ‘mar 
ried Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the 
son of Aristobulus; on whose account dis- 
turbances arose in his family, and that in part 
very soon, but chiefly after his return from 
For first of all he expelled Antipater, 
the son of Doris, for the sake of his sons by 
Mariamne, out of the city, and permitted him 
to come thither at no other times than at the 
festivals. After this he slew his wife’s grand- 
father, Hyrcanus, when he was returned out of 
Parthia to him, under this pretence, that he 
suspected him of plotting against him. Now 
this Hyrcanus had been carried captive to Bar- 
zapharnes, when he overran Syria; but those 
of his own country beyond Euphrates were 
desirous he would stay with thena, and this out 


* Here seems to be a small defect in the copies, which de 
scribe the wild beasts which were hunted in a certaiy cea 
try by Herod, without naming any such country at al 


530 


of the commnseration they had for his condi- 
tion; and had he complied with their desires, 
when they exhorted him not to go over the 
river to Herod, he had not perished; but the 
marriage of his granddaughter {to Herod] 
was his temptation; for as he relied upon him, 
and was over fond of his own country, he 
game back to it. He1od’s provocation was this, 
oo: that Hyrcaaus made any attempt to gain the 
kingdom, but that it was fitter for him to be 
thei king than for Herod. 

2. Now of the five children which Herod 
had by Mariamne;two of them were daugh- 
ters, and three were sons; and the youngest of 
these sons was educated at Rome, and there 
disd: but the two eldest he treated as those of 
royal blood, on account of the nobility of their 
m ther, and because they were not born till 
he was king. But then what was stronger 
thin all this, was the love he bore to Mariamne, 
and which inflamed him every day to a great 
degree, and so far conspired with the other 
motives, that he felt no other troubles on ac- 
count of her he loved so entirely. But Ma- 
riamne’s hatred to him was not inferior to his 
love to her. She had indeed but too just a 
cause of indignation, from what he had done, 
while her boldness proceeded from his affec- 
tion to her; so she openly reproached him with 
what he had done to her grandfather Hyrca- 
aus, and to her brother Aristobulus; for he had 
not spared this Aristobulus, though he were 
but a child, for when he had given him the 
high priesthood at the age of seventeen, he 
slew him quickly after he had conferred that 
dignity upon him; but when Aristobulus had 
put on the holy vestments, and had approached 
to the altar, at a festival, the’ multitude, in great 
crowds, fell into tears; whereupon, the child 
was sent by niglit to Jericho, and was there 
dipped bythe Galls, at Herod’s command, in a 
pool till he was drowned. 

3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached 
Herod, and his sister and mother, after a most 
coutumelious manner, while he was dumb on 
account of his affection for her; yet had the wo- 
men great indignation at her, and raised a ca- 
lumny against her, that she was false to his bed: 
which thing they thought most likely to move 
Herod to anger. They also contrived to have 
many other circumstances believed, in order to 
make the thing more credible, and accused her of 
having sent her picture into Egypt to Antony, 
and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have 
thus showed herself, though she was absent, to 
a inan that ran mad after women, and to aman 
that had it in his power to use violence to her. 
This charge fell like a thunderbolt upon He- 
rod, and put him in disorder; and that especi- 
ally, because his love to her occasioned him to 
be jealous, and because he considered with 
himself, that Cleopatra was a shrewd woman, 
and that on her account Lysanias the king was 
taken off, as well as Malichus the Arabian; for 
his fear did not only extend to the dissolving of 
his marriage, but to the danger of his life. 

4, When, therefore, he was about to take a 
yourney abroad, he committed his wife.to Jo- 


WARS OF THE JEWS 





































seph, his sister Satome’s husband, as to one whe 
would be faithful to him, and bear him goog 
will on account of their kindred; he aiso gave 
him a secret injunction, that if Antony sley 
him, he would slay her. But Joseph, without 
any ill design, and only in order to demonstrate 
the king’s love to his wife, how he could not bea 
to think of being separated from her, even bi 
death itself, discovered this grand secret to her 
upon which, when Herod was come back, an 
as they talked together, he confirmed his loy 
to her by many oaths, and assured her that he 
had never such an affection for any other wo- 
man as he had for her. “Yes,* says she, tha: 
didst, to be sure, demonstrate thy love to me 
by the injunctions thou gavest Joseph, wher 
thou commandedst him to kill me.” 

5. When he heard that this grand secret wa 
discovered, he was like a distracted man, and 
said, that Joseph would never have disclosee 
that injunction of his, unless he had debauched 
her. His passion also made him stark mad 
and leaping out of his bed, he ran about the 
palace after a wild manner; at which time his 
sister Salome took the opportunity also to blas 
her reputation, and confirmed his suspicion 
about Joseph; whereupon, out of his ungovern- 
able jealousy and rage, he commanded both of 
them to be slain immediately; but as soon as 
ever his passion was over, he repented of what 
he had done, and as soon as his anger was worn 
off, his affections were kindled again. And, 
indeed, the flame of his desires for her wasso 
ardent, that he could not think she was dead 
but would appear under his disorders'to speak 
to her as if she were still alive, till he were bet 
ter instructed by time, when his grief and trou- 


ble, now she was dead, eppeared as great 
his affection had been for her while she 
living. 
CHAPTER XXIII q 
Calummes against the sons of Mariamne. in 
tipater is preferred before them. They are ac 
cused before Cesar, and Herod ts reconciled te 


them. 


§ 1. Now Mariamne’s sons were heirs to that 
hatred which had been borne their mother, and 
when they considered the greatness of Herod’s 
crime towards her, they were suspicious of 
him as of an enemy of theirs; and this first 
while they were educated at Rome, but stil 
more when they were returned to Judea. Thi 
temper of theirs increased upon them as the¥ 
grew up to be men; and when they were come 
to an age fit for inarriage, the one of them mar 
ried their aunt Salome’s daughter, which Sa 
lome had been the accuser of their mother 
the other married the daughter of Archelau: 
king of Cappadocia. And now they used bold- 
ness in speaking, as well as bore hatred in their 
minds. Now those that calumniated then: too 





* Here is either a defect or a great mistake in Josephas' 
present copies or memory; for Mariamne did not nowr 
proach Herod with this his first injunction to Joseph to kil 
her, if he himself were slain by Antony, but that he hae 
given the like command a second time to Sohemus also, whe 
he wee afraid of being slain by Augustus, Ant. b. rv. eh. 
sect. o. * 5 


BOOK 1L—CHAPTER XXIII. 


a handle from such their boldness, and certain 

of them spoke now more plainly to the king that 

there were treacherous designs laid against him 

by both his sons, and he that was son-in-law to 

Archelaus, relying upon his father-in-law, was 

preparing to fly away, in order to accuse Herod 
before Czesar; and when Herod’s head had 
been long enough filled with these calumnies, 
he brought Antipater, whom he had by Doris, 
into favor again, asa defence to him against 
his other sons, and began all the ways he possi- 
bly could to prefer him before them. 

2. But these sons were not able to bear this 
change in their affairs, for when they saw him 
that was born of'a mother of no family, the no- 
bility of their birth made them unable to con- 
tain their indignation; but whensoever they 
were uneasy, they showed the anger they had 
at it. And as these sons did day after day im- 
prove in that their anger, Antipater already ex- 
ercised all his own abilities, which were very 
great, in flattering his father, and in contriving 
many sorts of calumnies against his brethren, 
while he told some stories of them himself, and 
put it upon other proper persons to raise other 
stories against them, till at length he entirely 
cut his brethren off from all hopes of succeed- 
ing tothe kingdom; for he was already pub- 
licly put into his father’s will as his successor. 
Accordingly, he was sent with royal ornaments, 
and other marks of royalty, to Cesar, except- 
ing the diadem. He was also able in time to 
introduce his mother again into Mariamne’s 
bed. The two sorts of weapons he made use 
of against his brethren, were flattery and ca- 
lumny, whereby he brought matters privately 
to such a pass, that the king had thoughts of 
putting his sons to death. 

3. So the father drew Alexander as far as 
Rome, and charged him with an attempt of 

isoning him before Cesar. Alexander could 

ardly speak for lamentation, but having a 
judge that was more skilful than Antipater, 
and more wise than Herod, he modestly avoided 
laying any imputation upon his father, but with 
great strength of reason confuted the calum- 
nies laid against him; and when he had de- 
monstrated the innocency of his brother, who 
was in the like danger with himself, he at last 
bewailed the craftiness of Antipater, and the 
disgrace they were under. He was enabled 
also to justify himself, not only by a clear con- 
science, which he carried with him, but by his 
eloquence; for he was a shrewd man in making 
speeches. And upon his saying at last, that if 
his father objected this crime to them, it was 
in his power to put them to death, he made ll 
the audience weep; and he brought Cesar to 
_ that pass, as to reject the accusation, and to re- 
concile their father to them immediately. But 
the conditions of their reconciliation were 
these, that they should in all things be obedient 
to their father, and that he should have power 
io leave the kingdom to which of them he 
deased. 

4, After this the king came back from Rome, 
and seemed to have forgiven his sons upon 
these accusations; but still so. that he was not 


BS 


without his suspicions of them. ‘They were 
followed by Antipater, who was the fountain- 
head of those accusations; yet did not he openly 
discover his hatred to them, as revering him 
that had reconciled them. But as Herod sailec 
by Cilicia, he touched at Eleusa,* where Ar 
chelaus treated them in the most or liging man- 
ner, and gave him thanks for t:© deliverance 
of his son-in-law, and was much pleased at 
their reconciliation; and this the more, because 
he had formerly written to his friends at Rome 
that they should be assisting to Alexander ai 
his trial. So he conducted Herod as far as 
Zephyrium, and made him presents to the 
value of thirty talents. 

5. Now when Herod was come to Jerusa 
lem, he gathered the people together, and pre 
sented to them his three sons, and gave them 
an apologetic account of his absence, and 
“thanked God greatly, and thanked Cesar 
greatly also, for settling his heuse when it was 
under disturbances, and had procured concord 
among his sons, which was of greater conse- 
quence than the kingdom itself, and which | 
will render still more firm; for Ceesar hath put 
into my power to dispose of the government, 
and to appoint my successor. Accordingly, in 
way of requital for his kindness, and in order 
to provide for mine own advantage, I do de- 
clare, that these three sons of mine shall be 
kings. And, in the first place, I pray for the 
approbation of God to what I am about; and, 
in the next place, I desire your approbation. 
The age of one of them, and the nobility of 
the other two, should procure them the suc 
cession. Nay, indeed, my kingdom is so large. 
that it may be sufficient for more kings. Now 
do you keep those in their places whom Cesar 
hath joined, and their father hath appointed; 
and do not you pay undue or unequal respects 
to them, but to every one according to the pre- 
rogative of their births, for he that pays such 
respects unduly, will thereby not make him 
that is honored beyond what his age requires 
so joyful, as he will make him that is disho- 
nored sorrowful. As for the kindred and 
friends that are to converse with them, ! will 
appoint them to each of them, and will so con- 
stitute them, that they may be securities for 
their concord; as well knowing, that the ill 
tempers of those with whom they converse, 
will produce quarrels and contentions among 
them; but that, if those with whom they con- 
verse be of good tempers, they will preserve 
their natural affections for one another, But 
still I desire, that not these only, but all the 
captains of my army, have, for the present, 
their hopes placed on me alone; for [ do not 
give away my kingdom to these my sons, but 
give them royal honors only; whereby it will 
come to pass, that they will enjoy the sweet 
parts of government as rulers themselves, but 
that the burden of the administration will rest 


* That this island Eleusa, afterward called Sebaste, near 
Cilicia, had in it the royal palace of this Archelaus, king of 
Cappadocia, Strabo testifies, b. xv. p. 678. Stephanus of By- 
zantium also calls it ‘“‘An island of Cilicia, which is now Se- 
baste;”’ both whose testimonies are pertinently cited here by 
Dr. Hudson; see the same history Antig. b. xvi. ch. x. sect. 7 


532 


upon myself, whether I will or not. And let 
every one consider what. age I am of, how I 
have conducted my life, and what piety I have 
exercised: for my age is not so great, that men 
may soon expect the end of my life; nor have 
I indulged such a luxurious way of living as 
cuts men off when they are young; and we 
have been so religious towards God, that we 
[have reason to hope we] may arrive at a very 
great age. But for such as cultivate a friend- 
ship with my sons, so as to aim at my destruc- 
tion, they shall be punished by me on their ac- 
count. I am not one who envy my own 
children, and therefore forbid men to pay them 
great respect; but I know that such [extrava- 
nt] respects are the way to make them inso- 
feat And if every one that comes-near them 
does but revolve this in his mind, that if he 
proves a good man, he shall receive a reward 
from me: that if he proves seditious, his ill in- 
tended complaisance shall get him nothing 
from him to whom it is shown; I suppose they 
will all be of my side, that is, of my sons’ side; 
for it will be for their advantage that I reign, 
and that I be at concord with them, But do 
ou, O my good children, reflect upon the 
‘spe’ of nature itself, by whose means na- 
tural affection is preserved, even among wild 
beasts; in the next place reflect upon Ceesar, 
who hath made this reconciliation among us; 
and, in the third place, reflect upon me, who en- 
treat you to do what I have power to com- 
mand you: continue brethren. I give you 
royal garments, and royal honors; and I pray 
to God to preserve what I have determined, in 
ease you be at concord one with another.” 
When the king had thus spoken, and had sa- 
luted every one of his sons after an obliging 
manner, he dismissed the multitude; some of 
whom gave their assent to what he had said, 
and wished it might take effect accordingly; 
but for those who wished for a change of af- 
fairs, they pretended they did not so much as 
near what he said. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


The malice of Antipater and Doris. Alexander 
is very uneasy on Glaphyra’s account. Herod 
nba se Pheroras whom he suspected, and Sa- 

me, whom he knew to make mischief among 
them. Herod’s eunuchs are tortured, and Alex- 
ander ts bound. 


§ 1. But now the quarrel that was between 
them, still accompanied these brethren when 
they parted, and the suspicions they had one of 
he other grew worse. Alexander and Aristo- 
bulus were much grieved that the privilege of 
the first-born was confirmed to Antipater, as 
was Antipater very angry at his brethren, that 
they were to succeed him. But then this last 
being of a disposition that was mutable and 
politic, he knew how to hold his tongue, and 
used a great deal of cunning, and thereby con- 
cealed the hatred he bore to them; while the 
former, depending on the nobility of their 
births, had every thing upon their tongues 
which was in their minds. Many also there 
were who provoked them further, and many of 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 








their [seeming] friends insinuated themselves 
into their acquaintance, to spy out what they 
did. Now every thing that was said by Alex, 
ander was presently brought to Antipater, and 
from Antipater it was brought to Herod with 
additions. Nor could the young man say any 
thing in the simplicity of his heart, without 
giving offence, but what he said was still turned 
to calumny against him. And if he had been at 
any time a little free in his conversation, great 
imputations were forged from the smallest oc- 
casions. Antipater also was perpetually setting 
some to provoke him to speak, that the lies he 
raised of him might seem to have some foun- 
dation of truth; and if among the many stories 
that were given out, but one of them could be 
proved true, that was supposed to imply the rest 
to be true also. And as to Antipater’s friends, 
they were all either naturally so cautious in 
speaking, or had been so far bribed to conceal 
their thoughts, that nothing of these grand se- 
crets got abroad by their means. Nor should 
one be mistaken if he called the life of Ante 
pater a mystery of wickedness; for he either 
corrupted Alexander’s acquaintance with mo- 
ney, or got into their favor by flatteries; by 
which two means he gained all his designs, and 
brought them to betray their master, and to 
steal away, and reveal either what he did or 
said. Thus did he act a part very cunningly 
in all points, and wrought himself a passage 
by his calumnies, with the greatest grew 
while he put on a face as if he were a kin 
brother to Alexander and Aristobulus, but 
suborned other men to inform of what they did 
to Herod. And when any thing was told against 
Alexander, he would come in and pretend [ta 
be of his side,] and would begin to contradict 
what was said; but would afterward contrive 
matters so privately, that the king should have’ 
an indignation at him. His general aim was 
this, to lay a plot, and to make it be believed 
that Alexander lay in wait to kili his father; for 
nothing afforded so great a confirmation to 
these calumnies as did Antipater’s apologie 
for him. } 
2. By these methods Herod was inflamed, 
and, as much as his natural affection to the 
young men did every day diminish, so much 
did it increase towards Antipater. The court 
iers also inclined to the same conduct, some of 
their own accord, and others by the king’s in- 
junction, as particularly did Ptolemy, the king’s 
dearest friend, as also the king’s brethren, an 
all his children; for Antipater was all in all: an¢ 
what was the bitterest part of all to Alexan 
der, Antipater’s mother was also all in all; shi 
was one that gave counsel against them, an¢ 
was more harsh than a stepmother, and one 
that hated the queen’s sons more than is usual 
to hate sons-in-law. All men did therefore al 
ready pay their respects to Antipater, in hopes 
of advantage; and it was the king’s commant 
which alienated every body [from the breth: 
ren,| he having given this charge to his mos 
intimate friends, that they should not cor. 
near, nor pay any regard to Alexander, or * 
his friends. Herod was alse become terrib + 






































BOOK IL—CHAPTER. XXIV 


rot only to his domestics about the court, but 
to his friends abroad; for Cesar had _ given 
such a privilege to no other king as he had 
given to him, which was this, that he might 
fetch back any one that fled from him, even 
out of a city that was not under his own juris- 
diction. Now the young men were not ac- 
quainted with the calumnies raised against 
them; for which reason they could not guard 
themselves against them, but fell under them; 
for their father did not make any public com- 
plaints against either of them; though in a lit- 
tle time they perceived how things were, by 
his coldness to them, and by the great uneasi- 
ness he showed upon any thing that troubled 
him. Antipater had also made their uncle 
Pheroras to be their enemy, as well as their 
aunt Salome, while he was always talking with 
her, as with a wife, and irritating her against 
them. Moreover, Alexander’s wife, Glaphyra, 
augmented this hatred against them, by deriv- 
ing her nobility and genealogy [from great 
persons,] and pretending that she was a lady 
superior to all others in that kingdom, as be- 
ing derived by her father’s side from Temenus, 
and by her mother’s side from Darius, the son 
of Hystaspes. She also frequently reproached 
Herod’s sister and wives with the ignobility of 
their descent; and that they were every one 
chosen by him for their beauty, but not for their 
family. Now those wives of his were not a 
few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to 
marry many wives;* and this king delighted in 
many, all of whom hated Alexander on account 
of Glaphyra’s boasting and reproaches. 

3. Nay Aristobulus had raised a quarrel be- 
tween himself and Salome, who was his mo- 
ther-in-law, besides the anger he had conceiv- 
ed at Glaphyra’s reproaches; for he perpetual- 
ly upbraided his wife with the meanness of her 
family, and complained, that as he had mar- 
ried a woman of a low family, so had his bro- 
ther Alexander married one of royal blood. 
At this Salome’s daughter wept, and told it her 
with this addition, that Alexander threatened 
the mothers of his other brethren, that when 
he should come to the crown, he would make 


them weave with their maidens, and would | 


make those brothers of his, country schoolmas- 
ters; and broke this jest upon them, that they 
had been very carefully instructed to fit them 
for such an employment. Hereupon Salome 
could not contain her anger, but told all to He- 
rod: nor could her testimony be suspected, 
since it was against herownson-in-law. ‘There 
was also another calumny that ran abroad, and 
inflamed the king’s mind; for he heard that 
these sons of his were perpetually speaking of 


their mother, and, among their lamentations for | 


her, did not abstain from cursing him; and that 
when he had made presents of any of Mariam- 


-ae’s garments to his later wives, these threaten- | 


* That it was an immemorial custom among the Jews, 
and their forefathers, the patriarchs, to have sometimes more 


Wives, or wives and concubines, than one at the same time, | 
and that this polygamy was not directly forbidden in the law | 
' of Moses, is evident; but that polygamy was ever properly | 





} 
| 





and distinctly permitted in that law of Moses, in the places | 
bere cited by Bian Aldrich, Deu xvii. 16, 17. or xxi. 15, | 


ed, that in a little time, instead of royal gar. 
ments, they would clothe them in no better 
than haircloth. 

4. Now upon these accounts, though Heroa 
was somewhat afraid of the young meu’s high 
spirit, yet did he not despair of reducing them 
to a better mind; but before he went to Rome, 
whither he was now going by sea, he called 
them to him, and partly threatened them a lit 
tle, as a king; but for the main, he admonish- 
ed them as a father, and exhorted them to love 
their brethren, and told them that he would 
pardon their former offences, if they would 
amend for the time to come. But they refuted 
the calumnies that had been raised of them, 
and said they were false, and alleged that their 
actions were sufficient for their vindication, and 
said withall, that he himself ought to shut his 
ears against such tales, and not to be too easy 
in believing them, for that there would never 
be wanting those that would tell lies to their 
disadvantage, as long as any would give ear to 
them. 

do. When they had thus soon pacified him, 
as being their father, they got clear of the pre- 
sent fear they were in. Yet did they see oc- 
casion for sorrow in some time afterward; for 
they knew that Salome, as well as their uncle 
Pheroras, were their enemies; who were both 
of them heavy and severe persons, and espe- 
cially: Pheroras, who was a partner with Herod 
in all the affairs of the kingdom, excepting his 
diadem. He had also a hundred talents of his 
own revenue, and enjoyed the advantage of 
all the land beyond Jordan, which he had re- 
ceived as a gift from his brother, and who had 
asked of Ceesar to make him a tetrarch, as he 
was made accordingly. Herod had also given 
him a wife out of the royal family, who was ao 
other than his own wife’s sister, and after her 
death had solemnly espoused to him his own 
eldest daughter, with a dowry of three hun- 
dred talents: but Pheroras refused to consum- 
mate this royal marriage out of his affection 
to a maid-servant of his. Upon which account 
Herod was very angry, and gave that daughter 
in marriage to a brother’s son of his [Joseph,] 
who was slain afterward by the Parthians; but 
in some time he laid aside his anger against 
Pheroras, and pardoned him, as one not able ta 
overcome his foolish passion for the maid-ser- 
vant. 

6. Nay, Pheroras had been accused long be- 
fore, while the queen Mariamne was alive, as 
if he were in a plot to poison Herod; and there 
came then so great a number of informers, that 
Herod himself, though he was an exceeding 
lover of his brethren, was brought to believe 
what was said, and to be afraid of it also; and 
when he had brought many of those that were 
under suspicion to the torture, he came at last 
to Pheroras’s own friends; none of which did 


or indeed, anywhere else, does not appear to me. Ané 
what our Savior says about the common Jewish divorces 
which may lay much greater claim to such a permission thar 
polygamy, seems to me true in this case also; that Moses, foa 
the hardness of their hearts, suffered them to have severest 
wives at the same time, but that from the beginning tt waz not 
so, Matt. xix. 8; Mark x. 5. 


534 


openly confess the crime, but they owned that 
he had made preparation to take her whom he 
loved, and run away to the Parthians. Costo- 
barus also, the husband of Salome, to whom 
the king had given her in marriage, after her 
former husband had been put to death for 
adultery, was instrumental in bringing about 
this contrivance and flight of his. Nor did 
Salome escape all calumny upon herself; for 
her brother Pheroras accused her, that she had 
made an agreement to marry Sylleus, the pro- 
curator of Obodas, king of Arabia, who was 
at a bitter enmity with Herod; but when she 
was convicted of this, and of all that Pheroras 
had accused her of, she obtained her pardon. 
The king also pardoned Pheroras himself the 
erimes he had been accused of. 

7. But the storm of the whole family was 
removed to Alexander, and all of it rested upon 
his head. There were three eunuchs who 
were in the highest esteem with the king, as 
was plain by the offices they were in about 
nim; for one of them was appointed to be his 
butler, another of them got his supper ready 
for him, and the third put him into bed, and 
lay down by him. Now Alexander had pre- 
vailed with these men, by large gifts, to let him 
use them after an obscene manner: which, 
when it was told to the king, they were 
tortured, and found guilty, and presently con- 
fessed the criminal conversation he had with 
them. They also discovered the promises 
by which they were induced so to do, and how 
they were deluded by Alexander, who had 
told them, that “they ought not to fix their 
hopes upon Herod, an old man, and one so 
shameless as to color his hair, unless they 
thought that would make him young again; 
but they ought to fix their attention on him, 
who was to be his successor in the kingdom 
whether he would or not; and who in no long 
tine would avenge himself on his enemies, and 
make his friends happy and blessed, and them- 
selves in the first place: that the men of power 
did already pay respects to Alexander private- 
ly; and that the captains of the soldiery, and the 
officers, did secretly come to him. 

8. These confessions did so terrify Herod, 
that he durst not immediately publish them; 
but he sent spies abroad privately by night and 
by day, who should make a close inquiry after 
all that was done and said, and when any were 
but suspected [of treason,] he put them to 
death, insomuch that the palace was full of 
horribly unjust proceedings, for every body 
forged ctalumnies, as they were themselves in a 
state of enmity or hatred against others; and 
many there were who abused the king’s bloody 
passion to the disadvantage of those with whom 
they had quarrels, and lies were easily believed, 
and punishments were inflicted sooner than 
the-calumnies were forged: he who had just 
then been accusing another, was accused him- 
self, and was led away to execution together 
with him whom he had convicted; for the dan- 
ger the king was in of his life made examina- 
tions be very short. He also proceeded to 
eur) a degree of bitterness, that he could not 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 
look on any of those that were not accused — 


with a pleasant countenance, but was in the 
most barbarous disposition towards his own 


friends. Accordingly, he forbade a great many — 


of them to come to court, and to those whom 


he had not power to punish actually, he spoke — 


harshly; but for Antipater, he insulted Alexan 
der, now he was under his misfortunes, and got 
a stout company of his kindred together, and 
raised all sorts of calumny against him: and for 


the king, he was brought to such a degree of | 


terror by those prodigious slanders dnd cont:: 
vances, that he fancied he saw Alexander com- 
ing to him with a drawn sword in his hand; so 
he caused him to be seized upon immediately 
and bound, and fell to examining his friends b 
torture, many of whom died [under the torture 
but would discover nothing, nor say any thing 


against their consciences; but some of them, . 


being forced to speak falsely by the pains they 
endured, said that Alexander, and his brother 
Aristobulus, plotted against him, and waited 
for an opportunity to kill him as he was hunt 

ing, and then fly awayto Rome. ‘These accu- 
sations, though they were of an incredible na- 
ture, and only framed upon the great distress 
they were in, were readily believed by the king, 
who thought it some comfort to him, after he 
had bound his son, that it might appear he had 
not done it unjustly. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


Archelaus procures reconciliation between Alex 
ander, Pheroras, and Herod. 


§ 1. Now as to Alexander, since he perceiv- 
ed it impossible to persuade his father [that he 
was innocent,] he resolved to meet his calami- 
ties, how severe soever they were; so he com- 
posed four books against his enemies; and con- 
fessed that he had been in a plot; but declared 
withall that the greatest part [of the courtiers] 
were in a plot with him, and chiefly Pheroras 
and Salome; nay, that Salome once came and 


forced him to lie with her in the night-time, — 


whether he would or no. These books were 
put into Herod’s hands, and made a great cla- 
mor against the men in power. And now it 
was that Archelaus came hastily into Judea, as 
being affrighted for his son-in-law, and his 
daughter; and he came as a proper assistant, and 
in a very prudent manner, and by a stratagem 
he obliged the king not to execute what he had 


threatened; for when he was come to him he — 
cried out, “Where in the world is this wreteh- 


ed son-in-law of mine? Where shall I see the 
head of him who had contrived to murder his 
father, which I will tear to pieces with my owa 
hands? I will do the same also to my daughter, 


who hath such a fine husband: for although — 


she be not a partner in the plot, yet, by bein 
the wife of such a creature, she is pollute 


And I cannot but admire at thy patience, against — 
whom this plot is Jaid, if Alexander be still © 


alive; for as I came with what haste I could 
from Cappadocia, I expected to find him put to 
death for his crimes long ago; but still in order 
to make an examination with thee about my 


daughter, whom out of regard to thee and thy 


W 
t 


‘dignity, I had espoused to him in marriage; 
‘but now we must take counsel about them both; 
and if thy paternal affection be so great, that 
thou canst not punish thy son, who hath plotted 
against thee, let us change our right hands, and 
let us succeed one to the other in. expressing 
our rage upon this occasion.” 

2. When he had made this pompous declara- 
tion, he got Herod to remit of his anger, though 
he was in disorder, who thereupon gave him 
the books which Alexander had composed to 
be read by him, and as he came to every head, 
he considered of it, together with Herod. So 
Archelaus took hence the occasion for that 
stratagem which he made use of, and by de- 
grees he laid the blame on those men whose 
mames were in these books, and especially 
upon Pheroras; and when he saw that the 
king believed him [to be in earnest,] he said, 
“We must consider whether the young man be 
not himself plotted against by such a number 
of wicked wretches, and not thou plotted 
against by the young man; for I cannot see 
any occasion for his falling into so horrid a 
crime, since he enjoys the advantages of royalty 
already, and has the expectation of being one 
of thy successors; I mean this, unless there 
were some persons that persuade hiin to it, 
and such persons as make an ill use of the fa- 
cility they know there is to persuade young 
men; for by such persons, not only young men 
are sometimes imposed upon, but old men also, 
and by them sometimes are the most illustrious 
families and kingdoms overturned.” 

3. Herod assented to what he had said, and, 
by degrees, abated of his anger against Alex- 
ander; but was more angry at Pheroras; for 
the principal subject of the four books was 
Pheroras, who perceiving that the king’s incli- 
nations changed on a sudden, and that Arche- 
laus’s friendship could do every thing with 
him, and that he had no honorable method of 
preserving himself, he procured his safety by 

is impudence. So he left Alexander, and 
had recourse to Archelaus, who told him, That 
“he did not see how he could get him excused, 
now he was directly caught in so many crimes, 
whereby it was evidently demonstrated that he 
had plotted against the king, and had been the 
cause of those misfortunes which the young 
man was now under, unless he would more- 
over leave off his cunning knavery, and his 
denials of what he was charged withall, and 
confess the charge, and implore pardon of his 
brother, who still had a kindness for him; but 
that if he would do so, he would afford him all 
the assistance he was able.” 

4, With this advice Pheroras complied, and, 
putting himself into such a habit as might most 
Move compassion, he came with black cloth 
upon his body and tears in his eyes, and threw 
himself down at Herod’s feet, and begged his 
‘pardon for what he had done, and confessed 
that he had acted very wickedly, and was guilty 
of every thing that he had been accused of, 
and lamented that disorder of his mind and dis- 
wwaction which his love to a woman, he said, 
mad brought him to. So when Archelaus had 


oe ds 
vy 


BOOK I—CHAPTER XXVI. 


brought Pheroras to accuse and bear witness 
against himself, he then made an excuse for 
him, and mitigated Herod’s anger towards hirm. 
and this by using certain domestic examplen 
“for that when he had suffered much greater 
mischiefs from a brother of his own, he prefer- 
red the obligations of nature before tlie passion 
of revenge; because it is in kingdoms, as it isin 
gross bodies, where some member or other is 
ever swelled by the body’s weight, in which 
case it is not proper to cut off such member, 
but to heal it by a gentle method of cure.” 

do. Upon Archelaus’s saying this, and much 
more to the same purpose, Herod’s displeasure 
against Pheroras was mollified: yet did he per- 
Severe in his own indignation against Alexan- 
der, and said, he would have his daughter di- 
vorced, and taken away from him, and this till 
he had brought Herod to that pass, that con- 
trary to his former behavior to him, he petition 
ed Archelaus for the young man, and that he 
would let his daughter continue espoused to him; 
but Archelaus made him strongly believe that he 
would permit her to be married to any one else, 
but not to Alexander, because he looked upon 
it as a very valuable advantage, that the rela- 
tion they had contracted by that affinity, and 
the privileges that went along with it, might be 
preserved. And when the king said, that his 
son would take it for a great favor done to him, 
if he would not dissolve that marriage; espe- 
cially since they had already children between 
the young man and her, and since that wife of 
his was so well beloved by him, and that as 
while she remains his wife she would be a great 
preservative to him, and keep him from offend- 
ing as he had formerly done; so if she should 
be once torn away from him, she would be the 
cause of his falling into despair; because such 
young men’s attempts are best mollified, when 
they are diverted from them by settling their 
affections at home. So Archelaus complied 
with what Herod desired, but not without dif- 
ficulty, and was both himself reconciled to the 
young man, and reconciled his father to him 
also. However, he said he must, by all means, 
be sent to Rome to discourse with Ceesar he- 
cause he had already written a full account tu 
him of this whole matter. } 

6. Thus a period was put to Archelaus’s 
stratagem, whereby he delivered his son-in-law 
out of the dangers he was in; but when these re- 
conciliations were over, they spent their time 
in feastings and agreeable entertainments. And 
when Archelaus was going away, Herod made 
him a present of seventy talents, with a golden 
throne set with precious stones and some eu- 
nuchs, and a concubine who was called Pan- 
nychis. He also paid due honors '9 every one 
of his friends according to their dignity. In 
like manner did all the king’s kindred, by hz 
command, make glorious presents to Archelaus. 
and so he was conducted on his way by Heroé 
and his nobility as far as Antioch. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 
HowEurycles* calumniated the sons of Muriamne. 


* This vile fellow, Eurycles the Lacedemonian, seems t& 
have been the same who is mentioned by Plutarch. as twep 


. 


536 


and how the 
them had no 


4.1. Now a little afterward there came into 
Judea a man that was much superior to Arche- 
laus’s stratagems, who did not only overturn 
that reconciliation that had been so wisely made 
with Alexander, but proved the occasion of his 
ruin. He was a Lacedemonian, and his name 
was Eurycles. He was so corrupt a man, that 
out of his desire of getting money, he chose to 
live under a king, for Greece could not suffice 
his luxury. 
gifts, as a bait which he laid in order to com- 
pass his ends, and quickly receiving them back 
again manifold; yet did he esteem bare gifts as 
nothing, unless he imbrued the kingdom in 
blood by his purchases. Accordingly, he im- 
posed upon the king by flattering him, and by 
talking subtilely to him, as also by the lying 
encomiums which he made upon him; for as 
he soon perceived Herod’s blind side, so he 
said and did every thing that might please him, 
and thereby became one of his most intimate 
friends; for both the king and all those that 
were about him, had a great regard for this 
Spartan on account of his country.* 

2. Now as soon as this fellow perceived the 
rotten part of the family, and what quarrels 
the brothers had one with another, and in what 
disposition the father was towards each of them, 
he chose to take his lodging at first in the house 
of Antipater, but deluded Alexander with a 
pretence of friendship to him, and falsely claim- 
ed to be an old acquaintance of Archelaus; for 
which reason he was presently admitted ito 
Alexander’s familiarity as a faithful friend. He 
also soon recommended himself to his brother 
Aristobulus. And when he had thus made 
trial of these several persons, he imposed upon 
one of them by one method, and upon another 
by another. But he was principally hired by 
Antipater, and so betrayed Alexander, and this 
by reproaching Antipater, because, while he 
was the eldest son, he overlooked the intrigues 
of those who stood in the way of his expecta- 
tions; and by reproaching Alexander, because 
he who was born of a queen, and was married 
toa king’s daughter, permitted one that was 
born of a mean woman to lay claim to the suc- 
eession, and this when he had Archelaus to 
support him in the most complete manner. 
Nor was his advice thought to be other than 
faithfu by the young man, because of his pre- 
tended friendship with Archelaus: on which 
account it was that Alexander lamented to him 
Antipater’s behavior with regard to himself, and 
this without concealing any thing from ‘him; 
and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he 


hd of Euratus of Cos for 


effect. 


-five years before, a companion to Mark Antony, and as 

ving with Herod, whence he might easily insinuate himself 
into the acquaintance of Herod’s sons, Antipater and Alex- 
ander, as Usher, Hudson, and Spanheim justly suppose. 
The reason why his being a Spartan rendered him accepta 
ble to the Jews, as we here see he was, is visible from the 
public records of the Jews and Spartans, owning those Spar- 
tans, tu be of kin to the Jews, and derived from their com- 
mon ancestor, Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish na- 
fon. Anitiq. b. xii. ch. iv. sect. 10; b. xiii. ch. v. sect. 8, and 
1 Mac. b. xii. ch. vii. 

* Bee the preceding note. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


He presented Herod with splendid- 








had killed their mother, should deprive them. 
her kingdom. He also, by a bait that he laid 
for him, procured Aristobulus to say the same 
things. Thus did he inveigle both the brot 
ers to make complaints of their father, and thes 
went to Antipater, and carried these grand 
crets to him. He also added a fiction of his 
own, as if his brothers had laid a plot aguinat 
him, and were almost ready to cone upon hi 
with their drawn swords. For this intelligence 
he received a great sum of money, and on th 
account he commended Antipater before hi 
father, and at length undertook the work of 
bringing Alexander and Aristobulus to their 
graves, and accused them before their rather, 
So he came to Herod and told him, that “he 
would save his life, as a requital for the favors 
he had received from him, and would prese 
his light [of life] by way of retribution for me 
kind entertainment: for that a sword had been 
long whetted, and Alexander’s right hand had_ 
been long stretched out against him; but that 
he had laid impediments in his way which pre= 
vented his speed, and that by pretending to as- 
sist him in his design: how Alexander said that 
Herod was not contented to reign in a kingdom 
that belonged to others, and to make dilapid 
tions in their mother’s government, after he had 
killed her; but besides all this, that he introdu- 
ced a spurious successor, and proposed to give 
the kingdom of their ancestors to that pesti ent 
fellow Antipater: that he would now riper 
the ghosts of Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by tak 
ing vengeance on him; for that it was not fit 
for him to take the succession to the ‘govern-— 
ment from such a father without bloodsh 
that many things happened every day to p 
voke him so to do, insomuch that he can = 
nothing at al! but it affords occasion for calum- 
ny against him; for that if any mention 
made of nobility of birth, even in other 
he is abused unjustly, while his father wou 
say, that nobody, to be sure, is of noble bi 
but Alexander, and that his father was inglo- 
rious for want of such nobility. If they be 
any time hunting, and he says nothing, he givea 
offence; and if he commends any body, they 
take it in way of jest; that they always find 
their fathe: mmercifully severe, and to have 
no natural :ffection for any of them but for 
Antfpater; on which accounts, if his plot does” 
not take, he is very willing to die; but that in 
case he kill his father, he hath sufficient oppor- 
tunities for saving himself. In the first place, 
he hath Archelaus his father-in-law, to whont 
he can easily fly; and in the next place he hath” 
Cesar, who hath never known Herod’s cha 
racter to this day; for that he shall not appear 
then before him with that dread he used to de «| 
when his father was there to terrify him; and 
that he will not then produce the accusations 
that concerned himself alone, but would, ita 
the first place, openly insist ca the calamities of 
their nation, and how they are taxed to death, 
and in what ways of luxury and wicked prac- 
tices that wealth is spent w.ich was gotten by 
bloodshed; what sort of persons they are th st 
get our riches, and to whom those cities belar 


























BOOK I—CHAPTER XXVIL 


-apon whom he bestows his favors; that he 


os 


would have inquiry made what became of his 
grandfather [Hyrcanus,] and his mother [Ma- 


'Fiamne,] and would openly proclaim the gross 


wickedness that was in the kingdom; on which 
accounts he should not be deemed a parricide.” 
3. When Eurycles had made this portentous 


7 “gem he greatly commended Antipater, as 
C) 


only child that had an affection for his 


- father, and on that account was an impediment 


’ to the others’ plot against him. Hereupon the 


king, who had hardly repressed his anger upon 
the former accusations, was exasperated to an 
incurable degree. At which time Antipater 
took another occasion to send in other persons 
to his father, to accuse his brethren, and to tell 
him, that they had privately discoursed with 
Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once been 
masters of the horse to the king, but for some 
offences had been put out of that honorable 
employment. Herod was in a very great rage 
at these informations, an‘ presently ordered 
these men to be tortured; yet did not they con- 
fess any thing of what the king had been in- 
formed, but a certain lerter was produced, as 
written by Alexander to the governor of a 
sastle, to desire him te .eceive him and Aristo- 
pulus into the castle when he had killed his 
father, and to give «hem weapons, and what 
other assistance he cvuld, upon that occasion. 
Alexander said, that this letter was a forgery 
of Diophantus. This Diophantus was the king’s 
secretary, a bold man, and cunning in counter- 
feiting any one’s hand; and after he had coun- 
terfeited a great number, he was at last put to 
death for it. Herod did also order the governor 
of the castle to be tortured, but got nothing out 
of him of what the accusation suggested. 

4, However, although Herod found the proofs 
too weak, he gave order to have his sons kept 
in custody: for till now they had been at liberty. 
He also called that pest of his family, and forger 
of all this vile accusation, Eurycles, his savior 


_and benefactor, and gave him a reward of fifty 


_ciled Herod to Alexander. 


talents. Upon which he prevented any accu- 
rate accounts that could come of what he had 
done, by going immediately into Cappadocia, 
and there he got money of Archelaus, having 
the impudence to pretend that he had recon- 
He thence passed 
over into Greece, and used what he had thus 
wickedly gotten to the like wicked purposes. 
Accordingly, he was twice accused before 
Cesar, that he had filled Achaia with sedition, 
and had plundered its cities; and so he was 
gent into banishment. And thus was he pun- 
ished for what wicked actions he had been 
guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander. 

5. But it will be now worth while to put 
Euaratus of Cos in opposition to this Spartan; 
for as he was one of Alexander’s most intimate 
friends, and came to him in his travels at the 


» same time that Eurycles cameé, so the king put 


the question to him, whether those things of 
which Alexander was accused were true? He 


essured him upon oath, that he had never 
heard any such things from the young men: 


yet dii this testimony avail nothing for the 
68 


537 


clearing those miserable creatures; for Herod 
was only disposed and most ready to hearken 
to what made against them; and every one 
was most agreeable to him that would be- 
lieve they were guilty, and showed their indig- 
nation at them. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


Herod, by Cesar’s direction, accuses his sons at 
Berytus. They are not produced before the 
court, but yet are condemned, and in a litth 
tume they are sent to Sebaste, and strangled there. 


§ 1. Moreover, Salome exasperated Herod’s 
cruelty against his sons; for Aristobulus was 
desirous to bring her, who was his mother-in- 
law and his aunt, into the like dangers with 
themselves: so he sent to her to take care of 
her own safety, and told her, that the king was 
preparing to put her to death, on account of 
the accusation that was laid against her, as if, 
when she formerly endeavored to marry her- 
self to Sylleus the Arabian, she had discovered 
the king’s grand secrets to him who was the 
king’s enemy; and this it was that came as the 
last storm, and entirely sunk the young men 
when they were in great danger before. For 
Salome came running to the king, and inform- 
ed him of what admonition had been giver 
her; whereupon, he could bear no longer, but 
commanded both the young men to be bound, 
and kept the one asunder from the other. He 
also sent Volumnius, the general of his army, 
to Cesar immediately, as also his friend Olym- 
pus with him, who carried the information in 
writing along withthem, Now, as soon as the 
had sailed to Rome, and delivered the king’s 
letters to Cesar, Cesar was mightily troubled 
at the case of the young men, yet did not he 
think he ought to take the power from the 
father, of condemning his sons: so he wrote 
back to him, and appointed him to have the 
power over his sons; but said withall, that “he 
would do well to make an examination into this 
matter of the plot against him, ina public court, 
and to take for his assessors his own kindred, 
and the governors of the province: and if those 
sons be found guilty, to put them to death; but 
if they appear to have thought of no more than 
flying away from him, that he*should in that 
case moderate their punishment.” 

2. With these directions Herod complied, 
and came to Berytus, where Cesar had ordered 
the court to be assembled, and got the judica- 
ture together. The presidents sat first, as Cax 
sar’s letters had appointed, who were Saturni 
nus, and Pedanius, and their lieutenants tha 
were with them, with whom was the procura 
tor Volumnius also; next to them sat the king’s 
kinsmen and friends, with Salome also, and 
Pheroras; after whom sat the principal men of 
all Syria, excepting Archelaus; or Herod had 
a suspicion of him, because lie was Alexan- 
der’s father-in-law. Yet did not he produce 
his sons in open court; and this was done very 
cunningly, for he knew well enough that had 
they but appeared only, they would certainly 
have been pitied; and if withall they had been 
suffered to speak, Alexander would easily have 


se 


answered what they were accused of, but they 
were in custody at Platane, a village of the 
Sidonians. 

3. So the king got up and inveighed against 

his sons, as if they were present; and as for that 
vart of the accusation that they had plotted 
against him, he urged it but faintly; because he 
was destitute of proofs; but he insisted before 
the assessors on the reproaches, and Jests, and 
injurious carriage, and ten thousand the like of- 
fences against him, which were heavier than 
death itself; and when nobody contradicted 
him, he moved them to pity his case, as though 
he had been condemned himself, now he had 
gained a bitter victory against his sons. So he 
asked every one’s sentence, which sentence was 
first of all given by Saturninus, and was this, that 
he condemned the young men, but not to death; 
for that it was not fit for him who had three 
sons of his own now present, to give his vote 
for the destruction of the sons of another. 
The two lieutenants also gave the like vote; 
some others there were also who followed their 
example; but Volumnius began to vote on the 
more melancholy side, and all those that came 
after him condemned the young men to die, 
some out of flattery, and some out of hatred to 
Herod; but none out of indignation at their 
crimes. And now all Syria and Judea was in 
great expectation, and waited for the last act of 
this tragedy; yet did nobody suppose that He- 
rod would be so barbarous as to murder his 
children; however, he carried them away to 
Tyre, and thence sailed to Caesarea; and delib- 
erated with himself what sort of death the 
young men should suffer. 

4. Now there was a certain old soldier of the 
king, whose name was Tero, who had a son 
that was very familiar with, and a friend to Al- 
exander, and who himself particularly loved 
the young men. This soldier was in a manner 
distracted out of the excess of the indignation 
he had at what was doing; and at first he 
cried out aloud, as he went about, “That justice 
was trampled under foot; that truth was per- 
ished, and nature confounded; and that the life 
of man was full of iniquity,” and every thing 
else that passion could suggest to a man who 
spared not his own life; and at last he ventured 
to go to the king, and said, “Truly, I think, 
thou art a most miserable man,when thou heark- 
enest to most wicked wretches, against those 
that ought to be dearest to thee; since thou hast 
frequently resolved that Pheroras and Salome 
should be put to death, and yet believest them 
against thy sons; while these, by cutting off the 
succession of thine own sons, leave all wholly 
to Antipater, and thereby choose to have thee 
such a king as may be thoroughly in their own 
power. However, consider whether this death 
of Antipater’s brethren, will not make him hated 
ty the soldiers, for there is nobody but commiser- 
ates the young men, and of the captains a great 
many show their indignation at it openly.” 
Upon his saying this, he named those that had 
such indignation; but the king ordered those 
men, with Tero himself and his son, to be seiz- 
«1 upon immediately. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


whose name was Trypho. This man leaped 


+ 
o 
5. At which time there was acertuir. barber. 4 


out from among the people in a kind of mad- — 


ness, and accused himself, and said, “This Tere — 


endeavored to persuade me also to cut thy 


throat with my razor when I trimmed thee, 
and promised that Alexander should give me 
large presents for so doing.” When Herod 
heard this, he examined Tero, with his son 


and the barber, by the torture; butas the others — 


denied the accusation, and he said nothing far- 


ther, Herod gave order that Tero should be 


racked more severely; but his son, out of pity 


to his father, promised to discover the whole 


to the king, if he would grant [that his father 
should be no longer tortured;] when he had 
agreed to this, he said, that “his father, at the 


persuasion of Alexander, had an intention to — 
kill him.” Now some said this was forged, in 


order to free his father from his torments, and 
some said it was true. 

6. And now Herod accused the captains, 
and Tero, in an assembly of the people, and 
brought the people together in a body against 
them; and accordingly there were they put to 
death, together with ['Trypho] the barber; they 
were killed by the pieces of wood and the 
stones that werethrown at them. He also sent 
his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from Cesa- 
rea, and ordered them to be there strangled: 
and as what he had ordered was executed im- 
mediately, so he commanded that their dead 
bodies should be brought to the fortress Alex 
andrium, to be buried with Alexander, their 
grandfather by the mother’s side. And this 
was the end of Alexander and Aristobulus. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


How Antipater is hated of all men; and how the 
king espouses the sons of those that had been 
slain to his kindred; but that Antipater made 
him change them for other women. Of Herod's 
marriages and children. 

§ 1. But an intolerable hatred fell upon An- 
tipater from the nation, though he had now an 
indisputable title to the succession; because 


they all knew that he was the person who con- — 


trived all the calumnies against his brethren. 
However, he began to be in a terrible fear, as 


he saw the posterity of those that had been — 
slain growing up; for Alexander had two sons — 


by Glaphyra, Tigranes and Alexander; and 


Aristobulus had Herod, and Agrippa, and Aris- 


tobulus, his sons, with Herodias and Mariamne, 
his daughters, and all by Bernice, Salome’s 
daughter: as for Glaphyra, Herod, as soon as 
he had killed Alexander, sent her back, to- 
gether with her portion, to Cappadocia. He 
married Bernice, Salome’s daughter, to Anti- 


pater’s uncle by his mother, and it was Anté — 


pater, who, in order to reconcile her to him, 
when she had been at variance with him, con- 
trived this match; he also got into Pheroras’s 
favor, and into the favor of Ceesar’s friends by 
presents and other ways of obsequiousness, 
and sent no small sums of money to Rome: 
Saturninus also, and his friends in Syria, were ~ 
all well replenished with the presents he made 


E 


BOOK I.—CHAPTER XXIX. 


them; yet the more he gave, the more he was 


<4 


that he might not have the bare name of 2 


hated, as not making these presents out of| king, while the power was ‘n other persons 


generosity, but spending his money out of fear. 
‘Accordingly, it so fell out, that the receivers 
‘bore him no more good will than before, but 
‘that those to whom he gave nothing were his 
‘more bitter enemies. However, he bestowed 
his money every day more and more profusely, 
on observing that, contrary to his expectations, 
‘the king was taking care about the orphans, 
and discovering at the same time his repentance 
for killing their fathers, by his commiseration 
of those that sprung from them. 

2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kin- 
dred and friends, and set helore them the 
children, and with his eyes full of tears said 
thus to them: “It was an unlucky fate that took 
away from me these children’s fathers, which 
children are recommended to me by that na- 
tural commiseration which their orphan condi- 
tion requires; however, I will endeavor, though 
I have been a most unfortunate father, to ap- 
pear a better grandfather, and to leave these 
children such curators after myself as are 
dearest to me. I therefore betroth thy daugh- 
ter, Pheroras, to the elder of these brethren, 
the children of Alexander, that thou mayest 
be obliged to take care of them. I also be- 
troth to thy son Antipater, the daughter of 
Aristobulus; be thou, therefore, a father to that 
orphan; and my son Herod [Philip] shall have 
her sister, whose grandfather, by the mother’s 
side, was high priest. And let every one that 
loves me be of my sentiments in these dispo- 
sitions, which none that hath an affection for 
me will abrogate. And I pray God, that he 
will join these children together in marriage, 
to the advantage of my kingdom, and of my 
posterity, and may he look down with eyes 
more serene upon them than he looked upon 
their fathers.” . 

3. While he spoke these words, he wept, 
and joined the children’s right hands together; 
after which he embraced them every one after 
an affectionate manner, and dismissed the as- 
sembly. Upon this, Antipater was in great 
disorder immediately, and lamented publicly at 
what was done; for he supposed that this dig- 
nity which was conferred on these orphans 
was for his own destruction, even in his father’s 
lifetime, and that he should run another risk 
of losing the government, if Alexander’s sons 
should have both Archelaus [a king] and Phe- 
roras a tetrarch tosupport them. He also con- 
sidered how he was himself hated by the na- 

ion, and how they pitied these orphans; how 
great affection the Jews bore to those brethren 
of his when they were alive, and how gladly 
they remembered them now they had perished 
by his means. So he resolved by all the ways 
possible to get these espousals dissolved. 

4. Now he was afraid of going subtilely 
‘about this matter with his father, who was 
hard to be pleased, and was presently moved 
upon the least suspicion; so he ventured to go 
to him directly, and to beg of him before his 
fee, not to deprive jim of that dignity which 
hb: had been pleased to bestow upon him, and 


- 
ey 


4 
a 


for that he should never be able to keep the 
government, if Alexander’s son was to have 
both his grandfather Archelaus and Pheroras 
for his curators; and he besought him earnestly, 
since there were so many of the royal family 
alive, that he would change those [intended] 
marriages. Now the king had nine wives,4 
and children by seven of them; Antipater was 
himself born of Doris, and Herod [Philip] of 
Mariamne, the high priest’s daughter Antipag 
also and Archelaus were by Malthace, the Sa- 
maritan, as was his daughter, Olympias, which 
his brother Joseph’st son had married; by 
Cleopatra, of Jerusalem, he had Herod and 
Philip, and by Pallas, Phasaelus; he had also 
two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by 
Phedra, and the other by Elpis; he had also 
two wives that had no children, the one his 
first cousin, and the other his niece; and be 
sides these he had two daughters, the sisters of 
Alexander and Aristobulus, by Mariamne. 
Since, therefore, the royal family was so nu- 
merous, Antipater prayed him to change these 
[intended] marriages. 

5. When the king perceived what disposi- 
tion he was in towards these orphans, he was 
angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind, 
as to those sons whom he had put to death, 
whether that had not been brought about by 
the false tales of Antipater; so at that time he 
made Antipater a Jong and peevish answer, 
and bid him begone. Yet was he afterward 
prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and 
changed the marriages; he married Aristobu- 
lus’s daughter to him, and his son to Pheroras’s 
daughter. 

6. Now one may learn, in this instance, how 
very much this flattering Antipater could do, 
even what Salome, in the like circumstances, 
could not do; for when she, who was his sister, 
had, by the means of Julia, Ceesar’s wife, earn- 
estly desired Jeave to be married to Sylleus, the 
Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her 
his bitter enemy, unless she would leave off 
that project; he also caused her, against her 
own consent, to be married to Alexas, a friend 
of his, and that one of her daughters should 
be married to Alexas’s son, and the other to 
Antipater, uncle by the mother’s side. And 
for the daughters the king had by Mariamne, 
the one was married to Antipater his sister’e 
son, and the other to his brother’s son, Pha 


saelus. 
CHAPTER XXIX. 


Antipater becomes intolerable. He 8 sent te 
Rome and carries Herod’s testament with hem. 


* Dean Aldrich takes notice here, that these nine wives 
of Herod were alive at the same time; and that if the cele- 
brated Mariamne, who was now dead, be reckoned, those 
wives were in all ten. [Yet it is remarkable that he had ne 
more than fifteen children by them ail.] 

+ To prevent confusion, it may not be amiss, with Deas 
Aldrich, to distinguish between four Josephs in the history 
of Herod. 1. Joseph, Herod’s uncle, and the [second] hus- 
band of his sister Salome, slain by Herod, on account of 
2. Joseph, Herod’s questor, or treasurer, slain 
on the same account. 3. Joseph, Herod’s brother, slain iv 
battle against Antigonus. 4. Joseph, Herod’s rephew, the 
husbaprd of Olympias, mentioned in this place. 


Mariamne. 


Pheroras leaves his brother, that he may keep 

Ins wife. He dies at home. 

§ 1. Now when Antipater had cut off the 
hopes of the orphans, and had contracted such 
affinities as would be most for his own advan- 
tage, he proceeded briskly, as having a certain 
expectation of the kingdom; and as he had 
now assurance added to his wickedness, he be- 
eame intolerable; for not being able to avoid 
the hatred of all people, he built his security 
upon the terror he struck into them. Phero- 
ras also assisted him in his designs, looking 
upon him as already fixed in his kingdom. 
There was also a company of women in the 
court, which excited new disturbances; for Phe- 
roras’s wife, together with her mother and sis- 
ter, as also Antipater’s mother, grew very im- 

udent in the palace. She also was so inso- 
ent as to affront the king’s* two daughters, on 
which account the king hated her to a great 
degree; yet although these women were hated 
ky him, they domineered over others: there 
was only Salome who opposed their good agree- 
ment, and informed the king of their meetings, 
as not being for the advantage of his affairs. 
And when those women knew what calumnies 
she had raised against them, and how much 
Herod was displeased, they left off their pub- 
lic meetings, and friendly entertainments of one 
another; nay, on the contrary, they pretended 
to quarrel one with another, when the king 
was within hearing. The like dissimulation did 
Antipater make use of, and when matters were 
public, he opposed Pheroras; but still they had 
private cabals and merry meetings in the night- 
time; nor did the observation of others do any 
more than confirm their mutual agreement. 
However, Salome knew evéry thing they did, 
and told every thing to Herod. 

2, But he was inflamed with anger at them, 
and chiefly at Pheroras’s wife; for Salome had 

rincipally accused her. So he got an assem- 
biy of his friends and kindred together, and 
there accused this woman of many things, and 
particularly of the affronts she had offered his 
daughters; and that she had supplied the Pha- 
risees with money, by way of rewards for what 
they had done against him, and had procured 
his brother to become his enemy, by giving 
him love potions. At length he turned his 
speech to Pheroras, and told him, that “he 
would give him his choice of these two things, 
whether he would keep in with his brother, or 
with his wife?” And when Pheroras said, that 
he would certainly die rather than forsake his 
wife,t Herod, not knowing what to do further 
in that matter, turned his speech to Antipater, 
and charged him to have no intercourse either 
with Pheroras’s wife, or with Pheroras himself, 
er with any one belonging toher. Now, though 
Antipater did not transgress that his injunction 


* These daughters of Herod whom Pheroras’s wife af- 
fronted, were Salome and Roxana, two virgins, who were 
vorn to him of his two wives, Elpis and Phedra; see Herod’s 
genealogy, Antiq. b. xvii. ch. i, sect. 3. 

+ This strange obstinacy of Pheroras in retaining his wife, 
who was one of a low family, and refusing to marry one 
aearly related to Herod, though he so earnestly desired it, as 
also that wife’s admission to the counsels of the other great 
geurt lad 3s, together with Herod’s own importunity as to 


WARS OF THE JEWS. . ae 







publicly, yet did he in secret come to then 
night-meetings; and because he was afraid tha 
Salome observed what he did, he procured, by 
the means of his Italian friends, that he might 
go and live at Rome: for when they wrote that 
it was proper for Antipater to be sent to Cesar 
for some time, Herod made no delay, but sent 
him, and that with a splendid attendance, and a 
great deal of money, and gave hirn his testa- 
ment to carry with him, wherein Antipater had 
the kingdom bequeathed to him, and wherein 
Herod was named for Antipater’s successor; 
that Herod, I mean, who was the son of Mari- 
amne, the high priest’s daughter. 
3. Sylleus also, the Arabian, sailed to Rome — 
without any regard to Czsar’s injunctions, ard 
this in order to oppose Antipater with all his 
might, as to that lawsuit which Nicolaus had 
with him before. This Sylleus had also a great 
contest with Aretas his own king; for he had 
slain many others of Aretas’s friends, and par- 
ticularly Sohemus, the most potent man in the 
city of Petra. Moreover, he had prevailed with 
Phabatus, who was Herod’s steward, by giving 
him a greatsum of money, to assist him against 
Herod; but when Herod gave him more, he in- 
duced him to leave Sylleus, and by his means 
he demanded of him all that Cesar had requir- 
ed of him to pay. But when Sylleus paid 
nothing of what he was to pay, and did also 
accuse Phabatus to Ceesar, and said that he was 
not a steward for Czesar’s advantage, but for 
Herod’s, Phabatus was angry at him on that 
account, but was still in very great esteem with 
Herod, and discovered Sylleus’s grand secre 
and told the king that Sylleus had corrupted 
Corinthus, one of the guards of his body, by 
bribing him, and of whom he must therefore 
have acare. Accordingly, the king complied, 
for this Corinthus, though he was brought up 
in Herod’s kingdom, yet was he by birth an 
Arabian; so the king ordered him to be taken 
up immediately, and not only him, but two 
other Arabians, who were caught with him; 
the one of them was Sylleus’s friend, the other 
the head of a tribe. The last being put to the 
torture, confessed that they had prevailed with 
Corinthus, for a large sum of money, to kill 
Herod; and when they had been further exam- 
ined before Saturninus the president of Syria, 
they were sent to Rome. i 
4. However, Herod did not leave off impor- 
tuning Pheroras, but proceeded to force him to 
put away his wife; yet could he not devise any 
way by which he could bring the woman her- 
self to punishment, although he had man 
causes of hatred to her; till at length he was 1 
such great uneasiness at her, that he cast bot 
her and his brother out of his kingdom. Phe 
roras took this injury very patiently, and we 
away into his own tetrarchy [Perea beyo 


erie 












Pheroras’s divorce ard other marriage, all so remark 
here or in the Antiquities, b. xvii. chap. ii. sect. 4, and chi 
iii. sect. 3, cannot be well accounted for, but on the s 
osal that Pheroras believed, and Herod suspected, that 
harisees’ prediction, as if the crown of Judea should b 
translated from Herod to Pheroras’s posterity, and that 
probably to Pheroras’s posterity by this his wife, also 
Sys true. See Antiq. b. xvii. ch. ii. sect. 4, and ch. 
sect. 1. 







i xp and swore that there should be but 
one end put to his flight, and that should be 
erod’s death; and that he would never return 

while he was alive. Nor indeed would he re- 


be had a mind to leave some injunctions with 
‘him before he died; but Herod unexpectedly 
“recovered. A little afterward Pheroras him- 
_ self fell sick, when Herod showed great mode- 
‘fation; for he came to him and pitied his case, 
‘and took care of him; but hisaffection for him 
‘did him no good, for Pheroras died a little af- 
‘terward, Now, though Herod had so great an 
‘affection for him to the last day of his life, yet 
Was a report spread abroad that he had killed 
him by poison. However, he took care to 
have his dead body carried to Jerusalem, and 
appointed a very great mourning to the whole 
“Ration for him, and bestowed a most pompous 
“funeral upon him. And this was the end that 
one of Alexander’s and Aristobulus’s murder- 
ars came to. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


When Herod made wmgquiry about Pheroras’s 
death, a discovery was made that Antipater 
had prepared a poisonous draught for him. 
Herod casts Doris and her accomplices, as 

also Marianne, out of the palace, and blots 

her son Herod out of his testament. 


 § 1. But now the punishment was transfer- 
red unto the original author, Antipater, and 
took its rise from the death of Pheroras; for 
-éertain of his freed-men came with asad coun- 
“enance to the king, and told him, that “bis 
‘Srother had been destroyed by poison, and that 
his wife had brought him somewhat that was 
‘Drepared after an unusual manner, and that 
upon his eating it, he presently fell into his dis- 
‘temper; that Antipater’s mother and _ sister, 
‘twe days before, brought a woman out of Ara- 
bia that was skilful in mixing such drugs, that 
‘she might prepare a love potion for Pheroras; 
‘and that, instead of a love potion, she had 
‘given him deadly poison; and that this was 
“done by the management of Sylleus, who was 
: Be aaiaten with that woman.” 
_ 2. The king was deeply affected with so 
“many suspicions, and had the maid-servants 
-and some of the free woman also tortured; one 
“of whom cried out in her agonies, “May that 
Ged that governs the earth and the heaven pun- 
ish the author of all these our miseries, Ant- 
pater’s mother!” The king took a handle from 
this confession, and proceeded to inquire fur- 
ther into the truth of the matter. So this wo- 
“man discovered the friendship of Antipater’s 
mother to Pheroras and Antipater’s women, as 
also their secret meetings, and that Pheroras 
and Antipater had drunk with them for a whole 
“night together as they returned from the king, 
-and would not suffer any body, either man- 
"servant or maid-servant, to be there; while one of 
_the free women discovered the whole matter. 
_ 3. Upon this Herod tortured the maid-ser- 
-Yants every one by themselves separately, who 
‘all unanimously agreed in the foregoing dis- 






| . BOOK I—CHAPTER XXX. | 5Al 


coveries, and that accordingly by agreement 
they went away, Antipater to Rome and Phe- 
roras to Perea: for that they oftentimes talked 
to one another thus: “That after Herod had 
slain Alexander and Aristobulus, he would fall 
upon them, and upon their wives, because, af 
ter he had not spared Mariamne and her chil 
dren, he would spare nobody; and that for this 
reason it was best to get as far off the wild 
beast as they were able.” And that Antipater 
oftentimes lamented his own case before his 
mother, and said to her, that “he had already 
gray hairs upon his head, and that his father 
grew younger again every day, and that per 
haps death would overtake him before he 
should begin to be a king in earnest; and that 
in case Herod should die, which yet nobody 
knew when it would be, the enjoyment of the 
succession could certainly be but for a little 
time; for that those heads of Hydra, the sons 
of Alexander and Aristobulus, were growing 
up: that he was deprived by his father of the 
hopes of being succeeded by his children, for 
that his successor after his death was not to be 
any one of his own sons, but Herod the son of 
Mariamne; that in this point Herod was plain- 
ly distracted, to think that his testament should 
therein take place; for he would take care that 
not one of his posterity should remain, because 
he was of all fathers the greatest hater of his 
children. Yet does he hate his brother still 
worse, whence it was that he a while ago gave 
himself a hundred talents, that he should not 
have any intercourse with Pheroras.” And 
when Pheroras said, Wherein have we done 
him any harm? Antipater replied, “I wish he 
would but deprive us of all we have, and 
leave us naked and alive only; but it is mdeed 
impossible to escape this wild beast, who is thus 
given to murder, who will not permit us to 
love any person openly, although we be toge- 
ther privately; yet may we be so openly too, 
if we have but the courage and the hands of 
men.” 

4. These things were said by the women 
upon the torture, as also that Pheroras resolved 
to fly with them to Perea. Now Herod gave 
credit to.all they said, on account of the affair 
of the hundred talents; for he had had no dis- 
course with any body about them, but only 
with Antipater. So he vented his anger first 
of all against Antipater’s mother, and took 
away from her all the ornaments which he had 
given her, which cost a great many talents, and 
cast her out of the palace a second time. He 
also took care of Pheroras’s woinen after their 
tortures, as being now reconciled to them; but 
he was in great consternation himself, and in- 
flamed upon every suspicion, and had many 
innocent persons led to the torture, out cf his 
fear lest he should leave any guilty perscn un- 
tortured. 

5. And now it was that he betook himself te 
examine Antipater, of Samaria, who was the 
steward of [his son] Antipater; and upon tor- 
turing him, he learned that Antipater had sent 
for a potion of deadly poison for him out of 
Egypt by Antiphilus a companion of his; that 


542 


Theudio, the uncle of Antipater, had it from 
him, and delivered it to Pheroras; for that An- 
tipater had charged him to take his father off 
while he was at Rome, and so free him from 
the suspicion of doing it himself} that Pheroras 
also committed this potion to his wife. Then 
did the king send for her and bade her bring to 
him what ske had received immediately. So 
she came out of her house as if she would 
bring it with her, but threw herself down from 
the top of the house in order to prevent any ex- 
amination and torture from the king. However, 
it came to pass, as it seems, by the providence 
of God, when he intended to bring Antipater 
to punishment, that she fell not upon her head, 
but upon other parts of her body, and escaped. 
The king when she was brought to him, took 
care of her, (for she was at first quite senseless 
upon her fall,) and asked her why she had 
thrown herself down? and gave ber his oath, 
that if she would speak the real truth, he 
would excuse her from punishment; but that 
if she concealed any thing, he would have her 
body torn to pieces by torments, and leave no 
part of it to be buried. 

6. Upon this the woman paused a little, and 
then said, ‘Why do I spare to speak of these 
grand secrets, now Pheroras is dead, that would 
only tend to save Antipater, who is all our de- 
struction? Here, then, O king, and be thou, and 
God himself, who cannot be deceived, witnesses 
to the truth of what I am going to say. When 
thou didst sit weeping by Pheroras as he was 
dying, then it was that he ealled me to him, and 
said, ‘My dear wife, I have been greatly mis- 
taken as to the disposition of my brother to- 
wards me, and have hated him that isso affec- 
tionate to me, and have contrived to kill him 
who is in such disorder for me before I am 
dead. As for myself I receive the recompense 
of my impiety; but do thou bring what poison 
was left with us by Antipater, and which thou 
keepest in order to destroy him, and consume 
it immediately in the fire in my sight, that I 
may not be liable to the avenger in the invisi- 
ole world.’ This I brought as he bade me, and 
emptied the greatest part of it into the fire, but 
reserved a little of it for my own use against 
uncertain futurity, and out of my fear of thee.” 

7. When she had said this, she brought the 
0X, which had a small quantity of this potion 
m it; but the king let her alone, and transferred 
the tortures to Antiphilus’s mother and brother, 
who both confessed that Antiphilus brought 
that box out of Egypt, and that they had re- 
ceived the potion from a brother of his who 
was d physician at Alexandria. Then did the 
ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus go round 
all the palace, and became the inquisitors and 
discoverers of what could not otherwise have 
been found out, and brought such as were the 
freest from suspicion to be examined: whereby 
it was discovered that Mariamne, the high 
priest’s daughter, was conscious of this plot, 
and her very brothers, when they were tortur- 
ed, declared itso to be. Whereupon the king 
avenged this insolent attempt of the mother 
upen her son, and blotted Herod, whom he 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


i 7 
ay (J 


had by her, out of his testament, who had t ; 
before named therein as successor to Antipater, 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


Antipater is convicted by Bathyllus: but he sti 
returns veers Rome without knowing ¢. Herog 
brings him to his trial. 4 
§ 1. After these thing were over, Bathyllus 

came under examination, in order to convict 

Antipater, who proved the concluding attesta- 

tion to Antipater’s designs; for indeed he was 

no other than his freed-man. This man came, 
and brought another deadly potion, the poison 
of asps, and the juices of other serpents, thay 
if the first potion did not do the business, Phe 
roras and his wife might be armed with this 
also to destroy the king. He brought also an 
addition to Antipater’s insolent attempt against | 
his father, which was the letters which he wrote 
against his brethren, Archelaus and Philip, who 
were the king’s sons, and educated at Rome, 
being yet youths, but of generous dispositions, 

Antipater set himself to get rid of these as soon 

as he could, that they might not be prejudicial 

to his hopes, and to that end he forged letters 
against them in the name of his friends at Rome, 

Some of these he corrupted by bribes to write 

how they grossly reproached their father, and 

did openly bewail Alexander and Aristobulus, 

and were uneasy at their being recalled; for 

their father had already sent for them, which 
was the very thing that troubled Antipater. 

2. Nay indeed, while Antipater was in Ju- 
dea, and before he was upon his journey to 
Rome, he gave money to have the like letters 
against them sent from Rome, and then came 
to his father, who as yet had no suspicion of 
him, and apologized for his brethren, and al 
leged on their behalf, that some of the things 
contained in those letters were false, and others 
of them were only youthful errors. Yet at 
the same time that he expended a great deal of 
his money, by making presents to such as wrote 
against his brethren, did he aim to bring his 
accounts into confusion, by buying costly gar- 
ments, and carpets of various contextures, with 
silver and gold cups, and a great many more 
curious things, that so, among the very great 
expenses laid out upon such furniture, he might 
conceal the money he had used in hiring mea 
[to write the. letters;] for he brought in an ac- 
count of his expenses, amounting to two hun- 
dred talents, his main pretence which was the 
lawsuit he had been in with Sylleus. So while 
all his rogueries, even those of a lesser sort also 
were covered by bis greater villainy, while al 
the examinations by torture proclaimed his at- 
tempt to murder his father, and the letters pro- 
claimed his second attempt to murder his breth- 
ren; yet did no one of those that came to 
Rome inform him of his misfortunes in Judea, 
although seven months had intervened between 
his conviction and his return, so great was the 
hatred which they all bore to him. And per 
haps they were the ghosts of those brethren 
of his that had been murdered, that stopped 
the mouths of those that intended to have told 
him. He then wrote from Rome, and infor 















“3 


1 
u 


5 


BOOK I1—CHAPTER XXXIL. 


{his friends] that he would soon come to them, 
and how he was dismissed with honor by Cesar. 

3. Now the king being desirous to get this 
plotter against him into his hands, and being 
also afraid lest he should some way come to 
the knowledge how his affairs stood, and be 
upon his guard, he dissembled his anger in his 
epistle to him, as in other points he wrote 
kindly to him, and desired him to make haste, 
because if he came quickly, he would then lay 
aside the complaints he had against his mother; 
for Antipater was not ignorant that his mother 
had been expelled out of the palace. How- 
ever he had before received a letter, which 
contained an account of the death of Pheroras, 
at Tarentum,* and made great lamentations at 
it; for whica some commended him, as being 


_ for his own uncle; though probably this con- 


fusion arose on account of his having thereby 
failed in his plot [on his father’s life,] and his 
tears were more for the loss of him that was 
to have been subservient therein, than for [an 
uncle] Pheroras: moreover, a sort of fear came 
upon him as to his designs, lest the poison 
should have been discovered. However, when 
he was in Cilicia, he received the forementioned 
epistle from his father, and made great haste 
accordingly. But when he had sailed to Ce- 
lenderis, a suspicion came into his mind relat- 
ing to his mother’s misfortune; as if his soul 
foreboded some mischief to itself. Those, 
therefore, of his friends who were the most 
considerate, advised him not rashly to go to 
his father, till he had learned what were the 
occasions why his mother had been ejected, 
because they were afraid that he might be in- 
volved in the calumnies that had been cast 
upon his mother: but those that were less con- 
siderate, and had more regard to their own 


desires of seeing their native country than to 


Antipater’s safety, persuaded him to make 
haste home, and not by delaying his journey 
afford his father ground for an ill suspicion, 
and give a handle to those that raised stories 
against him; for that in case any thing had 
been moved to his disadvantage, it was owing 
to his absence, which durst not have been done 
had he been present. And they said it was 
absurd to deprive himself of certain happiness, 
for the sake of an uncertain suspicion, and not 
rather to return to his father, and take the royal 
authority upon him, which was in a state of 
fluctuation on his account only. Antipater 
complied with this last advice; for Providence 
hurried him on [to his destruction.] So he 
passed over the sea, and landed at Sebastus, 
the haven of Cesarea. 7 

4, And here he found a perfect and unex- 
pected solitude, while every body avoided him, 
and nobody durst come at him; for he was 
equally hated by all men; and now that hatred 
had liberty to show itself, and the dread men 
were in at the king’s anger made men keep 
from him; for the whole city [of Jerusalem] 
was filled with the rumors about Antipater, 


-and Antipater himself was the only person 


* This Tarentum has coins still extant, us Reland informs 


a bere in his note 


543 


who was ignorant of them, for as no :nan was 
dismissed more magnificently when he began 
his voyage to Rome, so was no man now re- 
ceived back with greater ignominy. And in- 
deed he began already to suspect what misfor- 
tunes there were in Herod’s family; yet did 
he cunningly conceal his suspicion; and while 
he was inwardly ready to die for fear, he put 
on a forced boldness of countenance. Nor 
could he now fly any whither, nor had he any 
way of emerging out of the difficulties which 
encompassed him, nor indeed had he even 
there any certain intelligence of the affairs of 
the royal family, by reason of the threats the 
king had given out: yet had he some small 
hopes of better tidings; for perhaps nothing 
had been discovered; or if any discovery had 
been made, perhaps he should be able to clear 
himself by impudence and artful tricks, which 
were the only things he relied upon for his de- 
liverance. 

9. And with these hopes did he screen him- 
self, till he came to the palace, without any 
friends with him; for these were affronted and 
shut out at the first gate. Now Varus, the presi- 
dent of Syria, happened to be in the palace 
[at this juncture:] so Antipater went in to his 
father, and putting ona bold face, he came 
near to salute him: but Herod stretched out his 
hands, and turned his head away from him, and 
cried out, “Even this is an indication of a par- 
ricide, to be desirous to get me into his arms, 
when he is under such heinous accusations. 
God confound thee, thou vile wretch; do not 
thou touch me, till thou hast cleared thyself of 
these crimes that are charged upon thee. Iap- 
point thee a court where thou art to be judged, 
and this Varus, who is very seasonably here, to 


-be thy judge; and get thou thy defence ready 


against to-morrow; for I give thee so much 
time to prepare suitable excuses for thyself.” 
And as Antipater was so confounded that he 
was able to make no answer to this charge, he 
went away; but his mother and wife came to 
him, and told him of all the evidence they had 
gotten against him. Hereupon he recollected 
himself, and considered what defence he shoula 
make against the accusations. 


CHAPTER XXXiTI. 


Antipater is accused before Varus,andis convut 
ed of laying a plot [against his father] by the 
strongest evidence. Herod puts off the punish- 
ment till he should be recovered, and, in the 
mean time, alters his testament. 


§ 1. Now the day following, the king assemse 
bled a court of his kinsmen and friends, and 
called in Antipater’s friends also: Herod him- 
self, with Varus, were the presidents, and He- 
rod called for all the witnesses, and ordered 
them to be brought in; among whom some of 
the domestic servants of Antipater’s mother 
were brought in also, who had but a little while 
before been caught, as they were carrying the 
following letter from her to her son. “Since all 
those things have been already discovered to 
thy father, do not thou come to him, unlesa 
thou canst procure som assistance froin Ca 


aad 


sar.” When this and the other witnesses were 
mtroduccd, Antipater came in, and falling on 
his face before his father’s feet, he said, “Fath- 
er, I beseech thee do not condemn me before- 
fhiand, but let thy ears be unbiassed, anc. attend 
to my defence; for if thou wilt give me leave, 
1 will demonstrate that I am innocent.” 

2. Hereupon Herod cried out to him to hold 
his peace, and spoke thus to Varus: “I cannot 
but think that thou, Varus, and every other up- 
right judge, will determine that Antipater is a 
vile wretch. Iam also afraid that thou wilt 
abhor my ill fortune, and judge me also my- 
self worthy of all sorts of calamity, tor beget- 
ting such children, while yet I ought rather to 
be pitied, who have been so affectionate a 
father to such wretched sons; for when I had 
settled the kingdom on my former sons, even 
when they were young, and when, besides the 
charges of their education at Rome, I had 
made them the friends of Ceesar, and made 
them envied by other kings, I found them plot- 
ting against me; these have been put to death, 
and that, ina great measure, for the sake of 
Antipater; for as he was then young, aud ap- 
pointed to be my successor, ] took care chiefly 
to secure him from danger: but this profligate 
wild beast, when he had been over and above 
satiated with that patience which I showed, 
him, he made use of that abundance I had 
given him against myself; for I seemed to him 
to live too long, and he was very uneasy at the 
old age I was arrived at; nor could he stay any 
longer, but would be a king by parricide. And 
justly Iam served by him for bringing him back 
out of the country to court, when he was of no 
esteem before, and for thrusting out those sons 
of mine that were born of the queen, and 
for making him a successor to my dominions. 
I confess to thee, O Varus, the great folloy I 
was guilty of: for I provoked those sons of 
mine to act against me, and cut off their just 
expectations for the sake of Antipater; and in- 
deed what kindness did I do to them, that could 
equal what I have done to Antipater? to whom 
I have, in a manner, yielded up my royal au- 
thority while I am alive, and whom I have open- 
ly named for the successor to my dominions in 
my testament, and given him a yearly revenue 
of his own of fifty talents, and supplied him 
with money to an extravagant degree out of 
my own revenue; and when he was about to 
sail to Rome, I gave him three hundred talents, 
and recommended him, and him alone of all 
my children, to Ceesar, as his father’s deliverer. 
Now what crimes were those other sons of 
mine .guilty of like these of Antipater? and 
what evidence was there brought against them 
80 strong as there is to demonstrate this son to 
have plotted against me? Yet does this par- 
ricide presume to speak for himself and hopes 
to obscure the truth by his cunning tricks. 
Thou, O Varus, must guard thyself against 
him; for I know the wild beast, and I foresee 
how plausibly he will talk, and his counterfeit 
jamentation, This was he who exhorted me 
to have acare of Alexander when he was alive, 
and not to intrust my body with all men! This 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 






was he who came to my very bed, and loomed 
about lest any one should lay snares for me, 
This was he who took care of my sleep, and — 
secured me from any fear of danger, who com- 
forted me under the trouble I was in upon the ~ 
slaughter of my sons, and looked to see what — 
affection my surviving brethren bore me! 'This — 
was my protector, and the guardian of my — 
body. And when I call to mind, O Varus, his — 
craftiness upon every occasion, and his art of — 
dissembling, I can hardly believe that I am — 
still alive, and 1 wonder how I have escaped © 
such a deep plotter of mischief. However, — 
since some fate or other makes my house de- — 
solate, and perpetually raises up those that are — 
dearest to me against me, I will with tears la-— 
ment my hard fortune, and privately groan un- — 
der my lonesome condition; yet I am resolved — 
that no one who thirsts after my blood shall es- — 
cape punishment, although the evidence should 
extend itself to all my sons.” 
3. Upon Herod’s saying this, he was inter- 
rupted by the confusion he was in; but order- — 
ed Nicolaus, one of his friends, to produce the 
evidence against Antipater. But in the mean — 
time Antipater lifted up his head, (for he lay 
on the ground before his father’s feet,) and — 
cried out aloud, “Thou, O father, hast made — 
my apology for me; for how can I be a parri-— 
cide, whom thou thyself confessest to have al- 
ways had for thy guardian? Thou callest my 
filial affection prodigious lies and hypocrisy — 
how then could it be that I, who was so subtil 
in other matters, should here be so mad as not 
to understan¢ that it was not easy that he who — 
committed so horrid a crime should be con-— 
cealed from men, but impossible that he should — 
be concealed from the Judge of heaven, who — 
sees all things, and is present everywhere? or 
did nct I know what end my brethren came — 
to, on whom God inflicted so great a punish-— 
ment for their evil designs against thee? And, — 
indeed, what was there that could possibly 
provoke me against thee? Could the hope of 
being a king do it? I was a king already 
Could I suspect hatred from thee? No: was 
not I beloved by thee? And what other fear 
could I have? Nay, by preserving thee safe, 
was a terror to others. Did I want money 
No: for who was able to expend so much 7 


~~ er - - Ae es ee 


myself? Indeed, father, had I been the most 
execrable of all mankind, and had I had the 
soul of the most cruel wild beast, must I not 
have been overcome with the benefits thou- 
hadst bestowed upon me? whom, as thou thy 
self sayest, thou broughtest [into the palaces] _ 
whom thou didst prefer before so many of thy — 
sons; whom thou madest a king in thine own 
lifetime; and by the vast magnitude of the 
other advantages thou bestowedst on me, thou 
madest me an object of envy. O miserable 
man! that thou shouldst undergo this bitter ab-_ 
sence, and thereby afford a great opportunity 
for envy to rise against thee! and a long space 
for such as were laying designs against thee! 
Yet was I absent, father, on thy affairs, that 
Sylleus might not treat thee with contempt in 
thine old age. Rome is a witness to my filia) 











_ that natural affection I have to thee. 


‘ 


affection, and so is Ceesar, the ruler of the ha- 
oitable earth, who oftentimes called me Philo- 
pater.* ‘Take here the letters he hath sent thee; 
they are more to be believed than the calum- 
nies raised here: these letters are my only 
apology; these I use as the demonstration of 
Remem- 
ber that it was against my own choice that I 
sailed [to fpr as knowing the latent hatred 
that was in the kingdom against me. It was 
thou, O father, however unwillingly, who hast 
veen my ruin, by forcing me to allow time for 
calumnies against me, and envy at me. How- 
ever, Iam come hither, and am ready to hear 
the evidence there is against me. If I be a 
parricide, I have passed by land and by sea, 
without suffering any misfortune on either of 
them: but this method of trial is no advantage 
to me; for it seems, O father, that I am already 
condemned, both before God and _ before thee; 
and as I am already condemned, I beg that 
thou wilt not believe the others that have been 
tortured, but let fire be brought to torment me; 
fet the racks march through my bowels; have 
no regard to any lamentations that this polluted 
body can make; for if I be a parricide, I ought 
not to die without torture.” Thus did Anti- 
pater cry out with lamentation and weeping, 
and moved all the rest, and Varus in particular, 
to commiserate his case. Herod was the only 
ge whose passion was too strong to permit 

im to weep, as knowing that the testimonies 
against him were true. 

4, And now it was that, at the king’s com- 
mand, Nicolaus, when he had premised a great 
deal about the craftiness of Antipater, and had 
prevented the effects of their commiseration 
to him, afterward brought in a bitter and large 
accusation against him, ascribing all the wick- 
edness that had been in the kingdom to him, 
especially the murder of his brethren, and de- 
monstrated that they had perished by the ca- 
lumnies he had raised against them. He also 
said, that he had laid designs against them that 
were still alive, as if they were laying plots 
for the succession; and, said he, how can it be 
supposed that he who prepared poison for his 
father, shold abstain from mischief as to his 
brethren? He then proceeded to convict him 
of the attempt to poison Herod, and gave an 
account in order of the several discoveries that 
had been made, and had great indignation as 
to the affair of Pheroras, because Antipater had 
been for making him murder his brother, and 
had corrupted those that were dearest to the 
king, and filled the whole palace with wick- 
edness; and when he had insisted on many 
other accusations, and the proofs of them, he 
left off. 

5. Then Varus bid Antipater make his de- 
fence; but he lay long in silence, and said no 
more but this: “God is my witness that I am 
entirely innocent.” So Varus asked for the 
potion, and gave it to be drunk by a condemned 


_ malefactor, who was then in prison, who died 


_ very private 


i 
he 
’ 
7 


upon the spot. So Varus, when he had had a 
discourse with Herod, and had 


* A lover of his father 
GO 


BOOK 1—CHAPTER XXXIII. 


545 
written an account of this assembly to Cesar, 
went away after a day’s stay. The king alse 
bound Antipater, and sent away to inform 
Cesar of his misfortunes. 

6. Now after this it was discovered that An- 
tipater had laid a plot against Salome also; for 
one of Antiphilus’s domestic servants came, 
and brought letters from Rome, from a maid 
servant of Julia, Casar’s wife, whose name 
was Acme. By her a message was sent to the 
king, that she had found a letter written b 
Salome, among Julia’s papers, and had sent 
to him privately, out of her good will to him. 
This letter of Salome’s contained the most 
bitter reproaches of the king, and the highest 
accusations against him. Antipater had forged 
this letter, and had corrupted Acme, and per- 
suaded her to send it to Herod. This was 
proved by her letter to Antipater, for thus did 
this woman write to him: ‘‘As thou desirest, | 
have written a letter to thy father, and have 
sent that letter, and am persuaded that the king 
will not spare his sister when he reads it. 
Thou wilt do well to remember what thou has: 
promised when all is accomplished.” 

7. When this epistle was discovered, anc 
what the epistle forged against Salome con 
tained, a suspicion came into the king’s mind 
that perhaps the letters against Alexander were 
also forged: he was moreover greatly disturb 
ed, and in a passion, because he had almog'’ 
slain his sister on Antipater’s account. He did 
no longer delay therefore to bring him to pun- 
ishment for all his crimes; yet when he was 
eagerly pursuing Antipater, he was restrained 
by a severe distemper he fell into. However, 
he sent an account to Cesar about Acme, and 
the contrivances against Salome; he sent also 
for his testament, and altered it, and therein 
made Antipas king, as taking no care of Ar- 
chelaus and Philip, because Antipater had 
blasted their reputations with him; but he be- 
queathed to Czsar, besides other presents that 
he gave him, a thousand talents; as also to his 
wife, and children, and friends, and freed-men, 
about five hundred: he also bequeathed to all 
others a great quantity of land and of money 
and showed his respects to Selome his sister 
by giving her most splendid gifts. And this 
was what was contained in his testament, as it 
was now altered. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 


The golden eagle is cut to preces. Herod’s bar- 
barity when he was ready to die. He attempts 
to kill himself. He commands Antipater to be 
slain. He survives hum five days, and then diez 


§ 1. Now Herod’s distemper became more 
and more severe to him, and this because these 
his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and 
when he was in a melancholy condition; for he 
was already almost seventy years of age, and 
had been brought low by the calamities that 
happened to him about bis children, whereby 
he had no pleasure in life, even when he was 
in health; the grief also that Antipater was still 
alive aggravated his disease, whom he resolved 
to put to death now not at random, but & soor 


5A6 


ar he should be well again, and resolved to 
have him slain [in a public manner. 

2. There also now bappened to him, among 
his other calamities, a certain popular sedition. 
There were two men of learning in the city 
Nish onan who were thought the most skil- 
ul in the laws of their country, and were on 
that account had in very great esteem all over 
the nation; they were, the one Judas, the son 
of Seppnoris, and the other Matthias, the son 
of Margalus. There was a great concourse 
of the young men to these men, when they ex- 
pounded the laws, and there got together every 
day a kind of an army of such as were grow- 
ing up to be men. Now when these men were 
informed that the king was wearing away with 
melancholy, and with a distemper, they dropped 
words to their acquaintance, how it was now a 
very proper time to defend the cause of God, 
and to pull down what had been erected con- 
trary to the laws of their country; for it was 
unlawful there should be any such thing in the 
temple as images or faces, or the like repre- 
sentation of any animal whatsoever. Now the 
king had put up a golden eagle over the great 
gate of the temple, which these learned men 
exhorted them to cut down, and told them, that 
if there should any danger arise, it was a_ glo- 
rious thing to die for the laws of their country; 
because that the soul was immortal,* and that an 
eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such 
as died on that account, while the mean-spirit- 
ed, and those that were not wise enough to 
show a right love of their souls, preferred 
death by a disease before that which is the re- 
sult of a virtuous behavior. 

"%. Atthe same time that these men made this 
speech to their disciples, a rumor was spread 
abroad that the king was dying, which made 
the young men set about the work with greater 
poldness; they therefore let themselves down 
from the top of the temple with thick cords, and 
this at mid-day, and while a great number of 
people were in the temple, and cut down that 
golden eagle with axes. This was presently 
told to the king’s captain of the temple, who 
came running with a great body of soldiers, 
and caught about forty of the young men, and 
brought them to the king. And when he ask- 
ed them, first of all, whether they had been so 
hardy as to cut down the golden eagle, they 
confessed they had done so; and when he ask- 
ed them by whose command they had done it, 
they replied, at the command of the law of 
their country; aud when he further asked them, 
how thsy could be so joyful when they were 


* Since in this and the following section we have an evi- 
deni account of the Jewish opinions in the days of Jose- 
phus, about a future happy state, and the resurrection of 
the dead, as in the New Testament, John xi. 24, | shall 
here refer to the other places in Josephus, before he became 
an Ebionite Christian, which concern the same matters; 
Of the War, b. ii. ch. viii. sect. 10, 11; b. iii. ch. viii. sect. 
4; b. vii. ch. vi. sect. 7; Contr. Apion, b. ii. sect. 30; where 
we May observe, that none of these passages are 1n his 
books of Antiquities, written peculiarly for the use of the 
Gentiles, to whom he thought it not proper to insist on 
topics so much out of their way as these were. Nor is this 
wbeervation to be omitted here, especially on account of 
he sensible difference we have now before us in Josephus’s 
epresentation of the arguments used by the rabbins to per- 


WARS OF THE JEWS 


| 


to be put to death, they replied oecause 7 


should enjoy greater happiness after they were. 
ead. ; 

4. At this the king was in such an extrava- 
gant passion, that he overcome his disease [for 
the time,} and went out, and spoke to the peo 
ple; wherein he made a terrible accusation 
against those men, as being guilty of sacrilege, 
and as making greater attempts under pretence 
of their law, and he thought they deserved to be 
punished as impious persons. Whereupon the 
people were afraid lest a great number should 
be found guilty, and desired that when he had 
first punished those that put them upon this 
work, and then those that were caught in it, he 
would leave off his anger as to the rest. With 
this the king complied, though not without 
difficulty, and ordered those that had let ther- 
selves down, together with the rabbins, to be 
burnt alive, but delivered the rest that were 
caught to the proper officers to be put to death 
by them. 

5. After this, the distemper seized upon his 
whole body, and greatly disordered all his parts 
with various symptoms; for there was a great 
fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over 
all the surface of his body, and continual pains 
in his colon, and dropsical tumors about his 
feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and 
a putrefaction of his privy member, that pro- 
duced worms. Besides which, he had a diffi- 
culty of breathing upon him, and could not 
breathe but when he sat upright, and had a con- 
vulsion of all his members, insomuch that the 
diviners said, those diseases were a punishment 
upon him for what he had done to the rabbins. 
Yet did he struggle with his numerous disor- 
ders, and still had a desire to live, and hoped 
for recovery, and considered of several meth- 
ods of cure. Accordingly, he went over Jor- 
dan, and made use of those hot baths at Callir- 
hoe, which run into the lake of Asphaltitis, but 
are themselves sweet enough to be drunk. And 
nere the physicians thought proper to bathe his 
whole body in warm oil, by letting it down 
into a large vessel full of oil; whereupon his 
eyes failed him, and he came and went as if he 
were dying; and as a tumult was then made by 
his servants, at their voice he revived again. 
Yet did he after this despair of recovery, and 
gave orders that each soldier should have fifty 
drachme apiece, and that his commanders and 
Horta should have great sums of money given 
them. eo 

6. He then returned back and came to Jeri- 
cho, in such a melancholy state of body ag” 


suade their scholars to hazard their lives for the vindication 
of God’s Jaw against images, by Moses, as we.! as of the 
answers thcse scholars made to Herod, when they were 
caught, and ready to die for the same; I mean as compared 
with the parallel arguments and answers represented in- 
the Antiquities, b. xvii. chap. vi. sec. 2, 3. A like difference 
between Jewish and Gentile notions, the reader will find 
in my notes on Antiquities, b. iii. chap. vii. sect. 7; b. xv. 
chap. ix. sect. 1. See the like also in the case of the three — 
Jewish sects in the Antiquities, b. xiii. chap, v. sec. 9, Re 
chap. x. sec. 4 and 5, b. xviii. chap. i. sect. 5, and compared — 
with this in his Wars of the Jews, b. ii. chap. viii: sect. 2—_ 
14. Nor does St. Paul himself reason to the Gentiles at — 
Athens, Acts xvii. 15,34, as he does to the Jews, in hiv 
epistles. : 
a 


”¥ 


Vy 
& BOOK 1-—CHAPTER XXXIIL 


almost threatened him with present death, when 
he proceeded to attempt a horrid wickedness; 
for he got together the most illustrious men of 
“the whole Jewish nation, out of every village 
_ mto a place called the hippodrome, and there 
shut them in. He then called for his sister Sa- 


‘Tome, and her husband Alexas, and made this 


547 


man he obtained the kingdom, and kept it se 
long, and left it to-his own sons; but still, in his 
domestic affairs he was a most unfortunate 
man. Now before the soldiers knew of his 
death, Salome and her husband came out and 
dismissed those that were in bonds, whom the 
king had commanded to be slain, and told them 


: 


‘spsech to them: “I knew well enough that the 
Bows will keep a festival upon my death; how- 
ever, it is in my power to be mourned for on 


other accounts and to have a splendid funeral, 


if you will but be subservient to my commands. 

Do you but take care to send soldiers to en- 
‘compass these men that are now in custody, 
and slay them immediately upon my death, 
‘and then all Judea, and every family of them, 
will weep at it, whether they will or no.” 

7. These were the commands he gave them, 
when there came letters from his ambassadors 
at Rome, whereby information was given that 
Acme was put to death at Czsar’s command, 


and that Antipater was condemned to die: how- 


‘ever, they wrote withall, that if Herod had a 
‘mind rather to banish him, Ceesar had _ permit- 
ted bim soto do. So he for a little while re- 
vived, and had a desire to live; but presently af- 
ter he was overborne by his pains, and was dis- 
‘ordered by want of food, and by a convulsive 
cough, and endeavored to prevent a natural 
death; so he took an apple and asked for a knife, 
for he used to pare apples and eat them; he 
‘then looked round about to see that there was 
nobody to hinder him, and lifted up his right 
‘hand as if he would stab himself; but Achiabus, 
his first cousin, came running to him, and held 
bis hand, and hindered him from so doing; on 
which occasion a very great lamentation was 
‘made in the palace, as if the king was expiring. 
As soon as ever Antipater heard that, he took 
courage, and with joy in his looks besought his 
keepers, for a sum of money, to loose him and 
let him go; but the principal keeper of the pri- 
son did not only obstruct him in that his mten- 
tion, but ran and told the king what his design 
was; hereupon the king cried out louder than 
his distemper would well bear, and immediately 
sent some of his guardsand slew Antipater; he 


that he had altered his mind, and would have 
every one of them sent to their own homes. 
When these men were gone, Salome told the 
soldiers [the king was dead,] and got them and 
the rest of the multitude together to an as- 
sembly, in the amphitheatre in Jericho, where 
Ptolemy, who was intrusted by the king with 
his signet-ring, came before them, and spoke 
of the happiness the king had attained, and 
comforted the multitude, aud read the epistle 
which had been left for the soldiers, wherein 
he earnestly exhorted them to bear good will 
to hissuccessor; and after he had read the epis- 
tle, he opened and read his testament, wherein 
Philip was to inherit Trachonitis and the 
neighboring countries, and Antipas was to be 
tetrarch, as we said before, and Archelaus was 
made king. He had also been commanded to 
carry Herod’s ring to Czesar, and the settlements 
he had made sealed up, because Cesar was to 
be lord of all the settlements he had made, 
and was to confirm his testament; and he or- 
dered that the dispositions he had made were 
to be kept as they were in his former testament. 

9. So there was an acclamation made to 
Archelaus, to congratulate him upon his ad- 
vancement, and the soldiers, with the multitude, 
went round about in troops, and promised him 
their good will, and besides, prayed God to 
bless his government. After this they betook 
themselves to prepare for the king’s funeral; 
and Archelaus omitted nothing of magnificence 
therein, but brought out all the royal ornaments 
to augment the pomp of the deceased. There 
was a bier all of gold, embroidered with pre- 
cious stones, and a purple bed of various con- 
texture, with the dead body upon it, covered 
with purple; and a diadem was put upon his 
head, and a crown of gold above it; and a 
sceptre in his right hand; and near to the bier 


were Herod’s sons, and a multitude of his 
kindred next to whom came his guards, and 
the regiments of Thracians, the Germans also_ 


also gave order to have him buried at Hyrca- 
nium, and altered his testament again, and there- 
‘in made Archelaus, his eldest son, and the bro- 


ther of Antipas, his successor, and made Anti- 
pas, tetrarch. 

8. So Herod, having survived the slaughter 
of his son five days, died, having reigned thir- 


and Gauls, all accoutred as if they were going 
to war; but the rest of the army went foremost, 
armed, and following their captains and offi- 
cers in a regular manner; after whom five hun- 


dred of his domestic servants and freed-men 
followed with sweet spices in their hands; and 
the body was carried two hundred furlongs to 
Herodium, where he had given orders to be 
buried. And this shall suffice for the conclu 
sion of the life of Herod. 


_ ty-four years since he had caused Antigonus to 
_be slain, and obtained his kingdom; but thirty- 
-geven years since he had been made king by 
the Romans. Now, as for his fortune, it was 
_ prosperous in all other. respects, if ever any 

her man could be so, since, from a privete 





: 

, | 
BOOK II. { 
CONTAINING THE NTERVAL OF SIXTY-NINE YEARS.—FROM THE DEATH OF HEROD TILI, . 
PASIAN WAS SENT TO SUBDUE THE JEWS BY NERO. : 





CHAPTER I. 


Archelaus makes a funeral feast for the people 
en the account of Herod; after which a great 
tumult is raised by the multitude, and he sends 


the soldiers out upon them, who destroy about. 


three thousand of them. 


§ 1. Now the necessity which Archelaus was 
under of taking a journey to Rome was the oc- 
casion of new disturbances; for when he had 
mourned for his father seven days,* and had 
given a very expensive funeral feast to the mul- 
titude, (which custom is the occasion of pover- 
ty to many of the Jews, because they are forced 
to feast the multitude; for if any one omits it, 
he is not esteemed a holy person,) he put on a 
white garment, and went up to the temple, where 
the people accosted him with various acclama- 
tions. He also spoke kindly to the multitude 
from an elevated seat, and a throne of gold, 
and returned them thanks for the zeal they had 
shown about his father’s funeral, and the sub- 
mission they had made to him, as if he were 
already settled in the kingdom; but he told 
them withall, that“he would not at present take 
upon him either the authority of a king, or the 
names thereto belonging, until Ceesar, who is 
made lord of this whole affair by the testament, 
confirm the succession; for that when the sol- 
diers would have set the diadem on his head 
at Jericho, he would not accept of it; but that 
he would make abundant requitals, not to the 
soldiers only, but to the people, for their alacri- 

and good will to him, when the superior 
lords {the Romans] should have given hima 
complete title to the kingdom; for that it should 
be his study to appear in all things better than 
his father.” 

2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, 
and presently made a trial of what he intended, 
by asking great things of him; for some made 
a clamor that he would ease them in their taxes; 
others, that he would take off the duties upon 
commodities; and some, that he would loose 
those that were in prison; in all which cases 
he answered readily to their satisfaction, in or- 
der to get the good will of the multitude; af- 
ter which he offered [the proper] sacrifices, 
and feasted with his friends. And here it was 
that a great many of those that desired innova- 
tions, came in crowds towards the evening, and 
began then to mourn on their own account, 
when the public mourning for the king was 
over. ‘These lamented those that were put to 
death by Herod, because they had cut down 


* Hear Dean Aldrich’s note on this place:— The law or 
eustom of the Jews,’? says he, “requires seven days’ 
mourning for the dead, Antiq. b. xvii. chap. vill. sect. 4. 
Whence the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, ch. xxii. 
12, assigns seven days as the proper time of mourning for the 
dead, and chap. xxxviii. 17, enjoins men to mourn for the 
fead, that they may not be evil spoken of; for, as Josephus 


WARS OF THE JEWS | 


4 
the golden eagle that had been over the pate of 
the temple. Nor was this mourning of a pri 
vate nature, but the lamentations were very 
great, the mourning solemn, and the weeping 
such as was loudly heard all over the city, as 
being for those men who had perished for the 
laws of their country, and for the temple, 
They cried out, that a punishment ought to be 
inflicted for these men upon those that were 
honored by Herod; and that, in the first place 
the man whom he had made high priest should 
be deprived, and that it was fit to choose a per 
son of greater piety and purity than he was. — 
3. At these clamors Archelaus was provok 
ed, but restrained himself from taking ven 
geance on the authors, on account of the haste 
he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest 
upon his making war on the multitude, sucl 
an action might detain him at home. Accord 
ingly he made trial to quiet the innovators by 
persuasion rather than by force, and sent hi 
general in a private way to them, and by him 
exhorted them to be quiet. But the seditiour 
threw stones at him, and drove him away, # 
he came into the temple, and before he coule 
say any thing to them. The like treatmen 
they showed to others, who came to them after 
him, many of whom were sent by Archelaus 
in order to reduce them to sobriety, and these 
answered still on all occasions after a passion- 
ate manner, and it openly appeared that they 
would not be quiet, if their numbers were buy 
considerable. And indeed at the feast of un 
leavened bread, which was now at hand, and it 
by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be 
celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, 
an innumerable multitude of the people came 
out of the country to worship: some of there 
stood in the temple bewailing the Rabbis 
[that had been put to death,] and procured 
their sustenance by begging, in order to sup- 
port their sedition. At this Archelaus was af- 
frighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his 
cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the dis- 
ease should’ spread over the whole multitude, 
and gave orders that they should constrain those 
that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At 
these the whole multitude were irritated, and 
threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed 
them: but the tribune fled away wounded, and 
had much ado to escape so. After whick 
they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if 
they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to 
Archelaus that the multitude could be restrain- 


a 


ed without bloodshed: so he sent his whole 











says presently, if any one omits this mourning [funeral 
feast,] he isnot esteemed a holy person. Now it is certa 
that such a seven days? mourning has been customary from 
times of the greatest antiquity, Gen. i. 10. Funeral feasts 
are also mentioned as of considerable antiquity, Ezek. . 
17; Jer. xvi. 7; Prov. xxxi. 6; Deut. xxvi. 14; Joseph 
the War, b. iii. ch. ix. sect. 5.” 


BOOK IL—CHAPTER II. 


way ipou them, the footmen in great multi- 
tudes by the way of the city, and the horse- 
‘men by the way of the plain, who falling upon 
‘them on the sudden, as they were offering their 
sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of 
‘them; but the rest of the multitude were dis- 
‘persed upon the adjoining mountains; these 
were followed by Archelaus’s heralds, who 
commanded every one to retire to their own 
‘homes; whither they all went, and left the fes- 
tival, 
) CHAPTER II. 
‘Archelaus goes to Rome with a great number of 
his kindred. He is there accused before Cesar 
by Antipater; but is superior to his accusers 
in judgment, by the means of that defence 
- which Nicolaus made for him. 


§ 1. Archelaus went down to the seaside, 
with his mother and his friends, Poplas, and 
Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left behind him 
Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to 
take care of his domestic affairs. Salome went 
also along with him with her sons, as did also 
the king’s brethren and sons-in-law. These, 
-m appearance, went to give him all the assist- 
‘ince they were able, in order to secure his 
succession, but in reality to accuse him for his 

sreach of the laws, by what he had done at 
the temple. 

2. But as they were come to Ceesarea, Sa 
inus, the procurator of Syria, met them; he 
was going up to Judea, to secure Herod’s ef- 
fects: but Varus, [president of Syria,] who 
was come thither, restrained him from going 
any farther. This Varus, Archelaus had sent 
for, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At 
this time indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus, 
neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up 
the treasuries where his father’s money was 
laid up, but promised that he would lie still un- 
til Czesar should have taken cognizance of the 
affair. So he abode at Czesarea; but as soon 
as those that were his hinderance were gone, 
‘when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archelaus 
was sailed to Rome, he immediately went on to 
Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace. And 
when he had called for the governors of the 
citadels, and the stewards [of the king’s pri- 
vate affairs,] he tried to sift out the accounts of 
the money, and:so take possession of the cita- 
dels. But the governors of those citadels were 
not unmindful of the commands laid upon 
them by Archelaus, and continued to guard 
them, and said, the custody of them rather be- 
longed te Cesar than to Archelaus. 

3. In the mean time Antipas went also to 
Rome, to strive for the kingdom, and to insist 
that the former testament, wherein he was 
thamed to be king, was valid before the latter 
testament. Salome had also promised to as- 
sist him, as had many of Archelaus’s kindred, 
who sailed along with Archelaus himself also. 
He also carried along with him his mother, 
and Ptolemy the brother of Nicolaus, who 
seemed one of great weight, on account of the 
great trust Herod put in him, he having been 
onevf his most honored friends. However, An 


q 


348 


tipas depended chiefly upon Ireneus, tl.e orator 
upon whose authority he had rejected such as 
advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he 
was his elder brother, and because the second 
testament gave the kingdom to him. The in- 
clinations also of all Archelaus’s kindred, who 
hated him, were removed to Antipas, when 
they came to Rome, although in the first place 
every one rather desired to live under their own 
laws, [without a king,] and to be under a Ro- 
man governor; but if they should fail in that 
peu these desired that Antipas might be the’ 
ing. 

4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistane 
to the same purpose, by the letters he sent, 
wherein he accused Archelaus before Cesar, 
and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, 
and those with her, put the crimes which they 
accused Archelaus of in order, and put them 


into Cesar’s hands: and after they had done 


that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his 
claim, and, by Ptolemy sent in his father’s ring, 
and his father’s accounts, And when Cesar 
had maturely weighed by himself what both 
had to allege for themselves, as also had con- 
sidered of the great burden of the kingdom, 
and largeness of the revenues, and withall the 
number of the children Herod had left behind 
him, and had moreover read the letters he had 
received from Varus and Sabinus on this occa- 
sion, he assembled the principal persons among 
the Romans together, (in which assembly Cai- 
us, the son of Agrippa, and his daughter Ju- 
lias, but by himself adopted for his own son, 
sat in the first seat,) and gave the pleaders leave 
to speak. 

5. Then stood up Salome’s son, Antipater, 
(who of all Archelaus’s antagonists was the 
shrewdest pleader,) and accused him in the 
following speech: “that Archelaus did in words 
contend for the kingdom, but that in deed he 
had long exercised royal authority, and so did 
but insult Ceesar in desiring to be now heard 
on that account; since he had not staid for his 
determination about the succession, and since 
he had suborned certain persons, after Herod’s 
death, to move for putting the diadem upon 
his head; since he had set himself down in the 
throne, and given answers as a king, and alter- 
ed the disposition of the army, and granted to 
some higher dignities: that he had also complied 
in all things with the people in the requests 
they had made to him as to their king, and had 
also dismissed those that had been ptt into 
bonds by his father, for most important reasons, 
Now, after all this, he desired the shadow of 
that royal authority, whose substance he had 
already seized to himself, and so hath made 
Cesar lord, not of things, but of words. He 
also reproached him further, that his mourning 
for his father was only pretended, while he put 
on a sad countenance in the day-time, but 
drank to great excess in the night, from which 
behavior, he said, the late disturbance among 
the multitude came, while they had an ‘ndig- 
nation thereat.” And indeed the purport of hia 
whole discourse was to aggravate Archelaus's 
crime in slaying such a multitude about the 


550 


temple which multitude came to the festival, 
but were barbarously slain, in the midst of their 
own sacrifices; and he said, “there was such a 
vast number of dead bodies heaped together in 
the temple, as even a foreign war, should that 
come upon them [suddenly,] before it was de- 
nounced, could not have heaped together. And 
he added, that it was the foresight his father had 
of that his barbarity, which made him never 
give him any hopes of the kingdom, but when 
his mind was more infirm than his body, and 
he was not able to reason soundly, and did not 
well know what was the character of that son, 
whom in his second testament he made his suc- 
cessor; and this was done by him at a time 
when he had no complaints to make of him 
whom he had named before when he was sound 
in body, and when his mind was free from all 
passion. That, however, if any one should 
suppose Herod’s judgment, when he was sick, 
was superior to that at another time, yet had 
Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own 
behavior, and those his actions which were 
contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage. Or 
what sort of a king will this man be, when he 
hath obtained the government from Cesar, who 
hath slain so many before he hath obtained it.” 

6. When Antipater had spoken largely to 
this purpose, and had procured a great number 
of Archelaus’s kindred as witnesses, to prove 
every part of the accusation, he ended his dis- 
course. Then stood up Nicolaus to plead for 
Archelaus. He alleged that the slaughter in 
the temple could not be avoided; that those that 
were slain were become énemies not to Arche- 
laus’s kingdom only, but to Cassar, who was to 
determine about him. He-also demonstrated, 
that Archelaus’s accusers had advised him to 
‘hahaa other things of which he might have 

een accused. But he insisted that the latter 
testament should, for this reason, above all oth- 
ers, be esteemed valid, because Herod had 
therein appointed Cesar to be the person who 
should confirm the succession; for he who 
showed such prudence as to recede from his 
own power, and yield it up to the lord of the 
world, cannot be supposed mistaken in his 
judgment about him that was to be his heir; 
and he that so well knew whom to choose for 
arbitrator of the succession, could not be un- 
acquainted with him whom he chose for his 
successor.” 

7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he 
had to say, Archelaus came and fell down be- 
fore Ceesar’s knees, without any noise. Upon 
which he raised him up, after a very obliging 
manner, and declared that truly he was worthy 
to succeed his father. However, he still made 
no firm detertoination in his case: but when he 
had dismissed those assessors that had been 
with him that day, he deliberated by himself 
about the allegations which he had heard, 
whether it were fit to constitute any of those 
named in the testaments for Herod’s successor, 
or whether the government should be parted 
among ali his posterity, and this because of the 
number of those that seemed to stand in need of 
support therefrom. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


CHAPTER fl. 


The Jews fight a great battle uith Sabinus’s sot- 
diers, and a great destruction is made at Jerw 
salem. 


§ 1. Now before Ceesar had determined any 
thing about these affairs, Malthace, Archelaus’s 
mother, fell sick and died. Letters also were 
brought out of Syria from Varus, about a re- 
volt of the Jews. This was foreseen by Varus, 
who accordingly, after Archelaus was sailed, 
went up to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters 
of the sedition, since it was manifest that the 
nation would not be at rest; so he left one of 
those legions which he brought with him out 
of Syria in the city, and went himself to An- 
tioch. But Sabinus came, after he was gone, 
and gave them an occasion of making innova- 
tions; for he compelled the keepers of the cita- 
dels to deliver them up to him, and made a bit- 
ter search after the king’s money, as depending 
not only on the soldiers who were left by Va- 
rus, but on the multitude of his own servants, 
all of whom he armed, and used as the instru 
ments of his covetousness. Now when that 
feast, which was observed after seven weeks, 
and which the Jews call Pentecost (i. e. the fif- 
tieth day,) was at hand, its name being taken 
from the number of days [after the peeves 
the people got together, but not on account o 
the accustomed divine worship, but of the in 
dignation they had [at the present state of af- 
fairs.] Wherefore an immense multitude ran 
together, out of Galilee, and Idumea, and Je- 
richo, and Perea, that was Ht Hibs Jordan; but 
the people that naturally belonged to Judea 
itself were above the rest, both in number and 
in the alacrity of the men. So they distributed 
themselves into three parts, and pitched theif 
camps in three places; one at the north side of 
the temple, another at the south side, by the 
hippodrome, and the third part were at the 
palace on the west. So they lay round about 
the Romans on every side, and besieged them. 

2. Now Sabinus was affrighted both at the 
multitude and at their courage, and sent mes- 
sengers to Varus continually, and besought him 
to come to hissuccor quickly, for that, if he de- 
layed, his legion would be cut to pieces. As for 
Sabinus himself, he got up to the highest tow- 
er of the fortress, which was called Phasaelust 
it is of the same name with Herod’s brother 
who was destroyed by the Parthians: and then 
he made signs to the soldiers of that legion to 
attack the enemy; for his astonishment was so 
great, that he durst not go down to his own 
men. Hereupon the soldiers were prevail 
upon, and leaped out into the temple, and 
fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which, 
while there were none over their heads to dis 
tress them, they were too hard for them, by 
their skill, and the others’ want of skill, in w: 
but when once many of the Jews had gotten u 
to the top of the cloisters, and threw their d 
downwards upon the heads of the Romans, 
there were a great many of them destroyed, 
Nor was iteasy to avenge themselves upon th 
that threw their weapons from on high no 






BOOK IL—CHAPTER IV. 


was it more easy for them to sustain those wh 
came to fight them hand to hand. ; 
_ 3. Since, therefore, the Romans were sorely 
afflicted by both these circumstances, they set 
_ fire to their cloisters, which were works to be 
admired both on account of their magnitude 
and costliness. Whereupon those that were 
above them were presently encompassed with 
the flame, and many of them perished there- 
. in; as many of them also were destroyed by 
the enemy, who came suddenly upon them; 
some of them also threw themselves down from 
the walls backward, and some there were who, 
from the desperate condition they were in, pre- 
vented the fire, by killing themselves with their 
own swords, but so many of them as crept out 
from the walls, and came upon the Romans, 
were easily mastered by them, by reason of the 
astonishment they were under; until at last, some 
of the Jews being destroyed, and others dis- 
persed by the terror they were in, the soldiers 
fell upon the treasure of God, which was now 
deserted, and plundered about four hundred 
talents, of which sum Sabinus got together all 
that was not carried away by the soldiers. 

4, However, this destruction of the works 
[about the temple,] and of the men, occasion- 
ed a much greater number, and those of a more 
warlike sort, to get together, to oppose the Ro- 
mans. ‘These encompassed the palace round, 
and threatened to destroy all that were in it, 
unless they went their ways quickly; for they 
promised that Sabinus should come to no harm, 
if he would go out with his legions. There 
were also a great many of the king’s party who 
deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews; 
yet did the most warlike body of them all, who 
were three thousand of the men of Sebaste, 
go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and Gra- 
tus, their captains, did the same, (Gratus hay- 
ing the foot of the king’s party under him, and 
Rufus the horse,) each of whom, even without 
the forces under them, were of great weight, 
on account of their strength and wisdom, which 
turn the scales in war. Now the Jews perse- 
vered in the siege, and tried to break down the 
walls of the fortress and cried out to Sabinus 
and his party, that they should go their ways, 
and not prove a hinderance to them, now they 
hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient 
liberty which their forefathers had enjoyed. 
Sabinus indeed was well contented to get out 
of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the 
assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected 
such gentle treatment was but a bait laid asa 
snare for them; this consideration, together with 
the hopes he had of succor from Varus, made 
tim bear this seige still longer. 


CHAPTER IV. 


 Herod’s veteran soldiers become tumultuous. 
The robberies of Judas. Simon and Athron- 
geus take the name of king upon them. 


§ 1. At this time there were great disturban- 
ees in the country, and that in many places; and 
the opportunity that now offered itself induced 
& great many to set up for kings. And indeed 
tm Tdumea two thousand of Herod’s veteran 


53 


soldiers got together, and armed themselves 
and fought against those of the king’s party 
against whom Achiabus, the king’s first cousin 
fought, and that out of some of the places that 
were the most strongly fortified; but so as te 
avoid # direct conflict with them in the plains. 
In Sepphoris also, a city of Galilee, there was 
one Judas, (the son of the arch-robber Heze- 
ay who formerly overran the country, and 
had been subdued by king Herod: this man got 
no small multitude together, and broke open 
the place where the royal armor was laid up, 
and armed those about him, and attacked those 
that were so earnest to gain the dominion. 

2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants 
of the king, relying upon the handsome appear- 
ance and tallness of his body, put a diadem 
upon his own head also; he also went about 
with a company of robbers that he had gotten 
together, and burnt down the royal palace that 
was at Jericho, and many other costly edifices 
besides, and procured himself very easily spoils 
by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. 
And he had soon burnt down all the fine edia- 
ces, if Gratus, the captain of the foot of the 
king’s party, had not taken the Trachonite 
archers, and the most warlike of Sebaste, and 
met the man. His footmen were slain in the 
battle in abundance: Gratus also cut to pieces 
Simon himself, as he was flying along a strait 
valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke 
upon his neck, as he ran away, and broke it. 
The royal palaces that were near Jordan at 
Betherampha were also burnt down by some 
other of the seditious that came out of Perea. 

3. At this time it was that a certain shepherd 
ventured to set himself up for a king; he was 
called Athrongeus. — [t was his strength of body 
that made him expect such a dignity, as well as 
his soul, which despised death; and besides 
these qualifications, he had four brethren like 
himself. He put a troop of armed men under 
each of these his brethren, and made use of 
them as his generals and commanders when 
he made his incursions, while he did himself 
act like a king, and meddled only with the more 
important affairs: and at this time he puta dia- 
dem about his head, and continued after that te 
overrun the country for no little time with his 
brethren, and became their leader in killing 
both the Romans and those of the king’s party- 
nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain ota 
accrue to him thereby. He once ventured to 
encompass a whole troop of Romans at Em- 
maus, who were carrying corn and weapons to 
their legion: his men, therefore, shot their ar- 
rows and darts, and thereby slew their cen- 
turion Arius, and forty of the stoutest men 
while the rest of them: who were in danger of 
the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with 
those of Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. 
And when these men had thus served both thew 
own countrymen and foreigners, and tha. 
through this whole war, three of them were 
after some time subdued, the eldest by Arche- 
laus, the two next by falling into the hands of 
Gratus and Ptolemeus; but the fourth deliver 
ed himself up to Archelaus upon his. giving 


him Ins right hand for security. However, this 
their en! was not till afterward, while at pre- 
sent they filled all Judea with a piratic war. 


CHAPTER V. 


Varus composes the tumults in Judea, and cru- 
cyies about two thousand of the seditious. 


§ 1. Upon Varus’s reception of the letcers 
-hat were written by Sabinus and the captains, 
he could not avoid being afraid for the whole le- 
zion [he had left there.] So he made haste to 
their relief, and took with him the other two le- 
gions, with the four troops of horsemen to 
them belonging, and marched to Ptolemais; 
having given orders for the auxiliaries that 
were sent by the kings and governors of cities 
to meet him there. Moreover, he received 
from the people of Berytus, as he passed through 
their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now 
as soon as the other body of auxiliaries were 
come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas the Ara- 
bian, (who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod, 
brought a great army of horse and foot,) Varus 
sent a part of his army presently to Galilee, 
which lay near to Ptolemias, and Caius one of his 
friends for their captain. This Caius put those 
that met him to flight, and took the city Sep- 

horis, and burnt it, and made slaves of its in- 
Stelaas but as for Varus himself, he march- 
ed to Samaria with his whole army, where he 
did not meddle with the city itself, because he 
found that ithad made no commotion during 
these troubles, but pitched his camp about a 
certain village which was called Arus. It be- 
longed to Ptolemy, and on that account was 
plundered by the Arabians, who were very an- 
gry even at Herod’s friends also. He thence 
marched on to the village Sampho, another for- 
tified place, which they plundered, as they had 
done the other. As they carried off all the 
money they lighted upon, belonging to the 
blic revenues, all was now full of fire and 
leodshed, and nothing could resist the plun- 
ders of the Arabians. [EZXmmaus was also burnt 
upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at 
the command of Varus, out of his rage at the 
slaughter of those that were about Arus. 

2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and 
a8 soon as he was but seen by the Jews, he 
made their camps disperse themselves: they 
also went away, and fled up and down the 
country; but the citizens received him, and 
cleared themselves of having any hand in this 
revoit; and said, that they had raised no com- 
motions, but had been forced to admit the mul- 
titude because of the festival, and that they 
were rather besieged together with the Ro- 
mans, than assisted those that had revolted. 
There had before this met him J oseph, the first 
cousin of Archelaus, and Gratus, together with 
Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as 


the king’s army; there also met him those of 


the Roman legion, armed after their accus- 
tomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst not 


come into Varus’s sight, but was gone out of 


the city before this, to the seaside; but Varus 
sent @ part of his army into the country, against 
those that had been the authors of this com- 


ee NE 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


motion, and as they caught great numbers of — 
them, those that appeared to have been the leam — 
concerned in these tumu ts, he put into custody, 


—a << 


a 


but such as were the most guilty, he crucified; — 


these were in number about two thousand. 


3. He was also informed, that there con 


tinued in Idumea, ten thousand men still in 
arms: but when he found that the Arabians did 


not act like auxiliaries, but managed the war 


according to their own passions, and did mis- 


chief to the country otherwise than he intend- 
ed, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he 


sent them away, but made haste with his own 


legions to march against those that had revolt- 
ed; but these, by the advice of Achiabus, de- 


livered themselves up to him before it came to — 


a battle. Then did Varus forgive the multi- 
tude their offences, but sent their captains to 
Cesar to be examined by him. Now Cesar 
forgave the rest, but gave orders that certain of 
the king’s relations (for some of those that 
were among them were Herod’s kinsmen,) 
should be put to death, because they had en- 
gaged in a war against a king of their own 
family. When, therefore, Varus had settled 
matters at Jerusalem after this manner, and had 
left the former legion there as a garrison, he 
returned to Antioch. 


CHAPTER VI. 


The Jews greatly complain of Archelaus, and de- 
sire that they may be made subject to Roman po- 
vernors. But when Cesar had heard what they 
had to say, he distributed Herod’s dominions 
among his sons, according to his own pleasure. 


§ 1. But now came another accusation from 
the Jews against Archelaus at Rome, which he 
was to answer to. It was made by those ain- 
hassadors, who, before the revolt, had come, 
by Varus’s permission, to plead for the liberty 
of their country; those that came were fifty in 
number, but there were more than eight thou- 
sand of the Jews at Rome who supported 
them. And when Cesar had assembled a 


council of the principal Romans in Apollo’s ’ 


temple,* that was in the palace, (this was what 
he had himself built and adorned at a vast ex- 
pense,) the multitude of the Jews stood with 
the ambassadors, and on the other side stood 
Archelaus, with his friends: but as for the 
kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neither 
side; for to stand on Archelaus’s side, their 
hatred to him, and envy at him, would not give 
them leave; while yet they were afraid to be 


seen by Cesar with his accusers. Besides 
these, there were present Archelaus’s brother > 


Philip, being sent hither beforehand out of 
kindness by Varus for two reasons; the ona 
was this, that he might be assisting to Arche- 


laus; and the other was this, that in case Cesaz 


should make a distribution of what Herod pos- 


sessed among his posterity he might obtain — 


some share of it. 


* This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the 


emperor’s palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the — 
building of the temple magnificently by himself in that — 


palace, are exactly agreeable to Augustus, in his elder 


years, as Aldrich and Spanheim observe and prove from _ 


Suetonius and Propertius. 





BOOK II—CHAPTER VII. 


_ %. And now, upor. tne permission that was 
_ given the accusers to speak, they in the first 
_ place went over Herod’s breaches of their law, 
and said, that “he was not a king, but the most 
barbarous of all tyrants, and that they had 
found him to be such by the sufferings they 
underwent from him; that when a very great 
- pumber had been slain by him, those that were 
left had endured such miseries, that they called 
those that were dead, happy men; that he had 
not only tortured the bodies of his subjects, 
but entire cities, and had done much harm to 
the cities of his own country, while he adorned 
those that belonged to foreigners, and he shed 
the blood of Jews, in order to do kindness to 
those people who were out of their bounds; 
that he had filled the nation full of poverty and 
the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness 
and those laws which they had anciently en- 
joyed; that, in short the Jews had borne more 
calamities from Herod in a few years, than had 
their forefathers during all that interval of time 
that had passed since they had come out of 
Babylon, and returned home, in the reign of 
Xerxes:* that, however, the nation was come 
to so low a condition, by being inured to hard- 
ships, that they submitted to his successor of 
their own accord, though he brought them 
into bitter slavery: that accordingly they readily 
called Archelaus, though he was the son of so 
great a tyrant, king, after the decease of his 
father, and joined with him in mourning for 
the death of Herod, and wishing him good 
auccess in that his succession; while yet this 
Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not 
being thought the genuine son of Herod, be- 
gan his reign with the murder of three thou- 
gand citizens; as if he had a mind to offer so 
many bloody sacrifices to God for his govern- 
ment, and to fill the temple with the like num- 
_ber of dead bodies at that festival: that, how- 
ever, those that were left after so many mise- 
ries, had just reason to consider now at last 
the calamities they had undergone, and to op- 
pose themselves like soldiers in war, to receive 
those stripes upon their faces [but not upon 
their backs, as hitherto.] Whereupon they 
prayed that the Romans would have compas- 
sion upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and 
not expose what was left of them to such as 
barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they 
would join their country to Syria, and adminis- 
ter the government by their own commanders, 
whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated that 
those who are under the calumny of seditious 
persons, and lovers of war, know how to bear 
vernors that are set over them, if they be 
t tolerable ones.” So the Jews concluded 
their accusation with this request. Then rose 
up Nicolaus, and confuted the accusations 
which were brought against the kings, and 
himself accused the Jewish nation, as hard to 
be ruled, and as naturally disobedient to kings. 
He also reproached all those kinsmen of Ar- 
_ * Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, 
and not Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews 
_ geturned out of the Babylonan captivity, i. e. in the days of 


‘Wzra,and Nehemiah The same thing is in the Antiqui- 


des, p. x1. ch. v. sect. } 
wa §) 


chelaus’s who had left him, and were gone over 
to his accusers. 

3. So Cesar, after he had heard both sides, 
dissolved the assembly for that time; but a few 
days afterward, he gave the one-half of He- 
rod’s kingdom to Archelaus, by the namn.e of 
ethnarch and promised to make him king also 
afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that 
dignity. But as to the other half, he divided it 
into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two other 
sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and 
the other to that Antipas who contested the 
kingdom with Archelaus. Under this last wag 
Perea, and Galilee, with a revenue of two hun- 
dred talents: but Batanea, and Trachonitis, ana 
Auranitis, and certain parts of Zeno’s house 
about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred 
talents were made subject to Philip: while 
Idumea, and all Juaea, and Samaria, were 
parts of the ethnarchy of Archelaus, although 
Samaria was eased of one-quarter of its taxes, 
out of regard to their not having revolted with 
the rest of the nation. He also made subject 
to him the following cities, viz. Strato’s Tow- 
er, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but 
as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and 
Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom, 
and added them to Syria. Now the revenue 
of the country that was given to Archelaus, 
was four hundred talents. Salome also, hbe- 
sides what the king had left her in his testa- 
ments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and 
Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Czesar did moreover 
bestow upon her the royal palace of Ascalon; 
by all which she got together a revenue of six- 
ty talents; but he put her house under the eth- 
narchy of Archelaus. And for the rest of He- 
rod’s offspring, they received what was be- 
queathed to them in his testaments; but besides 
that, Cesar granted to Herod’s two virgin 
daughters five hundred thousand [drachmee] of 
silver, and gave them in marriage to the sons 
of Pheroras: but after this family distribution, 
he gave between them what had been bequeath- 
ed to him by Herod, which was a thousand ta- 
lents, reserving to himself only some inconsi- 
derable presents in honor of the deceased. 


CHAPTER VII. 


The history of the spurious Alexander. Arches 
laus is banished, and Glaphyra dies after what 
was to happen to both of them had been showed 
them in dreams. 

§ 1. In the mean time there was a man, who 
was by birth a Jew, but brought up at Sidon 
with one of the Roman freed-imen, who falsel 
pretended, on account of the resemblance o 
their countenances, that he was that Alexander 
who was slain by Herod. This man came to 
Rome, in hopes of not being detected He had 
one who was his assistant, of his own nation, 
and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, 
and instructed him to say. how those that were 
sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon 
them, and stole them away, by putting bodies 
that were like theirs in their places. This man 
deceived the Jews that were at Crete, and gota 
great deal of money of them for travelling 


554 


splendor: and thence sailed to Melos, where he 
was thought so certainly genuine, that he got a 
great deai more money, and prevailed with those 
that had treated him to sail along with him to 
Rome. So he landed at Dicearchia, [Puteoli,] 
and got very large presents from the Jews who 
dwelt there, and was conducted by his father’s 
friends asif he were a king; nay, the resemblance 
in his countenance procured him so much credit, 
that those who had seen Alexander, and had 
known him very well, would take their oaths 
that he was the very same person. According- 
ly, the whole body of the Jews that were at 
a ran out in crowds to see him, and an in- 
numerable multitude there was who stood in 
the narrow places, through which he was car- 
ried; for those of Melos were so far distracted, 
that they carried him in a sedan, and maintain- 
ed a royal attendance for him at their own 
proper charges. 

2. But Cesar, who knew perfectly well the 
lineaments of Alexander’s face, because he had 
been accused by Herod before him, doubted 
the truth of the story, even before he saw the 
man. However, he suffered the agreeable 
fame that went of him to have some weight 
with him, and sent Celedus, one who well 
knew Alexander, and ordered him to bring the 
pone man to him. But when Cesar saw 

im. he immediately discerned a difference in 
his cvuuntenance, and when he had discovered 
that his whole body was of a more robust tex- 
ture, and like that of a slave, he understood 
that the whole was a contrivance. But the 
impudence of what he said greatly provoked 
him to be angry at him; for when he was 
asked about Aristobulus, he said that “he was 
also preserved alive, and was left on purpose 
in Cyprus for fear of treachery, because it 
would be harder for plotters to get them both 
into their power while they were separate.” 
Then did Cesar take him by himself privately, 
and said to him, “I will give thee thy life, if 
thou wilt discover who it was that persuaded 
thee to forge such stories.” So he said, that 
ne would discover him, and followed Cesar, 
and pointed to that Jew who abused the re- 
semblance of his face to get money; for that 
he had received more presents in every city 
than ever Alexander did when he was alive. 
Ceesar laughed at the contrivance, and put this 
spurious Alexander among his rowers, on ac- 
count of the strength of his body, but ordered 
nim that persuaded him to be put to death. 
But for the people of Melos, they had been 
sufficientiy panished for their folly by the ex- 
penses they had been at on his account. 

3. And now Archelaus took possession of 
his ethnarchy, and used not the Jews only. but 
the Samaritans also, barbarously; and this ut 
of his resentment of their old quarrels with 
him. Whereupon they both of them sent am- 
bassadors against him to Cesar, and in the 
ninth year of his government he was banished 
to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and his effects were 
put into Ceesar’s treasury. But the report 
goes, that before he was sent for by Cesar, he 
seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large, 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


a 


Sod 


but devoured by oxen. When, therefore. he — 
had sent for the diviners, and some of the — 
Chaldeans, and inquired of them what they 
thought it portended, and when one of them 
had one interpretation, and another had another, — 
Simon, one of the sect of the Essenes, a | 
that “he thought the ears of corn denote 
years, and the oxen denoted a mutation of | 
things, because by their ploughing they made 
an alteration of the country. That, therefore, 
he should reign as many years as there were. 
ears of corn, and after he had passed through 
various alterations of fortune, should die.” 
Now five days after Archelaus had heard this 
interpretation, he was called to his trial. p 
4. I cannot but also think it worthy to be re- — 
corded, what dream Glaphyra, the daughter of © 
Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, had, who had — 
at first been wife to Alexander, who was the 
brother of Archelaus, concerning whom we 
have been discoursing. This Alexander was 
the son of Herod the king, by whom he wag 
put to death, as we have already related. This 
Glaphyra was married, after his death, to Juba, 
king of Libya, and after his death, was return- 
ed home, and lived a widow with her father, 
then it was that Archelaus, the ethnarch, saw 
her, and fell so deeply in love with her, that 
he divorced Mariamne, who was then his wife, 
and married her. When, therefore, she was 
come into Judea, and had been there for a 
little while, she thought she saw Alexander 
stand by her, and that he said to her, “Thy 
marriage with the king of Libya might have 
been sufficient for thee; but thou wast not con- 
tented with him, but art returned again to my 
family, to a third husband, and him, thou im-— 
pudent woman, hast thou chosen for thine hus- 
band, who is my brother. However, I shall 
not overlook the injury thou hast offered me; I 
shall [soon have thee again, whether thou wilt 
or no. ow Glaphyra hardly survived the — 
narration of this dream of hers two days. | 


CHAPTER VIII. 


Archelaus’s ethnarchy is reduced into a [Romani — 

iene The sedition of Judas of Galilee. 

he three sects of the Jews. | 

§ 1. And now Archelaus’s part of Judea was — 
reduced into a province; and Coponius, one of __ 
the equestrian order among the Romans, was i 
sent as a procurator, having the power of [life — 
and death] put into his hands by Caesar. Under — 
his administration it was, that a certain Gali — 
lean whose name was Judas, prevailed with 
his countrymen to revolt, and said they were — 
cowards if they would endure to pay a tax te — 
the Romans, and would, after God, submit te 
mortal men as their lords. This man was 4— 
teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was — 
not at all like the rest of those their leaders. 

2. For there are three philosophical sees — 
among the Jews: The followers of the first of — 
which are the Pharisees, of the second the 
Sadducees, aud the third sect, which 
to a severer discipline, are called 
These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have — 
a greater arfection for one another than the — 


oe 











Vy 


~ 
“4 


BOOK I1.--CHAPTER VII1. 


_ other sects have. These Essenes reject plea- 
| @ures as an evil, but esteem continence, and 


if 


the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. 
They neglect wedlock, but choose out other 
rsons’ children while they are pliable and 

t for learning, and esteem them to be of their 
kindred, and form them according to their 
own manners. They do not absolutely deny 
the fitness of marriage, and the succession of 
mankind thereby continued; but they guard 
against the lascivious behavior of women, and 
are persuaded that none of them preserve their 
fidelity to one man. 

3. These men are despisers of riches, and 
So very Communicative as raises our admira- 
tion. Nor is there any one to be found among 
them who hath more than another; for it is a 


_law among them, that those who come to them 


must let what they have be common to the 
whole order, insomuch that among them all 
there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of 
riches, but every.one’s possessions are inter- 
mingled with every other’s possessions, and so 
there is, as it were, one patrimony among all 
the brethren. They think that oil is a defile- 
ment; and if any one of them be anointed, 
without his own approbation, it is wiped off 
his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good 
thing, as they do also to be clothed in white 
garments. They also have stewards appointed 
to take care of their common aftairs, who, 
every one of them, have no separate business 
for any, but what is for the use of them all. 

4, They have no one certain city, but many 
of them dwell in every city; and if any of 
their sect come from other places, what they 
have lies open for them, just as if it were their 
own, and they go into such as they never knew 
before, as if they had been ever so long ac- 
quainted with them. For which reason they 
carry nothing at all with them when they travel 
into remote parts, though still they take their 
weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Ac- 
cordingly, there is, in every city where they 
live, one appointed particularly to take care of 
strangers, and to provide garments and other 
necessaries for them. But the habit and ma- 
nagement of their bodies is such as children 
use who are in fear of their masters. Nor do 
they allow of the change of garments or of 
shoes, till they first be entirely torn to pieces, 
or worn out by time. Nor do they either buy 
or sel] any thing to one another, but every one 
of them gives what he hath to him that want- 
eth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it 
what may be convenient for himself; and al- 
though there be no requital made, they are 
fully allowed to take what they want of whom- 
poever they please. 

5. And as for their piety towards God, it is 


_ very extraordinary; for, before sunrising, they 


speak nota word about profane matters, but 
put up certain prayers, which they have re- 
ceived from their forefathers, as if they made 
a supplication for its rising. Afterthis, every 


- one of them is sent away by their curators to 


exercise some of those arts wherein they are 
skilled ‘1 which they labor with great dili- 


555 


gence till the fifth hour. After wl ich they a» 
semble themselves together again into one place, 
and when they have clothed themselves in 
white veils, they then bathe their Lodies in cold 
water. And after this purification is over, they 
every one meet together in an apartment of 
their own, into which it is not permitted to 
any of another sect to enter; while they go, 
after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as 
into a certain ho.y temple, and quietly se 
themselves down: upon which the baker lays 
them loaves in order; the cook also brings 2 sin- 
gle plate of one sort of food, and sets it before 
every one of them; but a priest says grace be- 
fore meat, and it is unlawful for any one to 
taste of the food before grace be said. The 
same priest, when he hath dined, says grace 
again after meat, and when they begin, and 
when they end, they praise God, as he that be- 
stows their food upon them; after which they 
lay aside their [white] garments, and betake 
themselves to their labors again till the eve- 
ning; then they return home to supper, after the 
same manner, and if there be any strangers 
there, they sit down with them. Nor is there 
ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute their 
house, but they give every one leave to speak 
in their turn; which silence thus kept in their 
house, appears to foreigners like some tremen- 
dous mystery; the cause of which is that per- 
petual sobriety they exercise, and the same 
settled measure of meat and drink that is al- 
Jotted them, and that such as is abundantly suf- 
ficient for them. 

6. And truly, as for other things, they do no- 
thing but according to the injunctions of their 
curators; only these two things are done among 
them at every one’s own free will, which are ta 
assist those that want it, and toshow mercy; for 
they are permitted of their own accord to af- 
ford succor to such as deserve it, when thez 
stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those 
that are in distress; but they cannot give any 
thing to their kindred without the curatoys. 
They dispense their anger after a just manner, 
and restrain their passion. ‘They are eminent 
for fidelity, and are the ministers of peace 
whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath: 
but swearing is avoided by thein, and they es- 
teem it worse than peri ry * for they say, that 
he who cannot be besieved without [swearing 
by] God, is already condemned. ‘They also 
take great pains in studying the writings of the 

* This practice of the Essenes. in refusing to swear, and 
esteeming swearing on ordinary occasions, worse than per- 
jury, is delivered here in general words, as are the paralie! 
injunctions of our Savior, Matt. v. 34; xxiii. 16, andof St 
James, v. 12; but all admit of particuler exceptions for so- 
lemn causes, and on great and necessary occasions. Thus 
these very Essenes, who do here so zealously avoid swear- 
ing, are related, in the very next section, to admit nore till 
they take tremendous oaths to perform their several duties 
to God and to their neighbor, without supposing they there- 
by break this rule not to swear at all. The case is the same 
in Christianity, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitu~- 
tions, which, although they agree witn Christ and St. James, 
in forbidding to swear in general, ch.v. 12; ch. vi. 23; yet 
do they explain it elsewhere by avoiding to swear falsely 
and to swear often andin vain, chap. ii. 36; and again, by 
not swearing at all, but withall adding, that if that cannot 
be avoided, to swear truly, ch. vii. 3, which abundantly 2x- 


plain to us the nature of the measures of this general ip 
junction. 


ancients, and choose out of them what is most 
for the advantage of their soul and body, and 
they inquire after such roots and medicinal 
stones as may cure their distempers. 

7. But now, if any one hath a mind to come 
over to their sect, he is not immediately admit- 
ted, but he is prescribed the same method of 
living which they use, for a year, while he con- 
' tinues excluded, and they give him also a small 
hatchet, and the forementioned girdle, and the 
white garment. And when he hath given 
evidence, during that time, that he can observe 
their continence, he approaches nearer to their 
way of living, and is made a partaker of the 
waters of purification; yet is he not even now 
admitted to live with them; for after this de- 
monstration of nis fortitude, his temper is tried 
two more years, and if he appear to be worthy, 
they then admit him into their society. And 
before he is allowed to touch their common 
food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, 
that in the first place he will exercise piety to- 
wards God, and then that he will observe jus- 
tice towards men, and that he will do no harm 
to any one, either of his own accord, or by the 
command of others; that he will always hate 
the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous, 
that he will ever show fidelity to all men, and 
especially to those in authority; because no 
one obtains the government without God’s as- 
sistance; and that if he be in authority, he will 
at no time whatever abuse his authority, nor 
endeavor to outshine his subjects, either in his 
garments or any other finery; that he will be 

erpetually a lover of truth and propose to 
Pimself to reprove those that tell lies; that he 
will keep his hands clear from theft, and his 
soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neith- 
er conceal any thing from those of his own 
sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to oth- 
ers; no notthough any one should compel him 
so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, 
he swears to communicate their doctrines to 
no one any otherwise than as he received them 
himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and 
will equally preserve the books belonging to 
their sect, and the names of the angels* [or mes- 
sengers.]| These are the oaths by which they 
secure their proselytes to themselves. 

8. But for those that are caught in any hei- 
nous sins, they cast them out of their society, 
and he who is thus separated from them, does 
often die after a miserable manner; for as he 
is bound by the oath he hath taken, and by the 
customs he hath been engaged in, he is not at 
liberty to partake of that food that he meets 
with elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass, and 
to famish his body with hunger till he perish; 
for which reason they receive many of them 
again, when they are at their last gasp, out of 
compassion to them, as thinking the miseries 


* This mention of the names of angels, so particularly 
preserved by the Essenes, (if it means more than those 
messengers which were employed to bring them the pecu- 
Har books of their sect,) looks like a preclude to that wor- 
shipping of angels blamed by St. Paul as superstitious and 
unlawfulin some such sort of people as these Essenes were, 
Coloss. ii. 8; as is the prayer to or towards the sun for his 
adsing every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like 
@owe not much later obser:ances made mention of in the 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


4 
they have endured till they came to the very 
brink of death, to be a sufficient punishment 
for the sins they had been guilty of. : 

9. But in the judgments they exercise they — 
are most accurate and just, nor do they pase — 
sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer 
than a hundred. And as to what is once eter- 
mined by that number, it is unalterable. What 
they most of all honor, after God himself, is” 
the name of their legislator [Moses,] whom if. 
any one blaspheme, he is punished capitally | 
They also think it a good thing to obey thei. 
elders and the major part. Accordingly, if ten 
of them be sitting together, no one of them 
will speak while the other nine are againet it 
They also avoid spitting in the midst of them, 
or on the right side. Moreover, they are strict- 
er than any other of the Jews in resting from 
their labors on the seventh day; for they not 
only get their food ready the day before, that 
they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that 
day, but they will not remove any vessel out of 
its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on 
other days they dig asmall pit, a foot deep, with 
a paddle, (which kind of hatchet is given them 
when they are first admitted among them,) and 
covering themselves round with their ue 
that they may not affront the divine rays o 
light, they ease themselves into that pit, after 
which they put the earth that was dug out again 
into the pit, and even this they do only in the 
more lonely places, which they choose out for 
this purpose; and although this easement of 
the body be natural, yet it is a rule with them 
to wash themselves after it, as if it were a de- 
filement to them. 

10. Now after the time of their preparatory 
trial is over, they are parted into four classes; 
and so far are the juniors inferior to the seniors, 
that if the seniors should be touched by the 
juniors, they must wash themselvesas if they 
had intermixed themselves with the company 
of a foreigner. They are longlived also, inso- 
much that many of them live above a hun- 
dred years, by means of the simplicity of their 
diet, nay, as I think, by means of the regular 
course of life they observe also. They con ~ 
temn the miseries of life, and are above pain, 
by the generosity of their mind. And as for — 
death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem — 
it better than living always; and indeed our 
war with the Romans gave abundant evidence 
what great souls they had in their trials, where ~ 
in, although they were tortured, and distort 
burnt and torn to pieces, and went through {| 
kinds of instruments of torment, that they | 
might be forced either to blaspheme their legis- | 
lator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet — 
could they not be made to do either of them, 
no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, or to 
shed a tear; but they emailed in their very pains, 








preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec. part ii. p. 669; and re- 
garding a kind of worship of angels, of the month, and of — 
the moon, and not celebrating the new moons, or other fes- — 
tivals, unless the moon appeared; which, indeed, seems te 
me the earliest mention of any regard to the moon’s phases — 
in fixing the Jewish calendar; of which the Talmud and — 
later rabbins talk so much, and upon so very httle a ciemt 
foundation. ; ; 


BOOK I].—CHAPTER IX. 


and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the 
torments upon them, and resigned up their 
souls with great alacrity, as expecting to re- 
ceive them again. 

11. For their doctrine is this, That bodies 
are corruptible, and that the matter they are 
made of is not permanent; but that the souls 
are immortal, and continue for ever, and that 
they come out of the most subtil air, and are 
united to their bodies as to prisons, into which 
they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; 
but that when they are set free from the bonds 
of the flesh, they then, as released from a long 
bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this 
is like the opinions of the Greeks, that good 
souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, 
in a region that is neither oppressed with storms 
of rain or snow, or with intense heat, but that 
this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle 
breathing of a west wind, that is perpetually 
blowing from the ocean: while they allot to 
bad souls a dark and tempestuous den, full of 
never-ceasing punishments. And indeed the 
Greeks seem to me to have followed the same 
notion, when they allot the islands of the bless- 
ed to their brave men, whom they call heroes 
and demigods; and to the souls of the wicked, 
the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where 
their fables relate that certain persons, such as 
Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus, 
are punished; which is built on this first sup- 
position, that souls are immortal; and thence 
are those exhortations to virtue, and dehorta- 
tions from wickedness collected, whereby good 
men are bettered in the conduct of their life by 
the hope they have of reward after their death, 
and whereby the vehement inclinations of bad 
men to vice are restrained, by the fear and ex- 
Bape they are in, that although they should 

ie concealed in this life, they should suffer im- 

mortal punishment after their death. These 
are the divine doctrines of the Essenes about 
the soul,* which lay an unavoidable bait for 
such as have once had a taste of their philoso- 
phy. 

12. There are also those among them who 
undertake to foretell things to come,t by read- 
ing the holy books, and using several sorts of 
purifications, and being perpetually conversant 
in the discourses of the prophets: and it is but 
seldom that they miss in their predictions. 

13. Moreover, there is another order of Es- 
genes, who agree with the rest as to their way 
of living, and customs, and laws, but differ 
from thei in the point of marriage, as think- 
mg that by not marrying they cut off the prin- 
cipal part of human life, which is the prospect 
af succession; nay, rather, that if all men should 


* Of these Jewish or Essene, and, indeed, Christian doc- 
trines concerning souls, both good and bad, in Hades, see 
that excellent discourse or homily of our Josephus concern- 
tng Hades, at the end of the work. 

+ Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift of 
grophecy in several of these Essenes out of Josephus him- 
seif, viz. in the History of the War, b. i. ch. iii. sect. 5, Judas 
foretold the death of Antigonus at Strato’s Tower; b. ii. ch. 
vii. sect. 3; Simon foretold that Archelaus should reign but 
nine or ten years; and Antiq. b. xv. ch. x. sect. 4, 5, Mana- 
kem foretold that Herod should be king, and should reign ty- 
rannically, and that for more thau twenty vr even thirty 
years, All which came to pass accordingly 


557 


be of the same opinion, the whc e race of 
mankind would fail. However, they try their 
spouses for three years, and if they find _hat they 
have their natural purgations thrice, as trials 
that they are likely to be fruitful, they then ac- 
tually marry them. But they do not use toac- 
company with their wives when they are with 
child, as a demonstration that they do not mar- 
ry out of regard to pleasure, but for the sake 
of posterity. Now the women go into the 
baths with some of their garments on, as the 
men do with somewhat girded about them 
And these are the customs of this order of Es- 
senes. 

14. But then as to the two other orders at 
first mentioned. 'The Pharisees are those who 
are esteemed most skilful in the exact explica- 
tion of their laws, and introduce the first sect. 
These ascribe all to fate, [or providence,] and 
to God, and yet allow, that to act what is right, 
or the contrary, is principally in the power of 
men: although fate does co-operate in every 
action. They say, that all souls are incorrupti- 
ble, but that the souls* of good men only are 
removed into other bodies, but that the souls 
of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. 
But the Sadducees are those that compose the 
second order, and take away fate entirely, and 
suppose that God is not concerned in our do- 
ing or not doing what is evil; and they say, 
that to act what is good or what is evil, is at 
men’s own choice, and that the one or the oth- 
er belongsso to every one, that they may act as 
they please. They also take away the belief 
of the immortal duration of the soul, and the 
punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, 
the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and 
are for the exercise of concord, and regard for 
the public; but the behavior of the Saddu- 
cees one towards another is in some degree 
wild, and their conversation with those that 
are of their own party is as barbarous as if they 
were strangersto them. And this 1s what I had 
to say concerning the Philosophic sects among 
the Jews. 


CHAPTER IX. 


The death of Sulome. The cities which Herod ana 
Philip built. Pilate occasions disturbances. 
Tiberius puts Agrippa into bonds, but Carus 
frees him from them, and makes him king. 
Herod Antipas 1s banished. 


§ 1. And now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus 
was fallen into a Roman province, the other 
sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod who was 
called Antipas, each of them took upon them 
the administration of their own tetrarchies; for 
when Salome died, she bequeathed to Julia, 


* There is so much more here about the Essenes than is 
cited from Josephus in Porphyry and Eusebius, and yet se 
much less about the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two otier 
Jewish sects, than would naturally be expected in preportion 
to the Essenes or third sect, nay, than seems to be referred 
to by himself elsewhere, that one is tempted to suppose Jo- 
sephus had at first written less of the one and more of the 
two others than his present copies afford us; as also, that 
by some unknown accident our present copies are here made 
up of the larger edition in the first case, and the smaller ip 
the second; see the note in Havercamp’s edition. However, 
what Josephus says in the name of the Pharisees, that ip 
the souls of good men go out of one body into another, 


558 


the wite of Augustus, both her toparchy, and 
Jamnia, as also her plantation of palim-trees 
that was in Phasaelis.* But when the Roman 
empire was translated to Tiberius, the son of 
Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had 
“reigned fifty-seven years, six months and two 
days, both Herod and Philip continued in their 
tetrarchies, and the latter of them built the city 
of Caesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in 
the region of Paneas; as also the city of Julias, 
in the Jower Gaulanitis. Herod also built the 
city of Tiberius in Galilee, and in Perea bes 
yond Jordan] another that was also called Julias. 
2. Now Pilate, who was sent as a procura- 
tor into Judea by Tiberius, sent by night those 
images of Cesar that are called ensigns into 
Jerusalem. This excited a very great tumult 
among the Jews when it was day; for those 
that were near thein were astonished at the 
sight of them, as indications that their laws 
were trodden under foot; for those laws du not 
permit any sort of image to be brought into the 
city. Nay, besides the indignation which the 
citizens themselves had at this procedure, a vast 
number of the people came running out of the 
country. These came zealously to Pilate to 
Cesarea, and besought him to carry those 
ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them 
their ancient laws inviolable; but upon Pilate’s 
denial of their requests, they fell down prostrate 
upon the ground, and continued immoveable 
in that posture for five days and as many nights. 
3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribu- 
nal, in the open market-place, and called to 
him the multitude, as desirous to give them an 
answer; and then gave q signal to the soldiers 
that they should all by «greement at once en- 
compass the Jews with their weapons; so the 
band of soldiers stood round about the Jews 
in three ranks. The Jews were at the utmost 
consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate 
also said to them, that they should be cut in 
pieces, unless they would admit of Ceesar’s 
images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to 
draw their naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, 


though all souls be immortal, and still the souls of the bad 
are liable to eternal punishment; as also what he says after- 
ward, Antiq. b xvii. ch. i. sect. 3, that the soul’s vigor is im- 
mortal; and that under the earth they receive rewards or 
punishment according as their lives have been virtuous or 
vicious in the present world; that to the bad is allotted an eter- 
nal prison, but that the good are permitted to live again in 
this world, are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of Chris- 
ianity. Only Josephus’s rejection of the return of the wick- 
ed into other bodies, or into this world, which he grants to 
the good, looks somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul’s 
account of the doctrine of the Jews, that they themselves al- 
lowed that there should be a resurrection of the dead, both of 
the just and unjust, Acts. ch. xxiv. 15. Yet because Jose- 
phus’s account is that of the Pharisees, and St. Paul’s that 
of the Jews in general, and of himself, the contradiction is 
not very certain. 

* We have here in that Greek MS, which was once Al- 
exander Petavius’s, but ic now in the library at Leyden; two 
most remarkable additions to the common copies, though 
deemed worth little remark by the editor; which upon the 
mention of Tiberius’s coming to the empire, inserts first the 
‘amous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as it 
stands verbatin in the Antiquities, b. xviii. chap. iii. sect. 3, 
with some parts of that excellent discourse or homily of Jo- 
sephus concerning Hades, annexed to the work. But what 
is here principally to be noted is this, that in this homily, Jo- 
sephus having just mentioned Christ, as God the Word, and 
the Judge of the world, appointed by the Father, &c. adds, 
that he hims-lf elsewhere spoken about him more nicely or 

2Y- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


' illustrates our Savior’s words, Mark vii. 11, 12. 


as it were at one signal, fell down in vast num- 
bers together, and exposed their necks bare — 
and cried out, that they were sooner ready to 
be slain, than that their law should be trans 
gressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surpris- 

ed at their prodigious superstition, and gave or- _ 
der that the ensigns should be presently carried — 
out of Jerusalem. 

4. After this he raised another disturbance, 
by expending that sacred treasure which is 
cal'2d Corban* upon aqueducts, whereby he — 
brought water from the distance of four hun- ° 
dred furlongs. At this the multitude had indig- 
nation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, 
they came about his tribunal, and made a cla- 
mor at it. Now, when he was apprized afore- 
hand of this disturbance, he mixed his own 
soldiers in their armor with the multitude, and 
ordered them to conceal themselves under the 
habits of private men, and not indeed to use 
their swords, but with their staves to beat those 
that made the clamor. He then gave the sig- 
nal from his tribunal [to doas he had bidden 
them.] Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, 
that many of them perished by the stripes they 
received, and many of them perished as trod- 
den to death by themselves: by which means 
the multitude was astonished at the calamity of 
those that were slain, and held their peace. 

5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that 
Aristobulus who had been slain by his father 
Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse Herod the 
tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation, 
he stayed at Rome, and cultivated a friendship 
with others of the men of note, but principal- 
ly with Caius the son of Germanicus, who was 
then but a private person. Now this Agrippa, 
at a certain time, feasted Caius, and as he was 
very complaisant to him on several other ac- 
counts, he at length stretched out his hands, 
and openly wished that Tiberius might die, and 
that he might quickly see him emperor of the 
world. This was told to Tiberius by one of 
Agrippa’s domestics; who thereupon was very 
angry and ordered Agrippa to be bound, and 
had him very ill treated in the prison for six | 
months, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned __ 
twenty-two years six months and three days. 

6. But when Caius was made Ceesar, he re- __ 
leased Agrippa from his bonds, and made him 
king of Philip’s tetrarchy, who was now dead; 
but when Agrippa had arrived at that degree 
of dignity, he inflamed the ambitious desires of 
Herod the tetrarch, who was chiefly induced 
to hope forthe royal authority by his wife He- 
rodias, who reproached him for his sloth, and 4 
told him that it was only because he would rot 
sail to Caesar, that he was destitute of that 
great dignity; for since Cesar had made Agrip- 
paa king, from a private person, much more 
would he advance him from a tetrarchy to tha: 
dignity. These arguments prevailed with He— 
rod, so that he came to Caius, by whom he 
was punished for his ambition, by being banish — 
ed into Spain; for Agrippa followed him, in or 


4 

















* This use of the corban, or oblation as here applied to 
sacred money dedicated to God in the treasury of the te 


b 


\f 
va 
x 
lal 


) 


BOOK U.—CHAPTER X. 


der to accuse him; to whom also Caius gave 
his tetrarchy by way of addition. So Herod 
died in Spain, whither his wife had followed 


bim. 
CHAPTER X. 


Caius commands that his statue should be set up 
un the temple itself; and what Petronius did 
thereupon. 

§ 1. Now Caius Cesar did so grossly abuse 
the fortune he had arrived at, as to take himself 


_ to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, 


and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out 
of his country. He aiso extended his impiety 


as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Pe- 


trenius with an army to Jerusalem, to place his 


statues in the temple,* and commanded him, 


that in case the Jews would not admit of them, 
he should slay those that opposed it, and carry 


‘all the rest of the nation into captivity; but 


God concerned himself with these his com- 
mands. However, Petronius marched out of 
Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and 
many Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the Jews, 
some of them could not believe the stories that 
spoke of a war, but those that did believe them 
were in the utmost distress how to defend them- 
selves, and the terror diffused itself presently 
through them all; for the army was already 


- come to Ptolemais. 


2. This Ptolemais isa maritime city of Gali- 
lee, built in the great plain. It is encompassed 
with mountains; that on the east side, sixty 
furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on 
the south belongs to Carmel, which is distant 
from it a hundred and twenty furlongs; and 
that on the north is the highest of them all, and 
is called by the people of the country, the 
Ladder of the Tyrians, which is at the distance 
of a hundred furlongs. The very small river 
Belust runs by it, at the distance of two fur- 
longs; near which there is Memnon’s monu- 
ment,{ and hath near it a place no larger than 
a hundred cubits, which deserves admiration; 
for the place is round and _ hollow, and affords 


such sand as glass is made of; which place, 


wher. it hath been emptied by the many ships 
there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, 
which bring into it, as it were on purpose, that 


- sand which lay remote, and was no more than 


bare common sand, while this mine presently 
turns it intoa glassy sand. And what is to me 
still more wonderful, that glassy sand which is 
superfiuous, and is once removed out of the 
place, becomes bare common sand again. And 


_ this is the nature of the place we are speaking of. 


3. But now the Jews got together in great 
numbers with their wives and children into 
that plain that was by Ptolemais, and made sup- 

lication to Petronius, first for their laws, and; 
in the next place, for themselves. So he was 


* Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place 
ais effigies in their temple, though he may be mistaken when 


_ ne adds, that the Jews thereupon took arms. 


¢ This account of the place near the mouth of the river 


 Belus in Phoenicia, whence came that sand out of which 


 particul 


mM 
hy 
“i 


the ancients made their glass, is a thing known in history, 

in Tracitus and Strabo, and more ecly in Pliny. 

} This Menmon had several monuments and one of them 

ars, both by Strabo and Diodoras, to have been in Syria, 
not improbably in this ‘ery place. 


prevailed upon by the multitude of the suppli 
cants, and by their supplications, and left his 
army and the statues at Ptolemais, and then 
went forward into Galilee, and called togather 
the multitude, and all the men of note, te Ti- 
berias, and showed them the power of the Ro- 
mans, and the threatenings of Cesar; and, 
besides this, proved that their petition was un- 
reasonable; because while all the nations in sub- 
jection to them had placed the images of Ceesar 
in their several cities, among the rest of their 
gods, for them alone to oppose it, was almost 
like the behavior of revolters, and was inju- 
rious to Ceesar. 

4. And when they insisted on their law, and 
the custom of their country, and how it was 
not only not permitted them to make either an 
image of God, or indeed of a man, and to )ut 
it in any despicable part of their country, muth 
less in the temple itself; Petronius replied, 
“And am not [I also,” said he, “bound to keep 
the law of my own lord? For if I transgress 
it, and spare you, itis but just that I perish; 
while he that sent me, and not I, will com- 
mence a war against you; for I am under :om- 
mand as well as you.” Hereupon the whole 
multitude cried out, that “they were ready to 
suffer for their law.” Petronius then quit- 
ted them, and said to them, “Will you then 
make war against Cesar?” The Jews said, 
“We offer sacrifices twice every day for Cesar, 
and for the Roman people; but that if he would 
place the images among them, he must first 
sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that 
they were ready to expose themselves, together 
with their children and wives, to be slain.” At 
this Petronius was astonished, and pitied them 
on account of the inexpressible sense of reli- 
gion the men were under, and that courage of 
theirs which made them ready to die for it; so 
they were dismissed without success. 

5. But on the following days he got together 
the men of power privately, and the multitude 
publicly, and sometimes he used persuasions 
to them, and sometimes he gave them his ad- 
vice; but he chiefly made use of threatening 
to them, and insisted upon the power of the 
Romans, and the anger of Caius; and besides, 
upon the necessity he was himself under [to 
do as he was enjoined.] But as they could be 
no way prevailed upon, and he saw that the 
country was in danger of lying without tillage, 
for it was about seed-time that the multitude 
continued for fifty days together idle; se he at 
last got them together, and told them that “nr 
was best for him to run some hazard himself; 
for either, by the divine assistance, I shall pre- 
vail with Cesar, and shall myself escape the 
danger as well as you, which will be a matter 
of joy to us both; or, in case Cesar continue 
in his rage, I will be ready to expose my own 
life for such a great number as you are.” 
Whereupon he dismissed the multitude, who 
prayed greatly for his prosperity; and he took 
the army out of Ptolemais, and returned to 
Antioch; from whence he presently sent an 
epistle to Cesar, and informed him of the ir- 
ruption he had made into Judea, and of the 


a4 


560 WARS OF THE JEWS. A ‘ | 


supplications of the nation; and that unless he 
had a mind to lose both the country and the 
men in it, he must permit them to keep their 
law, and must countermand his former injunc- 
tion. Cajus answered that epistle in a violent 
way end threatened to have Petronius put to 
deatn for his being so tardy in the execution of 
what he had commanded. But it happened 
that those who brought Caius’s epistle were 
tossed by a storm, and were detained on the 
sea for three months, while others that brought 
the news of Caius’s death had a good voyage. 


Accordingly, Petronius received the epistle. 


concerning Caius seven and twenty days before 
he received that which was against himself. 


CHAPTER XI. 


Concerning the government of Claudius and the 
reign of Agrippa. Concerning the deaths of 
Agrippa and of Herod, and what children they 
both left behind them. 


3 lL. Now when Caius had reigned three 
years and eight months, and had been slain by 
treachery, Claudius was hurried away by the 
armies that were at Rome to take the govern- 
ment upon him: but the senate, upon the re- 
ference of the consuls, Sentius Saturninus, and 
Pomponius Secundus, gave orders to the three 
regiments of soldiers that-stayed with them to 
keep the city quiet, and went up into the capi- 
tol in great numbers, and resolved to oppose 
Claudius by force, on account of the barbarous 
treatment they had met with from Caius; and 
they determined either to settle the nation 
under an aristocracy, as they had of old been 
governed, or at least to choose by vote such a 
one for emperor as might be worthy of it. 

2. Nowit happened that at this time Agrippa 
sojourned at Rome, and that both the senate 
called him to consult with them, and at the 
same time Claudius sent for him out of the 
camp, that he might be serviceable to him, as 
he should have occasion for his service. So 
he, perceiving that Claudius was in effect made 
Cesar already, went to him, who sent him as 
an ambassador to the senate, to let them know 
what his intentions were: That “in the first 
place, it was without his seeking, that he was 
hurried away by the soldiers; moreover, that 
he thought it was not just to desert those sol- 
diers in such their zeal for him, and that if he 
should do so, his own fortune would be in un- 
certainty: for that it was a dangerous case to 
have been once called to the empire. He 
added farther, that he would administer the 
government as a good prince, and not like a 
tyrant; for that he would be satisfied with the 
honor of being called emperor, but would, in 
every one of his actions, permit them all to 
give him their advice; for that although he had 
not been by nature for moderation, yet would 
the death of Caius afford him a sufficient de- 
monstration how soberly he ought to act in 
that station.” 

3. This message was delivered by Agrippa; 
to which the senate replied, That “since they 
had an army, and the wisest consuls on their 
side, they would not endure a voluntary 


a 
, * 
s 


slavery.” When Claudius heard what answer 
the senate had made, he sent Agrippa to them 
again, with the following message, That “he 
could not bear the thoughts of betraying them 
that had given their oaths to be true to him; 
and that he saw he must fight, though unwill- 
ingly, against such as he had no mind to fight; 
that however, [if it must come to that,] it was 
proper to choose a place without the city for 
the war; because it was not agreeable to piety 
to pollute the temples of their own city wi 
the blood of their own countrymen, and this 
only on occasion of their imprudent conduct.” 
And when Agrippa had heard this message, he 
delivered it to the senators. 

4. In the mean time, one of the soldiers be- 
longing to the senate drew his sword, and cried 
out, “O my fellow soldiers, what is the mean- 
ing of this choice of ours, to kill our brethren, 
and to use violence to our kindred that are with 
Claudius? while we may have him for our em- 
peror whom no one can blame, and who hath 
so many just reasons [to lay claim to the go- 
vernment;] and this with regard to those against 
whom we are going to fight.” When he had 
said this, he marched through the whole senate. 
and carried all the soldiers along with him 
Upon which all the patricians were immediate- 
ly ata great fright at being thus deserted. But 
still, because there appeared no other way 
whither they could turn themselves for deliver- 
ance, they made haste the same way with the 
soldiers, and went to Claudius. But those that 
had the greatest luck in flattering the good for- 
tune of Claudius betimes, met them before the 
walls with their naked swords, and there was 
reason to fear that those that came first might 
have been in danger, before Claudius could 
know what violence the soldiers were going to 
offer them, had not Agrippa ran before, and 
told him what a dangerous thing they were 
going about, and that unless he restrained the 
violence of these men, who were in a fit of 
madness against the patricians, he would lose 
those on whose account it was most desirable 
to rule, and would be emperor over a desert. 

5. When Claudius heard this, he restrained | 
the violence of the soldiery, and received the 
senate into the camp, and treated them after 
an obliging manner, and went out with them 
presently to offer their thank-offerings to God, 
which were proper upon his first coming to the 
empire. Moreover, he bestowed on Agrippa — 
his whole paternal kingdom immediately, and 
added to it, beside those countries that had 
been given by Augustus to Herod, Trachonitig — 
and Auranitis, and still besides these, that king- | 
dom which was called the kingdom of Lysanias. 
This gift he declared to the people by a decree, — 
but ordered the magistrates *o have the do- | 
nation engraved on tables of brass, and to be — 
set up in the capitol. He bestowed on his 
brother Herod, who was also his son-in-law, by 
marrying [his daughter] Bernice, the kingdot 
of Chalcis. f 

6. So now riches flowed in to Agrippa by 
his enjoyment of so large a dominion, nor did — 
he abuse the money he had on small matters 


; 


q 








4 


_but he began to encompass Jerusalem with such 
a wall, which had it been brought to perfection 
_ had made it impracticable for the Romans to 
taxe it by siege; but his death which happened 
at Ceesarea, before he had raised the walls to 

their due height, prevented him. He had then 
reigned three years, as he had governed his 
' tetrarchies three other years. He left behind 
hrm three daughters, born to him by Cypros, 
viz. Bernice, Mariamne, and Drusilla, and a son 
born of the same mother, whose name was 

Agrippa: he was left a very young child, so 

that Claudius made the country a Roman pro- 

vince, and sent Cuspius Fadus to be its procu- 
rater, and after him Tiberius Alexander, who, 
making no alterations of the ancient laws, kept 
the nation in tranquillity. Now after this, He- 
rod the king of Chalcis died, and left behind 
him two sons, born to him of his brother’s 
daughter Bernice; their names were Bernici- 
anus and Ayrcanus. [He also left behind him] 
_ Aristobulus, whom he had by his former wife, 

Mariamne. There was besides another brother 
of his that died a private person; his name was 
also 4ristobulus, who left behind him a daugh- 
ter, whose name was Jotape: and these, as I 
have formerly said, were the children of Aris- 
tobulus the son of Herod, which Aristobulus 
and Alexander were born to Herod, by Mari- 
amne, and were slain by him. But as for Al- 
exander’s posterity, they reigned in Armenia. 


CHAPTER XII 


— Many tumults under Cumanus, which were com- 
posed by Quadratus. Felix is procurator of 
Judea. Agrippa is advanced from Chalcis to 
a greater kingdom. 


§ 1. Now afier the death of Herod, king of 
Chalcis, Claudius set Agrippa, the son of Agrip- 
pa, over his uncle’s kingdom, while Cumanus 
took upon him the office of procurator of the 
rest, which was a Roman province, and therein 
he succeeded Alexander, under which Cuma- 
nus began the troubles, and the Jew’s ruin came 
on; for when the multitude were come together 
to Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, 
and a Roman cohort stood over the cloisters of 
the temple, (for they always were armed and 
kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any in- 
novation, which the multitude thus gathered 
together might make,) one of the soldiers pull- 
ed back his garment, and, cowering down after 
an indecent manner, turned his breech to the 
Jews, and spoke such words as you might ex- 
pect upon such a posture. At this the whole 
multitude had indignation, and made a clamor 
to Cumanus, that he would punish the soldier; 
while the rasher part of the youth, and such as 
were naturally the most tumultuous, fell to fight- 
ing, and caught up stones and threw them at 
the soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid 
Test all the people should make an assault upon 

_ him, and sent to call for more armed men, who, 

when they came in great numbers into the 

cloisters, the Jews were in avery great conster- 

ation, and being beaten out of: the temple, 

_ they ran into the city, and the violence with 

which they crowded to get out was so great, 
! 


ok | 3 BOOK I1.—CHAPTER XII. 


S61 
that they trod upon each other, and squeezed 
one another, till ten thousand of them were 
killed, insomuch that this feast became the 
cause of mourning to the whole nation, and 
every family lamented [their own relations.) 

2. Now there followed after this another ca- 
lamity, which arose from. a tumult made by 
robbers; for at the public road of Bethoron, 
one Stephen, a servant of Ceesar, carried some 
furniture, which the robbers fell upon, and 
seized; upon this Cumanus sent men to go 
round about to the neighboring villages, and to 
bring their inhabitants to him bound, as laying 
it to their charge that they had not pursued af- 
ter the thieves, and caught them. Now here 
it was that a certain soldier, finding the sac:vd 
book of the law, tore it to pieces, and threw it 
into the fire.* Hereupon the Jews were in 
great disorder, as if their whole country were 
in a flame, and assembled themselves so many 
of them by their zeal for their religion, as by 
an engine, and ran together with united clamor 
to Czsarea, to Cumanus, and made supplica- 
tion to him, that he would not overlook this 
man, who had offered such an affront to God, 
and to his law, but punish him for what he had 
done. Accordingly, he, peceiving that the 
multitude would not be quiet unless they had 
a comfortable answer from him, gave order 
that the soldier should be brought, and drawn 
through those that required to have him pun- 
ished to execution; which being done, the Jews 
went their ways. 

3. After this there happened a fight between 
the Galileans and the Samaritans; it happened 
at a village called Geman, which is situate in 
the great plain of Samaria, where, as a great 
number of Jews were going up to Jerusalem to 
the feast, [of tabernacles,] a certain Galilean 
was slain; and besides a vast number of peo- 
ple ran together out of Galilee, in order to fight 
with the Samaritans; but the principal men 
among them came to Cumanus, and besought 
him, that before the evil became incurable, he 
would come mnto Galilee, and bring the authors 
of this murder to punishment, for that there was 
no other way to make the multitude separate 
without coming to blows. However, Cumanus 
postponed their supplications to the other affairs 
he was then about, and sent the petitioners away 
Without success. 

4. But when the affair of this murder came 
to be told at Jerusalem, it put the multitude into 
‘disorder, and they left the feast, and without 
any generals to conduct them, they marched 
with great violence to Samaria; nor would they 
be ruled by any of the magistrates that were 
set over them, but they were managed by one 
Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and by Alexander, 
in these their thievish and seditious attempts. 
These men fell upon those that were in the 
neighborhood of the Acrabatene toparchy, and 
slew them, without sparing any age, and set the 
villages on fire. 


* Reland notes here, that the Talmud, in recounting ten 
sad accidents for which the Jews ought to rend their gar- 
ments, reckons this for one, “‘when they aear that the law 
of God is burnt.”’ 


362 


5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, 
called the troop of Sebaste, out of Czsarea, 
and came to the assistance of those that were 
spoiled; he also seized upon a great number of 
those that followed Eleazar, and slew more of 
them. And as for the rest of the multitude of 
those that went so zealously to fight with the Sa- 
maritans, the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed 
with sackcloth, and having ashes on their heads, 
and begged of them to go their ways, lest by 
their attempt to revenge themselves upon the 
Samaritans, they should provoke the Romans 
to come against Jerusalem, to have compassion 
upon their country and temple, their children 
and their wives, and not bring the utmost dan- 
gers of destruction upon them, in order to 
avenge themselves upon one Galilean only. 
Tie Jews complied with these persuasions of 
theirs, and dispersed themselves; but still there 
wis a great number who betook themselves to 
robbing, in hopes of impunity, and rapines 
and insurrections of the bolder sort happened 
over the whole country; and the men of pow- 
er among the Samaritans came to Tyre, to 
Ummidius Quadratus,* the president of Sy- 
rit, and desired that they that had laid waste 
the country might be punished: the great men 
also of the Jews, and Jonathanson of Ananus, 
the high priest, came thither, and said, that the 
Samaritans were the beginners of the disturb- 
ance, on account of that murder they had com- 
mitted, and that Cumanus had given occasion 
ro what had happened, by bis unwillingness to 
punish the original authors of that murder. 

6. But Quadratus put both parties off for 
that time, and told therh, that when he should 
come to those places, he would make a diligent 
inquiry after every circumstance. After which 
he went to Caesarea, and crucified all those 
whom Cumanus had taken alive; and when 
from thence he was come to the city Lydda, 
he heard the affair of the Samaritans, and sent 
for eighteen of the Jews whom he had learned 
to have been concerned in that fight, and be- 
headed them; but he sent two others of those 
that were of the greatest power among them, 
and both Jonathan and Ananias, the high 
priests, as also Ananus the son of this Ananias, 
apd certain others that were eminent among 
the Jews, to Caesar; as he did in like manner 
by the most illustrious of the Samaritans. He 
also ordered that Cumanus [the procurator] 
and Celer the tribune should sail to Rome, in 
order to give an account of what had been 
done to Cesar. When he had finished these 
matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, 
and fifiding the multitude celebrating their 


feast of unleavened bread without any tumult, | wo Roman procurators, the one over Galilee, the other 


1e returned to Antioch. 

7. Now when Cesar at Rome had heard 
what Cumanus and the Samaritans had to say, 
(where it was done in the hearing of Agrippa, 
who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews, 
as in like manner many of the great men stood 
gy Cumanus,) he condemned the Samaritans, 


* This Ummidius, or, Numidius, or as Tacitus calls him, 
Vinidsus Quadratus, is mentioned in an ancient inscription, 
still preserved, as Spanheim bere informas us, which calls 
kim Ummidivs Quadratus. 


WARS OF THE ows. 


—_——— 








} 


and commanded that three of the most power 
ful men among them should be put to death | 
he banished Cumanus, and sent Celer bound 
to Jerusalem, to be delivered over to the Jews” 
to be tormented; that he should be drawn 
round the city, and then beheaded. ¥ 

8. After this Ceesar sent Felix,* the brother 
of Pallas to be procurator of Galilee, and Sa-— 
maria, and Perea, and removed Agrippa from _ 
Chalcis unto a greater kingdora; for he gave 
him the tetrarchy which had belonged to Phi © 
lip, which contained Batanea, Trachonitis, arad 
Gaulanitis: he added to it the kingdom of Ly-— 
sanias, and that province Raaien. which Varua — 
had governed. But Claudius himself, when — 
he had administered the government thirteen _ 
years eight months and twenty days, died, and — 
left Nero to be his successor in the empire, 
whom he had adopted by his wife Agrippina’s — 
delusions, in order to be his successor, although — 
he had a son of his own, whose name was Bri- — 
tannicus, by Messalina his former wife, and a 
daughter whose name was Octavia, whom he ~ 
had married to Nero; he had also another 
daughter by Petina, whose name was Antonia, — 


CHAPTER wpe sede i 

Vero adds four cities to ippa’s ki in 
but the other parts o Sadia under Fela i 
The disturbances which were raised by the Si-— 
carii, the Magicians, and an Egyptian false 
prophet. The Jews and Syrians have a con-— 
test at Caesarea. 


§ 1. Now as to the many things in which — 


Nero acted like a madman, out of the extrava- — 
gant degree of the felicity and riches which he — 
enjoyed, and by that means used his good for- — 
tune to the injury of others; and after what — 
manner he slew his brother, and wife, and — 
mother, from whom his barbarity spread itself _ 
to others that were most nearly related to him, — 
and how, at last, he was so distracted that he 
became an actor in the scenes, and upon the 


* Take the character of this Felix, (who is well known — 
from the Acts of the Apostles, particularly from his trembling, — 
when St. Paul discoursed of righteousness, chastity, and judg- 
ment to come, Acts xxiv. 25, and no wonder, when we have — 
elsewhere seen that he lived in adultery with Drusilla — 
another man’s wife, Antiq. b. xx. ch. vii. sect. 1,) in the 
words of Tacitus, produced here by Dean Aldrich: “Felix ~ 
exercised,” says Tacitus “the authority of a king, with the — 
disposition of a slave, and relying upon the great power of 
his brother Pallas at court, thought he might safely be guilty © 
of all kinds of wicked practices.’? Observe also the time 
when he was made procurator, 4. D. 52, that when St. Paul 
pleaded his cause before him, 4. D. 58, he might have been ~ 
many years a judge unto that nation, as St. Paul says he ha 
then been, Acts. xxiv. 10. But as to what Tacitus nere says 
that before the death of Cumanus, Felix was proct rator over — 
Samaria only, it does not well agree with St. Paul’s worda, 
who would hardly have called Samaria a Jewish nation Im 
short, since what T'acitus here says is about countries 
remote from Rome, where he lived, since what he says of — 























Samaria, at the same time, is without all example elsewhere; 
and since Josephus, who lived at that very time in Judea, ap- — 
pears to have known nothing of this procuratorship of Fe¥y 

before the death of Cumanus, I much suspect the story itself 
as nothing better than a mistake of Tacitus, especially wh 
it seems not only omitted, but contradicted by Josephus; as 

any one.may find who compares their histories together. — 
Possibly Felix might have been a subordinate judge among 
the Jews some time before under Cumanus; but that he wat 

in earnest a procurator of pea dai before, I do not believe, 


bles, at 4. D 49. 


ars a 


BOUK IL—CHAPTER XIL 


_ theatre, I omit to say any more about them, 
_ because there are writers enough upon those 


subjects everywhere; but I shall turn myself to 
those actions of his time in which the Jews 


_ were concerned. 


2. Nero, therefore, bestowed the kingdom of 
the Lesser Armenia upon Aristobulus,* Herod’s 
son, and he added to Agrippa’s kingdom four 
cities, with the toparchies to them belonging; 
I mean Abila, and that Julias which is in Pe- 
rea, Tarichea also, and Tiberias of Galilee; but 
over the rest of Judea he made Felix procura- 
tor This Felix took Eleazar the arch robber, 
ana many that were with him, alive, when 
they had ravaged the country for twenty years 


_ together, and sent them to Rome; but as to the 


number of the robbers he caused to be cruci- 
fied, and of those who were caught among 
them, and whom he brought to punishnifent, 
they were a multitude not to be enumerated. 
3. When the country was purged of these, 
there sprang up another sort of robbers in Je- 
rusalem, who were called Sicarii, who slew 
men in the day-time, and in the midst of the 
city: this they did chiefly at the festivals, when 
they mingled themselves among the multitude, 
and concealed daggers under their garments, 
with which they stabbed those that were their 
enemies; and when any fell down dead, the 
murderers became a part of those that had in- 
dignation against them, by which means they 


_tppeared persons of such reputation that they 


could by no means be discovered. The first 
man who was slain by them was Jonathan the 
high priest, after whose death many were slain 


every day, while the fear men were in of be- 


‘ing so served was more afflicting than the ca- 


lamity itself; and while every body expected 
death every hour, as men do in war,so men 
were obliged to look before them, and to take 
notice of their enemies at a great distance, nor, 
if their friends were coming to them, durst they 
trust them any longer; but, in the midst of their 
suspicions and guarding of themselves they 
were slain. Such was the celerity of the plot- 
ters against them, and so cunning was their 
contrivance. 

4. There was also another body of wicked 
men gotten together, not so impure in their ac- 


tions, but more wicked in their intentions, who 


laid waste the happy state of the city no Jess 
than did these murderers. ‘These were such 
men as deceived and deluded the people under 
oretence of divine inspiration, but were for pro- 
uring innovations and changes of the govern- 
izent; and these prevailed with the multitude 
to act like madmen, and went before them into 
the wilderness, as pretending that God would 
there show them the signals of liberty. But 


Felix tho ight this procedure was to be the be- 


ginning of a revolt; so he sent some horsemen 
and footmen, both armed, who destroyed a great 


- mumber of them. 


5. But there was an Egyptian false prophet, 
that did the Jews more mischief than the for- 
mer; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be 


| a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand 


ae 


* i. e. Herod, king of Chalcis 


a a 


563 


men that were deluded by him; tnese he led 
round about from the wilderness to the mount 
which was called the mount of Olives, and wa. 
ready to break into Jerusalem by force from 
that place; and if he could but once conquer 
the Roman garrison and the people, he intend- 
ed to domineer over them by the assistance of 
those guards of his that were to break into the 
city with him. But Felix prevented his at- 
tempt, and met him with his Roman soldiers, 
while all the people assisted him in his attack 
upon them, insomuch that, when it came to a 
battle, the Egyptian ran away, with a few oth- 
ers, while the greatest part of those that were 
with him were either destroyed or taken alive: 
but the rest of the multitude were dispersed 
every one to their own homes, and there con- 
cealed themselves. 

6. Now when these were quieted, it happen- 
ed, as it does in a diseased body, that another 
part was subject to an inflammation; for a com- 
pany of deceivers and robbers got together, and 
persuaded the Jews to revolt, and exhorted 
them to assert their liberty, inflicting death on 
those that continued in obedience to the Ro- 
man government, and saying, that such as will- 
ingly chose slavery, ought to be forced from 
such their desired inclinations; for they parted 
themselves into different bodies, and lay in wait 
up and down the country, and plundered the 
houses of the great men, and slew the men 
themselves, and set the villages on fire; and this 
till all Judea was filled with the effects of their 
madness. And thus the flame was every day 
more and more blown up, till it came to a di 
rect war. ‘ 

7. There was also another disturbance at Ce- 
sarea; those Jews who were mixed with the 
Syrians that lived there, raising a tumult against 
them. The Jews pretended that the city was 
theirs, and said, that he who built it was a Jew, 
meaning king Herod. The Syrians confessed 
also that its builder was a Jew, but they still 
said, however, that the city was a Grecian city 
for that he who set up statues and temples in it 
could not design it for the Jews. On which 
account both parties had a contest with one 
another; and this contest increased so much, 
that it came at last to arms, and the bolder sort 
of them marched out to fight; for the elders of 
the Jews were not able to put a stop to their 
own people that were disposed to be tumultu- 
ous, and the Greeks thought it a shame for them 
to be overcome by the Jews, Now these Jews 
exceeded the others in riches, and strength of 
body; but the Grecian part had the advantage 
of assistance from the soldiery; for the greates 
part of the Roman garrison was raised out of 
Syria, and being thus related to the Syrian 
part, they were ready to assist it. However, 
the governors of the city were concerned to 
keep all quiet, and whenever they caught 
those that were most for fighting on either 
side, they punished them with stripes and 
bonds. Yet did not the sufferings of those that 
were caught affright the remainder, or make 
them desist; but they were still more and more 
exasperated, and deeper engaged in the sedition. 


564 


And as Felix came once into the market place, 
and commanded the Jews, when they had beat- 
en the Syrians, to go their ways, and threaten- 
ed them if they would not; and as they would 
not obey him, he sent his soldiers out upon 
them, and slew a great many of them, upon 
which it fell out that what they had was plun- 
dered. And as the sedition still continued, he 
ehose out the most eminent men on both sides, 
as ambassadors to Nero, to argue about their 
several privileges. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


Festus succeeds Felix, who 1s succeeded by Albi- 
nus, as he is by Florus; who, by the barbarity 
of his government, forces the Jews into the war. 


§ 1. Now it was that Festus succeeded Fe- 
lix, as procurator, and made it his business to 
correct those that made disturbances in the coun- 
try. So he caught the greatest part of the rob- 
bers, and destroyed a great many of them. But 
then Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not 
execute his office as the other had done; nor 
was there any sort of wickedness that could 
be named, but he had a hand in it. Accord- 

_ingly, he did not only, in his political capacity, 
steal and plunder every one’s substance, nor 
did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, 
but he permitted the relations of such as were 
in prison for robbery, and had been laid there, 
either by the senate of every city, or by the 
former procurators, to redeem them for money; 
and nobody remained in the prisons, as a male- 
factor, but he who gave him nothing. At this 
time it was, that the enterprises of the sediti- 
ous at Jerusalem were very“formidable: the 
principal men among them purchasing leave of 
Albinus to go on with their seditious practices; 
while that part of the people who delighted in 
disturbances joined themselves to such as had 
fellowship with Albinus: and every ene of 
those wicked wretches was encompassed with 
uis own band of robbers, while himself, like 
an arch robber, or a tyrant, made a figure 
among his company, and abused his authority 
over those about him, in order to plunder those 
that lived quietly. The effect of which was 
this, that those who lost their goods were forced 
to hold their peace, when they had reason to 
show great indignation at what they had suf- 
fered; but those who had escaped, were forced 
to flatter him that deserved to be punished, out 
of the fear they were in of suffering equally 
with the others. Upon the whole, nobody 
durst speak their minds, for tyranny was gener- 
ally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds 
gown Which brought the city to destruction. 

2. And though such was the character of 
Albinus, yet did Gessius Florus,* who succeed- 
ed to him, demonstrate him to have been a 
m ‘st excellent person, ypon the comparison; for 


* Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of 
all he Roman procurators of Judea, and the immediate oc- 
cason of the Jewish war, at the twelfth year of Nero, and 

_ the seventeenth of Agrippa. or A. D. 66, the history in the 
twenty books of Josephus’s Antiquities ends; although Jose- 
phus did not finish these books till the 13th of Domitian, or 
A. D 93, twenty-seven years afterward; as he did not finish 
their Appendix, containing an account of his own life, till 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 

























the former did the greatest part of his rogueries — 
in private, and witha sort of dissimulation; but 
Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the - 
nation after a pompous manner: and as though © 
he had been sent as an executioner to punish 
condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of 
rapine or of vexation; where the case was really 
pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things 
of the greatest turpitude he was most impudent, 
Nor could any one outdo him in disguising the — 
truth, nor could any one contrive more subtil — 
ways of deceit than he did. He indeed thought ~ 
it but a petty offence to get money out of sin- — 
gle’ persons, so he spoiled whole cities, and © 
ruined entire bodies of men at once, and did 
almost publicly proclaim it all the country over; 
that they had liberty given them to turn rob- — 
bers, upon this condition, that he might go shares 
with them in the spoils they got. According- 
ly, this his greediness of gain was tne occasion 
that entire toparchies were brought to desola- — 
tion; and a great many of the people left their — 
own country, and fled into foreign provinces. 

3. And truly, while Cestius Gallus was pre- — 
sident of the province of Syria, nobody durst 
do so muchas send an embassage to him against 
Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem, — 
upon the approach of the feast of unleavened 
bread, the people came about him not fewer in — 
number than three millions:* these besought 
him to commiserate the calamities of their na- — 
tion, and cried out upon Florus as the bane of — 
their country. But as he was present, and ~ 
stood by Cestius, he laughed at their words, 
However, Cestius, when he had quieted the — 
multitude, and had assured them that he would — 
take care that Florus should hereafter treat — 
them in a more gentle manner, returned to An- — 
tioch: Florus also conducted him as far as Ce- 
sarea, and deluded him, though he had at that 
very time the purpose of showing his anger at — 
the nation, and procuring a war upon them, ~ 
by which means alone it was that he supposed — 
he might conceal his enormities; for he expect-_ 
ed that, if the peace continued, he should have ~ 
the Jews for his accusers before Cesar; but — 
that if he could procure them to make a revolt, y 
he should divert their laying lesser crimes to — 
his charge, by a misery which was so much — 
greater; he therefore did every day augment 
their calamities, in order to induce them to a — 
rebellion. ‘a 

4, Now at this time it happened, that the 
Grecians at Ceesarea had been too hard for the — 
Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government 
of the city, and had brought the judicial deter: — 
mination; at the same time began the war, it — 
the twelfth year of the reign of Nero and the 
seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa, in the— 
month of Artemisius [Jyar.] Now the.occasion 
of this war was by no means proportionable to 


.! 
y 
3 
4 
q 


















Agrippa was dead, which happened in the third year of Tra- 
jan, or A, D. 100, as I have several times observed before. 

*Here we may note, that 3,000,000 of the Jews were pre 
sent at the passover, A. D. 65, which confirms what Jose — 
phus elsewhere informs us of, that at a passover alittle ater, 
they counted 256,500 paschal lambs, which at twelve to eacy 
lamb, which is no immoderate calculation, come to 3,078 : 
see b. vi. ch. ix. sect. 3. 


BOOK Il—CHAPTER XIV 


mose heavy calamities which it brought upon 
ws. Fer the Jews that dwelt at Caesarea had a 
synagogue near the place, whose owner was a 
certain Caesarean Greek; the Jews had endea- 
vored frequently to have purchased the posses- 
sion of the place, and had offered many times 
as value for its price; but as the owner over- 
ook xd their offers, so did he raise other build- 
mgs upon the place, in way of affront to 
them, and made working shops of them, and 
left them but a narrow passage, and such as 
was very troublesome for them to go along to 
their synagogue. Whereupon the warmer part 
of the Jewish youth went hastily to the work- 
men, and forbade them to build there: but as 
Florus would not permit them to use force, the 
Ee men of the Jews, with John the publican, 
eing in the utmost distress what to do, per- 
suaded Florus, with the offer of eight talents, 
to hinder the work. He then, being intent 
upon nothing but getting money, promised he 
would do for them all they desired of him, 
and then went away from Cesarea to Sebaste, 
and left the sedition to take its full course, as if 
he had sold a license to the Jews to fight it out. 

5. Now on the next day, which was the 
seventh day of the week, when the Jews were 
crowding apace to their synagogue, a certain 
man of Ceesarea, of a seditious temper, got an 
earthen vessel, and set it with the bottom up- 
ward at the entrance of that synagogue, and 
sacrificed birds.* This thing provoked the Jews 
to an incurable degree, because their laws were 
affronted, and the place was polluted. Where- 
upon the sober and moderate part of the Jews 
thought it proper to have recourse to their go- 
vernors again; while the seditious part, and 
such as were in the fervor of their youth, were 
vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditious 
also among the [Gentiles of] Cresarea stood 
ready for the same purpose; (for they had by 
agreement, sent the man to sacrifice beforehand, 
as ready to support him;) so that it soon came 
to blows. Hereupon Jacundus, the master of 
the horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, 
came thither and took away the earthen vessel, 
and endeavored to put a stop to the sedition; 
but when he was overcome by the violence of 
the people of Czesarea, the Jews caught up 
their books of the law, and retired to Narbata, 
which was a place to them belonging, distant 
from Czsarea sixty furlongs. But John and 
twelve of the principal men with him, went to 
Florus, to Sebaste, and made a lamentable com- 
plaint of their case, and besought him to help 
them; and with all possible decency put him 

‘in nind of the eight talents they had given 
him: but he had the men seized upon, and put 
In prison, and accused them for carrying the 
book ; of the law out of Ceesarea. 

6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, 
although they took this matter very ill, yet did 
they restrain their passion; but Florus acted 
nerein as if he had been hired, and blew up 
the war into a flame, and sent some to take 


* fake here Dr. Hudson’s very pertinent note:—“‘By this 
actiun,”’ says he, “the killing of a bird over an earthen yes- 
sel, the Jews were exposed as a leprous people; for that was 
70 be done by their law in the cleansing of aleyer. ‘T.evit. 


seventeen talents out of tne sacred treasure 
and pretended that Caesar wanted them. At 
this the people were in confusion immediately 
and ran together to the temple, with prodigious 
clamors, and called upon Cesar by name, and 
besought him to free them from the tyranny of 
Florus. Some also of the seditious cried ou 
upon Florus, and cast the greatest reproathes 
upon him, and carried a basket about and 
begged some spills of money for him, as for 
one that was destitute of possessions, and in a 
miserable condition. Yet was not he made 
ashamed hereby of his love of money but was 
more enraged, and provoked y. gv still more 
and instead of coming to Cesarea, as he ought 
to have done, and quenching the flame of war 
which was beginning thence, and so taking 
away the occasion of any disturbances, on 
which account it was that he had received a 
reward [of eight talents,] he marched hastily 
with an army of horsemen and footmen against 
Jerusalem, that he might gain his will by the 
arms of the Romans, and might by his terror, 
and by his threatenings, bring the city into 
subjection. 

7. But the people were desirous of making 
Florus ashamed of his attempt, and met his 
soldiers with acclamations, and put themselves 
in order to receive him very submissively 
But he sent Capito, a centuriqn, beforehand, 
with fifty soldiers, to bid thers go back, and 
not now make a show of receiving him in an 
obliging manner, whom they had so foully re- 
proached before; and said, that it was incum- 
bent on them, in case they had generous souls, 
and were free speakers, to jest upon him to 
his face, and appear to he lovers of liberty, not 
only in words, but with their weapons also. 
With this message was the multitude amazed, 
and upon the coming of Capito’s horsemen 
into the midst of them, they were dispersed 
before they could salute Florus, or manifest 
their submissive behavior to him. Accordingly, 
they retired to their own houses, and spent that 
night in fear and confusion of face. 

8. Nowat this time Florus took up his quar- 
ters at the palace; and on the next day he had 
his tribunal set before it, and sat upon it, when 
the high priests, and the men of power, and 
those of the greatest eminence in the city, came 
all before that tribunal; upon which Florus 
commanded them to deliver up to him those 
that had reproached him, and told them that 
they should themselves partake of the ven- 
geance to them belonging, if they did not prv- 
duce the criminals; but these demonstrated 
that the people were peaceably disposed, and 
they begged forgiveness for those that had 
spoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at al 
that in so great a multitude there should be 
some more daring than they ought to be, and 
by reason of their younger age, foolish Iso; 
and that it was impossible to distinguish those 
that offended from the rest, while every one 
was sorry for what he had done, and denied 


ch. xiv.) It is also known that the Gentiles reproached the 

ews as subject to the leprosy, and believed that they were 
driven out of Egypt on that account. This, that emrep 
person, Mr. Reland, suggested to me.”? 


566 


ita t of fear of what would follow; that he 
saght, Lowever, to provide for the peace of the 
natik.n, and to take such counsels as might 
preserve the city for the Romans, and rather 
for the sake of a great number of innocent 

eople, to forgive a few that were guilty, than 
or the sake of a few of the wicked, to put so 
large and good a body of men into disorder. 

9, Florus was more provoked at this, and 
called out aloud to the soldiers to plunder that 
which was called the upper market-place, and 
to slay such as they met with. So the soldiers 
taking this exhortation of their commander in 
a sense agreeable to their desire of gain, did 
not only plunder the place they were sent to, 
but forcing themselves into every house, they 
slew its inhabitants; so the citizens fled along 
the narrow lanes, and the soldiers slew those 
that they caught, and no method of plunder 
was omitted; they also caught many of the 
quiet people, and brought them before Florus, 
whom he first chastised with stripes, and then 
crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of 
those that were destroyed that day, with their 
wives and children, (for they did not spare 
even the infants themselves,) was about three 
thousand and six hundred. And what made this 
calamity the heavier, was this new method of 
Roman barbarity: for Florus ventured then to 
do what no one had done before, that is, to 
have men of the equestrian order whipped* 
and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who 
although they were by birth Jews, yet were 
they of Roman dignity notwithstanding. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Concerning Bernice’s .petition to Florus to spare 
the Jews, but in vain; as also how, after the 
seditious flame was quenched, it wos kindled 
again by Florus. 

§ 1. About this very time king Agrippa was 
going to Alexandria, to congratulate Alexander 
upon his having obtained the government of 
Egypt from Nero; but as his sister Bernice 
was come to Jerusalem, and saw the wicked 
practices of the soldiers, she was sorely affect- 
ed at it, and frequently sent the masters of her 
horse, and her guards, to Florus, and begged of 
him to leave off these slaughters; but he would 
not comply with her request, nor have any re- 
gard either to the multitude of those already 
slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, 
but only to the advantage he should make by 
this plundering; nay, this violence of the sol- 
diers broke out to such a degree of madness, 
that it spent itself on the queen herself, for 
they did not only torment and destroy those 
whom they had caught under her very eyes, 
but indeed had killed herself also, unless she 
had prevented them by flying to the palace, 
and had stayed there all night with her guards, 
which she had about her for fear of an insult 
from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Je- 


* Here we have examples of native Jews who were of 
the equestrian order among the Romans, and so ought never 
to have been whipped or crucified, according to the Roman 
my th see almost the like case in St. Paul himself, Acts xxii. 


oe ¥ 
; % 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


rusalem, in order to perform a vow* which she : 
had made to God; for it is usual with those — 
that had been either afflicted with a distemper — 
or with any other distresses, to make vows ~ 
and for thirty days before they are to offer 
their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to 
shave the hair of their head. Which things 
Bernice was now performing, and stood bare-_ 
foot before Florus’s tribunal, and besought him 
to spare the Jews.] Yet could she neither 
ave any reverence paid to her, nor could she es . 
cape without some danger of being slain herself, 

2. This happened upon the sixteenth day of — 
the month Artemisius [Jyar.] Now on the 
next day, the multitude, who were in a great 
agony, ran together to the upper market-place, — 
and made the loudest lamentations for those — 
that had perished; and the greatest part of the 
cries were such as reflected on Florus; at 
which the men of power were affrighted, to- 
gether with the high priests, and rent their 
garments, and fell down before each of them, 
and besought them to leave off, and not to pro- 
voke Florus to some incurable procedure, be- 
sides what they had already suffered. Ac 
cordingly, the multitude complied immediately, 
out of reverence to those who had desired it 
of them, and out of the hope they had that 
Florus would do them no more injuries. 

3. So Florus was troubled that the disturb- — 
ances were over, and endeavored to kindle 
that flame again, and sent for the high priests, 
with the other eminent persons, and said, the 
only demonstration that the people would not 
make any other innovations should be this, that 
they must go out and meet the soldiers that 
were ascending from Czesarea, whence two 
cohorts were coming; and while these men 
were exhorting the multitude so to do, he sent 
beforehand, and gave directions to the centu- 
rions of the cohorts, that they should give notice 
to those that were under them not to return — 
the Jews’ salutations;.and that if they made — 
any reply to his disadvantage, they should 
make use of their weapons. Now the high 


* This vow which Bernice (here and elsewhere called — 
queen, not only as daughter and sister to two kings, Asrippa A 
the Great, and Agrippa junior, but the widow of Herod, king © 
of Chaleis) came now to accomplish at Jerusalem, was not 
that of a Nazarite, but such a one as religious Jews used to — 
make in hopes of any deliverance from a disease, or other 
danger as Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty 
days’ abode at Jerusalem, for fasting and preparation against 
the oblation of a proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless — 
it were wholly voluntary in this great lady. It is not required 3 
in the law of Moses relating to Nazarites, Numb. vi. and is — 
very different from St. Paul’s time fer such preparntio v 
which was but one day, Acts xxi. 26. Sowe want alveadgin 
the continuation of the Antiquities to afford us hght here, as — 
they have hitherto done on so many occasions elsewhere, 
Perhaps in this age the traditions of the Pharisees had tig 
ed the Jews to this degree of rigor, not only as to these 
days’ preparation, but as to the going barefoot all that time — 
which here Bernice submitted to also. For we know that — 
as God’s and our Savior’s yoke is usually easy, and his bur- — 
den comparatively light, in such positive injunetions, Mat 
xi. 30, so did the Scribes and Pharisees someti nes bind wpe 
men heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, e+ on win they — 
themselves would not touch them with one oj their fingers, 
Matt. xxiii. 4; Luke xi. 46. However, Noldin» well observes; — 
De Herod. No, 404, 414, that Juvenal, in his axth satire ab 
ludes to this remarkable penance or submission of this Ber 
nice to Jewish discipline, and jests upon her tor it; as de 
Tacitus, Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius, mention he — 
as one well known at Rome, ibid. rie 










28 


ow 


2 
“ 


< 


BOOK II.—CHAPTER XVI. 


iests assembled the multitude in the temple, 
and desired them to go and meet the Romans, 
and to salute the cohorts very civilly, before 
their miserable case should become incurable. 
Now the seditious part would not comply with 
these persuasions, but the consideration of 
those that had been destroyed made them in- 
eline to those that were the boldest for action. 

4, At this time it was that every priest, and 
every servant of God, brought out the holy ves- 
pels, and the ornamental garments wherein 
they used to minister in sacred things. The 
harpers also, and the singers of hymns, came 
out with their instruments of music, and fell 
down before the multitude, and begged of them 
that they would preserve those holy ornaments 
to them, and not provoke the Romans to carry 
off those sacred treasures. You might also 
see then the high priests themselves, with dust 
sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with 
bosums deprived of any covering, but what 
was rent; these besought every one of the em- 
inent men by name, and the multitude in com- 
mon, that they would not for a small offence 
betray their country to those that were desirous 
to have it laid waste; saying, “What benefit 
will it bring to the soldiers to have a salutation 
from the Jews? or what amendment of your 
affairs will it bring you, if you do not now go 
out to meet them? and that if they saluted them 
civilly, all handle would be cut off from Florus 
to begin a war, that they should thereby gain 
their country, and freedom from all farther suf- 
ferings; and that, besides, it would be a sign of 
great want of command of themselves, if they 
should yield to a few seditious persons, while 
it was fitter for them, who were so great a peo- 
ple, to force the others to act soberly.” 

5. By these persuasions, which they used to 
the multitude, and to the seditious, they restrain- 
ed some by threatenings, and others by the re- 
verence that was paid them. After this they 
led them out, and they met the soldiers quietly, 
and after a composed manner, and when they 
were come up with them, they saluted them; 
but when they made no answer, the seditious 
exclaimed against Florus, which was the sig- 
nal given for falling upon them. ‘The soldiers, 
therefore, encompassed ‘them presently, and 
struck them with their clubs, and as they fled 
away, the horsemen trampled them down, so 
that a great many fell down dead by the strokes 
of the Romans, and more by their own violence 
in crushing one another. Now there wasa 

errible crowding about the gates, and while 
every body was making haste to get hefore 
another, the flight of them all was retarded, 
and a terrible destruction there was among those 
that fell down; for they were suffocated and 
droken to pieces by the multitude of those that 
were uppermost; nor could any of them be dis- 
tinguished by his relations in order to the care 
of his funeral; the soldiers also who beat them, 
‘ell upon those whom they overtook, without 


showing them any mercy, and thrust the mul- 


_ titude through the place called Bezetha,* as 


7 


_ orth side of the temple, whereon was the hospital with 


ji 


* I take this Bezetha to be that smal! hill adjoining to the 


567 


they forced their way in order to get in and seize 
upon the temple, and the tower Antonia. Flo- 
rus also being desirous to get those places inte 
his possession, brought such as were with him 
out of the king’s palace, and would have com- 
pelled them to get as far as the cite del [Anto- 
nia;] but his attempt failed, for the people turn- 
ed back upon him, and stopped the violence of 
his attempt, and as they stood upon the tops of 
their houses, they threw their darts at the Ro- 
mans, who, as they were sorely galled thereby, 
because those weapons came from above, and 
they were not able to make a passage through 
the multitude, which stopped up the narrow 
passages, they retired to the camp which wasat 
the palace. 

6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest 
Florus should come again, and get possession 
of the temple, through Antonia; so they got 
immediately upon those cloisters of the temple 
that joined to Antonia, and cut them down. 
This cooled the avarice of Florus, for whereas 
he was eager to obtain the treasures of God [in 
the temple,] and on that account was desirous 
of getting into Antonia; as soon as the cloisters 
were broken down, he left off his attempt; he 
then sent for the high priests and the sanhedrim, 
and told them that he was indeed himself go- 
ing out of the city, but that he would leave them 
as large a garrison as they should desire: here- 
upon they promised that they would make no 
innovations, in case he would leave them one 
band; but not that which had fought with the 
Jews, because the multitude bore ill will against 
that band, on account of what they had suffer- 
ed from it; so he changed the band as they de- 
sired and with the rest of his forces, returned 
to Ceesarea. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


Cestius sends Neopolitanus the tribune to see w 
what condition the affairs of the Jews wre. 
Agrippa makes a speech to the people of the 
Jews, that he may dwert them from their unten- 
tions of making war with the Romans. 


§ 1. However, Florus contrived another way 
to oblige the Jews to begin the war, and sent to 
Cestius, and accused the Jews falsely of revolt- 
ing [from the Roman government,] and imput- 
ed the beginning of the former fight to them, 
and pretended they had been the authors of 
that disturbance, wherein they were only the 
sufferers. Yet were not the governors of Je- 
rusalem silent upon this occasion, but did them- 
selves write to Cestius, as did Bernice also 
about the illegal practices of which Florus had 
been guilty against the city; who upon reading 
both accounts, consulted with his captains [what 
he should .1o.} Now some of them though it 
best for Cestius to go up with his army, either 
five porticos or cloisters, and beneath which was the sheep 
pool of Bethesda, into which an angel or messengér, at # 
certain season, descended, and where he or they who were 
the first put into the pool were cured, Jobn v. 1, &c. This sit 
uation of Bezetha, in Josephus, on the north side of the 
temple, and not far off the tower Antonia, exactly agrees te 
the place of the same pool at this day; only the remaining 
cloisters are but three; see Maundrel, page 106. The entire 
buildings seem to have been called the New City, and thix 


part, where was the hospital, peculiarly Bezetha or Bethea 
fa; see ch. xix. sect. 4. 


568 


to punish the revolt, it it was real, or to settle 
the Roman affairs on a surer foundation, if the 
Jews continued quiet under them: but he 
thought it best himself to send one of his inti- 
mate friends beforehand, to see the state of af- 
fairs, and to give him a faithful account of the 
intention of the Jews. Accordingly he sent 
one of his tribunes, whose name was Neopoli- 
tanus, who met with king Agrippa, as he was 
returning from Alexandria, at Jamnia, and told 
him who it was that sent him, and on what er- 
rand he was sent. 

2. And here it was that the high priests, and 
men of power among the Jews, as well as the 
sanhedrim, came to congratulate the king [upon 
his safe return;] and after they had paid him 
their respects, they lamented their own calami- 
ties, and related to him what barbarous treat- 
ment they had met with from Florus, At which 
barbarity Agrippa had great indignation, but 
transferred, after a subtil manner, his anger to- 
wards those Jews whom he really pitied, that 
he might beat down their high thoughts of 
themselves, and would have them believe that 
they had not been so unjustly treated, in order 
to dissuade them from avenging themselves. 
So these great men, as of better understanding 
than the rest, and desirous of peace, because 
of the possessions they had, understood that 
this rebuke which the king gave them was in- 
tended for their good: but, as to the people they 
came sixty furlongs out of Jerusalem, and con- 
gratulated both Agrippa and Neopolitanus; but 
the wives of those that had been slain, came 
running first of alland lamented. The people 
aiso, when they heard their mourning, fell 
into lamentations also, and besought Agrippa 
to assist them: they also cried out to Neopoli- 
tanus, and complained of the many miseries 
they had endured under Florus, and they show- 
ed them, when they were come into the city, 
how the market place was made desolate, and 
the houses plundered. They then persuaded 
Neopolitanus, by the means of Agrippa, that he 
would walk round the city, with only one ser- 
vant, as far as Siloam, that he might inform 
bimself, that the Jews submitted to all the rest 
of the Romans, and were only displeased at 
Florus by reason of his exceeding barbarity to 
them. So he walked round, and had sufficient 
experience of the good temper the people were 
in, and then went up to the temple, where he 
ealled the multitude together and highly com- 
mended them for their fidelity to the Romans, 
and earnestly exhorted them to keep the peace; 
and having performed such parts of divine wor- 
ship atthe temple as he was allowed to do, he 
returned to Cestius. 

3. But as for the multitude of the Jews, they 
addressed themselves to the king, and to the 
high priests, and desired they might have leave 
to send ambassadors to Nero against Florus, 
and not by their silence afford a suspicion that 
they had been the occasions of such great 
slaughter as had been made, and were disposed 
to revolt, alleging that they should seem to have 
been the first beginners of the war, if they did 
not prevent the report by showing who it was 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


that began it; and it appeared openly that they 
would not be quiet, if any body should hinder 
them from sending such an embassage. But 


_ 
b ja te tele 


Agrippa, although he thought it too dangerous 


a thing for them to appoint men to go asthe ac- 
cusers of Florus, yet did he not think it fit for 
him to overlook them, as they were in a dis- 
position for war. He therefore called the muk 
titude together into a large gallery, and placed 
his sister Bernice in the house of the Asmo- 
neans, that she might be seen by them, which 
house was over the gallery; at the passage te 


the upper city, where the bridge joined the 


temple to the gallery,) and spoke to them as fol- 
lows:— 

4, * “Had I perceived that you were all zeal- 
ously disposed to go to war with the Romans, 
and that the purer and more sincere part of the 
people did not purpose to live in peace, I had 
not come out to you, nor been so bold as to 
give you counsel; for all discourses that tend 
to persuade men to do what they ought to de 
are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed 
to do the contrary. But because some are 
earnest to go to war, because they are young, 
and without experience of the miseries it 
brings; and because some are for it, out of an 
unreasonable expectation of regaining their 
liberty; and because others hope to get by it, 
and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that 
in the confusion of your affairs they may gain 
what belongs to those that are too weak to re- 
sist them; I have thought proper to get you all 
together, and to say to you what I think to be 
for your advantage; that so the former may 


grow wiser, and change their minds, and that — 


the best men may come to no harm by the ill 
conduct of some others. And let not any one 
be tumultuous against me, in case what they 
hear me say do not please them; for as to those 
who admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a 
revolt, it will still be in their power to retain 
the same sentiments after my exhortation is 
over; but still my discourse will fall to the 


* In this speech of king Agrippa we have an authentie 
account of the extent and strength of the Roman empire 
when the Jewish war began. And this speech with other 
circumstances in Josephus, demonstrate how wise and how 
great a person this Agrippa was, and why Josephus eise 
where calls him @uvpzxriwretos, a most wonderful or aa 
mirable man, Contr. Ap. 1, 9. He is the same Agrippa whe 
said to St. Paul, lmost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, 
Acts xxvi. 28: and of whom St. Paul said, He was expert in 
all the customs and questions of the Jews, ver. 3; see another 
intimation of the limits of the same Roman empire, Of the 
War, b. iii. ch. v. seet. 7. But what seems to me very re- 


markable here is this, that when Josephus, in imitation of — 


the Greeks and Romans, for whose use he wrote his Anti- 


quities, did himself frequently compose the speeches which 


he put into others’ mouths, they appear, by the politeness of 
their coniposition, and their flights of oratory, to be not the 
real speeches of the persons concerned, who usually were 
no orators, but of his own elegant composition: the speeeb 
before us is of another nature, full of undeniable facts, and 
composed in a plain and unartful but moving way; so that — 


it appears to be king Agrippa’s own speech, and to have — 


been given Josephus by Agrippa himself, with whom Jose 
phus had the greatest friendship. Nor may we omit Agrip 
pa’s constant doctrine here, that this vast Roman empire 
was raised and supported by divine Providence; and that, — 
therefore, it was in vain for the Jews, or any others, to think 


of destroying it. Nor may we neglect to take notice of — 


Agrippa’s solemn appeal to the angels here used; the like © 


appeals to which we have in St. Paul, 1 Tim. v. 21, and by the 
apostles, in general, in the form of the ordination of bishops. — 
Constitut. Apost, viii. 4. 


} 


4 


; 


, 


| 


Ms BOOK II—CHAPTER XV}. i 


‘ 


_ ground, even with relation to those that have a 
_ mind to hear me, unless you will all keep si- 


568 


came first into the country. But so it was, that 
our ancestors and their kings, who were in 


_ lence. Iam well aware that they make a tra- 


| eo exclamation concerning the injuries that 


ave been offered you by your procurators, and 
soncerning the glorious advantages of liberty; 
but before I begin the inquiry, who are you that 
must go to war? and who they are against 
whom you must fight? I shall first separate 
those pretences that are by some connected 
together; for if you aim at avenging yourselves 
en those that have done you injury, why do 
you pretend this to be a war for recovering 
your liberty? but if you think all servitude in- 
tolerable, to what purpose serve your com- 
laints against your particular governors? for 
if they treated you with moderation, it would 
still be equally an unworthy thing to be in ser- 
vitude. Consider now the several cases that 
muy be supposed, how little occasion there is 
for your going to war. Your first occasion is 
the accusations you have to make against your 
procurators: now here you ought to be sub- 
missive to those in authority, and not give them 
any provocation; but when you reproach men 
greatly for small offences, you excite those 
whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for 
this will only make them leave off hurting you 
privately, and with some degree of modesty, 
and to lay what you have waste openly. Now 
nothing so much damps the force of strokes as 
bearing them with patience; and the quietness 
of those who are injured diverts the inju- 
rious persons from afflicting. But let us take 
it for granted, that the Roman ministers are in- 
jurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet 
ere they not all the Romans who thus injure 
you; nor hath Cesar, against whom you are 
ing to make war, injured you; it is not by 
their command that any wicked governor is 
sent to you; for they who are in the west can- 
not see those that are in the east; nor indeed is 
it easy for them there even to hear what is 
done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make 
war with a great many for the sake of one; to 
do so with such mighty people, for a small 
eause: and this when these people are not able 
to know of what you complain; nay, such 
crimes as we complain of may soon be cor- 
rected, for the same procurator will not con- 
tinue forever; and probably it is that the suc- 
cessors will come with more moderate incli- 
nations. But as for war, if it be once begun, 
it is not easily laid down again, nor borne 
without calamities coming therewith. How- 
ever as to the desire of recovering your liberty, 
it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas 
you ought to have labored earnestly in old time 
that you might never have lost it; for the first 
experience of slavery was hard to be endured, 
and the struggle that you might never have 
been subject to it would have been just; but 
that slave who hath been once brought into 
subjection, and then runs away, is rather a re- 
fractory slave than a lover of liberty, for it was 


shen the proper time for doing all that was) 


ible, that you might never have admitted 
Romaas [into vour city,] when Pompey 
72 


y 





much better circumstances than we are, both 
as to money and [strong] bodies, and [valiant] 
souls, did not bear the onset of a small body 
of the Roman army. And yet yeu, who have 
now accustomed yourselves to obedience from 
one generation to another, and who are s0 
much inferior to those who first submitted in 
your circumstances, will venture to oppose the 
entire empire of: the Romans; while those 
Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty 
of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; 
who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when 
he sailed upon the sea, and walked upon the 
land, and could not be contained by the seas, 
but conducted such an army as was too broad © 
for Europe, and made him run away like a fu 
gitive in a single ship, and broke so great a 
part of Asia at the lesser Salamis, are yet at 
this time servants to the Romans; and those in- 
junctions which are sent from Italy, become 
laws to the principal governing city of Greece. 
Those Lacedemonians also, who got the great 
victories at Thermopyle and Platea, and had 
Agesilaus [for their king,] and searched every 
corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same 
lords. These Macedonians also, who still fancy 
what great men their Philip and Alexander 
were, and see that the latter had promised 
them the empire over the world, these bear se 
great a change, and pay their obedience to 
those whom fortune hath advanced in their 
stead. Moreover, ten thousand other nations 
there are, who had greater reason than we to 
claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. 
You are the only people who think it a dis- 
grace to be servants to those to whom all the 
world hath submitted. What sort of an army 
do you rely on? What are the arms you de- 
pend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize 
upon the Roman seas; and where are those trea- 
sures which may be sufficient for your under- 
takings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that 
you are to make war with the Egyptians, and 
with the Arabians? Will you not carefully 
reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you 
not estimate your own weakness? Hath no 
your army been often beaten even by your 
neighboring nations; while the power of the 
Romans is invincible in all parts of the ha 
bitable earth? nay, rather, they seek for some 
what still beyond that, for all Euphrates 
not a sufficient boundary for them on the 
east side, nor the Danube on the north; and 
for their southern limit, Libya hath been 
searched over by them, as far as countries 
uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the 
west; nay, indeed, they have sought for xno- 
ther habitable earth beyomd the ocean. and 
have carried their arms as far as sucn 3ri- 
tish islands as were never known before. 
What, therefore, do you pretend to? Are 
you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the 
Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numer- 
ous than all men upon the habitable earth? 
What confidence is it that elevates you to ov 
pose the Romans? Perhaps it will be said, I 


570 


is hard toendure slavery. Yes, but how much 
aarder is this to the Greeks, who were esteem- 
ed the noblest of all people under the sun? 
These, though they inhabit in a large country, 
are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods! 
It isthe same case with the Macedonians, who 
have juster reason to claim their liberty than 
you have. What is the case of five hundred 
cities of Asia? do they not submit to a single 
governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? 
What need I speak of the Heniochi, and Cholchi, 
and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the 
Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and 
Meotis, who formerly knew not so muchasa lord 
of their own, but are now subject to three thou- 
sand armed men, and where forty long ships 
kept the sea in peace, which before was not 
navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong 
a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the 
people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, 
put in for liberty? But they are made tributa- 
ry without an army. What are the circum- 
stances of the Thracians, whose country ex- 
tends in breadth five days’ journey, and in 
length seven, and is of a much more harsh con- 
stitution, and much more defensible than yours, 
and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep 
off armies from attacking them? do not they 
sulmit to two thousand men of the Roman 
garrisons? Are not the Illyrians, who inhabit 
the country adjoining as far as Dalmatia and 
the Danube, governed by barely two legions; 
by which also they puta stop to the incursions 
of the Dacians? And for the Dalmatians, who 
have made such frequent insurrections in order 
to regain their liberty, and who could never 
before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they 
always gathered their forces together again, 
and revolted yet are they now very quiet un- 
der one Roman legion. Moreover, if great 
advantages might provoke any people to revolt, 
the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so 
thoroughly walled round by nature. On the 
east side by the Alps, on the north by the river 
Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean moun- 
tains, and on the west by the ocean. Now al- 
though these Gauls have such obstacles be- 
fore them to prevent any attack upon them, 
and have no fewer than three hundred and five 
~ nations among them; nay, have, as one may 
say, the fountains of domestic happiness with- 
in themselves, and send out plentiful streains 
of happiness over almost the whole world, these 
bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive 
their prosperous condition from them; and they 
undergo this, not because they are of effeminate 
winds, or because they are of an ignoble stock 
as having borne a war of eighty years, in or- 
der to preserve their liberty; but by reason of 
the great regard they have to the power of the 
Romans, and their good fortune, which is of 
greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, 
therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hun- 
dred soldiers, which are hardly so many as 
are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of 
the mines of Spain been sufficient for the sup- 
port of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could 
their vast distance from the Romans by land 


WARS OF THE JEWS. . 


and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribee 
of the Lusitanians and the Spaniards escape — 
no more could the ocean, with its tide, which 
yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, 
the Romans have extended their arms be-— 
yond the pillars of Hercules, and have walk-— 
ed among the clouds upon the Pyrenean 
mountains, and have subdued these nations. 
And one legion is a sufficient guard for these 
people, although they were so hard to he con- 
quered, and at a distance so remote from Rome, 
Who is there among you who hath not 
heard of the great number of the Germans? 


“You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them te 


be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the 
Romans have them among their captives every- 
where: yet these Germans, who dwell in an 
immense country, who have minds greater than 
their bodies, and a soul that despiseth deat 
and who are in rage more fierce than wil 
beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their 
enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman le- 
gions. Such of them as were taken captive be- 
came their servants; and the rest of the entire 
nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. 
Do you also who depend on the walls of Jeru- 
salem, consider what a wall the Britons had; 
for the Romans sailed away to them, and sub- 
dued them while they were encompassed by 
the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not 
less than the [continent of this] habitable earth: 
and four legions are a sufficient guard to so 
large an island. And why should I speak much 
more about this matter? while the Parthians, 
that most warlike body of men, and lords of so 
many nations, and encompassed with such 
mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans 
whereby you may see if you please, even in 
Italy, the noblest nation of the east, under the 
notion of peace, submitting to serve them 
Now when almost all people under the sun sub- 
mit to the Roman arms, will you be the only | 
people that make war against them? and tkas. 
without regarding the fate of the Carthaginiang | 
who in the midst of their brags of the great | 
Hannibal, and the nobility of their Phoenicirin | 
original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor im 
deed have the Cyreneans, derived from the la 
cedemonians, nor the Marmaride, a nation OX- 
tended as far as the regions uninhabitable fo 
want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place ter- 
rible to such as barely hear it described, the 
Naseimons and Moors, and the immense multé 
tude of the Numidians, been able to put a ste 
to the Roman valor. And as for the third part, 
of the habitable earth, [Africa,] whose natione 
are sO many that it is not easy to number ther 
and which is bounded by the Atlantic sea anc 
the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumer 
able multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Re 
Sea: these have the Romans subdued entirely. 
And besides the annual fruits of the eartl 
which maintained the multitude of the Rom 
for eight month in the year, this, over and above 
pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revent 
suitable to the necessities of the governmer 
Nor do they like you, esteem such injunetio 


a disgrace to them, although they have h to 




















BOOK I.—CHAPTER XV. 


Roman legion that abides among them. And 
indeed what occasion is there for showing you 
the power of the Romans over remote coun- 
tries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, 
in your neighborhood? Thiscountry is extended 
as far as the Ethiopiansand Arabia the Happy, 
and borders upon India: it hath seven millions 
five hundred thousand men, besides the in- 
habitants of Alexandria, as may be learned 
from the revenues of the poll-tax; yet it is not 
shamed to submit to the Roman government, 
Ithough it hath Alexandria as a grand tempta- 
tion to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people 
and of riches, and is, besides exceeding large, 
its longth being thirty furlongs, and its breadth 
no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to 
the Romans in one month than you do ina 
year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it 
sends corn to Rome, that supports it for four 
months [in the years] it is also walled round on 
all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or 
seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by 
lakes; yet have none of these things been found 
too strong for the Roman good fortune; how- 
ever, two legions that lie in that city are a bri- 
die both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and 
for the parts inhabited by the more noble Ma- 
cedonians. Where then are those people whom 
you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they 
come from the parts of the world that are un- 
inhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth 
are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you 
extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphra- 
tes, and suppose that those of your own nation 
that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assist- 
ance; but certainly these will not embarrass 
themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if 
they should follow such ill advice, will the Par- 
thians permit them so to do; for it is their con- 
cern to maintain the truce that is between them 
and the Romans, and they will be supposed to 
break the covenants between them, if any un- 
der their government march against the Ro- 
mans. What remains, therefore, is this, that 

ou have recourse to divine assistance; but this 
is already on the side of the Romans; for it is 
impossible that so vast an empire should be ret- 
. tled without God’s providence. Reflect upon 
‘it, how impossible it is for your zealous obser- 
vation of your religious customs to be here pre- 
served, which are hard to be observed even 
when you fight with those whom you are able 
to conquer; and how can you then most of all 
' hope for God’s assistance, when by being forced 
to transgress his law, you will make him turn his 
aie from you? and if you do observe the cus- 
oin of the Sabbath-days, and will not be pre- 
vaiied om to do any thing thereon, you will 
easily be taken, as were your forefathers by 
Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on 
those days on which the besieged rested. But 
if in time of war, you transgress the law of 
your country, I cannot tell on whose account 

ou will afterward go to war; for your concern 
“18 but one, that you do nothing against any of 
your forefathers; and how will you call upon 
‘God to assist you, when you are voluntarily 
' transgressing against his religion? Now all men 


a 


that go to war, do it either as depending on di 
vine, or on human assistance; but since your 
going to war will cut off both those assistances, 
those that are for going to war choose evident 
destruction. What hinders you from slaying 
your children and wives with your own hands, 
and burning this most excellent native city of 
yours? for by this mad prank you will, how- 
ever, escape the reproach of being beaten But 
it were best, O my friends, it were best, while 
the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the 
impending storm, and not to set sail out of the 
port into the middle of the hurricanes, for we 
justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes 
without foreseeing them; but for him who 
rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches 
[instead of commiseration.] But certainly no 
one can imagine that you can enter into a wat 
as by agreement, or that when the Romans have 
got you under their power, they will use you 
with moderation, or will not rather, for an ex- 
ample to other nations, burn your holy city, and 
utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of 
you who shall survive the war, will not be able 
to find a place whither to flee, since all men 
have the Romans for their lords already, or are 
afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, eee 
the danger concerns not those Jews that dwel 
here only, but those of them who dwell in oth- 
er cities also; for there is no people upon the 
habitable earth which have not some portion 
of you among them, whom your enemies will 
slay, in case you go to war, and on that account 
also; and so every city which hath Jews in it 
will be filled with slaughter for the sake of a 
few men, and they who slay them will be par- 
doned; but if that slaughter be not made by 
them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take 
arms against those that are so kind to you. 
Have pity, therefore, if not on your childien 
and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and 
its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve 
the holy house, with its holy furniture, for your- 
selves; for if the Romans get you under their 
power, they will no longer abstain from them; 
when their former abstinence shall have been 
so ungratefully requited. I call to witness 
your sanctuary and the holy angels of God, and 
this country common to us all, that I have not 
kept back any thing that is for your preserva- 
tion; and if you will follow that advice, which 
you ought to do, you will have that peace which 
will be common to you and to me; but if you 
indulge your passions, you will run those haz- 
ards which | shall be free from. 

5. When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he 
and his sister wept, and by their tears repress- 
ed a great deal of the violence of the people; 
but still they cried out, that “they would not 
fight against the Romans, but against Florus, 
ou account of what they had suffered by his 
means.” ‘To which Agrippa replied, “that 
what they had already done was like ruch as 
make war against the Romans; for you have 
not paid the tribute* which is due to Caesar 


* Julius Cesar had decreed, that the Jews of Jerusalem 
should pay an annual tribute to the Romans, excepting the 
city of Joppa, and for the Sabbatical year, ss Spanhemm ob 
verves from the Antia. b. xiv. ch x. sect. 6 


572 , 


and you have cut off the cloisters [of the 
temple] from joining to the tower Antonia. 
You will, therefore, prevent any occasion of 
revolt, if you will but join these together again, 
and if you will but pay your tribute; for the 
citadel does not now belong to Florus, nor are 
you to pay the tribute money to Florus.” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


How the war of the Jews with the Romans began. 
And concerning Manahem. 


§ 1. This advice the people hearkened to, 
and went up into the temple with the king and 
Bernice, and began to rebuild the cloisters: the 
rulers also and senators divided themselves 
into the villages, and collected the tributes, and 
soon got together forty talents, which was the 
sum that was deficient. And thus did Agrippa 
then put a stop to that war which was threat- 
ened. Moreover; he attempted to persuade 
the multitude to obey Florus, until Ceesar 
should send one to succeed him; but they were 
hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches 
upon the king, and got him excluded out of 
the city; nay, some of the seditious had the 
impudence to throw stones at him. So when 
the king saw that the violence of those that 
were for innovations was not to be restrained, 
and being very angry at the contumelies he 
had received, he sent their rulers, together 
with their men of power, to Florus, to Czsa- 
rea, that he might appoint whom he thought 
fit to collect the tribute in the country, while 
he retired into his own kingdom. 

2. And at this time it was that some of those 
that principally excited the people to go to 
war, made an assault upon a certain fortress 
called Masada. They took it by treachery, and 
slew the Romans that were there, and put 
others of their own party to keep it. At the 
same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the 
nigh priest, a very bold youth, who was at that 
time governor of the teinple, persuaded those 
that officiated in the divine service to receive 
no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And 
this was the true beginning of our war with 
the Romans; for they rejected the sacrifice of 
Cesar on this account; and when many of the 
high priests and principal men besought them 
not to omit the sacrifice, which it was custo- 
mary for them to offer for their princes, they 
would not be prevailed upon. These relied 
much upon their multitude, for the most 
flourishing part of the innovators assisted them: 
but they had the chief regard to Eleazar, the 
governor of the temple. 

3. Hereupon the men of power got together, 
and conferred with the high priests, as did also 
the principal men of the Pharisees; and think- 
ing all was at stake, and that their calamities 
were becoming incurable, took. counsel what 
was to be done. Accordingly they determin- 
ed to try what they could do with the sediti- 
ous by words, and assembled the people be- 
fore the brazen gate, which was that gate of 
the inner temple (court of the priests] which 
looked toward the sunrising. And, in the first 
place, they showed the great indignation they 


’ 


WARS OF THE JEWS. | “OE gil aa 


had at this attempt for « revolt, and for them 
bringing so great a war upon their country: af 
ter which they confuted their pretence as un- 
justifiable, and told them, that “their forefathers 
had adorned their temple in great part with do- 
nations bestowed on them by foreigners, and 
had always received what had heen presented. 
to them from foreign nations; and that they 
had been so far from rejecting any person 
sacrifice, (which would be the highest instance 
of impiety,) that they had themselves placed 
those donations about the temple which were 
still visible, and had remained there so long 4 
time: for they did now irritate the Romans to 
take arms against them, and invited them to 
make war upon them, and brought up novel 
rules of a strange divine worship, and deter- 
mined to run the hazard of having their city 
condemned for impiety, whiie they would not 
allow any foreigner, but Jews only, either to 
sacrifice or to worship therein. And if such 
a law should ever be introduced in the case of 
a single person only, he would have indigna- 
tion at it, as an instance of inhumanity deter- 
mined against him; while they have no regard 
to the Romans or to Cesar, and forbid even 
their oblations to be received also: that, how- 
ever, they cannot but fear, lest by rejecting his 
sacrifices, they shall not be allowed to offer 
their own; and that this city will lose its prin- 
cipality, unless they grow wiser quickly, and 
restore the sacrifices as formerly, and indeed 
amend the injury [they have offered to foreign- 
ers] before the report of it comes to the ears of 
those that have been injured.” 

4, And as they said these things, they pro- 
duced those priests that were skilful in the cus 
toms of their country, who made the report 
that “all their forefathers had received the sa- 
crifices from foreign nations.” But still not one 
of the innovators would hearken to what was 
said; nay, those that ministered about the tem- 
ple would. not attend their divine service, but 
were preparing matters for beginning the war. 
So the men of power perceiving that the sedi- 
tion was too hard for them to subdue, and that 
the danger which would arise from the Ro- 
mans would come upon them first of all, en- 
deavored to save themselves, and sent ambassa- 
dors; some to Florus, the chief of whom was 
Simon the son of Ananias; and others to Agrip 
pa, among whom the most eminent were 
and Antipas, and Costobarus, who were of the 
king’s kindred: and they desired of them both 
that they would come with an army to the city 
and cut off the sedition before it should be too 
hard to be subdued. Now this terrible mes 
sage was good news to Florus; and because 
his design was to have a war kindled, he gave 
the ambassadors no answer at all. But Agrip- 
pa was equally solicitous for those that were re 
volting, and for those against whom the war 
was to be made, and was desirous to presery 
the Jews for the Romans, and the temple and 
metropolis for the Jews; he was also sensible 
that it was not for his own advantage that the 
disturbances should proceed; so he sent three 
thousand horsemen to the assistance of the pee 











pie out of Auranitis, and Batanea, and Tracho- 
‘pius, and these under Darius the master of his 


Horse, and Philip the son of Jacimus, the gen- 
eral of his army. 
‘5. Upon this the men of power, with the 


high priests, as also all the part of the multitude 
. that were desirous of peace, took courage, 
_ and seized upon the upper city [mount Sion;] 
’ for the sedi ious part had the lower city and the 


_ temple in :heir power: so they made use of 


stones and slings perpetually against one an- 


_ other and threw darts continually on both 


sides; and sometimes it happened that they 
made incursions by troops, and fought it out 


_ hand to hand, while the seditious were supe- 


rior in boldness, but the king’s soldiers in 
skill. These last strove chiefly to gain the tem- 

le, and to drive those out of it who profaned 
it; us did the seditious, with Eleazar, besides 
what they had already, labor to gain the upper 
city. Thus were there perpetual slaughters on 


- both sides for seven days’ time: but neither side 


would yield up the parts they had seized on. 
6. Now the next day was the festival of Xylo- 
phory, upon which the custoin was. for every 
one to bring wood for the altar: (that there 
might never be a want of fuel for that fire 
which was unquenchable and always burning;) 
upon that day they excluded the opposite party 


_ from the observation of this part of religion. 


And when they had joined to themselves many 
of the Sicarii, who crowded in among the 


_ weaker people, (that was the name for such 
. robbers as had under their bosoms swords called 


Sisz,) they grew bolder, and carried their un- 
dertaking farther; insomuch, that the king’s 


soldiers were overpowered by their multitude 


and boldness, and so they gave way, and were 
driven out of the upper city by force. The 
others then set fire to the house of Ananias the 


\ high priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and 


Bernice: after which they carried the fire to the 
place where the archives were reposited, and 
made haste to burn the contracts belonging to 
their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their ob- 
ligations for paying their debts; and this was 
done in order to gain the multitude of those 
who had been debtors, and that they might per- 
suade the poorest sort to join in their insurrec- 


‘tion with safety, against the more wealthy; so 


_ rest set fire to thera. 


ES a. a —=—  —_ >. as > > 


an 
a 
Bis. 
Ng 
: “ 


the keepers of the records fled away, and the 
And when they had thus 
burnt down the nerves of the city, they fell 
upon their enemies; at which time some of the 
men of power, and of the high priests, went 
into the vaults under ground, and concealed 
‘themselves, while others fled with the king’s 
soldiers to the upper palace, and shut the gates 
immediately; among whom were Ananias the 
high priest, and the ambassadors that had been 
sent to Agrippa. And now the seditious were 
contented with the victory they had gotten, 
and the buildings they had burnt down, and 
proceeded no farther. 
_.7. But on the next day, which was the fif- 


teeth of the month Lous, | Ab,] they made an 


assault upon Antonia, and besieged the garri- 
“#0n which was in it cw days, and then took 


BOOK IJ.—CHAPTER XVII. 


578 


the garrison, and slew them, and set the citade 
on fire; after which they marched to the pa- 
lace, whither the king’s soldiers were fled, and 
parted themselves into four bodies, and made 
an attack upon the walls. As for those that 
were within it, no one had the courage to sally 
out, because those that assaulted them were so 
numerous; but they distributed themselves into 
the breastworks and turrets, and shot at the 
besiegers, whereby many of the robbers fell 
under the walls; nor did they cease to fight 
one with another either by night or by day, 
while the seditious supposed that those within 
would grow weary for want of food, and those 
within supposed the others would do the like 
by the tediousness of the siege. 

8. In the mean time one Manahem, the son 
of Judas, that was called the Galilean, (who 
was a very cunning sophister, and had former 
ly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that 
after God they were subject to the ees 
took some of the men of note with him, anc 
retired to Masada, where he broke open king 
Herod’s armory, and gave arms not only to his 
own people, but to other robbers also. These 
he made use of for a guard, and returned in 
the state of a king to Jerusalem; he beceme 
the leader of the sedition, and gave order for 
continuing the siege, but they wanted proper 
instruments, and it was not practicable to un- 
dermine the wall, because the darts came down 
upon them from above. But still they dug a 
mine from a great distance under one of the 
towers, and made it totter, and having done 
that, they set fire on what was combustible, and 
left it, and when the foundations were burnt 
below, the tower fell down suddenly. Yet did 
they then meet with another wall that had been 
built within; for the besieged were sensible be- 
forehand of what they were doing, and proba- 
bly the tower shook as it was undermining; 
so they provided themselves of another for 
tification, which, when the besiegers unexpect- 
edly saw, while they thought they had alreaily 
gained the place, they were under some con- 
sternation. However, those that were within 
sent to Manahem, and to the other leaders of 
the sedition, and desired they might go out 
upon a capitulation: this was granted to the 
king’s soldiers, and their own countrymen only, 
who went out accordingly; but the Romans 
that were left alone were greatly dejected, for 
they were not able to force their way through 
such a multitude; and to desire them to give 
them their right hand for their security, they 
thought it would be a reproach to them; and 
besides, if they should give it them, they dursi 
not.depend upon it; so they deserted their camp 
as easily taken and ran away to the royal tow- 
ers, that called Hippicus, that called Phasaelus, 
and that called Mariamne; but Manahem and 
his party fell upon the place whence the soi 
diers were fled, and slew as many of them as 
they could catch, before they got up to the tow- 
ers, and plundered what they left behind the 
and set fire to their camp. ‘This was execute 
on the sixth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul.}. 

9. But on the next day the high priest was | 


274 


caught, where he had concealed himself in an 
aqueduct; he was slain, together with Hezekiah 
his brother, by the robbers: hereupon the sedi- 
tious besieged tlie towers, and kept them guard- 
ed, lest any one of the soldiers should escape. 
Now the overthrow of the places of strength, 
and the death of the high priest Ananias, so 
puffed up Manahem, that he became barbar- 
ously cruel, and as he thought he had no an- 
tagonist to dispute the management of affairs 
with him, he was no better than an insupport- 
able tyrant; but Eleazar and his party, when 
words had passed between them, how “it was 
not proper when they revolted from the Ro- 
mans, out of the desire of liberty, to betray 
that liberty to any of their own people, and to 
bear a lord, who, though he should be guilty 
of no vidlence, was yet meaner than themselves, 
as also, that in case they were obliged to set 
some one over their public affairs, it was fitter 
they should give that privilege to any one rather 
than to him,” they made an assault upon him 
in the temple; for he went up thither to wor- 
ship in a pompous manner, and adorned with 
royal garments, and had his followers with him 
in their armor. But Eleazar and his party fell 
violently upon him, as did also the rest of the 
people, and taking up stones to attack him 
withall, they threw them at the sophister, and 
thvught, that if he were once ruined the en- 
tire sedition would fall to the ground. Now 
Manahem and his party made resistance for 
a while, but when they perceived that the 
whole multitude were falling upon them, they 
fled which way every one was able; those that 
were caught were slain, and those that hid 
themselves were searched for. A few there 
were of them who privately escaped to Masa- 
da, among whom was Eleazar the son of Jai- 
rus, who was of kin to Manahem, and acted 
the part of a tyrant at Masada afterward; as 
for Manahem himself, he ran away to the 
place called Ophla, and there lay skulking in 
private; but they took him alive, and drew him 
out before them all; they then tortured him with 
many sorts of turments, and after all slew him, 
as they did by those who were captains under 
him also, and particularly by the principal in- 
strument of his tyranny, whose name was Ab- 
salom. 

1Q And, as I said, so far truly the people as- 
siste. them while cney hoped this might af- 
ford some amendment to the seditious practices; 
but the others were not in haste to put an end 
to the war, but hoped to prosecute it with less 
danger, now they had slain Manahem. It is 
true, that when the people earnestly desired 
that they would leave off besieging the soldiers, 
they were the more earnest in pressing it for- 
ward, and this till Metilius, who was the Ro- 
man general, sent to Eleazar, and desired that 


they would give them security to spare their | 


lives only, but agreed to deliver up their arms, 
and what else they had withthem. The others 


readily complied with their petition, sent to. 


them Gorion, the son of Nicodemus, and An- 
anias, the son of Sadduk, and Judas, the son 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


| 
| 





of Jonathan; tb t they might give them the se- | 


a 
curity of their right hands, and of their ote | 
after which Metilius brought down his soldiers, — 
which soldiers, while they were in arms, were not 
meddled with by any of the seditious, nor wag 
there any appearance of treachery; but as soon 
as, according to the articles of capitulation, they 
had all laid down their shields and their swords, 
and were under no farther suspicion of any 
harm, but were going away, Eleazar’s men at- 
tacked them after a violent manner, and en 
compassed them round, and slew them, while 


they neither defended themselves, nor entreat-— 


ed for mercy, but only cried out upon the 
breach of their articles of capitulation, and their 
oaths. And thus were all these men barbar- 
ously murdered, excepting Metilius; for when 
he entreated for mercy, and promised that he 
would turn Jew, and be circumcised, they say- 
ed him alive, but none else. This loss to the 
Romans was but light, there being no more 
than a few slain out of an immense army; but 
still it appeared to be a prelude to the Jews’ 
own destruction, while men made public la- 
mentation when they saw that such occasions 
were afforded for a war as were incurable; that 
the city was all over polluted with such abom- 


inations, from which it was but reasonable to — 


expect some vengeance, even though they 
should escape vengeance from the Romans; so 
that city was filled with sadness, and every one 
of the moderate men in it were under great 
disturbance, as likely themselves to undergo 
punishment for the wickedness of the seditious; 
for indeed it so happened, that this murder was 
perpetrated on the Sabbath-day, on which day 
the Jews have a respite from their works on 
account of divine worship. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


The calamities and slaughters that came upon the 
Jews. 

§ 1. Now the people of Cesarea had slain 

the Jews that were among them, on the very 

same day and hour Mie the soldiers were 


slain,} which one would think must have come — 
to pass by the direction of Providence; inso- — 


much that in one hour’s time above twenty 
thousand Jews were killed, and all Czesarea 
was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants; for Flo- 
rus caught such as ran away, and sent them in 
bonds to the galleys. Upon which stroke that 
the Jews received at Caesarea, the whole nation 


was greatly enraged; so they divided theme — 
selves into several parties, and laid waste the — 
villages of the Syrians, and their neighboring 


cities, Philadelphia, and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, 


and Pella, and Scythopolis, and after them Ga- — 


dara, and Hippos; and falling upon Gaulanitis, 


some cities they destroyed there, and some they — 


set on fire, and then went to Kedasa, belonging 


to the Tyrians, and to Ptolemais, and to Gaba, — 


and to Ceesarea; nor was either Sebaste [Sama- 
ria] or Askelon able to oppose the violence 
with which they were attacked; and when they 
had burnt these to the ground, they entirely 
demolished Anthedon and Gaza; many also of 


* 


the villages that were about every one of thos¢ 








cities were plundered, and an immense slaugh 






tt ‘ 


/ 
| 
| 


‘ 


ter was made of the men who were caught in 
them. 

_ 2. However, the Syrians were even with the 

Jews in the multitude of the men whor: they 
slew: for they killed those whom they caught 
in their cities, and that not only out of the ha- 
red they bore them, as formerly, but to pre- 
vent the danger under which they were from 


‘them; su that the disorders in all Syria were 
terrible, and every city was divided into two 
armies encamped one against another, and the 
" preservation of the one party was in the destruc- 
tion of the other; so the day-time was spent in 


shedding of blood, and the night in fear, which 
was of the two the more terrible; for when the 


Syrians thought they had ruined the Jews, they 
had the Judiazers in suspicion also; and as each 


siie did not care to slay those whom they only 


_ suspected on the other, so did they greatly fear 


Ss 


_as if they were certainly foreigners. 


them when they were mingled with the other, 
More- 


over, greediness of gain was a provocation to 


_ kill the opposite party, even to such as had of 


old appeared very mild and gentle towards 


_ them; for they without fear plundered the effects 


_ of the slain, and carried off the spoils of those 
_ whom they slew to their own houses, as if they 


had been gained in a set battle: and he was 


esteemed a man of honor who got the greatest 
share, as having prevailed over the greatest 
_ number of his enemies. It was then common to 


see cities filled with dead bodies, still lying un- 


_ buried, and those of old men mixed with infants 
_ all dead, and scattered about together; women 
also lay amongst them, without any covering 
for their nakedness; you might then see the 


— a a rae = Es. — 


Oe 


whole province full of inexpressible calamities, 
while the dread of still more barbarous prac- 
tices which were threatened, was everywhere 
ter than what had been already perpetrated. 

3. And thus far the conflict had been between 
Jews and foreigners, but when they made ex- 
cursions to Scythopolis they found Jews that 
acted as enemies: for as they stood in battle ar- 
ray with those of Scythopolis, and preferred 
their own safety before their relation to us, they 
fought against their own countrymen; nay, 
their alacrity was so very great, that those of 
Scythopolis suspected them. These were afraid, 
therefore, lest they should rnake an assault upon 
the city in the night-time, and, to their great 
misfortune, should thereby make an apology 
for themselves to their people for their revolt 
from them. So they commanded them, that in 
case they would confirm their agreement, and 
demonstrate their fidelity to them, who were of 
a different nation, they should go out of the 
city with their families to a neighboring grove; 
and when they had done as they were com- 
manded, without suspecting any thing, the peo- 
ple of Scythopolis lay still for the interval of 
two days, to ternpt them to be secure; but on 
the third night they watched their opportunity, 
and cut all their throats, some as they Jay un- 
guarded, and some as they lay asleep. The 
number that was slain, was above thirteen thou- 
sand, and them they plundered them of all that 


_ they had. 


nis 


BOOK It.—CHAPT'ER XVIII. 


575 


4, It will deserve our relation. what befe.1 St 
mon: he was theson of one Saul, a man of re. 
putation among the Jews. This man was dis- 
tinguished from the rest by the strength of his 
body and the boldness of his conduct, although 
he abused them both to the mischieving of his 
countrymen; for he came every day and slew 
a great many of the Jews of Scythopolis, and 
he frequently put them to flight, and became 
himseif alone the cause of his army’s conquer- 
ing. Buta just punishment overtook him for 
the murders he had committed upon those of 
the same nation with him; for when the peo- 
ple of Scythopolis threw their darts at them in 
the grove, he drew his sword, but did not at- 
tack any of the enemy, for he saw that he could 
do nothing against such a multitude; but he 
cried out after a very moving manner, and said, 
“Q, ye people of Scythopolis, I deservedly suf- 
fer for what I have done with relation to you, 
when I gave you such security of my fidelity 
to you, by slaying so many of those that were 
related to me. Wherefore we very justly ex- 
perience the perfidiousness of foreigners, while 
we acted after a most wicked manner against 
our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted 
wretch as I am, by mine own hands; for it is 
not fit I should die by the hand of our enemies; 
and let the same action be to me both a punish- 
ment for my great crimes, and a testimony 
of my courage to my commendation, that so 
no one of our enemies may have it to brag of, 
that he it was that slew me, and no one may 
insult upon me as I fall.” Now when he had 
said this, he looked round about him upon lis 
family, with eyes of commiseration and of rage; 
(that family consisted of a wife, and children, 
and his aged parents;) so in the first place, he 
caught his father by the gray hairs, and ran his 
sword through him, and after him he did the 
same to his mother, who willingly received it; 
and after them he did the like to his wife and 
children, every one almost offering themselves 
to his sword, as desirous to prevent being slain 
by their enemies; so when he had gone over 
all his family, he stood upon their bodies to be 
seen by all, and stretching out his right hand, 
that his action might be observed by all, he 
sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels, 
This young man was to be pitied on account of 
the strength of his body and the courage of his 
soul; but since he had assured foreigners of his 
fidelity [against hisown countrymen, | he suffer 
ed deservedly. 

5. Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the 
other cities rose up against the Jews that were 
among them; those of Askelon slew twe thou- 
sand five hundred, and those of Ptolemais two 
thousand, and put nota few into bonds; those 
of Tyre also put a great number to death, but 
kept a greater number in prison; moreover, 
those of Hippos and those of Gadara did the 
like, while they put to death the boldest of the 
Jews, but kept those of whom they were afraid 
in custody; as did the rest of the cities of Sy- 
ria, according as they every one either hated 
them, or were afraid of them; only the Antio- 
chians, the Sidonians, and Apamians, spared 


576 


those that dwelt with them, and would not en- 
dure either to kill any of the Jews, or to put 
them in bonds. And perhaps they spared them, 


- because their own number was so great that 


they despised their attempts; but I think the 
greatest part of this favor was owing to their 
commiseration of those whom they saw to 
make no innovations. As for the Gerasens, 
they did no harm to those that abode with them; 
and for those who had a mind to go away, they 
conducted them as far as their borders reached. 

6. There was also a plot laid against the Jews 
in Agrippa’s kingdom; for he was himself gone 
to Cestius Gallus, to Antioch, but had left one 
of his companions, whose name was Noarus, 
to take care of the public affairs; which Noarus 
was of kin to king Sohemus.* Now there 
came certain men, seventy in number, out of 
Batanea, who were the most considerable for 
their families and prudence of the rest of the 
people; these desired to have an army put into 
their hands, that if any tumult should happen, 
they might have about them a guard sufficient 
to restrain such as might rise up against them. 
This Noarus sent out some of the king’s armed 
men by night, and slew all those [seventy] men; 
which bold action he ventured upon without 
the consent of Agrippa, and was such a lover 
of money, that he chose to be so wicked to his 
own countrymen, although he brought ruin on 
the kingdom thereby; and thus cruelly did he 
treat that nation, and this contrary to the laws 
also, until Agrippa was informed of it, who 
did not indeed dare to put him to death, out of 
regard to Sohemus; but still he put an end to 
his procuratorship immediately But as to the 
seditious, they took the citadel which was call- 
ed Cypros, and was above Jericho, and cut the 
throats of the garrison, and utterly demolished 
the fortifications; this was about the same time 
that the multitude of the Jews that were at 
Macherus persuaded the Romans who were in 
garrison to leave the place, and deliver it up 
to them. These Romans being in great fear, 
lest the place should be taken by force, made 
an agreement with them to depart upon cer- 
tain conditions; and when they had obtained 
the security they desired, they delivered up the 
citadel, into which the people of Macherus put 
a garrison for their own security, and held it in 
their own power. 

7. But for Alexandria, the sedition of the 
people of the place against the Jews was per- 
petual, and this from that very time when Alex- 
ander [the Great,] upon finding the readiness 
of the Jews in assisting him against the Egyp- 
tians, and as a reward for such their assistance, 
gave them equal privileges in this city with the 
Grecians themselves. Which honorary re- 
ward continued among them under his suc- 
cessors, who also set apart for them a particu- 
lar place, that they might live without being 
polluted [by the Gentiles,] and were thereby 
not so much intermixed with foreigners as be- 

* Of this Sohemus we have mention made by Tacitus. 
We also learn from Dio, that his father was king of the Ara- 
bians of Iturea, which Iturea is mentioned by [St. Luke, iii. 


+} both whose testimonies are quoted here by Dr. Hudson; 
eee Noldius. No, 371. * 


WARS OF THE JEWS. | / ire 


> 


fore: they also gave them this further privilege, 
that beatanGutt be called’ Macedaunge Nee 4 
when the Romans got possession of Egypt, 
neither the first Ceesar, nor any one that came — 
after him, thought of diminishing the honors 
which Alexander had bestowed on the Jews. 
But still conflicts perpetually arose with the 
Grecians; and although the governors did 
every day punish many of them, yet did the 
sedition grow worse; but at this time especial. — 
ly, when there were tumults in other places 
also, the diserders among them were put into 2 
greater flame: for when the Alexandrians hac) 
once a public assembly, to deliberate about an 
embassage they were sending to Nero, a great 
number of Jews came flocking to the theatre: 
but whet their adversaries saw them, they im- 
mediately cried out, and called them their ene- 
mies, and said they came as spies upon them: 
upon which they rushed out, and laid violent 
hands upon them; and as for the rest they were 
slain as they ran away; but there were three 
men whom they caught, and hauled them 
along,in order to have them burnt alive; but 
all the Jews came in a body to defend them, 
who at first threw stones at the Grecians, but 
after that they took lamps, and rushed with vio- 
lence into the theatre, and threatened that they 
would burn the people to a man; and this they 
had soon done, unless Tiberius Alexander the 
governor of the city, had restrained their pas- 
sions. However, this man did not begin to 
teach them wisdom by arms, but sent among 
them privately some of the principal men, and 
thereby entreated them to be quiet, and not 
provoke the Roman army against them; bit 
the seditious made a jest of the entreaties of 
Tiberius, and reproached him for so doing. 

8. Now when he perceived that those whe 
were for innovations would not be pacified till 
some great calamity should overtake them, he 
sent out upon them those two Roman legions 
that were in the city, and together with them 
five thousand other soldiers, who by chance 
were come together out of Libya, to the ruin 
of the Jews. They were also permitted not 
only to kill them, but to plunder them of whiat 
they had, and to set fire totheir houses. These 
soldiers rushed violently into that part of the 
city that was called Delta, where the Jewish 
people lived together, and did as they were bid — 
den, though not without bloodshed on thei 
own side also; for the Jews got together and 
set those that were the best armed among them 
in the forefront, and made resistance for a greai- 
while; but when once they gave back, they 
were destroyed unmercifully, and this their de- 
struction was complete, some being caught ip 
the open field, and others forced into then 
houses, which houses were first plundered or 
what was in them, and then set on fire by 
the Romans; wherein no mercy was shown te 
the infants, and no regard had to the aged; but 
they went on in the slaughter of persons of 
every age, till all the place was overflowed with 
blood and fifty thousand of them lay dead upor — 
heaps; nor had the remainder been preserves 
had they not betaken themselves to supplica — 


BOOK II.—CHAPTER XIX, 


gon So Alexander commiserated their condi- 
tion, and gave orders to the Romans to retire: 
accordingly, these being accustomed to obey 
orders, left off killing at the first intimation; but 
the populace of Alexandria bore so very great 
hatred to the Jews, that it was difficult to re- 
call them, and it wasa hard thing to make them 
jeave their dead bodies. 

9. And this was the miserable calamity 
which at this time befell the Jews-at Alexan- 
dria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer 
to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere 
up in arms; so he took out of Antioch the 
twelfth legion entire, and. out of each of the 
rest he selected two thousand, with six cohorts 
of footmen, and four troops of horsemen, be- 
sides those auxiliaries which were sent by the 
kings; of which Antiochus* sent two thousand 
horsemen, and three thousand footmen, with 
as many archers; and Agrippa sent the same 
number of footmen, and one thousand horse- 
men; Sohemus also followed with four thou- 
sand, a third part whereof were horsemen, but 
most part were archers, and thus did he march 
to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers 
of auxiliaries gathered together from the [free] 
cities, who indeed had not the same skill in 
martial affairs, but made up in their alacrity 
and in their hatred to the Jews what they 
wanted in skill. ‘There came also along with 
Cestius, Agrippa himself, both as a guide in 
his march over the country, and a director what 
was fit to be done; so Cestius took part of his 
forces, and marched hastily to Zabulun, a strong 
tity of Galilee which was called the city of men, 
and divides the country of Ptolemais from our 
nation: this he found deserted by its men, the 
multitude having fled to the mountains, but full 
of all sorts of good things; those he gave leave 
to the soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the 
city, although it was of admirable beauty, and 
had its houses built like those in Tyre, and Si- 
don, and Berytus. After this he overran all 
the country and seized upon whatsoever came 
in his way, and set fire to the villages that were 
round about them, and then returned to Ptole- 
mais. But when the Syrians, and especially 
those of Berytus, were busy in plundering, the 
Jews pulled up their courage again, for they 
knew that Cestius, was retired, and fell upon 
those that were left behind unexpectedly, and 
destroyed about two thousand of them. 

10. And now Cestius himself marched from 
Ptolemais, and came to Cesarea; but he sent 
part of his army before him to Joppa, and gave 
order, that if they could take that city [by sur- 
prise,| they should keep it; but that in case the 
vitizens should perceive they were coming to 
attack them, that they then should stay for him 
‘tnd for the rest of the army. Sosome of them 
‘made a brisk march by the seaside, and some 
dy land, and so coming upon them on both 
‘des, they took the city with ease; and as the 
imhabitants had made no provisions aforehand 
tor a flight, nor had gotten any thing ready for 


__*Spanheim notes on the place, that this latter Antiochus, 
who was called Epiphanes, is mentioned by Dio, lix. page 
M5, and that he is mentioned by Josephus elsewhere twice 







b. v. ch. xi. sect. 3, and Antiq. b. xix. ch. viii. sect. 1. | bi 
73 


577 


fighting, the soldiers fell upon them and slew 
them all, with their families, and then plunder- 
ed and burnt the city. The number of the 
slain was eight thousand four hundred. _ In like 
manner Cestius sent also a considerable body 
of horsemen to the toparchy of Narbatene, 
that adjoined to Cwsarea, who destroyed the 
country, and slew a great multitude of its peo- 
ple; they also plundered what they had, and 
burnt their villages. 

11. But Cestius sent Ga.n.s, the commande 
of the twelfth legion, into Galilee, and deliver- 
ed to him as many of his forces as he supposed 
sufficient to subdue that nation. He was re- 
ceived by the strongest city of Galilee, which 
was Sepphoris, with acclamations of joy; which 
wise conduct of that city occasioned the rest of 
the cities to be quiet: while the seditious part 
of the robbers ran away to that mountain 
which lies in the very middle of Galilee, and 
is situated over against Sepphoris, it is called 
Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against 
them; but while those men were in the supe- 
rior parts above the Romans, they easily threw 
their darts upon the Romans, as they made 
their approaches, and slew about two hundred 
of them: but when the Romans had gone 
round the mountains, and were gotten into parts 
above their enemies, the others were soon beat- 
en, nor could they who had only light armer on, 
sustain the force of them that fought them arin- 


ed all over; nor when they were beaten could 


they escape the enemy’s horsemen: insomuch, 
that only some few concealed themselves in ce r- 
tain places hard to be come at, among 2 
mountains, while the rest, above two thousan } 
in number, were slain. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


What Cestius did against the Jews; and how 
upon his besieging Jerusalem, he retreateo 
Jrom the city, urthout any just occasion in the 
world. As also what severe calamities he un- 
derwent from the Jews in his retreat. 


§ 1. And now Gallus, seeing nothing more 
that looked towards an innovation in Galilee, 
returned with his army to Ceesarea; but Ces- 
tius removed with his whole army, and march- 
ed to Antipatris. And when he was informed 


that there was a great body of Jewish forces 


gotten together ina certain tower called Aphek, 
he sent a party before.to fight them; but this 
party dispersed the Jews by afirighting them 
before it came to a battle: so they came, and 
finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as 
well as the villages that lay about it. But when 
Cestius had marched from Antipatris to Lyd- 


da, he found the city empty of its men, for the | 


whole multitude were gone up to Jerusalem to 
the feast of tabernacles;* yet did he destroy fifty 


* Here we have an eminent example of that Jewish ian- 
guage, which Dr. Wall truly observes we several times find 
used in the sacred writings; I mean where the words all or 
whole multitude, &c. are used for much the greatest part only; 
but not so as to include every person without exception; 
for when Josephus had said that the whole multitude [all the 
males] of Lydda were gone to the feast of tabernacles, he 
immediately adds, that, however, no fewer than fifty of thens 
appeared, and were slain by the Romans. Other examples 
sow what like this I have observed elsewhere in Josephur 
os I think, none so remarkable as this; see Wall’s Crit 


578 


of those that showed themselves, and burnt the 
eity, and so marched forwards; and ascending 
by Beth-horon, he pitched his camp at a cer- 
tain place called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant 
from Jerusalem. 

2. But as for the Jews, when they saw the 
war approaching to their metropolis, they left the 
feast, and betook themselves to their arms: and 
taking courage greatly from their multitude, 
went in a sudden and disorderly manner to 
the fight, with a great noise, and without any 
consideration had of the rest of the seventh 
day, although the Sabbath was the day to 
which they had the greatest regard; but that 
rage which made them forget the religious ob- 
servation [of the Sabbath] made them too 
hard for their enemies in the fight: with such 
violence therefore did they fall upon the Ro- 
mans, as to break into their ranks, and to march 
through the midst of them, making a great 
slaughter as they went, insomuch, that unless 
the horsemen, and such parts of the footmen 
ux were not yet tired in the action, had wheel- 
ed round, and succored that part of the army 
wich was not yet broken, Cestius, with his 
whole army, had been in danger: however, 
five hundred and fifteen of the Romans were 
slain, of which number four bundred were 
fooimen, and the rest horsemen while the Jews 
lost only twenty-two, of whom the most valiant 
were the kinsmen of Monobazus king of Adia- 
bene, and their names were Monobazus and 
Kenedeus, and next to them were Niger of 
Perea, and Silas of Babylon, who had deserted 
from king Agrippa to the Jews, for he had for- 
merly served in his army. When the front of 
the Jewish army had been cut off, the Jews 
retired into the city; but still Simon, the son 
of Giora, fell upon the backs of the Romans, 
as they were ascending up Beth-horon, and 
put the hindermost of the army into disorder, 
and carried off many of the beasts that carried 
the weapons of war, and led them into the city. 
ut as Cestius tarried there three days the 
Jews seized upon the elevated parts of the city, 
and set watches at the entrances into the city, 
and appeared openly resolved not to rest, 
when once the Romans should begin to march. 

3. And now when Agrippa observed that 
even the affairs of the Romans were likely to 
be in danger, while sucn an immense multitude 
of their enemies had seized upon the moun- 
tains round about, he determined to try what 
the Jews would agree to by words, as thinking 
that he should either persuade them all to de- 
sst from fighting, or, however, that he should 
cause the sober part of them to separate them- 
selves from the opposite party. So he sent 
Bor -eus and Phebus, the persons of his party 
that were the best known to them, and promis- 
ed them, hat Cestius should give them his 
right hand, to secure them of the Romans’ en- 

~ tire forgiveness of what they had done amiss, 


eal Observations on the Old Testament, p. 49, 50.—We have 
also in this and the next section two eminent facts to be ob- 
served, viz. the first example that I remember in Josephus, 
ef the onset of the Jews’ enemies upon their country when 
theit males were gone up to Jerusalem to one of their three 
sacred festivals, which, during the theocracy, God ha pro 


WARS OF THE JEWs. 


Wi | 
if they would throw away their arms, and com 
over to them; but the seditious, fearing lest the 
whole multitude, in hopes of security to them 
selves, should go over to Agrippa, resolve: 
immediately to fall upon and kill the ambassa 
dors: accordingly they slew Phebus before h 
said a word, but Borceus was only wounded 
and so prevented his fate by flying away; anc 
when the people were very angry at this, they 
had the seditious beaten with stones and clubs 
and drove them before them into the city. _ 
4. But now Cestius, observing that the dis 
turbances that were begun among the Jew 
afforded him a proper opportunity to attac! 
them, took his whole army along with him 
and put the Jews to flight, and pursued them t 
Jerusalem, He then pitched his camp upor 
the elevation called Scopus, [or watch-tower, 
which was distant seven furlongs from the city 
yet did he not assault them in three days’ time 
out of expectation that those within might per 
haps yield a little; and in the mean time h 
sent out a great many of his soldiers into th 
neighboring villages, to seize upon their corn 
And on the fourth day, which was the thirtiet! 
of the month Hyperbereteus [Tisri,] when h: 
had put his army in array, he brought it int 
the city. Now for the people, they were kep 
under by the seditious; but the seditious them 
selves were greatly affrighted at the good orde 
of the Romans, and retired from the suburb: 
and retreated into the inner part of the city 
and into the temple. But when Cestius wa 
come into the city, he set the part called Be 
zetha, which is also called Cenopolis, [or th 
new city,] on fire; as he did also to the timbe 
market: after which he came into the uppe 
city, and pitched his camp over against the roy 
palace; and had he but at this very time attempt 
ed to get within the walls by force, he had wo 
the city presently, and the war had been pu 
an end to at once; but Tyrannius Priscus, th 
muster-master of the army, and a great num 
ber of the officers of the horse, had been cor 
rupted by Florus, and diverted him from the 
his attempt; and that was the oceasion that thi 
war lasted so very long, and thereby the Jew 
were involved in such incurable calamities. — 
5. In the mean time, many of the principe 
men of the city were persuaded by Ananu: 
the son of Jonathan, and invited Cestius int 
the city and were about to open the gates | 
him; but he overlooked this offer, partly ou 
his anger at the Jews, and partly because 
did not thoroughly believe they were in earnes 
whence it was that he delayed the matter 
long, that the seditious perceived the treach 4 
and threw Ananus and those of his party dov 
from the wall, and pelting them with stone 
drove them into their houses, but they stoo 
themselves at proper distances in the tower 
and threw their darts at those that were getti 









fact is this, the breach of the Sabbath by the seditious. . 
in an offensive fight, contrary to the universal doctrine ar 
practice of their nation in these ages, and even contrar { 
what they themselves afterward practised in the rest of & 


war; see the note on Antiq. db. xvi. ch. ii. sect. 4. 


mised to preserve them from, Exod. xxxiv. 24. The set 








ae 
‘ 
ge ’ 


their attack against the wall for five days, but 
‘to no purpose; but on the next day, Cestius 
‘took a great many of his choivest men, and 
‘with them the archers, and attempted to break 
‘Into the temple at the northern quarter of it: 
but the Jews beat them off from the cloisters, 
‘and repulsed them several] times when they were 
gotten near to the wall, till at length the multi- 
‘tude of the darts cut them off, and made them 
‘retire; but the first rank of the Romans rested 
‘their shields upon the wall, and so did those 
‘that were behind them, and the like did those 
that were still more backward, and guarded 
themselves with what they called Testudo, [the 
back of ] a tortoise, upon which the darts that 
‘were thrown fell, and slided off without doing 
them any harm; so the soldiers undermined 
the wall, without being themselves burt, and got 
all things ready for setting fire to the gate of the 
temple. 

_ 6. And now it was that a horrible fear seized 
upon the seditious, insomuch that many of them 
‘ran out of the city, as though it were to be ta- 
ken immediately: but the people upon this 
took courage, and where the wicked part of 
the city gave ground, thither did they come in 
order to set open the gates, and to admit Cestius 
as their benefactor, who, had he but continued 
the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the 
city; but it was I suppose, owing to the aversion 
God had already at the city* and the sanctuary, 
that he was hindered from putting an end to 
the war that very day. 
_ 7. It then happened that Cestius was not 
‘conscious either how the besieged despaired of 
‘Buccess, nor how courageous the people were 
for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from 
the place, and by despairing of any expectation 
of taking it, without having received any dis- 
grace, he retired from the city without any rea- 
s0n in the world. But when the robbers per- 
ceived this unexpected retreat of his, they re- 
)sumed their courage, and ran after the hinder 
parts of his army, and destroyed a considerable 
‘number of both their horsemen and footmen: 
‘and now Cestius lay all night at the camp 
which was at Scopus, and as he went off farther 
the next day, he thereby invited the enemy to 
follow him, who still fell upon the hindermost, 
‘and destroyed them; they also fell upon the 
‘flank on each side of the army, and threw darts 
‘upon them obliquely, nor durst those that were 
hindermost turn back upon those who wound- 
| ed them behind, as imagining that the multitude 
»0f those that pursued them was immense; nor 
| did they venture to drive away those that press- 
-ed upon them on each side, because they were 
heavy with their arms and were afraid of break- 
(mg their ranks to pieces, and because they saw 
the Jews were light, and ready for making in- 









* There may another very important and very providential 
] feason be here asa gned for this strange and foolish retreat of 
Cestius; which if Josephus had been now a Christian, he 
mat probably have taken notice of also; and that is the af- 
_fording the Jewish Christians in the city an opportunity of 
‘talling to mind the prediction and caution given them by 
Christ about thirty-three and a half years before, that when 
they should see the abomination of desolation [the idolatrous 
ly armies, with the images of their idols in their ensigns, 
teady to lay Jerusalem desolate] stand where it ought not, or 


BOOK I1.—CHAPTER XIX. 


379 


cursions upon them. Ana this was the reason 
why the Romans suffered greatly, without be 
ing able to revenge themselves upon their ene- 
mies; so they were galled all the way, and their 
ranks were put into disorder, and those that 
were thus put out of their ranks were slai 
among whom was Priscus, the poeinadee at 
the sixth legion, and Longinus the tribune and 
Emilius Secundus, the commander of a troop 
of horsemen. So it was not without difficulty 
that they got to Gabao, their former camp, and 
that not without the loss of a great part of their 
baggage. ‘There it was that Cestius staid two 
days, and was in great distress to know what he 
should do in these circumstances; but when, on 
the third day, he saw a still greater number of 
enemies, and all the parts round about him 
full of Jews, he understood that his delay was 
to his own detriment, and that if he staid any 
longer there, he should have still more enemies 
upon him. 

8. That, therefore, he might fly the faster, he 
gave orders to cast away what might hinder 
his army’s march; so they killed the t.ules, and 
other creatures, excepting those that carried 
their darts and machines, which they retainea 
for their own use, and this principally because 
they were afraid lest the Jews should seize 
upon them. He then made his army march on 
as far as Beth-horon. Now the Jews did not 
so much press upon them when they were in 
large open places, but when they were penned 
up in their descent through narrow passages, 
then did some of them get before, and hinder- 
ed them from getting out of them, and others 
of them thrust the hindermost down into the 
lower places, and the whole multitude extend- 
ed themselves over against the neck of the pas- 
sage, and covered the Roman army with their 
darts. In which circumstances, as the footmen 
knew not how to defend themselves, so the 
danger pressed the horsemen still more, for they 
were so pelted, that they could not march along 
the road in their ranks, and the ascents were so 
high, that the cavalry were not able to march 
against the enemy; the precipices also and val- 
leys into which they frequently fell, and tum- 
bled down, were such on each side of them, 
that there were neither place for their flight, 
nor any contrivance could be thought of for their 
defence; till the distress they were at last in 
was so great, that they betook themselves to la- 
mentations, and to such mournful cries, as men 
use in the utmost despair; the joyful acclama- 
tions of the Jews also, as they. encouraged one 
another, echoed the sounds back again, these 
last composing a noise of those that at once re- 
joiced, and were inarage. Indeed, things were 
come to such a pass, that the Jews had almost 
taken Cestius’s entire army prisoners, had not 


in the holy place, or when they should see Jerusalem encompase- 
ed with armies, they should then flee to the mountains. By 
complying with which those Jewish Christians fled to the 
mountains of Perea, and escaped this destruction; see Lit- 
eral Accomp). of Proph. p. 69, 70. Nor was there, perhaps, 
any one instance of a more impolitic, but more providential, 
conduct, than this retreat of Cestius, visible during this whole 
siege of Jerusalem; which yet was providentially such a 
great tribulation, as had not been from the beginning of the 
world to that time; no, nor ever should be. Ibid. p. 70, 71. 


380 


the night come on, when the Romans fled to 
Beth-horon, and the Jews seized upon all the 
places round about them, and watched for their 
coming out [in the morning. ] 

9, And then it was that Cestins, despairing 
of obtaining room for a public march, contriv- 
ed how he might best run away; and when he 
had selected four hundred of the most cou- 
rageous of his soldiers, he placed them at the 
strongest of their fortifications, and gave order, 
that when ey went up to the morning guard, 
they should erect their ensigns, that the Jews 
might be made to believe that the entire army 
was there still, while he himself took the rest 
of his forces with him, and marched, without 
any noise, thirty furlongs. But when the Jews 
perceived in the morning, that the camp was 
empty, they ran upon those four hundred who 
had deluded them, and immediately threw their 
darts at them, and slew them, and then pursu- 
ed after Cestius. But he had already made use 
of a great part of the night in his flight, and 
still marched quicker when it was day. Inso- 
much that the soldiers, through the astonishment 
and fear they were in, left behind them their 
engines for sieges, and for throwing of stones, 
and a great part of the instruments of war. So 
the Jews went on pursuing the Romans as far 
as Antipatris, after which, seeing they could 
not overtake them, they came back, and took 
the engines, and spoiled the dead bodies, and 
aa IE the prey together which the Romans 

ad left behind them, came back running and 
singing, to their metropolis; while they had 
themselves lost a few only, but had slain of the 
Romans five thousand and three hundred foot- 
men, and three hundred and eighty horsemen. 
This defeat happened on the eighth day of the 
month Dius, [Marhesvan,] in the twelfth year 
of the reign of Nero. 


CHAPTER XX. 


Cestius sends ambassadors to Nero. The people 

Damascus slay those Jews that lived with 

m. The people of Jerusalem, after they had 

[left off] badd 5 Cestius, return to the city, 

and get things ready for tts defence, and make 

a great many generals for their armies, and 

particularly Josephus, the writer of these books; 
some accounts of his administration. 


§ 1. After this calamity had befallen Cestius, 
many of the most eminent of the Jews swam 
away from the city, as from a ship when it was 
going to sink, Costobarus, therefore and Saul, 
who were brethren, together, with Philip, the 
son of Jacimus, who was the commander of 
king~Agrippa’s forces, ran away from the city 
and went to Cestius. But then how Antipas, 
who had been besieged with them in the king’s 
palace, would not fly away with them, was af- 
terward slain by the seditious, we shall relate 
hereafter. However, Cestius sent Saul and his 
friends, at their own desire, to Achaia, to Nero, 
to inform him of the great distress they were 
un, and to lay the blame of their kindling the 
war upon F'lorus, as hoping to alleviate his own 
danger, by provoking his indignation against 
Florus. 


- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


2. In the mean time the people of Damas 
cus, when they were informed of the destruo- 
tion of the Romans, set about the slaughter of 
those Jews that were among them; and as they 
had them already cooped up together in the 
place of’ public exercises, which they had done 
out of the suspicion they had of them, they 
thought they should meet with no difficulty in 
the attempt; yet did they distrust their own 
wives, who were almost all of them addicted 
to the Jewish religion; on which account it 
was, that their greatest concern was, how they 
might conceal these things from them; so they 
came upon the Jews, and cut their throats, as 
being in a narrow place, in number ten thou- 
sand, and all of them unarmed, and this in one 
hour’s time, without any body to disturb them. 

3. But as to those who had pursued after 
Cestius, when they were returned back to Je- 
rusalem, they overbore some of those that fa- 
vored the Romans by violence, and some they 
persuaded [by entreaties] to join with them, 
and got together in great numbers in the tem- 
ple, and appointed a great many generals for 
the war; Joseph* also, the son of Gorion, and 
Ananus the high priest, were chosen as 
vernors of all affairs within the city, and with 
a particular charge to repair the walls of the 
city; for they did not ordain Eleazar the son of 
Simon to that office, although he had gotten 
into his possession the prey they had taken 
from the Romans, and the money they had 
taken from Cestius, together with a great part 
of the public treasures, because they saw he 
was of a tyrannical temper, and that his fol- 
lowers were in their behavior like guards about 
him. However, the want they were in of Ele- 
azar’s money, and the subtil tricks used by 
him brought all so about, that the people were 
circumvented, and submitted themselves to his 
authority in all public affairs. 

4, They also chose other generals for Idu- 
mea, Jesus, the son of Sepphias, one of the 
high priests, and Eleazar the son of Ananias, the 
high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then 
governor of Idumea,t who was of a family 
that belonged to Perea beyond Jordan, and was 
thence called the Peraite, that he should be 
obedient to those forenamed commanders. Nor 
did they neglect the care of other parts of the 
country, but Joseph the son of Simon wassent 
as a general to Jericho, as was Manasseh to 
Perea, and John the Essene, to the toparchy of 
Thamna; Lydda was also added to his portion, 
and Joppa, and Emmaus. But John the son 
of Matthias, was made the governor of the te- 
parchies of Gophnitica and Acrabatene, as was 
Josephus the son of Matthias, of 20th the Gali- 
lees. Gamala also, which was the strongest 

* From this name of Joseph the son of Gorion, or Gorion 
the son of Joseph, as b. iv. ch. iii. sect. 9, one of the govern 
ors of Jerusalem, who was slain at the beginning of the tu- 
mults by the zealots, b. iv. ch. vi. sect. 1, the much later 
Jewish author of a history of that nation takes his title, and 
yet personates our true Josephus, the son of Matthias: bur 
the cheat is too gross to be put upon the learned world. 

t We may observe here that the Idumeans, as having been 
proselytes of justice since the days of John Hyrcanus, dur- 
ing about 195 years, were now esteemed as part of the Jew- 


ish nation, and here provided of a Jewish commander a¢ 
cordingly; see the note upen Antiq. b. xiii. ch. ix. sect. fy 


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BOOK II1—CHAPTER XxX. 


city m those parts, was put under his com- 
mand. 

5. So every one of the other commanders 
‘administered the affairs of bis portion with 
what alacrity, and prudence they were masters 
of; but as to Josephus, when he came into Gali- 
tee, his first care was to gain the good will of 
‘the people of that country, as sensible that he 
‘should thereby have in general good success, 
although he should fail in other points. And 
‘being conscious to himself that if he communi- 
cated part of his power to the great men, he 
should make them his fast friends, and that he 
should gain the same favor from the multitude 
if he executed his commands by persons of 
his own country, and with whom they were 
well acquainted, he chose out seventy of the 
most prudent men,* and those elders in age, 
and appointed them to be rulers of all Galilee, 
as he chose seven judges in every city to hear 
the lesser quarrels; for as to the greater causes, 
and those wherein life and death were con- 
cerned, he enjoined they should be brought to 
him and the seventy elders. 

6. Josephus also, when he had settled these 
‘rules for determining causes by the law, with 
‘regard to the people’s dealings one with an- 
other, betook himself to make provisions for 
their safety against external violence; and as 
he knew the Romans would fall upon Galilee, 
he built walls in proper places about Jotapata, 
‘and Barsabee, and Salamis; and besides these, 
‘about Caphareccho, and Japha, and Sigo, and 
what they call mount Tabor, and Tarichex, 
and Tiberias. Moreover, he built walls about 
the caves near the lake of Gennesar, which 
places lay in the Lower Galilee; the same he 
did to the places of Upper Galilee, as well as 
to the rock called The Rock of the Achabari, 
and to Seph, and Jamnith, and Meroth; and 
in Gaulanitis he fortified Seleucia, and Sogane, 
and Gamala; but as to those of Sepphoris, 
they were the only people to whom he gave 
leave to build their own walls, and this be- 
cause he perceived they were rich and wealthy, 
and ready to go to war; without standing in 
need of any injunctions for that purpose. The 
case was the same with Gischala, which had a 
wall built about it by John the son of Levi 
himself, but with the consent of Josephus; but 
for the building of the rest of the fortresses, he 
labored together with all the other builders, and 
Was present to give all the necessary orders for 
that purpose. He also got together an army 
out of Galilee, of more than a hundred thou- 


* We see here, and in Josephus’s account of his own life, 
sect. 14, how exactly he imitated his legislator Moses, or, 
perhaps, only obeyed what he took to be his perpetual law, in 

‘appointing seven lesser judges, for smaller causes, in par- 
acular cities, and, perhaps, for the first hearing of greater 
eauses, with the liberty of an appeal to seventy-one supreme 
judges, especially in those causes where life and death were 
eoncerned; as Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 14, and of his Life, 
sect. 14; see also Of the War, b. iv. ch. v. sect. 4. More- 
over, we find, sect. 7, that he imitated Moses, as well as the 

' Romans, in the number and distribution of the subaltern of- 
ficers of his army, as Exod. xviii. 25; Deut. i. 15; and in his 

_ eharge against the offences common among soldiers, as Deut. 
xiii. 9, in all which he showed his great wisdom, and piety, 

and skilful condw.: in martial affairs. Yet may we discern 
@ his very high character of Ananus the high priest, b. iv. 
G&. v. sect. 2, who seems to have been the same who con- 


38) 


sand young men, all of whom he armed with 
the old weapons, which he had collected toge- 
ther and prepared for them. 

7. And when he had considered that the Ro 
man power became invincible, chiefly by theis 
readiness in obeying orders, and the constan 
exercise of their arms, he despaired of teach- 
ing these his men the use of their arms, which 
was to be obtained by experience; but observ- 
ing that their readiness in obeying orders was 
owing to the multitude of their officers, he 
made his partitions in his army more after the 
Roman manner, and appointed a great man _ 
subalterns. He also distributed the soldiers! 
into various classes, whom he put under cap- 
tains of tens, and captains of hundreds, and 
then under captains of thousands; and besides 
these he had commanders of larger bodies of 
men. He also taught them to give the signals 
one to another, and to call and recall the sol- 
diers by the trumpets, how to expand the wings 
of an army, and make them wheel about, and 
when one wing hath had success, to turn again 
and assist those that were hard set, and to join 
in the defence of what had most suffered. He. 
also continually instructed them in what con- 
cerned the courage of the soul, and the hardi- 
ness of the body; and above all he exercised 
them for war, by declaring to them distinctly 
the good order of the Romans, and that they 
were to fight with men who, both by the 
strength of their bodies and courage of their 
souls, had conquered in a manner the whole 
habitable earth. He told them that he should 
make trial of the good order they would ob- 
serve in war, even before it came to any bat- 
tle, in case they would abstain from the crimes 
they used to indulge themselves in, such as 
theft, and robbery, and rapine, and from de- 
frauding their own countrymen; and never to 
esteem the harm done to those that were so 
near of kin to them to be any advantage te 
themselves; for that wars are then managed the 
best when the warriors preserve a good con- 
science; but that such as are ill men in private 
life, will not only have those for enemies who 
attack them, but God himself also for their an- 
tagonist. 

8. And thus did he continue to admonish 
them. Now he chose for the war such an ar- 
my as was sufficient, i. e. sixty thousand foot- 
men, and two hundred and fifty horsemen:* and 
besides these, on which he put the greatest 
trust, there were about four thousand five hun- 
dred mercenaries; he had also six hundred mer 


demned St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, to be stoned, under 
Albinus the procurator, that when he wrote these books of, 
the war, he was not so much as an Ebionite Christian; other 
wise he would not have failed, according to his usual cus | 
tom, to have reckoned this his barbarous murder as a jus 
punishment upon him for that his cruelty to the chief, oe 
rather, only Christian bishop of the circumcision. Nor, h 
he been then a Christian, could he immediately have spoken 
so movingly of the causes of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
without one word of either the condemnation of James or 
crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he was become a 
Christian afterward. 

* J should think that an army of 60,000 footmen should re- 
quire many more than 250 horsemen; and we find Josephus 
had more horsemen under his command than 250 in his fa 
ture history. I suppose the number of the thousands 1s drepe 
ped in our present copies. 


582 


as guards of his body. Now the cities easily 
maintained the rest of his army excepting the 
mercenaries, for every one of the cities enu- 
merated above sent out half their men to the 
army, and retained the other half at home, in 
order to get provisions for them, insomuch that 
the one part went to the war, and the other 
part to their work, and so those that sent out 
their corn were paid for it by those that were in 
arms, by that security which they enjoyed from 
them. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


Concernng John of Gischala. Josephus uses 
stratagems against the plots John laid against 
him; and recovers certain cities which had re- 
volted from him. | 


1. Now as Josephus was thus engaged in the 
administration of the affairs of Galilee, there 
arose a treacherous person, a man of Gischala, 
the son of Levi, whose name was John. His 
character was that of a very cunning and very 
knavish person, beyond the ordinary rate of 
the other men of eminence there, and for wick- 
ed practices he had not his fellow anywhere. 
Poor he was at first, and for a long time his 
wants were a hinderance te him in his wicked 
designs. He was a ready liar, and yet very 
sharp in gaining credit to his fictions; he thought 
it a point of virtue to delude people, and would 
delude even such as were the dearest to him. 
He was a hypocritical pretender to humanity; 
but where he had hopes of gain, he spared not 
the shedding of blood: his desires were ever 
carried to great things, and he encouraged his 
hopes from those mean wicked tricks which he 
was the author of. He had a peculiar knack 
at thieving; but in some time he got certain 
companions in his impudent practices; at first 
they were but few, but as he proceeded on in 
his evil course, they became still more and more 
numerous. He took care that none of his part- 
ners should be easily caught in their rogueries, 
but chose such out of the rest as had the strong- 
est constitutions of body, and the greatest cou- 
rage of soul, together with great skill in mar- 
tial affairs; so he got together a band of four 
hundred men, who came principally out of the 
country of Tyre, and were vagabonds that had 
run away from its villages; and by the means 
of these he laid waste all Galilee, and irritated 
a considerable number, who were in great ex- 
pectation of a war then suddenly to rise among 
hem. 

2 However John’s want of money had hith- 
erto restrained him in his ambition after com- 
manel, and in his attempts to advance himself. 
But when he saw that Josephus was highly 
pleased with the activity of his temper, he per- 
suiaded him, in the first place, to intrust him 
with the repairing of the walls of his native 
city, [Gischala,] in which work he got a great 
deal of money from the rich citizens. He af- 
ter that contrived a very shrewd trick, and pre- 
tending that the Jews who dwelt in Syria were 
obliged to make use of oil that was made by 
others than those of their own nation, he desir- 
ed leave of Josephus to send oil to their bor- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. a 


} “ay t 


r+ 4 


ders; so he bought four amphoree with such 
‘Tyrian money as was of the value of four At 

tic drachme, and sold every half amphora at 
the same price. Andas Galilee was very fruit-— 
ful in oil, and was peculiarly so at that time, by 

sending away great quantities, and having the 
sole privilege so to do, he gathered an immense 
sum of money together, which money he im- 

mediately used to the disadvantage of him who 

gave him that privilege. And, as he supposed, 

that if he could once overthrow Josephus he 

should himself obtain the government of Galt 

lee, so he gave orders to the robbers that were 

under his command, to be more zealous in their 

thievish expeditions, that, by the rise of many 

that desired innovations in the country, he 

might either catch their general in his snares,” 
as he came to the country’s assistance, and then 

kill him; or if he should overlook the robbers, 

he might accuse him for his negligence to the 

people of the country. He also spread abroad 

a report far and near, that Josephus was deliy- 

ering up the administration of affairs to the Ro- 

mans: and many such plots did he lay in order 

to ruin him. 

3. Now at the same time that certain young 
men of the village of Darbaritta, who kept 
guard in the great plain, laid snares for Ptole- 
my, who was Agrippa and Rernice’s steward, 
and took from him all that he had with him, 
among which things there were a great many 
costly garments, and no small number of silver 
cups, and six hundred pieces of gold, yet were 
they not able to conceal what they wad stolen, 
but brought it all to Josephus to Tarichew. 
Hereupon he blamed them for the violence they 
had offered to the king and queen, and deposited 
what they brought to him with Eneas, the most 
potent man of Tarichez, with an intention of 
sending the things back to the owners ata ie 
per time, which act of Josephus’s brought him 
into the greatest danger; for those that had sto- 
len the things had an indignation at him, both 
because they gained no share of it ‘or them- 
selves, and because they perceived beforehand 
what was Josephus’s intention, and that he 
would freely deliver up what had cost them so 
much pains, to the king and queen. ‘Theseray 
away by night to their several villages, and de- 
clared to all men that Josephus was going to 
betray them; they also raised great disorders i 
all the neighboring cities, insomuch that in the 
inorning a hundred thousand armed men cams 
running together; which multitude was erowd- 
ed together in the hippodrome at Tariches, and 
made a very peevish clamor against him; while 
some cried out, that “they should depose the 
traitor;” and others that “they should Sura 
him.” Now John irritated a great many, 43 did 
also one Jesus the son of Sapphias, who wes 
then governor of Tiberias. ‘Then it was that 
Josephus’s friends, and the guards of his bedy, 
were so affrighted at this violent assault of the 
multitude, that they all fled away but four; and 
as he was asleep, they awaked him, as te 
people were going to set fire to the house. 
althe:'gh those four that remained with he 
persuaded him to run away, he was neithes 







x 


garprised at his being himself deserted, nor at 
the great multitude that came against him, but 
leaped out to them with his clothes rent, and 
ashes sprinkled on his head, with his hands be- 
hind him, and his sword hanging at his neck. 
At this sight, his friends, especially those of Ta- 
riches, commiserated his condition; but those 
that came out of the country, and those in their 
neighborhood to whom his government seemed 
burdensome, reproached him, and bade him 
| ae the money which belonged to them all 
-ammediately, and to confess the agreement he 
had made to betray them; for they imagined, 
from the habit in which he appeared, that he 
sould deny nothing of what they suspected con- 
cerning him, and that it was in order to obtain 
pardon, that he had put himself entirely into 
80 pitiable a posture. But this humble appear- 
ance was only designed as preparatory to a 
stratagem of his, who thereby contrived to set 
those that were so angry at him at variance one 
with another, about the things they were angry 
at. However, he promised he would confess 
all; hereupon he was permitted to speak, when 
he said, “I did neither intend to send this mo- 
ney back to Agrippa, nor to gain it myself; for 
I did never esteem one that was your enemy 
to be my friend, nor did I look upon what would 
tend to your disadvantage, to be my advantage. 
But, O you people of Tarichee, I saw that your 
eity stood in more need than others of fortifi- 
cations for your security, and that it wanted 
money in order for the building ita wall. Iwas 
also afraid lest the people of Tiberias and other 
cities should lay a plot to seize upon these spoils, 
and therefore it was that I intended to retain 
this money privately, that I might encompass 
you with a wall. But if this does not please 
ou, I will produce what was brought me, and 
eave it to you to plunder it; but if I have con- 
ducted myself so well as to please you, you 
may if you please punish your benefactor.” 
4. Hereupon the people of Taricheew loud- 
ily commended him, but those of Tiberias, with 
the rest of the company, gave him hard names, 
and threatened what they would do to him; so 
both sides left off quarrelling with Josephus, 
and fell on quarrelling with one another. So 
he grew bold upon the dependence he had on 
his friends, which were the people of Tarichee, 
and about forty thousand in number, and spoke 
more freely to the whole multitude, and re- 
proached them greatly for their rashness, and 
told them, that “with this money he would 
build walls about Tariches, and would put the 
other cities in a state of security also; for that 
they should not want money, if they would but 
agree for whose benefit it was to be procured, 
and would not suffer themselves to be irrita- 
ted against him who had procured it for them.” 
5. Hereupon the rest of the multitude that 
had been deluded retired; but yet so that they 
Went away angry, and two thousand of them 
made an assault upon him in their armor; and 
as he was already gone to his own house, they 
Stood without and threatened him. On which 
decasion Josephus again used a second strata- 


-gim to escape them; for he got upon the top of! 


BOOK IIL—CHAPTER XXI. 


583 


his house, and with his right aand desirec 
them to be silent, and said to them, “I canne 
tell what you would have, nor can hear wha 
you say, for the confused noise you make; bus 
he said, that he would comply with 4 their 
demands, in case they would but send some of 
their number in to him, that might talk with 
him about it.” And when the principal of 
them, with their leaders, heard this, they came 
into the house. He then drew them te the 
most retired part of the house, and shut the 
door of that hall where he put them, and then 
had them whipped till every one of their in- 
ward parts appeared naked. In the mean 
time the multitude stood round the house, and 
supposed that he had a long discourse with 
those that were gone in about what they claim- 
ed of him. He had then the doors set open 
immediately, and sent the men out all bloody 
which so terribly affrighted those that had be- 
fore threatened him, that they threw away their 
arms and ran away. 

6. But as for John, his envy grew greater 
[upon this escape of Josephus,] and he framed 
a new plot against him; he pretended to be 
sick, and by a letter desired that Josephus 
would give him leave to use the hot baths that 
were at Tiberias, for the recovery of his health. 
Hereupon Josephus, who hitherto suspected 
nothing of John’s plots against him, wrote to 
the governors of the city, that they would pro- 
vide a lodging and necessaries for John; which 
favors, when he had made use of, in two days: 
time he did what he came about; some he 
corrupted with delusive frauds, and others 
with money, and so persuaded them to revolt 
from Josephus. This Silas, who was appoint- 
ed guardian of the city by Josephus, wrote to 
him immediately, and informed him of the 
plot against him; which epistle when Jose- 
phus had received, he marched with great dili- 
gence all night, and came early in the morning 
to Tiberias; at which time the rest of the mul 
titude met him. But John, who suspected 
that his coming was not for his advantage, sent, 
however, one of his friends, and pretended 
that he was sick, and that, being confined to 
his bed, he could not come to pay him his re- 
spects. But assoon as Josephus had got the 
people of Tiberias together in the Stadinm, 
and tried to discourse with them about the lez 
ters that he had received, John privately seit 
some armed men, and gave them orders to slay 
him. But when the people saw that the arm 
ed men were about to draw their swords, they 
cried out; at which cry Josephus turned hitn- 
self about, and when he saw that the swords 
were. just at his throat, he marched awiy in 
great haste to the sea-shore, and left off that 
speech which he was going to make to the peo- 
ple, upon an eleyation of six cubits high He 
then seized on a ship which lay in the haven, 
and leaped into it, with two of his guards, and 
fled away into the midst of the lake. 

7. But now the soldiers he had with him 
took up their arms immediately, and marched 
against the plotters: but Josephus was afraid 
lest a civil war should be raised I v she ervy of 


Bt 


a few men, and bring the city to ruin; so he 
sent some of his party to tell them, that they 
should do no more than provide for their own 
safety, that they should not kill any body, nor 
accuse any for the occasion they had afforded 
lof a disorder.] Accordingly these men obey- 
ed his orders, and were quiet; but the people 
of the neighboring country, when they were 
informed of this plot, and of the plotter, got 
together in great multitudes to oppose John. 
But he prevented their attempt, and fled away 
to Gischala, his native city, while the Galilee- 
ans came running out of their several cities to 
Josephus; and as they were now become many 
ten thousands of armed men, they cried out that 
they were come against John, the common 
plotter against their interest, and would at the 
same time burn him, and that city which had 
received him. Hereupon Josephus told them 
that he took their good will to him kindly, but 
still he restrained their fury, and intended to 
subdue his enemies by prudent conduct, rather 
than by slaying them; so he excepted those of 
every city which had joined in this revolt with 
John, by name, who had readily been showed 
him by those that came from every city, and 
eaused public proclamation to he made, that 
he would seize upon the effects of those that 
did not forsake John within five days’ time, 
and would burn both their houses and their 
families with fire. Whereupon three thousand 
of John’s party left him immediately, who 
came to Josephus, and threw their arms down 
at his feet. John then betook himself, together 
with his two thousand Syrian runagates, from 
open attempts, to more secret ways of treache- 
ry. Accordingly, he privately sent messengers 
to Jerusalem to accuse Josephus as having too 
great power, and to let them know that he 
would soon come, as a tyrant, to their metro- 
polis, unless they prevented him. This accusa- 
tion the people were aware of beforehand, but 
had no regard to it. However, some of the 
grandees, out of envy, and sore of the rulers 
also, sent money to John privately, that he 
might be able to get together mercenary sol- 
diers, in order to fight Josephus; they also made 
a decree of themselves, and this for recalling 
him from his government; vet did they not think 
that decree sufficient; so they sent withall two 
shousand five hundred armed men, and four 
persons of the highest rank among them; Joa- 
gar, the son of Nomicus, and Ananias, the son 
of Sadduk, as also Simon and Judas, the sons 


WARS OF THE JEWS. sf 


him immediately. Sepphoris, and Gamala, and 
Gischala, and Tiberias. Yet did he recover 
these cities without war, and when he had 
routed those four commanders by stra 

and had taken the most potent of their warri- 
ors, he sent them to Jerusalem; and the people 
[of Galilee] had great indignation at them, and 
were in a zealous disposition to slay, not only 
these forces, but those that sent them also had 
not these forces prevented it by running eway 

8. Now John was detained afterward with 
in the walls of Gischala, by the fear he was in 
of Josephus; but within a few days Tiberiar 
revolted again, the people within ‘t inviting 
king Agrippa [to return to the exercise of his 
authority there.} And when he did not come 
at the time appointed, and when a few Roman 
horsemen appeared that day, they expelled Jo- 
sephus out of the city. Now this revolt of 
theirs was presently known at Tarichee, and 
as Josephus had sent out all the soldiers that 
were with him to gather corn, he knew not 
how either to march out alone against the re 
volters, or to stay where he was, because he 
was afraid the king’s soldiers might prevent 
him if he tarried, and might get into the city 
for he did not intend to do any thing on the 
next day, because it was the Sabbath-day, and 
would hinder his proceeding. So he contrived 
to circumvent the revolters by a stratagem; and 
in the first place he ordered the gates of Tari- 
chee to be shut, that nobody might go out and 
inform [those of Tiberias,] for whom it was 
intended, what stratagem he was about; he 
then got together all the ships that were upon 
the lake, which were found to be two hundred 
and thirty, and in each of them he put no more 
than four mariners. So he sailed to Tiberias 
with haste, and kept at such a distance from 
the city, that it was not easy for the people to 
see the vessels, and ordered that the empty ves- 
sels should float up and down there, while him- 
self, who had but seven of his guards with him, 
and those unarmed also, went so near as to bef 
seen; but when his adversaries, who were still 
reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they 
were so astonished, that they supposed all the 
ships were full of armed men, and threw down 
their arms, and by signals of intercession they 
besought him to spare the city. 

9. Upon this Josephus threatened them ter- 
ribly, and reproached them, that when they 
were the first that took up arms against the 
Romans, they should spend their force b2fore- 


of Jonathan, all very able men in speaking,| hand in civil dissensions, and do what their 
that these persons might withdraw the good | enemies desired above all things; and that be 
will of the people from Josephus. These had | sides they should endeavor so hastily to seize 
i in” charge, if he would voluntarily come! upon him who took care of their safety, and 
away, they should permit liim to [come and] | had not been ashamed to shut the gates of theit_ 
give an account of his conduct, but if be obsti- | city against him that built their walls; that 
nately insisted upon his continuing in his go-| however, he would admit of any intercessor 
vernment, they should treat him as an enemy.| from them that might make some excuse for” 
Now Josephus’s friends had sent him word that | them, and with whom he would make sueb- 
an army was coming against him, but they! agreements as might be for the city’s securi 









gave no notice beforehand what the reason of| Hereupon ten of the most potent men of Tr 
berias came down to him presently, and when 


J 


their coming was, that being only known among 
seine secret councils of his enemies; and by 


: . he had taken them into one of his vessels, 
shie means it was thet four cities revolted from 


ordered therm to be carried a great way | 








BOOK HWI—CHAPTER 1. 


58s 


from the city. He then commanded that fifty | lilee quieted, when, upon tueir ceasing to pro- 


others of their senate, such as were men of the 
greatest eminence, should come to him, that 
they also might give him some security on 
their behalf. After which, under one new pre- 
tence or other, he called forth others, one af- 
ter another, to nake the leagues between them. 
He then gave order to the masters of those ves- 
sels which he had thus filled to sail away im- 
mediately for Tarichea, and to confine those 
men in the prison there; till at length he took 
all their senate, consisting of six hundred per- 
sons, and about two thousand of the populace, 
and carried them away to 'Tarichez. 

10. And when the rest of the people cried 
out, that it was one Clitus that was the chief 
author of this revolt, they desired him to spend 
his anger upon him [only;] but Josephus, 
whose intention it was to slay nobody, com- 
manded one Levius, belonging to his guards, 
to go out of the vessel, in order to cut off both 
Clitus’s hands; yet was Levius afraid to go out 
by himself alone, to such a large body of ene- 
mies, and refused to go. Now Clitus saw that 
Josephus was in a great passion in the ship, 
and ready to leap out of it, in order to execute 
the punishment himself; he begged therefore 
from the shore, that he would leave him one of 
his hands, which Josephus agreed to, upon 
condition that he would himself cut off the 
other hand; accordingly, he drew his sword, 
end with his right hand cut off his left, so great 
was the fear he was in of Josephus himself. 
And thus he took the people of Tiberias pri- 
soners, and recovered the city again with emp- 
ty ships* and seven of his guard. Moreover, 
a few days afterward he took Gischala, which 
had revolted with the people of Sepphoris, 
and gave his soldiers leave to plunder it; yet 
did he get all the plunder together, and restor- 
ed it to the inhabitants, and the like he did to 
the inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias. For 
when he had subdued those cities, he had a 
mind, by letting them be plundered, to give 
them some good instruction, while at the same 
time he regained their good will, by restoring 
them their money again. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


The Jews make all ready for the war. And Si- 
mon the son of Gnroras falls to plundering. 


§ 1. And thus were the disturbances of Ga- 


_*T cannot but think this stratagem of Josephus, which is 
tated both here and in his life, sect. 32, 33, to be one of the 


~ 


oe eee eee ee ee ee ee Se ee Ee ee ee ee ee ee eS a et 


secute their civil dissensions, they betook them- 
selves to make preparations for the war with 
the Romans. Now in Jerusalem the high 
priest Ananus, and as many of the men of 
power as were not in the interest of the Ro- 
mans, both repaired the walls, and made a great 
many warlike instruments, insomuch that in 
all parts of the city darts and all] sorts of ar- 
mor were upon the anvil. Although the mul 
titude of the young men were engaged in ex 
ercises, without any regularity, and all places 
were full of tumultuous doings; but the mo- 
derate sort were exceedingly sad, and a great 
many there were who, out of the prospects 
they had of the calamities that were coming 
upon them, made great lamentations. There 
were also such omens observed as were under- 
stood to be forerunners of evils, by such as 
loved peace, but were by those that kindled the 
war interpreted so as to suit their own inclina- 
tions; and the very state of the city, even be- 
fore the Romans came against it, was that of 
a place doomed to destruction. However 
Ananus’s concern was this, to lay aside, for a 
while, the preparations for the war, and to per- 
suade the seditious to consult their own interest, 
and to restrain the madness of those that had 
the name of zealots; but their violence was too 
hard for him, and what end he came to we 
shall relate hereafter. 

2. But as for the Acrabene toparchy, Si- 
mon, the son of Gioras, got a great number of 
those that were fond of innovations together, 
and betook himself to ravage the country; nor 
did he only harass the rich men’s houses but 
tormented their bodies, and appeared openly 
and beforehand to affect tyranny in his govern- 
ment. And when an army was sent against 
him by Ananus, and the other rulers, he and 
his band retired to the robbers that were at 
Masada, and staid there, and plundered the 
country of Idumea with them, till both Ananus 
and his other adversaries were slain, and until 
the rulers of that country were so afflicted with 
the multitude of those that were slain, and with 
the continual ravage of what they had, that 
they raised an army, and put garrisons into the 
villages, to secure them from those insults, and 
in this state were the affairs of Judea at that 
time. 


finest that ever was invented and executed by szy war 7 
whatsoever. 





BOOK III. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT ONE YEAR.—FROM VESPASIAN’S COMING [PO SUBLWIE 
THE JEWS, TO THE TAKING OF GAMALA. 





CHAPTER I. 


Vespasian 1s sent into Syria by Nero, in order to 
make war with the Jews. 


§1. When Nero was inforined of the Ro- 


nation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell 
upon him; although he openly looked very big 
and was very angry, and said that what had 
happened was rather owing to the negligence 
of the commander, than to any valor of the 


man’s ill success in Judea, a concealed conster- | enemy: and as he thonght it fit for him, whe 


74 


4 


586 


oore the burden of the whole empire, to de- 
spise sucn misfortunes, he now pretended so to 

o, and to have a soul superior to all such sad 
accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance 
that was in his soul plainly appear by the soli- 
citude he was in [how to recover his affairs 
ggain.| 

2. And as he was deliberating to whom he 
thould commit the care of the east, now it was 
m so great a commotion, and who might be the 
pest able tu punish the Jews for their rebellion, 
and might prevent the same distemper from 
seizing upon the neighboring nations also; he 
found no one but Vespasian equal to the task, 
and able to undergo the great burden of so 
mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old 
man already in the camp, and from his youth 
had been exercised in warlike exploits; he was 
also a man that had long ago pacified the west, 
and made it subject to the Romans, when it had 
been put into disorder by the Germans; he had 
also recovered to them Britain by his arms 
which bad been little known before;* whereby 
he procured to his father Claudius to have a 
triumph bestowed on him without any sweat 
or labor of his own. 

3. So Nero esteemed these circumstances as 
favorable omens, and saw that Vespasian’s age 
gave him sure experience, and great skill, and 
that he had his sons as hostages for his fidelity 
to himself, and that the flourishing age they 
were in would make them fit instruments under 
their father’s prudence. Perhaps also there 
was some interposition of providence, which 
was paving the way for Vespasian’s being him- 
self emperor afterward. Upon the whole, he 
sent this man to take upon him the command 
of the armies that were in Syria; but this not 
without great encomiums and flattering com- 
pellations, such as necessity required, and such 
as might mollify him into complaisance. So 
Vespasian sent his son Titus from Achaia, 
where he had been with Nero, to Alexandria, 
to bring back with him from thence the fifth 
and the tenth legions; while he himself when 
he had passed over the Hellespont, came by 
land into Syria, where he gathered together the 
Roman forces, with a considerable number of 
auxiliaries from the kings in that neighborhood. 


CHAPTER IL. 


4 great slaughter of the Jews about Ascalon. Ves- 
pasian comes to Ptolemais. 


§ 1 Now the Jews after they had beaten 
Cestius, were so much elevated with their un- 
expected success, that they could not govern 
their zeal, but, like people blown up into a flame 
by théir good fortune, carried the war to re- 
moter places. Accordingly they presently got 
together a great multitude of all their most 
hardy soldiers, and marched away for Ascalon. 
This is an ancient city that is distant from Jeru- 
salem five hundred and twenty furlongs, and 
was always an enemy to the Jews; on which ac- 

* Take the confirmation of this in the words of Suetoni- 
us, kere produced by Dr. Hudson.—“In_ the reign of Clau- 
dius,”’ says he, “Vespasian, for the sake of Narcissus, was 


sent as a lieutenant of a legion into zermany. Thence he 
emoved into Britain, and fought thirt ’ battles with the ene- 


WARS OF THE JrWS. 


i 


count they determined to make their first effort 
against it, and to make their approaches to it as 
near as possible. This excursion was led on 
by three men, who were the chief of them all, 
both for strength and sagacity, Niger, called the 
Peraite, Silas of Babylon, and besides them 
John the Essene. ° Now Ascalon was strongly 
walled about, but had almost no assistance to 
he relied on [near them,] for the garrison con- 
sisted of one cohort of footmmen, and one troop 
of horsemen, whose captain was Antonius. | 
2. These Jews, therefore, out of their anger, 
marched faster than ordinary, and, as if they 
had come but a litte way, approached very 
near the city, and were come even to it; but 
Antonius, who was not unapprised of the at- 
tack they were going to make upon the city, 
drew out his horsemen beforehand, and being 
neither daunted at the multitude nor at the cou- 
rage of the enemy, received their first attacks 
with great bravery: and when they crowded to 
the very walls, he beat them off. Now the 
Jews were unskilful in war, but were to fight 
with those that were skilful therein; they were 
footmen, to tight with horsemen; they were in 
disorder, to fight those that were united togeth- 
er; they were poorly armed, to fight those that 
were completely so; they were to fight more 
by their rage than by sober counsel, and were 
exposed to soldiers that were exactly obedient, 
and did every thing they were bidden upon the 
least intimation. So they were easily beaten; 
for as soon as ever their first ranks were once 
in disorder, they were put to flight by the ene- 
my’s cavalry, and those of them that came be- 
hind such as crowded to the wall, fell upon 
their own party’s weapons, and became one 
another’s enemies; and this so long till they 
were all forced to give way to the attacks of 
the horsemen, and were dispersed all the plain 
over, Which plain was wide and all fit for the 
horsemen; which circumstance was very con- 
venient for the Romans, and occasioned the 
slaughter of the greatest number of the Jews; 
for such as ran away, they could overrun them, 
and make them turn back; and when they had 
brought them back after their flight, and driv- 
en them together, they ran them through, and 
slew a vast number of them, insomuch that 
others encompassed others of them, and drove 
them before them whithersoever they turned 
themselves, and slew them easily with their ar- 
rows; and the great number there were of the 
Jews seemed a solitude to themselves by rea- 
son of the distress they were in, while the Ro- 
mans had such good success with their small 
number, that they seemed to themselves to be 
the greater multitude. And as the former strove 
zealously uader their misfortunes out of the 
shame of a sudden flight, and hopes of the 
change in their success, so did the latter feel no 
weariness by reason of their good fortune; in- 
somuch that the fight 'asted till the evening, till - 
ten thousand men of the Jews’ side lay dead, 
my.’ In Vesp. sect. 4. We may also here note from Jose — 
phus, that Claudius the emperor, who triumphed for the cx. 
quest of Britain, was enabled so to do by Vespasian’s Coz 
duct and braverv, and that he is here styled the father g % 


Vesavsian 


[ie 


BOOK UL—CHAPTER 


(ft. 587 


‘with two of their generals, John and Silas; and | this time withall they received Vespasian, the 


the greater part of the remainder were wound- 
ed, with Niger, their remaining general, who 
fled away together to a small city of [dumea, 
‘called Sallis; some few also of the Romans 
were wounded in this battle. , 

3. Yet were not the spirits of the Jews broken 
‘by So great a calamity, but the losses they had 
sustained rather quickened their resolution for 
dth: attempts; for overlooking the dead bodies 
which lay under their feet, they were enticed 
by their former glorious actions to venture on 
a second destruction; so when they had lain 
still so little a while that their wounds were not 
thoroughly cured, they got together all their 
forces, and came with greater fury, and in much 
greater numbers, to Ascalon. But their for- 
mer ill fortune followed them, as the conse- 
quence of their unskilfulness, and other de- 
ficiencies in war; for Antonius laid ambushes 
for them in the passages they were to go through 
where they fell into snares unexpectedly, and 
where they were compassed about with horse- 
men, before they could form themselves into 
a regular body for fighting, and were above 
eight thousand of them slain: so all the rest of 
them ran away, and with them Niger, who 
still did a great many bold exploits in his flight. 
However, they were driven along together by 
the enemy, who pressed hard upon them, into 
a certain strong tower belonging to a village 
called Bezedel. However, Antonius and his 
party, that they might neither spend any con- 
siderable time about this tower, which was 
hard to be taken, nor suffer their commander, 
and the most courageous man of them all, to 
escape from them, they set the wall on fire; 
and as the tower was burning, the Romans 
went away rejoicing, as taking it for granted 
that Niger was destroyed; but he leaped out of 
the tower into a subterraneous cave, in the 
innermost part of it, and was preserved; and 
on the third day afterward he spoke out of the 
ground to those that with great lamentations 
were searching for him, in order to give hima 
decent funeral; and when he was cotne out, he 
filled all the Jews with an unexpected Joy, as 
though he were preserved by God’s providence 
to be their commander for the time to come. 

4, And now Vespasian took along with him 
his army from Antioch (which is the metropolis 
of Syria, and without dispute deserves the 
place of the third city* in the habitable earth, 
that was under the Roman empire, both in 
magnitude, and other marks of prosperity,) 
where he found king Agrippa, with all his 
forces. waiting for his coming; and marched to 
Ptolerzais. At this city also the inhabitants of 
Sepphoris of Galilee met bim, who were for 
peace with the Romans. These citizens had 
deforehand taken care of their own safety, 
and being sensible of the power of the Romans, 
they had been with Cestius Gallus, before Ves- 
pasian came, and had given their faith to him, 
and received the security of his right hand, 
and had received a Roman garrison; and at 


* Spanheim and Reland both agree, that the twocities here 
ssteemed greater than Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, 


Roman general, very kindly, and readily pro- 
mised that they would assist him against their 
own countrymen. Now the general delivered 
them, at their desire, as many horsemen and 
footmen as he thought sufficient to oppose the 
incursions of the Jews, if they should come 
against them. And indeed the danger of los- 
ing Sepphoris would be no small one, in this 
war that was now beginning, seeing it was the 
largest city of Galilee, and built in a place trv 
nature very strong, and might be a security of 
the whole nation’s [fidelity to the Romans. ] 


CHAPTER III. 
Al description of Galilee, Samaria, and Jude 


§ 1. Now Pheenicia and Syria encompass 
about the Galilees, which are two, and called the 
Upper Galilee, and the Lower. They are bound- 
ed towards the sun-setting, with the borders of 
the territory belonging to Ptolemais, and by 
Carmel; which mountain had formerly belong- 
ed to the Galileans, but now belonged to the 
Tyrians, to which mountain adjoins Gaba, 
which is called “the city of horsemen,” because 
those horsemen that were dismissed by Herod 
the king dwelt therein: they are bounded on 
the south with Samaria and Scythopolis, as far 
as the river Jordan; on the east with Hippene 
and Gadaris, and also with Gaulanitis, and the 
borders of the kingdom of Agrippa; its north- 
ern parts are bounded by Tyre, and the coun- 
try of the Tyrians. As for that Galilee which 
is called the Lower, it extends in length from 
Tiberias to Zabulon, and of the maritime places 
Ptolemais is its neighbor, its breadth is from the 
village called Xaloth, which lies in the great 
plain, as far as Bersabe, from which beginning 
also is taken the breadth of the Upper Galilee, 
as far as the village Baca, which divides the 
land of the Tyrians from it; its length is also 
from Meloth to Thella, a village near to Jordan. 

2. These two Galilees, of so great largeness, 
and encompassed with so many nations of for- 
eigners, have been always able to make astroug 
resistance on all occasions of war; for the Gali- 
Jeans are inured to war from their infancy, and 
have been always very numerous; nor hath the 
country been ever destitute of men of courage, 
or wanted a numerous. set of them: for their 
soil is uniformly rich and fruitful, and full of 
the plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch 
that it invites the most slothful to take pains in 
its cultivation, by its fruitfulness: accordingly 
it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part 
of it lies idle. Moreover, the cities lie here 
very thick, and the very many villages there 
are here, are everywhere so full of people, by 
the richness of their soil, that the very least of 
them contain above fifteen thousand inhabitants, 

3: Inshort, if any one will suppose that Gali- 
lee, is inferior to Perea in magnitude, he will 
be obliged to prefer it before it in its strength: 
for this is all capable of cultivation, and iz 
everywhere fruitful; but for Perea, which is 
indeed much larger in extent, the greater part 


were Rome and Alexandria; nor is there any occasion fos 
doubt in so plain a case. 


588 


of it isdesert and rough, and much less dispos- 
ed for the production of the milder kinds of 
fruits; yet hath it a mo,st soil [in other parts,] 
and produces all kind of fruits, and its plains 
are planted with trees of all sorts, while yet the 
olive-tree, the vine and palm-tree, are chiefly 
cultivated there. It is also sufficiently watered 
with torrents, which issue out of the moun- 
tains, and with springs that never fail to run, 
even when the torrents fail them, as they do in 
the dog-days. Now the length of Perea is from 
Macherus to Pella, and its breadth from Phila- 
delphia to Jordan: its northern parts are bound- 
ed by Pella, as we have already said, as well as 
its western witb Jordan; the land of Moab is 
its southern border, and its eastern limits reach 
to Arabia, and Silbonitis, and besides to Phila- 
delphene and Gerasa. 

4. Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies 
between Judea and Galilee; it begins in a vil- 
lage that is in the great plain, called Ginea, and 
ends at the Acrabene toparchy, and is entirely 
of the same nature with Judea; for both coun- 
tries, are made up of hills and valleys, and are 
moist enough for agriculture, and are very fruit- 
ful. They have abundance of trees, and are full 
of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild, 
and that which is the effect of cultivation. 
They are not naturally watered by many rivers, 
but derive their chief moisture from rain water, 
of which they have no want; and for those riv- 
ers which they have, all their waters are ex- 
ceeding sweet; by reason also of the excellent 
grass they have, their cattle yield more milk 
than do those in other places; and, what is the 
greatest sign of excellency and of abundance, 
they each of them are very full of people. 

3. In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies 
the village of Anuath, which is also named 
Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Ju- 
dea. ‘The southern parts of Judea, if they be 
measured lengthways, are bounded by a village 
adjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews 
that dwell there call it Jordan. However, its 
breadt: is extended from the river Jordan to 
Joppa. The city of Jerusalem is situated in 
the very middle; on which account some have, 
with sagacity enough, called that city the navel 
of the country. Nor indeed is Judea destitute 
of such delights as come from the sea, since its 
maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais; it 
was parted in eleven portions, in which the 
royal city of Jerusalem was the supreme, and 
presided over all the neighboring country, as 
the head does over the body. As to the other 
cities that were inferior to it, they presided over 

cir several toparchies; Gophna was the se- 
cond-of those cities, and next to that Acrabatta; 
after them Thamna, and Lydda, and Emmaus, 
and Pella, and Idumea, and Engaddi, and He- 
rodium, and Jericho; and after them came 
Jamniaand Joppa, as presiding over the neigh- 
boring people: and besides these there was the 
region of Gamala, and Gaulanitis, and Batanea, 
and ‘T'rachonitis, which are also parts of the 
kingdom of Agrippa. This [last] country be- 
gus at mount Libanus, and the fountains of 

ordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


Tiberias; and in length 1s extended from a vu 
lage called Arpha, as far as Julias. Its inhabit- 
ants are a mixture of Jewsand Syrians. And 
thus have I, with all possible brevity, described 
the country of Judea, and those that lie round 
about it. 


CHAPTER IV. 


Josephus makes an attempt upon Sepphoris, but 
ts repelled. Titus comes with a great army to 
Ptolemais. 


§ 1. Now the auxiliaries who were sent t 
assist the people of Sepphoris, being a thou- 
sand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, un. 
der Placidus the tribune, pitched their camp in 
two bodies in the great plain. The foot were 
put into the city to be a guard to it, but the 
horse lodged abroad inthe camp. These last, 
by marching continually one way or other, and 
overrunning the parts of the adjoining country, 
were very troublesome to Josephus and his 
men; they also plundered all the places that 
were out of the city’s liberty, and intercepted 
such as durst go abroad. On this account it 
was that Josephus marched against the city, 
as hoping to take what he had lately encom. 
passed with so strong a wall, before they revolt 
ed from the rest of the Galileans, that the Ro 
mans would have had much ado to take it; by 
which means he proved too weak, and failed 
of his hopes, both as to forcing the place, and 
as to his prevailing with the people of Sep- 
phoris to deliver it up to him. By this means 
he provoked the Romans to treat the country 
according to the law of war; nor did the Ro- 
mans, out of the anger they bore at this attempt, 
leave off either by night or by day burning the 
places in the plain, and stealing away the cat- 
tle that were in the country, and killing what- 
soever appeared capable of fighting, perpetu- 
ally, and leading the weaker people as slaves 
into captivity; so that Galilee was all over filled 
with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from 
any kind of misery and calamity, for the only 
refuge they had was this, that when they were 
pursued, they could retire tothe cities which 
had walls built them by Josephus. 

2. But as to Titus, he sailed over from 
Achaia to Alexandria, and that sooner than the 
winter season did usually permit; so he took 
with him those forces he was sent for, and 
marching with great expedition, he came sud- 
denly to Ptolemais, and there finding his father, 
together with the two legions, the fifth and the 
tenth, which were the most eminent legions of 
all, he joined them to that fifteenth legion which 
was with his father: eighteen cohorts followed 
these legions; there came also five cohorts from 
Ceesarea, with one troop of sorsemen, and five 
other troops of horsemen from Syria. Now 
these ten cohorts had severally a thousand foot 
men, but the other thirteen cohorts had no 
inore than six hundred footmen apiece, and 
a hundred and twenty horsemen. 
were also a considerable number of auxil 
laries got together, that came from the kir 
Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, eac 
of them contributing one thousand footm 








' men. 


them in their wars. 


BOOK IIIL—CHAPTER V. 


that were archers, and a thousand _horse- 
Malchus, alsa the king of Arabia, sent 
a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand 


_ footmen, the greatest part of whom were arch- 
ers; so that the whole army, including the aux- 
iliaries sent by the kings, as well horsemen 
as footmen, when all were united together, 
amounted to sixty thousand, besides the ser- 


vants, who, as they followed in vast numbers, 


0 because they had been trained up in war 
with the rest, ought not to be distinguished 


from the fighting men; for as they were in the 
master’s service in times of peace, so did they 
undergo the like dangers with them in times 
of war, insomuch that they were inferior to 
none, either in skill or in strength, only they 
were subject to their masters. 


CHAPTER V. 

A description of the Roman armies, and their 
camps; and of other particulars for which the 
Romans are commended. 

§ 1. Now here one cannot but admire at the 
precaution of the Romans, in providing them- 
selves of such household servants, as might not 


only serve at other times for the common offi- 


ces of life, but might also be of advantage to 
And, indeed, if any one 
does but attend to the other parts of their mili- 
tary discipline, he will be forced to confess, that 
their obtaining so large a dominion hath been 
she acquisition of their valor, and not the bare 


gift of fortune; for they do not begin to use their 
_ weapons first in time of war, nor do they then 


put their hands first into motion, while they 
avoid so to do in times of peace; but asif their 
weapons did always cling to them, they have 
never any truce from warlike exercises; nor do 
they stay till times of war admonish them to 
use them; for their military exercises differ not 
at all from the real use of their arms, but every 
soldier is every day exercised, and that with 
real diligence, as if it were in time of war, 
which is the reason why they bear the fatigue 
of battles so easily; for neither can any disorder 
remove them from their usual regularity, nor 
can fear affright them out of itynor can labor 
tire them; which firmness of conduct makes 
them always to overcome those that have not 
the same firmness; nor would he be mistaken 
that should call those their exercises unbloody 
battles, and their battles bloody exercises. Nor 
can their enemies easily surprise them with the 
suddenness of their incursions; for as soon as 
they have marched into an enemy’s land, they 
do not begin to fight till they have walled their 
camp about; nor is the fence they raise rashly 
made, or uneven; nor do they all abide in it, 
nor do those that are in it take their places at 
random; but if it happens that the ground is un- 
sven, it is first levelled; their camp is also four 
square by measure, and carpenters are ready 
with their tools to erect their buildings for them.* 

2. As for what is within the camp, it is set 

* This description of the exact symmetry and regularity of 
the Roman army and of the Roman encampments, with the 
pounding their trumpets, &c. and order of war, described in 


this and the next chapter, is so very like to the symmetry 
and regularity of the people of Israel in the wilderness, (see 


‘the description of the temple, ch. ix.) that one cannot well 


apart for tents, but the outward circumference 
hath the resemblance to a wall, and is adorned 
with towers at equal distances, where between 
the towers stand the engines for throwing ar 
rows and darts, and for slinging stones, and 
where they lay all other engines that can annoy 
the enemy, all ready for their several operations. 
They also erect four gates, one at every side of 
the circumference, and those large enough for 
the entrance of the beasts, and wide enough 
for making excursions, if occasion should re- 
quire. They divide the camp within into 
streets very conveniently, and place the tents 
of the commanders in the middle, but m the 
very midst of all is the generals own tent, in 
the nature of a temple, insomuch that it ap- 
pears to be a city built on the sudden: with its 
market-place, and place for handicraft trades, 
and with seats for the officers, superior and in- 
ferior, where, if any differences arise, their 
causes are heard and determined. ‘The camp, 
and all that is in it, is encompassed with a wal) 
round about, and that sooner than one would 
imagine, and this by the multitude and the skill] 
of the laborers; and, if occasion require, a 
trench is drawn round the whole, whose depth 
is four cubits, and its breadth equal. 

3. When they have thus secured themselves, 
they live together by companies, with quietness 
and decency, as are all their other affairs ma- 
naged with a order and security. Each 
company hath also their wood, and their corn, 
and their water brought them, when they stand 
in need of them; for they neither sup nor dine 
as they please themselves singly, but altogether 
Their times also for sleeping, and watching, and 
rising, are notified beforehand by the sound of 
trumpets, nor is any thing done without such 
a signal; and in the morning the soldiers jo 
every one to their centurions, and these centu- 
rions to their tribunes, to salute them; with 
whom all the superior officers go to the gen- 
eral of the whole army, who then gives them 
of course the watchword and other orders, to 
be by them carried to all that are under their 
command; which is also observed when they 
go to fight, and thereby they turn themselves 
about on the sudden when there is occasion for 
making sallies, as they come back when they 
are recalled in crowds also. 

4. Now when they are to go out of their 
camp, the trumpet gives a sound, at which time 
nobody lies still, but at the first intimation they 
take down their tents, and all is made ready for 
their going out; then do the trumpets sound 
again, to order them to get ready for the march 
then do they lay their baggage suddenly upon 
their mules, and other beasts of burthen, and 
stand, as at the place cf starting, ready te 
march: when also they set fire to their camp, 
and this they do because it will be easy for 
them to erect another camp, and that it may 
not ever be of use to their enemies. Then de 


avoid the supposal, that the one was the ultimate pattern 
of the other, and that the tactic of the ancients were taken 
from the rules given by God to Moses. And it is thonght by 
some skilful in these matters, that these accounts of Jose 
phus as to the Roman camp and armor, and conduct in wax, 
are preferable to those in the Roinan authors themselves 


590 


the trumpets give a sound the third time, that 
they are to go out, in order to excite those that 
on any account are 4 little tardy, that so no one 
may he out of his rank when the army marches. 
Then does the crier stand at the general’s right 
hand, and asks them thrice in their own tongue, 
whether they be now ready to go out to war 
To which they reply as often with a 


or not? 
loud and cheerful voice, saying, we are ready. 


And this they do almost before the question 
is asked them: they do this as filled with a 
kind of martial fury, and at the same time that 
they cry out, they lift up their right hands also. 

». When, after this, they are gone out of 


their camp, they all march without noise, and 
in a decent manner, and every one keeps his 
own rank, as if they were going to war. The 
foot inen are armed with breast-plates and head 
pieces, and have swords on each side, but the 
sword which is upon their left side is much 
longer than the other, for that on the right side 
is not longer than a span. Those footmen also 
that are chosen out from the rest to be about 
the general himself, have a lance and a buckler, 
but the rest of the foot soldiers, have a spear, 
and a long buckler, besides a saw and a basket, 
a pickaxe, and an axe, a thong of leather, and 
a hook, with provisions for three days, so that 
a footman hath no great need of a mule to 
carry his burdens. The horsemen have a 
long sword on their right sides, and a long 
pole in their hand; a shield also lies by them 
obliquely on one side of their horses with three 
or more darts that are borne in their quiver, 
having broad points, and not smaller than 
spears. They have also head-pieces, and breast- 
plates, in like manner as have all the footmen, 
And for those that are chosen to be about the 


general, their armor no way differs from that of 


the horsemen belonging to other troops; and 
he always leads the legions forth to whom the 
lot assigns that employment. 

6. 'Tuis is the manner of the marching and 
resting of the Romans, as also these are the 
several sorts of weapons they use. But when 
they are to fight, they leave nothing without 
forecast, nor to be done off hand, but counsel is 
ever first taken before any work is begun, and 
what hath been there resolved upon is put in 
execution presently; for which reason they sel- 
dom commit any errors, and if they have been 
mistaken at any time, they easily correct those 
mistakes. They also esteem any errors they 
commit upon taking counsel beforehand, to be 
retter than such rash success as is owing to for- 
tune only; because such a fortuitous advantage 
tempts them to be inconsiderate, while consul- 
tation, though it may sometimes fail of success, 
hath this good in it, that it makes men more 
careful hereafter; but for the advantages that 
arise from chance, they are not owing to him 
that gains them; and as te what melancholy acci- 
dents happen unexpectedly, there is this com- 
fort in them, that they had however taken the 
best consultations they could to prevent them. 

7. Now they so manage their preparatory 
exercises of their weapons, that not the bodies 
ef the soldiers only, but their souls, may also 


WARS OF THE JEWS. \, 


become stronger; they are moreover hardened 
for war by fear, for their laws inflict capital 
punishments, not only for soldiers running away 
from their ranks, but for slothfulness and inac- 
tivity, though it be but in a lesser degree; as 
are their generals more severe than their laws, 
for they prevent any imputation of cruelty to. 
ward those under condemnation, by the great 
rewards they bestow on the valiant soldiers 
and the readiness of obeying their commanders 
is SO great, that it is very ornamental in peace; 
but when they come to a battle, the whole ar- 
ny is but one body, so well coupled together 
are their ranks, so sudden are their turnings 
about, so sharp their hearing, as to what orders 
are given them, so quick their sight of the en-. 
signs, and so nimble are their hands when they 
set to work; whereby it comes to pass, that what 
they do is done quickly, and what they suffer 
they bear with the greatest patience. Nor can 
we find any examples where they have been 
conquered in battle, when they came to a close 
fight, either by the multitude of their enemies, 
or by their stratagems, or by the difficulties in 
the places they were in; no, nor by fortune 
neither, for their victories have been surer to 
them than fortune could have granted them, 
In a case, therefore, where counsel still goes 
before action, and where, after taking the best 
advice, that advice is followed by so active an 
army, what wonder is it that Euphrates on the 
east, the ocean on the west, the most fertile re- 
gions of Libya on the south, and the Danube 
and the Rhine on the north, are the limits of 
this empire? One might well say, that the Ro- 
man possessions are not inferior to the Roma 
themselves, . . 

8. This account I have given the reader, not 
so much with the intention of commending the 
Romans, as of comforting those that have been 
conquered by them, and for the deterring oth- 
ers from attempting innovations under their go- 
vernment. - This discourse of the Roman mil- 
tary conduct may also perhaps be of use to such 
of the curious as are ignorant of it, and yet 
have a mind to, know it. I return now from 
this digression. 


CHAPTER VI. 


Placidus attempts to take Jotapata, and is beat- 
en off. Vespasian marches into Galilee. 


§ 1. And now Vespasian, with his son Titus 
had tarried some time at Ptolemais, and had 
put his army in order. But when Placidus, 
who had overrun all Galilee, and had besides” 
slain a number of those whom he had caught, 
(which were only the weaker part of the Gali- 
leans, and such as were of timorous souls,) saw 
that the warriors ran always to those cities” 
whose walls had been built by Josephus, he 
marched furiously against Jotapata, which was 
of them all the strongest, as supposing he 
should easily take it by a sudden surprise, an 
that he should thereby obtain great honor to 
himself among the commanders, and bring a 
great advantage to them in their future cam- 
paign; because if this strongest place of them 
all were once taken, the rest would be so af 








frighted as to surrender themselves. But he 
-was mightily mistaken in his undertaking; for 
the men of Jotapata were apprised of his com- 
ing to attack them, and came out of the city, 

and expected him there. So they fought the 
Romans briskly, when they least expected it, 
being both many in number, and prepared for 
fighting, and of great alacrity, as esteeming 
their country, their wives, and their children, 
to be in danger, and easily put the Romans to 
flight, and wounded many of them, and slew 
seven of them;* because their retreat was not 
made in a disorderly manner; because the 
strokes only touched the surface of their bodies, 
which were covered with thei armor in all 
parts, and because the Jews did rather throw 
their weapons upon them from a great distance, 
than venture to come hand to hand with them, 
and had only light armor on, while the others 
were completely armed. However, three men 
of the Jews’ side were slain, and a few wound- 
ed; so Placidus, finding himself unable to assault 
the city, ran away. 

2. But as Vespasian had a great raind to fall 
upon Galilee, he marched out to Ptolemais, 
having put his army into that order wherein 
the Romans used to march. He ordered those 
auxiliaries which were lightly armed, and the 
archers, to march first, that they might prevent 
any sudden insults from the enemy, and might 
search out the woods that looked suspiciously, 
and were capable of ambuscades. Nextto these 
followed that part of the Romans who were 
completely armed, both footmen, and horse- 
men. Next to these followed ten out of every 
hundred, carrying along with them their arms, 
and what was necessary to measure out a camp 
withall; and after them, such as were to make 
the road even and straight, and if it were any 
Where rough and hard to be passed over, to 
plain it, and to cut down the woods that hin- 
dered their march, that the army might not be 
in distress, or tired with their'march. Behind 
these he set such carriages of the army as be- 
longed both to himself and to the other com- 
manders, with a considerable number of their 
horsemen for their security. After these he 
marched himself, having with him a select 
pody of footmen, and horsemen, and pikemen. 
After these came the peculiar cavalry of his 
own legion, for there were a hundred and twen- 
ty horsemen that peculiarly belonged to every 
legion. Next to these came the mules that 
carried the engines for sieges, and the other 
warlike machines of that nature. After these 
came the commanders of the cohorts and tri- 
bunes, having about them soldiers chosen out 
@f the rest. Then came the ensigns encom- 
passing the eagle, which is at the head of 
every Roman legion, the king and the strongest 
of all birds, which seems to them a signal of 
dominion, and an omen that they shall conquer 


*{ cannot but here observe an eastern way of speaking, 
frequent among them, but not usual among us, where the 
word only or alone is not set down, but, perhaps, soinmeway 
wapplied by the pronunciation. ‘Thus Josephus here says, 
that those of Jotapata slew seven of the Romans, as they 
Were marching otf; because the Romans’ retreat was regular, 
their bodies were covered over with their armor, and the 


ae 


BOOK HI—CHAPTER VIL 


59} 


all against whom they march; these sacred en- 
signs are followed by the trumpeters. Then 
came the main army in their squadrons, and 
battalions, with six men in depth, who were 
followed at last by a centurion, who, aceerding 
to custom, observed the rest. As for the ser- 
vants of every legion, they all followed the 
footmen, and led the baggage of the soldiers, 
which was borne by the mules and other beasts 
of burden. But behind all the legions came 
the whole multitude of the mercenaries; and 
those that brought up the rear came last of al\ 
for the security of the whole army, being both 
footmen, and those in their armor also, with a 
great number of horsemen. 

3. And thus did Vespasian march with his 
army, and came to the bounds of Galilee, 
where he pitched his camp, and restrained his 
soldiers, who were eager for war; he alsoshow 
ed his army to the enemy, in order to affrigh 
them, and to afford them a season for repent- 
ance, to see whether they would change their 
minds before it came to a battle, and at the 
same time he got things ready for besiegin 
their strongholds. And indeed this sight of 
the general brought many to repent of their 
revolt, and put them all into a consternation; 
for those that were in Josephus’s camp, which 
was at the city called Garis, not far from Sep- 
phoris, when they heard that the war was 
come near them, and that the Romans would 
suddenly fight them hand to hand, dispersed 
themselves, and fled, not only before they came 
to a battle, but before the enemy ever came in 
sight, while Josephus and a few others were 
left behind; and as he saw that he had not an 
army sufficient to engage the enemy, that the 
spirits of the Jews were sunk, and that the 
greater part would willingly come to terms, if 
they might be credited, he already despaired of 
the success of the whole war, and determined 
to get as far as he possibly could out of dan- 
ger; so he took those that staid along with him, 
and fled to Tiberias. 


CHAPTER VII. 


Vespasian, when he had taken the city of Gadara, 
marches to Jotapata. After a long siege the 
city 1s betrayed by a deserter, and taken by 
Vespasian. 

§ 1. So Vespasian marched to the city of Ga- 
dara, and took it upon the first onset, because 
he found it destitute of any considerable num- 
ber of men grown up and fit for war. Hecame 
then into it, and slew all the youth, the Romans 
having no mercy on any age whatsoever; and 
this was done out of the hatred they bore the 
nation, and because of the iniquity they had 
been guilty of in the affair of Cestius. He also 
set fire, not only to the city itself, but to all the 
villas and small cities that were round about it; 
some of them were quite destitute of inhabit- 


Jews fought at some distance: his meaning is clear, that 
these were the reasons why they slew only, or no more than 
seven. I have met with many the like examples in the 
scriptures, in Josephus, &c. but did not note down the par- 
ticular places. This observation ought to be borne in mind 
upon many occasions. 


aye 


ants, and out of some of them hejcarried the 
inhabitants as slaves into captivity. 

2. Asto Josephus, his retiring to that city, 
which he chose as the most fit for his security, 
put it into great fear; for the people of Tibe- 
rias did not imagine that he would have run 
away unless he had entirely despaired of the 
success of the war. And indeed, as to that 
point, they were not mistaken about his opin- 
ion; for he saw whither the affairs of the Jews 
would tend at last, and was sensible that they 
had but one way of escaping, and that was by 
repentance. However, although he expected 
that the Romans would forgive him, yet did 
he choose to die many times over, rather than 
to betray his country, and to dishonor that su- 
preme command of the army which had been 
entrusted with him, or to live happily under 
those against whom he was sent to fight. He 
determined, therefore, to give an exact account 
of affairs to the principal men at Jerusalem by 
& letter, that he might not by too much aggran- 
dizing the power of the enemy, make them too 
timorous, not by relating that their power be- 
neath the truth, might encourage them to stand 
out when they were perhaps disposed to repent- 
ance. He also sent them word, that if they 
thought of coming to terms, they must sudden- 
1y write to him an answer; or if they resolv- 
ed upon war, they must send him an army 
sufficient to fight the Romans. Accordingly, 
he wrote these things, and sent messengers im- 
mediately to carry his letter to Jerusalem. 

3. Now Vespasian was very desirous of de- 
molishing Jotapata, for he had gotten intelli- 
gence that the greatest part of the enemy had 
retired thither, and that it was on other ac- 
counts, a place of great security tothem. Ac- 
cordingly, he sent both footmen and horsemen 
to level the road, which was mountainous and 
rocky, not without difficulty to be travelled over 
by footmen, but absolutely impracticable for 
horsemen. Now these workmen accomplish- 
ed what they were about in four days’ time, and 
opened a broad way for the army. On the 
fifth day, which was the twenty-first of the 
month Artemisius (Jyar,) Josephus prevented 
him, and came from Tiberias, and went into 
Jotapata, and raised the drooping spirits of the 
Jews. Anda certain deserter told this good 
news to Vespasian, that Josephus had removed 
himself thither, which made him make haste 
to the city, as supposing, that with taking that, 
he should take all Judea, in case he could but 
withall get Josephus under his power. So he 
took this news to be of the vastest advantage 
to hina, and believed it to be brought about by 
be Providence of God, that he.who appeared 
jo be ths most prudent man of all their enemies, 
nad of his own accord shut himself up in a 
place of sure custody. Accordingly, he sent 
Placidus with a thousand horsemen, and Ebu- 
tius a decurion, a person that was of eminency 
both in counsel and in action, to encompass the 
city round, that Josephus might not escape away 
privatelv. 

4. Vespasian also, the very next day, took 
bis whole army and followed them, and by 


WARS OF THE JEWS 


Pt 
a 


M2 
Pe 


’ 


marching till late in the evening, arrived thew 
ot Jotapata; and bringing his army to the north- 
ern side of the city, he pitched his camp ona 
certain small hill which was seven furlongs from 
the city, and still greatly endeavored to be well 
seen by the enemy, to put them into a conster- 
nation; which was indeed so terrible to the 
Jews immediately, that no one of them durst 
go out beyond the wall. Yet did the Romans 
put off the attack at that time, because they had 
marched all the day, although they placed a 
double row of battalions round the city, with 
a third row beyond them round the whole, 
which consisted of cavalry, in order to stop up 
every way for an exit; which thing making the 
Jews despair of escaping, excited them to act 
more boldly; for nothing makes men fight so 
desperately in war as necessity. . 

5. Now when an assault was made the next 
day by the Romans, the Jews at first strayed 
out of the walls, and opposed them, and met 
them, as having formed themselves a camp be- 
fore the city walls. But when Vespasian had 
set against them the archers and slingers, and 
the whole multitude that could throw to a great 
distance, he permitted them to go to work, 
while he himself, with the footmen, got upon 
an acclivity, whence the city might easily be 
taken. Josephus was then in fear for the city, 
and leaped out, and all the Jewish multitude 
with him; these fell together upon the Romans 
in great numbers, and drove them away from 
the wall, and performed a great many glorious 
and bold actions. Yet.did they suffer as much 
as they made the enemy suffer; for as despair 
of deliverance encouraged the Jews, so did a 
sense of shame equally encourage the Romans. 
These last had skill as well as strength; the 
other had only courage, which armed them and 
made them fight furiously. And when the fight 
had lasted all day, it was put an end to by the 
coming on of the night. They had wounded 
a great many of the Romans, and killed of them 
thirteen men; of the Jews’ side seventeen were 
slain, and six hundred wounded. 

6. On the next day the Jews made another 
attack upon the Romans, and went out of the 
walls, and fought a much more desperate battle 
with them than before. For they were now 
become more courageous than formerly, and 
that on account of the unexpected good oppo- 
sition they had made the day before; as they 
found the Romans also to fight more desperately; 
for a sense of shame inflamed these into a pas- 
sion, as esteeming their failure of a sudden | 
victory to be a kind of defeat. Thus did the 
Romans try to make an impression upon the 
Jews, till the fifth day continually, while the 
people of Jotapata made sallies out, and fought 
at the walls most desperately; nor were the | 
Jews affrighted at the strength of the enemy, | 
nor were the Romans discouraged at the diffi- 
culties they met with in taking the city. 

7. Now Jotapata is almost all of it built ons 
precipice, having on all the other sides of 
every way, valleys immensely deep and 8 
imsomuch, that those who would look dow 
would have their sight fail them befcre it reach- 








BOOK III—CHAPTEH VII 


es to the bottom. It is only to be come at on 
the north side, where the utmost part of the 
city is built on the mountain, as it ends oblique- 
ly at a plain. This mountain Josephus had 
encompassed with a wall when he fortified the 
city, that its top might not be capable of being 
seized upon by the enemies. The city is cover- 
ed al] round with other mountains, and can 
noway be seen till a man comes just upon it. 
And this was the strong situation of Jotapata. 

8. Vespasian, therefore, in order to try how 

he might overcome the natural strength of the 
place, as well as the bold defence of the Jews, 
made a resolution to prosecute the siege with 
vigor. ‘To that end he called the commanders 
that were under him to a council of war, and 
consulted with them which way the assault 
might be managed to the best advantage. And 
when the resolution was there taken to raise a 
bank against that part of the wall which was 
practicable, he sent his whole army abroad to 
get the materials together. So when they had 
cut down all the trees on the mountains that 
adjoined to the city, and had gotten together a 
vast heap of stones, besides the wood they had 
cut down, some of them brought hurdles, in 
order to avoid the effects of the darts that were 
shot. from above them. These hurdles they 
spread over their banks, under cover whereof 
they formed their bank, and so were little or 
nothing hurt by the darts that were thrown 
upon them from the wall, while others pulled 
the neighboring hillocks to pieces, and perpet- 
ually brought earth to them; so that while they 
were busy three sorts of ways, nobody was idle. 
However, the Jews cast great stones from the 
walls upon the hurdles which protected the 
men, with all sorts of darts also; and the noise 
of what could not reach them was vet so terri- 
ble, that it was some impediment to the work- 
men. 

9. Vespasian then set the engines for throw- 
ing stones and darts round about the city. 
The number of the engines was in all a hun- 
dred and sixty: and bade them fill to work, 
and dislodge those that were upcn the wall. 
At the same time, such engines 1s were in- 
tended for that purpose threw at once lances 
upon them with a great noise, and stones of 
the weight of a talent were thrown by the en- 
gines that were prepared for that purpose, to- 
gether with fire, and a vast multitude of arrows, 
which made the wall so dangerous, that the 
Jews durst not only not come upon it, but durst 

“not come to those parts within the walls which 
were reached by the engines; for the multitude 
ofthe Arabian archers, as well also as all those 
that threw darts and flung stones, fell to work 
‘at the same time with the engines. Yet did 
“not the others lie still, when they could not 
‘throw at the Romans from a higher place; for 


1 





SB 


till at length Vespasian perceived that the inter- 
vals there were between the works were of 
disadvantage to him; for those spaces of ground 
afforded the Jews a place for assaulting the 
Romans. So he united the hurdles, and at the 
same time joined one part of the army to the 
other, which prevented the private excursions 
of the Jews. 

10. And when the bank was now raised, and 
brought nearer than ever to the battlemexta 
that belonged to the walls, Josephus thought it 
would be entirely wrong in him if he could 
make no contrivance in opposition to theirs, 
and that might be for the city’s preservation; so 
he got together his workmen, and ordered them: 
to build the wall higher; and when they said 
that this was impossible to be done while so 
many darts were thrown at them, he invented 
this sort of cover for them: he bade them fix 
piles; and expand before them the raw hides of 
oxen, newly killed, that these hides, by yielid- 
ing and hollowing themselves when the stones 
were thrown at them, might receive them; for 
that the other darts would slide off them, and 
that the fire that was thrown would be quenched 
by the moisture that was in them. And these 
he set before the workmen, and under them 
these workmen went on with their works in 
safety, and raised the wall higher, and that both 
by day and by night, till it was twenty cubits 
high. He also built a good number of towers 
upon the wall, and fitted to it strong battlements. 
This greatly discouraged the Romans, who, in 
their own opinions, were already gotten within 
the walls, while they were now at once astcn- 
ished at Josephus’s contrivance, and at the for- 
titude of the citizens that were in the city. 

11. And now Vespasian was plainly irritated 
at the great subtility of this stratagem, and at 
the boldness of the citizens of Jotapata; for 
taking heart again upon the building of this 
wall, they made fresh sallies upon the Romans, 
and had every day conflicts with them by par- 
ties, together with all such contrivances as ro»- 
bers make use of, and with the plundering of 
all that came to hand, as also with the setting 
fire to all the other works; and this till Vespasi- 
an made his army leave off fighting them, and 
resolved to lie round the city, and to starve 
them into a surrender, as supposing that either 
they would be forced to petition him for mercy 
by want of provisions, or, if they should have 
the courage to hold outtill the last, they should 
perish by famine: and he concluded he should 
conquer them the more easily in fighting, if he 
gave them an interval, and then fell upon thein 
when they were weakened by famine; but still 
he gave orders that they should guard against 
their coming out of the city. 

12. Now the besieged had plenty of corn with- 
in the city, and indeed of all other necessaries, 


‘they then made sallies out of the city, like pri- | but they wanted water, because there was no 
| vate robbers, by parties, and pulled away the | fountain in the city, the people being there 

hurdles that covered the workmen, and killed | usually satisfied with rain water; yet it is a rare 
‘them when they were thus naked; and when | thing in that country to have rain in summer; 
‘those workmen gave way, these cast away the | and at this season, during the siege, they were 
‘varth that composed the bank, and burnt the | in great distress for some contrivance to satisfy 
“wooden parts of it together with the Inivdles, their thirst: and they were very sad at this time 


Ta 


594 


particularly, as if they were already in want of 
water entirely, for Josephus, seeing that the 
city abounded with other necessaries, and that 
the men were of good courage, and being de- 
sirous to protract the siege to the Romans longer 
than they expected, ordered their drink to be 
given them by measure; but this scanty distri- 
bution of water by measure was deemed by 
them as a thing more hard upon them than the 
want of it, ad their not being able to drink 
as much as they would, niade them more desir- 
ous of driuking than they otherwise had been; 
nay, they were as much disheartened thereby 
as if they were come to the last degree of thirst. 
Nor were the Romans unacquainted with the 
state they were in, for when they stood over 
against them, beyond the wall, they could see 
them running together, and taking their water 
by measure, which made them throw their 
javelins thither, the place being within their 
reach, and kill a great many of them. 

13. Hereupon Vespasian hoped that their 
receptacles of water would in no long time be 
emptied, and that they would be forced to deli- 
ver up the city to him; but Josephus being 
tninded to break such his hope, gave command 
that tiiey should wet a great many of their 
elothes, and hang them out about the battle- 
ments, till the entire wall was of a sudden all 
wet with the running down of the water. At 
this sight the Romans were discouraged, and 
under consternation, when they saw them able 
io throw away in sport so much water, when 
they supposed them not to have enougl to drink 
themselves. This made the Roman general 
despair of taking the city by their want of ne- 
eessaries, and to betake himself again to arms, 
and to try to force them to surrender, which 
was what the Jews greatly desired; for, as they 
despaired of either themselves or their city be- 
ing able to escape, they preferred a death in 
battle before one by hunger and thirst. 

14. However, Josephus contrived another 
stratagarn besides the foregoing, to get plenty of 
what they wanted. There was acertain rough 
and uneven place that could hardly be ascend- 
ed, and on that account was not guarded by the 
soldiers; so Josephus sent out certain persons 
along the western part of the valley, and by 
them sent letters to whom he pleased of the 
Jews that were out of the city, and procured 
from them what necessaries soever they wanted 
in the city in abundance; he enjoined them also 
to creep generally along by the watch as they 
came into the city, and to cover their backs 
with such sheep-skins as had their wool upon 
them, that if any one should spy them out in 
the night time, they might be believed to be 
dogs. This was done till the watch perceived 


their contrivance, and encompassed that rough | 


place about themselves. 

15. And now it was that Josephus perceived 
that the city could not hold out long, and that 
his own life would be in doubt if he continued 
im it; so he consulted how he and the most po- 
tent men of the city might fly out of it, When 
the multitude understood this, they came all 
reund about him, and begged of him, “not to 


WARS OF THE JEWS. - 


overlook them while they entirely depender 
on him, and him alone; for that there was still 
hope of the city’s deliverance, if he would 
with them, because every body would under- 
take any pains with great cheerfulness on his 
account, and in that case there would be some 
comfort for them also, though they should be 
taken, That it became him neither to fly from 
his enemies, nor to desert his friends, nor te 
leap out of that city, as out of a ship that was 
sinking in a storm, into which he came whet. 
it was quiet and in a calm; for that by going 
away he would be the cause of drowning the 
city, because nobody would then venture to op 
pose the enemy when he was once gone, upon 
whom they wholly confided.” 

16. Hereupon Josephus avoided letting them 
know that he was to go away to provide for 
his own safety, but told them, that “he would 
go out of the city for their sakes; for that if he 
staid with them, he should be able to do them 
little good, while they were in a safe condition, 
and that if they were once taken he should only 
perish with them to no purpose; but that if he 
were once gotten free from this siege, he should 
be able to bring them very great relief; for tha 
he would then immediately get the Galileans 
together out of the country, in great multitudes. 
and draw the Romans off their city by another 
war. That he did not see what advantage he 
could bring to them now by staying among them, 
but only provoke the Romans to besiege them 
more oate as esteeming it a most valuable 
thing to take him; but that if they were once 
informed that he was fled out of the city, they 
would greatly remit of their eagerness against 
it.” Yet did not this plea move the people, but 
inflamed them the more to hang about him 
Accordingly, both the children and the old men, 
and the women with their infants, came mourn- 
ing to him, and fell down before him, and all 
of them caught hold of his feet, and held him 
fast, and besought him with great lamentations 
that he would take his share with them in thei 
fortune; and I think they did this, not that they 
envied my deliverance, but that they hoped for 
their own; for they could not think they should 
suffer any great misfortune, provided Josephus 
would but stay with them. 

17. Now Josephus thought, that if he resolv- 
ed to stay, it would be ascribed to their entreat- 
ies, and if he resolved to go away by force, he 
should be put into custody. His commisera- 
tion also of the people under their lamentations 
had much broken that his eagerness to leave 
them; so he resolved to stay, and arming hin+ 
self with the common despair of the citizens, 
he said to them, “now is the time to begin te 
fight in earnest, when there is no hope of de- 
liverance left. It is a brave thing to }-refer 
glory before life, and to set about some such 
noble undertaking as may be remembered by 
late posterity.” Having said this, he fell to 
work immediately, and made a sally, and dis 
persed the enemies’ out-guards, and ran as far 
as the Roman camp itself, and pulled the cover 
ings of their tents to pieces, that were upon thet 
hanks, aud set fire to their works, And this wa 


: 


ie. BOOK ILU.—CHAPTER VIL. 


me manner in which he never left off fighting, 
aeither the next day nor the day after it, but 
went on with it fora considerable number of 
doth jays and nights. 

' 18. Upon this, Vespasian, when he saw the 
Romans distressed by these sallies, (though they 
were ashamed to be made to run away by the 
Jews; and when at any time they made the 
Jews run away, their heavy armor would not 
et them pursue them far, while the Jews, when 
they had performed any action, and before they 
vould be hurt themselves, still retired into the 
*ity,) ordered his armed men to avoid their on- 
set, and not fight it out with men under despe- 
ration, while nothing is more courageous than 
Jespair; but that their violence would be 
yuenched when they saw they failed of their 
purposes, as fire is quenched when it wants fuel; 
and that it was most proper for the Romans to 
gain their victories as cheap as they could, 
since they are not forced to fight, but only to en- 
large theirown dominions. So he repelled the 
Jews in a great measure by the Arabian arch- 
2rs, and the Syrian slingers, and by those that 
‘hrew stones at them, nor was there any inter- 
mission of the great number of their offensive 
sngines. Now the Jews suffered greatly by 
these engines, without being able to escape from 
them, and when these engines threw stones or 
javelins a great way, and the Jews were with- 
in their reach, they pressed hard upon the Ro- 
mans, and fought desperately, without sparing 
either soul or body, one part succoring another 
by turns, when it was tired down. 

19. When, therefore, Vespasian looked upon 
himself as in a manner besieged by these sallies 
of the Jews, and when his banks were now 
not far from the walls, he determined to make 
use of his battering ram. This battering ram 
is a vast beam of wood like the mast of a ship; 
its forepart is armed with a thick piece of iron 
at the head of it, which is so carved as to be 
like the head of a ram, whence its name is 
taken. This ram is slung in the air by ropes 

sing over its middle, and is hung like the 
MBiancs in a pair of scales from another beam, 
and braced by strong beams that pass on both 
sides of it, in the nature of across. When 
this is pulled backward by a great number of 
men with united force, and then thrust forward 
by the same men, with a mighty noise, it batters 
the wall with that iron part which is prominent. 
Nor is there any tower so strong, or walls so 
broad, that can resist any more than its first bat- 
teries, but all are forced to yield to it at last. 
This was the experiment which the Roman 
general betook himself to, when he was ea- 
gerly bent upon taking the city; but found lying 
m the field so long to be to his disadvantage, 
because the Jews would never let him be quiet. 
So these Romans brought the several engines 
for galling an enemy nearer to the walls, that 
they might reach such as were upon the walls, 
and endeavored to frustrate their attempts: these 
threw stones and javelins at them; in the like 
manner did the archers and slingers come both 
together closer to the wall. This brought mat- 


SUS 


mount the walls; and then it was that the other 
Romans brought the battering ram that was 
cased with hurdles all over, and in the upper 
part was secured with skins that covered it, 
and this both for the security of themselves 
and of theengine. Now, atthe very first stroke 
of this engine, the wall was shaken, and a ter 
rible clamor was raised by the people within 
the city, as if they were already taken. 

20. And now, when Josephus saw this ram 
still battering the same place, and that the wall 
would quickly be thrown down by it, he re 
solved to elude for a while the force of the en 
gine: with this design he gave orders to fill 
sacks with chaff, and to hang them down be- 
fore that place where they saw the ram always 
battering, that the stroke might be turned aside, 
or that the place might feel less of the strokes 
by the yielding nature of the chaff. This con- 
trivance very much delayed the attempts of the 
Romans, because, let them remove their en- 
gines to what part they pleased, those that were 
above it removed their sacks, and placed them 
over against the strokes it made, insomuch that 
the wall was noway hurt, and this by diversion 
of the strokes, till the Romans made an op- 
posite contrivance of long poles, and by tying 
hooks at their ends, cut off the sacks. Now 
when the battering ram thus recovered its force, 
and the wall, having been but newly built, was 
giving way, Josephus and those about him had 
afterward immediate recourse to fire, to defend 
themselves withall; whereupon they took what 
materials soever they had that were but dry, 
and made a sally three ways, and set fire to the 
machines and the hurdles, and the banks of 
the Romans themselves; nor did the Romans 
well know how to come to their assistance, be- 
ing at once under a consternation at the Jews’ 
boldness, and being prevented by the flames 
from coming to their assistance; for the mate- 
rials being dry with the bitumen and pitch that 
were among them, as was brimstone also, the 
fire caught hold of every thing immediately 
and what cost the Romans a great deal of pains 
was in one hour consumed. 

21. And here acertain Jew appeared worthy 
of our relation and commendation; he was the 
son of Sameas, and was called Eleazar, and 
was born at Saab, in Galilee. This man took 
up a stone of a vast bigness, and threw it down 
from the wall upon the ram, and this with so 
great a force that it broke off the head of the 
engine. He also leaped down, and took up 
the head of the ram from the midst of them 
-and without any concern carried — tc the top 
of the wall, and this while he stood asa fi 
mark to be pelted by all hisenemies. Accord- 
ingly, he received the strokes upon his naked 
body, and was wounded with five darts: nor 
did he mind any of them while he went up 1e 
the top of the wall, where he stood in the sight 
of them all, as an instance of the greatest bold- 
ness; after which, he drew himself on a heap 
with his wounds upon him, and fell down to- 





gether with the head of theram. Nextto him, 
two brothers showed their courage; their names 


ters to such a pass that none of the Jews durst! were Netir and Philip, both of them of the vil- 


596 
lage Ratua, and both of then Galileaus also; 
these men leaped upon the soldiers of the tenth 
legion, and fell upon the Romans with such a 
noise and force as to disorder their ranks, and 
to put to flight all upon whomsoever they made 
heir assaults. 

22, After these men’s performances, Jose- 
phus, and the rest of the multitude with him, 
took a great deal of fire, and burnt both the 
machines and their coverings, with the works 
belonging to the fifth and to the tenth legion, 
which they put to flight; when others followed 
hem immediately, and buried those instru- 
ments and all their materials under ground. 
However, about the evening, the Romans 
erected the battering ram again, against that 
part of the wall which had suffered before; 
where a certain Jew that defended the city 
from the Romans, hit Vespasian with a dart 
in his foot, and wounded him a little, the dis- 
tance be*~g so great, that no mighty impression 
could be made by the dart thrown so far off. 
However, this caused the greatest disorder 
among the Romans; for when those who stood 
near him saw his blood, they were disturbed at 
it, and a report went abroad, through the whole 
army, that the general was wounded, while the 
greatest part left the siege, and came running 
together with surprise and fear to the general; 
and before them all came Titus, out of the 
concern he had for his father, insomuch, that 
the multitude were in great confusion, and 
this, out of the regard they had for their gene- 
ral, and by reason of the agony, that the son 
was in. Yet did Vespasian soon put an end to 
the son’s fear, and to the disorder the army 
was under, for being superior to his pains, and 
endeavoring soon to be seen by all that had 
been ina fright about him, he excited them to 
fight the Jews more briskly; for now every body 
was willing to expose himself to danger imme- 
diately, in order to avenge their general; and 
then they encouraged one another with loud 
voices, and ran hastily to the walls. 

23 But still Josephus and those with him, 
although they fell down dead one upon another 
py the darts and stones which the engines threw 
‘upon them, yet did not they desert the wall, 
but fell upon those who managed the ram, un- 
der the protection of the hurdles, with fire, and 
iron weapons, and stones; and these could do 
little or nothing, but fell themselves perpetual- 
ly, while they were seen by those whom they 
could not see, for the light of their own flame 
shone about them, and made them a most visi- 
ble mark to the enemy as they were in the day 
time, while the engines could not be seen at a 
great distance, and so what was thrown at 
them was hard to be avoided; for the force 
with which these engines threw stones and 
darts made them hurt several ata time, and the 
violent force of the stones that were cast by 
the engines was so great, that they carried 
away the pinnacles of the wall, and broke off 
the corners of the towers; for no body of men 
could be so strong as not to be overthrown to 
the last rank by the largeness of the stones. 
And any one tay learn the force of the en- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. \ 


vy 


gines by what happened this very night: for as 
one of those that stood round about Josephus 
was near the wall, his head was carried away 
by such a stone, and his skull was flung as far 
as three furlongs. In the day-time also, a wo- 
man with child had her belly so violently 
struck, as she was just come out of her house, 
that the infant was carried to the distance of 
half a furlong, so great was the force of that 
engine. ‘The noise of the instruments them- 
selves was very terrible; the sound of the darts 
and stones that were thrown by thern was so 
also: of the same sort was that noise th< dead 
bodies made, when they were dashed against 
the wall; and indeed dreadful was the clamor 
which these things raised in the women with- 
in the city, which was echoed back at the same 
time by the eries of such as were slain; while 
the whole space of ground whereon they 
fought ran with blood; and the wall might 
have been ascended over by bodies of the dead 
carcasses; the mountains also contributed to 
increase the noise by their echoes, nor was 
there on that night any thing of terror want- 
ing, that could either affect the hearing or the 
sight; yet did a great part of those that fought 
so hard for Jotapata fall manfully, as were a 
great part of them wounded. However, the 
morning watch was come ere the wall yielded 
to the machines employed against it, though it 
had been battered without intermission. How- 
ever, those within covered their bodies with 
their armor, and raised works over against that 
part which was thrown down before those 
machines were laid, by which the Romans 
were to ascend into the city. 

24. In the morning Vespasian got his army 
together, in order to take the city [by storm] 
after a little recreation upon the hard pains 
they had been at the night before; and as he 
was desirous to draw off those that opposed 
him from the places where the wall had been 
thrown down, he made the most courageous 
of the horsemen get off their horses, and placed 
them in three ranks over against these ruins of 
the wall, but covered with their armor on every 
side, and with poles in their hands; that so these 
might begin their ascent as soon as the instru- 
ments for such ascent were laid; behind them 
he placed the flower of the footmen; but for 
the rest of the horse, he ordered them to ex 
tend themselves over against the wall, upon the 
whole hilly country, in order to prevent any 
from escaping out of the city when it shouk 
be taken; and behind these he placed the areh- 
ers round about, and command 2d them to have 
all their darts ready to shoot. ‘The same con 
mands he gave to the slingers, and to thes 
that managed the engines and bade them t 
take up other ladders, and have them ready t 
lay upon those parts of the wall which were 
yet untouched, that the besieged might be en 
gaged in trying to hinder their ascent by them 
and leave the guard of the parts that were 
thrown down, while the rest of them should f 
overborne by the darts cast at them, and nigh! 
afford his men an entrance into the city. 

25. But Josephus, understanding the meat 













mg of Vespasian’s contrivance, set the old men, 
together with those that were tired out, at the 
gound parts of the wall, as expecting no harm 
from those quarters, but set the strongest of his 
men at the place where the wall was broken 
down, and before them all six men by them- 
‘selves, among whom he took his share of the 
first and greatest danger. He also gave orders, 
that “when the legions made a shout they should 
stop their ears, that they might not be affright- 
‘ed at it, and that, to avoid the multitude of the 
eneniies’ darts, they should bend down on their 
knees, and cover themselves with their shields, 
and that they should retreat a little backward 
for a. while, till the archers should have empu- 
ed their quivers; but that, when the Romans 
should lay their instruments for ascending the 
walls, they should leap out on the sudden, and 
with their own instruments should mieet the 
enemy, and that every one should strive to do 
his best, in order, not to defend his own city, as 
if it were possible to be preserved, but in order 
to revenge it, when it was already destroyed; 
and that they should set before their eyes how 
their old men were to be slain, and their chil- 
dren and wives were to be killed immediately 
by the enemy; and that they would beforehand 

end all their fury on account of the calamities 
just coming upon them, and pour it out on the 
actors.” 

26. And thus did Josephus dispose of both 
his bodies of men; but then for the useless part 
of the citizens, the women and children, when 
they saw their city encompassed by a three- 
fold army, (for none of the usual guards, that 
had been fighting before, were removed,) when 
they also saw, not only the walls thrown down, 
but their enemies, with swords in their hands, 
as also the hilly country above them, shining 
With their weapons, and the darts in the hands 
of the Arabian archers, they made a final and 
lamentable outcry of the destruction, as if the 
misery were not only threatened, but actually 
come upon them already. But Josephus 
ordered the women to be shut up in their 
houses, lest they should render the warlike ac- 
tions of the men too effeminate, by making 
them commiserate their condition, and com- 
manded them to hold their peace, and threaten- 
ed them if they did not, while he came him- 
self before the breach, where his allotment was: 
for all those who brought ladders to the other 
places, he took no notice of them, but earnestly 
waited for the shower of arrows that was com- 


ing. 

no, And now the trumpeters of the several 
Roman legions sounded together, and the army 
made a terrible shout, and the darts, as by or- 
der, flew so fast, that they intercepted the light. 
However, Josephus’s men remembered the 
‘charges he had given them; they stopped their 
‘ears at the sounds, and covered their bodies 
‘against the darts; and as to the engines, that 
‘Were set ready to go to work, the Jewsran out 
‘upon them, before those that should have used 
‘them were gotten upon them. And now, on 
the ascending of the soldiers, there was a great 
sonflict and many actions of the hands, and of 


ni 
r 


Va 


BOOK I[L—CHAPTER VI. 


597 


ithe soul, were exhibited, while the Jews did 
earnestly endeavor, in the extreme danger they 
were in, not to show less courage than those 
who, without being in danger, fought so stoutly 
against them, nor did they leave struggling with 
the Romans till they either fell down dead them- 
selves, or killed their antagonists. But the 
Jews grew weary with defending themselves 
continually, and had not enow to come in their 
places, and succor them; while on the side of 
the Romans fresh men still succee-led those 
that were tired, and still new men soon got upon 
the machines for ascent, in the room of those 
that were thrust down, those encouraged one 
another, and joining side to side with their 
shields, which were a protection to them, they 
became a body of men not to be broken, and as 
this band thrust away the Jews, as though they 
were themselves but one body, they began al 

ready to get upon the wall. 

28. Then did Josephus take necessity for his 
counsellor in this utmost distress, (which ne- 
cessity is very sagacious in invention when it 
is irritated by despair,) and gave orders to pour 
scalding oil upon those whose shields protect- 
ed them. Whereupon they soon got it ready, 
being many that brought it, and what they 
brought being a great quantity alsu, and pour- 
ed it on all sides upon the Romans, and threw 
down upon them their vessels, as they were 
still hissing from the heat of the fire; this so 
burnt the Romans, that it dispersed that united 
band, who now tumbled down from the wall, 
with horrid pains, for the oil did easily run 
down the whole body from head to foot, under 
their entire armor, and fed upon their flesh 
like flame itself, its fat and unctuous nature 
rendering it soon heated, and slowly cooled, 
and as the men were cooped up in their head- 
pieces and breast-plates, they could in no way 
get free from this burning oil; they could onl 
leap and roll about in their pains, as they fell 
down from the bridges they had laid. And as 
they thus were beaten back, and retired to their 
own party, who still pressed them forward 
they were easily wounded by those that were 
behind them. 

29. However, in this ill success of the Ro- 
mans, their courage did not fail them, nor did 
the Jews want prudence to oppose them; for 
the Romans, although they saw their own men 
thrown down, and in a miserable condition, yet 
were they vehemently bent against those that 
poured the oil upon them, while every one re- 
proached the man before him as a coward, and 
one that hindered him from exerting himself; 
and while the Jews made use of another strata- 
gem to prevent their ascent, and poured boiling 
fenugreek upon the boards in order to make 
them slip and fall down; by which means neith- 
er could those that were coming up, nor those 
that were going down, stand on their feet; but 
some of them fell backward upon the machines 
on which they ascended, and were trodden 
upon; many of them fell down upon the bank 
they had raised, and when they were fallen upon 
it, were slain by the Jews: for when the Ro- 
mans could not keep their feet, the Jews being 


59x 


freed from fignting hand to hand, had leisure 
to .row their darts at them. So the general 
called off those soldiers in the evening that had 
suffered so sorely, of whom the number of the 
slaiss was not a few, while that of the wounded 
was still greater; but of the people of Jotapata 
no more than six men were killed, although 
more than three hundred were carried off 
wounded. This fight happened on the twen- 
tieth day of the month Desius [Sivan. 

30 Hereupon Vespasian comforted his ar- 
my on occasion of what happened; and as he 
found them angry indeed, but rather wanting 
somewhat to do than any further exhortations, 
he gave orders to raise the banks still higher, 
and to erect three towers, each fifty feet high, 
and that they should cover them with plates of 
iron on every side, that they might be both 
firm by their weight, and not easily liable to be 
set on fire. These towers he set upon the 
banks, and placed upon them such as could 
shoot darts and arrows, with the lighter engines 
for throwing stones and darts also; and besides 
these, he set upon them the stoutest men among 
the slingers, who not being to be seen by rea- 
son of the height they stood upon, and the bat- 
tlements that protected them, might throw their 
weapons at those that were upon the wall, and 
were easily seen bythem. Hereupon the Jews, 
not being easily able to escape those darts that 
were thrown down upon their heads, nor to 
avenge themselves on those whom they could 
not see, and perceiving that the height of the 
towers was so great, that a dart which they 
threw with their hand could hardly reach it, 
and that the iron plates about them made it very 
hard to come at them by fire, they ran away 
from the walls, and fled hastily out of the city, 
and fell upon those that shot at them. And 
thus did the people of Jotapata resist the Ro- 
mans, while a great number of them were every 
day killed, without their being able to retort the 
evil upon their enemies, nor could they keep 
them out of the city without danger to them- 
selves. 

31. About this time it was that Vespasian 
sent out Trajan against a city called Japha, that 
lay near to Jotapata, and that desired innova- 
tions, and was puffed up with the unexpected 
length of the opposition of Jotapata. This 
Trajan was the commander of the tenth legion, 
and to him Vespasian committed one thousand 
horsemen, and two thousand footmen. When 
Trajan came to the city, he found it hard to be 
taken, for besides the natural strength of its 
situation, it was also secured by a double wall; 
but-when he saw the people of this city com- 
ing out of it, and ready to fight him, he joined 
battle with them, and after a short resistance 
which they made, he pursued after them; and 
as they fled to their first wall, the Romans fol- 
lowed them so closely that they fell in together 
with them; but. when the Jews were endeavor- 
ing to get again within their second wall, their 
fellow-c tizens shut them out, as being afraid 
that the Romans would force themselves in 
with them. It was certainly God, therefore, 
who brought the Romans to punish the Gali- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





leans, and did then expose tie people of 
city every one of them manifestly to be de 
stroyed by their bloody enemies; for they 
upon the gates in great crowds; and earnestly 
calling to those that kept them, and that by 
their names also, yet had they their throats cut 
in the very midst of their supplications; for the 
enemy shut the gates of the first wall, and their 
own citizens shut the gates of the second, so 
they were enclosed between two walls, and 
were slain in great numbers together; many of 
them were run through by swords of their 
own men, and many by their own swords, be 
sides an immense number that were slain by 
the Romans. Nor had they any courage to re. 
venge themselves; for there was added to the 
consternation they were in from the enemy 
their being betrayed by their own friends 
which quite broke their spirits; and at last they 
died, cursing not the Romans, but their own 
citizens, till they were all destroyed, being in 
number twelve thousand. So Trajan gather- 
ed that the city was empty of people that coulg 
fight, and although there should a few of them 
be therein, he supposed that they would be toe 
timorous to venture upon any opposition; so he 
reserved the taking of the city to the general 
Accordingly, he sent messengers to Véspasian 
and desired him to send his son Titus to finish 
the victory he had gained. Vespasian hereupor 
imagining there might be some pains still neces. 
sary, sent his son with an army of five hundrec 
horsemen and one thousand footmen. So he 
came quickly to the city, and put his army it 
order, and set Trajan over the left wing, while 
he had the right himself, and led them to the 
siege: and when the soldiers brought ladders tt 
be laid against the wall on every side, the Gali. 
leans opposed them from above for a while, bu 
soon afterward they left the walls. Then dic 
Titus’s men leap into the city, and seized upor 
it presently; but when those that were ini 
were gotten together, there was a fierce battle 
between them; for the men of power fell upor 
the Romans in the narrow streets, and the wo- 
men threw whatsoever came next to hand a 
them, and sustained a fight with them for six 
hours’ time; but when, the fighting men were 
spent, the rest of the multitude had their throat: 
cut, partly in the open air, and partly in thei: 
own bouses, both young and old together. 
there were no males now remaining besides in- 
fants, who, with the women, were cartred a: 
slaves into captivity; so that the number of the 
slain both now in the city, and at the former 
fight, was fifteen thousand, and the captives 
were two thousand one hundred and thirty. 
This calamity befell the Galileans on the twen 
ty-fifth day of the month Desius [Sivan.] 
32. Nor did the Samaritans escape their 
share of misfortunes at this time: for they assem- 
bled themselves together upon the mountain 
called Gerizzim, which is with them a holy 
mountain, and there they remained; which 
collection of theirs, as well as the courageous 
minds they showed, could not but threate: 
somewhat of war; nor were they renderéi 
wiser by the miseries that had come upon thei 







BOOK ITII—CHAPTER V11. 


_reighboring cities. They also, notwithstand- 
ing the great success the Romans had, marched 
on in an unreasonable manner, depending on 
their own strength, and were disposed for any 
tumult upon its first appearance. Vespasian 
therefore thought it best to prevent their mo- 
tions, and to cut off the foundation of their at- 
tempts. For although all Samaria had ever 
rrisons settled among them, yet did the num- 
er of those that were come to mount Geriz- 
zim, and their conspiracy together, give ground 
to fear wnat they would be at: he therefore 
sent thither Cerealis, the commander of the 
fifth legion, with six hundred horsemen, and 
three thousand footmen, who <did not think it 
safe to go up the mountain, and give them bat- 
tle, because many of the enemy were on the 
higher part of the ground; so he encompassed 
all the lower part of the mountain with his ar- 
my, and watched them all that day. Now it 
happened that the Samaritans, who were now 
jestitute of water, were inflamed with a vio- 
feut heat, (for it was summer-time, and the 
multitude had not provided, themselves with 
\iecessaries,) insomuch that some of them died 
that very day with heat, while others of them 
preferred slavery before such a death as that 
was, and fled to the Romans; by whom Ce- 
realis understood, that those who still stayed 
there were very much broken by their misfor- 
tunes. So he went up the mountain, and hav- 
ing placed his forces round about the enemy, 
he, in the first place, exhorted them to take the 
security of his right hand, and come to terms 
with him, and thereby save themselves; and as- 
sured them, that if they would lay down their 
arms, he would secure them from any harm; but 
when he could not prevail with them, he fell 
upon them and slew them all, being in num- 
ber eleven thousand six hundred. This was 
done on the twenty-seventh day of the month 
Desius [Sivan.] And these were the calamities 
that befell the Samaritans at this time. 

33. But as the people of Jotapata still held 
out manfully, and bore up under their miseries 
beyond all that could be hoped for, on the for- 
ty-seventh day [of the siege] the banks cast up 
by the Romans were become higher than the 
wall: on which day a certain deserter went to 
Vespasian, and told him how few were left in 
the city, and how weak they were, and that 

they had been so worn out with perpetual 
watching, and as perpetual fighting, that they 
could not now oppose any force that came 
against them, and that they might be taken by 
stratagem, if any one would attack them; for 

that about the last watch of the night, when 
_ Shey thought they might have some rest from 
the hardships they were under, and when a 
morning sleep used to come upon them, as they 
were thoroughly weary, he said the watch used 
to fall asleep; accordingly his advice was, that 
they should make their attack at that hour. 
But Vespasian had a suspicion about this de- 
serter, as knowing how faithful the Jews were 
to one another, and how much they despised 
apy punishments that could be inflicted on 
_ them; this last, because one of the people of 


508 


Jotapata had undergone all sorts of torments 
and though they made him pass through a 
fiery trial of his enemies in his examination 
yet would he inform them nothing of the af 
fairs within the city, and,.as he was crucified 
smiled at them, However, the probability 
there was in the relation itself, did partly con- 
firm the truth of what the deserter told them 
and they thought he might probably speak the 
truth. However, Vespasian thought they should 
be no great sufferers if the report was a shain 
so he commanded them to keep the man ip 
custody, and prepared the army for taking the 
city. 

34. According to which resolution they 
marched without noise, at the hour that had 
been told them, to the wall; and it was Titus 
himself that first got upon it, with one of his 
tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and had a few of 
the fifteenth legion along with him. So they 
cut the throats of the watch, and entered the 
city very quietly. After these came Cerealis 
the tribune, and Placidus, and led on those that 
were under them. Now when the citadel was 
taken, and the enemy were in the very midst of 
the city, and when it was already day, yet was 
not the taking of the city known by those that 
held it; for a great many of them were fast 
asleep, and a great mist, which then by chance 
fell upon the city, hindered those that got up 
from distinctly seeing the case they were in, till 
the whole Roman army was gotten in, and 
they were raised up only to find the miseries 
they were under; and as they were slaying, 
they perceived the city wastaken. And for 
the Romans, they so well remembered what 
they had suffered during the siege, that they 
spared none, nor pitied any, but drove the 
people down the precipice from the citadel, 
and slew them as they drove them down; at 
which time the difficulties of the place hinder- 
ed those that were still able to fight from de- 
fending themselves; for as they were distressed 
in the narrow streets, and could not keep their 
feet sure along the precipice, shey were over- 
powered with the crowd of those that came 
fighting them from the citadel. This provok- 
ed a great many, even of those chosen men 
that were about Josephus, to kill themselves 
with their own hands; for when they saw that 
they could kill none of the Romans, they re- 
solved to prevent being killed by the Romans, 
and got together in great numbers in the ut- 
most parts of the city, and killed themselves, 

35. However, such of the watch as at first 
perceived they were taken, and ran away as 
fast as they could, went up into one of the 
towers on the north side of the city, and for 
while defended themselves there; but as they 
were encompassed with a multitude of ene- 
mies, they tried to use their right hands wher 
it was too late, and at length they cheerfully 
offered their necks to be cut off by those that 
stood over them. And the Romans might 
have boasted that the conclusion of that siege 
was without blood [on their side,] if there had 
not been a centurion, Antonius, who was slain 
at the taking of the city. His death was occa 


600 WARS On 


moned by the following treachery: for there , 


was one of those that were fled into the caverns, 
which were a great number, who desired that 
this Antonius would reach him his right hand 
for his security, and would assure him that he 
would preserve him, and give him his assist- 
ance in getting up out of the cavern; accord- 
ingly he incautiously reached him out his 
right hand, when the other man prevented him, 
god stabbed him under his Joins with a spear, 
anil killed him immediately. 

4, And on this day it was that the Romans 
siew all the multitude that appeared openly; 
but on the following days they searched the 
hiding places, and fell upon those that were 
ander ground, and in the caverns, and went 
thus through every age, excepting the infants 
aid the women, and of these there were ga- 
thered together as captives twelve hundred; 
end as for those that were slain at the taking 
of the city, and in the former fights, they were 
numbered to be forty thousand. So Vespasian 
gave order that the city should be entirely de- 
motished, and all the fortifications burnt down. 
And thus was Jotapata taken, in the thirteenth 
year of the reign of Nero, on the first day of 
the month Panemus ['Tamuz.] 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How Josephus was discovered by a woman, and 
was willing to deliver himself up to the Romans, 
und what discourse he had with his own men; 
when they endeavored to hinder him; and what 
he said to Vespasian, when he was brought to 
him; and in what manner Vespasian used him 
afterward. 


§ 1. And now the Romans searched for Jo- 
geplius, both out of the hatred they bore him, 
and because their general was very desirous to 
have him taken; for he reckoned that if he 
were once taken, the greatest part of the war 
would be over. They then searched among 
the dead, and looked into the most concealed 
rec esses of the city; but as the city was first tak- 
en, he was assisted by a certain supernatural pro- 
vidence; for he withdrew himself from the ene- 
my when he was in the midst of them, and leap- 
ed into a certain deep pit, whereto there adjoin- 
ed alarge den at one side of it, which den could 
not be seen by those that were above ground; 
and here he met with forty persons of eminence 
that had concealed themselves, and with pro- 
visions enough to satisfy them not a few days. 
So in the day-time he hid himself from the 
enemy, who had seized upon all places, and in 
the night time he got up out of the den, and look- 
ed about for some way of escaping, and took 
exact notice of the watch; but as all places 
were guarded everywhere on his account, that 
there was no way of getting off unseen, he 
went down again into the den. ‘Thus he con- 
cealed himself two days; but on the third day, 
when they had taken a woman who had been 
with them, he was discovered. Whereupon 
Vespasian sent immediately, and zealously, two 
tribunes, Paulinus and Galicanus, and ordered 
them to give Josephus their right hands, as a se- 
curity for his life, and to exhort him to come up. 


fHE JEWS. 


| Nicanor’s invitation. 


'“Nay, indeed, now may the laws of our fo 





2. Sothey came and invited the nan to 
up, and gave him assurances that his life should - 
be preserved; but they did not prevail with him; 
for he gathered suspicions from the probability — 
there was that one who had dons so many 
things against the Romans, must suffer for it, 
though not from the mild temper of those that — 
invited him. However, he was afraid that he 
was invited to come up in order to be punish- 
ed, until Vespasian sent besides these a thira 
tribune, Nicanor, to him; he was one that was_ 
well known to Josephus, and had been his fa- | 
miliar acquaintance in old time. When he 
was come, he enlarged upon the natural mild-_ 
ness of the Romans towards those they have — 
once conquered, and told him, that he had be- 
haved himself so valiantly, that the command- — 
ers rather admired than hated him; that the 
genera] was very desirous to have him brought 
to him, not in order to punish him, for that he 
could do though he should not come volunta- 
rily, but that he was determined to preserve a 
man of his courage. He moreover added this, 
that Vespasian, had he been resolved to impose 
upon him, would not have sent to him a friend 
of his own, nor put the fairest color upon the 
vilestaction, by pretending friendship and meat 
ing perfidiousness, nor would he have himself 
acquiesced, or come to him, had it been to de 
ceive him. 

3. Now as Josephus began to hesitate with 
himself about Nicanor’s proposal, the soldiery 
were so angry, that they ran hastily to set fire 
to the den; but the tribune would not permit 
them so to do, as being very desirous to take 
the man alive. And now as Nicanor lay hard 
at Josephus to comply, and he understood how 
the multitude of the enemies threatened him, 
he called to mind the dreams which he had 
dreamed in the night-time, whereby God had~ 
signified to him beforehand both the future ca- 
Jamities of the Jews and the events that con-— 
cerned the Roman emperors. Now Josephus” 
was able to give shrewd conjectures about the — 
interpretation of such dreams as have been 
ambiguously delivered by God. Moreover, he 
was not unacquainted with the prophecies con- 
tained in the sacred books, as being a priest 
himself, and of the posterity of priests; and 
Just then was he in an ecstacy, and setting be- 
fore him the tremendous images of the dreams — 
he had lately had, he put up a secret prayer to — 
God, and said, “Since it pleaseth thee, who hast — 
created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, — 
and since all their good fortune is gone over to” 
the Roians, and since thou hast made choice 
of this soul of mine to foretell what isto come 
to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my _ 
hands, and am content to live. And I protest 
openly, that I do not go over to the Romans as _ 
i deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from 
thee, e 

4. When he said this, he complied with 
But when those Jews — 
who had fled with him, understood that 
yielded to those that invited him to come up, — 
they came about him in a body, and cried out, — 












BOOK TLL---CHAPTER VILL 


fathers, which God ordained himself, well 
groan to purpose; that God, we mean, who 
hath created the souls of the Jews of such a 
temper, that they despise death. O Josephus! 
art thou still fond of \ife? and canst thou bear 
to see the light m a state of slavery? How 
soon hast thou forgotten thyself? How many 
hast thou persuaded to lose their lives for liber- 

? Thou hast, therefore, had a false reputa- 
tion for manhood, and a like false reputation 
or wisdom, if thou canst hope for preserva- 
ticn from those against whom thou hast fought 
so zealously, and art, however, willing to be 
preserved by them, if they be in earnest. But 
although the good fortune of the Romans hath 
made thee forget thyself, we ought to take care 
that the glory of our forefathers may not be 
tarnished. We will lend thee our right hand 
ani a sword; and if thou wilt die willingly, 
thou wilt die asa general of the Jews; but if 
unwillingly, thou wilt die as a traitor to them.” 
As soon as they said this, they began to thrust 

heir swords at him and threatened they would 
gill him, if he thought of yielding to the Ro- 
mans. 

5. Upon this, Josephus was afraid of their 
attacking him, and yet thought he should bea 
betrayer of the commands of God, if he died 
before they were delivered. So he began to 
talk like a philosopher to them in the distress 
he was then in, when he said thus to them: 
“O my friends, why are we so earnest to kill 
ourselves? and why do we set our soul and bo- 
dy, which are such dear companions, at such 
variances Can any one pretend that I am not 
the man I was formerly? Nay, the Romans 
are sensible how the matter stands well enough. 
It is a brave thing to die in war; but so that it 
be according to the law of war, by the hand 
of conquerors. If, therefore, I avoid death from 
the sword of the Romans, [ am truly worthy to 
be killed by my own sword, and my own hand: 
but if they admit of mercy, and would spare 
their enemy, how much more ought we to have 
mercy upon ourselves, and to spare ourselves? 
For it is certainly a foolish thing to do that to 
ourselves which we quarrel with them for do- 
ing to us. I confess freely, that it isa brave 
thing to die for liberty; but still so that it be in 
war, and done by those who take that liberty 
from us; but in the present case our enemies 
do neither meet us in battle, nor do they kill 
us. Now, he is equally a coward who will 
not die when he is obliged to die, and he 
who will die when he is not obliged so to 
do. What are we afraid of, when we will 
not go 1p to the Romans? Is it death? If 
80, what we are afraid of when we but sus- 

ct our enemies will inflict it on us, shall we 
inflict it on ourselves for certain? But it may 
he said, we must be slaves. And are we then 
in a clear state of liberty at present? It may also 
he said, that it is a manly act for one to kill him- 
‘self. No, certainly, but a most unmanly one, as 
I should esteem that pilot to be an arrant cow- 
‘ard, who, out of fear of a storm, should sink 
his ship of hisownaccord. Now, self-murder 


60) 


ture of all animals, and an instance of impiety 
against God our Creator: nor indeed is there 
any animal that dies by its own contrivance, 
or by its own means, for the desire of life is a 
law engraven in them all; on which account 
we deem those that openly take it away from 
us to be our enemies, and those that do it by 
treachery are punished for so doing. And do 
not yon think that God is very angry when a 
man doth injury to what he hath bestowed on 
him? For from him it is that we have received 
our being, and we ought to leave it to his dis- 
posal to take that being away from us. The 
bodies of all men are indeed mortal, and are 
created out of corruptible matter; but the soul 
is ever immortal, and is a portion of the di- 
vinity that inhabits our bodies. _ Besides, if any 
one destroys or abuses a depositum he hath re- 
ceived from a mere man, he is esteemed a 
wicked and perfidious person: but then if any 
one cast out of his body this divine depositum, 
can we imagine that he who is thereby affront- 
ed does not know of it? Moreover, our law just- 
ly ordains that slaves which run away from 
their masters shall be punished, though the 
masters they run away from may have been 
wicked masters to them. And shall we en- 
deavor to run away from God, who is the best 
of all masters, and not think ourselves highly 
guilty of impiety? Do not you know that those 
who depart out of this life, according to the law 
of nature, and pay that debt which was receiv- 
ed from God, when he that lent it us is pleased 
to require it back again, enjoy eternal fame; 
that their houses and their posterity are sure, 
that their souls are pure and obedient, and ob- 
tain a most holy place in heaven, from whence, 
in the revolution of ages, they are again sent 
into pure bodies; while the souls of those 
whose hands have acted madly against them- 
selves, are received by the darkest place in 
Hades, and while God, who is their father, 
punishes those that offend against either of 
them in their posterity; for which reason God 
hates such doings, and the crime is punished 
by our most wise legislator. Accordingly our 
laws determine, that the bodies of such as kill 
themselves should be exposed till the sun be 
set, without burial, although at the same time 
it be allowed by them to be lawful to bury our 
enemies [sooner.] The laws of other nations 
also enjoin such men’s hands to be cut off when 
they are dead, which had been made use of in 
destroying themselves when alive; while tney 
reckoned that as the body is alien from the soul, 
so is the hand alien from the body _ It is, there- 
fore, my friends, a right thing to reason justly, 
and not add to the calamities which men bring 
upon us, impiety towards our Creator. If we 
have a mind to preserve ourselves, let us do iv, 
for to be preserved by those our enemies, to 
whom we have given s0 many demonstrations 
of our courage, is noway inglorious; but if we 
have a mind to die, it is good to die by the hand 
of those that have conquered us. For my part, 
I will not run over to our enemies’ quarters, iv 
order to be a traitor to myself; for certainly J 


Wa crime most remote from the common na-! should then be much more foolish than those 


TS 


602 


that deserted to the enemy, since they did it in 
order to save themselves, and I should do it for 
destruction, for my own destruction. However 
T heartily wisl. the Romans may prove treache- 
rous in this matter; for if, after the offer of 
their right hand for security, I be slain by. them, 
I shall die cheerfully, and carry away with me 
the sense of their perfidiousness, as a consola- 
tion greater than victory itself.” 

6. Now these and many the like motives did 

osephus use to these men to prevent their mur- 
dering themselves; but desperation had shut 
their ears, as having long ago devoted them- 
selves to die, and they were irritated at Josephus, 
They then ran upon him with their swords in 
their hands, one from one quarter, and another 
from another, and called him a coward, and 
every one of them appeared openly as if he 
were ready to smite him; but he calling to one 
of them by name, and looking like a general to 
another, and taking a third by the hand, and 
making a fourth ashamed of himself, by pray- 
ing him to forbear, and being in this condition 
distracted with various passions, (as he well 
might in the great distress he was then in,) he 
kept off every one of their swords from killing 
him, and was forced to do like such wild beasts 
asare encompassed about on every side, who 
always turn themselves against those that last 
touched them. Nay, some of their right hands 
were debilitated by the reverence they bore to 
their general in these his fatal calamities, and 
their swords dropped out of their hands, and 
not a few of them there were, who, when they 
aimed to smite him with their swords, they 
were not thoroughly either willing or able to 
do it. 

7. However, in this extreme distress, he was 
not destitute of his usual sagacity; but trusting 
himself to the providence of God, he put his 
life into hazard [in the manner following:] “And 
now, said he, since it is resolved among you 
that you will die, come on, let us commit our 
mutual deaths to determination by lot, He 
whom the lot falls to first, let him be killed by 
him that hath the second lot, and thus fortune 
shall make its progress through us all; nor shall 
any of us perish by his own right hand, for it 
would be unfair if, when the rest are gone, 

omebody should repent and save himself.” 
This proposal appeared to them to be very just; 
and when he had prevailed with them to deter- 
mine this matter by lots, he drew one of the 
ots for himself also. He who had the first lot 
laid his neck bare to him that had the next, as 
guppgsing that the general would die among 
them immediately; for they thought death, if 
Sosephus inight but die with them, wassweeter 
than life: yet was he with another left to the 
last, whether we must say it happened so by 
chance, or whether by the providence of God. 
And as he was very desirous neither to be con- 
demned by the lot, nor, if he had been left to 
the last, to imbrue his right hand in the blood of 
his countryman; he persuaded him to trust his 
fidelity to him, and to live as well as himself. 

8. Thus Josephus escaped in the war with 
the Romans, and in this his own war with his 


WARS OF THE JEWS 


7 
friends, and was led by Nicanor co Vespastan. 
But now all the Romans ran together to see 
him; and as the multitude pressed one upo: 
another about their general, there was a tumu 
of a various kind; while some rejoiced that Jo 
sephus was taken, and some threatened him, 
and some crowded to see him very near; but 
those that were more remote cried out to have 
this their enemy put to death, while those that_ 
were near called to mind the actions he had 
done, and a deep concern appeared at the 
change of his fortune. Nor were there any 
of the Roman commanders, how much s0- 
ever they had been enraged at him before, but 
relented when they came to the sight of him. 
Above all the rest, Titus’s own valor, and Jo- 
sephus’s own patience under his afflictions, 
made him pity him, as did also the commisera- 
tion of his age, when he recalled to mind that 
but a little while ago lie was fighting, but lay 
now in the hands of his enemies, which made 
him consider the power of fortune, and how 
quick is the turn of affairs in war; and how no 
state of men is sure; for which reason he then 
made a great many more to be of the same piti- 
ful temper with himself, and induced them to 
commiserate Josephus. He was also of great 
weight in persuading his father to preserve him. 
However, Vespasian gave strict orders that he 
should be kept with great caution, as though 
he would in a very little time send him to Nero 
9. When Josephus heard him give these or 
ders, he said, that he had somewhat in his mind 
that he would willingly say to himself alone. 
When therefore they were all ordered to with- 
draw, excepting Titus and two of their friends, 
he said, “Thou, O Vespasian, thinkest no more 
than that thou hast taken Josephus himself 
captive, but I come to thee as a messenger of 
greater tidings; for had not I been sent by God 
to thee, I knew what was the law* of the Jews 
in this case, and how it becomes generals to die. 
Dost thou send me to Nero? For why? Are 
Nero’s successors till they come to thee still 
alive? Thou, O Vespasian art Ceesar, and ein 
peror, thou and this thy son. Bind me now 
still faster, and keep me for thyself, for thou, 
O Cesar, art not only lord over me, but over 
the land and the sea, and all mankind; and cer- 
tainly I deserve to be kept in closer custod 
than J] now am in, in order to be punished, if] 
rashly affirm any thing of God.” When he 
had said this, Vespasian at present did not be- 
lieve him, but supposed that Josephus said this: 
as a cunning trick in order to his own preser 
vation; but in a little time he was convinced 
and believed what he said to be true, God him. 
self erecting his expectations, so as to think of 
obtaining the empire, and by other signs fore | 
showing his advancement. He also found Jo | 


* Ido not know where to find the law »f Moses her 
mentioned by Josephus, and afterward by Eleazar. b. vib 
ch. viii. sect 7; and almost implied in b. i. ch. xiii. sect. 
by Josephus’s commendation of Phasaelus for doing 805 2 
mean whereby Jewish generals and people were obliged #@ 
kill themselves, rather than go into slavery under heathens 
I doubt this would have been no better than self-1. rderj 
and [ believe it was rather some vain doctrine, or intetpr 
tation of the rigid Pharisees, or Essenes, or Herodians, t 
a just consequence from any law of God delivered by Mo 















; 
“ 
} 
) 


BOOK II1—CHAPTER [X. 


| sephus to have spoken truth on other occasions; 
for one of those friends that were present at that 
| secret conference, said to Josephus, “I cannot 


but wonder how thou couldest not foretell to 
the people of Jotapata that they should be 


__ waken, nor couldest foretell this captivity which 


hath happened to thyself, unless what thou now 
sayest be a vain thing, in order to avoid the 


rage that is risen against thyself.” To which 


Josephus replied, “I did foretell to the people 
of Jotapata, that they would be taken on the 
forty-seventh day, and that I should be caught 
alive by the Romans.” Now when Vespasian 
gaa inquired of the captives privately about 
these predictions, he found them to be true, and 
then .e began to believe those that concerned 
himself. Yet did he not set Josephus at liberty 
from his bands, but bestowed on him suits of 
clothes and other precious gifts; he treated him 
also in a very obliging manner, and continued 
so to do, Titus still joining his interest in the 
horors that were done him. 


CHAPTER IX. 
How Joppa was taken, and Tiberias delivered up. 


§ 1. Now Vespasian returned to Ptolemais on 
the fourth day of the month Panemus, [Ta- 
muz,] and from thence he came to Cesarea, 
which lay by the seaside. This was a very 
great city of Judea, and for the greatest part 
inhabited by Greeks: the citizens here receiv- 
ed both the Roman army and its general with 
all sorts of acclamations and rejoicings, and 
this partly out of the good will they bore to the 
Romans, but principally out of the hatred they 
bore to those that had been conquered by them; 
on which account they came clamoring against 
Josephus in crowds, and desired he might be 
put to death. But Vespasian passed over this 
petition concerning him, as offered by the in- 
judicious multitude, with a bare silence. Two 


_ of the legions also he placed at Cesarea, that 


the entire army. 


they might there take their winter-quarters, as 
perceiving the city very fit for such a purpose; 
but he placed the tenth and the fifth at Scytho- 
polis, that he might not distress Casarea with 
This place was warm, even 
in winter, as it was suffocating hot in the 
summer-time, by reason of its situation in a 
plain, and near to the sea [of Galilee.] 

2. In the mean time there were gathered to- 
aig as well such as had seditiously got out 
rom among their enemies, as those that had 


- escaped out of the demolished cities, which 


were in all a great number, and repaired Joppa, 
which had been left desolate by Cestius, that it 
Might serve them fora place of refuge; and 
because the adjoining region had been laid 
waste in the war, and was not capable of sup- 
ne them, they determined to go off to sea. 

hey also built themselves a great many pira- 
tical ships, and turned pirates upon the seas 


near to Syria, and Pheenicia, and Egypt, and 


made those seas unnavigable to all men. Now 
as soon as Vespasian knew of their conspiracy, 


he sent both footmen and horsemen to Joppa, 
_ which was unguarded in the night-time; how- 


ever Sse that were in it perceived that they 


should be attacked, and were afraid of it, yet 
did they not endeavor to keep the Romans out 
but fled to their ships, and lay at sea all night 
out of the reach of their darts. 

3. Now Joppa is not naturally a haven, for it 
ends in a rough shore, where all the rest of it 
18 Straight, but the two ends bend towards each 
other, where there are deep precipices, and 
great stones that jut out into the sea, and where 
the chains wherewith Andromeda was bound 
have left their footsteps, which attest to the 
antiquity of that fable. But the north wind 
opposes and beats upon the shore, and daslies 
mighty waves against the rocks which receive 
them, and renders the haven more dangerous 
than the country they had deserted. Now as 
those people of Joppa were floating about in 
this sea, in the morning there fell a violerit 
wind upon them; it is called by those that sail 
there, the black north wind, and there dashed 
their ships one against another, and dashed 
some of them against the rocks, and carried 
many of them by force, while they strove 
against the opposite waves, into the main sea; 
for the shore was so rocky, and had so many 
of the enemy upon it, that they were afraid to 
come to land; nay, the waves rose so very high, 
that they drowned them; nor was there any 
place whither they could fly, nor any way to 
save themselves, while they were thrust out of 
the sea by the violence of the wind, if they 
staid where they were, and out of the city by 
the violence of the Romans. And much la- 
mentation there was when the ships dashed 
against one another, and a terrible noise when 
they were broken to pieces; and some of the 
multitude that were in them were covered with 
waves, and so perished, and a great many were 
embarrassed with shipwrecks. But some of 
them thought, that to die by their own swords 
was lighter than by the sea, and so they killed 
themselves before they were drowned; although 
the greatest part of them were carried by the 
waves, and dashed to pieces against the abrupt 
parts of the rocks, insomuch that the sea was 
bloody a long way, and the maritime parts were 
full of dead bodies, for the Romans came upon 
those that were carried to the shore, and des- 
troyed them; and the number of the bodies that 
were thus thrown out of the sea, was four 
thousand and two hundred. The Romans 
also took the city without opposition, and ut- 
terly demolished it. 

4. And thus was Joppa taken twice by the 
Romans in a little time; but Vespasian, in order 
to prevent the pirates from coming thither any 
more, erected a camp there, where the citadel 
of Joppa had been, and left a body of horse in~ 
it, with a few footmen, that these last might 
stay there and guard the camp, and the horse- 
men might spoil the country that lay round 1, 
and might destroy the neighboring villages, and 
smaller cities. So these troops overran the 
country, as they were ordered to do, and every 
day cut to pieces and laid desolate the whole 
region. 

5. But now, when the fate of Jotapata was 
related at Jerusalem, a great many at the first 


604 


disbelieyed it, on account of the vastness of 
the calaipity, and because they had no eyewit- 
ness to attest the truth of what was related 
about it; for not G1ie person was saved to be a 
messenger of that news, but a fame was spread 
abroad at random at the city was taken, as 
such fame usua.y spreads bad news about. 
However, the truthwas known by degrees, from 
the places near Jotapata, and appeared to all to 
be too true. Yet were there fictitious stories 
added to what was really done; for it was re- 
ported that Josephus was slain at the taking of 
the city, which piece of news filled Jerusalem 
fullof sorrow. Inevery house also, and among 
all to whom any of the slain were allied, there 
was a lamentation for them: but the mourning 
for the commander was a public one, and some 
mourned for those that had lived with them, 
others for their kindred, others for their friends, 
and others for their brethren, but all mourned 
for Josephus; insomuch that the lamentation 
did not cease in the city before the thirtieth day, 
and a great many hired mourners,* with their 
pipes,who should begin their melancholy ditties 
for them. 

6. But as the truth came out in time, it ap- 
peared how the affairs of Jotapata really stood; 
yet was it found that the death of Josephus 
was a fiction; and when they understood that 
he was alive, and was among the Romans, and 
that the commanders treated him at another 
rate than they treated captives, they were as 
vehemently angry at him now, as they had 
showed their good will before when he ap- 
tigi to have been dead. He was also abused 

y some as having been a coward, and by 
others as a deserter; and the city was full of 
indignation at him, and of reproaches cast upon 
him: their rage was also aggravated by their 
afflictions, and more inflamed by their ill suc- 
cess; and what usually becomes an occasion of 
caution to wise men, I mean affliction, became 
& spur to them to venture on farther calamities, 
and the end of one misery became still the be- 
yinning of another; they therefore resolved to 
to fallon the Romans the more vehemently, 
as resolving to be revenged on him in reveng- 
ing themselves on the Romans. And this was 
the state of Jerusalem as to the troubles which 
now came upon it. 

7. But Vespasian, in order to see the king- 
dom of Agrippa, while the king himself per- 
suaded him so to do, (partly in order to his 
treating the general and his army in the best 
and most splendid manner his private affairs 
would enable him to do, and partly that he 
might; by their means, correct such things as 
were amiss in his government,) he removed 
from that Cesarea which was by the seaside, 
and went to that which is called Caesarea Phi- 
lippi;t and there he refreshed his army for twenty 


* These public mourners, hired upon the supposed death 
ef Josephus, and the real death of many more, illustrate 
pome passages in the Bible, which suppose the same cus- 
toms, as Matt. xi. 1), where the reader may consult the 
aotes of Grotius. 

¢ Of this Cesarea Philippi, (twice mentioned in our New 
Testament, Matthew xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27,) there are coins 
eul extant, as Spanheim here informs us 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


days, and was himself feasted by king Agrippa — 
where he also returned pubiic thanks to God. 
for the gond success he had had in his under-— 
takings. But as soon as he was informed that 
Tiberias was fond of innovations, and that Ta- 
richeze had revolted, both which cities were 
parts of the kingdom of Agrippa, and was sa-_ 
tisfied within himself that the Jews were every- 
where perverted [from their obedience to their — 
governors,} he thought it seasonable to make 
an expedition against these cities, and for the 
sake of Agrippa, and in order to bring his c+ 
ties to reason. So he sent away his son Titus 
to [the other] Ceesarea, that he might bring the 
army that lay there to Scythopolis, which is the 
largest city of Decapolis, and in the neighbor- 
hood of Tiberias, whither he came and where 
he waited for his son, He then came with 
three legions, and pitched his camp thirty fur- 
longs off Tiberias, at a certain station easily seen 
by the innovators; it is named Sennabris. He 
also sent Valerian, a decurion, with fifty horse- 
men, to speak peaceably to those that were in 
the city, and to exhort them to give him assu- 
rances of their fidelity; for he had heard that 
the people were desirous of peace, but were 
obliged by some of the seditious part to join 
with them, and so were forced to fight for them. 
When Valerian had marched up to the place, 
and was near the wall, he alighted off his 
horse, and made those that were with him do 
the same, that they might not be thought to 
come to skirmish with them; but before they 
could come to discourse one with another, the 
most potent men among the seditious made a sal- 
ly upon them armed; their leader was one whose — 
name was Jesus, the son of Saphat, the princi- 
pal head of a band of robbers. Now Valerian, 
neither thinking it safe to fight contrary to the 
commands of the general, though he were se- 
cure of a victory, and knowing that it was a ve 
hazardous undertaking for a few to fight wit 
many, for those that were unprovided to fight 
those that were ready, and being on other ac~- 
counts surprised at this unexpected onset of 
the Jews, he ran away on foot, as did five of 
the rest in like manner, and left their horses be-- 
hind them; which horses Jesus led away into 
the city, and rejoiced as if they had taken them 
in battle, and not by treachery. 

8. Now the seniors of the people, and such as" 
were of principal authority among them, fear- 
ing what would be the issue of this matter, fled 
to the camp of the Romans: they then took — 
their king along with them, and fell down be- 
fore Vespasian, to supplicate his favor, and 
besought him not to overlook them, nor to im- 
pute the madness of a few to a whole city; to 
spare a people that had been ever civil and 
obliging to the Romans; but to bring the au- 
thors of this revolt to due punishment, who 
had hitherto so watched them, that though they 
were zealous to give them the security of their 
right hands of a long time, yet could they n 
accomplish the same. With these supplica- 
tions the general complied, although he were 
very angry at the whole city about the carry- _ 
ing off his horses, and this because he saw that 


vil 
" 





~~ 


BOOK TL—CHAPTER X. 


Agrippa was under a great concern for them. 
So when Vespasian and Agrippa had accepted 
of their right hands by way of security, Jesus 
and his party thought it not safe for them to 
continue at Tiberias, so they ran away to 
Tarichere. The next day Vespasian sent Tra- 
jan before with some horsemen to the citadel, 
to make trial of the multitude, whether they 
were all disposed for peace; and as soon as he 
knew that the people were of the same mind 
with the petitioners, he took his army and went 
to the city; upon which the citizens opened to 
bim their gates, and met him with acclamations 
of joy, and called him their savior and benefac- 
tor. But as the arny wasa great while in getting 
in at the gates, they were so narrow, Vespasian 
commanded the south wall to be broken down, 
and so made a broad passage for their entrance, 
However, he charged them to abstain from ra- 
pine and injustice, in order to gratify the king; 
and on his account spared the rest of the wall, 
while the king undertook for them that they 
should continue [faithful to the Romans] for 
the time to come. And thus did he restore 
this city to a quiet state, after it had been griev- 
ously afflicted by the sedition. 


CHAPTER X. 


How Tarichee was taken. A description of the 
rer Jordan, and of the country of Gennesareth. 


§ 1. And now Vespasian pitched his camp 
betwen this city and Tarichee, but fortified 
his camp more strongly, as suspecting that he 
should be forced to stay there, and havea long 
war; for all the innovators had gotten together 
at Tarichee, as relying upon the strength of 
the city, and on the lake that lay by it. This 
lake is called by the people of the country the 
lake of Gennesareth. The city itself is situat- 
ed, like Tiberias, at the bottom of a mountain, 
and on those sides which are not washed by 
the sea, had been strongly fortified by Jose- 
phus, though not so strongly as Tiberias; for 
the wall of Tiberias had been built at the be- 
ginning of the Jews’ revolt, when he had great 
plenty of money, and great power, but Tari- 
‘chee partook only the remains of that liberality. 
Yet had they a great number of ships gotten 
ready upon the lake that in case they were 
beaten at land, they might retire to them; and 
they were so fitted up, that they might under- 
take a seafight also. But as the Romans were 
building a wall about their camp, Jesus and his 
party were neither affrighted at their number, 
nor at the good order they were in, but made 
asally upon them, and at the very first onset 
the builders of the wall were dispersed, and 

hese pulled what little they had before built 
to pieces; but as soon as they saw the armed 
men getting together, and before they had suf- 
fered any thing themselves, they retired to their 
ownmen. Butthenthe Romans pursued them, 
and drove them into their ships, where they 
launched out as far asthey might give them the 
opportunity of reaching the Romans with what 
they threw at them, and then cast anchor, and 
brought their ships close, as in a line of battle, 
aiid thence fought the enemy from the sea, 


603 


who were themselves at land. But Vespasiap 
hearing that a great multitude of them were 
gotten together in the plain that was before the 
city, he thereupon sent his son, with six hun 
dred chosen horsemen, to disperse them. 

2. But when Titus perceived that the ene- 
my was very numerous, he sent to his father 
and informed him, that he should want more 
forces. But as he saw a great many of the 
horsemen eager to fight, and that before any 
succors could come to them,and that yet some 
of them were privately under asort of conster- 
nation at the multitude of the Jews, he stood 
in a place whence he might be heard, and sai 
to them, “My brave Romans! for it is right for 
me to put you in mind of what nation you are, 
in the beginning of my speech, that so you 
may not be ignorant who you are, and who 
they are against whom we are going to fight. 
For as to us, Romans, no part of the habitable 
earth hath been able to escape our hands hith- 
erto; but as for the Jews, that I may speak of 
them too, though they have been already beat- 
en, yet do they not give up the cause; and a 
sad thing it would be for us to grow weary un- 
der good success, when they bear up under 
their misfortunes. As to the alacrity which 
you show publicly, I see it and rejoice at it; yet 
am I afraid lest the multitude of the enemy 
should bring a concealed fright upon some of 
you: let such a one consider again who we are 
that are to fight, and who those are against 
whom weare to fight. Nowthese Jews, though 
they be very bold, and great despisers of death, 
are Dut a disorderly body, and unskilful in war 
and may rather be called a rout than an army; 
while [ need say nothing of our skill and our 
good order; for this is the reason why we Ro- 
mans alone are exercised for war in time of 
peace, that we may not think of number for 
number, when we come to fight with our ene- 
mies; for what advantage should we reap by 
our continual sort of wartare, if we must still 
be equal in number to such as have not been 
used to war? Consider further, that you are to 
have a conflict with men in effect unarmed, 
while you are wellarmed; with footmen, while 
you are horsemen; with those that have no 
good general, while you have one; and as 
these advantages make you in effect mani 
fold more than you are, so do their disadvan 
tages mightily diminish their number. Now 
it is not the multitude of men, though they be 
soldiers, that manages wars with success, but it 
is their bravery that does it, though they be 
but a few; for a few are easily set in battle ar- 
ray, and can easily assist one another, while 
over-numerous armies are more hurt by them 
selves than by ther enemies. It is boldness 
and rashness, the effeets of madness, that con- 
duct the Jews. Those passions, indeed, make 
a great figure when they succeed, but are quite 
extinguished upon the least il] success; but we 
are led on by courage, and obedience, and for- 
titude, which shows itself, indeed, in our goud 
fortune, but still does not forever desert us in 
our ill fortune. Nay, indeed, your fighting 
to be on greater motives than those of the Jews 


606 


a 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


for although they run the hazard of war for | turned them back into the plain, till at last they 


liberty, and for their country, yet what can be 
a greater motive to us than glory? and that it 
may never be said, that after we have got do- 
minion of the habitable earth, the Jews are 
able toconfront us. We must also reflect upon 
this, that there is no fear of our suffering any 
mcurable disaster in the present case; for those 
that are ready to assist us are many, and at 
hand also; yet it is in our power to seize upon 
this victory ourselves, and I think we ought to 

revent the coming of those my father is send- 
mg to us for our assistance, that our success 
may be peculiar to ourselves, and of greater 
reputation to us. And J cannot but think this 
an opportunity wherein my father, and I, and 
you, shall be all put to the trial, whether he be 
worthy of his former glorious performances, 
whether I be his son in reality, and whether 
you be really my soldiers; for it is usual for my 
father to conquer; and for myself, I should not 
bear the thoughts of returning to him if I were 
once taken by the enemy. And how will you 
be able to avoid being ashamed, if you do not 
show equal courage with your commander, 
when he goes before you into danger? For 
you know very well that I shall go into the 
danger first, and make the first attack upon the 
enemy. Do not you therefore desert me, but 
persuade yourselves that God will be assisting 
to my onset. Know this also before we begin, 
that we shall now have the better success than 
we should have if we were to fight at a distance.” 

3. As Titus was saying this, an extraordinary 
fury fell upon the men; and as Trajan was al- 
ready come before the fight began, with four 
hundred horsemen, they were uneasy at it, be- 
cause the reputation of the victory would be 
diminished by being common to so many. 
Vespasian had also sent both Antonius and Silo, 
with two thousand archers, and had given it 
them in charge to seize upon the mountain that 
was Over against the city, and repel those that 
were upon the wall; which archers did as they 
were commanded, and prevented those that at- 
tempted to assist them that way. And now 
Titus made his own horse march first against 
the enemy, as did the others with a great noise 
after him, and extended themselves upon the 
plain as wide as the enemy which confronted 
them, by which means they appeared much 
more numerous than they really were. Now 
the Jews, although they were surprised at their 
onset, and at their good order, made resistance 
against their attacks for a little while; but when 
they were pricked with their long poles, and 
overborne by the violent noise of the horsemen, 
they=came to be trampled under their feet; 
many also of them were slain on every side, 
which made them disperse themselves, and 
run to the city as fast as every one of them 
were able. So Titus pressed upon the hind- 
most, and slew them; and of the rest, some he 
fell upon as they stood on heaps, and some he 
prevented, and met them in the mouth, and run 
them through; many also he leaped upon as 
they fell one upon another, and trod them down, 
and cut off the retreat they had to the wall, and 


forced a passage by their multitude, and got 
away, and ran into the city. 

4. But now there fell out a terrible sedition 
among them within the city: for the habitants 
themselves, who had possessions there, and to 
whom the city belonged, were not disposed to 
fight from the very beginning; and now the 
less so, because they had been beaten: but the 
foreigners, who were very numerous, would 
force them to fight so much the more, insomuch 
that there was a clamor and a tumult among 
them, as all mutually angry one at another 
And when Titus heard this tumult, for he was 
not far from the walls, he cried out, “Fellow 
soldiers, now is the time, and why do we make 
any delay, when God is giving up the Jews to 
us? Take the victory which is given you: do 
not you hear what a noise they make? Those 
that have escaped our hands are in an uproar 
against one another. We have the cty, if we 
make haste; but besides haste, we must un- 
dergo some labor, and use some courage; for 
no great thing uses to be accomplished with- 
out danger; accordingly we must not only pre- 
vent their uniting again, which necessity will 
soon conipel them to do, but we must also pre- 
vent the coming of our own men to our assist- 
ance, that as few as we are we may conquer so 
great a multitude, and may ourselves alone take 
the city.’’ 

5. As soon as ever Titus had said this, he 
leaped upon his horse, and rode apace down to 
the lake; by which lake he marched, and enter- 
ed into the city the first of them all, as did the 
others soon after him. Hereupon those that 
were upon the walls were seized with a terror 
at the boldness of the attempt, nor durst any 
one venture to fight with him, or to hinder him; 
so they left guarding the city, and some of those 
that were about Jesus fled over the country, 
while others of them ran down to the lake, and 
met the enemy in the teeth, and some were 
slain as they were getting up into the ships, 
but others of them, as they attempted to over- 
take those that were already gone aboard. 
There was also a great slaughter made in the 
city, while those foreigners that had not fled 
away already, made opposition; but the natural 
inhabitants were killed without fighting: for in 
hopes of Titus’s giving them his right hand 
for their security, and out of consciousness that 
they had not given any consent to the war, they 
avoided fighting, till Titus had slain the authors 
of this revolt, and then puta stup to any fur- 
ther slaughters out of commiseration of these 
inhabitants of the place. But for those that 
had fled to the lake, upon seeing the city taken, 
they sailed as far as they possibly could from 
the enemy. . 

6. Hereupon Titus sent one of his horsemen 
to his father, and_let him know the good news 
of what he had done; at which, as was natural, 
he was very joyful, both on account of the 
courage and glorious actions of his son: for he 
thought now the greatest part of the war was. 
over. He then came thither himself, and set 
men to guard the city, and gave them command 


BOOK T1L—CHAPTER X. 


io take care that nobody got privately out of it, 
yut to kill such as attempted so todo. Andon 
the next day he went down to the lake, and 
sommanded that vessels should be fitted up, in 
rder to pursue those that had escaped in the 
ships. These vessels were quickly gotten ready 
wecordingly, because there was great plenty of 
aterials, and a great number of artificers also. 
7. Now this lake of Gennesareth is so called 
rom the country adjoining to it; its breadth is 
orty furlongs, and its length one hundred and 
‘orty; its waters are sweet, and very agreeable 
for drinking, for they are finer than the thick 
waters of other fens, the lake is also pure, and 
su every side ends directly at the shores, and at 
the sands; it is also of a temperate nature when 
you draw it up, and of a more gentle nature 
han river or fountain water, and yet always 
tooler than one could expect in so diffuse a 
place as this is: now when this water is kept in 
the open air, it is as cold as that snow which 
he country people are accustomed to make 
by night in summer. There are several kinds 
of fish in it, different both to the taste and the 
ight from those elsewhere. It is divided into 
two parts by the river Jordan. Now Panium 
is thought to be the fountain of Jordan, but in 
reality is carried thither after an occult manner 
from the place called Phiala: this place lies as 
you go up to Trachonitis, and isa hundred and 
twenty furlongs from Czesarea, and is not far 
out of the road on the right hand; and indeed 
it hath its name of Phiala [vial or bowl] very 
justly from the roundness of its circumference, 
as being round likea wheel; its water continues 
always up to its edges, without either sinking 
pr running over. And as thisorigin of Jordan 
was formerly not known, it was discovered so 
to be when Philip was tetrarch of Tyachonitis: 
for he had chaff thrown into Phiala, and it was 
found at Panium, where the ancients thought 
the fountain-head of the river was, whither it 
had been therefore carried [by the waters.] 
As for Panium itself, its natural beauty had 
been improved by the royal liberality of Agrip- 
pa, and adorned at his expenses. Now Jor- 
dan’s visible stream arises from this cavern, 
and divides the marshes and fens of the lake of 
Semchonitis; when it hath run another hun- 
dred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the 
city of Julias, and then passes through the mid- 
dle of the lake of Gennesareth; after which it 
runs a long way over a desert, and then makes 
its exit into the lake Asphaltitis. 
8. The country also that lies over against this 
lake hath the same name of Gennesareth; its 
nature is wonderful, as well as its beauty; its 
voi! is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow 
ip it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant 
ail sorts of trees there; for the temper of the 
air ig so well mixed, that it agrees very well 
‘with those several sorts; particularly walnuts, 
which require the coldest air, flourish there in 
vast plenty; there are palin-trees also, which 
“row best in hot air; fig-trees also and olives 
grow near them, which yet require an air that 
‘% more temperate. One may call this place 
wie ambition of nature, where it forces those 


607 


plants that are naturally enemies to one anc ther 
to agree .ogether; it isa happy cor tennon of the 
seasons; as if every one of them taid claim to 
to this country; for it not only nounshes differ 
ent sorts of autunmal fruit beyond men’s ex- 
pectations, but preserves them a great while; 
it supplies men with the principal truits, with 
grapes and figs, continually,* during ten monthe 
of the year, and the rest of the fruits as they 
become ripe together through the whole year 
for besides the good temperature of the uir, it 
is also watered from a most fertile fountain. 
The people of the country call it Capharnaum: 
some have thought it to be a vem ef the Nile, 
because it produces the Coracin fish as well as 
that lake does which is near to Alexandria. The 
length of this country extends itself along the 
banks of this lake, that bears the same name, 
for thirty furlongs, and is in breadth twenty. 
And this isthe nature of that place. 

Y. But now, when the vessels were gotten 
ready, Vespasian put upon ship-poard as many 
of his forces as he thought sufficient to be too 
hard for those that were upon the lake, and set 
sailafter them. Now those which were driven 
into the lake, could neither fly to the land, 
where all was in their enemies’ hand, aud in 
war against them; nor could they fighi upon 
the level by sea, for their ships were small and 
fitted only for piracy; they were too weak to 
fight with Vespasian’s vessels, and the mariners 
that were in them were so few, that they were 
afraid to come near the Romans, who attacked 
them in great numbers. However, as they sail- 
ed round about the vessels, and sometimes as 
they caine near them they threw stones at the 
Romans when they were a good way off, or 
came closer and fought them; yet did they re- 
ceive the greatest harm themselves in both-ca- 
ses. As for the stones they threw at the Ro- 
mmans, they only made a sound one after the 
other, for they threw them against such as 
were in their armor, whfle the Roman darts 
could reach the Jews themselves: and when 
they ventured to come near the Romans, they 
became sufferers themselves before they could 
do any harm to the other, and were drowned, 
they and their ships together. As for those 
that endeavored to come to an actual fight, the 
Romans ran many of them through with their 
long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped 
into their ships with swords in their hands, and 
slew them; but when some of them met the 
vessels, the Romans caught them by the mid- 
dle, and destroyed at once their ships and them- 
selves who were taken in them. And for such 
as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their 
heads up above the water, they were either 


* It may be worth our while to observe here, that near 
this lake of Gennesareth grapes and figs hang on the trees 
ten months of the year. We may observe also, thatin Cyril 
of Jerusalem, Cateches. xviii. 3, which was delivered not 
long before Easter, there were no fresh leaves of fig trees 
nor bunehes of fresh grapes in Judea; so that when St. 
Mark says, ch. xi. 13, that our Savior, soon after the same 
time of the year, eame and found leaves on a fig-tree near 
Jerusalem, but no figs, because the time of new figs ripening 
was not yet, he says very true; nor were they, therefore 
other than old Jeaves which our Savior saw and old figs 
which he expected, and which even with us commonly hang 
on the trees all winter long. 


608 


killed by darts, or caught by the vessels; but if 
in the desperate case they were in, they at- 
tempted to swim to the enemies, the Romans 
cut off either their heads or their hands; and 
indeed they were destroyed after various man- 
ners everywhere, till the rest being put to flight 
were forced to get upon the land, while the 
vessels encompassed them about [on the sea;] 
but as many of these were repulsed when they 
were getting ashore, they were killed by the 
darts upon the lake; and the Romans leaped 
out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many 
more upon the land: one might then see the 
lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for 
not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink, 
and a very sad sight, there was on the follow- 
ing days over that country; for as for the shores, 
they were full of shipwrecks, and of dead bo- 
dies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were 
inflamed by the sun, and putrified, they cor- 
rupted the air, insomuch that the misery was 
not only the object of commiseration to the 
Jews, but to those that hated them, and had 
been the authors of that misery. This was 
the upshot of the sea-fight. The number of 
the slain, including those that were killed in the 
city before, was six thousand and five hundred. 

10. After this fight was over, Vespasian sat 
upon his tribunal at Taricheze, in order to dis- 
tinguish the foreigners from the old inhabitants; 
for those foreigners appeared to have begun the 
war. So he deliberated with the other com- 
manders, whether he ought to save those old 
inhabitants or not. And when those command- 
ers alleged that the dismission of them would 
be to his own disadvantage, because, when they 
were once set at liberty, they would not be at 
rest, since they would be people destitute of 
proper habitations, and would be able to com- 
pel such as they fled to, to fight against us. 
Vespasian acknowledged that they did not de- 
serve to be saved, and that if they had leave 
given them to fly away, they would make use 
of it against those that gave them that leave. 
But still he considered with himself, after what 
manner they should be slain;* for if he had 


* This is the most cruel and barbarous action that Vespa- 
sian ever did in this whole war, as hie did it with great reluc- 
tance also. It was done both after public assurance given 
of sparing the prisoners’ lives, and when all knew und con- 
fessed that these prisoners were no way guilty of avy sedi- 





WARS OF THE JEWS. 





them slain there, he suspected the peszle o 
the country would thereby become his enemies 
for that to he sure they would never bear it, thas 
so many that had been supplicants to Hr 

should be killed; and to offer violence to them, 
after he had given them assurances of their 
lives, he could not himself bear to do it. How- 
ever, his friends were too hard for him, an 


pretended that nothing against the Jews could 


be any impiety, and that he ought to prefer 
what was profitable before what was fit to be 
done, where both could not be consistent. Se 
he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do ag 
they advised, and permitted the prisoners to go 
along no other road than that which led to Ti- 
berias only. So they readily believed what 
they desired to be true, and went along securely, 
with their effects, the way which was allowec¢ 
them, while the Romans seized upon all the 
road that led to Tiberias, that none of them 
might go out of it, and shut them up in the 
city. Then catne Vespasian, and ordered them 
all to stand in the stadium, and commanded 
them to kill the old men, together with the 
others that were useless, who were in number 
a thousand and two hundred. Out of the 
young men he chose six thousand of the strong- 
est, and sent them to Nero, to dig through the 
isthmus, and sold the remainder for slaves, be- 
ing thirty thousand and four hundred, besides 
such as he made a present of to Agrippa; for 
as to those that belonged to his kingdom, he 
gave him leave to do what he pleased with 
them: however, the king sold these also for 
slaves; but for the rest of the multitude, who 
were Trachonites, and Gaulanites, and of Hip- 
pos, and some of Gadara, the greatest part of 
them were seditious persons and fugitives, who 
were of such shamefwl characters, that they 
preferred war before peace. These prisoners 
were taken on the eighth day of the month 
Gorpieus [Elul.] . 
tion against the Romans. Nor, indeed, did Titus now give 
his consent, so far as appears, nor ever acted of himsel 4 
barbarously; nay, soon after this Titus grew quite weary o' 
shedding blood, and of punishing the innocent with the guilty, 
and gave the people of Gischala leave to keep the Jewish 


Sabbath, b. iv. ch. ii. sect. 3, 5, in the midst of their siege 
Nor was Vespasian disposed to do what he did, ull his 


cers persuaded him, and that from two principal topic r) viz. | 
ews, 


that nothing could be unjust that was done against 
and that when both cannot be consistent, advantage 
prevail over justice. Admirable court doctrines these. 


Inusd 


' 
a 
5 


BOOK IV. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF AB )UT ONE YEAR.--FROM THE SIEGE OF GAMALA TO THE 
COMING OF ITUS TO BESIEGE JERUSALEM. 4 


CHAPTER I. 
The svege and taking of Gamala. 


§ 1. Now all those Galileans who, after the 
taking of Jotapata, had revolted from the Ro- 
mans, did upon the conquest of Taricher de- 
liver themselves up to them again. And the 
Romans received all the fortresses and the Cities, 
excepting Gischala and those that had been 





~ 


% 
ai 


ad 
seized upon mount Tabor; Gamala also, whied 
is a city over against Tariches, but on the other 
side pe the lake, conspired with them. This 
city lay upon the borders of Agrippa’s kin 
as also did Sogana and Selene | And hell 
were both parts of Gaulanitis, for Sogana 
a part of that called the upper Gaulanitis, a 
was Gamala of the lower; while Seleucia we 
situated at the lake Semechonitis, which 





( 


4 


, 
7 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER 1. 


1s thirty furlongs in breadth, and sixty in length; 
_ its marshes reach as far as the place Daphne, 


ft 


| which in other respects is a delicious place, and 


‘hath such fountains as supply water to what is 


: 


talled Little Jordan, under the temple of the 


cai calf,;* where it is sent into Great Jordan. 


Now Agrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia 
‘by leagues to himself, at the very beginning of 


_ the revolt from the Romans; yet did not Gamala 
accede to ‘hem, but relied upon the difficulty 
‘of the place, which was greater than that of 
_ Jotapata, for it was situated upon a rough ridge 


of a high mountain, with a kind of neck in 
the middle; where it begins to ascend, it length- 
ens itself, and declines as much downward 
before as behind, insomuch that it is like a 


camel in figure, from whence it is so named, 


although the people of the country do not pro- 
nounce it accurately: both on the side and the 
face there are abrupt parts divided from the 
rest, and ending in vast deep valleys; yet are 
the parts behind, where they are joined to the 
mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the 


other; but then the people belonging to the 


place have cutan oblique ditch there, and made 
that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, 


_ which is strait, houses are built, and those very 


thick and close to one another. The city also 
hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would 
fall down upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. 
It is exposed to the south, and its southern 
mount, which reaches to an immense height, 
was in the nature of a citadel to the city; and 
above that was a precipice, not walled about, 
but extending itself to an immense depth. 
There was also a spring of water within the 
wall, at the utmost limits 6f the city. 

2. As this city was naturally hard to be taken, 
so had Josephus, by building a wall about it, 
made it still stronger, as also by ditches and 
mines under ground. The people that were 
in jit were made more bold by the nature of the 
tgs than the people of Jotapata had been, 

ut had much fewer fighting men in it; and 
they had such a confidence in the situation of 
the place, that they thought the enemy could 
not be too many for them: for the city had 
been filled with those that had fled to it for safe- 
ty, on account of its strength; on which ac- 
count they had been able to resist those whom 
Agrippa sent to besiege it for seven months to- 
gether. 
_ 3. But Vespasian removel from Emmaus, 
where he had last pitched his camp before the 
city Tiberias, (now Emmaus, it it be interpreted, 
may be rendered a warm bath, for therein is a 
spring of warm water useful for healing,) and 
came to Gamala; yet was its situation such, 
that he was not able to encompass it all round 
with soldiers to watch it; but where the places 
were practicable, he sent men to watch it, and 
seized upon that mountain which was over it. 
And as the legions, according to their usual 
custom, were fortifying their camp upon that 
“mountain, he began to cast up banks at the bot- 


* Here we have the exact situation of one of Jerohoam’s 

golden calwes, at the exit of Little Jordan into Great Jordan, 

near a place called Daphne, but of old Dan. See the note 

en An‘q, b. viii. ch. vill. sect. 4. But Reland suspects, that 
ews 


609 


tom, at the part towards the east, where the 
highest tower of the whole city was, and where 
the fifteenth legion pitched their camp; while 
the fifth legion did duty over against the midst 
of the city, and whilst the tenth legion filled up 
the ditches and the valleys. Now at this tim 
it was that as king Agrippa was come nigh th 
walls, and was endeavoring to speak to those 
that were on the walls about a surrender, he 
was hit with a stone on his right elbow by one 
of the slingers; he was then immediately sur- 
rounded with his own men. But the Romans 
were excited to set ahout the siege, by their in- 
dignation on the king’s account, and by then 
fear on their own account, as concluding that 
those men would omit no kinds of barbari-y 
against foreigners and enemies, who were 40 
enraged against one of their own nation, aid 
one that advised them to nothing but what wis 
for their own advantage. 

4. Now when the banks were finished, whit 5 
was done on the sudden, both by the multituite 
of hands, and by their being accustomed to sur th 
work, they brought the machines: but Charsn 
and Joseph, who were the most potent men .1 
the city, set their armed men in order, thous hi 
already in a fright, because they did not su » 
pose that the city could hold out long, sin» 
they had nota sufficient quantity either of wu 
ter, or of other necessaries. However, these 
their leaders encouraged them, and brougat 
them out upon the wall, and for a while inded 
they drove away those that were bringing the 
machines; but when those machines threw 
darts and stones at them, they retired into the 
city; then did the Romans bring battering-raras 
to three several places, and made the wails 
shake [and fall.]} They then poured in over 
the parts of the wall that were thrown down, 
with a mighty sound of trumpets and noise of ar- 
mor, and with a shout of the soldiers, and broke . 
in by force upon those that were in the city’ 
but these men fell upon the Romans for some 
time, at their first entrance, and prevented their 
going any further, and with great courage beat 
them back; and the Romans were so overpow- 
ered by the greater multitude of the people, 
who beat them on every side, that they were 
obliged to run into the upper parts of the city 
Whereupon the people turned about, and fell 
upon their enemies who had attacked them, 
and thrust them down to the lower parts, and 
as they were distressed by the narrowness and 
difficulty of the place, slew them; and as these 
Romans could neither beat those back that 
were above them, nor escape the force of their 
own men that were forcing their way forward, 
they were compelled to fly mto their enemies’ 
houses, which were low; but these houses, be- 
ing thus full of soldiers, whose weight they 
could not bear, fell down suddenly; and when 
one house fell, it shook down a great many of 
those that were under it, as did those do to such 
as were under them. By this means a vast 
number of the Romans perished, for they were 


even here we should read Dan instead of Daphne, there be 
ing nowhere else any mention of a place called Dapkee 
hereabouts. 


610 


so terribly distressed, chat although they saw 
the houses subsiding, they were compelled to 
leap upon the tops of them; so that a great 
many were ground to powder by these ruins, 
and a great many of those that got from under 
them lost some of their limbs, but still a greater 
number were suffocated by the dust that rose 
from those ruins. The people of Gamala sup- 
posed this to be an assistance afforded them by 
(iod, and without regarding what damage they 
sufiered themselves, they pressed forward, and 
thrust the enemy upon the tops of their houses, 
anil when they stumbled, in the sharp and nar- 
cow streets, and were perpetually tumbling 
down, they threw their stones or darts at them, 
and slew them. Now the very ruins afforded 
them stones enough, and for iron weapons the 
dead men of the enemies’ side afforded them 
what they wanted; for, drawing the swords of 
those that were dead, they made use of them 
to despatch such as were only half dead; nay, 
there were a great number who, upon their 
falling down from the tops of the houses, stab- 
bed themselves, and died after that manner; 
nor indeed was it easy for those that were 
beaten back to fly away, for they were so un- 
acquainted with the ways, and the dust was so 
thick, that they wandered about without know- 
ing one another, and fell down dead among the 
crowd. 
5. Those, therefore, that were able to find 
the ways out of the city, retired. But now 
Vespasian always staid among those that were 
hard set; for he was deeply affected with seeing 
the ruins of the city falling upon his army, and 
forgot to take care of his own preservation. 
He went up gradually towards the highest parts 
of the city before he was aware, and was left 
in the midst of dangers, having only a very 
few with him; for even his son Titus was not 
with him at that time, having been sent into 
Syria to Mucianus. However, he thought it 
not safe to fly, nor did he esteem it a fit thing 
for him to do; but calling to mind the actions 
he had done from his youth, and recollecting 
his courage, as if he had been excited by a di- 
vine fury, he covered himself, and those that 
were with him with their shields, and formed 
a testudo over both their backs and their armor, 
and bore up against the enemy’s attack, who 
eae running down from the top of the city; 
and without showing any dread at the multitude 
of the men or of their darts, he endured all, 
until the enemy took notice of that divine cou- 
rage that was within him, and remitted of their 
attacks; and when they pressed less zealously 
upq? him he retired, though without showing 
his back to them till he was gotten out of the 
walls of the city. Nowa great number of the 
Romans fell in this battle, among whom was 
Kbutius, the decurion, a man who appeared 
not only in this engagement, wherein he fell, 
but everywhere, and in former engagements, 
to be one of the truest courage, and one that 
had done very great mischief to the Jews. 
But there was a centurion whose name was 
Gallus, who during this disorder being encom- 
passed about, he and ten other soldiers privately 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 






crept into the house of a certain person, where 
he heard them talking at supper what the peo 
ple intended to do against the Romans, or about 
themselves, (for both the man himself and those 
that were with him were Syrians.) So he got 
up in the night-time, and cut all their throats, 
and escaped, together with his soldiers to the 
Romans. 7. 
6. And now Vespasian comforted his army 
which was much dejected by reflecting on ther 
ill suecess, and because they had never before 
fallen into such a calamity, and besides this, he 
cause they were greatly ashamed that they bad 
left their general alone in great dangers. Asto 
what concerned himself, he avoided to say any 
thing, that he might by no means seem to com- 
plain of it; but he said, that “we ought to bear 
manfully what usually falls out in war, and this 
by considering what the nature of war is, ann 
how it can never be that we must conquer with- 
out bloodshed on our own side; for there stands 
about us that fortune which is of its own na- 
ture mutable; that while they had killed so 
many ten thousands of the Jews, they had now 
paid their small share of the reckoning so late: 
and as it is the part of weak people to be too 
much puffed up with good success, so it is the 
part of cowards to be too much affrighted at 
that which is ill; for the change from the one 
to the other is sudden on both sides: and he is 
the best warrior who is of a sober mind under 
misfortunes, that he may continue in that tem- 
per, and cheerfully recover what had been lost 
formerly; and as for what had now happened, 
it was neither owing to their own effeminacy, 
nor to the valor of the Jews, but the difficulty 
of the place was tHe occasion of their advan- 
tage and of our disappointment. Upon reflect- 
ing on which matter one might blame your 
zeal as perfectly ungovernable; for when the 
enemy had retired to their highest fastnesses, 
you ought to have restrained yourselves, and 
not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the 
city, to be exposed to dangers; but upon your 
having obtained the lower parts of the city, 
you ought to have provoked those that had re- 
tired thither to asafe and settled battle; wher 
as, in rushing so hastily upon victory, you too 
no care of your own safety. But this incau- 


tiousness in war, and this madness of zeal, is not 


a Roman maxim, while we perform all that we 
attempt by skill and good order; that procedure’ 
is the part of barbarians, and is what the Jews 
chiefly support themselves by. We ought 
therefore to return to our own virtue, and to be. 
rather angry than any longer dejected at thir 
unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek for 
his own consclation from his 9wn nand; for 
by this means he will avenge those that have 
been destroyed, and punish those that hay 
killed them. For myself, I will endeavor, 2 
have now done, to go first be‘ore you agains 
your enemies in every engagement, and to be 
the last that retires from it.” | 
7. So Vespasian encouraged his army DB 
this speech; but for the people of Gamale 
happened that they took courage for a li 
while, upon such great and. unaccountable su 











ly 


tess as they had had. But when they con- 
“sidered with themselves that they had now no 
hopes of any terms of accommodation, and 
‘reflecting upon it that they could not get away, 
and that their provisions began already to be 
‘short, they were exceedingly cast down, and 
‘their courage failed them; yet did they not ne- 
. what might be for their preservation, so 
far as they were able, but the most courageous 
among them guarded those parts of the wall 
‘that were beaten down, while the more infirm 
did the same to the rest of the wall that still 
‘remained round the city. And asthe Romans 
raised their banks, and attempted to get into the 
city a second time, a great many of them fled 
out of the city through impracticable valleys, 
where no guards were placed, as also through 
subterraneous caverns; while those that were 
afraid of being caught, and for that reason staid 
‘in the city, perished for want of food, for what 
food they had was brought together from all 
‘quarters, and reserved for the fighting men. 

8. And these were the hard circumstances 
that the people of Gamala were in. But now 
Vespasian went about another work by the by, 
during this siege, and that was to subdue those 
‘that had seized upon mount Tabor, a place 
that lies in the middle between the great plain 
‘and Scythopolis, whose top is elevated as high 
as thirty furlongs,* and is hardly to be ascend- 

ed on its north side; its top is a plain of twenty- 
six furlongs, and all encompassed with a wall. 
Now, Josephus erected this so long a wall in 
forty days’ time, and furnished it with other 
materials, and with water from below, for the 
inhabitants only made use of rain water; as 
therefore, there was a great multitude of peo- 
ple gotten together upon this mountain, Vespa- 
gian sent Placidus with six hundred horsemen 
thither. Now, as it was impossible for him to 
ascend the mountain, he invited many of them 
to peace, by the offer of his right hand _ for 
their security, and of his intercession for them. 
Accordingly they came down, but with a treach- 
erous design, as well as he had the like treach- 
erous design upon them on the other side; for 
Placidus spoke mildly to them, as aiming to 
take them when he got them into the plain; 
they also came down, as complying with his 
proposals, but it was in order to fall upon him 
when he was not aware of it; however, Placi- 
dus’s stratagem was too hard for theirs; for when 
the Jews began to fight, he pretended to run 
away, and when they were in pursuit of the 
Romans, he enticed them a great way along 
the plain, and then made his horsemen turn 
back; whereupon he beat them, and slew a 
|great number of them, and cut off the retreat 
‘of the rest of the multitude, and hindered their 


* These numbers in Josephus of 30 furlongs ascent to the 
|p of mount Tabor, whether we estimate it by windings 
/and gradual, or by the perpendicular altitude, and of 26 fur- 
‘longs circumference upon the top, 2s also the 15 furlongs for 
‘this ascent in Polybius, with Geminus’s perpendicular alti- 
tude of almost 14 furlongs, here noted by Dr. Hudson, do none 
‘of them agree with the authentic testimony of Mr. Maun- 
- drel, an eyewitness, page 112, who says he was not an hour 
-M@ getting to the top of this mount Tabor, and that the area 
Of the top is an oval of about two furlongs in length and 
ape in breadth. So [I rather suppose Josephus wrote 3 

} 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER II. 


61s 


return. So they left Tabor, and fled to Jerusa- 
lem, while the people of the country came te 
terms with him, for their water failed them. 
and so they delivered up the mountain and them- 
selves to Placidus. 

9. But of the people of Gamala, those that 
were of the bolder sort fled away and hid them- 
selves, while the more infirm perished by fa- 
mine; but the men of war sustained the siege 
till the two and twentieth day of the month 
Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] when three soldiers of 
the fifteenth legion, about the morning watch, 
got under a high tower that was near them, and 
undermined it, without making any noise; nor 
when they either came to it, which was in the 
night-time, nor when they were under it, did 
those that guarded it perceive them.» These 
soldiers then, upon their coming, avoided mak- 
ing a noise, and when they had rolled away 
five of the strongest stones, they went away 
hastily; whereupon the tower fell down ona 
sudden with a very great noise, and its guard 
fell headlong with it; so that those that kept 
guard at other places were under such disturb- 
ance, that they ran away; the Romans also 
slew many of those that ventured to oppose 
them, among whom was Joseph, who was 
slain by a dart, as he was running away over 
that part of the wall that was broken down; 
but as those that were in the city were greatly 
affrighted at the noise, they ran hither and thith- 
er, and a great consternation fell upon them, as 
though all the enemy had fallen in at once upon 
them. Then it was that Chares, who was ill, 
and under the physician’s hands, gave up the 
ghost, the fear he was in greatly contributing 
to make his distemper fatal to him. But the 
Romans so well remembered their former ill 
success, that they did not enter the city till the 
three and twentieth day of the forementioned 
month. 

10. At which time Titus, who was now re 
turned, out of the indication he had at the des- 
truction the Romans had undergone while he 
was absent, took two hundred chosen horsemen, 
and some footmen with them, and entered with- 
out noise into the city. Now, as the watch 
perceived that he was coming, they made a 
noise, and betook themselves to their arms; and 
as that his entrance was presently known to 
those that were in the city, some of them caught 
hold of their children and their wives, and drew 
them after them, and fled away to the cat 
with lamentations and cries, while others 0 
them went to meet Titus, and were killed per- 
petually; but so many of them as were hinder. 
ed from running up to the citadel, not knowing 
what in the world to do, fell among the Roman 
guards, while the groans of those that were 


furlongs for the ascent or altitude, instead of 30; and 6 fur- 
longs for the circumference at the top, instead of 26; since 
a mountain of only 3 furlongs perpendicular altitude may 
easily require near an hour’s ascent, and the circumferenee 
of an oval of the foregoing quantity is near six furlongs. 
Nor certainly could such a vast circumference as 26 fur- 
longs, or 3} miles, at that height, be encompassed with a 
wall, including a trench and other fortifications, perhaps 
those still remaining, idid. in the small interval of 40 days, a# 
Josephus here says they were by himself. 


12 


killed, were prodigiously great everywhere, 
and the blood ran down all the lower parts of 
the city from the upper. But then Vespasian 
himself came to his assistance against those 
that had fled to the citadel, and brought his 
whole army with him: now this upper part of 
the city was every way rocky, and difficult of 
ascent, and elevated to a vast altitude, and very 
full of people on all sides, and encompassed 
with precipices, whereby the Jews cut off those 
that came up to them, and did much mischief 
to the others by their darts, and the large stones 
which they rolled down upon them, while they 
were themselves so high that the enemies’ darts 
could hardly reach them. However, there arose 
such a divine storm against them as was instru- 
mental to their destruction; this carried the Ro- 
man darts upon them, and made those which 
they threw return back, and drove them oblique- 
.y away from them: nor could the Jews indeed 
stand upon the precipices by reason of the vio- 
lence of the wind, having nothing that was sta- 
ble to stand upon, nor could they see those that 
were ascending up to them; so the Romans got 
up and surrounded them, and some they slew 
before they could defend themselves, and others 
us they were delivering up themse!ves; and the 
remembrance of those that were slain at their 
former entrance into the city, increased their 


rage against them now: a great number also of 


those that were surrounded on every side, and 
despaired of escaping, threw their children and 
their wives, and themselves also, down the pre- 
cipices, into the valley beneath, which, near 
the citadel, had been dug hollow to a vast depth, 
but so it happened that the anger of the Ro- 
mans appeared not to be so extravagant, as was 
the madness of those that were now taken, 
while the Romans slew but four thousand, 
whereas the number of those that had thrown 
themselves down was found to be five thousand, 
nor did any one escape except two women, 
who were the daughters of Philip, and Philip 
himself was the son of @ certain eminent man 
called Jacimus, who had been general of king 
Agrippa’s army; and these did therefore es- 
cape, because they lay concealed from the rage 
of the Romans, when the city was taken; for 
otherwise they spared not so much as the in- 
fants; of whom many were flung down by them 
from the citadel, And thus was Gamala taken 
on the three and twentieth day of the month 
Hyperbereteus, ['Tisri,] whereas the city had 
first revolted on the fourth and twentieth day 
af the month Gorpieus, [Elul.] 


* CHAPTER II. 


The surrender of Gischala; when John flies from 
it to Jerusalem. 


$1. Now no place of Galilee remained to 
be taken but the small city of Gischala, whose 
multitude yet were desirous of peace; for they 
were generally husbandmen, and always ap- 
plied themselves to cultivate the fruits of the 
earth. However, there were a great number 
that belonged to a band of robbers, that were 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 






citizens were sick of the same distemper. — 
was John, the son of a certain man who 
name was Levi, that drew them into this rebel- 
lion, and encouraged them in it. He was a 
cunning knave, and of a temper that could put 
on various shapes; very rash in expecting great 
things, and very sagacious in bringing about: 
what he hoped for. It was known to “a 
body that he was fond of war, in order t 
thrust himself into authority; and the seditious 
part of the people of Gischala were under his 
management, by whose means the populace 
who seemed ready to send ambassadors in or. 
der to surrender, waited for the coming of the 
Romans in battle array. Vespasian sent against | 
them Titus, with a thousand horsemen, but. 
withdrew the tenth legion to Scythopolis, 
while he returned to Ceesarea with the two. 
other legions, that he might allow them to re- 
fresh themselves after their long and hard cam- 
paign, thinking withall that the plenty which 
was in those cities would improve their bodies’ 
and their spirits, against the difficulties they 
were to go through afterward; for he saw there 
would be occasion for great pains about Jeru- 
salem, which was not yet taken, because it was 
the royal city, and the principal city of the 
whole nation, and because those that had run 
away from the war in other places got all to- 
gether thither. It was also naturally strong, 
and the walls that were built round it made 
him not a little concerned about it. Moreover, 
he esteemed the men that were in it to be so cou 
rageous and bold, that even without the consid - 
eration of the walls it would be hard to subdue 
them; for which reason he took care of, and 
exercised his soldiers beforehand for the work, 
as they do wrestlers before they begin their un 
dertaking. ; 
2. Now Titus, as he rode up to Gischala, 
found it would be easy for him to take the city 
upon the first onset; but knew withall, that if 
he took it by force, the multitude would be 
destroyed by the soldiers without mercy. 
(Now he was already satiated with the shed- 
ding of blood, and pitied the major part, who 
would then perish without distinction, toge- 
ther with the guilty.}—So he was rather de- 
sirous the city might be surrendered up to him 
on terms. Accordingly, when he saw the wal! 
full of those men that were of the corrupted 
party, he said to them, that “he could not but 
wonder what it was they depended on, when 
they alone staid to fight the Romans, after every 
other city was taken by them, especially when 
they have seen cities much better fortified than 
theirs is, overthrown by a single attack upo 
them; while as many as have intrusted them: 
selves to the security of the Romans’ right 
hands, which he now offers to them, without 
regarding their former insolence, do enjoy theit 
possessions in safety; for that while they had 
hopes of recovering their liberty, they mi 
be pardoned; but that their continuance stil 
their opposition, when they saw that to be ir 
possible, was inexcusable; for that, if they W 











AN 


already corrupted, and had crept in among | not comply with such humane offers, and righ 


hem, and some of the governing part of the | hands for security, they should have experiel 






i BOOK IV.—CHAPTER I 


of such a war that saould spare nobedy, and 
should soon be made sensible that the wall would 
be but a trifle, wher Lattered by the Roman 
‘machines; in depending on which, they de- 
‘monstrate themselves to be the only Galileans 
‘that were no better than arrogant slaves and 
-_eaptives.” 
_ 3. Now none of the populace durst not only 
‘make a reply, but durst not so much as get 
upon the wall, for it was all taken up by the 
robbers, who were also the guard at the gates, 
«order to prevent any of the rest from going 
out in order to propose terms of submission, 
and from receiving any of the horsemen into 
the city. But John returned Titus this an- 
swer, that “for hirnself he was content to hearken 
to his proposals, and that he would either per- 
suade or force those that refused them. Yet 
he said, that Titus ought to have such regard 
to the Jewish law, as to grant them leave to cele- 
brate that day which was the seventh day of 
‘the week, on which it was unlawful not only 
‘to remove their arms, but even to treat of peace 
also; and that even the Romans were not igno- 
rant how the period of the seventh day was 
among them a day of cessation from all labors; 
und that he who should compel them to trans- 
gress the law about that day, would be equally 
guilty with those that were compelled to trans- 
gress it: and that this delay could be of no dis- 
advantage to him, for why should any body 
think of any thing in the night, unless it was to 
fly away? which he might prevent by placing 
his camp round about them; and that they 
should think ita great point gained, if they 
might not be obliged to transgress the laws of 
their country, and that it would be a right thing 
for him, whe designed to grant them peace, 
without their expectation of such a favor, to 
preserve the hk ws of those they saved inviola- 
ble.” Thus dil this man puta trick upon Ti- 
tus, not so mu«.) out of regard to the seventh 
day, as to his own preservation; for he was 
afraid lest he thould be quite deserted, if the 
city should be t ken, and had his hopes of life 
in that night, an1in his flight therein. Now 
this was the woik of God, who, therefore, pre- 
served this John that he might bring on the 
destruction of J:rusalem: as also it was his 
work that Titus: vas prevailed with by this pre- 
tence for a delay, and that he pitched his camp 
farther off the ciy at Cydessa. ‘This Cydessa 
was a strong Mediterranean village of the Ty- 
rans, which alwa7s hated and made war against 
the Jews; it had also a great number of inhab- 
itants, and was v ell fortified, which made it a 
roper place for such as were enemies to the 
ewish nation. 

4, Now in the night-time, when John saw that 
there was no Ro nan guard about the city, he 
seized the opportt nity directly, and, taking with 
him not only the armed men that were about 
him, but a considerable number of those that 
had little to do, to gether with their families, he 
fled to Jerusalen. And indeed, though the 
man was making haste to get away, and was 

tormented with ft us of being a captive, or of 
fosing his life, yet lid he prevail with himself 


61z 


to take out of the city along with hima multi 
tude of woinen and children, as far as twenty 
furlongs; but there he left them, as he proceed . 
ed farther on his journey, where those tha 

were left behind made sad lamentations; for 
the farther every one of them was come from 
his own people, the nearer they thought them- 
selves to be to their enemies. ‘T'hey also af- 
frighted themselves with this thought, that those 
who would carry them into captivity were just 
at hand, and still turned themselves back at the 
mere noise they made themselves in this theix 
hasty flight, as if those from whom they flea 
were just upon them. Many also of them miss- 
ed their ways, and the earnestness of such as 
aimed to outgo the rest, threw down many of 
them. And indeed there was a miserable des- 
truction made of the women and children, 
while some of them took courage to call their 
husbands and kinsmen back, and to beseech 
them, with the bitterest lamentations, to stay 
for them; but John’s exhortation, who cried 
out to them to save themselves, and fly away 

prevailed. He said also, that if the Romans 
should seize upon those whom they left behind 
they would be revenged on them for it. So 
this multitude that ran thus away was disp2rs- 
ed abroad, according as each of them was able 
to run, one faster or slower than another. 

5. Now on the next day Titus came to the 
wall, to make the agreement, whereupon the 
people opened their gates to him, and came out 
to him, with their children and wives, and made 
acclamations of joy to him, as to one that had 
been their benefactor, and had delivered the 
city out of custody; they also informed him of 
John’s flight, and besonght him to spare them, 
and to come in, and bring the rest of those that 
were for innovations to punishment. But ‘Ti- 
tus, not so much regarding the supplications of 
the people, sent part of his horseraen to pur- 
sue Jolin, but they could not overtake him, for 
he was gotten to Jerusalem before: they also 
slew six thousand of the women and children, 
who went out with him; butreturned back and 
brought with them almost three thousand. 
However, Titus was greatly displeased that he 
had not been able to bring this John, who had 
deluded him, to punishment; yet he had cap- 
tives enough, as well as the corrupted part of 
the city, to satisfy his anger, when it missed of 
John. So he entered the city in the midst of 
acclamations of joy; and when he had given 
orders to the soldiers to pull down a small part 
of the wall, as of a city taken in war, he re- 
pressed those that had disturbed the city, rather 
by threatenings than by executions; for he 
thought that many would accuse innocent per- 
sons, out of their animosities and quarrels, if 
he should attempt to distinguish those that were 
worthy of punishment from the rest; and that 
it was better to let a guilty person alone in his 
fears, than to destroy with him any one that did 
not deserve it, for that probably such a one 
might be taught prudence, by the fear of the 
punishment he had deserved, and have a shame 
upon him for his former offences, when he had 
been forgiven; but that the punishment of suck 


314 


as have been once put to death could never be 
retrieved. However, he placed a garrison in 
the city for its security, by which means he 
should .estrain those that were for innovations, 
and shcwuld leave those that were peaceably dis- 
posed in greater security. And thus was all 
Galilee taken, but this not till after it had cost 
the Romans much pains before it could be taken 
by them. 


CHAPTER III 


Concerning John of Gischala. Concerning the 
Zealots, and the high priest Ananus; as also 
how the Jews raised seditions one against an- 
other [in Jerusalem. | 


§ 1. Now upon John’s entry into Jerusalem 
the whole body of the people were in an up- 
roar, and ten thousand of them crowded about 
every one of the fugitives that were come to 
them, and inquired of them what miseries bad 
happened abroad, when their breath was so 
short, and hot, and quick, that of itself it declar- 
ed the great distress they were in; yetdid they 
talk big under their misfortunes, and pretended 
to say, that they had not fled away from the 
Romans, but came thither in order to fight 
them with less hazard; for that it would be an 
unreasonable and a fruitless thing for them to 
expose themselves to desperate hazards about 
Gischala, and such weak cities, whereas they 
ought to lay up their weapons and their zeal, 
and reserve it for their metropolis. But when 
they related to them the taking of Gischala, 
and their decent departure, as they pretended, 
from that place, many of the people understood 
it to be no better than a flight; and especially 
when the people were told of those that were 
made captives, they were in great confusion, 
and guessed those things to be plain indications 
that they should be taken also. But for John, 
he was very little concerned for those he had 
left behind him, but went about among all the 
people and persuaded them to go to war, by the 
hopes he gave them. He affirmed that the af- 
fairs of the Romans were in a weak condition, 
and extolled his own power. He also jested 
upon the ignorance of the unskilful, as if those 
Romans, although they should take to them- 
selves wings, could never fly over the wall of 
Jerusalem, who found such great difficulties 
in taking the villages of Galilee, and had brok- 
en their engines of war against their walls, 

2. These harangues of John’s corrupted a 
great part of the young men, and puffed them 
up for the war; but as to the more prudent 
part, and those in years, there was not a man 
of them but foresaw what was coming, and 
made’ lamentation on that account, as if the 
tity was already undone: and in this confusion 
were the people. But then it must be observed, 
that the reultitude that came out of the country 
were at discord before the Jerusalem sedition 
began; for Titus went from Gischala to Cesa- 
rea, and Vespasian from Czsarea to Jamnia 
and Azotus, and took them both; and when he 
had put garrisons into them, he came back 
with a great number of the people, who were 
eome over to him, upon his giving them his 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





right hand for their preservat on. ‘There were 
besides disorders and civil wars m every city, 
and all those that were at quiet from the Ro 
mans turned their hands one against another, 
There was also a bitter contest between those 


that were fond of war, and those that were de- — 


sirous of peace. 
temper caught hold of private families, who 


could not agree among themselves; after which 


those people that were the dearest to one 


At the first this quarrelsome — 


another, broke through all restraints with re- — 


gard to each other, and every one associated 
with those of his own opinion, and began ale 


ready to stand in opposition one to another; so _ 


that seditions arose everywhere, while those 
that were for innovations, and were desirous of 
war, by their youth and boldness were too hard 
for the aged and the prudent men. And, in 
the first place, all the people in every place be- 
took themselves to rapine; after which they 
got together in bodies, in order to rob the peo- 
ple of the country, insomuch that for barbarity 
and iniquity those of the same nation did no- 


way differ from the Romans; nay, it seemed to 


be a much lighter thing to be ruined by the 
Romans than by themselves, . 

3. Now the Roman garrisons, which guarded 
the cities, partly ont of their uneasiness to take 
such trouble upon them, and partly out of the 
hatred they bore to the Jewish nation, did little 
or nothing towards relieving the miserable, till 
the captains of these troops of robbers, being 
satiated with rapines in the country, got all to- 
gether from all parts, and become a band of 
wickedness, and al] together crept into Jerusa- 
lem, which was now become a city without a 
governor, and, as the ancient custom was, re- 
ceived without distinction all that belonged to 
their nation; and these they then received, be- 


cause all men supposed that those who came — 


so fast into the city, came out of kindness, and 
for their assistance, although these very men, 
besides the seditions they raised, were other- 
wise the direct cause of the city’s destruction 
also; for as they were an unprofitable and a use- 
less multitude, they spent those provisions be- 
forehand which might otherwise have been 
sufficient for the fighting men. Moreover, be- 
sides the bringing on the war, they were the 
occasions of sedition and famine therein. 

4. There were besides these, other robbers 
that came out of the country, and came into 
the city, and joining to them those that were 
worse than themselves, omitted no kind of bar- 
barity; for they did not measure their courage 
by their rapines and plunderings only, but pro- 
ceeded as far as murdering men; and this not 
in the night-time or privately, or with regard 


to ordinary men, but did it openly in the day- — 


time, and began with the most eminent per- 
sons in the city; for the first man they meddled 
with was Antipas, one of the royal lineage, and 


the most potent man in the whole city, inso- — 


much that the public treasures were committed 


to his care: him they took and confined, as they _ 


did in the next place to Lev ‘as, a person of Ree | 


a 
of 


note, with Sophas the sor of Raguel; both of 
whom were of royal lineaye also. And q 


‘te 


| 
i 
ij 
J 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER IIL 


sides these, they did the same to the principai 
‘men of the country. This caused a terrible 


_ consternation among the people, and every one 


. contented himself with taking care of his own 


' 


safety, as they would do if the city had been 
taken in war. 
5. But these were not satisfied with the bonds 


into which they had put the men foremen- 


tioned; nor did they think it safe for them to 


keep them thus in.custody long, since they 
- #vere men very powerful, and had numerous 


: 


| 


a f 


/ 


families of their own that were able to avenge 
ttem. Nay, they thought the very people 
would perhaps be so moved at these unjust 
proceedings, as to rise in a body against them: 
it was, therefore, resolved to have them slain. 
Accordingly, they sent one John, who was the 
most bloody-minded of them all, to do that 
execution: this man was also called the son of 
Dorcas,* in the language of our country. Ten 
more men went along with him into the prison, 
with their swords drawn, and so they cut the 
throats of those that were in custody there. 
The grand lying pretence these men mae for 
so flagrant an enormity was this, that these men 
had had conferences with the Romans for a 
surrender of Jerusalem to them; and so they 
said they had slain only such as were traitors 
to their common liberty. Upon the whole, 
they grew the more insolent upon this bold 
prank of theirs, as though they had been the 
benefactors and saviors of the city. 

6. Now the people were come to that degree 
of meanness and fear, and these robbers to 
that degree of madness, that these last took 
upon them to appoint high priests. So when 
they had disannulled the succession, according 
to those families out of which the high priests 
used to be made, they ordained certain un- 
known and ignoble persons for that office, 
that they might have their assistance in their 
wicked undertakings for such as obtained this 
highest of all honors without any desert, were 
forced to comply with those that bestowed it 
on them. ‘They also set the principal men at 
variance one with another, by several sorts of 
contrivances and tricks, and gained the oppor- 
tunity of doing what they pleased, by the mu- 
tual quarrels of those who might have ob- 
structed their measures; till at length, when 
they were satiated with the unjust actions 
they had done towards men, they transferred 
their contumelious behavior to God himself, 


* This name Dorcas in Greek, was Tabitha in Hebrew or 
$ynace, as Acts ix. 36. Accordingly, some of the manu- 
scripts set it down here T'abetha, or Tabeta. Nor can the 
vontext in Josephus be made out but by supposing the reading 
w have been this, the son of Tabitha, which in the language 
# our country denotes Dorcas [or a doe. ] 

+ Here we may discover the utter disgrace and ruin of the 
righ priesthood among the Jews, when undeserving ignoble 
and vile persons were advanced to that noble office by the 
seditious; which sort of high priests, as Josephus well re- 
marks here, were thereupon obliged to comply with and as- 
mst those that advanced them in their impious practices. 
The names of these high priests, or rather ridiculous and 
profane persons, were Jesus the son of Damneus, Jesus the 
eon of Gamaliel, Matthias the son of Theophilus, and that 
prodigious ignoramus, Phannias the son of Samuel; all 
which we shal! meet with in Josephus’s future history of this 
war; nor do we meet with ary other so much as pretended 

_ gh priest after Phannias, till Jerusalem was taken av4 de- 


npay ed. 


ae/ 


613 


and came into the sanctuary with pollutee 
feet. 

7. And now the multitude were going to rise 
against them already; for Ananus, the ancientes* 
of the high priests, persuaded them to it, He 
was a very prudent man, and had perhaps saved 
the city, if he could have escaped the hands of 
those that plotted against him. Those mem 
made the temple cf Goda stronghold for them, 
and a place whither they might resort, in order 
to avoid the troubles they feared from the peo- 
ple; the sanctuary was now become a refuge, 
and a shop of tyranny. They also mixed ‘est- 
ing among the miseries they introduced, which 
was more intolerable than what they did; for 
in order to try what surprise the people would 
be under, and how far their own power extend- 
ed, they undertook to dispose of the high priest- 
hood by casting lots for it, whereas, as we have 
said already, it was to descend by succession in 
a family. The pretence they made for this 
strange attempt was an ancient practice, while 
they said, that of old it was determined by lot; 
but in truth, it was no better than a dissolution 
of an undeniable law, and a cunning contri- 
vance to seize upon the government, derived 
from those that presumed to appoint governors 
as they themselves pleased. 

8. Hereupon they sent for one of the pomntifi- 
cal tribes, which is called Eniachim,* and cast 
lots which of it should be the high priest. By 
fortune the lot so fell as to demonstrate their in- 
iquity after the plainest manner, for it fell upon 
one whose name was Phannias, the son of Sa- 
muel, of the village Aptha. He was a man not 
only unworthy of the high priesthood, but that 
did not well know what the high priesthood 
was, such a mere rustic was he: yet did they 
hail this man, without his own consent, out of 
the country, asif they were acting a play upon 
the stage, and adorned him with a counterfwit 
face: they also put upon him the sacred gar 
ments, and upon every occasion instructed him 
what he wastodo. This horrid piece of wick 
edness was sport and pastime with them, buz 
occasioned the other priests, who, at a dista1use 
saw their law made a jest of, toshed tears, and 
sorely lament the dissolution of such a sacred 
dignity. 

9. And now the people could no longer bear 
the insolence of this procedure, but did al! to- 
gether run zealously in order to overthrow that 
tyranny: and indeed they were Gorion the son 
of Josephus, and Symeon} the son of Gama- 
liel, who encouraged them, by going up and 
down when they were assembled together im 
crow 1s, and us they saw thei alone, to bear ne 

* This tribe or course of the high priests, or priests here 
called Eniakim, seems to the learned Mr. Lowth, one well 
versed in Josephus, to be that 1 Chiron. xxiv. 12, the course 
of Jakim, where some copies have the course of Eliaktyng 
and I think this to be by no means an improbable eonjeo- 
This Symeon, the son of Gamaliel, 1s mentioned as the 
president of the Jewish sanhedrim, and one that perished ta 
the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Jewish rabbins, as Re- 
land observes on this place. He also tells us, that those 
rabbins mention one Jesus, the son of Gamala, as once & 
high priest, but this long before the destruction of Jerusalem, 
so thatif be were the same person with this Jesus, the som 


of Gamala, in Josephus, he must have lived to be very ald, 
or they have been very bad chronologers. 


616 WARS OF 


longer, kut to inflict punishment upon these 
pests and plagues of their freedom, and to purge 
the temple of these bloody polluters of it. The 
best esteemed also of the high priests, Jesus the 
son of Gamala, and Ananus, the son of Ananus, 
when they were at their assemblies, bitterly re- 
proached the people for their sloth, and excited 
them against the Zealots; for that was the name 
they went by, as if they were zealous in good 
undertakings, and were not rather zealous in 
the worst actions, and extravagant in them be- 
yond the example of others. 

10. And now, when the multitude were 
gotton tegether to an assembly, and every one 
was in indignation at these men’s seizing upon 
the sanctuary, at their rapine and murders, but 
had not yet begun their attacks upon them, 
(the reason of which was this, that they ima- 

ined it to be a difficult thing to suppress these 
G lots as indeed the case was,) Ananus stood 
in the midst of them, and casting his eyes fre- 
quently at the temple, and having a flood of 
tears in his eyes, he said, “Certainly it had been 
good for me to die before I had seen the house 
of God full of so many abominations, or these 
sacred places that ought not to be trodden upon 
at random, filled with the feet of these blood- 
shedding villains; yet do I, who am clothed 
with the vestments of the high priesthood, and 
am called by that most venerable name [of high 
priest,] still live, and am but too fond of living, 
aud cannot endure to undergo a death which 
would be the glory of my old age; and if I 
were the only person concerned, and as it were 
in a desert, I would give up my life, and that 
alone for God’s sake: for to what purpose is it 
to live among a people insensible of their cala- 
mities, and where there is no, notion remaining 
of any remedy for the miseries that are upon 
them? for when you are seized upon, you bear 
it, when your are beaten, you are silent, and 
when the people are murdered, nobody dares 
s0 much as send out a groan openly. O bitter 
tyranny that we are under! But why do I com- 
plain of the tyrants? Was it not you, aad 
your sufferance of them, that have nourished 
them?, Was it not you that overlooked those 
that first of all got together, for they were then 
but a few, and by your silence made them 
grow to be many, and by conniving at them 
when they took arms, in effect armed them 
against yourselves? You ought to have then 
prevented their first attempts, when they fellare- 
proaching your relations; but by neglecting that 
eare in time, you have encouraged these wretch- 
es to plunder men. When houses were pillag- 
ed, ngbody said a word, which was the ocea- 
gion why they carried off the owners of those 
houses, and when they were drawn through 
the midst of the city, nobody came to their as- 
Bistance. They then proceeded to put those 
whom you have betrayed into their hands into 
bonds; I do not say how many, and of what 
characters those men were whom they thus 
served, but certainly they were such as were 
accused by none, and condemned by none; and 
since nobody succored them when they were 
wut in bonds, the consequence was that you 


THE JEWS. 


* 


saw the same persons slain. We have seen 
this also; so that still the best of the herd of 
brute animals, as it were, have been still led te 
be sacrificed, when yet nobody said one word, 
or moved his right hand for their preservation, 
Will you bear, therefore, will you bear to see 
your sanctuary trampled on? and will you lay 
steps for these profane wretches, upon which | 
they may mount to higher degrees of insolence? 
Will you not pluck them down from their ex 
altation? for even by this time they had pro 
ceeded to higher enormities, if they had beew 
able to overthrow any thing greater than the 
sanctuary. They have seized upon the strong- 
est place of the whole city; you may call it the 
temple if you please, though it be like a cita- 
del or fortress. Now, while you have tyranny 
in so greata degree walled in, and see your 
enemies over your heads, to what purpose is it 
to take counsel? and what have you to support 
your minds withall? Perhaps you wait for the 
Romans, that they may protect our holy places: 
are our matters then brought to that pass, and 
are we come to that degree of misery, that 
our enemies themselves are expected to pity us? 
O wretched creatures! will not you rise up, 
and turn upon those that strike you? which 
you may observe in wild beasts themselves, 
that they will avenge themselves on those that 
strike them. - Will you not call to mind, every 
one of you, the calamities you yourselves have 
suffered? nor lay before your eyes what afilie- 
tions you yourselves have undergone? and wil] 
not such things sharpen your souls to revenge? 
Is therefore that most honorable and most na- 
tural of our passions utterly lost, ] mean the 
desire of liberty? Truly we are in love with 
slavery, and in love with those that lord it over 
us, as if we had received that principle of sub- 
jection from our ancestors; yet did they under- 
go many and great wars for the sake of liberty; 
nor were they so far overcome by the power 
of the Egyptians or the Medes, but that still they 
did what they thought fit, notwithstanding their 
commands to the contrary. And what occa- 
sion is their now for a war with the Romans? 
(I meddle not with determining whether it be 
an advantageous and profitable war or nots) 
What pretence isthere for it? Is it not that we 
may enjoy our liberty? Besides, shall we not 
bear the lords of the habitable earth to be lords 
over us, and yet bear tyrants of our own coun- 
try? Although I must say that submission to 
foreigners may be borne, because fortune hathL 
already doomed us to it, while submission te 
wicked people of our own nation is too unman~: 
ly, and brought upon us by our own consent 
However, since I have had occasion to mentior 
the Romans, I will not conceal a thing, that, as 
I ain speaking, comes into my mind, and affects 
me considerably; it is this, that though we 
should be taken by them, (God forbid the event 
should be so,) yet we can undergo nothing that 
will be harder to be borne than what these men 
have already brought upon us. How then can 
we avoid shedding of tears, when we see the 


Roman donations in our temple, while we with- 


all see those of our own nation taking "q 


{7 


P) BOOK IV.—CHAPTER Itt. 


soils, and plundering our glorious metropolis, | they had done, since they would not yield, as 


and slaughtering our men, from which enor- 
-mities these Romans themselves would have 


abstained? To see those Romans never going | 


| beyond the bounds allotted to profane persons, 
_ nor ventyring to break in upon any of our sa- 
ered customs, nay, having a horror ou their 





617 


not so much as noping for pardon at the last 
for those their enormities. However, Ananus 
resolved to undergo whatever suffering might 
come upon him, rather than overlook things, 
now they were in such great confusion. So the 
multitude cried out to him, to lead them on 


minds when they view at a distance those sa- | against those whom he had deseribed in his 
ered walls; while some that have been born in | exhortation to them, and every one of them 


this very country, and brought up in our cus- 
_toms, and called Jews, do walk about in the 
pidst of the holy places, at the very time when 


their hands are still warm with the slaughter of 


their own countrymen. Besides, can any one 
he afraid of a war abroad, and that with such 
as will have comparatively much greater mo- 
deration than our own people have? For truly, 
if we may suit our words to the things they re- 
present, it is probable one may hereafter find the 
_ Romans to be the supporters of our laws. and 
those within ourselves the subverters of them. 


-Aml now I am persuaded that every one of 


_ you here comes satisfied, before I speak, that 
these overthrowers of our liberties deserve to 
be destroyed, and that nobody can so much as 
devise a punishment that they have not deserv- 
ed oy what they have done, and that you are 
all provoked against them by those their wick- 
el actions, whence you have suffered so greatly. 
But perhaps many of you are affrighted at the 
multitude of those Zealots, and at their auda- 
cjousness, as well as at the advantage they have 
vec us in their being higher in place than we 
tre; for these circumstances, as they have been 
vecasioned by your negligence, so will they be- 
tome still greater by being still longer neglect- 
ed; for their multitude is every day augmented, 
by every ill man’s running away to those that 
are like to themselves, and their audaciousness 
is therefore inflamed because they meet with 
ho obstruction to their designs. And for their 
higher place, they will make use of it for en- 
fines also, if we give them time to do so; but 
ve assured of this, that if we get up to figut 
them, they will be made tamer by their own 
consciences; aud what advantages they have 
in the height of their situation, they will lose 
by the opposition of their reason; perhaps also 
God himself who hath been affronted by them, 
will make what they throw at us return against 
themselves, and these impious wretches will be 
killed by their own darts; let us but make our 
xppearance before them, and they will come to 
nothing. However, it is a right thing, if there 
should be uny danger in the attempt, to die be- 
fore these holy yates, and to spend our very 
fives, if not for the sake of our children and 
Wives, yet for God’s sake, and for the sake of his 
sanctuary. [ wil! assist you both with iny coun- 


sel and with my hand; nor shall any sagacity of 


ours be wanting for your support nor shall you 
see that | wil be sparing of my body neither.” 

11. By these motives Ananus encouraged 
re multitude to go against the Zealots, although 
te knew how difficult it would be to disperse 
them, because of their multitude, and their 
youth, and the courage of their souls, but 
rhiefly because of their consciousness of what 

78 


was most readily disposed to run any hazard 
whatsoever on that account. 

12, Now while Ananus was choosing out 
his n-en, and putting those that were proper 
for his purpose in array for fighting, the Zealots 
got information of his undertaking, (for thera 
were some who went to them, and told them 
all that the people were doing,) and were irri- 
tated at it, and leaping out of the temple in 
crowds, and by purties, spared none whom 
they met with. Upon this Ananus got the po- 
pulace together on the sudden, who were more 
numerous indeed than the Zealots, but inferior 
to them in artns, because they had not been re- 
gularly put into array for fighting, but the ala- 
crity that every body showed supplied all their 
defects on both sides, the citizens taking up so 
great a passion as was stronger than arms, and 
deriving a degree of courage from the temple, 
nore foreible than any multitude whatsoever: 
and indeed these citizens thought it was not 
possible for them to dwell in the city, unless 
they could cut off the robbers that were in it 
The Zealots also thought that unless they pre 
vailed, there would be no punishment so bad. 
but it would be inflicted on them. So their 
conflicts were conducted by their passions, and 
at the first they only cast stones at each other 
in the city, and before the temple, and threw 
their javelins at a distance; but when either of 
them were too hard for the other, they made 
use of their swords; and great slaughter waa 
made on both sides, and a great number were 
wounded. As for the dead bodies of the peo- 
ple, their relations carried them out to their own 
houses; but when any of the Zealots were 
wounded, he went up into the temple, and de- 
filed that sacred floor with his blood, insomuch 
that one may say it was their blood alone that 
polluted our sanctuary. Now in these con 
flicts the robbers always sallied out of the tem 
ple, and were too hard for their enemies; but 
the populace grew very angry, and became 
more and more numerous, and reproached thase 
that gave back, and those behind would no 
afford room to those that were going off, put 
forced them on again, till at length they made 
their whole body to turn against their sdverse- 
ries, and the robbers could no longer oppose 
them, but were forced gradually .o retire inte 
the temple; when Ananus* and his party fell 


* Tt is worth noting here, that this Ananas, the best of the 
Jews at this time, and the high priesi, who was so very um 
casy at the profanation of the Jewish courts of the temple by 
the Zealots, did not, however, scruple the profanation of the 
court of the Gentiles, asin our Savior’s days it was very 
much profaned by the Jews, and mide a market-place, nay, 
a den of thieves, without scruple, Matt. xxi. 12, 13; Mark xi. 
15—17. Accordingly Josephus himself, when he speaks of 
the two inner courts, calls them both «> « or holy places, but 
so far as | remember, he never gives that character to the 
court of the Gentiles; see b. v ch. ix. sect. 2 


618 


into it at the same time together with them. 
This horribly affrighted the robbers, because it 
deprived then of the first court; so they fled 
into the inner court immediately, and shut the 
gates. Now Ananus did not think fit to make 
any attack against the holy gates, although the 
other threw their stones and darts at them from 
above. He also deemed it unlawful to intro- 
duce the multitude into that court before they 
were purified, he therefore chose out of them 
ail by lot six thousand armed men, and placed 
them as guards in the cloisters: so there was a 
succession of such guards one after another, 
and every one was forced to attend in his course; 
although many of the chief of the city were 
dismissed by those that then took on them the 
government, upon their hiring some of the 
poorer sort, an sending them to keep the guard 
in their stead. 

13. Now it was John who, as we told you, 
ran away from Gischala, that was the occasion 
of all these being destroyed. He was a man 
of great craft, and bore about him in his soul 
a strong passion after tyranny, and at a distance 
was the adviser in these actions; and indeed 
at this-time he pretended to be of the people’s 
opinion, and went all about with Ananus, when 
he consulted the great men every day, and in 
the night time also when he went reund the 
watch; but he divulged their secrets to the Zeal- 
ots, and every thing that the people deliberated 
about was by his means known to their enemies, 
even before it had been well agreed upon by 
themselves. And by way of contrivance how 
he might not be brought into suspicion, he 
cultivated the greatest friendship possible with 
Ananus, and with the chiefs of the people; 

et did this overdoing of_ his, turn against 
hit. for he flattered them so extravagantly, that 
he was but the more suspected; and his con- 
stant attendance everywhere, even when he 
was not invited to be present, made him strong- 
ly suspected of betraying their secrets to the 
enemy; for they plainly perceived that they un- 
derstood all the resolutions taken against them 
at their consultations. Nor was there any one 
whom they had so much reason to suspect of 
that discovery as this John; yet was it not easy 
to get quit of him, so potent was he grown by 
his wicked practices. He was also supported 
by many of those eminent men, who were to 
be consulted upon all considerable affairs; it 
was therefore thought reasonable to oblige him 
to give them assurance of his good will upon 
oath: accordingly, John took such an oath 
readily, that he would be on the people’s side, 
and would not betray any of their counsels or 
practices to their enemies, and would assist 
them in overthrowing those that attacked them, 
and that both by his hand and his advice. So 
Ananus and his party believed his oath, and 
did now receive him to their consultations 
without further suspicion; nay, so far did they 
believe him, that they sent him as their am- 
bassador into the temple, to the Zealots, with 
proposals of accomiodation; for they were 
very desirous te avoid the pollution of the 
temple as much as they possibly could, and 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


8 
“> 
snould te alain 


-_ 


that no one of their nation 
therein. 

14. But now this John, as if his oath had 
been made to the Zealots, and for confirmation 
of his good will to them, and not against them, 
went into the temple, and stood in the» midst of 
them, and spoke as follows: that “he had rin 


many hazards on their account, and in order te 


let them know of every thing that was secretly 


contrived against them by Ananus and his par 
ty; but that both he and they should be cast 
into the most imminent danger, unless some 
providential assistance were afforded them; for 
that Ananus nmae no longer delay but aad 
prevailed with the people to send ambassadors 
to Vespasian, to invite him to come presently 
and take the city; and that he had appointed a 
fast for the next day against them, that they 
might obtain admission into the temple ona 
religious account, or gain it by force, and fight 
with them there; that he did not see how long 
they could either endure a siege,or how they 
could fight against so many enemies.” He add- 
ed farther, “that it was by the providence of 
God he was himself sent an ambassador to them 
for an accommodation: for that Ananus did 
therefore offer them such proposals, that he 
might come upon them when they were unarm- 
ed: that they ought to choose one of these two 
methods, either to intercede with those that 
guarded them, to save their lives, or to provide 
some foreign assistance for themselves: that if 
they fostered themselves with the hopes of par 
don, in case they were subdued, they had for 
gotten what desperate things they had done, or 
could suppose, that as soon as the actors repent- 
ed, those that had suffered by them must be 
presently reconciled to then: while those that 
have done injuries, though they pretend to re- 
pent of them, are frequently hated by the 
others for that sort of repentance; and that the 
sufferers, when they get the power ‘nto their 
hands, are usually still more severe upon the 
actors; that the friends and kindred of those 
that had been destroyed would always be lay- 
ing plots against them; and that a large body 
of people were very angry on account of then 
gross breaches of their laws, and [illegal] 
judicatures, insomuch, that although some part 
might commiserate them, those would be quite 
overborne by the majority.” | 


CHAPTER IV. 


The Idumeans, being sent for by the Zealots 
came unmediately to Jerusalem; and when th 
were excluded out of the city, they lay all nig 
there. Jesus one of the high priests, makes @ 
speech to them; and Simon, the Idumean, makes 
a reply to tt. 7 
§ 1. Now by this crafty speech John made 

the Zealots afraid; yet he durst not directly name 

what foreign assistance he meant, but in a co- 
vert way only intimated at the Idumeans. But 
now that he might particularly irritate the lead- 
ers of the Zealots, he calumniated Ananus, that 
he was about a piece of barbarity, and did, ing 
special manner, threaten them. 'These leaders 
were Eleazar, the son of Simon, who seem a 


7 
‘ 


_ the most plausible man of them all, both in 
considering what was fit to be done, and in the 
_ execution of what he had cetermined upon, 
, and Zacharias, the son of Phalek, both of whom 
_ derived their families from the priests. Now 
_ when these two men had heard not only the 
_ common threatenings which belonged to them 
all, but those peculiarly levelled against them- 
_ selves, and, besides, how Ananus and his party, 
_“n order to secure their own dominion, had in- 
_wited the Romans to come to them, for that also 
. was part of John’s lie, they hesitated a great 
_ while what they should do, considering the 
_ shortness of the time by which they were strait- 
. ened; because the people were prepared to at- 
_ tack them very soon, and because the sudden- 
ness of the plot laid against them had almost 
cut off all their hopes of getting any foreign 
assistance; for they might be under the height 
_of their afflictions before any of their confede- 
rates could be informed of it. However, it was 
resolved to call in the Idumeans; so they wrote 
‘ashort letter to this effect, that “Ananus had 
imposed on the people, and was betraying their 
metropolis to the Romans; that they themselves 
had revolted from the rest, and were in custody 
in the temple, on account of the preservation 
of their liberty; that there was but a small 
time left wherein they might hope for their de- 
liverance; and that unless they would come 
immediately to their assistance, they should 
themselves be soon in the power of Ananus, 
and the city would be in the power of the Ro- 
‘mans.” ‘They also charged the messengers to 
tell many more circumstances to the rulers of 
the Idumeans. Now there were two active 
men proposed for the carrying this message, 
and such as were well able to speak, and to 
persuade them that things were in this posture; 
and what was a qualification still more neces- 
sary than the former, they were very swift of 
foot; for they knew well enough that these 
would immediately comply with their desires, 
as being ever a tumultuous and disorderly na- 
tion, always on the watch upon every motion, 
delighting in mutations; and upon your flatter- 
ing them ever so little, and petitioning them, 
they soon take their arms, and put themselves 
into motion, and make haste to a battle, as if it 
were to a feast. ‘There was, indeed, occasion 
for quick despatch in the carrying of this mes- 
sage, in which point the messengers were no 
way defective. Both their names were Anani- 
as; and they soon came to the rulers of the Idu- 
means, 

2. Now these rulers were greatly surprised at 
he contents of the letter, and at what those 
hat came with it further told them; where- 
@pon they ran about the nation like madmen, 
and made proclamation that the people should 
come to war; so a multitude was suddenly got 
together, sooner indeed than the time appoint- 
ed in the proclamation, and every body caught 

| 2” their arms, in order tu maintain the liberty 
their metropolis; and twenty thousand of 
them were put into battle array, and came to 
Jerusalem, under four commanders, John and 
Jacob the sons of Sosas; and besides these 





4 


L 3 BOOK IV.- CHAPTER 1V 


618 


were Simon the son of Cathlas, and Phineas the 
son of Clusothus. 

3. Now this exit of the messengers was not 
known either to Ananus, or to the guards, but 
the approach of the Idumeans was known to 
him; for as he knew of it before they came, he 
ordered the gates to be shut against them, and 
that the walls should be guarded. Yet did not 
he by any means think of fighting against them, 
but before they came to blows, to try what per- 
suasions would do. Accordingly, Jesus, the 
eldest of the high priests next to Ananus, stood 
upon the tower that was over against them, 
and said thus, “Many troubles indeed, and those 
of various kinds, have fallen upon this city, 
yet in none of them have I so much wondered 
at her fortune as now, when you have come te 
assist wicked men, and this after a manner very 
extraordinary; for I see that you are come to 
support the vilest men against us, and this with 
so great alacrity, as you could hardly put on 
the like, in case our metropolis had called you 
to her assistance against barbarians. And if I 
had perceived that your army was composed 
of men like unto those who invited them, I had 
not deemed your attemptso absurd. For noth- 
ing does so much cement the minds of men to- 
gether as the alliance there is between their 
manners. But now for these men who have 
invited you, if you were to examine them one 
by one, every one of them would be found to 
have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the very 
rascality and offscouring of the whole country, 
who have spent in debauchery their own sub- 
stance, and, by way of trial beforehand, have 
madly plundered the neighboring villages and 
cities, in the upshot of all have privately run 
together into this holy city. They are robbers, 
who by their prodigious wickedness have pro- 
faned this most sacred floor, and who are to be 
now seen drinking themselves drunk in the 
sanctuary, and expending the spoils of those 
whom they have slaughtered upon their unsa- 
tiable bellies. As for the multitude that is with 
you, one may see them so decently adorned in 
their armor, as it would become them to be, had 
their metropolis called them to her assistance 
against foreigners. What can a man call this 
procedure of yours, but the sport of fortune, 
when he sees a whole nation coming to protect 
a sink of wicked wretches? I have for a good 
while been in doubt what it could possibly be 
that should move you tc do this so suddenly; 
because certainly you would not take on your 
armor on behalf of robbers, and against a peo- 
ple of kin to you, without some very great 
cause for your so doing. But we have an item 
that the Romans are pretended, and that we 
are supposed to be going to betray the city te 
them; for some of your men have lately made 
a clamor about those matters, and have said 
they are come to set their metropolis free. 
Now, we cannot but admire at these wretches 
in their devising such a lie as this against us; 
for they knew there was no other way to irri- 
tate against us men that were naturally desirous 
of liberty, and on that account the best dis- 
posed to fight against foreign enemies, but by 


620 
framing a tale as if we were going to betray 
that most desirable thing, liberty. But you 
ought to consider what sort of people they are 
that raise this calumny, and against what sort of 
people that calumny is raised, and to gather the 
truth of things, not by fictitious speeches, but 
out of the actions of both parties; for what oc- 
casion is there for us to sell ourselves to the 
Romans; while it was in our power not to have 
revolted from them at first, or, when we had 
once rey sited, to have returned under their do- 


minion again; and this while the neighboring: 


countries were not yet laid waste? whereas, it 
is not an easy thing to be reconciled to the Ro- 
mans, if we were desirous of it, now they have 
subdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud 
and insolent; and to endeavor to please them 
at the time when they are so near us, would 
bring such a reproach upon us as were 
worse than death. As for myself indeed, I 
should have preferred peace with them before 
death; but now we have once made war upon 
them, and fought with them, I prefer death 
with reputation, before living in captivity under 
them. But farther whether do they pretend that 
we, who are the rulers of the people, have sent 
thus privately to the Romans, or hath it been 
done by the common suffrages of the people? 
If it be ourselves only that have done it, let 
ihem name those friends of ours that have been 
sent, as our servants, to manage this treachery. 
Hath any one been caught as he went out on 
this errand, or seized upon as he came back? 
4re they in possession of our letters? How 
could he be concealed from such a vast num- 
ver of our fellow-citizens, among whom we are 
conversant every hour, while what is done pri- 
rately in the country, is, it seems, known by the 
Zealots, who are but few in number, and under 
confinement also, and are not able to come out 
of the temple into the city. Is this the first 
{une that they are become sensible how they 
vught to be punished for their insolent actions? 
Kor while these men were free from the fear 
they are now under, there was no suspicion 
raised that any of us were traitors. But if they 
lay this charge against the people, this must 
have been done ata public consultation, and 
aot one of the people must have dissented 
from the rest of the assembly; in which case 
the public fame of this matter would have 
come to you sooner than any particular indica- 
tion. But how could that be? Must there not 
then have been ambassadors sent to confirm 
the agreements? And let them tell us who this 
ambassador was, that was ordained for that pur- 
NOEC. 
sé. men as are loth to die, and are laboring to 
escape those punishments that hang over them: 
for if fate had determined that this city was to 
be betrayed into its enemies’ hands, no other 
than these men that accuse us falsely could 
bave the impudence to do it, there being no 
wickedness wanting to complete their impu- 
dent practices but this only, that they become 
_ traitors. And now you Idumeans are come 
hither already with your arms; it is your duty, 


wn the first place, to be assisting to your metro- | and in case anv thing that we have been a 


WARS OF THE JEWS. Z 


But this is no other than a pretence of 


















polis, and to joi with us m cutting off 
tyrants who have infringed the rules of our 
gular tribunals, that have trampled upon ou 
Jaws, and made their swords the arbitrators of 
right and wrong; for they have seized upop 
men of great eminence, and un er no accusa 
tion, as they stood in the midst cf the markets 
place, and tortured them with putting them inte | 
bonds, and, without bearing to hear what they 
had to say, or what supplications they made 
they destroyed them. You may, if you please 
come into the city, though not in the way of 
war, and take a view of the marks still remain- 
ing of what I now say, and may see the housm | 
that have been depopulated by their rapacious, 
hands, with those wives and families that are 
in black, mourning for their slaughtered rela-| 
tions; as also you may hear their groans and 
lamentations all the city over; for there is no- 
body but hath tasted of the incursicns of these’ 
profane wretches, who have proceeded to that 
degree of madness, as not only to have trans: 
ferred their impudent robberies out of the: 
country, and the remote cities, into this city, 
the very face and head of the whole nation, 
but out of the city into the temple also; for that 
is now made their receptacle and refuge, and. 
the fountain-head, whence their preparations. 
are made against us. And this place, which is 
adored by the habitable world, and honored by | 
such as only know it by report, as far as the 
ends of the earth, is trampled upon by these 
wild beasts born among ourselves. They now 
triumph in the desperate condition they are al- 
ready in, when they hear that one people is go-_ 
ing to fight against another people, and one | 
against another city, and that your nation hat | 
gotten an army together against its own bowels, 
Instead of which procedure, it were highly fit 
and reasonable, as I said before, for you to join. 
with us in cutting off these wretches, and in 
particular to be revenged on them for putting: 
this very cheat upon you: I mean, for hava 
as 





the impudence to invite you to assist them, 
whom they ought to have stood in fear, 
ready to punish them. But if you have some 
regard to these men’s invitation of you, yet may 
you lay aside your arms, and come into the city 
under the notion of our kindred, and take 
upon you a middle name between that of auxi- 
liaries and of enemies, and so become judges 
in this case. However, consider what these 
men will gain by being called into judgment be- | 
fore you, for such undeniable and such flagrant 
crimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such 
as had no accusations laid against them to sp on k 
a word for themselves, However, let them 
gain this advantage by yourcoming. But still, 
if you will neither take our part in that indig 
nation we have at these men, nor judge be’ 
tween us, the third thing I] have to propose is 
this, that you let us both alone, and neither it 
sult upon our calamities nor abide with these 
plotters against their metropolis: for though yot 

should have ever so great asuspicion that some’ 
of us have discoursed with the Romans, it isi! 
your power to watch the passages into the city: 



















BOOK IV.—CHAPTER IV. 


 eused of is brought to light, then to come, and 
* defend your metropolis, and to inflict punish- 
ment on those that are found guilty; for the 
enemy cannot prevent you who are so near to 
) thecity. But if, after all, none of these proposals 
seem acceptable and moderate, do not you won- 
\ der that the gates are shut against you, while 
) you bear your arms about you.” 
4, Thus spoke Jesus, yet did not the multi- 
) tude of the [dumeans give any attention to 
’ what he said, but were in a rage, because they 
did not meet with a ready entrance into the city. 
' ‘The generals also had indignation at the offer 
of laying down their arms, and looked upon it 
| as equal to a captivity, to throw them away at 
‘ any man’s injunction whomsoever. But Simon 
* the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders, 
' with much ado quieted the tumult of his own 
men, and stood so that the high priests might 
hear him, and said as follows: “I can no longer 
’ wonder that the patrons of liberty are under 
custody in the temple, since there are those 
' that shut the gates of our common city to their 
own nation, and at the same time are prepared 
to admit the Romans into it; nay, perhaps are 
_ disposed to crown the gates with garlands at 
' their coming, while they speak to the Idumeans 
_ from their own towers, and enjoin them to 
_ throw down their arms, which they have taken 
up for the preservation of its liberty.* And 
while they will not intrust the guard of our 
metropolis to their kindred, profess to make 
them judges of the differences thatare among 
them; nay, while they accuse some men of 
having slain others without a legal trial, they do 
themselves condemn a whole nation after an 
ignominious manner; and have now walled up 
that city from their own nation, which used to 
be open to even all foreigners that came to 
worship there. We have indeed come in great 
haste to you, and toa war against our own 
countrymen; and the reason why we have made 
such haste is this, that we may preserve that 
freedom which you are so unhappy as to be- 
tray. You have probably been guilty of the 
like crimes against those whom you keep in 
custody, and have, I suppose, collected together 
the like plausible pretences against them also, 
that you make use of against us: after which 
you have gotten the mastery of those within 
the temple, and keep them in custody, while 
they are only taking care of the public affairs. 
You have also shut the gates of the city in 
Tate against nations that are the most near- 
y reiated to you: and while you give such in- 
jurious commands to others, you complain that 
dy have been tyrannized over by them, and 
x the name of unjust governors upon such as 
are tyrannized over by yourselves. Who can 
bear this your abuse of words, while they have 
a regard to the contrariety of your actions un- 
‘less you mean this, that those [dumeans do 
now exclude you out of your metropolis, 
whom you exclude from the sacred offices of 


_ * This appellation of Jerusalem, given it here by Simon, 
the gene’al of the Idumeans, the common city of the Idu- 
jacans, who were proselytes of justice, as well as of the 
original native Jews, greatly confirms that maxim of the rab- 

bins, here set down by Reland, that Jerusalem was not as- 


621 


your own country One may indeed justly 
complain of those ti « are besieged in the tem- 
ple, that when they had courage enough to 
punish those tyrants which you call eminent 
men, and free from any accusations, because of 
their being your companions in wickedness, 
they did not begin with you, and thereby cut 
off beforehand the most dangerous parts of 
thistreason. But if these men have been more 
merciful than the public necessity required, we 
that are Idumeans will preserve this house of 
God, and will fight for our common country 
and will oppose by war as well those that at- 
tack them from abroad, as those that betray 
them from within. Here will we abide before 
the walls in our armor, until either the Romans 
grow weary in waiting for you, or you become 
friends to liberty, and repent of what you have 
done against it.” 

3. And now did the Idumeans make an ac- 
clamation to what Simon had said; but Jesus 
went away sorrowful, as seeing that the Idu- 
means were against all moderate counsels, and 
that the city was besieged on both sides. Nor 
indeed were the minds of the Idumeans at rest, 
for they were in a rage at the injury that had 
been offered them by their exclusion out of the 
city; and when they thought the Zealots had 
been strong, but saw nothing of theirs to sup- 
port them, they were in doubt about the matter, 
and many of them repented that they had come 
thither. But the shame that would atten 
them in case they returned without doing anv 
thing at all, so far overcome that their repent- 
ance, that they lay all night before the wall, 
though ina very bad encampment; for there 
broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with 
the utmost violence, and very strong winds, 
with the largest showers of rain, with continued 
lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing 
concussions and bellowings of the earth, that 
was in an earthquake. These things were a 
manifest indication that some destruction was 
coming upon men, when the system of the 
world was put into this disorder, and any one 
would guess that these wonders foreshowed 
some grand calamities that were coming. | 

9. Now the opinion of the Idumeans and of 
the citizens was one and the same. The Idu- 
means thought that God was angry at their 
taking arms, and that they would not escape 
punishment for their making war upon their 
metropolis. Ananus and his party thought they 
had conquered without fighting, and that God 
acted as a general for them; but truly they prov- 
ed both ill conjecturers at what was to come, 
and made those events to be ominous to thaw 
enemies, while they were themselves to under- 
go the ill effects of them; for the Idumeans 
fenced one another by uniting their bodies inte 
one band, and thereby kept themselves warm, 
and connecting their shields over their heads, 
were not so much hurt by the rain. But the 
Zealots were more deeply concerned for the 


signed or appropriated to the tribe of Benjamin or Judah, 
but every tribe had equal right to 1 [at their coming to wor- 
ship there at the several festivals;] see a litt‘le before, ch. 
iii. sect. 3, 


622 


danger these men were in than they were for 
themselves, and got together, and looked about 
them to see whether they could devise any 
means of assisting them. The hotter sort of 
them thought it best to force their guards with 
their arms, and after that to fall into the midst 
of the city, and publicly open the gates to those 
that came to their assistance; as supposing the 
guards would be in disorder, and give way at 
sucly an unexpected attempt of theirs, espe- 
cially as the greater part of them were unarm- 
ed and unskilled inthe affairs of war; and that 
besides, the multitude of the citizens would not 
be easily gathered together, but confined to 
their houses by the storm; and that if there 
were any hazard in their undertaking, it be- 
came them to suffer any thing whatsoever them- 
selves, rather than to overlook so great a multi- 
tude as were miserably perishing on their ac- 
count. But the more prudent part of them 
disapproved of this forcible method, because 
they saw not only the guards about them very 
numerous, but the walls of the city itself care- 
fully watched by reason of the Idumeans. 
They also supposed that Ananus would be 
everywhere, and visit the guards every hour; 
which indeed was done upon other nights, but 
was omitted that night, not by reason of any 
slothfulness of Ananus, but by the overbearing 
appointment of fate, that so both he might him- 
self perish, and the multitude of the guards 
might perish with him; for truly as the night 
was far gone, and the storm was very terrible, 
Ananus gave the guards in the cloisters leave 
to go to sleep; while it came into the heads of 
the Zealots to make use of the saws belonging 
to the temple, and to cut the bars of the gates 
to pieces. The noise of the wind, and that not 
inferior sound of the thunders, did here also 
conspire with their designs, that the noise of 
the saws was not heard by the others. 

7. So they secretly went out of the temple 
to the wall of the city, and made use of their 
saws, and opened that gate which was over 
against the Idumeans. Now at first there came 
a fear upon the Idumeans themselves, which 
disturbed them, as imagining that Ananus and 
his party were coming to attack thein, so that 
every one of them had his right hand upon his 
sword, in order to defend himself; but they soon 
came to know who they were that came to them, 
and were entered the city. And had the Idu- 
means then fallen upon the city, nothing could 
have hindered them from destroying the peo- 
ple every man of them, such was the rage they 
were in at that time; but they first of all made 
haste-+to get the Zealots out of custody, which 
those that brought them in earnestly desired 
them to do, and not to overlook those for whose 
wakes they were come, in the midst of their 
distresses, nor to bring them into a still greater 
danger; for that when they had once seized 
upon the guards, it would be easy for them to 
fall upon the city; but that if the city were 
once alarmed, they would not then be able to 
overcome those guards, because as soon as 
they should perceive they were there, they 
would put themselves in order to fight them, 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


and would hinder their coming mto 
temple. | 






CHAPTER V. 


The cruelty of the Idumeans, when they were got- 
ten into the temple, during the storm; and ofthe 
Zealots. Concerning the slaughter of Ananus, 
and Jesus, and Zacharias. ‘ind how the Idu- 
means retired home. ‘| 


§ 1. This advice pleased the Idumeans; and | 
they ascended through the city to the temple, 
The Zealots were also in great expectation of 
their coming, and earnestly waited for them, 
When, therefore, these were entering, they also 
came boldly out of the inner temple, and mix- 
ing themselves with the Idumeans, they attack- — 
ed the guards; and some of those that were 
upon the watch, but were fallen asleep, they 
killed as they were asleep; but as those that 
were now awakened made a cry, the whole 
multitude arose, and in the amazement they — 
were in, caught hold of their arms immediately, 
and betook themselves to their own defence; 
and so long as they thought they were only 
the Zealots who attacked them they went on 
boldly, as hoping to overpower them by their 
numbers; but when they saw others pressing in 
upon them also, they perceived the Idumeans 
were got in; and the greatest part of them laid 
aside their arms, together with their courage — 
and betook themselves to lamentations. But 
some few of the younger sort covered them- 
selves with their armor, and valiantly received 
the Idumeans, and for a while protected the 
multitude of old men. Others, indeed, gave a 
signal to those that were in the city of the cala- 
mities they were in; but when these were also 
made sensible that the Idumeans were come in, 
none of them durst come to their assistance, 
only they returned the terrible echo of wailing, 
and lamented their misfortunes. A great howl- 
ing of the women was excited also, and every 
one of the guards were in danger of being kill-_ 
ed. The Zealots also joined in the shouts raised 
by the Idumeans; and the storm itself render- 
ed the cry more terrible; nor did the Idumeans 


spare any body, for as they are naturally a 


most barbarous and bloody nation, and had 
been distressed by the tempest, they made use 
of their weapons against those that had shut 


the gates against them, and acted in the same — 
manner as to those that supplicated for their . 


lives, and to those that fought them, insomuch — 


that they ran through those with their swords _ 


who desired them to remember the relation | 


there was between them, and begged of them” 
to have regard to their common temple. Now 


; 
‘ 


there was at present neither any place for flight, . 


nor any hope of preservation, but as they were _ 


driven one upon another in heaps, so were they 
slain. Thus the greater part were driven te— 
gether by force, as there was now no place of © 
retirement, and the murderers were upon them, 
and having no other way, threw themselves 
down headlong into the city; whereby, in my 
opinion, they underwent a more miserable des — 
truction than that which they avoided. because 
that was a voluntary one. And now the outer 










f 
; 
é 


CS 





temple was all of it overflowed with blood; and 
‘that day, as it came on, saw eight thousand five 
hundred dead bodies there. 
_ 2, But the rage of the Idumeans was not 
satiated by these slaughters; but they now be- 
took themselves to the city, and plundered 
‘every house, and slew every one they met; and 
for the other multitude, they esteemed it need- 
less to go on with killing them; but they sought 
for the high priests, and the generality went 
‘with the greatest zeal against them; and as 
soon as they caught them they slew them; and 
then standing upon their dead bodies, in way 
of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to 
the people, and Jesus with his speech made to 
them from the wall. Nay, they proceeded to 
that degree of impiety, as to cast away their 
dead bodies without burial, although the Jews 
used to take so much care of the burial of men, 
that they took down those that were condemn- 
ed and crucified. and buried them before the go- 
ing down of the sun. [should not mistake if 
I said, that the death of Ananus was the begin- 
ning of the destruction of the city, and that 
from this very day may be dated the overthrow 
of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, where- 
on they saw their high priest, and the procurer 
of their preservation, slain in the midst of their 
city. He was on other accounts also a venera- 
ble and a very just man; and besides the gran- 
deur of that nobility, and dignity, and honor; 
of which he was possessed, he had been a lover 
of a kind of parity, even with regard to the 
meanest of the people; he was a prodigious 
lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy 
in government, and did ever prefer the public 
welfare before his own advantage, and prefer- 
red peace above all things; for he was thorough- 
ly sensible that the Romans were not to be con- 
quered. He also foresaw that of necessity a war 
would follow, and that unless the Jews made 
up matters with them very dexterously, they 
would be destroyed: to say all in a word, if 
Ananus had survived, they had certainly com- 
pounded matters; for he was a shrewd man in 
speaking and persuading the people, and had 
already gotten the mastery of those that op- 
posed his designs, or were for the war. And 
the Jews had then put abundance of delays in 
the way of the Romans, if they had had such 
a general as he was. Jesus was also joined 
with him, and although he was inferior to him 
upon the comparison, he was superior to the 
rest; and I cannot but think, that it was because 
Giod had doomed the city to destruction, as a 
polluted city, and was resolved to purge his 
ganctuary by fire, that he cut off these their 
great defenders and well-wishers, while those 
‘that a little before had worn the sacred gar- 
‘ments, and had presided over the public wor- 
ship,* and had been esteemed venerable by 
those that dwelt on the whole habitable earth 
‘when they came into our city, were cast out 
‘Waked, and seen to be the food of dogs and 
‘wild beasts. And I cannot but imagine that 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER V. 


2 Koouiny Opuoxssx, or wordly worship, as the author to 
the Hebre vs cal) the sanctuary wysov xocmixov, a worldly 


CB 


virtue itself groaned at these men’s cases, and 
lamented that she was here so terribly conquer 
ed by wickedness. And this at last was the 
end of Ananus and Jesus. 

3. Now, after these were slain, the Zealots 
and the multitude of the Idumeans fell upon 
the people as upon a flock of profane animals, 
and cut their throats; and for the ordinary sort, 
they were destroyed in what place soever they 
caught them. But for the noblemen and the 
youth, they first caught them and bound them 
and shut them up in prison, and put off their 
slaughter, in hopes that some of them would 
turn over to their party; but not one of them 
would comply with their desires, but all of 
them preferred death before being enrolled 
among such wicked wretches as acted against 
their own country. But this refusal of theirs 
brought upon them terrible torments; for they 
were so scourged and tortured, that their bodies 
were not able to sustain their torments, till at 
length, and with difficulty, they had the favor 
to be slain. Those whom they caught in the 
day-time were slain in the night, and then their 
bodies were carried out and thrown away, that 
there might be room for other prisoners; and 
the terror that was upon the people was so 
great, that no one had courage enough either to 
weep openly for the dead man that was related 
to him, or to bury him; but those that were 
shut up in their own houses could only shed 
tears in secret, and durst not even groan with- 
out great caution, lest any of their enemies 
should hear them; for if they did, those tha 
mourned for others soon underwent the same 
death with those whom they mourned for. 
Only in the night-time they would take up a 
little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and 
even some that were the most ready to expose 
themselves to danger would do it in the day- 
time; and there were twelve thousand of the 
better sort who perished in this manner. 

4, And now these Zealots and Idumeans were 
quite weary of barely killing men, so they had 
the impudence of setting up fictitious tribunals, 
and judicatures for that purpose; and as they 
intended to have Zacharias,* the son of Baruch, 
one of the most eminent of the citizens, slain, 
so, what provoked them against him was, that 

* Some commentators are ready to suppose, that this Zach 
arias the son of Baruch, here most unjustly slain by the Jews 
in the temple, was the very same person with Zacharias the 
son of Barachias whom our Savior says the Jews slew be- 
tween the temple and the altar, Matt. xxiii. 35. This is a some- 
what strange exposition: since Zechariah the prophet was 
really the son of Barachia and grandson of Iddo, Zech. i. 1, 
and how he died, we have no other account than that be- 
fore us in St. Matthew; while this Zacharias was the son of 
Baruch; since the slaughter was past when our Savior spoke 
those words, the Jews had then already slain him; whereas 
the slaughter of Zacharias the son of Baruch, in Josephus, was 
then about thirty-four years future; and since that slaughtez 
was between the temple and the altar, in the court of the 
priests, one of the most sacred and remote parts of the 
whole temple, while this was in Josephus’s own words, in 
the middle of the temple, and much the most probable in 
the court of Israel only (for we have had no intimation that 
the Zealots had at this time profaned the court of the priests, 
see b. v. ch. i. sect. 2.) Nor do I believe that our Josephus, 
who always insists on the peculiar sacredness of that inmost 
court, and of the holy house that was in it, would have omitted 
so material an aggravation of this barbarous murder, as perpe- 
trated in a place so very holy, had that been the true place 


of it; see Antiq. b. x:. ch. vii. sect. 1, and the note here on 
b. v. ch. i. sect. 2. 


a4 


hatred of wickedness and love of liberty which 
were so eminent in him: he was also a rich 
man, so that by taking him off, they did not 
only hope to seize his effects, but also to get rid 
of a man that had great power to destroy them. 
So they called together, by a public proclama- 
tion, seventy of the principal men of the popu- 
lace, for a show, as if they were real judges, 
while they had no proper authority. Before 
these was Zacharias accused of a design to be- 
tray their polity to the Romans, and of having 
traitorously sent to Vespasian for that purpose. 
Now there appeared no proof or sign of what 
he was accused of, but they affirmed themselves 
that they were well persuaded that so it was, 
and desired that such their affirmation might 
be taken for sufficient evidence. Now when 
Zacharias clearly saw that there was no way 
remaining for his escape from them, as having 
been treacherously called before them, and then 
put in prison, but not with any intention of a le- 
gal trial, he took great liberty of speech in that 
despair of life he was under. Accordingly he 
stood up, and laughed at their pretended accu- 
sation, and in a few words confuted the crimes 
laid to his charge; after which he turned his 
speech to his accusers, and went over distinctly 
all their transgressions of the law, and made 
heavy lamentations upon the confusion they 
nad brought public affairs to; in the mean time 
the Zealots grew tumultuous, and had much 
ado to abstain from drawing their swords, al- 
though they designed to preserve the appear- 
ance and show of judicature tothe end. They 
were also desirous, on other accounts, to try 
the judges, whether they would be mindful of 
what was just at their own peril. Now the se- 
venty judges brought in their verdict, that the 
person accused was not guilty, as choosing 
rather to die themselves with him, that to have 
his death laid at their doors; hereupon there 
arose a great clamor of the Zealots upon his 
acquittal, and they all had indignation at the 
judges, for not understanding that the authority 
that was given them was but in jest. So two 
of the boldest of them fell upon Zacharias in 
the middle of the temple, and slew him; and as 
he fell down dead, they bantered him, and said, 
“Thou hast also our verdict, and this will prove 
& more sure acquittal to thee than the other.” 
They also threw him down from the temple 
immediately into the valley beneath it. More- 
over, they struck the judges with the backs of 
their swords, by way of abuse, and thrust them 
out of the court of the temple, and spared their 
lives with no other design than that, when they 
were dispersed among the people in the city, 
they might become their messengers, to let them 
know they were no better than slaves. 

5, But by this time the [dumeans repented 
of their coming, and were displeased at what 
had been done; and when they were assembled 
together by one of the Zealots, who had come 
privately to them, he declared to them what a 
number of wicked pranks they had themselves 
done in conjunction with those that invited 
them, and gave a particular account of what 
mischiefs had been done against their metropo- 


WARS OF TILE JEWS 






lis. He said, that “they had taken arms, 3 
though the high priests were betraying thei 
metropolis to the Romans, but had found ne 
indication of any such treachery; but that they 
had succored those that had pretended to be- 
lieve such a thing, while they did themselves 
the works of war and tyranny after an insolent 
manner. It had been indeed their business to 
have hindered them from such their proceed — 
ing at the first, but seeing they had once beet 
partners with them in shedding the blood 6 
their own countrymen, it was high time to put 
a stop to such crimes, and not continue to af- 
ford any more assistance to such as are sub. 
verting the laws of their forefathers; for that if 
any had taken it ill that the gates had been shin 
against them, and they had not been permitted 
to come into the city, yet that those who had 
excluded them have been punished, and Ana- 
nus is dead, and that almost all those people 
had been destroyed in one night’s time. That 
one may perceive many of themselves now re- 
penting for what they had done, and might see 
the horrid barbarity of those that had invited 
them, and that they had no regard to such as 
had saved them; that they were so impudent 
as to perpetrate the vilest things, under the eyes 
of those that had supperted them; and that 
their wicked actions would be laid to the charge 
of the Idumeans, and would be so laid to their 
charge till somebody obstructs their proceed- 
ings, or separates himself from the same wick- 
ed action; that they, therefore, ought to retire 
home, since the imputation of treason appears 
to be. a calumny, and that there was no ex 
tation of the coming of the Romans at thir 
time, and that the government of the city was 
secured by such walls as cannot easily be 
thrown down; and, by avoiding any farther 
fellowship with these bad men, to make some 
excuse for themselves, as to what they had 
been so far deluded as to have been partners 
with them hitherto.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


How the Zealots, when they were freed from the 
Idumeans, siew a great many more of the citi- 
zens. And how Vespasian dissuaded the Ro- 
mans, when they were very earnest to march 
against the Jews, from proceeding in the war 
at that time. 


§ 1. The Idumeans complied with theses 
persuasions, and in the first place they set those 
that were in the prisons at liberty, being about 
two thousand of the populace, who thereupon 
fled away immediately to Simon, one whom 
we shall speak of presently. After which 
these Idumeans, retired from Jerusalem, and 
went home, which departure of theirs was a 
great surprise to both parties; for the 
not knowing of their repentance, pulled up 
their courage for a while, as eased of so many 
of their enemies, while the Zealots grew a 
insolent, not as deserted by their confederates, 
but as freed from such men as might hindet 
their designs, and put some stop to their wick 
edness. Accordingly, they made no long 
any delay, nor took any deliberation in 






pon 


a 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VI. 


“enormous practices, but made use of the short- 
est methods for all their executions; and what 
| they had once resolved upon, they put in prac- 
‘tice sooner than any one could imagine. But 
their thirst was chiefly after the blood of va- 
liant men, and men of good families; the one 
port of which they destroyed out of envy, the 
‘other out of fear; for they thought their whole 
‘security lay in Ste no potent men alive; on 
which account they slew Gorion, a person emi- 
‘nent in dignity, and on account of his family 
also; he was also for a democvacy, and of as 
great boldness and freedom of spirit as were 
any of t!. Jews whatsoever; the principal thing 
that ruine ! him, added to his other advantages, 
was his free speaking. Nor did Niger of Perea 
escape their hands; he had been a man of great 
valor in their war with the Romans, but was 
now drawn through the middle of the city; 
and as he went he frequently cried out, and 
showed the scars of his wounds; and when he 
was drawn out of the gates, and despaired of 
fis preservation, be besought them to grant 
him a burial; but as they had threatened him 


t 


beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth | 


for a grave, which he chiefly desired of them, 
30 did they slay him [without permitting him 
to be buried.] Now when they were slaying 
him, he made this imprecation upon them, that 
they might undergo both famine and pestilence 
in this war; and, besides all, that they might 
come to the mutual slaughter of one another; 
all which imprecations God confirmed against 
these impious men, and was what come most 
justly upon them, when not long afterward 
they tasted of their own madness in their mu- 
tual seditions one against another. So when 
this Niger was killed, their fears of being over- 
turned were diminished; and, indeed, there w2s 
no part of the people but they found out some 
pretence to destroy them; for some were, thers- 
‘fore, slain, because they had had differenc >> 
With some of them: and as to those who had 
not opposed them in times of peace, they 
watched seasonable opportunities to gain some 
‘accusation against them; and if any one did 
‘not come near them at all, he was under their 
‘Suspicion as a proud man: if any one ca e 
‘with boldness, he wos esteeme ‘~ contemncr 
‘of t em; and if any one came as aimi£ to 
oblige them, he was supposed to have s_me 
treacherous plot against them; while the only 
‘punishment of crimes, whether they were of 
‘the greatest or: . allest sort, was death. Nor 
/could any one escape unless he were very in- 
‘eonsiderable, either «.n account of the mean- 
» ess of his birth or n accowt of his fortune. 
) 2 And now /\ the rest cf the commanders 
‘of the Romans deemed this sedition among 
| Meir enemies to be of great advantage to them, 
sad were very earnest to march to the city; 
sand they urged Vespasian, as their lord and 
_ reneral in all cases, to make haste, and said to 
> i,m, that “the providence of God is on our 
side, by setting our enemies at variance against 
) one anccher; that still the change in such cases 
' may be sudden, und the Jews may quickly be 


cir, 


| 

| 

| 
i 
. 


out of ineir civil miseries, or repert them of 
such doings.” But Vespasian replied, that 
“they were greatly mistaken in what they 
thought fit to be done, as those that, upon the 
theatre, love to make a show of their hands, 
and of their weapons, but do it at their own 
hazard, without considering what was for their 
advantage, and for their security; for that if 
they now go and attack the city immediately 
they shal! but occasion their enemies to unite 
together, and shall convert their force now it 
is in its height, against themselves. But if 
they stay awhile they shall have fewer ene- 
mies, because they will be consuined in this se- 
dition: that God acts asa general of the Re- 
mans better than he can do, and is giving the 
Jews up to them without any pains of their 
own, and granting their army a victory without 
any danger; that therefore it is their best way; 
while their enemies are destroying each other 
with their own hands, and falling into the 
greatest misfortunes, which is that of sedition, 
to sit stil! as spectators of the dangers they :an 
into, rather than to fight hand to hand with nen 
that love murdering, and are mad one agai ist 
another. But if any one imagines that the 
glory of victory, when it is gotten withiut 
fighting, will be more insipid, let him know 
this much, that a glorious success quietly « b- 
tained is more profitable than the dangers cfu 
battle; for we ought to esteem those that do 
what is agreeable to temperance and pruden:e, 
no less glorious than those that have gair ed 
great reputation by their actions in war: that 
he shall lead on his army with greater fore, 
when their enemies are diminished, and his 
own army refreshed after the continual labors 
they had undergone. However, that ‘his is 
not a proper time to propose to ourselves tha 
glory of victory; for that the Jews are not now 
em, loyed in making of armor or building of 
wails, nor indeed in getting together auxiliaries, 
.. hile the advantage will be on their side who 
give them such opportunity of delay: but thet 
the Jews are vexed to pieces every’ day by 
their civil wars and dissensions, and are under 
greater miseries than, if they were once taken, 
could be inflicted on them by us. Whether, 
therefore, any one hath regard to what is for 
our safety, he ought to suffer these Jews is 
destroy one another, or whether he hath re- 
gard to the greater glory of the action, we oug!it 
by no means to meddle with those men, now 
they are afflicted with a distemper at hotne; 
for should we now conquer them, it would be 
said the conquest was not owing to our bravery 
but to their sedition.” 

3. And now the commanders Joined in their 
approbation of what Vespasian had said, and 
it was soon discovered how wise an opinion he. 
had given. And indeed many there were of 
the Jews that «deserted every day, and fled 
away from the Zealots, although their flight 
was very difficult, since they had guarded every 
passage out of the city, and slew every oue 
that was caught at them, as taking it for grant- 


|ed they were going over to the Romans; yet 
41 one again, either !-ecause they may be tired |did he who gave them money get clear eff 


26 


white ne unly that gave them none was voted 
a traitor So the upshot was this, t.:2% the rich 

urchased their flight by money, while none 
bat the poor were slain. Along all the roads 
also vast numbers of dead bodies Say un heaps, 
and even many of those that were so zealous 
in deserting, at length chose rather to perish 
within the city; for the hopes of burial made 
death in their own city appear of the two less 
terrible to them. But these Zealots came at 
last to that degree of barbarity, as not to bestow 
a burial either on those slain in the city, or on 
those that lay along the roads; but as if they 
had made an agreement to cancel both the laws 
of their country and the laws of nature, and at 
the same time that they defiled men with 
their wicked actions, they would pollute the 


Divinity itseif also, they left the dead bodies to | 


putrify under the sun; and the same pun‘si:. 
ment was allotted to such as buried any, as tu 
those that deserted, which was no other than 
death; while he that granted the favor of a 
grave to another, would presently stand in need 
of a grave himself. To say all in a word, no 


other gentle passion was so entirely lost among | 


them as mercy; for what were the greatest ob- 
jects of pity did most of all irritate these 
wretches, and they transferred their rage from 
the living to those that had been slain, and from 
the dead to the living. Nay, the terror was so 
very great, that he who survived, called them 
that were first dead happy, as being at rest al- 
ready; as did those that were under torture in 
the prisons, declare, that, upon this comparis'n, 
those that lay unburied were the happiest. 
These men, therefore, trampled upon all the 
laws of men, and laughed at the laws of God; 
and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridi- 
euled them as the tricks of jugglers; yet did 
these prophets forete]] many things concerning 
[the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] 
vice, which when these Zealots violated, they 
occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophe- 
cis belonging to their own country; for ther. 
was a certain ancient oracle of those men, that 
“the city should then be taken and the sanctu- 
ary burnt,* by right of war, when a seditien 
should invade the Jews, and their own hands 
should pollute the temple of God.” Now 
while those Zealots did not (quite] disbelieve 
these predictions, they made themselves the 
instruments of their accomplishment. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How John tyrannized orer the rest; and what 
mischiefs the Zealots did ul Masada. How 
also Vespasian took Gadara; and what actions 
were performed by Placidus. 


§ 1. By this time John was beginning to ty- 
rannize, and thought it beneath him to accept 
of barely the same honors that others had; and 


~ * This prediction, that “the city [of Jerusalem] should 
then be taken, and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, 
when a sedition should invade the Jews, aud their own 
hands should pollute that temple; or as it is b. vi. ch. ii. 
sect. 1,—‘*When any one shall begin to slay his countrymen 
fm the city,’ is wanting in our present copies of the Old Tes- 
tament; see Essay on the Old Test. p. 104—112. But this 
prediction, as Josephus well remarks here, though with the 
mb « vredictions of the prophets it was now laughed at by 


‘VARS OF THE JEWS. 


joining to himself by degrees a of the 
wickedest of them all, he broke off from the 
rest of the faction. This was brought abow 
by his still disagreeing with the opinions of 
others, and giving out injunctions of his own 
in a very imperious manner, so that it was evi- 
dent he was setting up a monarchical power 
| Now some submitted to him out of their fea. 
of him, and others out of their good will to 
him; for he was a shrewd man to entice me 
to him, both by deluding them anc putting 
cheats upon them. Nay, many there were that 
thought they should be safer themselves, if 
the causes of their past insolent actions should 
now be reduced to one head, and not to a great 
many. His activity was 30 great, and that both 
in action and in counsel, that he had not a few 
guards about lim; yet were there a great party 
of his antagonists that left him; among whom 
envy at him weighed a great deal, while they 
thought it a very heavy thing to be in subjec- 
tion to one that was formerly theirequal, Su 
the main reason that moved men against him 
was the dread uf monarchy, for they could 
not hope easily to put an end to his power, if 
lhe had once obtained it; and yet they knew 
that he would have this pretence always against 
them, that they had oppesed him when he was 
first advanced; while every one chose rather te 
suffer any thing whatsoever in war, than that 
when they hac een ina voluntary slavery for 
gome time, they should afterward perish, So 
the sedition was divided into two parts, and 
John reigned in opposition to his adversaries 
over one of them; but for their leaders, they 
watched one another, nor did they at all, or at 
least very little, meddle with arms in their quar- 
rels, but they fought-earnestly against the peo- 
ple, and contended one with another which of 
them should bring home th» greatest prey. 
But because the city had to struggle with three 
of the greatest misfortunes, war, and tyranny, 
and sedition, it appeared upon the comparison, 
that the war was the least troublesome to the 
opulace of them all. Accordingly, they rap 
away from their own houses to foreigners, and 
obtained that preservation from the Romans 
which they despaired to obtain among their 
own people. 

2. And now a fourth misfortune arose, in 
order to bring our nation to destruction. ‘There 
was a fortress of very great strength not far 
from Jerusalem, which had been built by our 
ancient kings, both as a repository for their ef- 
fects in the hazards of war, and for the preser- 
vation of their bodies at the same time. It 
was called Masada. Those that were called 
Sicarii had taken possession of it formerly, but 
at this time they overran the neighboring coun- 
tries, aiming only to procure to themselves ne- 
cessaries; for the fear they were then in pre- 
the seditious, was by their very means soon exactly fulfilled 
However, I cannot but here take notice of Grotius’s poe 
assertion upon Matt. xxvi. 9, here quoted by Dr. Hudvcn, 
that “it ought to be taken for granted, as a certain truth, thes 
many predictions of the Jewish prophets were pr DO 
in writing, but by memory.’”? Wherets it scems to mé, 64 


far from certain that I think it has no evidence nor 
ty at all, 


BOOK IV.—CHAPTER VII. 


vented <heir tarthe. ravages. But when once 
they were informed that the Roman army lay 
still, and that the Jews were divided by sedi- 
tion and tyranny, they boldly undertook greater 
matters; ard at the feast of unleavened bread, 
which the Jews celebrate in memory of their 
deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, when 
they were sent back into the country of their 
forefathers, they came down by night, without 
being discovered by those that could have pre- 
vented them, and overran a certain small city 
called Engaddi. In which expedition they 
prevented those citizens that could have stop- 
ned them, before they could arm themselves, 
and fight them. They also dispersed them, 
and cast them out of the:city; as for such as 
could not run away, being women and children, 
they slew of them above seven hundred. Af- 
terward, when they had carried every thing 
out of their houses, and had seized upon all 
the fruits that were in a flourishing condition, 
they brought them into Masada. And indeed, 
these men laid all the villages that were about 
the fortress waste, and made the whole country 
desolate; while there vame to them every day, 
from all parts, not a few men as corrupt as 
themselves. At that time all the other regions 
of Judea that had hitherto been at rest were in 
motion, by means of the robbers. Now as it 
is in @ human body, if the prine);-al part be in- 
flamed, all the members are subject to the same 
distemper, so by means of the disorder that 
was in the metropolis, had the wicked men 
that were in the country opportunity to ravage 
the same. Accordingly, when every one of 
then had «Innere their own villages, they 
then retired into the desert: yet were these 
men that now got t gether and joined in the 
couspiracy by parti ., too small for an army, 
and too many fi. « gang of thieves; and thus 
did they fall s;,o.. the holy places,* and the 
tities; yet did it now so happen that they were 
sometimes very ill treated by those upon whom 
they fell with such violence, and were taken 
by them as men are taken in war; but still they 
prevented any further punishment, as do rob- 
ders, who, as soon as their revages [are dis- 
covered,] run their way. Nor was there now 
any part of Judea that was not in a miserable 
condition, as well as its most eininent city also. 

3. These things were told Vespasian by de- 
serters; for although the seditious watched all 
the passages out of the city, and destroyed all, 
wlosoever they were, that came thither, yet 
were there some that had concealed them- 
selve., and when they had fled to the Romans, 
versuaded their general to come to their city’s 
assistanc., a ‘ save th: remainder of the peo- 
ple; ix“ rming him withall, that it was unon 
necourt of the _ eople’s good will to the ito- 
mans ft. t > » y of them were already slxin, 
ant the curviv rs in danger of the same trest- 
ment. Vespasian did indeed already pity tue 
calamities these men were in, and arose in ap- 
_ * By these ‘:ex, or holy places, as distinct frem -uties, 
‘must be meant proseucha or houses of pruy sr, "It ef cites; of 
which we find mention made inthe N+ + ‘Testament and 


ether authors; see Luke vi. 12; Acts xvi. }'., 16; Antig. b. xiv. 
eh. x. sect 23; his Life, sect. 54. In qua te quero proseucha? 





627 


pearance, as though he was going to besiege 
Jerusalem, but in reality to deliver them from 
a [worse] siege they were already under. 
However, he was obliged first to overthrow 
what remained elsewhere, and to leave nothing 
out of Jerusalem behind him, that might in- 
terrupt him in that siege. Accordingly, he 
marched against Gadara, the metropolis of Pe- 
rea, which was a place of strength, and enter- 
ed that city on the fourth day of the month 
Dystrus [Adar]; for the men of power had 
sent an embassage to him, without the know- 
ledge of the seditions, to treat about a surren- 
der; which they did out of the desire they had 
of peace, and for saving their effects, because 
many of the citizens of Gadara were rich men. 
This embassy the opposite party knew nothing 
of, but discovered it as Vespasian was ap- 
proaching near the city. However, they de- 


;spaired of keeping possession of the city, as 


being inferior in number to their enemies who 
were within the city, and seeing the Romans 
very near to the city; so they resolved to fly, 
but thought it dishonorable to do it without 
shedding some blood, and revenging themselves 
on the anthors of this surrender; so they seized 
upon Dolesus, (a person not only the first in 
rank and family in that city, but one that seemed 
the occasion of sending such an embassy,) and 
slew him, and treated his dead body after a 
most barbarous manner, so very violent was 
their anger at him, and then ran out of the 
city. And as now the Roman army was just 
upon them, the people of Gadara admitted 
Vespasian with joyful acclamations, and re- 
ceived from him the security of his right hand 
as also a garrison of horsemen and footmen, 
to guard them against the excursions of the 
runagates; for as to their wall, they had pulled 
it down before the Romans desired them so ta 
do, that they might thereby give them assur. 
ance that they were lovers of peace, and that, 
if they had a mind, they could not now make 
war against them. 


4, Ar.d now Vespasian sent Placidus agains 
those trat hed fled from Gadara, with five 
hundred horsemen, and three thousand foot- 
men, wiile he returned himself to Cesares 
with the rest of the army. But as soon as 
these fugitives saw the horsemen that pursued 
they just upon their backs, and before they 
same to a close fight, they ran together toa 
certain village, which was called Bethennabris, 
where finding a great multitude of young men, 
and arming them, partly by their own consent, 
nartly by force, they rashly and suddenly as-~ 
seuited Placidus and the troops that were with 
him. These horsemen at the first onset gave 
way a little, as contriving to entice them further 
off the wall, and when they had drawn them 
into a place fit for their purpose, they made 
their horsemen encompass them round, and 
threw their darts at them. So the horsemer 
cut off the flight of the fugitives, while the 
Juv. Sat. iii. ver. 296. They were situated sometimes by 
the sides of rivers, Acts xvi. 13, or by the seaside, Antiq. b. 
xiv. ch. 10, sect. 23. Sodid the seventy two interpreters ga 


to prayer every morning by the seaside vefore they went te 
their work, b. xii. ch. ii. sect. 12. 


#28 


foot terribly destroyed those that fought 
against them: for those Jews did no more than 
show their courage, and then were destroyed; 
for as they fell upon the Romans, when tney 
were joined close together, and, as it were, 
walled about with their entire armor, they were 
not able to find any place where the darts 
eould enter, nor were they any way able to 
break their ranks, while they were themselves 
run through by the Roman darts, aud, like the 
wildest of wild beasts, rushed upon the points 
af others’ swords; so some of them were de- 
stroyed, as cut with their enemies’ swords 
upon their faces, and others were dispersed by 
the horsemen. 

o. Now Placidus’s concern was to exclude 
them in their flight from getting into the village; 
and causing his horse to marcli continually on 
the side of them, he then turned short upon 
them, and at the same time his zen made use 
of their darts, and easily took their aim at those 
that were nearest to them, as they made those 
that were farther off turn back by the terror 
they were in, till at last the most courageous 
of them broke through those horsemen and 
fled to the wall of the village. And cow those 
that guarded the wall were in great duabt what 
to do; for they could not bear the thoughts of 
excluding those that came from Gadara, be 
cause of their own people that were among 
them; and yet if they should admit them, they 
expected to perish with them, which came to 
pass accordingly; for as they were crowding 
together at the wall, the Roman horsemen 
were just ready to fall in with them. Howev- 
er, the guards prevented them and shut the gates, 
when Placidus made an assault upon them, and 
fighting courageously till-it was dark, he got 
possession of the people on the wall, and of 
them that were in the city, when the useless 
multitude were destroyed, but those that were 
more potent ran away, and the soldiers plunder- 
ed the houses, and set the viflage on fire. As 
for those that ran out of the village, they stir- 
red up such as were in the country; and ex- 
aggerating their own calamities, and telling 
them that the whole army of the Ronians, were 
upon them, they put them into great fear on 
every side; so they got in great numbers toge*h- 
er, and fled to Jericho, for they knew no other 
place that could afford them any hope of es- 
caping, it being a city that had a strong wall, 
and a great multitude of inhabitants. But Pla- 
cidus relying much upon his horsemen, end 
his former good success, followed them, and 
«lew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and 
when he had driven the whole multitude to the 
fiver side, where they were stopped by the 
eurrent, (for it had heen augmented lately by 
rains, and was not fordable,) he put his soldiers 
in array over against them, so the necessity the 
others were in, provoked them to hazard a bat- 
tle, because there was no place whither they 
could flee. They then extended themselves a 
very great way along the banks of the river, 
and sustained the darts that were thrown at 
them, as well as the attacks of the horsemen, 
who beat many of them and pushed them into 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


wat 


y 


the current. At which fight, haud to hand 
fifteen thousand of them were slain while the 
number of those that were unwillingly forced 
to leap into Jordan was prodigious. ‘There 
were besides, two thousand and two hundred 
taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, 
consisting of asses, and sheep, and camels, and 
oxen, 

6. Now this destruction that fell upon the 
Jews, as it was not inferior to any of the rest 
in itself, so did it still appear greater than it 
really was; and this, because not only the 
whole country through which they fled was 
filled with slaughter, and Jordan could not be 
passed over by reason of the dead bodies that 
were in it, but because the lake Asphaltitis 
was also full of dead bodies, that were carried 
down into it by the river. And now, Placidus 
after this good success that he had had, fell 
violently upon the neighboring smaller cities 
and villages; when he took Abila, and Julias 
Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far as the 
lake Asphaltitis, and put such of the deserter: 
into each of them as he thought proper. He 
then put his soliers on board the ships, and 
slew such as had fled to the lake, insomuch, 
that all Perea had either surrendered them 
selves, or were taken by the Romans, as far as 
Macherus. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

How Vespasian, upon hearing of some commo- 
tions in Gall,* made haste ts fixish the Jewrsh 
war. A description of Jericko, and of the 
great plain; with an account besides of the 
lake Asphaltitis. 


§ 1. In the mean time an account came 


that there were con; notions in Gall, and tha 


Vindex, together with the men of power ir 
that country, had revolted from Nero; whiel 
affair is more accurately deseribed elsewhere 
This report, thus related to Vespasian, excited 
him to go on briskly with the war; for he fore. 
saw already the civil wars which werescoming 
upon them, nay, that the very government wat 
in danger; and he thought, if he could first re. 
duce the eastern parts of the empire to peace. 
he should make the fears for Italy the hghter 
while therefore the winter was his hinderance 
{from going into the field,] he put garrison: 
into the villages and smaller cities for their se 
curity; he put decurions also into the villages 
and centurions into the cities; he besides this 
built many of the cities that had been late 
waste, but at the beginning of the spring hr 
t. k the greatest part of his army, and led i 
from Ceesarea to Antipatris, where he spen 
two days in settling the a“zirs of that city, anc 
then, on the third day, he marched on, laying 
wate and burning all the neighboring villages 
And when he had laid waste all the places abou! 
the toparchy of Thamnas, he passed on t 
Lydda and Jamnia, and when both these citie 
haa come over to him. he placed a great mani 
of ti:oae that had come over to him [from othe 
places as inhabitants] therein, and then cam 
to Emmaus, where he seized upon the passag 

* Gy. Galatia, and so everywhere. 









a 


ne 


which jed thence to their metropolis, and forti- 
fied his camp, and, leaving the fifth legion 
therein, he came to the toparchy of Bethlete- 
phon. He then destroyed that place and the 
‘neighboring places by fire, and fortified at pro- 
per places the strongholds all about Idumea; 
and when he had seized upon two villages, 
which were in the very midst of Idumea, Be- 
taris and Caphartobas, he slew about ten tnou- 
sand of the people, and carried into captivity 
above a thousand, and drove away the rest of 
the multitude, and placed no smali part of his 
own forces in them, who overran and laid waste 
tne whole mountainous country; while he 
with the rest of his forces returned to Emmaus, 
whence he came down throug: tue country of 
Samaria, and hard by the city uy others called 
Neapolis, (or Sichem,) but by the people of 
that counuwy Mabortha, to Corea, where he 
pitched his camp, on the second day of the 
month Desius [Sivan:] an‘ on the day follow- 
ing he cameto Jericho. on which day Trajan, 
one of his commanders, joined him with the 
forces he brought . ut of Perea, all the places 
beyond Jordan bemg subdu d already. 

2. Hereupon a great dutude prevented 
their approach, and came ont of Jericho, and 
fled to those mountainous parts that lay over 
against Jerusalem, while that part which was 
{eft behind was in a great measure destroyed; 
they also found the city desolate. It is situated in 
@ piain, but a naked and barren mountain, of a 
very great length, hangs over it, which extends 
itself to the land about Scythopolis northward, 
but as far as the country of Sodom, and the 
utmost limits of the lake Asphaltitis southward. 
This mountain is all of it very uneven and un- 
inhabited by reason of its barrenness; there 
is an opposite mountain that is situated over 
against it, on the other side of Jordar: this 
Jast begins at Julias, and the northern quarters, 
and extends itself southward as far as Somor- 
rhon,* which is the bounds of Petrain Arabia. 
In this ridge of mountains there is one called 
the Jron Mountain, that runs in length as fares 
Moab, Now the region that lies in the middle 
between this ridge of mountains, is c-lled the 
Great Plain; it reaches from the village of Jin- 
nabris, as far as the lake A phaltitis; its lngth 
igtwo hundred and thirty furlongs, and its 
breadth a hundred and twenty, and it is divided 
in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in 
it, that of Asphaltitis, and that of ‘Tiberias, 
whose natures ave opposite to each other; for 
the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of 
Tiberias is sweet and fruitful. This plain is 
much burnt up in summer time, and, by reason 
of the extraordinary heat, contains a very un- 
‘wholesome air; it is all destitute of water ex- 
‘cepting the river Jordan, which water of Jor- 
dan is the occasion why those plantations of 
‘palm-trees that are near its banks are more 
flourishing and much more fruitful, as are 
. * Whether this Somorrhon or Somorrah ought not to be 
here written Gomorrah, as some MSS. in a manner have it, 
‘(for the piace meant by Josephus seems to be near Segor or 
“Zoar at the very south of the Dead Sea, hard by which stood 


Sodom and Gomorrah) cannot now be certainly determined, 
‘butseems by no means improbable. 


ee 


ee 


3 
“* 


BOOK JV.—CHAPTER VIII. 


63u 


those that are remot. from it not so flourishing 
or fruitful. 

3. Nowithstanding which, there is a fountain 
by Jericho, that runs plentifully, and is very fit 
for watering the ground; it arises near the old 
city, which Joshua the son of Nun, the general 
of the Hebrews, took the first of all the cities 
of the land of Canaan, by right of war. The 
report is, that this fountain, at the beginning, 
caused not only the blasting of the earth and 
the trees, but of the children born of woiner, 
and that it was entirely of a sickly and corrupt 
ive nature to all things whatsoever, but that it 
was made gentle and very wholesome and fruit- 
ful by the prophet Elisha. This prophet was 
familiar with Elyah, and was his successor 
who, when he once was the guest of the peo- 
ple of Jericho, and the men of the place had 
treated him very kindly, he both made them 
amends as well as the country, by a lasting fa- 
vor; for he went outof the city to this fountam, 
and threw into the current an earthen vessel 
full of salt; after which he stretched out his 
righteous hand unto heaven, and pouring out 
ainild drink-offering, he made this supplication, 
that “the current might be mollified, and that 
the veins of fresh water might be opened; that 
God ;iso would bring into the place a more 
temperate and fertile air for the current, and 
would bestow upon the people of that country 
plenty of the fruits of the earth, and a succes- 
sion of children; and that this prolific water 
might never fail them while they continued 
to be righteous.”* To these prayers Elisha 
joined proper operations of his hands, after a 
skilful manner, and changed the fountain, and 
that water, which had been the occasion of 
barrenness and famine before, from that time 
did supply a: numerous posterity, and afford 
great abundance to the country, Accordingly 
the power of it is so great in watering the 
ground, that if it do but once touch a country, 
it afforas a sweeter nourishment than other wa- 
ters do, when they lie so long upon them till 
they are satiated with them. For which rea- 
son, the advantage gained from other waters, 
when they flow in great plenty, is but small 
while that of this water is great, when it flows 
uven in little quantities: accordingly it waters 
a larger space of ground tnan any other wa- 
ters do, and passes along a plain of seventy fur 
longs long, and twenty broad, wherein 1t af- 
fords nourishment to those most excellent gar- 
dens, that are thick set with trees There are 
in it many sorts of palin-trees tnat are watered 
by it, different from each other in taste and 
name; the better sort of them, when they are 
pressed, yield an excellent kind of honey, no 
much inferior in sweetness to other honey 
This country withall produces honey from 
bees; it also bears that balsam which is the mom 
precious of all the fruits in that place, cypress 
trees also, and those that bear myrobalanum. 


* This excelent prayer of Elisha is wanting in our copies 
2 Kings ii. 21, 22, though it be referred to also in the Apos- 
tolical Consti:v’tions, b. vil. ch. xxxvii and the success of 
itis mention 4 ai them all 


530 


so that he who should pronounce this place to 
be divine, would not be mistaken, wherein is 
such plenty of trees produced, as are very rare, 
and of the most excellent sort. And indeed, 
if we speak of those other fruits, it will not be 
easy to light on any climate in the habitable 
earth, that can well be compared to it, what is 
nere sowed comes up in such clusters; the 
eause of which seems to me to be the warmth 
of the air and the fertility of the waters; the 
warmth e¢alling forth the sprouts, and making 
them spread, and the moisture making every 
one of them tke root firmly,.and supplying 
that virtue which it stands in need of in sum- 
mer-time. Now this country is then so sadly 
burnt up, that nobody cares to come at it, and 
if the water be drawn up before sun-rising, and 
after that exposed to the air, it becomes exceed- 
ing cold, and becomes of a nature quite con- 
trary to the ambient air; as in winter again it 
becomes warm; and if you go into it, it appears 
very gentle. The ambient air is here also of 
so good a temperature, that the people of the 
country are clothed in linen only, even when 
snow covers the rest of Judea. This place is 
one hundred and fifty furlongs from Jerusalem, 
and sixty from Jordan. The country as far as 
Jerusalem is desert and stony; but that as far 
as Jordan and the lake Asphaltitis lies lower in- 
deed, though it be equally desert and barren. 
But so much shall suffice to have been said 
about Jericho, and of the great bappiness of 
its situation. 

4. The nature of the lake Asphaltitis is also 
worth describing. It is,as I have said already, 
ditter and unfruitful. It is so light [or thick] 
that it bears up the heaviest things that are 
thrown into it; nor is it-easy for any one to 
make things sink therein to the bottom, if he 
had a mind so todo. Accordingly, when Ves- 
pasian went to see it, he commanded that some 
who could not swim, should have their hands 
tied behind them and be thrown into the deep, 
when it so happened that they all swam, as if 
a wind had forced them upwards. Moreover, 
the change of the color of this lake is wonder- 
ful, for it changes its appearance thrice every 
day, and as the rays of the sun fall directly upon 
it, the light is variously reflected. However, 
it casts up black clods >f bitumen in many 
parts of it; these swim at the top of the water, 
and resemble both in shape and bigness head- 
less bulls; and when the laborers that belong to 
the lake come to it and catch hold of it as it 
hangs together, they draw it into their ships; 
but when the ship is full, it is not easy to cut 
off the rest, for it is so tenacious as to make 
the ship hang upon its clods till they set it loose 
with the menstrual blood of women, and with 
urine, to which alone it yields. This bitumen 
is not only useful for the caulking of ships, but 

_ for the cure of men’s bodies: accordingly, it is 
mixed in a great many medicines. The length 
of this lake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, 
where it is extended as far as Zoar in Arabia, 
and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. The 
ceuntry of Sodom borders upon it.* | It was 

* See the note ou &. ¥. ch. xi. vt. f, 


WARS OF THE JEWS 











of old a most happy land, both for the fruits 
bore and the riches of its cities, although it 
now all burnt up. It is related how, for 
impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by ligh 
ning; in consequence of which there are sti 
the remainders of that divine fire, and the 

ces [or satel of the five cities are still to 
seen, as well as the ashes growing in their fruit 
which fruits have a color as if they were fit « 
be eaten; but if you pluck them with you 
hands, they dissolve ‘nto smoke, and ashes 
And thus what is related of this land of Sodon 
hath these marks of credibility which our very 
sight affords us. | 


CHAPTER IX. j 

That Vespasian, after he had taken Gadara, mad 
preparations for the siege of Jerusalem. Bu 
that, upon his nearing of the death of Nero 
he changed his intentions. As also concerning 
Simon of Gerasa. | 


§ 1. And now Vespasian had fortified all the 
places round about Jerusalem, and erected cita- 
dels at Jericho and Adida, and placed garrison: 
in them both, partly out of his own Romans 
and partly out of the body of his anxilinies 
He also sent Lucius Annius to Gerasa, and de. 
livered to him a body of horsemen, and a con: 
siderable number of footmen. So when he 
had taken the city, which he did at the first ou 
set, he slew a thousand of those young mer 
who had not prevented him by flying away 
but he took their families captive; and permit 
ted hissoldiers to plunder them of their effeets 
after which he set fire to their houses, and wen 
away to the adjoining villages, while the men of 
powcr fled away, and the weaker part were 
destroyed, and what was remaining was al 
burnt down. An! now the war having gone 
through all the mountainous country, and al 
the plain country also, those that were at Jera 
salem were deprived of the liberty of goin 
out cf the city: for as to such as had a mind t 
desert, they were watched by the Zealots; ant 
to such as were :‘ot yet on the side of the Ro 
mans, their army ke; t them in, by encompass 
ing the city round about on all sides. 4 

2. Now as Vespasian was returned to C# 
sarea, and was gettine ready with all his arm 
to march directly to Jerusalem, be was non 
ed that Nero was dead, after ha kad reign 
thirteen years and eight days; but 4s to any nar 
ration after what manner he abused his powe 
in the government, and committed the manage 
ment of affairs to those vile wretches, Ny 
phidius and Tigellinus, his usv-orthy freedm+a 
and how he ha { a plot laid against him by thea 
and was deswrted ' y all his guards and ran awa} 
with four of his i..ost trusty freedmen, aut 
slew himself in th: suburbs of Rome; and hoy 
those that occasione:! his death were in no logy 
time brought them> Ives to punishment; h 
also the war in Gat! e:ded; and how Galb 
was made emperor,* and returned out of Spail 


* Of these Roman affairs and tumults under Galba, Ot 
and Vitellius, here only touched upon by Josephus, see 4 a 
itus, Suetonius, and Dio more largely. However, we 
observe with Ottias, that Josephus writes the name 0} © 
second of them not Otto, with many others, but Othe | 

the coins; see also the note on ch. xi. sect. 4. 















BOOK IV.--CHAPTER IX. 


ty Rome; and how he was accused by the sol- | was their hiding-place; but he affecting to ty- 


diers as a pusillanimous person, and siain by 
treachery in the middie of the market-place at 
Rome, and Otho was mads emperor; with his 
expedition against the commanders of Vit llius, 
and his destruction thereupon; and besides 
‘what troubles there were under Vitellius, and 
the fight that was about the capitol; as also how 
Antonius Primus and Mucianus slew Vitellius, 
‘and his German legions, and thereby put an 
‘end to that civil war; I have omited to give an 
exact account of them, because they are well 
known by all, and they are described by a great 
number of Greek and Romar authors; yet for 
the sake of the connexi n of matters, and that 
my history may not be incoherent, I have just 
touched upon every thing br‘efy. Wherefore 
Vespasian put off at first his expedition against 
Jerusalem, and stood waiting whither the em- 
pire would be transferred after the death of Ne- 
ro. Moreover, when he hear« that Galba was 
made emperor, he attempted uothing till he also 
should send him some directions about the war; 
however, he sent his son Titus to him to salute 
him, and to receive his commands about the 
Jews. Upon the very same errand did king 
Agrippa sail along with Titus to Galba; but as 
they were sailing in their long ships by the 
coasts of Achai, for it was winter-time, they 
heard that Galba was slain, before they could 
get tc him, after he had reigned seven months 
and as many days. After whom Otho took 
the government, and undertook the manage- 
ment of pubtic affairs. So Agrippa resolved to 
goo’. to Reme witout any terror on account 
of the chz.ize in the government; but Titus, 
by a divine iripulse, sailed back from Greece 
to Syria, and came in great haste to Ceesarea, 
to his father. And now they were both in sus- 
pense about the public affairs, the Roman em- 
pire being then in a fluctuating condition, and 
did not go on with their expedition against the 
Jews, but thought that to make any attack upon 
foreigners was now unseasonable, on account 
of tbe solicitude they were in for their own 
cou iiry. 

3. And now, there arose another war in Je- 
rusalem. There was a son of Giora, one Si- 
mon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so 
cunnimg indeed as John [of Gischala] who had 
already seized upon the city, but superior in 
strength of body and courage; on which ac- 
count, when he had been driven away from 
that Acrabattene toparchy which he once had, 
by Anar2s the high priest, he came to those 
robbers who had seized upon Masada. At the 
first tev .aspected him, and only permitted 
nim to come with the woman he brought v ith 
him, into the lower part of the fortress. while 
they dwelt in the upper part of it themselves. 
However, his manner so well acreed with theirs, 
and he seemed so trusty a man, that he went 
out with th m, and ravaged and destroyed the 

country wi ‘1: them about Masada; yet when he 
persuaced them to undertake greater things, he 
could net prev’ with them so to do; for us 
shey were accustomed to dwell in that citadel, 
hey were afraid of going far fron that which 


rannize, and being fond of greatness, when he 
had heard of the death of Ananus, he left them. 
and went into the mountainous part of the 
country. So he proclaimed liberty to those im 
slavery, and a reward to those already free, and 
got together a set of wicked men from al 
quarters. 

4, And as he had now a strong body of men 
about him, he overran the villages that lay m 
the mountainous country, and when there 
were still more and more that came to him, he 
ventured to go down into the lower parts of 
the country, and since he was now become 
formidable, to the cities, many of the men of 
power were corrupted by him; so that his army 
was no longer composed of slaves and rob- 
bers, but a great many of the populace were 
obedient to him as to their king. He then 
overran the Acrabattene toparchy, and the 
places that reached as far as the Great Idumea: 
for he built a wall at a certain village called 
Nain, and made use of that as a fortress for 
his own party’s security; and at the valley 
called Paran, he enlarged many of the caves, 
and many others he found ready for his pur- 
pose; these he made use of as repositories for 
his treasures, and receptacles for his prey, aud 
therein he laid up the fruits that he had got hy 
rapine; and many of his partisans had thr 
dwelling in them, and he made no secret of it, 
that he was exercising his men beforehand, 
and making preparations for the assault of 
Jerusalem. es 


5. Whereupon the Zealots, out of the dread 
they were in of his attacking them, and being 
willing to prevent one that was growing up to 
oppose them, went out against him with their 
weapons. Simon met them, and joining battle 
with them, slew a considerable number of 
them, and drove the rest before him into the 
city, but durst not trust so much upon his 
forces, as to make an assault upon the walls: 
but he resolved first to subdue Idumea, and as 
he had now twenty thousand armed men, he 
marched to the borders of their country. 
Hereupon the rulers of the Idumeans got to- 
gether on the sudden the most warlike part of 
their people, about twenty-five thousand in 
number, and pertaitted the rest to be a guard 
to their own country, by reason of the incur- 
sions that were made by the Sicarii that were 
at Masada. Thus they received Simon at their 
borders, where they fought him, and continued 
the battle all that day, and the dispute lay 
whether they had conquered him or been con- 
quered by him. So he went back to Naa, as 
did the Idumeans return home. Nor was it 
long ere Simon came violently again upon their 
country; when he pitched his camp at a certain 
village called Thecoe, and sent Eleazar, one of 
his companions, to those that kept garrison at 
Herodium, and in order to persuade them to 
surrender that fortress to him. The gerrison 
received this man readily, while they knew 
nothing of what he came about; but as soon 
as he talke’ of the surrender of the place, 
they fel! upon him with their drawn swords, 


or? 


till he found that he had no place for flight, 
when he threw himself down from the wall 
into the valley beneath; so he died immedi- 
ately; but the Idumeans, who were already 
much afraid of Simon’s power, thought fit to 
take a view of the enemy’s army, before they 
hazarded a battle with them. 

6. Now there was one of their commanders 
named Jacob, who offered to serve them readi- 
y upon that occasion, but had it in his mind to 
yxetray them. He went, therefore, from the vil- 
wage Alurus, wherein the army of the Idumeans 
were gotten together and came to Simon, and 
at the very first he agreed to betray his coun- 
try to him, and took assurances upon oath from 
him, that he should always have him in esteem, 
and then promised him that he would assist him 
in subduing all Idumea under him; upon which 
account he was feasted after an obliging manner 
by Simon, and elevated by his mighty promises; 
and when he was returned to his own men, he 
at first belied the army of Simon, and said it 
was manifold more in number than what it was; 
after which, he dexterously persuaded the 
commanders; and by degrees the whole multi- 
tule, to receive Simon, and to surrender the 
whole government up to him, without fighting. 
And as he was doing this, he invited Simon by 
his messengers, and promised him to disperse 
the Idumeans, which he performed also: for as 
soon as their army was nigh them, he first of 
all got upon his horse and iled together with 
those whom he had corruptea; hereupon a ter- 
ror fell upon the whole multitude, and before 
it came to a close fight, they broke their ranks, 
and every one retired to his own home. 

7. Thus did Simon unexpectedly march into 
Iduinea, without bloodshed, and made a sud- 
den attack upon the city Hebron and took it; 
wherein he got possession of a great deal of 
prey, and plundered it of a vast quantity of 
fruit. Now the people of the country say, 
that it is an ancienter city, not only than any 
in that country, but than Memphis, in Egypt, 
and accordingly its age is reckoned at two thou- 
sand and theee hundred years. They also re- 
late, that it had been the habitation of Abram, 
the progenitor of the Jews, after be had remov- 
ed out of Mesopotamia; and they say, that his 
posterity descended from thence into Egypt, 
whose monuments are to this very time shown 
in that small city; the fabric of which monu- 
ments are of the most excellent marble, and 
wrought after the most elegant manner. There 
is also there shown, at the distance of six fur- 
longs from the city, a very large turpentine 
tree;* and report goes, that this tree has con- 
tinued since the creation of the world. Thence 
did Simon make his progress over all Idumea, 
and did pot only ravage the cities and villages, 
but lai waste the whole country; for, besides 
those that were completely armed, he had forty 
thousand men that followed him, insomuch 
that he had not provisions enough to suffice 
such a multitude. Now, besides this want of 


* Some of the ancients oll this famous tree, or grove, an 
oak, others @ turpentine tre :, or grove. It has been very fa- 
mous in al) the past ages and is so, I suppose, at this day, 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


ee eee e ne ee Eo 


ns | 
provisions that he was in, he wasof abe = ¢ 
ous disposition, and bore great anger at in 
nation, by which means it came to pass thm 
Idumea was greatly depopulated; and as one 
may see all the woods behind despoiled of 
their leaves by locusts after they have be 
there, so was there nothing left behind Simon’s 
army but a desert. Some places they burn 
down, some they utterly demolished, and 
whatsoever grew in the country they either 
irud it down or fed upon it, and by their march 
es they made the grourd thet was cultivated 
harder and more untractable than that which 
was barren. In short, there was no sign re 
maining of those places that had ‘een laid 
waste, that ever they had had a being. . 
8. This success of Senen excited the Zealots 
afresh; and though they were afraid to fight 
him openly in a fair battle, yet did they | 
ambushes in the passes, and seized upon his 
wife, with a considerable number of her at- 
tendants; whereupon they came back to the 
city rejoicing, as if they had taken Simon him- 
self’ captive, and were in present expectation 
that he would lay down his arms, and make 
supplication to them for his wife, but instead 
of indulging any merciful affection, he grew 
very angry at them for seizing his beloved 
wife; so he came to the wall of Jerusalem, and, 
like wild beasts when they are wounded, and 
cannot overtake those that wounded them, he 
vented his spleen upon all persons that he met 
with. Accordingly he caught all those that 
were come out of the city gates, either to ga- 
ther herbs or sticks, who were un.rmed, and 
in years; he then tormented them, an * destroy- 
ed them, out of the immense regs he was in, 
and was almost ready to taste the very flesh of 
their dead bodies. He also cut off the hands 
of a great many, and sent them into the city to 
astonish his enemies, and in order to make the 
people fall into a sedition, and desert those that 
had been the authors of his wife’s seizure. He 
also enjoined them to tell the people, that Si 
mon swore by the God of the universe, who 
sees all things, that unless they will restore him 
his wife, he will break down their wall, and in- 
flict the like punishment upon all the citizens, 
without sparing any age, and without making 
any distinction between the guilty and the in- 
nocent. ‘These threateniags so greatly affright- 
ed, not the people only, but the Zealots them- 
selves also, that they seat his wife back to hint 
when he became a little milder, and left off his 
perpetual bloodshedding. a 
9. But now sedition and civil war prevailed 
not only over Judea, but in Italy also, for now 
Galba was slain in the midst of the Roman 
r -rkut-place; then was Otho made emperor 
aid fought ag ‘ast Vitellius, who set up for 
emperor also, for the legions in Goa had 
chosen him. But when he gave battle to Vaiens 
and Cecinna, who were Vitellius’s generals, at 
Betrincum in Gaul, Otho gained the advantages 
on the first day, but on the second ¢ 1y Viieli.uk 
and that particularly for an eminent ° crt or meeting of | 


chants there every year, as the travellers inform us 







“Was without the wall, was a greater terror to 
the people than the Romans themselves, as 


BOOK LV.-CHAPTER fa. Ode 


soldiers had the victory: and after much slaugh- | men, it was sport to them. ‘hey also devour- 


‘ter Otho slew himself, when he had heard of | ed what spoils they had taken, together with 


this defeat at Brixia, and after he had managed their blood, and indulged themselves in femi- 
the public affairs* three months and two days. | ne wantonness, without any disturbance, til, 
Otho’s army also came over to Vitellius’s gen- | ty were satiated therewith: while they deck- 
erals, and he came himself down to Rome with ed their hair and put on women’s garments, ~ 
his army. But in the meantime Vespasian re- and were besmeared over with ointments; and 
moved from Cesarea, on the fifth day of the that they might appear very comely, they .1ad 
month Desius, [Sivan], and marched Bomrasrhiray ter their eyes, and imitated, not only 
those places of Judea which were not yet | the ornaments, but also the lusts of women 
overthrown. So he went up to the mountain- | and were guilty of such intolerable unclean- 
ous country, and took those two toparchies | !"55; that they invented unlawful pleasures of 
that were called the Gophintick and Acrabat- | tliat sort: and thus did they roll themselves up 
tene toparchies. After which he took Bethel and down the city, av in a brothel house, and 


and Ephraim, two small cities, and, when he|efiled it entirely with their impure actions; 


‘had put garrisons into them, he rode as far as! hay, while their faces looked like the faces of 


Jerusalem, in which march he took many |) Women, they killed with their right hands; and 
prisoners, and many captives; but Cerealis, one; when their gait was effeminate, they presently 
of his commanders, took a body of horsemen | aitacked men, and became warriors, and drew 
and footmen, and laid waste that part of Idumea | their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks, 
which was called the Upper Idumea, and at- land ran every body through whom they light- 
tacked Caphethra, which pretended to be ajed upon. However, Simon waited for such as 
small city, and took it at the first onset and | ran away from John, and was the more bloody 
burnt itdown. He also attacked Capharabim, | of the two: and he who had escaped the ty- 
and laid siege to it, for it had a very strong wall, | rant within the wall, was destroyed by the 
and when he expected to spend a long time in| other that lay before the gates, so that all at 
that siege, those that were within opened their | tempts of flying and deserting tothe Romans 
gates on the sudden, and canie to beg pardon, | were cut off, if any had a mind so to do. 
and surrendered themselves up tohim. When| 11. Yet did the army that was under John 
Cerealis had conquered them he went to He- | raise a sedition against him, and all the Idu- 
bron, another very ancient city. I have told | means separated themselves from the tyrant, 
you already, that this city issituated in a moun- | and attempted to destroy him, and this out of 
fainous country not far off Jerusalem; and | their envy at his power, and hatred of his cru- 
when he had broken into the city by force, |elty; so they got together, and slew many of 
what multitude and young men were left there- | the Zealots, and drove the rest before them into 
in he slew, and burnt down the city; so that as | that royal palace that was built by Grapte, who 
now all the places were taken, excepting He- | was a relation of Izates, the king of Adiabene; 
rodium, Masada, and Macherus, which were | the Idumeans fell in with them, and drove the 
in the possession of the robbers, se Jerusalem | Zealots out thence into the temple, and betook 
was what the Romans at present alried at. themselves to plunder John’s effects; for both 
10. And now, as soon as Si:non had set his | he himself was in that palace, and therein had 
wife free, and recovered her trom the Zealots, | he laid up the spoils he had acquired by his ty- 
he returned back to the remainjers of Idumea,|ranny. In the mean time the multitude of the 
and, driving the nation all before hist, from all | Zealots that were dispersed over the city ran 
quarters. he compelled a great number of ther | together to the temple unto those that had fled 
to retire to Jerusalem; he followed them him- | thither, and John prepared to bring them down 
self also to the city, and encompassed the wall | against the people and the Idumeans, whe 
all round again: and when he lighted upon any | were not so much afraid of being attacked by 
laborers that were coming thither out of the | them, because they were themselves better sol- 
country, he slew them. Now this Simon, who | diers than they, as at their madness, lest they 
should privately sally out of the temple and 
get among them, and not only destroy them, 
but set the city on fire also. So they assembled 
upon them than both of the others; and during | themselves together, and the high priests with 
this time did the mischievous contrivances and | them, and took counsel after what manner they 
courage [of John] corrupt the body of the|should avoid their assault. Now it was God 


were the Zealots who were within it more heavy 


Galileans; for these Galileans had advanced | who turned their opinions to the worst advice 


, 


’ 


this John, and made him very potent, who and thence they devised such a remedy to ge’ 
made them a suitable requital from the au- | themselves free, as was worse than the disease 


‘thority he had obtained by their means; for he ! itself. Accordingly, in order to overthrow Johx 


permitted them to lo el] things that any of’! they-determined to admit Simon, and earnestly 
them desired to do, wh''e their inclination to |to desire the introduction of a second tyrant 
plunder was insatiable, u# was their zeal in | into the city; which resolution they brought to 


-Bearchiug the houses of the rich; and for the | perfection, and sent Matthias the high priest, tc 


( 


murdering of the men, and abusing of the wo- | beseech this Simon to come in to them, of 


‘ 


whom they had so often been afraid. ‘Those 
* Suetonius differs hardly three days from Josephus, and also who had fled from the Zealots in Jerusa- 


_ Bays Otho perislied on the 95th day of his reign. In Othon; | 


ie on! h sri. sect. 4. ‘lem, joined in this request tv him, cut of the 
80 


634 


from the Zealots. ‘The people also made joy- 
ful acclamations to him, as their savior and 
their preserver: but when he was come in with 
his army, he took care to secure his own au- 
thority, and looked upon those that had invited 
him in, to be no less his enemies than those 
against who the invitation was intended, 

12. And thus did Simon get possession of 
Jerusalem, in the third year of the war, in the 
month Xanthicus, [Nisan;] whereupon John, 
with his multitude of Zealots, as being both 
hae is from coming out of the temple, and 
raving lost their power in the city, (for Simon 
and his party had plundered them of what they 
had,) were in despair of deliverance. Simon also 
made an assault upon the temple, with the as- , 
sistance of the people, while the others stood 
upon the cloisters and the battleinents, and de- 
fended themselves from their assaults. How- 
ever, a considerable number of Simon’s_ party 
fell, and many were carried off wounded, for the 
Zealots threw their darts easily from a superior 
place, and seldom failed of hitting their enemies; 
but having the advantage of situation, and hav- 
ing withall erected four very large towers afore- 
hand, that their darts might come from higher 
places, one at the northeast corner of the court, 
one above the Xystus, the third at another 
corner over against the lower city, and the last 
was erected above the top of the Pastophoria, 
where one of the priests stood of course, and 
gave a signal beforehand, with a trumpet,* at 
the beginning of every seventh day, in the! 
evening twilight, as also at the evening when 
the day was finished, as giving notice to the 
people when they were to leaye off work, and 
when they were to go to work egain. These 
men also set their engines tc cast darts and 
stones withall, upon those towers, with their 
archers and slingers. And now Simon made 
his assault upon the temple more faintly, by 
reason that the greatest part of his men grew 
weary of the work; yet did he not leave off 
his opposition, because his army was superior 
to the others, although the darts which were 
thrown by the engines were carried a great way, 
and slew many of those that fought for him. 


CHAPTER X. 


How the soldiers, both in Judea and Egypt, pro- 
claimed Vespasian Emperor. And how Ves- 
pasian released Josephus of his bonds. 


§,1. Now about this very time it was that 
‘eavy calamities came about Rome on all sides; 
for Vitellius was come from Germany with 
his soldiery, and drew along with him a great 
multitude of other men besides. And when 
the spaces allotted for the soldiers could not 
contain them, he made all Rome itself his 

* This beginning and ending the observation of the Jewish 
seventh day, or Sabbath, with a priest’s blowing of a trumpet 
is remarkable, and nowhere else mentioned, that I know of. 
Nor is Reland’s conjecture here improbable, that this was the 


rere pere that has puzzled vur commentators so long, call- 
ad ach Saibak, the Govert of the Sabbath, if that be the 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


desire they had of preserving their houses and | camp, and filled all the houses with arme 
their effects. Accordingly he, in an arrogant | men: which men, when they saw the riches o 
manner, granted them his lordly protection, | Rome with those eyes which had never sex 
and came into the city in order to deliver it | such riches before, and found themselves sho 




















Low 
round about on all sides with silver and gold. 
they had much ado to contain their covetous 
desires, and were ready to betake themselves 
to plunder, and to the slaughter of such as 
should stand in their way. And this was the 
state of affairs in Italy at that time. a 

2. But when Vespasian had overthrown al! 
the places that were near to Jerusalem, he re- 
tun:ed to Caesarea, and heard of the troubles 
that were at itome, and that Vitellius was em- 
peror. This pre-luced indignation in him, al- 
though he well «new how to be governed as 
well as to govern, and could not with any sat- 
isfaction, own him for his lord, who acted so 
madly, and seized upon the government as if 
it were absolutely destitute of a governor. 
A :d as this sorrow of his was violent, he was 
not able to support the torments he was under, 
nor to apply himself farther in other wars, 
when his native country was laid waste; bur 
then, as much as his passion excited him to 
avenge his country, so much was he restrained 
by the consideration of his distance therefrom; 
because fortune might prevent him, and doa 
world of mischief before he could himself sail 
over the sea to Italy, especially as it was still 
the winter season: so he restrained his anger, 
how vehement soever it was, at this time. . 

3. But now his commanders and soldiera 
met in several companies, and consulted openly 
about changing the public affairs, and out of 
their indignation, cried out, how “at Rome 
there are soldiers that live delicately; and wher 
they have not ventured so much as to hear the 
fame of war, they ordain whom they please for 
cur governors, and in hopes of gain make them 
emperors; while you who have gone through 
so many labors, and are grown into years under 
your helmets, give leave to others to use such & 
power when yet you have among yourselves 
one more worthy torule than any whom they 
have set up. Now what juster opportunity 
shall they ever have of requiting their generals, 
if they do not make use of this that is now 
before them? while there is so much juster 
reasons for Vespasian’s being emperor than for 
Vitellius; as they are themselves more deserv- 
ing than those that made the other emperors; 
for that they have undergone as great wars 89 
have the troops that come from Germany; nor 
are they inferior in war to those that hava 
brought that tyrant to Rome, nor have they 
undergone smaller labors than they; for that 
neither will the Roman senate nor people, 
bear such a lascivious emperor as Vitellius, 1 
he be compared with their chaste Vespasian; 
nor will they endure a most barbarous tyrants 
instead of a good governor, nor choose oné 
that hath no child,* to preside over them, iD- 
Stood dry, tader a covering, to prociaim ae beginning a’ 
ending of every Jewish Sabbath. i, 

* The Roman authors that now remain, say Vitelli 


children; whereas Josephus introduces here the Roman 80 
diers in Judea, saying that he had none. Which of tb 











i 

















ve 


v 


é 





BOOK IV.—CHAPTER XX. 
stead of him tha: is a father; because the ad- 


vancement >f men’s own children to dignities 
is certainly the greatest security kings can give 
for themselves. Whether, therefore, we esti- 
mate the capacity of governing from the skill 
of a person in years, we ought to have Vespa- 
sian; or whether fror:. the strength of a young 
man, we ought to have Titus; for by this means 
we shal] have the advantage of both their ages, 
for that they will afford strength to those that 
shall be made emperors, they having already 
tnree legions, besides uther auxiliaries from the 
neighboring kings, and will have farther all the 
armies in the East to support them, as also 
those in Europe, so far as they are out of the 
distance and dread of Vitellius, besides such 
auxiliaries as they may have in Italy itself, that 
is, Vespasian’s hrother,* and his other son 
{Domitien;] the one of whom will bring in a 
great many of those young men that are of 
dignity, while the other is intrusted with the 
government of the city, which office of his 
will be no small means of Vespasian’s obtain- 
ing the government. Upon the whole, the 
case may be -uch, that if we ourselves make 
farther delays, the senate may choose an em- 
peror, whom the soldiers, who are the saviors 
of the empire, will have in contempt.” 

4, 'These were the discourses the soldiers had 
in their several companies; after which they 
got together in a great body, and encouraging 
one another, they declared Vespasian empe- 
ror,t and exhorted him to save the government, 
which was in danger. Now Vespasian’s con- 
cern had been for a considerable time about the 
public, yet did he not intend to set up for go- 
vernor himself, though his actions showed him 


to deserve it, while he preferred that safety | 


which is in a private life, before the dangers in 
a state of such dignity; but while he refused 
the empire, the commanders insisted the more 
earnestly upon his acceptance, and the soldiers 
came about him, with their drawn swords in 
their hands, and threatened to kill him, unless 
he would now live according to his dignity. 
And whe: he had shown his reluctance a great 
while, and hed :deavored to thrust away his 
dominion fr n. him, he at length, being not 
able to persua ‘e them, yielded to their solicita- 
tions that would salute him emperor. 

5. So upon the exhortations of Mucianus, 


and the other commanders, that he would 1c- 


cept of the empire, and upon that of the est 
of the army, who cried out, that they were 
willing to be led against all his opposers, he 
was in the first piece intent upon gaining the 

ominion over ¢.lexandria, as knowing that 
Eg ypt was of the yreatest consequence, in or- 
der to obtain the entire government, because 
of its supplying corn {to Rome,] which corn, 


gesertions was the truth I know not. Spanheim thinks he 
hath given a peculiar reason fur calling Vitellius childless, 
though he really bad childrer. Diss. de Niun. pages 649, 
650, to which it appears very difficult to give our as-ent. 

* This brother of Vespasian was Flavius Sabimua, as Sue- 
tonius informs us in Vitell. sect. 15, and in Vespas. sect. 2. 
He is also named by Josephus presently, chap. xi. sec. 4, 

¢ Itis plain by the nature of the thing, as well as by Jo- 
il de and Eutropius, that Vespasian was first of aj] salut- 

emperor in Judea, and not till sometime afterward in 


if he could be master of, he hoped to dethrone 
Vitellius, supposing he should aim to keep the 
empire by force, (for he would not be able to 
support himself, if the multitude at Rome 
should once be in want of food); and because 
he was desirous to join the two legions that 
were at Alexandria to the other two legions 
that were with him. He also considered with 
himself, that he should then have that country 
for a defence to himself against the uncertainty 
of fortune. For Egypt is hard to be entered 
by land,* and hath no good havens by sea. It 
hath on the west the dry deserts of Libye, and 
on the south Syene, that divides it from Ethio- 
pia, as well as the cataracts of the Nile, that 
cannot be sailed over; and on the east the Red 
Sea, extending as far as Coptus; and it is forti- 
fied on the north by the land that reaches to 
Syria, together with that called the Egyptian 
Sea, having no havens in it for ships. And 
thus is Egypt walled about on every side. Its 
length between Pelusium and Syene is two 
thousand furlongs, and the passage by sea from 
Plinthine to Pelusium is three thousand six 
hundred furlongs. Its river Nile is navigable 
as far as the city called Elephantine; the fore- 
named cataracts hindering ships from go- 
ing any farther. The haven also of Alexandria 
is not entered by the mariners without diffi- 
culty, even in times of peace; for the passage 
inward is narrow, and full of rocks, that lie 
under the water, which obliges the mariners to 
turn from a straight direction; its left side is 
blocked up by works made by men’s hands on 
both sides; on its right side lies the island call- 
ed Pharus, which is situated just before the en- 
trance, and supports a very great tower, that 
affords the sight of a fire to such as sail with- 
in three hundred furlongs of it, that ships may 
cast anchor a great way off in the night-time 
by reason of the difficulty of sailing nearer. 
About this island are built very great piers, the 
handywork of men, against which when the 
sea dashes itself, and its waves are broken 
against those boundaries, the navigation be- 
comes very troublesome, and the entrance 
througt: so narrow a passage is rendered dan- 
gerous; yet is the haven itself, wher you are 
got into it, a very safe one, and of thirty fur- 
longs in largeness; into which is brought what 
the country wants in order to its happiness, as 
also what abundance the country affords, more 
than it wants itself, is hence distributed inte all 
the habitable earth. 


6. Justiy, therefore, did Vespasian desire w 
obtain that government, in order to cerrcborate 
his attempts upon the whole empire; so he im- 
mediately sent to Tiberius Alexander, who was 
then governor of Egypt and of Alexandria, 
and informed him what the army had put him 


Egypt. Whence Tacitus’s and Suetonius’s present copies 
must be corrected, when they both say that he was first pro- 
claimed in Egypt, and that on the calendsof July, while 
they still say it was the fifth of the nones or ides of the 
same July before he was proclaimed in Judea. I suppcse 
the month they there intended was June, and not July, ag 
the copies now have it; nor does Tacitus’s coherence imply 
l-as3 see Fasay on the Revelation, p. 135. 

* Here we have an authentic description of the bounds and 
circumstances of Egypt in the days of Vespasian and Titas, 


§3U 


upon and how he being forced to accept of 
the burden or the government, was desirous to 
have him for his confederate and supporter. 
Now as soon as ever Alexander had read this 
retter, he readily obliged the legions and the 
multitude to take the oath of fidelity to Ves- 

asian, both of whom willingly complied with 
ky as already acquainted with the cou- 
rage of the man, from that his conduct in their 
neigaborhood. Accordingly Vespasian, looking 
apon himself as already intrusted with the go- 
vernment, got all things ready for his journey 
[to Ronse] Now fame carried this news 
abroad :uore suddenly than one could have 
thought, shat he was emperor over the East, 
upon which every city kept festivals, and cele- 
brated sacrifices and oblations for such good 
news; the legions also that were in Mysia and 
Pannoma, who had been in commotion a little 
before, ov account of this insolent attempt of 
Vitelliis, were very glad to take the oath of 
fidelity to Vespasian, upon his coming to the 
empire. Vespasian then removed from Cesa- 
rcato Berytus, where many embassages came to 
him from Syria, and many from other provin- 
ces, bringing with them from every city crowns 
and the congratulations of the people. Mucia- 
nus came also, who was the president of the 
province, and told him with what alacrity the 
people received the news [of his advancement, ] 
and how the people of every city had taken the 
oath of fidelity to him. 

7. So Vespasian’s good fortune succeeded to 
his wishes everywhere, and the public affairs 
were for the greatest part already in his hands; 
upon which he considered that he had not ar- 
rived at the government without divine Provi- 
dence, but that a righteous kind of fate had 
brought the empire under his power; for as he 
called to mind the other signals, which had 
been a great many everywhere, that foretold 
he should obtain the government, so did he re- 
member what Josephus had said to him when 
he ventured to foretell his coming to the em- 
pire while Nero wes alive: so he was much 
concerned that this man was still in bonds with 
nim. He then called .for Mucianus, together 
with his other commanders and friends, and 
in the first place, he informed them what a 
valiant man Josephus had been, and what 
great hardships he had made him undergo in 
the siege of Jotapata. After that he related 
those predictions* of his which he had then 
suspected as fictions, suggested out of the fear 
he was in, but which had by time been demon- 
strated to be divine. “It is a shameful thing, 
said he, that this man who hath foretold my 
comuig to the empire beforehand, and been the 


* As Danie was preferred by Darius and Cyrus, on ac- 
coun‘ of his having foretold the destruction of the Babylo- 
nian monarchy by their means, and the consequentexaltation 
of the Medes and Persians, y. vi. or rather, as Jeremiah, 
when he was a prisoner, was set at liberty, and honorably 
treated by Nebuzaradan, at the command of Nebuchadnez- 
war, on account of his having foretold the destruction of Je- 
rusalem by the Babylonians, Jer. xl. 1—6, so was our Jose- 
fous set at liberty, and honorably treated, on account of his 

ving foretold the advancement of Vespasian and Titus to 
the Roman empire. All these are most eminent instances 
of the interpositior uf divine Providence, and of the cer- 
tainty of divine predictions ‘n tie great revolutions of the 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





minister of a divine m to me, 
still be retained in the condition of a captive ¢ 
prisoner.” So he called for Josephus, and 
commanded that he snould be set at liberty: 
whereupon the commanders promised them- 
selves glorious things from this requital Ves- 
pasian made to a stranger. ‘Titus was then pre- 
sent with his father, and said, “O father, it is 
but just that the scandal [of a prisoner] should 
be taken off Josephus, together with his iron 
chain. For if we do but barely loose his bonds, 
and not cut them to pieces, he will be like a 
man that had never been bound at all.” For that 
is the usual method to such as have been bound 
without a cause. This advice was agreed to 
by Vespasian also; so there came a man in, and 
cut the chain to pieces; while Josephus receiv 
ed this testimony of his int.grity for a reward, 
and was moreover esteemed a person of credit 
as to futurities also. 


CHAPTER XI. 


That upon the conquest an? slaughter of Vitel 
lius, Vespasian hastened ins juurney to Rome, 
but Titus, his son, returned to Jerusalem. 

§ 1. And now, when Vespasian had given 
answers to the embassages, and i:ad disposed 
of the places of power justly,* and accordi 
to every one’s deserts, he came to Antioch, ant 
consulting which way he had best take, he pre 
ferred to go to Rome, rather than to march to 
Alexandria, because he saw that Alexandria 
was sure to him already, but that the affairs 
at Rome were put into disorder by Vitellius; 
so he sent Mucianus to Italy, and committed 
a considerable army, both of horsemen and 
footmen, to him; yet was Mucianus afraid of 
going by sea, because it was the middle of 
winter, and so he led his army on foot through 
Cappadocia and Phrygia. 

2. In the mean time Antonius Primus took 
the third of the legions that were in Mysia, for 
he was president of that province, and made 
haste in. order to fight Vitellius; whereupon 
Vitellius sent away Cecinna with a great army — 
having a mighty confidence in him, because of _ 
his having beaten Otho. Thus Cecinna march- 
ed out of Rome in great haste, and found An- 
tonius about Cremona in Gall, which city is ir” 
the borders of Italy; but when he saw there 
that the enemy were numerot:* and in good or-- 
der, he durst not fight them, and as he th . 
a retreat dangerous, so he began to think of be 
traying his army to Antonius. Accordingly 
he assembled the centurions and tribunes tha ~ 
were under his command, and persuaded thems” 
to go over to Antonius, and this by diminishing : 
the reputation of Vitellius, and by exaggerating 
four monarchies. Several such ’ike examples there 4 
in the sacred and other histones; as in the case of J 1 
Egypt, and of Jaddua the higa priest in the days of Alex — 
ander the Great, &c. 

* This is well observed by Josephus, that Vespas 
erder to secure his success, and establish his government at 
first, distribyted his offices and places upon the foot of ju 
lice, and bestowed them on such as best deserved then 
and were best “t forthem. Which wise conduct ina m 


heathen ought to put those rulers and ministers of 
*: ume, who, pro‘essing Christianity, act othe: 









rwise, aM 
Wereby expose themselves and their kingdoms © vice a 
to destruction. 


i 
the power of Vespasian. He also told them, 
that “with the one there was no more than the 
_ bare name of dominion, bun with the other was 
‘the power of it; and that it was better for them 
to prevent necessity, aud gaic favor, and, while 
they were likely to be overcome in battle, to 
avoid the danger beforehand, and go over to 


i 


Antonius willingly; that Vespasian was able of 


himself to subdue what had not yet submitted, 
‘without their assistance, while Vitellius could 
‘mot preserve what he had already with it.” 
__ 3. Cecinna said this, and much more to the 
game purpose, and persuaded them to comply 
with him, and both he and his army deserted: 
but still the very same night the soldiers re- 
_ pented of what they had ‘tone, and a fear seiz- 
ed on them, lest perhaps Vitellius, who sent 
them, should get the better; and, drawing their 
swords, they assaulted Cecinna, in order to 
kill him; aid the t}::ng hac been done by them, 
if the tribunes had not fallen upon their knees, 
_and besought them not to do it; so the soldiers 
did not kill him, but put hin in bonds, as a 
traitor, and were about to send him to Vitellius. 
When [Antonius] Primus heard of this, he 
raised up his men immediately, and made 
them put on their armor, and led them against 
those that had revolted; hereupon they put 
themselves in order of battle, and made a re- 
sistance for awhile, but were soon beaten, and 
fled to Cremona: then did Primus take his 
horsemen, and cut off their entrance into the 
city, and encompassed and destroyed a great 
multitude of them before the city, and fell into 
the city together with the rest, and gave leave 
to his soldiers to plunder it. And _ here it was 
that many strangers, who were merchants, as 
well as many of the people of that country, 
perished, among them Vitellius’s whole army, 
being thirty thousand aod two hundred, while 
Antonius lost no more of those that came with 
him from Mysiat an .. ~ thousand and five 
hundred: he the loose: Cecinna, and sent 
nim to Vespasian to tell nim the good news. 
So he came an‘ was received by him, and 
_ severed the sc ndal of his treachery by the 
mmexpected ho rs he received from Vespa- 
Sian. 

4. And now, upon the news that Antonius 
| Was approaching, Sabinus took courage at 
- Rome, and assembled those cohorts of soldiers 
that kept watch by night, and in the night-time 
- Seized upon the capitol, and, as the day came 


on, many men of character came over to him, , 


_with Domitian, his brother’s son, whose en- 
_ cOuragement was of a very great weight for 
the compassing the government. Now Vitel- 
_ lius was not much concerned at this Primus, 
_ but was yery angry with those that had revolt- 
ed with Sabinus, and thirsting, out of his own 
natural barbarity, after noble blood, he sent out 
that part of the army which came along with 
_ him to fight against the capitol, and many bold 
/( actions were done on this side, and on the side 
. of those that held the temple. But at last, the 
‘soldiers that came from Germany, being too 
 Bumerous for the others, got the hill into their 
| possession, where Domitian, with many other 





BOOK IV.— 


CHAPTER XI, 637 
of the principal Romans, providentially escap- 
ed, while the rest of the multitude were en- 
tirely cut to pieces, and Sabinus himself wag 
brought to Vitellius, and then slain; the soldiers 
also plundered the temple of its ornaments, 
and set it on fire. But now within a day’s 
time came Antonius, with his army, and were 
met by Vitelliusand his army; and having had 
a battle in three several places, the last were all 
destroyed. Then did Vitellius come out of the 
palace, in his cups, and satiated with an extra- 
vagant and luxurious meal, asin the last ex- 
tremity ; and being drawn along through the 
multitude, and abused with all sorts of tor- 
ments, had his head cut off in the midst of 
Rome, having retained the government eight 
months and five days;* and had he lived much 
longer, | cannot but think the empire would 
not have been sufficient for his lust. Of the 
others that were slain, were numbered above 
fifty thousand. This battle was fought on the 
third day of the month Apelleus [Casleu] ; on 
the next day Mucianus came into the city with 
his army, and ordered Antonius and his men 
to leave off killing; for they were still search- 
ing the houses, and killed many of Vitellius’s 
soldiers, and many of the populace, as sup- 
posing them to be of his party, preventing by 
their rage any accurate distinction between 
them and others. He then produced Domi- 
tian, and recommended him to the multitude, 
until his father should come himself: so the 
people, being now freed from their fears, made 
acclamations of joy for Vespasian, as for their 
emperor, and kept festival days for his con- 
firmation, and for the destruction of Vitellius. 

5. And now, as Vespasian was come to Al- 
exandria, this good news came from Rome, 
and at the same time came embassies from all 
his own habitable earth, to congratulate him 
upon his advancement; and though this Alex- 
andria was the greatest of all cities next to 
Rome, it proved too narrow to contain the 
multitude that then came to it. So upon this 
confirmation of Vespasian’s entire government, 
which was now settled, and upon the unex- 
pected deliverance of the public affairs of the 
Romans from ruin, Vespasian turned his 
thoughts to what remained unsubdued in Ju- 
dea. However, he himself made haste to go 
to Rome, as the winter was now almost over, 
and soon set the affairs of Alexandria in order, 
but sent his son Titus, with a select part of his 
army, to destroy Jerusalem, So Titus march- 
ed on foot as far as Nicopolis, which is distant 

| twenty furlongs from Alexandria; there he put . 

his army on board some long ships, and sailed 


* The numbers in Josephus, chap. iz. sect. 2, 9, for Galbs 
7 months 7 days, for Otho 3 months 2 cay , and here for Vi 
tellius 8 months 5 days, do not agree with any Roman Lis 
torians, who also disagree among themselves. And, indeed, 
Sealiger justly complains, as Dr Hudson obaerves on chap. 
ix. sect. 2, that this period is very confused and uncertain im 
the ancient zuthors. They were probably some of them 
contemporary for some time; one of the best evidences we 
‘aye, ' mean Prwolemy’s Canon, omits them all, as if they did 
uot aly.yether reign one whole year, nor had 2 single Thoth 
or Nea#-yeas's day (which tucs rellupon Aug. 6) in their en- 
tire rrigms. Dio also, who says that Vitellius reigned a yeaa 
witrin ten days, does yet estimate all their reigns together a& 
ni wmore than | year sinonuth and dava. 


638 


apon the river along the Mendesian Numus, as 
far as the city Thmuis; there he got out of the 
ships, and walked on foot, and lodged all night 
at a small city called Tanis. His second sta- 
tion was Heracleopolis, and his third Pelusium; 
he then refreshed his army at that } lace for 
two days, and on the third passed over the 
mouth of the Nile at Pelusium; Le then pre- 
ceeded oue station over the desert, and pitched 
his camp at the desert of the Casian Jupiter,” 


* There are coins of this Casian Jupiter still extant, 04 
8panheim here informs us. 





WARS OF THE JEWS. 


and on the next day st Ostracine. ‘This stanton 
had no water, but the people of the country 
make use of water brought from other places, — 
After this he rested at Rhinocolura, and from 
thence he went tu Raphia, which was his fourth 
station. This city is the beginning of Syria, 
For his fifth station he pitched his camp at 
Gaza; afler which he came to Ascalon, and_ 
thence to Jamni* and after that to Joppa, and- 
fron) Joppa to Casarea, having taken a resolu- 
tion to gather all his other forces together a 
that piace. 


BOOK V. 


OONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF NEAR SIX MONTHS.--FEOM THE COMING OF TITUS TO bESTEGE 
JERUSALEM, TO THE GREAT EXTREMITY TO WHICH THE JEWS WERE REDUCED. 





CHAPTER I. 


Cencernung the seditions at Jerusalem, and what 
terrible miseries afflicted the city by their means. 


§ 1. Wuen, therefore, Titus had_marched 
over that desert which lies between Egypt and 
Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came 
to Ceesarea, having resolved to set his forces in 
order at that place before he began the war. 
Nay, indeed while he was assisting his father 
at Alexandria in settling that government which 
had been newly conferred upon them by God, 
it so happened, that the sedition at Jerusalem 
was revived, and parted into three factions; and 
that one faction fought against the other, which 
partition in such evil cases may be said to be a 

ood thing, and the effect of divine Justice. 
Now, as to the attack the Zealots made upon 
the people, and which I esteem the beginning 
af the city’s destruction, it hath been already 
explained after an accurate manner; as also 
whence it arose, and to how great a mischief it 
was increased. But, for the present sedition, 
one should not mistake if he called it a sedition 
begotten by another’s sedition, and to be like a 
wild beast grown mad, which, for want of food 
from abroad, fell now upon eating its own flesh. 


2. For Eleazar, the son of Simon, who made 
tlie first separation of the Zealots from the peo- 
pie, and made then retire into the temple, ap- 
peared very angry at John’s insolent attempts 
which he made every day upon the people; for 
this man never left off murdering; but the 
truth was, that he could not bear to submit to 
a tyrant who set up after him. So he being 
desirous of gaining the entire power and domin- 
ion fo himself, revolted from John, and took to 
his assistance Judas, the son of Chelcias, and: 
Simon the so.: of Ezron, who were among the 
men of greatest power. There was also with 
him Hezekiah the son of Chobar, a person of 
eminence. Each of these were followed by a 
great many of the Zealots; these seized upon 
the inner court of the temple,* and laid their 


* This appears to be the first time thst the Zealots ventur- 


ed to pollute this most sacred cour of the temple, whic’ ; ;:* and the altar’? several months before, b. iv. ch. v. 


was the court of the 
tt“ altar stocd. 


priests, wherein the temple itself ar}, -« ‘f he were slain there by these Zealots, is groundless a 
So that the conjecture of thoze that would 1 I save noted on that place already a 


arms u}«n the holy gates, and over the holy 
fronts cf that court. And because they had 
plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, 
for there was a great abundance of what was 
consecrated to sacred uses, and they scrupled 
not the making use of them; yet were they afraid 
on account oi their small number, and when 
they had laid up their arms there, they did not 
stir from the place they were in. Now as to 
John, what edventage he had above Eleazar in 
the multitude of his followers, the like disad- 
vantage he had in chu situation he was in, since 
he had his enemies over his head; and as he 
could not make any assault upon them withour 
some terror, so was his anger too great to let 
them be at rest; nay, although he sufiered more 
mischief from Eleavsr ond his party than he 
could inflict upon t!.em, ye: would he not ieave 
off assaulting the1a, insomiwh that there wens 
continual sallies made o” e age inst another, an’ 
ue temple was defiled verywhere with mui - 
ers. 

3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son 
Gioras, whom the people had inviced in, out c* 
the hopes they had of his assistance in the 
great distresses they were in, having in his pow 
er the upper city, and a great part of the low. 
er, did now make more vehement assaults upoi 
John and his party, because they were fough — 
against from above also; yet was he beneat: 
their situation when he attacked them, as thes 
were beneath the attacks of the others above 
them. Whereby it came to pass that John dio 
both receive and inflict great damage, and that 
easily, as he was fought against on both sides 
and the same advantage that Eleazar and hiv 
party had over him, since he was beneath them, — 
the same advantage, had he, by his higher sit-— 
uation, over Simon. On which account he 
easily repelled thy attacks that wore made from 
beneath, by the weapons thrown from thei 
hands only; but was obliged to repel those that 
threw their darts from the temple above him, 
by his engines of war; for he had such engines 


ip #rpret that Zacharias, who, was slain “between the a | 






BOOK V.—CHAPTER |] 


xs threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and 
that in no smail number, by which he did not 
mly defend himself from such as fought 
ygainst him, but slew moreover many of the 
priests, as they were about their sacred minis- 
rations. For notwithstanding these men were 
mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still 
admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, 
iithough they took care to search the people of 
heir own country beforeha *, wand both sus- 
yected and watched them, while they were not 
x much afraid of stra gers, who, although 
hey had gotten leave of them, how cruel so- 
sver they were, to colae into that court, were 
yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those 
jarts that were thrown by the engines came 
with that force that they went over all the 
suildings, and reached as far as the altar and 
he temple itself, and fell upon the priests and 
hose that were about the sacred offices;* inso- 
nuch, that many persons who came thither 
with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to 
ffer sacrifices at this celebrated }.ace, which 
was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down 
yefore their own sacrifices themseives, and 
sprinkled that altar which was venerable among 
ul men, both Greeks and barbarians, with their 
ywn blood; till the dead bodies ctf strangers 
were iningled together with those o; their own 
~ountry, and those of profane ;ersons with 
hose of the priests, and the blood of all sorts 
f dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy 
courts themselves. And now,*“O most wretch- 
sd city, what misery so grea: as this didst thou 
iuffer from the Romans, when they came to 
ourify thee from thy intestine hatred? For 
hou couldst be no longar # place fit for God, 
10r couldst thou longer continue in being, 
ufter thou hadst been a sepulchre for the bo- 
lies of thy own people, and hadst made the 
oly house itself a burying place in this civil 
war of thine. Yet mayest thou again grow 
detter, 1f perchance thou wilt hereafter appease 
he anger of that God who is the author of thy 
lestruction.”+ But I must restrain myself 
‘rom these passions by the rules of history, 
ince this is not a proper time for domestic la- 
nentations, but for historical narrations; I 
herefore return to the operations that follow 
D this sedition. 

4, And now there were three treacherous 
factions in the city, the one parted from the 
ther. Eleazar and his party, that kept the 
sacred first-fruits, came against John in their 
mips. ‘Those that were with John plundered 
the populace, and went out with zeal against 
Simon. This Simon had his supply of provi- 
ions from the city, in opposition to the sedi- 
jous. When, therefore, John was assaulted 
m both sides, he made his men turn about, 
hrowing his darts upon those citizens that 

* The Lev'‘es. 

t This is an excellent reflection of Josephus including his 
‘pes of the restoration of the Jews upon their repentance, 
‘ce Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 46, wi:ici is the grand Hope of 
Israei, as Manasseh-ben-Israe], t+. fumous Jewish rabbi, 
myles it, in his small but remarkable treatise on that subject, 
if which the Jewish prophets are everywhere full; see the 


*ncipal of those prophecies collected together at the end 
the Essay on the Revelation, page 122. &e. 


- 


638. 
came up against him from the eloisters he had 
in his possession, while he opposed those that 
attacked him from the temple by his engines 
of war. And if at any time he was freed 
from those that were above him, which hap- 
pened frequently, from their being drunk and 
tired, he sallied out with a great number upon 
Simon and his party; and this he did always 
in such parts of the city as he could come at, 
till he set on fire those houses that were full of 
corn,* and of all other provisions. The same 
thing was done by Simun, when upon wwe 
other’s retreat, he attacked the city also; ar +f 
they had on purpose done it to serve the Ro- 
mans, by destroying what the city had laid up 
against the siege, and by thus cutting off the 
nerves of their own power. Accordingly, it 
so came to pass, that all the places that were 
about the temple were burnt down, and were 
become an intermediate desert space, ready for 
fighting on both sides of it; and that almost all 
that corn was burnt, which would have been 
sufficient for a siege of many years. So they 
were taken by the means of the famine, which 
it was impossible they should have been, un- 
less they had thus prepared the way for it by 
this procedure. 

5. And now, as the city was engaged in a 
war on all sides, froin these treacherous crowda 
of wicked men, the people of the city, be- 
tween them, were like a great body torn in 
pieces. The aged men and the women were 
in such distress by their internal calamities, 
that they wished for the Romans, and earnestly 
hoped for an external war, in order to their 
delivery from their domestic miseries. The 
citizens themselves were under a terrible con- 
sternation and fear; nor had they any oppor 
tunity of taking counsel, and of changing their 
conduct; nor were there any hopes of coming 
to an agreement with their enemies; nor could 
such as had a mind flee away; for guards were 
sat at all places, and the heads of the robbers, 
although they were seditious one against 
ancthez in other respects, yet did they agree in 
killing those that were for peace with the Ro- 
mans, or were suspected of an inclination to 
desert to them, as their common enemies. 
They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those 
that were innocent. The noise also of those 
that were fighting was incessant, both by day 
and by night; but the lamentations of those 
that mourned exceeded the other; nor was 
there ever any occasion for them to leave off 
their lamentations, because their calarnities 
came perpetually one upon another, although 
the deep consternation they were in prevel .ed 
their outward wailing; but being constra.aed 
by their fear to conceal their inward pass.ons, 
they were inwardly tormented, without daring 
to open their lips in groans. Nor was ««y re- 

* This destruction of such a vast quantity ef corn and 
other provisions, as was sufficient for many yeays, was the 
direct occasion of that terrible famine which consumed in- 
credible numbers of Jews in Jerusalem during its siege. Nog 
probably could the Romans have taken this city, after all, 
had not these seditious Jev7s becn so infatuated as thus madly 


to destroy what Josephus here justly style “the nerves of 
their power.”’ 


40 


gard paid to those that were still alive by their 
relations; nor was there any care taken of bu- 
rial for those that were dead; the occasion of 
both which was this, that every one despaired 
of himself; for those that were not among the 
seditious had no great desires of any thing, as 
expecting for certain that they should very 
soon be destroyed; but for the seditious them- 
selves, they fought against each other, while 
they trod upon the dead bodies as they lay 
heaped one upon another, and taking up a 
mad rage from those dead bodies that were 
under their feet, became the fiercer thereupon. 
They, moreover, were still inventing somewhat 
or other that was pernicious against themselves; 
and when they had resolved upon any thing, 
they executed it without mercy, and omitted no 
method of torment or of barbarity. Nay, John 
abused the sacred materials,* and employed 
them in the construction of his engines of war; 
for the people and the priests had formerly de- 
termined to support the teinple, and raise the 
holy house twenty cubits higher; for king 
Agrippa had at a very great expense, and with 
very great pains, brought thither such mate- 
rials as were proper for that purpose, being 
pieces of timber very well worth seeing, both 
for their straightness and their largeness; but 
the war coming on, end interrupting the work, 
John had them cut, and prepared for the build- 
ing him towers, he finding them long enough 
to oppose from them those bis adversaries that 
fought from the temple that was above him. 
He also had them brought and erected behind 
the inner court over against the west end of 
the cloister, where alone he could erect them,t 
whereas the other sides of that court had so 
many steps as would not let them come nigh 
enough to the cloisters, 

6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his 
enemies by these engines constructed by his 
impiety; but God himself demonstrated’ that 
his pains would prove of no use to him, by 
bringing the Romans upon him, before he had 
reared any of his towers; for Titus, when he 
had gotten together part of his forces about 
nim, and had ordered the rest to meet him at 
Jerusalem, marched out of Caesarea. He had 
with him those three legions that had accompa- 
nied his father, when he laid Judea waste, to- 
gether with that twelfth legion which had been 
formerly beaten with Cestius; which legion, as 
it was otherwise remarkable for its valor, so 
did it march on now with great alacrity to 
avenge themselves on the Jews, as remem- 
bering what they had formerly suffered from 
them. Of these legions he ordered the fifth to 
meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the 
tenth to go up by Jericho; he also moved 
himself, togetue: with the rest: besides which, 
marched those auxiliaries that came from the 
kings, being now more in number than before, 
together with a considerable number that came 

* This timber, we see, was designed for the rebuilding 
those twenty additional cubits of the holy house above the 
aundred which had fallen down some years before: see the 
note on Antiq. b. xv. ch. xi. sect. 3. 


t There being no gate on the west, 


‘ and only on the west 
«ide of the court of the priests, 


and so no steps there, this 


WARS OF THE JEWS. - 


ait 


=a =z 


to his assistance from Syria. Those also cna 
had been selected out of these four legions, and 

sent with Mucianus to Italy, had their places 

filled up out of those soldiers that came out at | 
Egypt with Titus, which were two thousand 

men, chosen out of the armies at Alexandria, 
There followed him also three thousand drawn 
from those that guarded the river Euphrates, 
as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who 
was a friend of his, most valuable, both for his_ 
good will to him, and for his prudence. He 
had formerly been governor of Alexandria. but. 
was now thought worthy to be general of the 
army [under 'Titus.] The reason of this was, 
that he had been the first who had encouraged 
Vespasian very lately to accept this his new 
dotinion, and joined himself to him with great 
fidelity, when things were uncertain, and for- 
tune had not yet declared for him. He also 

followed Titus as 4 counsellor, very useful to” 
him in this war, both by his age and skill in 

such affairs, 


CHAPTER II. 


How Titus marched to Jerusalem, and how he 
was in danger, as he was taking a view of the 
city; of the place also where he yntched his camp. 
§ 1. New as Titus was upon his march inte 

the enemy’s country, the auxiliaries that were 

sent by the kings marched first, having all the 
other auxiliaries with them, after whom follow- 
ed those that were to prepare the roads, and _ 
measure out the camp; then came the com. 
mander’s baggage, and after that the other sok 

diers, who were completely armed to support — 
them; then came ‘Titus himself, having with 
him another select body, and then came the 
pikemen; after whom came the horse belong-— 
ing to that legion. All these came before the 
engines, and after these engines, came the tre 
bunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with theit © 
select bodies; after these came the ensigns, with — 
the eagle; and before these ensigns came the 
trumpeters belonging to them; next to these” 
came the main body of the army in their ranks, _ 
every legion being six deep; the servants be- 

longing to every legicn came after these: and 

before these last their baggage; the mercena- _ 
ries came last, and those that guarded them 
brought up the rear, Now Titus, according to 
the Roman usage, went in the front of the ar- 

my after a decent manner, and marched through 

Samaria to Gophna, a city that had heen for-— 

merly taken by his father, and was then gartk — 

soned by Roman soldiers: and, when he had’ 
lodged there one night he marched on in the 
morning; and when he had gone as far as® 
day’s march, he pitched his camp at that val 
ley which the Jews, in their own tongue, call 
the Valley of Thorns, near a certain villag 
called Gabaoth-Saul, which signifies, the Hil) 
of Saul, being distant from Sonu about 


thirty furlongs. There it was that he chose 
was the only side that the seditious, under this John of Ge 
chala, could bring their engines close to the cloisters of tt 
court endways, though upon the floor of the court of {eras 
see the scheme of that temple in the description of the tea 
ples hereto belonging. in 











BOOK V.—CHAPTER IL. 


oul SIX nundred se.ect norsemen, and went to 
take a view of the city, to observe what strength 
it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; 
whether when they saw him, and before they 
exme to a direct battle, they would be affright- 
e| and submit; for he had been informed, what 
was really true, that the people who were fall- 
en under the power of the seditious and the 
robbers, were greatly desirous of peace; but 
being too weak to rise up against the rest, they 
ay still, 

2. Now, so long as he rode along the straight 
road which led to the wall of the city, nobody 
appeared out of the gates; but when he went 
out of that road, and declined towards the tower 
Psephinus, and Jed the band of horsemen ob- 
liquely, an immense number of the Jews leap- 
ed out suddenly at the towers called the Wo- 
men’s Towers, through that gate which was 
over against the monuments of Queen Helena, 
and intercepted his horse; and, standing direct- 
ly opposite to those that still ran along the road, 
hindered them from joining those that had de- 
clined out of it. They intercepted Titus also, 
with a few others. Now it was here impossi- 
ble for him to go forward, because all the places 
had trenches dug in them from the wall to pre- 


serve the gardens round about, and were full of 


gardens obliquely situated, and of many hedges; 
and to return back to his own men, he saw it 
was also impossible, by reason of the multitude 
of the enemies that lay between them; many 
of whom did not so much as know that the 
king was in any danger,* but supposed him still 
among them. So he perceived, that his pre- 
servation must be wholly owing to his own 
courage, and turned his horse about, and cried 
out aloud to-thuse that were about him, to fol- 
low him, and ran with violence into the midst 
of his enemies, in order to force his way through 
them to his own men. And hence, we may 
_ principally learn, that both the success of wars 
and the dangers that kings} are in, are under 
the providenve of God; for while such a num- 
ber of darts were thrown at Titus, when he 
had neither his headpiece on, nor his breast- 
plate, (for, as I told you, he went out not to 
fight, but to view the city,) none of them 
touched his body, but went aside without hurt- 
ing him, as if all of them missed him on pur- 
pose, and only made a niise as they passed by 
him. So he diverted those perpetually with 
his sword that came on his side, and overturn- 
ed many of those that directly met him, and 
* We may here aote, that Titus is here called a king and 
Cesar, by Josephus, even while he was no more than. the 
emperor’s son and general of the Roman army, and his father 
Vespasian was still alive; just as the New Testament says, 
_ Archelaus reigned, or was king, Matt. ii. 22, though he was 
properly no more than ethnarch, as Josephus assures us, 
Antiq. b. xvii. ch. xi. sect. 4, Of the War, b. ii. ch. vi. sect. 
3. Thus also the Jews called the Roman emperors kings, 
though they never took that title to themselves: We have 
no king but Ceasar. John xix. 15: Submit to the king as su- 
preme, 1 Pet. u. 13,17; which is also the language of the 
Apostolical Constitutions, ii. 11, 34; iv. 13; v. 19; vi. 2, 25; 
vii. 16; viii. 2, 13; and elsewhere in the New Testament, 


John xix. 14, 15; Matt. x. 18; xvii. 25; 1 Tim. ii. 2, and in 
_ Josephus also; though I suspect Josephus particularly es- 









641 


made his horse ride over those that were over 
thrown. The enemy indeed made a great shout 
at the boldness of Cesar, and exhorted one an- 
other torush upon him. Yet did those against 
whom he marched fly away, and go off from 
him in great numbers; while those that were 
in the same danger with hin kept up close to 
him, though they were wounded both on their 
backs and on their sides; for they had each of 
them but this one hope of escaping, if they 
could assist Titus in openin.; himself a way 
that he rnight not be encompassed round by 
his enemies before he got away from them. 
Now, there were two of those that were with 
him, but st some distance; the one of which 
the enemy encompassed round, and slew hina 
with their darts, and his horse also; but ths 
other they slew as he leaped down from his 
horse, and carried off his horse with them. 
But Titus escaped with the rest, and came safs 
to the camp. So this success of the Jeve’ 
first attack raised their minds, and gave then 
an ill-grounded hope, and this short inclination 
of fortune on their side, made them very cou- 
rageous for the future. 

3. But now, as soon as that legion that had 
been at Emmaus was joined to Cesar at night, 
he removed thence, when it was day, and came 
to a place called Scopus; from whence the city 
began already to be seen, and a plain view 
might be taken of the great temple. Accord- 
ingly, this place, on the north quarter of the 
city, and joining thereto, was a plain, and very 
properly named Scopus, [the prospect,] and 
was no more than seven furlongs distant froma 
it. And here it was that Titus ordered a camp 
to be fortified for two legions that were to be 
together, but ordered another camp to be for- 
tified, at three furlongs farther distance behind 
them, for the fifth legion; for he thought that, 
by marching in the night they might be tired, 
and might deserve to be covered from the ene- 
my, and with less fear might fortify themselves; 
and, as these were now beginning to build, the 
tenth legion, which came through Jericho, wag 
already come to the place, where a certain par- 
ty of armed men had formerly lain, to guard 
that pass into the city, and had been taken be- 
fore by Vespasian. These legions had orders 
to encamp at the distance of six furlongs from 
Jerusalem, at the mount called the mount of 
Olives,* which lies over against the city on the 
east side, and is parted from it by a deep valley, 
interposed between them, which is named 
Cedron. 

4, Now, when hitherto the several parties in 
the city had been dashing one against another 
perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenly 
came uvon them in a violent manner, put the 
first sto» .o their contentions one against 
another: and, as the seditious now saw with 
astonishment the Romans pitching three several 
camps, they began to think of an awkward 


* This situation of the mount of Olives on the east of Je- 
rusalem, at about the distance of five or six furlongs, with 


temed Titus as joint king with his father, ever since his | the valley of Cedron interposed between that mountain 
divine dreams that declared them both such, b. iii. ch. viii. | the city, are things well known both in the Old and New 


AC. 9. 
+ See the above note. 
&l 


Test_ment, in Josephus elsewhere, and in all the descrip 
“ons of Palestine. - 


642 


sort of concoru, and said one to another, “What 
do we here, and what do we mean, when we 
suffer three fortified walls to be built, to coop 
us in, that we shall not be able to breathe free- 
w: while the enemy is securely building a kind 
ef city in opposition to us, and while we sit 
still within our own walls, and become specta- 
tors only of what they are doing, with our 
Bands idle, and our armor laid by, as if they 
were about somewhat that was for our good 
and advantage. We are, it seems, (so did they 
ery out,) only courageous against ourselves, 
while the Romans are likely to gain the city 
without bloodshed by our sedition.” ‘Thus did 
they encourage one another when they were 

otten together, and took their armor imme- 
Sanat: and ran out upon the tenth legion, and 
fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, 
and with a prodigious shout, as they were for- 
tifying their camp. These Romans were 
caught in different parties, and this, in order to 
perform their several works, and on that ac- 
eount had in a great measure laid aside their 
arm3; for they thought the Jews would not 
have veatured to make a sally upon them, and, 
had they been disposed so to do, they supposed 
their sedition would have distracted them. So 
they were put into disorder unexpectedly; 
when some of them left their works they were 
about, and immediately marched off, while 
many ran to their arms, but were smitten and 
@lain before they could turn back upon the 
enemy. The Jews became still more and 
more in number, as encouraged by the good 
success of those that first made the attack; and 
while they had such good fortune, they seemed, 
both to themselves and to the enemy, to be 
many more than they really were. The dis- 
orderly way of their fighting at first put the 
Romans also to a stand, who had been con- 
stantly used to fight skilfully in good order, 
and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the 
orders that were given them; for which reason 
the Romans were caught unexpectedly, and 
were obliged to give way to the assaults that 
were made upon them. Now when the Ro- 
.mans were overtaken, and turned back upon 
the Jews, they put a stop to their career, yet, 
when they did not take care enough of them- 
selves through the vehemency of their pursuit, 
they were wounded by them; but, as still more 
and more Jews sallied out of the city, the Ro- 
mans were at length brought into confusion, 
and put to flight, and ran away from their 
eamp. Nay, things looked as though the en- 
tire legion would have been in danger, unless 
Tittis had been informed of the case they were 
in, and had sent them succors immediately. 
Bo he reproached them for their cowardice, 
and brought those back that were running away 
and fell himself upon the Jews on their flank, 
wwith those select troops that were with him. 
ind slew a considerable number, and wounded 
mure of them, and put them all to flight, and 
made them run away hastily down the valley. 
Now, as these Jews suffered greatly in the de- 
clivity of the valley, 80, when they were got- 
ver over it, they turned about, and stood over 





WARS OF THE JEWS. 


against the Romans, having the valley betweer 
them, and there fought with them. Thus did 
they continue the fight till nocn; but, when it 
was already a little after noon, Titus set those 
that came to the assistance of the Romans with 
him, and those that belonged to the cohorts, te 
prevent the Jews from making any more sallies, 
and then sent the rest of the le 

upper part of the mountain to forti 
camp. 


gion to the 


fy their 
5. This march of the Romans seemed to the 


Jews to be a flight; and as the watchman whe 
was placed upon the wall, gave a signal b 
shaking his garment, there came outa fi 
multitule of Jews, and that with such mighty 
viol cv, that one might compare it to the run- 
ning of the most terrible wild beasts. ‘To say 


the truth, none of those that opposed them 


could sustain the fury with which they made 


their attacks; but, as if they had been cast out 
of an engine, they broke the enemies’ ranks to 
pieces, who were put to flight and ran away to 
the mountain; none but Titus himself, and a 
few others with him, being left in the midst of 
the acclivity. Now these others who were his 
friends, despised the danger they were in, and 
were ashamed to leave their general, earnestly 
exhorting him “to give way to these Jews that 
are fond of dying, and not run into such dan- 
gers before those that ought to stay before him; 
to consider what his fortune was, and not, by 
supplying the place of a common soldier, to 
venture to turn back upon the enemy so sud- 
denly, and this because he was general in the 
war, and lord of the habitable earth, on whose 
preservation the public affairs do all depend.” 
‘These persuasions Titus seemed not so muchas 
to hear, but opposed those that ran upon him, 
and smote them on the face; and, when he ha 
forced them to go back, he slew them; he alsc 
fell upon great numbers as they marched dowa 
the hill, and thrust them forward, while those 
men were so amazed at his courage and his 
strength, that they could not fly direct to 4 
city, but declined from him on both sides, ap 
pressed after those that fled up the hill; yetdid 
he still fall upon their flank, and put a stop t( 
their fury. In the mean time, a disorder ap 
a terror fell again upon those that were fortify: 
ing their camp at the top of the hill, upon thei 
seeing those beneath them running away; 
somuch that the whole iegion was disperse 
while they thought that the sallies of the Jews 
upon them were plainly insupportable, and that 
Titus was himself put to flight; because the: 
took it for granted, that, if he had staid, the 
rest would never have fied for it. ‘Thus wer 
they encompassed on every side by ¢ kind 0! 
panic fear, and some dispersed themselves ore 
way, and some another, till ‘ ertain of them 881 
their general in the very midst of an action 
and, being under great concern for him, the 
loudly proclaimed the danger he was in to ti 
entire legion, and now shame made them td 
back, and they reproached one another | 
they did worse than run away, by desertl 
Cesar. So they used their utmos force agail 
the Jews, and declining from the strait deci 





. 















i 


; BOOK V.—CHAPIER IIL 


ty, tney drove them on heaps into the bottom 
of the valley... Then did the Jews turn about 
and fight them: ' ut as they were themselves 
retiring, and now because the Romans had the 
advantage of the ¢ ‘ound, and were above the 
Jews, they drove them all into the valley. Ti- 
tus also pressed t.pc_ those that were near him, 
and sent the I, ion again to fortify their camp; 
while he, and those that were with him before, 
opposed the ene ¥, ana kept them from doing 
further mischi f; insomuca, that if I may be 
allowed neither to add any ‘:ing out of flatte- 
cy, nor to diminish any thi g out of envy, but 
to speak the plain truth, C. sar did twice de- 
liver that entire legion whe . it was in jeopar- 
dy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of forti- 
fying their camp. 


CHAPT):R IM. 


How the sedition was again revived within Jeru- 
salem, and yet the Jews coni:*ved snares for the 
Romans. How Titus /30 threatened his sol- 
ders for their ung »vernable rashness. 


§ 1. As now the war abroad ceased for a 
while, the sedition within was revived; and on 
the feast of unleavened bread, which was now 
come, it being the fourteenth day of the month 
Xanthicus [Nisan,] when it is believed the Jews 
were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar 
and his party opened the gates of this [inmost 
court of the] temple, and admitted such of the 
people as were desirous to worship God into 
it.* But John made use of this festival as a 
cloak for his treacherous designs, and armed 
the most inconsiderable of his own party, the 
greater part of whom were not purified, with 
weapons concealed under their garments, and 
gent them with great zeal into the temple, in 
order to seize upon it; which armed men, 
when they were gotten in, threw their gar- 
ments away, and presently appeared in their 
armor. Upon which there was a very great 
disorder and disturbance about the holy house; 
while the people, who had no concern in the 
sedition, supposed that this assault was made 
against all without distinction; as the Zealots 
thought it was made against themselves only. 
So these left off guarding the gates any longer, 
and leaped down from their battlements before 
they came to an engagement, and fled away into 
the subterranean caverns of the temple; while 
the people that stood trembling at the altar, and 
about the holy house, were rolled on heaps to- 

ether, and trampled upon, and were beaten 
th with wooden and with irou weapons with- 
out mercy. Such also, as had differences with 
othe rz, slew many persons that were quiet, out 
of the r own private enmity and hatred, as if 
tiey were opposite to the seditious; and all 


* Here we sve the true occasion of thoge vast numbers of 
Jews that were in Jerusalem during this siege b: Titus, and 
perished thereis.; that the siege began at the feast .f the Pass- 
‘Sever, when such prodigious multitudes of Jews and ,rose- 

of the gate were come from all parts of Judea, and 
from other countries, in order to celebrate that great festival; 
‘We the note, b. vi. chap. ix. sect. 3. Tacitus himself informs 
‘aa, that the number of men, women, and children, in Jerusa- 
tem, when it was besieged by the Romans, as he had been in- 
formed, was 600,000. This information must have been taken 
ae the Romans; for Josephus never mentions the number 
of those that were besieged, only he lets us know,that of the 


Pd 


643 


those that had formerly offended any of these 
plotters, were now known, and were led away 
to the slaughter: and when they had done 
abundance of horrid mischief to the guiltless, 
they granted a truce tothe guilty, and let those 
go off that came out of the caverns. These 
followers of John also did now seize upon this 
inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines 
therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon. 
And thus that sedition, which had been divid- 
ed into three factions, was now reduced to two, 

2. But Titus intending to pitch his camp 
nearer to the city than Scopus, placed us many 
of his choice horsemen and feotmen as he 
thought sufficient, opposite to the Jurvs to pre- 
vent their sallying out upon them, while he 
gave orders for the whole army to level the 
distance, as far as the wall of the etty. So 
they threw down all the hedges and wails which 
the inhabitants had made about their gardens 
and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit 
trees that lay between them and the wall of 
the city, and filled up all the hollow places and 
the chasms, and demolished the rocky preci- 
pices with iron instruments, and thereby made 
all the place level from Scopus to Herod’s 
monuments, which adjoined to the pool called 
the Serpent’s Pool. 

3. Now at this very time, the Jews contrived 
the following stratagems against the Romans. 
The bolder sort of the seditious went out at the 
towers, called the Women’s Towers, as if they 
had been ejected out of the city by those who 
were for peace, and rambied about as if they 
were afraid of being assaulted by the Romans, 
and were in fear of ‘one another; while those 
that stood upon the wall, and seemed to be of 
the people’s side, cried out aloud for peace, and 
entreated they might have security for their 
lives given them, and called for the Romans, 
promising to open the gates to them; and as 
they cried out after that manner, they threw 
stones at their own people, as though they 
would drive them away from the gates. These 
also pretended that they were excluded by force, 
and that they petitioned those that were within 
to let them in; and rushing upon the Romans 
perpetually, with violence, they then came back, 
and seemed to be in great disorder. Now the 
Roman soldiers thought this cunning stratagem 
of theirs was to be believed reai, and thinking 
they had the one party under their power, and 
could punish them as they pleased, and hoping 
that the other party would open their gates to 
them, set to the execution of their designs ac- 
cordingly. But for Titus himself, he had this 
surprising conduct of the Jews in suspicion 
for whereas he had invited them to come to 
terms of accommodation, by Josephus, but one 


vulgar, carried dead out of the gatee and buried at the public 
charges, was the like number of 600,000, chap. xiii. sect. 7. 
However, when Cestius Gallus came first to the siege, that 
sum in Tacitus is noway disagreeable to Josephus’s history, 
though they were become much more numerous when Titus 
encompassed the city at the Passover. As to the number 
that perished during the siege, Josephus assures us, as we 
shall see hereafter, they were 1,100,000, besides 97,000 cap 

tives; but Tacitus’s h story of the last part of this siege = 
not now extant,» we cannot compare his parallel num- 
bers witb those ix Josephus. 


* 


Sta WARS UF THE JEWS. a 


day before, he could then receive no civil an- 
swer from them; so he ordered the soldiers to 
stay where they were. However, some of 
them that were set in the front of the works 
prevented him, and catching up their arms ran 
to the gates; whereupon those that seemed to 
have been ejected, at the first retired: but as 
soon as the soldiers were gotten between the 
rowers on each side of the gate, the Jews ran 
out and encompassed them round, and fell upon 
them behind, while that multitude which stood 
upon the wall, threw a heap of. stones and 
darts of all kinds at them, insomuch that they 
slew a considerable number, and wounded 
many more; for it was not easy for the Ro- 
mans to escape, by reason those behind them 
pressed them forward; besides which the shame 
they were under for being mistaken, and the 
fear they were in of their commanders, en- 
gaged them to persevere in their mistake; 
wherefore they fought with their spears a great 
while, and received many blows from the Jews, 
though indeed they gave them as many blows 
again, and at last repelled those that had encom- 
passed them about, while the Jews pursued 
them as they retired, and followed them, and 
threw darts at them as far as the monuments 
of Queen Helen. 
4. After this, these Jews, without keeping 
any decorum, grew insolent upon their good 
fortune, and jested upon the Romans for being 
deluded by the trick they had put upon them, 
and making a noise with beating their shields,- 
leaped for gladness, and made joyful exclama- 
tions; while these soldiers were received with 
threatenings by their officers, and with indigna- 
tion by Cesar himself, [ who spoke to them thus:] 
“These Jews, who are only conducted by their 
madness, do every thing with care and circum- 
spection; they contrive stratagems and lay am- 
bushes, and fortune gives success to their strata- 
gems, because they are obedient, and preserve 
their good will and fidelity to one another; 
while the Romans, to whom fortune uses to be 
ever subservient, by reason of their good order, 
and ready submission to their commanders, 
have now had ill success by their contrary be- 
havior; and by not being able to restrain their 
hands from action, they have been caught; and 
that which is the most to their reproach, they 
have gone on without their commanders in the 
very presence of Cesar. Truly, says Titus, 
the laws of war cannot but groan heavily, as 
will my father also himself when he shall be 
informed of this wound that hath been given 
us, since he who is grown old in wars, did ne- 
ver make so great a mistake. Our laws of 
war do also ever inflict capital punishment on 
those that in the least break into good order, 
while at this time they have seen an entire 
army run into disorder. However, those that 
have been so insolent shall be made immediate- 
ly sensible, that even they, who conquer among 
the Romans without orders for fighting, are to 
be under disgrace.” When Titus had enlarged 
upon this matter before the commanders, it ap- 
peared evident that he would execute the law 
against all those that were concerned; so these 



































soldiers’ minds sunk down in despax 4s | 
ing to be put to death, and that justly a 
quickly. However, the other legions ea 
round about Titus, and entreated his favor 
these their fellow-soldiers, end made suppli¢ 
tion to him that he would pardon the rashn 
of a few, on account of the better obedier 
of all the rest; and promised for them, 
they shouid make amends for their pres 
fault by their more virtuous behavior for 1 
time to come. ; 

5. So Cesar complied with their desir 
and with what prudence dictated to him al 
for he esteemed it fit to punish single perse 
by real executicns, but that the punishment 
creat multitudes should proceed no fart 
than reproofs; eo he was reconciled to the s 
diers, but gave them a special charge to” 
more wisely for the future; and he conside1 
with himself how he might be even with | 
Jews for their stratagem. And now, wl 
the space between the Romans and the 
had been levelled, which was done in f 
days; and as he was desirous to bring the b 
gage of the army with the rest of the mu 
tude that followed him, safely to the camp, 
set the strongest part of his army over agai 
that wall which lay on the north quarter of 
city, and over against the western part ol 
and made his army seven deep, with the fc 
men placed before them, and the horsemen 
hind them, each of the last in three rat 
whilst the archers stood in the midst in sei 
ranks. And now as the Jews were prohi'ji 
by so great a body of men, from making | 
lies upon the Romans, both the beasts that h 
the burdens and belonged to the three lexi 
and the rest of the multitude, marched 
without any fear. But as for Titus bimself 
was but about two furlongs distant from 
wall at that part of it where was the corn 
and over against that tower which was ca 
Psephinus, at which tower the compass of 
wall belonging to the north bended, and 
tended itself over against the west; but 
other part of the army fortified itself at 
tower called Hippicus, and was distant, in 
manner, but two furlongs from the city. Ht 
ever, the tenth legion continued in its ¢ 
place, upon the mount of Olives. 


CHAPTER IV. 
The Descriptwn of Jerusalem. 


§ 1. The city of Jerusalem was fortified ¥ 
three walls, on such parts as were not ec 
passed with unpasselile valleys; for in & 
places it hath but one wall. The city wast 
upon two hills, which are opposite to” 
another, and have a valley to divide them & 
der, at which valley the correspoudiaaa i 
houses on both hills end. Of these hills; | 
which contains the upper city is much hig 
and in length more direct. Accordin 
was called the Citadel by king David; 
the father of that Solomon who built thi 
ple at the first; but it is by us called the U 


* Perhaps, siys Dr. Hudson, here was that gate calle 
GQ ute of the Corner, in 2 Chron. xxvi. 9; see ch. I¥s 


we A ‘ 









; 


arket-place. But tne other hill, which was 
led Acra, and sustains the lower city, is of 
e shape of a moon when she is horned; over 
ainst this there was a third hill, but naturally 

wer than Acra, and parted formerly from the 

her by a broad valley. However, in those 

nes when the Asamoneans reigned, they 

led up that valley with earth, and had a mind 

join the city to the temple. ‘They then took 

| part of the height of Acra, and reduced it 

a less elevation than it was before, that the 

myple might be superior to it. Now the val- 

y of the Cheesemongers, °s it was called, ana 

as that which we told you before distinguish- 

the hill of the upper city from that of the 

wer, extended as far as Siloam; for that is 

e name of a fountain which hath sweet water 

it, and this in great plenty aleo. But on the 

itsides, these hills are surrounded by deep 

lleys, and by reason of the precipices to 

em belonging, on both sides they are every- 

here unpassable. 

2. Now, of these three wails, the old one 

is hard to be taken, both by reason of the 

lleys, and of that hill un which it was built, 

d which was above them. But besides that 

eat advantage, as to the place where they 

sre situated, it was also built very strong; be- | 
use David and Solomon, and the following 
ngs, were very zealous about this work. 
»w that wall began on the north, at the tower | 
led Hippicus, and extended as far as the 

istus, a place so called, and then joining to 

e council-house, ended at tlie west cloister of 
etemple. But if we go the other way west- 

ard, it began at the same place, and extend- 

‘through a place called Bethso, to the gate 

‘the Essenes: and after that it went south- 

ard, having its bending above the fountain 

loam, where it also bends again towards the 





a BOOK V.—CHAPTER IY. 


GL 
zetha, to be inhabited also. It lies over against 
the tower of Antonia, but is divided from it by 
a deep valley, which was dug on purpose, and 
that in order to hinder the foundations of the 
tower of Antonia from joining to this hill, and 
thereby affording an opportunity for getting to 
it with ease, and hindering the security that 
arose from its superior elevation, for which 
reason nlso that depth of the ditch made the 
elevation of the towers more remarkable. This 
new-built part of the city was called Bezetha 
in our Janguage, which if interpreted in the 
Grecian language, may be called the Nes 


City. Since, therefore, its inhabitants stood in 
need of a covering, the father of the present 


king, and of the same name with him, Agrippa 
began that wall we spoke of: but he left off 
building it when he had only laid the founda- 
tions, out of the fear he was in of Claudius 
Cesar, lest he should suspect that so strong @ 
wall was built in order to make some innova- 
tion in public affairs: for the city could no way 
have been taken, if that wall had been finish- 
ed in the manner it was begun; as its parts 
were connected together by stones twenty cu- 
bits long, and ten cubits broad, which could 
never have been either easily undermined by 
any iron tools, or shaken by any engines. The 
wall was, however, ten cubits wide, and it would 
probably have had a height greater than that, 
had not his zeal who began it been hindered 
from exerting itself. After this, it was erected 
with great diligence by the Jews, as high as 
twenty cubits, above which it had battlements 
of two cubits, and turrets of three cubits alti- 
tude, insomuch that the altitude extended as 


far as twenty-five cubits, 


3. Now the towers that were upon it were 
twenty crbits in breadth and twenty cubits in 
height; they were square and solid, as was the 


st at Solomon’s pool, and reaches as far as a | wa!l itself, wherein the niceness of the joints 
rtain place which they called Ophlas, where : and the beauty of the stones were noway infe 
was joined to the eastern cloister of the tem- | rior to those of the holy house itself. Abov 

e. The second wall took its beginning frotn | this solid altitude of the towers, which wa 
at gate which they called Genneth, which | twenty cubits, there were rooms of great mag- 


longed to the first wall; it only encompassed 
2 northern quarter of the city, and reached 
far as the tower Antonia. ‘The beginning 
‘the third wall was at the tower Hippicus, 
hence it reached as far as the north quarter | 
‘the city, and the tower Psephinus, and then | 
as so far extended til] it came over against 
é@ monuments of Helena, which Helena was | 
een of Adiabene, and mother of Izates: it 
en extended farther to a great length, and | 
issed by the sepulchral cave:.s of the kings, | 
id bent again at the tower <f the corner, at 
€ monument which is called the Monument of 
é Fuller, and joined to the old wall at the val- 
y called the Valley of Cedron. It was Agrip- 
t who encompassed the parts added to the 
d city with this wall, which had been all 
iked before; for as the city grew more po- 
ilous, it gradually crept beyond its old limits, 
id those parts of it that stood northward of 
e temple, and joined that hill to the city, made | 








nificence, and over them upper rooms, and cis- 
terns to receive rain-water. They were many 
in number, and the steps by which you ascend- 
ed up to them were every one broad, of thes. 
towers then the third wall had ninety, and the 
spaces between them were each two hundred 
cubits; but in the middle wall were forty tow- 
ers, and the old wall was parted into sixty, 
while the whole compass of the city was thirty- 
three furlongs. Now the third wall was all of 
it wonderful; yet was the tower Psephinus ele 
vated above it at the northwest corner, and there 
Titus pitched his own tent, for, being seventy 
cubits high;it both afforded a prospect of Ara- 
bia at sunrising, as well as it did of the utmost 
limits of the Hebrew possessions at the sea west- 
ward. Moreover, it was an octagon, and over 
against it was the tower Hippicus, and hard by 
it two others were erected by king Herod in 
the ol! wall, These were for largeness, beauty, 
and strength, beyond all that were ‘in the habi- 


contiderably larger, and occasioned that hill | table earth; for, hesides the magnanimity of his 
hich isin number the fourth, and is called Be- nature, and his munificence towards the city 


$46 


on other occasions, he built these after such an 
extraordinary manner, to gratify his own pri- 
vate affections, and dedicated these towers to 
the memory of those three persons who had 
been the dearest to him, and from whom he 
named them. They were his brother, his friend, 
and his wife. This wife he had slain out of 
his love [and Jealousy,} as we have already re- 
lated; the other two he lost in war, as they 
were courageously fighting. Hippicus, so nam- 
ed from his friend, was square, its length and 
breadth were each twenty-five cubits, and its 
height thirty, and it had ne vacuity in it. Over 
this solid building, which was composed of great 
stones united together, there was a reservoir 
twenty cubits deep, over which there was a 
house of two stories, whose height was twenty- 
five cubits, and divided into several parts; over 
which were battlen« tuts of two cubits, and tur- 
rets all round of three cubits high, insomuch 
that the entire height added together amounted 
to fourscore cubits. The second tower, which 
he named from his brother Phasaelus, had its 
breadth and its height equal, each of them forty 
cubits; over which was its solid height of forty 
cubits; over which a cloister went round about, 
whose heigiit was ten cubits, and it was cover- 
ed from enemies by breastworks and bulwarks. 
There was also built over that cloister another 
tower, parted into magnificent rooms, and a 
place for bathing; so that this tower wanted 
nothing that might make it appear to be a roy- 
al palace. It was also adorned with battle- 
ments and turrets, more than was the foregoing, 
and the entire altitude was about ninety cubits; 
the appearance of it resembled the tower of 
Pharos, which exhibited a fire to such as sailed 
to Alexandria, but was much larger than it in 
compass. ‘This was now converted to a house, 
wherein Simon exercised his tyrannical au- 
thority. The third tower was Mariamne, for 
that was the queen’s name: it was solid as high 
as twenty cubits: its breadth and its length 
were twenty cubits, and were equal to each 
other; its upper buildings were more magnifi- 
cent, and had greater variety than the other 
towers had; fur the king thought it most pro- 
per for him to adorn that which was denomina- 
ted from his wife better than those denomina- 
ted from men, as those were built stronger than 
this that bore his wife’s name. The entire 
height of this tower was fifty cubits. 

4. Now as these towers were so very tall, 
they appeared much taller by the place on 
which they stood; forthat very old wall where- 
in they were, was built on a high hill, and was 
itself a kind of elevation that was still thirty 
cubits taller; over which were the towers situ- 
ated, and thereby were made much higher to 
appearance. The largeness also of the stones 
was wonderful; for they were not made of 
common small stones, nor of such large ones 

“only as men could carry, but they were of white 
marble cut out of the rock; «ach stone was 
twenty cubits in length, and ten in breadth and 
five in depth. They were so exactly united to 
one another, that each tower looked like one 
entire rock of stone, so growing naturally, and 


a 


WARS OF THE JEWS. is 


afterward cut by the hands of che artificers in © 
to their present shape and corners; 80 little, on — 
not all, did their joints or connexion appear, — 
Now as these towers were themselves on the — 
north side of the wall, the king had a palace 
inwardly thereto adjoined, which exceeds all — 
my ability to describe it; for it was so very cn- 
rious as to want no cost nor skill in its con-_ 
struction, but was entirely walled about to the 
height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with 
towers at equal distances, and with large bed 
chambers, that wuld contain beds for a hun- 
dred guests apiece, in which the variety of the 
stones is not to be expressed: for a large quan- 
tity of those that were rare of that kind was 
collected together. ‘Their roofs were also won- 
derful, both for the length of the beams, and 
the splendor of their ornaments. 'The number 
of the rooms was also very great, and the va 
riety of the figures that were about them was’ 
prodigious; their furniture was complete, and 
the greatest part of the vessels that were put 
in them were of silver and gold. There were 
besides many porticoes, one beyond another, 
round about, and in each of these porticoes 
curious pillars; yet were all the courts that were 
exposed to the air everywhere green. ‘There 
were, moreover, several g:oves of trees, and 
long walks through them, with deep canals. 
and cisterns, thatin several parts were filled with 
brazen statues, through which the water ran 
out. There were withall many dove-courts of | 
tame pigeons about the canals.* But indeed it 
is not possible to give a complete description 
of these palaces; and the very remembrance 
of them is a ter:.ent to one, as putting one in 
mind wh :t vstly ric’ buildings that fire which 
was kindled by the robbers had consumed; for 
these were not * urnt by the Romans, but by 
these internal , lotters, as we have already re- 
lated, in the beginning of theirrebellion. That 
fire began at the tower of Antonia, and went 
on ‘to the palaces, and consumed the upper 
parts of the three towers themselves. 


CHAPTER V. 
A Description of the Temple. 


§ 1. Now this temple, as I have already said. 
was built upon a strong hill. At first the plain 
at the top was hardly sufficient for the holy 
house and the altar, for the gr und about it was 
very uneven, and like a precipice; but when 
king Solomon, whe was the person that built 
the temple, hed built a wall to it on its east” 
side, there was then added one cloister found- 
ed on a bank. cast up for it, and on other parts 
the holy house stood naked. But in future 
ages the people added new banks, and the hilt 
became a larger plain.t They then broke 

* These dove-courts in Joseplius; built by Herod the Grea. 
are, in the opinion of Reland, the very same that are mepD- 
tioned by the Talmudists, and named by them Herod’s dove- 
courts. Nor is there any reason to suppose otherwise, since 
in both accounts they were expressly tame pigeons which 
were Kept in them. - f 

t See the description of the temples hereto ¥. 
chap. xv. But note, that what Josephus here says “the 
original scantiness of as mount 5 Piet ory a yy Webern 0@ 
little for the temple, and that at first it he wi 

non Foundations 


ter, or court of Solomon’s building, and that the 
were forced to be added long afterward by degrees, tor 








hy. 


down the wall on the north side, and took in 
as much as sufficed afterward for tle compass 
ef theentiretemple. Aud when they kad built 
_ walls on three sides of the te:nple round about, 
from the bettom of the hill, and had performed 
a work that was greater than could be hoped 
for, (in which work Jong ages were spent hy 
‘them, as al) reir sacred treasures were exhaust- 
ed, which were still replenished by those tri- 
-outes which were sent to God from the whole 
‘habitable earth,) they then encompassed their 
upper courts with cloisters, as well as they [af- 
terward] did the lowest [court of the] temple. 
The lowest part of this was erected to the 
height of three hundred cubits, and in some 
places more, yet did not the entire depth of the 
foundations appear, for they brought earth and 
filled up the valleys, as being desirous to make 
them on a level with the narrow streets of the 
‘city; wherein they made use f stones of forty 
‘cubits in magnitude; for t’.e great plenty of 
money they then had, and the liberality of the 
“people, made this attempt of theirs to succeed 
to an incredible degree. And what could not 
be so much as hoped for as ever to be accom- 
plished, was, by perseverance and length of 
time, brought to perfection. 
_ 2. Now foz the works that were above these 
foundations, these were not unworthy of such 
foundations: for all the cloisters were double, 
and the pillars to them belonging were twenty- 
five cubits in height, and supported the clois- 
‘ters. These pillars were of one entire stone 
‘each of them. and that stone was white mar- 
ble; and the roofs were adorned with cedar, 
curiously graven. The natural magnificence, 
and excellent polish, snd the harmony of the 
joints in these cioisters, afforded a prospect that 
was very remarkable; nor was it on the out- 
‘side adorned with any work of the painter or 
engraver. Thecloisters [of the outmost court] 
were in breadth thirty cubi‘s, while the entire 
compass of it was by mea: : re six furlongs, in- 
cluding the tower of Antonia; those entire 
courts that were exposed to the air were laid 
with stones of all sort.. When you go through 
these ied. cloisters, unto the second [court of 
the] temple, there was a partition made of 
stone all round, whose height was three cubits, 
its construction was very elegant; upon it stood 
pillars, at equal distances {rom one another, 
declaring the law of purity, some in Greek, 
and some in Roman letters, that no foreigner 
should go within that san tuary; for that second 
{court of the] temple was led the Sanctuary, 
and was ascended to by fourtee. . steps from the 
first court. This court was f ur-square, and 
Aad a wall about it peculiar to itself; the height 
of its huildings,2lthou _it were on the outside 





‘der it capable of the cloisteze ror the other courts, &c. is 
| without all foundation in tne Scriptures, and not at all con- 

firmed by his exacter account in the Antiquities. Al] that is 
or can be true here is this, that when the court of the Gentiles 
was long afterward to be encompassed with cloisters, the 
/ southern foundation for these cloisters was found not to be 
large or firm enough, and was raised and that additional 
_ foundation supported by great pillars and arches under 
ground, which Josephus speaks of elsewhere, Antiq. b. xv. 
th, xi. sect. 3; and which Mr. Maundrel saw, and describes, 
| p 100, as extant under ground at this day. 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER V. 


| 








| gate. 
| southern and one northern gate, through which 


64? 


forty cubits,* was hidden by the steps, and on 
the inside that height was but twenty-five cubite 
for it being built over against a higher part of 
the hill with steps, it was no farther to be en- 
tirely discerned within, being covered by the 
hill itself. Beyond these fourteen steps there 
was the distance of ten cubits: this was all plain; 
whence there were other steps, each of five cu- 
bits apiece, that led to the gates, which gates 
on the north and south side were eight, on each 
of those sides four, and of necessity two on 
the east. For since there was a partition built 
for the wotnen on that side, as the proper place 
wherein they were to worship, there was a ne- 
cessity for a second gate for them: this gate 
was cut out of its wall, over against the first 
There was also on the other sides one 


was a passage into the court of the women, 
for as to the other gates, the women were not 
allowed to pass through them: nor when they 
went through their own gate could they go be- 
yond their own wall, This place was allotted 
to the women of our own country, and of other 
countries, provided they were ot the same na- 
tion, and that equally; the western side of this 
court had uo gate at all, but the wall was built 
entire on that side. But then the cloisters 
which were between the gates extended froin 
the wall inward before the chamberm for they 
were supported by very fine and large pillars 
These cloisters were single, and excepting in 
their magnitude, were no way inferior to those 
of the lower court. 

3. Now nine of these gates were on every 
side covered over with gold and silver, as were 
the jambs of their doors and their lintels: bit 
there was one gate that was without [the in 
ward court of] the holy house, which was of 
Corinthian brass, and greatly excelled those 
that were only covered over with silver and 
gold. Each gate had two doors, whose height 
was severally thirty cubits, and their breadth 
fifteen. However, they had large spaces with- 
in of thirty cubits, and had on each side rooms, 
and those, both in breadth and in length, built 
like towers, and their height was above forty 
cubits. Two pillars did also support these 
rooms, and were in circumference twelve cubits. 
Now the magnitudes of the other gates were 
equal one to another; but that over the Corin- 
thian gate, which opened on the east over 
against the gate of the holy house itself, was 
much larger; for its height was fifty cubits, 
and its doors wure fifty cubits; and it was 


* What Josephus seems here to mean is this, that these 
pillars supporting the cloisters in the second court, had 
their foundations or ioweat part as deep as the floor of the 
first or lowest court; but that so far »f those lowest parts ag 
were equal tu the elevation of the upper floor above the 
lowest, were, and must be, hidden on the inside by the 
ground or rock itself, on which that upper court was built, 
so that forty cubits visible belcw, were reduced to twenty 
five visible above, and implies tae difference of their heights 
to be fifteen cubits. The main difficulty lies here, how 
fourteen or fifteen steps should give an ascent of fifteer 
cubits, half a cubit seeming sufficient for a single step, 
Possibly there were fourteen or fifteen steps at the par- 
tition wall, and fourteen or fifteen more thence into he 
court itself, which would bring the whole near to the jua 
proportion; see sect. 3, infra. But I determine nothing. 


648 


adorned after a most costly manner, as hav- 
ing much richer and thicker plates of silver 
and gold upon them than the other. These 
mine gates had that silver and gold poured 
upon them by Alexander the father of Tibe- 
rius. Now there were fifteen steps, which led 
away from the wall of the court of the women 
to this greater gate; whereas those that led 
thither from the other gates were five steps 
shorter. 

4. As to the holy house itself, which was 
placed in the midst [of the inmost court,] that 
most sacred place of the temple, it was ascend- 
ed to by twelve steps; and in front its height 
and its breadth were equal, and each a hundred 
cubits, though it was behind forty cubits nar- 
rower, for on its front it had what may be styled 
shoulders on each side, that passed twenty cu- 
bits further. [ts first gate was seventy cubits 
high, and twenty-five cubits broad; but this gate 
had no doors; fe it represented the universal 
visibility of heaven, and that it cannot be ex- 
eluded from any place. Its front was covered 
with gold all over, and through it the first part 
of the house, that was more inward, did all of 
it appear; which, as it was very large, so did 
all the parts about the more inward gate ap- 
pear to shine to those that saw them: but then, 
as the entire house was divided into two parts 
within, it was only the first part of it that was 
opentoourview. Its height extended all along 
to ninety cubits in height, and its length was 
fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty. But that 
gate which was at this end of the first part of 
the house, was, as we have already observed, 
all over covered with gold, as was its whole 
wall about it; it had also golden vines above it, 
from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as 
a man’s height. But then this house, as it was 
divided into two parts, the inner part was low- 
er than the appearance of the outer, and had 
zolden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and 
sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


famous among all mankind, the candlesticn, 
the table fof showbread,] and the altar of in- 
cense. Now the seven lamps signified tha 
seven planets; f r so many there were spring- 
ing out of the candlestick. Now the twelve 
loaves that were upon the tab signified the 
circle of the zodiac and the year; but the altar 
of incense, by its thirteen kinds of sweet — 
sinelliug spices with which the sea replenjshea 
it, signified, that God is the possessor of all 
things that are both in the aninhabitable and 
habituble p:uts of the earth, and that they are 
all to be dedicated to his use. But the inmost 
part of the temple of all was of twenty cubits. 
This was also separated from the outer part by 
a veil. In this there was nothing atall. It 
was inaccessible and inviolable, and not to be 
seen by any; and was called the Holy of Ho 
lies. Now, about the sides of the lower pan 
of the temple there were little houses, with 
passages out of one into another: there were 4 
great many of tlem, and they were of three 
stories high; there were also entrances on eack 
side into them from the gate of the temple 
But the superior part of the temple had no 
such little hou ‘es any farther, because the tem- 
ple was there narrower, and forty cubits higher. 
and of a smzller body than the lower parts of 
it. Thus we collect that the whole height, in- 
cluding the sixty cubits from the floor, amount- 
ed to a hundred cubits. 

6. Now the outward face of the temple in 
its front wanted nothing that was likely to sur- 
prise either men’s minds or their eyes; for it 
was covered all over with plates of gold of 
great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, 
reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made 
those who forced themselves to look upon it, 
to turn their eyes away, just as they would 
have dene at the sun’s own rays. But this 
temple appeared to strangers, when they were 
coming to it at a distance, like a mountain co- 
vered with snow; for as to those parts of it 


was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. | that were not gilt, they were exceeding white. 

was a Babylonian curtain; embroidered with | On its top it had spikes with sharp points, to 
vlue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and pufple,| prevent any pollution of it by birds sitting 
and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. | upon it. Of its stones some of them were 
Nor was this mixture of colors without its mys- | forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and 
tical interpretation, but was a kind of image of| six in breadth. Before this temple stood the 
the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed | altar, fifteen cubits high, and equal both in 
to be enigmatically signified fire, by the fine | length and breadth; each of which dimensions 
flax the earth, by the blue the -'r, and by the| was fifty cubits. The figure it was built in 

urple the sea; two of them having their co- | was a square, and it had corners like horns; 
ors the foundation of this resemblance; but| and the passage up to it was by an insensible 
-he fine flax and the purple have t'.eir own ori- | acclivity. It was formed without any iron 


in for that foundation, the ears, prud’:cing the 
ne’ and the sea the other. This curtain had 





tool, nor did any such iron tool so much as 
touch it at any time. There was also a wall 


also ermbroidered upon it all that was mystical | of partition, about a cubit in height, made of 


in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] 
signs, representing living creatures. 

5. When any persons entered into the tem- 
ple, its floor received them. This part of the 
temple, therefore, was in height sixty cubits, 
anil its length the same; whereas its breadth 
was but twenty cubits; but still that sixty cu- 
bits in length was divided again, and the first 

art of it was cut off at forty cubits, and had 
m it three things that were very wonderful and 


fine stones, and so ast be grateful to the sigh& 
this encompassed the ': ly house and the altar 
and kept the people that were on the outside 
off from the priests. Moreover, those that had 
the gonorrhcea and the leprosy, were excluded 
out of the city entirely: women, also, when 
their courses were upon them, were shut out 
of the temple; nor, when they were free from 
that impurity, were they allowed to go beyond 
the limit before mentioned: men also, that 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER VI. 


649 


were not thon vaghly pure, were prohibited to . situated at the corner of two c oisters of the 
some into the inner {court of the] temple; nay, | court of the temple, of that on the west, and 


he priests themselves that were not pure, were 
jrohibited to come into it also. 

7. Now all those of the stock of the priests 
hat could not minister by reason of some de- 
‘eet in their bodies, came within the partition, 
ogether with those that had no such imper- 
-eetion, and had their share with them by rea- 











that on the north: it was erected upon a rock 
of fifty cubits in height, and was on a greai 
precipice: it was the work of king Herod, 
Wherein he demonstrated his natural magna- 
nimity. In the first place the rock itself was 
covered over with smooth pieces of stone, 
from its foundation, both for ornament, and 


on of their stock, but still made use of none | that any one who would either try to get up or 
xcept their own private garments; for nobody | to go down it, might not be able to hold his 


ut he that officiated had on his sacred gar- 
nents; but then those priests that were without 
iny blemish upon them, went up to the altar 
‘lothed in fine linen. They abstained chiefly 
rom wine, out of this fear, lest otherwise they 
should transgress some rules of their ministra- 
ion. The high-priest did also go up with 
hem; not always indeed, but on the seventh 
Jays and new imoons, and if any festivals be- 
onging to our nation, which we celebrate every 
year, happened. When he officiated, he had 
mn a pair of breeches that reached beneath his 
ivy parts to his thighs, and had on an inner 
rarment of linen, together with a blue gar- 
nent round without seam, with fringe work, 
and reaching to the feet. There were also 
yolden bells that hung upon the fringes, and 
yomegranates intermixed among them. The 
yells signified thunder, the pomegranates light- 
ung. But that girdle that tied the garment to 
‘he breast, was embroidered with five rows of 
various colors, of gold, and purple, and scarlet, 
as also of fine linen and blue, with which co- 
iors we told you before the veils of the temple 
were embroidered also. The like embroidery 
was upon the ephod, but the quantity of gold 
therein was greater. Its figure was that of a 
stomacher for the breast. ‘There were upon it 
two golden buttons like small shields, which 
buttoned the ephod to the garment: in these 
buttons were enclosed two very large and very 
excellent sar ‘onyxes, having the names of the 
tribes of that nation engraved upon them; on 
the other part there hung twelve stones, three 
in @ row one way, and four in the other; a sar- 
dius, a topaz, and an emerald; a carbuncle, a 
jasper, andl a sapphire; an agate, an amethyst, 
and a ligure, an onyx, a beryl, and a chryso- 
lite; upon every one of which was again en- 
graved one of the forementioned names of the 
tribes. A mit e also of fine linen encompassed 
fis head, which was tied by a blue riband, 
aout which there was another golden crown, 
m which was engraven the sacred name [of 
fiod:] it consists of four vowels. However, 
the high priests did not wear these garments 
at other times, but a more plain habit; he only 
dil it when he went into the most sacred part 
if the temple, which he did but once in a year, 
on that day when our custom is for all of us to 
keep a fast to God. And thus much concern- 
ing the city and the temple; but, for the cus- 
‘ons acd laws hereto relating, we shall speak 
more. accurately another time; for there remain 
& great many things thereto relating, which 
have not been here touched upon. 

8. Now, as to the tower of Antonia it was 

8z 


feet upon it. Next to this, and before you 
come to the edifice of the tower itself, there 
was a wall three cubits high; but within that 
wall all the space of the tower of Antonia it- 
self was built upon to the height of forty cu 
bits. The inward parts had the largeness and 
form of a palace, it being parted into all kinds 
of rooms and other conveniences, such as courts 
and places for bathing, and broad spaces for 
camps; insomuch, that by having all conveni- 
encies that cities wanted, it miyht seem to be 
composed of several cities, but by its magnifi- 
cence it seemed a palace; and as the entire 
structure resembled that ofa tower, it centain- 
ed also four other distinct towers at its four 
corners: whereof the others were but fifty cu- 
bits high; whereas that which lay upon the 
southeast corner was seventy cubits high, that 
from thence the whole temple might be view- 
ed: but on the corner, where it joined to the 
two cloisters of the temple, it had passages 
down to them both, through which the guard 

(for there always lay in this tower a Roman 

legion) went several ways among the cloisters, 

with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in 
order to watch the people, that they might not 
there attempt to make any innovations; for the 
temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as 
was the tower of Antonia a guard to the tem- 
ple; and in that tower were the guards of those 
three.* There was also a peculiar fortress be- 
longing to the upper city, which was Herod’s 
palace; but for the hill Bezetha, it was divided 
from the tower of Antonia, as we have already 
told you; and as that hil] on which the tower 
of Antonia stood, was the highest of these 
three, so did it adjoin to the new city, and was 
the only place that hindered the sight of the 
temple on the north. And this shall suffice at 
present to have spoken about the city and the 
walls about it, because I have proposed to my- 
self to make a more accurate description of it 
elsewhere. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Concerning the tyrants Simon and John. How 
also, as Titus was going round the wall af the 
city, Nicanor was wounded by a dart; which 
accident provoked Titus to press on the siege 


§ 1. Now the warlike men that were im the 
city,and the multitude of the seditious that were 
with Simon, were ten thousand, besides the 
Idumeans. ‘These ten thousand had fifty com 
inanders, over whom this Simon was supreme. 
The Idumeans that paid him homage were five 

*Those three guards that lay in the tower of Antonis 


must be those that guarded *¥* city, the temple, and the tow 
er of Antonia. 


650 


thousand, and had eight commanders, among 
whom those of greatest fame were Jacob the 
son of Sosas, and Simon the son of Cathlas. 
John, who had seized upon the temple, had 
six thousand armed men under twenty com- 
manders; the Zealots also that had come over 
to him, and left off their opposition, were two 
thousand four hundred, and had the same com- 
mander that they had formerly, Eleazar, to- 
gether with Simon the son of Arinus. Now 
while these factions fought one against anoth- 
er, the people were their prey on both sides, as 
as we have said already; and that part of the 
people which would not join with them in their 
wicked practices, were plundered by both fac- 
tions, Simon held the upper city, and the 
great wall as far as Cedron, and as much of 
the old wall as bent from Siloam to the east, 
and which went down to the palace of Mono- 
bazus, who was king of the Adiabene, beyond 
Euphrates; he also held that fountain, and the 
Acra, which was no other than the lower city; 
he also held all that reached to the palace of 
‘telah Helena, the mother of Monobazus, 

ut John held the temple and the parts thereto 
adjoining, for a great way, as also Ophla and 
the valley called the Valley of Cedron; and 
when the parts that were interposed between 
their possessions were burnt by them, they left 
aspace wherein they might fight with each 
other, for this internal sedition did not cease 
even when the Romans were encamped near 
their very walls. But although they had 
grown wiser by the first onset the Romans 
made upon them, this lasted but a while; for 
they returned to their former madness, and se- 
parated one from another, and fought it out, 
and did every thing that the besiegers could 
desire them to do; for they never suffered any 
thing that was worse from the Romans, than 
they made each other suffer; nor was there 
any misery endured by the city after these 
men’s actions, that could be esteemed new. 
But it was most of all unhappy before it was 
overthrown, while those that took it did it a 
greater kindness; for I venture to affirm, that the 
sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans 
destroyed the sedition, which it was a much 
harder thing to do than to destroy the walls; 
so that we may justly ascribe our misfortunes 
to our own people, and the just vengeance ta- 
ken on them to the Romans; as to which mat- 
ter let every one determine by the actions on 
both sides. 

2. Now, when affairs within the city were 
in this posture, Titus went -round the city on 
he outside with some chosen horsemen, and 
looked about for a proper place where he might 
make an impression upon the walls; but as he 
was in doubt where he could possibly make an 
attack on any side, (for the place was no way 
accessible where the valleys were, and on the 
other side the first wall appeared too strong to 
beshaken by the engines,) he thereupon thought 
it best to make his assault upon the monument 
of John the high priest; for there it was that 
the first fortification was lower, and the second 
was not joined to it, the builders neglecting to 


WARS OF THE JEWS 


build the wall strong where tae new city was 
not much inhabited; here also was an et pase- 
age to the third wall, through which he thought 
to take the upper city, and, through the tower 
of Antonia, the temple itself. But at this tim 

as he was going round about the city, one of 
his friends, whose name was Nicanor, was 


wounded with a dart on his left shoulder, as he 


approached, together with Josephus, too near 
the wall, and attempted to discourse to those 
that were upon the wall, about terms of peace; 
for he was a person known by them. On thie 
account it was that Ceesar, as soon as he knew 
their vehemence, that they would not bear 
even such as approached them to persuade 
them to what tended to their own preservation, 
was provoked to press on the siege. He also 
at the same time gave his soldiers leave to set 
the suburbs on fire, and ordered that they should 
bring timber together, and raise the banks 
against the city; and when he had parted his 
army in three parts in order to set about those 
works, he placed those that shot darts and the 
archers in the midst of the banks that were 
then raising; before whom he placed those en- 
gines that threw javelins, and darts, and stones, 
that he might prevent the enemy from sallying 
out upon their works, and might hinder thuse 
that were upon the wall from being able to ob- 
struct them. So the trees,were now cutdown 
immediately, and the suburbs left naked. But 
now while the timber was carrying to raise the 
banks, and the whole army was earnestly en 
gaged in their works, the Jews were not, how- 
ever, quiet; and it happened that the people of 
Jerusalem, who had been hitherto plundered 
and murdered, were now of good courage, and 
supposed they should have a breathing tire, 
while the others were very busy in opposing 
their enemies without the city; and that they 
should now be avenged on those that had been 
the authors of their miseries, in case the Re 
mans did but get the victory. 

3. However, John staid behind out of fear 
of Simon, even while his own men were ear- 
nest in making asally upon their enemies with- 
out, Yet did not Simon lie still, for he lay near 
the place of the siege; he brought his engines of 
war, and disposed of them at due distances 
upon the wall, both those which they took from 
Cestius formerly, and those which they got 
when they seized the garrison that lay in the 
tower Antonia. But though they had these en- 
gines in their possession, they had so little skill 


in using them, that they were in a great mea- — 
sure useless to them; but a few there were whe — 


had been taught by deserters how to use the 

which they did use, though after an awkwol 
manner. 
those that were making the banks; they alsoran 
out upon them by companies, and fought with 
them. Now those that were at work covered 
themselves with hurdles spread over their banks 
and their engines were opposed to them when 
they made their excursions. The engines, that 
all the legions had ready prepared for them, 
were admirably contrived; but still more ex- 
traordinary ones belonged to the tenth legion 


\ 


ae 
en aS 


So they cast stones and arrows at — 


£ 


, those that threw darts, and those that threw 
/ stones, were more forcible and larger than the 
\ pest, by which they not only repelled the excur- 
gions of the Jews, but drove those away that 
- were upon the walls also. Now, the stones that 
‘were cast were of the weight of a talent, and 
were carried two furlongs and farther. The 
blow they gave was no way to be sustained, not 
only by those that stood first in the way, but by 
‘those that were beyond them fora great space. 
‘Ais for the Jews, they at first watched the com- 
ing of the stone, for it was of a white color, 
and could therefore not only be perceived by 
the great noise it made, but could be seen also 
before it came, by its brightness; accordingly, 
the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave 
them notice when the engine was let go, and 
the stone came from it, and cried out aloud, in 
their own country language, THE SON COMETH:* 
go those that were in its way stood off, and 
threw themselves down upon the ground; by 
which means, and by their thus guarding them- 
selves, the stone fell down and did them no 
harm. But the Romans contrived how to pre- 
vent that, by blacking the stone, who then could 
aim at them with success, when the stone was 
‘not discerned beforehand, as it had been till 
then; and so they destroyed many of them at 
one blow. Yet did not the Jews, under all this 
distress, permit the Romans to raise their banks 
in quiet; but they shrewdly and boldly exerted 
themselves, and repelled them both by night 
‘and by day. 
4. And now, upon the finishing the Roman 
works, the workmen measured the distance 
there was from the wall, and this by lead and 
a line, which they threw to it from their banks, 
for they could not measure it any otherwise, 
because the Jews would shoot at them, if they 
came to measure it themselves; and when they 
found that the engines could reach the wall, 
they brought them thither. Then did Titus 
set his engines at proper distances, so much 
nearer to the wall, that the Jews might not be 
able to repel them, and gave orders they should 
go to work; and when thereupon a prodigious 
noise echoed round about from three places, 
and that on the sudden there was a great noise 
made by the citizens that were within the city, 
and no less a terror fell upon the seditious them- 
selves; whereupon both sorts, seeing the com- 
mon danger they were in, contrived to make a 
like defence. So those of different factions 
cried out one to another, that they acted entire- 
* What should be the meaning of this signal or watch- 
word, when the watchmen saw a stone cuming from the en- 
ne, the son cometh, or what mistake there is in the reading, 
Lcannot tell. ‘The MSS. both Greek and Latin, all agree 
iM this reading; and I cannot approve of any groundless con- 
| jectural alteration of the text from Y1OX to 10%, that not the 
_ 80n or a stone, but that the arrow or dart cometh, as has been 
“made by Dr. Hudson, and not corrected by Havercamp. 
Had Josephus even written his first edition of these books 
_ of the war in pure Hebrew, or had the Jews then used the 
fe Hebrew at Jerusalem, the Hebrew word for a son is so 
like that fora stone, Ben and Eben, that such a correction 
) might have been more easily admitted. But Josephus wrote 
_ bis former edition for the use of the Jews beyond Euphrates, 
- and so in the Chaldee language, as he did this second edition 
in the Greek language; and Bar was the Chaldee word for 
_ $0n, instead of the Hebrew Ben, and was used not only in 


_Chaldea, &c., but in Judea also, as the New Testament in- 
us. Dio also lets us know, that the very Romans at 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER V1. 


651 


ly as in concert with their enemies: whereas 
they ought, however, notwithstanding God did 
not grant them a lasting concord, in their present 
circumstances, to lay aside their enmities one 
against another, and to unite together against 
the Romans. Accordingly, Simon gave those 
that came from the temple leave, by proclama- 
tion to go upon the wall; John also himself, 
though he could not believe that Simon was 
in earnest, gave them the same leave. So on 
both sides they laid aside their hatred and their 
peculiar quarrels, and formed themselves into 
one body; they then ran round the walls, and 
having a vast number of torches with them, 
they threw them at the machines, and shot 
darts perpetually upon those that impelled 
those engines which battered the wall; nay 

the bolder sort leaped out by troops upon the 
hurdles that covered the machines, and pulled 
them to pieces, and fell upon those that belong- 
ed to them, and beat them, not so much by any 
skill they had, as principally by.the boldness of 

their attacks. However, Titus himself stil! 
sent assistance to those that were the hardest 
set, and placed both horsemen and archers on 
the several sides of the engines, and thereby 
beat off those that brought the fire tothem: he 
also thereby repelled those that shot stones or 
darts from the towers, and then set the engines 
to work in good earnest; yet did not the wall 
yield to these blows, excepting where the bat- 
tering-ram of the fifteenth legion moved the 
corner of atower, while the wall itself continu- 
ed unhurt; for the wall was not presently in 
the same danger with the tower, which was 
extant far above it; nor could the fall of that 
part of the tower easily break down any part 
of the wall itself together with it. 

5. And now the Jews intermitted their sal 
lies for a while; but when they observed the 
Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, 
and in their several camps, (for they thought 
the Jews had retired out of weariness and fear,) 
they all at once made a sally at the tower Hip- 
picus, through an obscure gate, and at the same 
time brought fire to burn the works, and went 
boldly up to the Romans, and to their very for- 
tifications themselves, where, at the cry they 
made, those that were near them came present- 
ly to their assistance, and those farther off came 
running after them; and here the boldness of 
the Jews was too hard for the good order of 
the Romans; and as they beat those whor 
they first fell upon, so they pressed upon those 
Rome pronounced the name of Simon, the son of Giora, 
Bar Poras for Bar Gioras, as we learn from Xiphiline, p. 
217. Reland takes notice, ““That many will here look for 
a mystery, as though the meaning were that the Son of God 
came now td take vengeance on the sins of the Jewish na 
tion;?? which is, indeed, the truth of the fact, but hardly 
what the Jews could now mean; unless, possibly by way of 
derision of Christ’s threatenings so often made, thet he woule 
come-at the head of the Roman army for their destruction. 
But even this interpretation has but a very small degree of 
probability. If I were to make an emendation, by mere con 
jecture, I would read METPOX instead of YiO= thougk 
the likeness te not so great as in IOX; because that is the 
word used by Josephus just before, as [ have already noted, 
on this very occasion, while IO2, an arrow or dart, is only @ 
poetical word, and never used by Josephus elsewhere, ané 


is indeed, no way suitable to the occasion, this engine ae 
throwing arr ws or darts, but great stones at this ume. 


52 


that were now gotten together. So this fight 
about the machines was very hot, while the 
gne side tried hard to set them on fire, and the 
other side to prevent it, on both sides there 
was a confused cry made, and many of those 
in the forefront of the battle were slain. How- 
ever, the Jews were now too hard for the Ro- 
mans, by the furious assaults they made like 
madmen; and the fire caught hold of the works, 
and both all those works, and the engines them- 
-selyes, had been in danger of being burnt, had 
not many of those select soldiers that came 
from Alexandria opposed themselves to prevent 
it; and had they not behaved themselves with 
greater courage than they themselves supposed 
they could have done; for they outdid those in 
this fight that had greater reputation than them- 
selves before. This was the state of things till 
Cesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and 
attacked the enemy, when he himseif slew 
twelve of those that were in the forefront of 
the Jews, which death of these men, when the 
rest of th: multitude saw, they. gave way, and 
he pursued them, and drove them all into the 
city, and saved the works from the fire. Now, 
it happened at this fight, that a certain Jew 
was taken alive, who, by Titus’s order, was 
crucified before the wall, to see whether the 
rest of them would be affrighted, and abate of 
their obstinacy. But after the Jews were re- 
tired, John, who was commander of the Idu- 
means, and was talking to a certain soldier of 
his acquaintance before the wall, was wound- 
ed by a dart shot at him by an Arabian, and 
died immediately; leaving the greatest lamen- 
tation to the Jews, and sorrow to the seditious. 
for he was a man of great eminence, both for 
his actions and his conduct also. 


CHAPTER VII. 


How one of the towers erected by the Romans 
fell down of tts own accord; and how the Ro- 
mans, after great slaughter had been made, got 
possession of the first wall. How also Titus 
made his assaults upon the second wall: as 
also concerning Longinus the Roman, and 
Castor the Jew. 


§ 1. New on the next night, a surprising 
disturbance fell upon the Romans; for where- 
as Titus had given orders for the erection of 
three towers of fifty cubits high, that by setting 
men upon them at every bank, he might from 
thence drive those away who were upon the 
wall, it so happened that one of these towers 
fell down about midnight; and as its fall made 
@ very great noise, fear fell upon the army, and 
they supposing that the enemy was coming to 
atcack them, ran all to their arms. Whereupon 
a disturbance and a tumult arose among the 
legions, and as nobody could tell what had hap- 
pened, they went on after a disconsolate man- 
ner; and seeing no enemy appear, they were 
afraid one of another, and every one demand- 
ed of his neighbor the watchword with great 
earnestness, as though the Jews had invaded 
their camp. And now they were like people 
under a panic fear, till Titus was informed of 
what had happened and gave orders that all 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


should be acquainted with it; and then, though 


with some difficulty, they got clear of the dis. 


turbance they had been under. 


Aad f 
; cA 
4 
7 4 


t 
5 
4 


2. Now these towers were very troublesome ; 
to the Jews, who otherwise opposed the Ro-— 


mans very courageously; for they shot at them 
out of their lighter engines from those towe 
as they did also by those that threw darts, an 
the archers, and those that flung stones. For 


neither could the Jews reach those that were 
over them, by reason of their height, and i — 


was not practicable to take them, nor to over 
turn them, they were so heavy; nor to set them 
on fire, because they were covered with plates 
of iron. So they retired out of the reach of 
the darts, and did no longer endeavor to hinder 
the impression of their rams, which, by con- 
tinually beating upon the wall, did gradually 
prevail against it; so that the wall already gave 
way to the Nico, for by that name did the Jews 
themselves call the greatest of their engines, 
because it conquered all things. And, now. 
they were fora long while grown weary of 
fighting, and of keeping guard, and were re- 
tired to lodge on the night-times at a distance 
from the wall. It was on other accounts also 
thought by them to be superfluous to guard the 
wall, there being, besides that, two other forti- 
fications still remaining, and they being slothful, 
and their counsels having been ill concerted on 
all occasions; so a great many grew lazy and 
retired. Then the Romans mounted the breach, 
where Nico had made one, and all the Jews 
left the guarding that wall, and retreated to the 
second wall; so those that had gotten over that 
wall opened the gates, and received all the 
army within it. And thus did the Romans get 
possession of this first wall, on the fifteenth 
day of the siege, which was the seventh day 


of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] when they 


demolished a great part of it, as well as they 
did of the northern parts of the city, which 
had been demolished also by Cestius formerly. 

3. And now Titus pitched his camp within 
the city, at that place which was called the 
Camp of the Assyrians, having seized upon all 
that lay as far as Cedron, but took care to be 
out of the reach of the Jews’ darts. He then 
presently began his attacks, upon which the 
Jews divided themselves into several bodies, 


and courageously defended that wall; while 


John and his faction did it from the tower of 
Antonia, and from the northern cloister of the 
temple, and fought the Romans before the 


monuments of king Alexander; and Simon’s 
army also took for their share the spot of — 


ground that was near John’s monument, and 


fortified it as far as to that gate where water — 


was brought into the tower Hipyicus. How- 


ever, the Jews made violent sallies, and thar 
frequently also, and in bodies together, out of — 


the gates, and there fought the Romans; and 


when they were pursued all together to the © 


wall, they were beaten in those fights, as want 
ing the skill of the Romans. But when they 
fought them from the walls, they were too har 
for them; the Romans being encou 

their power, joined to their skill, as were 





. 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER VII. 


Jews by their boldness, which was nourished 
by the fear they were in, and that hardiness 
which is natural to our nation under calamities; 
they were also encouraged still by the hope of 
deliverance, as were the Romans by their hopes 
of subduing them in a little time. Nor did 
either side grow weary; but attacks and fight- 
ings upon the wall, and perpetual sallies out in 
bodies, were there all the day long; nor were 
here any sort of warlike engagements that 
werz not then put in use. And the night itself 
1ad much ado to part them, when they began 
to fight in the morning; nay, the night itself 
was passed without sleep on both sides, and 
was more uneasy than the day to them, while 
the one was afraid lest the wall should be ta- 
ken, and the other lest the Jews should make 
sallies upon their camps: both sides also lay in 
their armor during the night-time, and thereby 
were ready at the first appearance of light to 
go to the battle. Now, among the Jews, the 
ambition was who should undergo the first 
dangers and thereby gratify their commanders. 
Above all, they had a great veneration and 
dread of Simon; and to that degree was he re- 
garded by every one of those that were under 
him, that at his command they were very 
ready to kill themselves with their own hands. 
What made the Romans so courageous was 
their usual custom of conquering, and disuse 
of being defeated, their constant wars, and per- 
petual warlike exercises, and the grandeur of 
their dominion: and what was now their chief 
encouragement, Titus, who was present every- 
where with them all; for it appeared a terrible 
thing to grow weary while Cesar was there, 
and fought bravely as well as they did, and 
was himself at once an eyewitness of such as 
behaved themselves valiantly, and he who was 
to reward them also. It was, besides, esteem- 
ed an advantage at present to have any one’s 
valor known by Cesar, on which account many 
of them appeared to have more alacrity than 
strength to answer it. And now, as the Jews 
were about this time standing in array before 
the wall, and that in a strong body, and while 
both parties were throwing their darts at each 
other, Longinus, one of the equestrian order, 
leaped out of the army of the Romans, and 
leaped into the very midst of the army of the 
Jews; and as they dispersed themselves upon 
this attack, he slew two of their men of the 
greatest courage; one of whom he struck in 
the mouth as he was coming to meet him, the 
other was slain by him with that very dart 
which he drew out of the body of the other, 
with which he ran this man through his side, 
as he was running away from him; and when 
he had done this, he first of all ran out of the 
midst of his enemies, to his own side. So this 
man signalized himself for his valor, and many 
there were who were ambitious of gaining the 
like reputation. And now the Jews were un- 
concerned at what they suffered themselves 
from the Romans, and were only solicitous 
about what mischiefs they could do to them; 
and death itself seemed a small matter to them, 
if at the same time they could but kill any one 


of their enemies. But Titus took care to se 
cure his own soldiers from harm, as well as te 
have them overcome their enemies. He alse 
said, that inconsiderate violence was madness 
and that this alone was the true courage, that 
was joined with good conduct. He therefore 
commanded his men to take care, when they 
fought their enemies, that they received no 
harm from them at the same time, and thereby 
show themselves to be truly valiant men. 

4. And now Titus brought one of his en- 
gines to the middle tower of the north part of 
the wall, in which a certain crafty Jew, whose 
name was Castor, lay in ambush, with ten 
others like himself, the rest being fled away by 
reason of the archers. These men lay still for 
a while, as ina great fear, under their breast 
plates: but when the tower was shaken, they 
arose, and Castor did then stretch out his hand, 
as a petitioner, and called for Cesar, and by his 
voice moved his compassion, and begged of 
him to have mercy upon them: and Titus, in the 
innocency of his heart, believing him to be in 
earnest, and hoping that the Jews did now re- 
pent, stopped the working of the battering-ram, 
and forbade them to shoot at the petitioners, 
and bade Castor say what he had a mind to say 
to him. He said, that he would come down 
if he would give him his right hand for his se- 
curity. To which Titus replied, that he was 
well pleased with such his agreeable conduct, 
and would be well pleased if all the Jews 
would be of his mind, and that he was ready to 
give the like security to the city. | Now five of 
the ten dissembled with him, and pretended 
to beg for mercy, while the rest cried out aloua, 
that they would never be slaves to the Romans, 
while it was in their power to die in a state of 
freedom. Now while these men were quar- 
relling for a long while, the attack was delayeds 
Castor also sent to Simon, and told him that 
they might take some time for consultation 
about what was to be done, because he would 
elude the power of the Romans for a con- 
siderable time. And at the same time that he 
sent thus to him, he appeared openly to exhort 
those that were obstinate to accept of Titus’s 
hand for their security; but they seemed very 
angry at it, and brandished their naked swords 
upon the breastworks, and struck themselves 
upon their breasts, and fell down as if they had 
been slain. Hereupon Titus, and those with 
him, were amazed at the courage of the men 
and as they were not able to see exactly whac 
was done, they admired at their great fortitude, 
and pitied their calamity. During this interval, 
a certain person shot a dart at Castor, aio 
wounded him in his nose, whereupon he pre 
sently pulled out the dart, and showed it tu 
Titus, and complained that this was unfair 
treatment. So Cesar reproved him that shot 
the dart, and sent Josephus, who then stood by 
him, to give his right hand to Castor. But Jo- 
sephus said that he would not go to him, be- 
cause these pretended petitioners meant noth» 
ing that was good; he also restrained those 
friends of his who were zealous to go to him. 
But still there was one Aiveas, a deserter, whe 


654 


said he would goto him. Castor also called 
to them, that somebody should come and re- 
ceive the money which he had with him; this 
made Afneas the more earnestly to run to him 
with his bosom open. Then did Castor take 
up a great stone, and threw it at him, which 
missed him because he guarded himself against 
it, but still it wounded another soldier that was 
coming to him. When Cesar understood that 
this was a delusion, he perceived that mercy 
in war is @ pernicious thing, because such cun- 
ning tricks have less place under the exercise 
of greater severity. So he caused the engine 
to work more strongly than before, on account 
of his anger at the deceit put upon him. But 
Castor and his companions set the tower on 
fire when it began to give way, and leaped 
through the flame into a hidden vault that was 
under it, which made the Romans farther sup- 
pose that they were men of great courage, as 
having cast themselves into the fire. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How the Romans took the second wall twice, and 
got ready for taking the third wall. 


§ 1. Now Cesar took this wall there on the 
fifih day after he had taken the first: and when 
the Jews had fled from him, he entered into it 
with a thousand armed men, and those of his 
choice troops, and this at a place where were 
the merchants of wool, the braziers, and the 
market for cloth, and where the narrow streets 
led obliquely to the wall. Wherefore if Titus 
had either demolished a larger part of the wall 
immediately, or had come in, and, according 
to the law of war, had laid waste what was 
left, his victory would not, I suppose, have been 
mixed with any loss to himself. But now, 
out of the hope he had that he should make 
the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not 
being willing, when he was able, to afflict 
them more than he needed to do, he did not 
widen the breach of the wall, in order to make 
a safer retreat upon occasion; for he did not 
think they would lay snares for those that did 
them such a kindness. When, therefore, he 
came in, he did not permit his soldiers to kill 
any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their 
houses neither: nay, he gave leave to the sedi- 
tious, if they had a mind, to fight without any 
harm to the people, and promised to restore the 
people’s effects to them; for he was very desi- 
rous to preserve the city for his own sake, and 
the temple for the sake of the city. As to the 
people, he had them of a long time ready to 
comply with his proposals; but as to the fight- 
ing men, this humanity of his seemed a mark 
of his weakness, and they imagined that he 
made these proposals because he was not able 
to take the rest of the city. They also threat- 
ened death to the people if they should any 
one of them say a word about a surrender. 
They moreover cut the throats of such as talk- 
ed of a peace, and then attacked those Romans 
that were come within the wall. Some of 
hem they met in the narrow streets, and some 
hey fought against from their houses, while 

aey made a sudden sally out at the upper 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 







gates, and assaulted such Romans as were 
yond the wall, till those that guarded the w 
were so affrighted, that they leaped down from 
their towers, and retired to their several camp 
Upon which a great noise was made by the 
Romans that were within, because they were 
encompassed round on every side by their ene- 
mies; as also by them that were without, be- 
cause they were in fear of those that were left 
in the city. Thus did the Jews grow more. 
numerous perpetually, and had great adv | 
tages over the Romans by their full knowledge 
of those narrow lanes, and they wounded a” 
great many of them, and fell upon them, and _ 
drove them out of the city. Now these Ro- 
mans were at present forced to make the best 
resistance they could, for they were not able | 
in great numbers to get out at the breach in’ 
the wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable | 
that all those that were gotten within had been | 
cut to pieces if Titus had not sent them suc- 
cors: for he ordered the archers to stand at 
the upper ends of these narrower lanes, and 
stood himself where was the greatest multitude 
of his enemies, and with his darts he put a 
stop to them; as with him did Domitius Saber — 
nus also, a valiant man, and one that in this bat- | 
tle appeared so to be. Thus did Cesar con-— 
tinue to shoot darts at the Jews continually, te — 
hinder them from coming upon his men, and 
this until all his soldiers had retreated out of — 
the city. 1 
2. And thus were the Romans driven out, af- — 
ter they had possessed themselves of the second — 
wall. Whereupon the fighting men that were 
in the city were lifted up in their minds, and © 
were elevated upon this their good success, and _ 
began to think that the Romans would never 
venture to come into the city any more; and 
that, if they kept within it themselves, they - 
should not be any more conquered; for God 
had blinded their minds for the transgressions 
they had been guilty of, nor could they see how 
much greater forces the Romans had than 
those that were now expelled, no more than 
they could discern how a famine was creeping — 
upon them; for hitherto they had fed them-_ 
selves out of the public miseries, and drank | 
the blood of the city. But now poverty had 
for a long time seized upon the better part, and 
a great many had died already for want of ne- 
cessaries, although the seditious indeed suppos- 
ed the destruction of the people to be an ease | 
ment to themselves; for they desired that none 
others might be preserved but such as weré 
against a peace with the Romans, and were re 
solved to live in opposition to them, and they 
were pleased when the multitude of those of 
a contrary opinion were consumed, as beng 
then freed froma heavy burden. And this was 
their disposition of mind with regard to thos 
that were within the city, while they coverec 
themselves with their armor, and prevented 
the Romans when they were trying to get int 
the city again, and made a wal of their own 
bodies over against that part of the wall that 
was cast down. ‘Thus did they valiantly de 
fend themselves for three days; but on th 


























BOOK V.—CHAPTER IX. 


fourth day they could not support themselves 
against the vehement assaults of Titus, but were 
compelled by force to fly whither they had 
fled before; so he quietly possessed himself 
again of that wall, and demolished it entirely. 
And when he had puta garrison into the towers 
that were on the south parts of the city, he 
contrived how he might assault the third wall. 


CHAPTER IX. 
Titus, when the Jews were not at all mollified b 
his leaving off the siege for a while, set imeelf 
again to prosecute the same; but soon sent Jo- 
sephus to discourse with his own countrymen 
out peace. 


§ 1. A resolution was now taken by Titus to 
relax the siege for a little while, and to afford 
the seditious an interval for consideration, and 
to see whether the demolishing of their second 
wall would not make them a little more com- 
pliant, or whether they were not somewhat 
afraid of a famine, because the spoils they had 
gotten by rapine would not be sufficient for 
them long; so he made use of this relaxation 
in order to compass his own designs. Accord- 
ingly, as the usual appointed time when he 
must distribute subsistence-money to the sol- 
diers was now come, he gave orders that the 
commanders should put the army into battle 
array in the face of the enemy, and then give 
every one of the soldiers their pay. So the 
soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases 
wherein before their arms lay covered and 
marched with their breastplates on, as did 
the horsemen lead their horses in their fine 
trappings. ‘Then did the places that were 
before the city shine very splendidly, for a 
great way; nor was there any thing either so 
grateful to Titus’s own men, or so terrible to 
the enemy, as that sight. For the whole old 
wall, and the north side of the temple, was full 
of spectators, and one might see the houses 
full of such as looked at them; nor was there 
any part of the city which was not covered 
ever with their multitudes: nay, a very great 
consternation seized upon the hardiest of the 
Jews themselves, when they saw all the army 
in the same place, together with the fineness of 
their arms, and the good order of their men. 
And J cannot but think that the seditious would 
have changed their minds at that sight, unless 
the crimes they had committed against the peo- 
ple had not been so horrid that they despaired 
of forgiveness from the Romans; but as they 
believed death with torments must be their pun- 
ishment, if they did not go on in the defence 
of the city, they thought it much better to die 
in war. Fate also prevailed so far over them, 
that the innocent were to perish with the guilty, 
and the city was tu be destroyed with the se- 
ditious that were in it. 

2. Thus did the Romans spend four days in 
bringing this subsistence-money to the several 
legions. But on the fifth day, when no signs 
of peace appeared to come from the Jews, 'Ti- 
tus divided his legions, and began to raise 
anks, both at the tower of Antonia, and at 
John’s monument. Now, his designs were to 


655 


take the upper city at that monument, end the 
temple at the tower of Antonia; for if the tem 
ple were not taken it would be dangerous to 
keep the city itself; so ateach of these parts he 
raised him banks, each legion raising one. As 
for those that wrought at John’s monument, 
the Idumeans, and those that were in arms 
with Simon, made sallies upon them, and put 
some stop to them; while John’s party, and the 
multitude of Zealots with them, did the like to 
those that were before the tower of Antonia. 
These Jews were now too hard for the Romans, 
not only in direct fighting, because they stood 
upon the higher ground, but because they had 
now learned to use their own engines, for their 
continual use of them one day after another did 
by degrees improve their skill about them; for 
of one sort of engines for darts they had three 
hundred, and forty for stones, by the means of 
which they made it more tedious for the Ro- 
mans to raise their banks. But then Titus, 
knowing that the city would be either saved or 
destroyed for himself, did not only proceed 
earnestly in the siege, but did not omit to have 
the Jews exhorted to repentance; so he mixed 
good counsel with his works for the siege. 
And being sensible that exhortations are fre- 
quently more effectual than arms, he persuad- 
ed them to surrender the city, now in a man- 
ner already taken, and thereby to save them- 
selves, and sent Josephus to speak to them in 
their own language; for he imagined they might 
yield to the persuasion of a countryman of 
their own. 

3. So Josephus went round about the wall, 
and tried to find a place that was out of the 
reach of their darts, and yet within their hear- 
ing; and besought them in many words, “To 
spare themselves, to spare their country, and 
their temple, and not to be more obdurate in 
these cases than foreigners themselves: for that 
the Romans, who had no relation to those 
things, had a reverence for their sacred rites 
and places, although they belonged to their 
enemies, and had till now kept their hands off 
from meddling with them; while such as were 
brought up under them, and, if they be pre- 
served, will be the only people that will reap 
the benefit of them, hurry on to have them de 
stroyed. That certainly they have seen their 
strongest walls demolished, and that the wall 
still remaining was weaker than those that 
were already taken. That they must know 
the Roman power was invincible, and that 
they had been used to serve them; for that in 
case it be allowed a right thing to fight for 
liberty, that ought to have been done at first; 
but for them that have once fallen under the 
power of the Romans, and have now submit- 
ted to them for so many long years, to pretend 
to shake off that yoke afterward, was the work 
of such as had a mind to die miserably, not of 
such as were lovers of liberty. Besides, men 
may well enough grudge at the dishonor of 
owning ignoble masters over them, but ought 
not to do so to those who have all things under 
their command; for what part of the world is 
there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it 


556 


be such as are of no use through violent cold? 
And evident it is, that fortune is on all hands 
gone over to them; and that God, when he had 
gone round the nations with this dominion, 
is now settled in Italy. ‘That, moreover, it is 
a strong and fixed law, even among brute 
beasts, as well as among men, to yield to those 
that are too strong for them; and to suffer those 
to have the dominion, who are too hard for the 
rest in war. For which reason it was, that 
their forefathers, who were far superior to them, 
both in their souls and bodies, and other advan- 
tages, did yet submit to the Romans, which 
they would not have suffered, had they not 
known that God was with them. As for them- 
selves, what can they depend on in this their 
opposition, when the greatest part of their city 
is already taken; and when those that are with- 
in it are under greater miseries than if they 
were taken, although their walls be still stand- 
ing? For that the Romans are not unacquaint- 
ed with that famine which is in the city, where- 
by the people are already consumed, and the 
fighting men will in a little time be so too; for 
although the Romans should leave off the siege, 
and not fall upon the city with their swords in 
their hands, yet was there at insuperable war 
that beset them within, and was augmented 
every hour, unless they were able to wage war 
with famine, and fight against it, or could alone 
conquer their natural appetites.” He added this 
further, “How right a thing it was to change 
their conduct, before their calamities were be- 
come incurable, and to have recourse to such 
advice as might preserve ther, while opportu- 
nity was offered them for so doing. For that 
the Romans would not be mindful of their 
past actions, to their disadvantage, unless they 
persevered in their insolent behavior to the end; 
because they were naturally mild in their con- 
hag i and preferred what was profitable be- 
ore what their passions dictated to them; which 
profit of theirs lay not in leaving the city empty 
of inhabitants, nor the country desert; on 
which account Ceesar did now offer them his 
right hand for their security. Whereas, if he 
took the city by force, he would not save any 
of them, and this especially, if they rejected his 
offers in these their utmost distresses; for the 
walls that were already taken could not but as- 
sure them that the third wall would quickly 
be taken also. And although their fortifica- 
tions should prove too strong for the Romans 
to break through them, yet would the famine 
fight for the Romans against them.” 

4. While Josephus was making this exhor- 
tation to the Jews, many of them jested upon 
him from the wall, and many reproached him: 
nay, some threw their darts at him: but when 
he could not himself persuade them by such 
open good advice, he betook himself to the his- 
tories belonging to their own nation, and cried 
out aloud, “O miserable creatures! are you so 
wnmindful of those that used to assist you, that 
bi will fight by your weapons and by your 

ands against the Romans? When did we 
ever conquer any other nation by such means? 
and when was it that God, who is the Creator 


WARS OF THE JEWs. 









































of the Jewish people, did not avenge tt 
when they had been injured? Will not you tu 
again, and look back, and consider whence 
is that you fight with such violence, and hy 
great a Supporter you have profanely abuse 
Will not you recall to mind the prodigio 
things done for your forefathers and this ho 
place, and how great enemies of yours we 
by him snbdued under you? I even treml 
myselt, in declaring the works of God befo 
your ears that are unworthy to hear the 
however, hearken to me, that you may be } 
formed, how you fight not only against the R 
mans, but against God himself. In old tu 
there was one Necao, king of Egypt, who w 
also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodi 
ous army of soldiers, and seized queen Sa 
the mother of our nation. What did Ab 
ham our progenitor then do? Did he defe 
himself from this injurious person by war, 
though he had three hundred and eighte 
captains under him, and an immense army un 
der each of them? Indeed, he deemed the 
to be no number at all without God’s assistane 
and only spread out his hands towards this 
ly place,* which you have now polluted, 
reckoned upon him as upon his invinei 
supporter, instead of his own army. Was 
our queen sent back without any defilemen 
her husband, the very next evening? w 
the king of Egypt fled away, adoring this plae 
which you have defiled by shedding therei 
the blood of your own countrymen: and h 
also trembled at those visions which he saw. 
the night-season, and bestowed both silver at 
gold on the Hebrews, as on a people belove 
by God. Sball I say nothing, or shall I m 
tion the removal of our fathers into Egypt, wi 
when they were used tyranically, and wer 
fallen under the power of foreign kings 
four hundred years together, and might h 
defended themselves by war and by fightir 
did yet do nothing but commit themselves t 
God? Who is there that does not know th 
Egypt was overrun with all sorts of wild bea: 
and consumed by all sorts of distempers? ho\ 
their land did not bring forth its fruit? how ¢ 
Nile failed of water? how the ten plagues 0 
Egypt followed one upon another? and hi 
by those means our fathers were sent away U 
der a guard without any bloodshed, and wi 
out running any dangers, because God condu 
ed themas his peculiar servants? Moreover, ¢ 
not Palestine groan under the ravage the As 
rianst made, when they carried away 0 i 
* Josephus supposes in this his admirable speect wo 

Jews, that not Abraham only but Pharaoh, king of Eg 
prayed toward a temple at Jerusalem, or toward Jerass 
itself, in which were mount Sion and mount Morial 
which the tabernacle and temple did afterward stand; @ 


. 


iy 









this long before either the Jewish tabernacle or temple 3 
built. Nor is the famous command given by God to# 
ham, to gotwo or three days’ journey on purpose 10 
up his son Isaac there, unfavorable to such a notion. 
+ Note here, that Josephus, in this his same adm! 
speech, calls the Syrians, nay, even the Philistines | 
most south partof Syria, Assyrians; which Reland obse 
as what was common among the ancient writers. 
also, that Josephus might well put the Jews in mind. 
does here more than once, of their wonderful and tru 
raculous deliverance from Sennacherib king of Assym 
the Roman army, and himself with them, were now ene? 


BOOK V.--CHAPTER IX. 657 


pred ark? as did their idol Dagon, and as also | Epiphanes, lay before this city, aud had been 
did that entire nation of those that carried it| guilty of many indignities against God, and 
away; how they were smitten with a loathsome | our forefathers met him in arms, they then 
distemper in the secret parts of their bodies, | were slain in the battle; the city was plundered 
when their very bowels came down together | by our enemies, and our sanctuaries made de- 
vith what they had eaten, till those hands that | solate for three years and six months. And 
tole it away were obliged to bring it back again | what need I bring any more examples? Indeed, 
and that with the sound of cymbals and tim-| what can it be that hath stirred up an army of 
hrels, and other oblations, in order to appease | the Romans against our nation? Is it not the 
he anger of God for the violation of his holy | impiety of the inhabitants? Whence did our 
ark. It was God who then became our gene-| servitude commence? Was it not derived 
ral, and accomplished these great things for| from the seditions that were among our fore- 
our fathers, and this because they did not med- | fathers, when the madness of Aristobulus and 
die with war and fighting, but committed it to| Hyrcanus, and our mutual quarrels brought 
him to judge about their affairs. When Sen-| Pompey upon this city, and when God reduced 
nacherib, king of Assyria, brought along with | those under subjection to the Romans, who 
him all Asia, and encompassed this city round | were unworthy of the liberty they had enjoy - 
with his army, did he fall by the hands of men?| ed. After a siege, therefore, of three montha, 
were not those hands lifted up to God in pray- | they were forced to surrender themselves, at 
ers, without meddling with their arms, when | though they had not been guilty of such cf 
the angel of God destroyed that prodigious ar- | fences with regard to our sanctuary and our 
my in one night? whenthe Assyrian king, as | laws, as you have;and this while.they had much 
he arose the next day, fonnd a hundred four- | greater advantages to go to war than you have, 
score and five thousand dead bodies, and when | Do not we know what end Antigonus, the son «4 
he, with the remainder of his army, fled away | Aristobulus, came to, under whose reign Guoc. 
from the Hebrews, though they were unarmed, | provided that thiscity should be taken again up. 
and did not pursue them! You arealso acquaint- | on account of the people’s offences? When He. 
ed with the slavery we were under at Babylon, | rod the son of Antipater, brought upon us Sositts, 
where the people were captives for seventy | and Sosius brought upon us the Roman army 

years; yet were they not delivered into freedom | they were then encompassed and besieged fo: 
again, before God made Cyrus his gracious in- | six months, till, as a punishment for their sine, 
strument in bringing it about; accordingly they | they were taken, and the city was plundered 
were set free by him, and did again restore the | by the enemy. Thus it appears, that arms went 
worship of their deliverer at histemple. And, | never given to our nation; but that we are al 

to speak in general, we can produce no exam- | ways given up to be fought against, and to by 
ple wherein our fathers got any success by war, | taken; for I suppose, that such as inhabit this 
or failed of success when without war they | holy place ought to commit the disposal o” 
committed themselves to God. When they | all things to God, and then only to disreganl 
staid at home they conquered, as pleased their | the assistance of men, when they resign them- 
Judge, but when they went out to fight, they | selves up to their Arbitrator, who is above. 
were always disappointed; for example, when| As for you, what have you done of those 
the king of Babylon besieged this very city,| things that are recommended by our legis- 
and our king Zedekiah fought against him, | lator? and what have you not done of those 
contrary to what predictions were made to | things that he hath condemned? How much 
him by Jeremiah the prophet, he was at once| more impious are you than those which 
laken prisoner, and saw the city and the tem- | were so quickly taken? You have not avoid- 
ple demolished. Yet how much greater was|ed so much as those sins that are usually 
the moderation of that king, than is that of| done in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous 
your present governors, and that of the people | plots against men, and adulteries. You are 
then under hin, than is that of you at this time? | quarreling about rapines and murders, and in- 
for when Jeremiah cried out aloud, how very | vent strange ways of wickedness. Nay, the 
angry God was at thein because of their trans- | temple itself is become the receptacle of all, 
gression, and told them they should be taken pri- | and this divine place is polluted by the hands of 
sohers unlessthey would surrender up their city, | those of our own country, which place hath 
neither did the king nor the people put him to | yet been reverenced by the Romans, when it 
death: but for you, (to pass over what you have | was at a distance from them, when they have 
jone within the city, which I am not able to de- | suffered many of their own customs to give 
seribe as your wickedness deserves,) you abuse | place to our law. And atier all this, do you 
‘ne, and throw darts at me, who only exhort| expect him whom you have so inipiously abus- 
you to save yourselves, as being provoked ed to be your supporter? T'o be surethen you 
when you are put in mind of your sins, and | have a right to be petitioners, and to call upon 
tannot bear the very mention of those crimes | him to assist you, so pure are your hands! Did 
which you every day perpetrate. For another | your king [Hezekiah] lift up such hands in 
’xample, when Antiochus, who was called | prayer to God against the king of Assyrra 
when he destroyed that great army in one night? 


+dupon and beyond that very spot of ground where the Assy- | And do the Romans commit such wickedness, 
“aan army lay 780 years before, and which retained the 


| 5 ¢ j i ssyrik : i nay 8 
‘very name of the Camp of the Assyricns to that very day; as did the king of As ya that ees hav 
‘wee chap. vii. sect 3, and chap. xii. sect. 2. | reason to hope for the like vengeance upoR 
Bs) R3 





ee 


them? Did not that king accept of money 
from our king on this condition, that he should 
not destroy the city, and yet, contrary to the 
oath he had taken, he came down to burn the 
temple? while the Romans do demand no more 
than that accustomed tribute which our fathers 
paid to their fathers; and if they may but once 
obtain that, they neither aim to destroy this 
city, nor to touch this sanctuary; nay, they will 
grant you besides, that your posterity shall be 
free, and your possessions secured to you, and 
will preserve your holy laws inviolate to you. 
And it is plain madness to expect that God 
should appear as well disposed towards the 
wicked as towards the righteous, since he 
knows when it is proper to punish men for 
their sins immediately: accordingly he broke 
the power of the Assyrians the very first night 
that they pitched theircamp. Wherefore, had 
he judged that our nation was worthy of free- 
dom, or the Romans of punishment, he had 
immediately inflicted punishment upon those 
Romans, as he did upon the Assyrians, when 
Pompey began to meddle with our nation, or 
when after him Sosius came up against us, or 
when Vespasian laid waste Galilee, or lastly, 
when Titus came first of all near to the city; 
although Magnus and Sosius did not only suf- 
fer nothing, but took the city by force; as did 
Vespasian go from the war he made against 
you to receive the empire; and as for Titus, 
those springs that were formerly almost dried 
up* when they were under your power, since 
he is come, run more plentifully than they did 
before: accordingly you know that Siloam, as 
well as all the other springs that were without 
the city, did so far fail, that water was sold by 
distinct measures; whereas they now have such 
@ great quantity of water for your enemies, as 
is sufficient not only for drink both for them- 
se)ves and their cattle, but for watering their 

rdens also. The same wonderful sign you 
Fad also experience of formerly, when the fore- 
mentioned king of Babylon made war against 
us, and when he took the city, and burnt the 
temple; while yet I believe the Jews of that 
age were not so impious as you are. Where- 
fore [ cannot but suppose that God is fled out 
of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of 
those against whom you fight. Now even a 
man if he be but a good man, will fly from an 
impure house, and will hate those that are in 
it; and do you persuade yourselves that God 
will abide with you in your iniquities, who 
gees all secret things, and hears what is kept 
most private? Now what crime is there, I pray 
you, that is so much as kept a secret among 
you 6r is concealed by you? nay what is there 
that is not open to your very enemies? for you 
show your transgressions after a pompous man- 
ner, and contend one with another which of you 
shall be more wicked than another; and you 


make a public demonstration of your injustice, |. 


as if it were virtue. However, there isa place 


“This drying up of the Jerusalem fountain of Siloam, 
when the Jews wanted it, and its flowing abundantly when 
the enemies of the Jews wanted it, and these both in the 
days of Zedekiah and of Titus, (and this last as a certain 
*veul we . known by the Jews at that time, as Josephus 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


4 

left for your preservation, if you be willin ta 
accept of it; and God is easily reconciled ta 
those that confess their faults, and repent of 
them. O hard-hearted wretches as you are! 
cast away all your arms and take pity of your 
country, already going to ruin; return from 
your wicked ways and have regard to the ex. 
cellency of that city you are going to betray, 
to that excellent temple, with the donations of 
so many countries in it. 'Whocould bear tobe 
the first that should set that temple on fire? whe 
could be willing that these things should be no 
more? and what is there that can better deserve 
to be preserved? O insensible creatures, and 
more stupid than are the stones themselves 
And if you cannot look at these things with 
discerning eyes, yet, however, have pity upon 
your families, and set before every one of your 
eyes your children, and wives, and parents, who 
will be gradually consumed either by famine 
or by war. I am sensible that this danger will 
extend to my mother, and wife, and that family 
of mine which hath been by no means ignoble, 
and indeed to one that hath been very eminent 
in old time; and perhaps you may imagine that 
it is on their account only that I give you this 
advice: if that be all, kill them; nay, take my 
own blood as a reward, if it may but procure 
your preservation; for I am ready to die, in 
case you will but return to a sound mind after 
my death.” 


CHAPTER X. 


How a great many of the people earnestly endea- 
vored to desert to the Romans: as also, what tn- 
tolerable things those that stayed behind suffer 


ed by famine, and the sad consequences thereof 


§ 1. As Josephus was speaking thus witha 
loud voice, the seditious wouid neither yield to 
what he said, nor did they deem it safe for 
them to alter their conduct; but as for the peo - 
ple, they had a great inclination to desert to 
the Romans: accordingly, some of them sold 
what they had, and even the most precious 
things that had been laid up as treasures by 
them, for a very small matter, and swallowed 
down pieces of gold that they might not be 
found out by the robbers; and when they es- 
caped to the Romans, went to stool, and had 
wherewithall to provide plentifully for them- 
selves; for Titus let a great number of them go 
away into the country whither they pleased. 
And the main reason why they were so read 
to desert were these, that now they should be 
freed from those miseries which they had en- 
dured in that city, and yet should not be ia 
slavery to the Romans; however, John and 


Simon, with their factions, did more carefully 
watch these men’s going out than they did tht” 
coming in of the Romans; and if any one did 
but afford the least shadow of suspicion of such 
an intention, his throat was cut immediately. 
2. But as for the richer sort it proved all one 
to them whether they staid in the city or at 


here tells them openly to their faces,) are very 
instances of a divine Providence for the punishment of 
Jewish nation, when they were grown very wicked, at 
those times of the destruction of Jerusalem. 











BOOK V.—CHAPTER X. 


sempted te get out of it; for they were equally 
destroyed in both cases; for every such person 
was put to death under this pretence, that they 
were going to desert, but in reality that the rob- 
vers might get what they had. ‘The madness 
of the seditious did also increase together with 
their famine, and both those miseries were every 
day inflamed more and more; for there was no 
corn which anywhere appeared publicly, but 
the robbers came running into, and searched 
men’s private houses; and then if they found 
any, they tormented them, because they had 
denied they had any, and if they found none, 
they tormented them worse, because they sup- 
posed they had more carefully concealed it. 
The indication they made use of whether they 
had any or not, was taken from the bodies of 
these miserable wretches; which if they were 
in good case, they supposed they were in no 
want at all of food, but if they were wasted 
away, they walked off without searching any 
farther: nor did they think it proper to kill such 
as these, because they saw they would very 
goon die of themselves for want of food. Many 
there were, indeed, who sold what they had for 
one measure: it was of wheat, if they were of 
the richer sort, but of barley, if they were 
poorer. When these had so done, they shut 
themselves up in the inmost rooms of their 
houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some 
did it without grinding it, by reason of the ex- 
iremity of the want they were in, and others 
baked bread of it, according as necessity and 
fear dictated to them; a table was nowhere laid 
for a distinct meal, but they snatched the bread 
out of the fire half baked, and ate it very hastily. 

3. It was now a miserable case, and a sight 
that would justly bring tears into our eyes, how 
men stood as to their food, while the more pow- 
erful had more than enough, and the weaker 
were lamenting [for want of it.] But the fa- 
mine was too hard for all other passions; and it 
is destructive to nothing so much as to modes- 
ty, for what was otherwise worthy of rever- 
ence was in this case despised; insomuch that 
children pulled the very morsels that their 
fathers were eating out of their very mouths; 
and what was still more to be pitied, so did the 


mothers de as to their infants; and when those 


that were most dear were perishing under their 
hands, they were not ashamed to take from 
them the very last drops that might preserve 
their lives; and while they ate after this man- 
ner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; 
but the seditious everywhere came upon them 
immediately, aud snatched away from them 
what they had gotten from others; for when 
they saw any house shut up, this was to them 
a signal that the people within had gotten some 
food; whereupon they broke open the doors, 
and ran in, and took pieces of what they were 
eating almost up out of their very throats, and 
this by force; the old men who held their food 
fast were beaten; and if the women hid what 
they had within their hands, their hair was 
torn for so doing; nor was there any commise- 
tation shown either to the aged or to the infants, 
put they lifted np children from the ground, 


658 
as they hung upon the morsels they haa got 
ten, and shook them down upon the floor 
But still were they more barbarously cruel te 
those that had prevented their coming in, and 
had actually swallowed down what they were 
going to seize upon, as if they had been un- 
justly defrauded of their right. They also in- 
vented terrible methods of torments, to dis 
cover where any food was, und they were these: 
to stop up the passages of the privy parts of the 
miserable wretches, and to drive sharp stakes 
up their fundaments; and a man was forced to 
bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to 
make him confess that he had but one loaf of 
bread, or that he might discover a handful of 
barley-meal that was concealed; and this was 
done when these tormentors were not them- 
selves hungry; for the thing had been less bar- 
barous had necessity forced them to it; but this 
was done to keep their madness in exercise, 
and as making preparation of provisions for 
themselves for the following days. These men 
went also to meet those that had crept out of 
the city by night, as far as the Roman guards, 
to gather some plants and herbs that grew wild; 
and when those people thought they had got 
clear 01 “e enemy, they snatched from them 
what they .-.’ brought with them, even while 
they had frey... tly entreated them, and that 
by calling upon the tremendous name of God, 
to give them back some part of what they had 
brought; though these would not give them the 
least crumb, and they were to be well content- 
ed that they were only spoiled, and not slain at 
the same time. 

4. These were the afflictions which the lower 
sort of people suffered from these tyrant’s 
guards; but for the men that were in dignity, 
and withall were rich, they were carried before 
the tyrants themselves; some of whom were 
falsely accused of laying treacherous plots, and 
so were destroyed; others of them were charg- 
ed with designs of betraying the city to the 
Romans; but the readiest way of all was this, 
to suborn some body to affirm that they were re- 
solved to desert to the enemy. And he who 
was utterly despoiled of what he had by Si- 
mon, was sent back again to John, as of those 
who had been already plundered by John, Si 
mon got what remained; insomuch that they 
drank the blood of the populace to one another, 
and divided the dead bodies of the poor crea 
tures between them: so that although, on ac 
count of their ambition after dominion, they con 
tended with each other, yet did they very well 
agree in their wicked practices; for he that did 
not communicate what he had got by the mis 
eries of others to the other tyrant, seemed to 
be too little guilty, and in one respect only; and 
he that did not partake of what was so com- 
municated to him, grieved at the loss, as at the 
loss of what was a valuable thing, that he had 
no share in such barbarity. 

5, It is, therefore, impossible to go distinctly 
over every instance of these men’s iniquity. I 
shall, therefore, speak my mind here at once 
briefly, that neither did any other city ever suf- 
fer such misries, nor did any age ever breed 8 


90U 


generation more fruitful in wickedness than 
this was, from the beginning of the world. 
Finally, they brought the Hebrew nation into 
contempt, that they might themselves appear 
comparatively less impious with regard to 
strangers. They confessed what was true, that 
they were the slaves, the scum, and the spuri- 
ous and abortive offspring of our nation, while 
they overthrew the city themselves, and forced 
the Romans, whether they would or not, to gain 
a melancholy reputation, by acting gloriously 
against them, and did almost draw that fire 
upon the temple, which they seemed to think 
came too slowly; and indeed, when they saw 
that temple burning from the upper city, they 
were neither troubled at it, nor did they shed 
any tears on that account, while yet these pas- 
sions were discovered among the Romans 
themselves. Which circumstances we shall 
speak of hereafter in their proper place, when 
we come to treat of such matters. 


CHAPTER XI. 


How the Jews were crucified before the walls of 
the city. Concerning Antiochus Epiphanes; 
and how the Jews overthrew the banks that had 
been raised by the Romans. 


§ 1. So now Titus’s banks were advanced a 
great way, notwithstanding his soldiers had 
been very much distressed from the w-’.. He 
then sent a party of horsemen.~ .. ordered 
they should lay ambushes for .«#e that went 
out into the valleys to gather food. Some of 
these were indeed fighting men, who were 
contented with what they got by rapine; but 
the greater part of them were poor people, 
who were deterred from deserting by the con- 
cern they were under for their own relations; 
for they could not hope to escape away, togeth- 
er with their wives and children, without the 
knowledge of the seditious; nor could they 
think of leaving these relations to be slain by 
the robbers on their account; nay the severity 
of the famine made them bold in thus going 
out; so nothing remained but that, when they 
were concealed from the robbers, they should 
be taken by the enemy; and when they were 
going to be taken, they were forced to defend 
themselves for fear of being punished; as after 
they had fought, they thought it too late to 
make any supplications for mercy: so they were 
first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts 
of tortures, before they died, and were then 
crucified before the wall of the city. This 
miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity 
hem, while they caught every day five hundred 
Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet 
it did not appear to be safe for him to let those 
that were taken by force go their way, and to 
set a guard over so many he saw would be to 
make such as guarded them useless to hin. 
The main reason why he did not forbid that 
eruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might 
perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they 
might themselves afterward be liable to the 
same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of 
the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nail- 
ed those they caught, one after one way, and 


WARS OF THE JUws. 


ie | 


; A 
another after another, to the crosses, by way of 
jest, when their multitude was 80 great, thas 
room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses 
wanting for the bodies.* ? 

2. Butso far were the seditious from repent- 
ing at this sad sight, that, on the contrary, they 
made the rest of the multitude believe other- 
wise; for they brought the relations of those 
that had deserted upon the wall, with such of © 
the populace as were very eager to go over 
upon the security offered them, and showed 
them what miseries those underwent who fled 
to the Romans: and told them that those who 
were caught were supplicants to them, and not 
such as were taken prisoners. This sight kept 
many of those within the city who were 80 
eager to desert, till the truth was known; yet 
did some of them run away immediately as 
unto certain punishment, esteeming death from 
their enemies to be a quiet departure, if com- 
pared with that by famine. So ‘Titus com- 
manded that the hands of many of those that 
were caught should be cut off, that they might 
not be thought deserters, and might be ere- 
dited on account of the calamity they were 
under, and sent them in to John and Si 
mon, with this exhortation, that “they would 
now at length leave off [their madness,] and 
not force him to destroy the city, whereby 
they would have those advantages of repent- 
ance, even in their utmost distress, that they 
would preserve their own lives, and so fine a 
city of their own, and that temple which was 
their peculiar glory.” He then went round 
about the banks that were cast up, and hasten- 
ed them, in order to show, that his words should 
in no long time be followed by his deeds, In 
answer to which, the seditious cast reproaches 
upon Cesar himself, and upon his father also, 
and cried out with a loud voice, that “they con- 
temned death, and did well in preferring it be- 
fore slavery; that they would do all the mis- 
chief to the Romans they could, while they 
had breath in them; and that for their own city, 
since they were, as he said, to be destroyed, 
they had no concern about it, and that the world 
itself was a better temple to God than this. 
That yet this temple would be preserved by 
him that inhabited therein, whom they still hac 
for their assistant in this war, and did therefore 
laugh at all his threatenings, which would 
come to nothing, because the conclusion of the 
whole depended upon God only.” These 
words were mixed with reproaches, and witli 
them they made a mighty clamor. 

3. In the mean time Antiochus Epiphanes 
came to the city, having with him a considera- 
ble number of other armed men, and a band 
called the Macedonian band about hin, all of 
the same age, tall, and just past their childhood, 
armed, and instructed after the Macedonian 
manner, whenee it was that they took that 
name. Yet were many of them unworthy 4 


* Reland very properly takes notice here, how j 
judgment came upon the Jews, when they were £6 18 
such multitudes together, that the Romans wanted room {vt 
the crosses, and crosses for the bodies of those Jews, simot 
they had brought this judgment on themselves by the crust” 
fizion of their Messiah. 







vy 


‘so famous a nation; for it had so happened, 
that the king of Commagena had flourished 
‘more than any other kings that were under the 
hte of the Romans, till a change happened 
in his condition; and when he was become an 
old man, he declared plainly, that we ought not 
to call any man happy before he is dead. But 
this son of his, who was then come thither be- 
fore his father was decaying, said, that “he 
could not but wonder what made the Romans 
80 tardy in making their attacks upon the wall.” 
Now he wasa warlike man, and naturally bold 
in exposing himself to dangers; he was also so 
strong a man, that his boldness seldom failed of 
having success. Upon this Titus smiled, and 
said, “He would share the pains of an attack 
with him.” However, Antiochus went as he 
then was, and with his Macedonians made a 
sudden assault upon the wall; and, indeed, for 
his own part, his strength and skill were so 
great that he guarded himself from the Jewish 
darts, and yet shot his darts at them, while yet 
the young men with him were almost allsorely 
galled; for they had so great a regard to the 
promises that had been made of their courage, 
that they would needs persevere in their fight- 
‘ng, and atslength many of them retired, but 
not till they were wounded; and then they per- 
ceived that true Macedonians, if they were to 
de conquerors, must have Alexander’s good 
fortune also. 

4. Now as the Romans began to raise their 
banks on the twelfth day of the month Artemi- 
sius, (Jyar,] so had they much ado to finish 
them by the twenty-ninth day of the same 
month, after they had labored hard for seven- 
teen days continually. For there were now 
four great banks raised, one of which was at 
the tower Antonia; this was raised by the fifth 
legion, over against the middle of that pool 
which was called Struthius. Another was 
east up by the twelfth legion, at the distance of 
about twenty cubits from the other. But the 
labors of the tenth legion, which lay a great 
way off these, was on the north quarter, and at 
the pool called Amygdalon; as was that of the 
fifteenth legion about thirty cubits from it, and 
at the high priest’s monument. And now 
when the engines were brought, John had 
from within undermined the space that was 
Over against the tower of Antonia, as far as the 
banks themselves, and had supported the 
ground over the mine with beams laid across 
one another, whereby the Roman works stood 
upon an uncertain foundation. ‘Then did he 
erder such materials to be brought in as were 
daubed over with pitch and bitumen, and set 
them on fire; and as the cross-beams that sup- 
ported the banks were burning, the ditch yield- 
ed on the sudden, and the banks were shaken 
down and fell into the ditch with a prodigious 
noise. Now at the first there arose a very thick 
‘smoke and dust as the fire was choked with the 
fall of the bank; but as the suffocated mate- 
rials were now gradually consumed, a plain 
flame broke out, on which sudden appearance 


BOOK V.—CHAPTER XI]. 


2 ee eee 
————— 


661 


discouraged them; and indeed whis acciaen 
coming upon them ata time when they though 
they .had already gained their point, cooled 
their hopes for the time to come. They also 
thought it would be to no purpose to take the 
pains to extinguish the fire, since if it were ex 
tinguished the banks were swallowed up alrea 
dy {and become useless to them.] 

5. Two days after this Simon and his party 
made an attempt to destroy the other banks: 
for the Romans had brought their. engines to 
bear there and began already to make the wall 
shake. And here one Tephtheus of Garsis, a * 
city of Galilee, and Megassarus, one who was 
derived from some of Queen Mariamne’s ser- 
vants, and with them one from Adiabene, he 
was the son of Nabateus, and called by the 
name of Chagiras, from the ill fortune he had, 
the word signifying a lame man, snatched some 
torches, and ran suddenly upon the engines. 
Nor were there during this war any men that 
ever sallied out of the city who were their su- 
periors, either in their own boldness, or in the 
terror they struck into their enemies. For they 
ran out upon the Romans, not as if they were 
enemies, but friends, without fear or delay: nor 
did they leave their enemies till they had rush 
ed violently through the midst of them, and sq 
their machines on fire. And though they had 
darts thrown at them on every side, and were 
on every side assaulted with their enemies 
swords, yet did they not withdraw themselves 
out of the dangers they were in, till the fire 
had caught hold of the instruments; but when 
the flame went up, the Romans came running 
from their camp to save their engines. Then 
did the Jews hinder their succors from the wall 
and fought with those that endeavored. te 
quench the fire, without any regard to the dan- 
ger their bodies were in. So the Romans pull- 
ed the engines out of the fire, while the hur- 
dles that covered them were on fire; but the 
Jews caught hold of the battering-rams through 
the flame itself, and held them fast, although 
the iron upon them was become red hot: and 
now the fire spread itself from the engines to 
the banks, and prevented those that came to 
defend them, and all this while the Romans 
were encompassed round about with a flame, 
and despairing of saving their works from it, 
they retired to theircamp. ‘Then did the Jews 
become still more and more in number by the 
coming of those that were within the city to 
their assistance; and as they were very bold 
upon the good success they had had, their vio- 
lent assaults were almost irresistible; nay, they 
proceeded as far as the fortifications of the 
enemies’ camp, end fought with their guards, 
Now there stood a body of soldiers in array 
before that camp, which succeeded one anoth- 
er by turns in their armor; and as to those the 
law of the Romans was terrible, that he who 
left his post there, let the occasion be whatso- 
ever it might be, he was to die for it; so that 
body of soldiers, preferring ratber to die in 
fighting courageously, than as a punishment 


of the flame, a consternation fell upon the Ro- | for their cowardice, stood firm; and at the ne- 
mans, and the shrewdness of the contrivance! cessity these men were in of standing to it, 


’ 


many of the others that had run away, out of 
shame turned back again; and when they had 
set the engines against the wall, they kept the 
multitude from coming more of them out of 
the city [which they could the more easily do,] 
because they had made no provision for pre- 
serving or guarding their bodies at this time; 
for the Jews fought now hand to hand with all 
that came in their way, and without any cau- 
tion fell against the points of their enemies’ 
spears, and attacked them bodies against bodies; 
for they were now too hard for the Romans, 
“not so much by their other warlike actions, as 
by these courageous assaults they made upon 
them; and the Romans gave way more to their 
boldness, than they did to the sense of the harm 
they had received from them. 

6. And now Titus was come from the tower 
of Antonia, whither he was gone to look out 
for a place for raising other banks, and re- 
proached the soldiers greatly for permitting 
their own wall to be in danger, when they bad 
taken the walls of their enemies, and sustained 
tne fortune of men besieged, while the Jews 
were allowed to sally out against them, though 
they were already ina sortof prison. He then 
went round about the enemy with some cho- 
sen troops, and fell upon their flank himself; 
so the Jews who had been before assaulted in 
their faces, wheeled about to Titus, and contin- 
ued the fight. The armies also were now mix- 
ed one among another, and the dust that was 
raised so far hindered them from seeing one 
another, and the noise that was made so far 
hindered them from hearing one another, that 
neither side could discern an enemy from a 
friend. However, the Jews did not flinch, 
though not so much from their real strength, 
as from their despair of deliverance. The Ro- 
mans also would not yield, by reason of the re- 
gard they had to glory, and to their reputation 
in war, and because Cesar himself went into 
the danger before them; insomuch that I can- 
not but think the Romans would in the conclu- 
sion have now taken even the whole multitude 
of the Jews, so very angry were they at them, 
had these not prevented the upshot of the bat- 
tle, and retired into the city. However, seeing 
the banks of the Romans were demolished, 
these Romans were very much cast down upon 
the loss of what had cost them so long pains, 
and this in one hour’s time. And many indeed 
despaired of taking the city with their usual 
engines of war only. 


CHAPTER XILI. 


Titus thought fit to encompass the city round with 
awall: after which the Famine consumed the 
people by whole houses and families together. 


§ 1 And now did Titus consult with his 
commmanders what was to be done. Those 
that were of the warmest tempers thought he 
should bring the whole army against the city, 
and storm the wall; for that hitherto no more 
thar. a part of their army had fought with the 
Jews, but that in case the entire army was to 
come at once, they would not be able to sustain 
their attacks, but would be overwhelmed by their 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


famine had farther weakened them. 


ied. ahi 





darts. But of those that were for a more cat 
tious management, some were for raising i 
banks again, and others advised to let the bank 
alone, but to lie still before the city, to guard 
against the coming out of the Jews, and so to 
leave the enemy to the famine and this with. 
out direct fighting with them; for that despair 
was not to be conquered, especially as to those 
who are desirous to die by the sword, while a 
more terrible misery than that is reserved for 
them. However, Titus did not think it fit for 
so great an army to lie entirely idle, and that 
yet it was in vain to fight with those that would © 
be destroyed one by another; he also showed — 
them how impracticable it was to cast up any 
more banks, for want of materials, and to 
guard against the Jews coming out, still more — 
impracticable; as also, that to encompass the — 
whole city round with his army, was not very — 
easy, by reason of its magnitude, and the ditt ‘ 
culty of the situation, and on other accounts — 
dangerous, upon the sallies the Jews might 
make out of the city. For although they might — 
guard the known passages out of the place, yet — 
would they, when they found themselves un-— 
der the greatest distress, contrive secret passages © 
out, as being well acquainted with all such 
places; and if any provisions were carried in 
by stealth, the siege would thereby be longer — 
delayed. He also owned, that he was afraid — 
that the length of time thus to be spent, would ~ 
diminish the glory of his success; for though 
it be true that length of time will perfect every 
thing, yet that to do what we do in a littletime 
is still necessary to the gaining reputatien. © 
That, therefore, his opinion was, that if they — 
aimed at quickness joined with security, they — 
must build a wall round about the whole city © 
which was, he thought, the only way to prevent ~ 
the Jews from coming out any way, and then © 
they would either entirely despair of saving — 
the city, and so would surrender it up to hin, — 
or be still the more easily conquered yee the — 
or 
besides this wall, he would not lie entirely/at — 
rest afterward, but would take care thenito © 
have banks raised again, when those that would 
oppose them were become weaker. But that — 
if any one should think such a work to be too — 
great, and not to be finished without much dif- — 
ficulty, he ought to consider that it is not fit for — 
Romans to undertake any small work; and that — 
none but God himself could with ease accom- 
plish any great thing whatsoever. - »q 
2. 'These arguments prevailed with the com 
manders. So Titus gave orders that the arm 
should be distributed to their several shares : 
this work; and indeed there now came upon 


¢ 
A 
the soldiers a certain divine fury, so that they — 
did not only part the whole wall that was to be ; 
built among them, nor did only one legion 
strive with another, but the lesser divisions of © 
the army did the same; insomuch that each 
soldier was ambitious to please his decurion, 
each decurion his centurion, each centurion his 
tribune, and the ambition of the tribunes wae 
to please their superior commanders, while Ca- 


sar himself took note >f and rewarded the 







 fike contention in those commanders; for he 


i 


_ day, and took a view of what was done. 
tus began the wall from the camp of the Assy- 


went round about the works many times every 
Ti- 


' rians, where his own camp was pitched, and 


drew it down to the lower parts of Cenopolis: 
thence it went along the valley of Cedron, to 


‘the mount of Olives, it then bent towards the 


south, and encompassed the mountain as far as 
the rock called Peristereon, and that other hill 
' which lies next it, and is over the valley which 
reaches to Siloam; whence it bended again to 
the west, and went down to the valley of the 
Fountaia, beyond which it went up again at 
the monument of Ananus the high priest, and 
encompassing that mountain where Pompey 
had forme:'y pitched his camp, it returned back 
to the nore. side of the city, and was carried on 
as far as a :ertain village called the House of 


the Erebinthi; after which it encompassed He- 


_rod’s monument, and there on the east was join- 
-edto Titus’s own camp, where it began. Now 
the length of this wall was forty furlongs, one 
only abated. Now on this wall without were 
erected thirteen places to keep garrisons in, 
whose circumferences, put together, amounted 
toten furlongs; the whole was completed in 
three days; so that what would naturally have 
required some months, was done in so short 
an interval as is incredible When Titus had 
therefore encompassed the city with this wall, 
and put garrisons into proper places, he went 
round the wall at the first watch of the night 
and observed how the guard was kept; the 
second watch he allotted to Alexander; the 
commanders of legions took the third watch. 
They also cast lots among themselves who 
should be upon the watch in the night-time, 
and who should go all night long round the 
Spaces that were interposed between the garri- 
sons. 

3. So all hope of escaping was now cut off 
from the Jews, together with their liberty of 
going out of the city. Then did the famine 
widen its progress, and devoured the people by 
whole houses and families; the upper rooms 
were full of women and children that were dy- 
ing by famine, and the lanes of the city were 
full of the dead bodies of the aged; the chil- 
dren also and the young men wandered about 
the market-places like shadows, all swelled 
with the famine, and fell down dead, whereso- 
ever their misery seized them. As for burying 
them, those that were sick themselves were not 
able to do it, and those that were hearty and well 
were deterred from doing it by the great multi- 
wade of those dead bodies, and by the uncer- 
tainty there was how soon they should die 
themselves; for many died as they were bury- 

_ing others, and many went to their coffins be- 
fore that fatal hour was come. Nor was there 
any lamentations made under these calamities, 

“mor were heard any mournful complaints; but 
the famine confounded all natural passions; for 
those who were just going to die looked upon 
those that were gone to their rest before them 
with iry eyes and open mouths, A deep si- 
lence also, anda kind of deadly night, had 


hy 
- 


BOOh V.—CHAPTER XII. 


A683 


siezed upon the city; w tile yet the robtvers were 
still more terrible than these miseries were them- 
selves; for they broke open those houses which 
were no other than graves of dead bodies, anc 
plundered them of what they had, and carry 
ing off the coverings of their bodies, went out 
laughing, and tried the points of their swords 
in their dead bodies; and in order to prove what 
metal they were made of, they thrust some of 
those through that still lay alive upon the 
ground; but for those that entreated them to 
lend them their right hand and their sword to 
despatch them, they were too proud to grant 
their request, and left them to be consumed by 
the famine. Now every one of these died with 
their eyes fixed upon the temple, and left the 
seditious alive behind them. Now the sedi- 
tious at first gave orders that the dead should 
be buried out of the public treasury, as not en- 
during the stench of their dead bodies. But 
afterward, when they could not do that, they 
had them cast down from tlie walls into the 
valleys beneath. 

4. However, when Titus, in going his round 
along these valleys, saw them full of dead bo- 
dies, and the thick putrefaction running about 
them, he gave a groan, and, spreading out his 
hands to heaven, called God to witness that 
this was not his doing; and such was the sad 
case of the city itself. But the Romans were 
very joyful, since none of the seditious could 
now make sallies out of the city, because they 
were themselves disconsolate, and the famine 
already touched them also. These Romans 
besides had great plenty of corn and other ne- 
cessaries out of Syria, and out of the neigh- 
boring provinces; many of whom would stand 
near to the wall of the city, and show the peo- 
ple what great quantities of provisions they had, 
and so make the enemy more sensible of their 
famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety 
which they had themselves. However, when 
the seditious still showed no inclinations of 
yielding, Titus, out of his commiseration of 
the people that remained, and out of his earn- 
est desire of rescuing what was still left ous 
of those miseries, began to raise his banks again, 
although materials for them were hard to be 
come at; for al] the trees that were about the 
city had been already cut down for the making 
of the former banks. Yet did the soldiers 
bring with them other materials from the dis- 
tance of ninety furlongs, and thereby raised 
banks in four parts, much greater than the for- 
mer, though this was done only at the tower 
of Antonia. So Cesar went his rounds through 
the legions, and hastened on the works, and 
showed the robbers that they were now in hia 
hands. But these men, and these only, were 
incapable of repenting of the wickedness they 
had been guilty of, and, separating their souls 
from their bodies, they used them both as if 
they belonged to other folks, and not to them- 
selves. For no gentle affection could touch 
their souls, nor could any pain affect their bo- 
dies, since they could still tear the dead bodies 
of the people as dogs do, and fill he prisons 
with those that were sick. 


864. 
CHAPTER XIII. 


The great slaughters and sacrilege that were in 
Jerusalem. 


§ 1. Accordingly Simon would not suffer 
Matthias, by whose means he got possession of 
the city, to go off without torment. This Mat- 
thias was the son of Boethus, and was one of 
the high priests, one that had been very faith- 
furl to the people, and in great esteem with 
then; he, when the multitude were distressed 
oy the Zealots, among whom John was num- 
bered, persuaded the people to admit this Si- 
mon to come in to assist them, while he had 
made no terms with him, nor expected any 
thing that was evil from him. But when Si- 
mon was come in, and had gotten the city un- 
der his power, he esteemed him that had ad- 
vised them to admit him as his enemy equally 
with the rest, as looking upon that advice as a 
piece of his simplicity only: so he had him 
then brought before him, and condemned to 
die for being on the side of the Romans, with- 
out giving him leave to make his defence. He 
condemned also his three sons to die with him; 
for as to the fourth he prevented him by run- 
ning away to Titus before. And when he beg- 
ged for this, that he might be slain before his 
sons, and that as a favor, on account that he 
had procured the gates of the city to be open- 
ed to him, he gave order that he should be 
slain the last of them all: so he was not slain 
tili he had seen his sons slain before his eyes, 
and that by being produced over against the 
Romans; for such a charge had Simon given 
to Ananus, the son of Bamadus, who was the 
most barbarous of all his guards. He also jest- 
ed upon him, and told him that he might now 
see whether those to whom he intended to go 
over, would send him any succors or not; but 
still he forbade their dead bodies should be bu- 
ried. After the slaughter of these, a certain 
priest, Ananias, the son of Masambalus, a per- 
eon of eminency, as also Aristeus, the scribe of 
thie sanhedrim, and born at Emmaus, and with 
them fifteen men of figure among the people, 
were slain. They also kept Josephus’s father in 
prison, and made public proclamation, that no 
citizen whosoever should either speak to him 
himself, or go into his company among others, 
for fear he should betray them. They also 
slew such as joined in lamenting these men, 
without any further examination. 

2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who 
was one of Simon’s under officers, and a per- 
gon intrusted by him to keep one of the towers, 
saw this procedure of Simon’s, he called togeth- 
er ten of those under him, that were most faith- 
ful to him, (perhaps this was done partly out of 
pity to those that had so barbarously been put 
to death, but principally, in order to provide 
for his own safety,) and spoke thus to them: 
“How long shall we bear these miseries? or 
what hopes have we of deliverance by thus 
continuing faithful to such wicked wretches? 
Is not the famine already come against us? Are 
wot the Romans in a manner gotten within the 


eity’ is aot Simon become unfaithful to his | 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 









benefactors? and is there not reason to fear 
will very soon bring us to the like punishmen 
while the security the Romans offer us is sure 
Come on, let us surrender up this wall, an 
save ourselves and the city. Nor will Sim 
be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of de 
liverance, he be brought to justice a little soon 
er than he thinks on.” Now these ten well 
prevailed upon by those arguments: so he sent 
the rest of those that were under him some one 
way, and some another, that no discovery migh 
be made of what they had resolved upon. Ac 
cordingly, he called to the Romans from the 
tower about the third hour: but they, some of 
them out of pride, despised what he said, and 
others of them did not believe him to be in 
earnest, though the greatest number delayed 
the matter, as believing they should get posses- 
sion of the city in a little time, without any 
hazard. But when Titus was just coming 
thither with his armed men, Simon was ae- 
quainted with the matter before he came, and 
presently took the tower into his own custody, 
before it was surrendered, and seized upon 
these men, and put them to death in the sight 
of the Romans themselves; and when he had 
mangled their dead bodies, he threw them 
down before the wall of the city. . 
3. In the mean time Josephus, as he was go- 
ing round the city, had his head wounded by 
a stone that was thrown at him; upon which he 
fell down as giddy. Upon which fall of his 
the Jews made a sally, and he had been hurried 
away into the city, if Cesar had not sent men 
to protect him immediately; and, as these men 
were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though 
he heard little of what was done. So the se- 
ditious supposed they had now slain that man 
whom they were the most desirous of killing 
and made thereupon a great noise in way of 
rejoicing. ‘This accident was told in the city 
and the multitude that remained became very 
disconsolate at the news; as being persuaded 


that he was really dead, on whose account alone 


they could venture to desert to the Romans, But 
when Josephus’s mother heard in prison that 
her son was dead, she said to those that wate | 
ed about her, “that she had always been of opin- 
ion, since the siege of Jotapata, [that he would 
be slain,] and she should never enjoy him mY 
any more.” She also made great lamentation 
privately to the maid-servants that were abzat, 
her, and said, “that this was all the advantag 

she had of bringing so extraordinary a pe 
as this son into the world, that she should 

be able even to bury that son of hers, by wh 
she expected to have been buried he 
However, this false report did not put his 
er to pain, nor afford merriment to the robber 
long; for Josephus soon recovered of his wou 
and came out, and cried aloud, “that it w« 
not be long ere they should be punished fe 
this wound they had given him.” He als 
made a fresh exhortation to the people to co 
out, upon the security that woul be | 
them. ‘This sight of Josephus encouraged t 
people greatly, and brought a great constern@ 
tion upon the seditious. 


















BOOK V.-CHAPTER XIII. 


_ 4, Hereupon some of the deserters, having 
ao other way, leaped down from the wall im- 
mediately, while others of them went out of 
the city with stones, as if they would fight them; 
hut thereupon they fled away to the Romans. 
But here a worse fate accompanied these, than 
what they had found within the city; and they 
met with a quicker despatch from the too 
great abundance they had among the Romans, 
than they could have done from the famine 
among the Jews; for when they came first to 
the Romans, they were puffed up by the fa- 
mine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after 
which they al. on the sudden over-filled those 
bodies that were before empty, and so burst 
asunder, excepting such only as were skilful 
enough to restrain their appetites, and by de- 
grees took in their food into bodies unaccus- 
tomed thereto. Yet did another plague seize 
upon those that thus were preserved; for there 
was found among the Syrian deserters a certain 
person who was caught gathering pieces of gold 
out of the excrements of the Jew’s bellies; for 
the deserters used to swallow such pieces of 
gold, as we told you before, when they came 
out, and for these did the seditious search them 
all; for there was a great quantity of gold in 
the city; insomuch that as much was now sold 
[in the Roman camp] for twelve Attic [drams,] 
as was sold before for twenty-five. But when 
this contrivance was discovered in one instance, 
the fame of it filled their several camps, that 
the deserters came to them full of gold. So 
the multitude of the Arabians, with the Sy- 
rians, cut up those that came as supplicants 
and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to 
me, that any misery befell the Jews, that was 
more terrible than this, since in one night’s 
time about two thousand of these deserters 
were thus dissected. 

5. When Titus came to the knowledge of 
this wicked practice, he had like to have sur- 
rounded those that had been guilty of it with 
his horse, and have shot them dead; and he 
nad done it, had not their number been so very 
great, and those that were liable to this punish- 
ment would have been manifold more than 
those whom they had slain. However, he call- 
ed together the commanders of the Roman le- 
gions, (for some of his own soldiers had been 
also guilty herein, as he had been infortned,) 
and had great indignation against both sorts of 
them: “What! have any of my own soldiers 
‘done such things as this out of the uncertain 
hope of gain, without regarding their own 
‘weapons, which are made of silver and gold? 
Moreover, do the Arabians and Syrians now 
first of all begin to govern themselves as they 
please, and to indulge their appetites in a foreign 
War, and then, out of their barbarity in murder- 
ing men, and out of their hatred to the Jews, 
Bet it ascribed to the Romans?”—for this infa- 
mous practice was said to be spread among 
some of his own soldiers also. 
‘threatened, that he would put such men to death 
if any of them were discovered to be so inso- 
lentas to do so again; moreover, he gave it in 
| sharge to the legions, that they should make a 

% S44 








& 


TS oye a ee a ee 


nn nee eELIEN SER SERS IIE pan SnCR Een a 





| 
| 


665 


search after such as were suspected, and should 
bring them to him. But it appeared, that the 
love of money was too hard for all their dread 
of punishment, and a vehement desire of gain 
is natural to men, and no passion is so venture- 
some as covetousness; otherwise such passions 
have certain hounds, and are subordinate to 
fear. Butin reality it was God who condemn. 
ed the whole nation, and turned every course 
that was taken for their preservation to their 
destruction. This, therefore, which was for- 
bidden by Ceesar under such a threatening, was 
ventured upon privately against the deserters, 
and these barbarians would go out still, and 
meet those that ran away before any saw them, 
and looking about them to see if no Romans 
spied them, they dissected them, and pulled this 
polluted money out of their bowels; which 
money was still found in a few of them, while 
yet a great many were destroyed by the bare 
hope there was of thus getting by them, which 
miserable treatment made many that were de- 
serting to return back again into the city. 

6. But as for John, when he could no long- 
er plunder the people, he betook himself te 
sacrilege, and melted down many of the sacred 
utensils, which had been given to the temple, 
as also many of those vessels which were ne- 
cessary for nh as ministered about holy 
things, the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; 
nay, he did not abstain from those pouring 
vessels that were sent them by Augustus and 
his wife; for the Roman emperors did ever 
both honor and adorn this temple; whereas 
this man, who was a Jew, seized upon what 
were the donations of foreigners, and said to 
those that were with him, that it was proper 
for them to use divine things while they were 
fighting for the Divinity, without fear, and that 
such whose warfare is for the temple, should 
live of the temple; on which account he emp- 
tied the vessels of that sacred wine and oil, 
which the priests kept to be poured on the 
burnt-offerings and which lay in the inner 
court of the temple, and distributed it among 
the multitude, who, in their anointing them- 
selves, and drinking, used [each of them] above 
a hin of them. And here I cannot but speak 
my mind, and what the concern I am under 
dictates to me, and it is this: I suppose, that 
had the Romans made any longer delay in 
coming against these villains, that the city 
would either have been swallowed up by the 
ground opening upon them, or been overflow- 
ed by water, or else been destroyed by such 
thunder as the country of Sodom perished by,® 
for it had brought forth a generation of mem 
much more atheistical than were those that 
suffered such punishments; for by their mad- 
ness it was that all the people cemeto be de 
stroyed. 


ae re 
mur 


* Josephus, both here and before, b. iv. cy viii. sect. 4, es 
teems the land of Sodom not as part of the lake Asphaltitis, 


Titus then | or under its waters, but near it only, as Tacitus also took 


the same notion from him, Hist. v. vi. 7, which the great Re- 
land takes to be the very truth, both in his note on this place, 
and in his Palestine, tom.i. p. 254—258; though I rather sup- 
pose part of that region of Pentapolis to be now under the 
waters of the south part of that sea but perhaps not the 
whole country. 


ae 
666 WARS OF THE JEWS. 


7. And indeed, why do | relate these particu- ; dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thow 
lar calamities? while Manneus, the son of Laza- | sand were thrown out at the gates; though stil} 
rug came running to Titus at this very time, | the number of the rest could not be discovered; 
and told him, that there had been carried out | and they told him, farther, that when they were 
through that one gate, which was intrusted to| no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of 
hig care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen] the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in 
thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bo-| very large houses, and shut them up therein; 
dies, in the interval between the fourteenth day | as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold for 
of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when the|a talent, and that when, a while afterward, it 
Romans pitched their camp by the city, and} was not possible to gather herbs, by reason the 
the first day of the month Panemus, (lena city was all walled about, some persons were 
This was itself a prodigious multitude; and | driven to that terrible distress as to search the 
though this man was not himself set as a go-| common sewers and old dunghills of cattle, 
vernor at that gate, yet was he appointed to| and to eat the dung which they got there; and 
pay the public stipend for carrying these bo- | what they of old could not endure so much as 
dies out, and so was obliged of necessity to| to see, they now used for food. When the Ro- 
uumber them, while the rest were buried by} mans barely heard all this, they commiserated 
their relations; though all their burial was but | their case; while the seditious, who saw it also, 
this, to bring them away, and cast them out of | did not repent, but suffered the same distress to 
the city. After this man there ran away to| come upon themselves; for they were blinded 
Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told| by that fate which was already coming upon 
him the entire number of the poor that were ' the city, and upon themselves also. 





BOOK VI. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT ONE MONTH.—FROM THE GREAT EXTREMITY TO WHICR 
THE JEWS WERE REDUCED, TO THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS. 


CHAPTER I. truly the very view itself was a melancholy 
things for those places which were before 
| adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were 
pda eras the eam made an assault upon | vow become a desolate country ova way, and 
the tower of Antonia. its trees were all cut down; nor could any fo 
§ 1. Tus did the miseries of Jerusalem | reigner that had formerly seen Judea and the 
grow worse and worse every day, and the se- | most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now 
ditious were still more irritated by the calami- | saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadl 
ties they were under, even while the famine | at so great a change, for the war had laid al} 
preyed upon themselves, after it had prey- | the signs of beauty quite waste; nor if any one 
ed upon the people; and indeed the multitude | that had knowr the place before, had come on 
of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon anoth- | a sudden to it now, would he have known it 
er, was a horrible sight, and produced a pesti- | again; but though he were at the city itself, 
lential stench, which was a hinderance to those | yet would he have inquired for it notwithstand 
that would make sallies out of the city, and | ing. 
fight the enemy; but as those were to go in bat-| 2. And now the banks were finished, they 
tle-array, who had been already used to ten | afforded a foundation for fear both to the Ro- | 
thousand murders, and must tread upon those | mans and to the Jews; for the Jews expected 
dead bodies as they marched along, so were | that the city would be taken unless they could | 
not they terrified, nor did they pity men as they | burn those banks, as did the Romans expect 


That the miserves of the Jews still grew worse; 


marched over them, nor did they deem this af- | that, if these were once burnt down, they 
front offered to the deceased to be any ill omen | should never be able to take it; for there was 
to themselves; but as they had their right hands | a mighty scarcity of materials, and the bodies’ 

lready polluted with the murders of their own | of the soldiers began to fail with such hard la- 
countrymen, and in that condition ran out to | bors, as did their souls faint with so many it © 
fight with foreigners, they seem to me to have | stances of ill success; nay, the very calamities _ 
cast a reproach upon God himself, as if he were | themselves that were in the city proved a great- 
too slow in punishing them; for the war was | er discouragement to the Romans than to those - 
aot now gone on with, as if they had any hope | within the city; for they found the fighting” 
of victory; for they gloried, after a brutish| men of the Jews to be not at all mollifiee 
manner, in that despair of deliverance they | among such their sere afflictions, while the} 
were already in And now the Romans, al- | had themselves perpetually less and less hope 
though they were greatly distressed in getting | of success, and their banks were forced to yiel¢ 
together their materials, raised their banks in| to the stratagems of the enemy, their engine 
one and twenty days, after they had cut down | to the firmness of their wall, and their closes 
all the trees that were in the country that ad- 


fights to the boldness ot their attack; and, what | 
joined to the city, and that for ninety fiurlongs | was their greatest discouragement of all, t 
‘ound about, as I have already related. And 


found the Jews’ courageous souls to be sup 





BOOK VI.—CHAPTER I. 667 


rior to the multitude of the miseries they were 
under, by their sedition, their famine, and the 
war itself; insomuch that they were ready to 
imagine that the violence of their attacks was 
invincible, and that the alacrity they showed 
would not be discouraged by their calamities: 
for what would not those be able to bear, if 

they should he fortunate, who turned their very 
misfortunes to the improvement of their valor? 
These considerations made the Romans to keep 
@stronger guard about their banks than they 
formerly had done. 

3. But now John and his party took care for 
securing themselves afterward, even in case 
this wall should be thrown down, and fell to 
their work before the battering rams were 
brought against them. Yet did they not com- 
pass what they endeavored to do, but as they 
Were gone out with their torches, they came 
back under great discouragement before they 

came near to the banks; and the reasons were 
these: that, in the first place, their conduct did 
notseem to be unanimous, but they went out in 
distinct parties, and at distinct intervals, and 
after a slow manner, and timorously, and, to 
say all in a word, without a Jewish courage; 
for they were now defective in what is peculiar 
to our nation, that is, in boldness, in violence of 
assault, and in running upon the enemy all to- 
gether, and in persevering in what they go 
about, though they do not at first succeed in it, 
but they now went out in a more languid man- 
er than usual, andat the same time found the Ro- 
mans set in array, and more courageous than 
ordinary, and that they guarded their banks 
both with their bodies and their entire armor, 
and this to such a degree on all sides, that they 
left no room for the fire to get among them, and 
that every one of their souls were in such good 
‘courage, that they would sooner die than desert 
their ranks; for besides their notion that all 
their hopes were cut off, in case these their 
works were once burnt, the soldiers were 
greatly ashamed that subtility should quite be 
too hard for courage, madness for armor, mul- 
titude for skill, and Jews for Romans. The 
Romans had now also another advantage, in 
that their engines for sieges co-operated with 
them in throwing darts and stones as far as the 
Jews, when they were coming out of the city; 
whereby the man that fell became an impedi- 
ment to him that was next him, as did the dan- 
ger of going farther make them less zealous in 
their attempts; and for those that had run un- 
der the darts, some of them were terrified by 
_ he good order and closeness of the enemies’ 
anks, before they came to a close fight, and 
ethers were pricked with their spears, and turn- 
ed back again: at length they reproached one an- 
other for their cowardice, and retired without 
‘doing any thing. This attack was made upon 
she first day of the month Panemus [Tamuz.] 
So when the Jews were retreated, the Romans 
brought their engines, although they had all the 
/ while stones thrown at them from the tower of 
Antonia, and were assaulted by fire and sword, 
-and by all sorts of darts which necessity afford- 
ed the Jews to make use of; for although these 


had great dependence on their own wall, and ® 
contempt of the Roman engines, yet dic they 
endeavor to hinder the Romans from bringing 
them. Now these Romans struggled hard, on 
the contrary, to bring them, as deeming that 
this zeal of the Jews was in order to avoid any 
impression to be made on the tower of Antonia, 
because its wall was but weak and its founda- 
tions rotten. However, that tower did not 
yield to the blows given it from the engines; 
yet did the Romans bear the impressions made 
by their enemies’ darts, which were perpetually 
cast at them, and did not give way to any of 
those dangers that came upon them from above, 
and so they brought their engines to bear. But 
then, as they were beneath the other, and were 
sadly wounded by the stones thrown down 
upon them, some of them threw their shields 
over their bodies, and partly with their hands, 
and partly with their bodies, and partly with 
crows, they undermined its foundations, and 
with great pains they removed four of its stones. 
Then night came upon both sides, and put an 
end to this struggle for the present: however, 
that night the wall was so shaken by the bat- 
tering rams in that place where John had used 
his stratagem before, and had undermined their 
banks, that the ground then gave way, and the 
wall fell down suddenly. 

4. When this accident had unexpectedly 
happened, the minds of both parties were 
variously affected: for though one would ex- 
pect that the Jews would be discouraged, be- 
cause this fall of their wall was unexpected by 
them, and they had made no provision in that 
case, yet did they pull up their courage, because 
the tower of Antonia itself was still standing; 
as was the unexpected joy of the Romans at 
this fall of the wall soon quenched by the sight 
they had of another wall which John and _ his 
party had built within it. However, the attack 
of this second wall appeared to be easier than 
that of the former, because it seemed athing of 
greater facility to get up to it through the parts 
of the former wall that were now thrown down. 
This new wall appeared also to be much weaker 
than the tower of Antonia, and accordingly 
the Romans imagined that it had been erecteu 
so much on the sudden, that they should soon 
overthrow it; yet did not any body venture 
now to goup to this wall; for that such as first 
ventured so to do must certainly be killed. 

5. And now Titus, upon consideration that 
the alacrity of soldiers in war is chiefly excited 
by hopes and by good words, and that exhor- 
tations and promises do frequently make men 
to forget the hazards they run, nay, sometinies 
to despise death itself, got togetner the most — 
courageous part of his army, and tried what 
he could do with his men by these methods 
“O fellow-soldiers, said he, to make an exhor 
tation to men to do what hath no peril in it, is 
on that very account inglorious to such to 
whom that exhortation is made; and indeed se 
it is, in him that makes the exhortation an ar 
gument of his own cowardice also. I there- 
fore think, that such exhortations ought then 
only to be made use of, when affairs are in 8 


BY il 


688 WARS OF THE JEWS. 


dangerous condition, and yet are worthy of 
being attempted by every one themselves; ac- 
cordingly, I am fully of the same opinion with 

ou, that it is a difficult task to go up this wall; 

ut that it is proper for those that desire repu- 
tation for their valor to struggle with difficul- 
ties in such cases, will then appear, when I 
nave particularly showed, that it is a brave 
thing to die with glory, and that the courage 
here necessary shall not go unrewarded in those 
that first begin the attempt. And let my first 
argument to move you to it be taken from what 
probably some would think reasonable to dis- 
suade you, I mean the constancy and patience 
of these Jews, even under their ill successes; 
for it is unbecoming you, who are Romans and 
my soldiers, who have in peace been taught 
how to make wars, en¢ who have also been 
used to conquer in those wars, to be inferior 
to Jews either in action of the hand, or in cou- 
rage of the soul, and this especially when you 
are at the conclusion of your victory, and are 
assisted by God himself; for as to our misfor- 
tunes, they have been owing to the madness 
of the Jews, while their sufferings have been 
owing to your valor, and to the assistance God 
hath afforded you; for as to the seditions they 
have been in, and the famine they are under, 
and the siege they now endure, and the fall of 
their walls without our engines, what can they 
all be but demonstrations of God’s anger against 
them, and of his assistance afforded us! It 
will not, therefore, be proper for you either to 
show yourselves inferior to those to whom you 
are really superior, or to betray that divine as- 
sistance, which is afforded you. And indeed, 
how can it be esteemed otherwise than a base 
and unworthy thing, that while the Jews, who 
need not be much asharned if they be deserted, 
because they have long learned to be slaves to 
others, do yet despise death, that they may be 
so no longer; and do make sallies into the very 
midst of us frequently, not in hopes of con- 
quering us, but merely for a demonstration of 
their courage; we, who have gotten possession 
of almost all the world that belongs either to 
land or sea, to whom it will be a great shame 
if we do not conquer them, do not once under- 
take any attempt against our enemies wherein 
there is much danger, but sit still idle, with 
such brave arms as we have, and only wait till 
the famine and fortune do our business them- 
selves, and this when we have it in our power, 
with some small hazard, to gain all that we 
desire. For if we go up to this tower of An- 
tonia, we gain the city; for if there should be 
svly more occasion for fighting against those 
within the city, which I do not suppose there 
will, since we shall then be upon the top of 
the hill,* and be upon our enemies before they 
can have taken breath; these advantages pro- 
mise us no less than a certain and sudden vic- 
wory. As for myself, I shall at present waive 


* Reland notes here, very pertinently, that the tower of 
Antonia stood higher than the floor of the temple, or court 
adjoining to it; and that accordingly, they descended thence 
into the temple, as Josephus elsewhere speaks also; see b. 
wi. ch. ii. seet. 5. 


any commendation of those who die in war 
and omit to speak of the immortality of thos: 
men who are slain in the midst of their mar- 
tial bravery; yet cannot I forbear to imprecate 
upon those who are of a contrary 9 apa 
that they may die in time of peace by some 
distemper or other, since their souls are con- 
demned to the grave, together with their bo- 
dies. For what man of virtue is there whe 
does not know, that those souls which are 3e- 
vered from their fleshy bodies in battles by the 
sword, are received by the ether, that purest of 
elements, and joined to that company which 
are placed among the stars; that they become 
good demons and propitious heroes, and show 
themselves as such to their posterity afterward! 
While upon those souls that wear away in and 
with their distempered bocies, comes a subter- 
ranian night to dissolve them to nothing, and a 
deep oblivion to take away all the remem 
brance of them, and this, notwithstanding they 
be clean from all spots and defilements of this 
world; so that in this case, the soul at the same 
time comes to the utmost bounds of life, and 
of its body, and of its memorial also. But 
since fate hath determined that death is to come 
of necessity upon all men, a sword is a better 
instrument for that purpose than any disease 
whatsoever. Why is it not then a very mean 
thing for us not to yield up that to the publie 
benefit, which we must yield up to fate? And 
this discourse have [ made upon the supposi- 
tion that those who at first attempt to go upon 
this wall must needs be killed in the attempt 
though still men of true courage have a chance 
to escape even in the most hazardous under- 
takings. For, in the first place, that part of the 
former wall that is thrown down is easily to be 
ascended; and for the new-built wall, it is 
easily destroyed. Do you, therefore, many of 
you, pull up your courage, and set about this 
work, and do you mutually encourage and as- 
sist one another; and this your bravery will 


soon break the hearts of your enemies; and 


perhaps such a glorious undertaking as yours 
is may be accomplished without bloodshed. 
For although it is justly to be supposed, that 
the Jews will try to hinder you at your first 
beginning to go up to them, yet when you have 
once concealed yourselves from them, a 
driven them away by force, they will not be 
able to sustain your efforts against them any 
longer, though but a few of you prevent them 
and get over the wall. As for that person who 
first mounts the wall, I should blush for sha 
if I did not make him to be envied of others 
by those rewards I would bestow upon hin 

If such a one escape with his life, he shall 
have the command of others that are now 
his equals; although it be true also, that 


* In this speech of Titus we may clearly see the nodal 
which the Romans then had of death, and of the happy st 
of those who died bravely in war, and the contrary estate 
those who died ignobly in their beds by sickness. Relan 
here also produces two parallel passages, the one out of 
mianus Marcellinus, concerning the Alani, lib. 31, that “ 
judged that man happy who laid dowr his life in battle 
The other of Valerius Maximus, lib. xi ¢.6, who says, “ 
Cimbri and Celtiberi exulted for joy in the army, as 
go out of the world gloriously and happily.” 












ie 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER IL 


greatest rewards will accrue to such as die in 
the attempt.” 
_ 6. Upon this speech of Titus, the rest of the 
multitude were affrighted at so great a danger. 
But there was one, whose name was Sabinus, a 
soldier that served among the cohorts, and a 
Syrian by birth, who appeared to be of very 
great fortitude, both in the actions he had done 
and she courage of his soul he had showed; 
although any body would have thought, before 
he came to his work, that he was of such a 
weak constitution of body, that he was not fit 
to be a soldier: for his color was black, his 
flesh was lean and thin, and lay close together; 
but there was a certain heroic soul that dwelt 
in this small body, which body was indeed 
much too narrow for that peculiar courage 
which was in him. Accordingly, he was the 
first that rose up, when he thus spoke: I readi- 
ly surrender myself to thee, O Cwsar; I first 
ascend the wall, and I: heartily wish that my 
fortune may follow my courage and my reso- 
lution. And if some ill fortune grudge me the 
success of my undertaking, take notice, that 
my ill success will not be unexpected, but that 
I choose death voluntarily for thy sake.” When 
he had said this, and had spread out his shield 
over his head with his left hand, and had, with 
his right hand, drawn his sword, he marched 
up to the wall, just about the sixth hour of the 
day. There followed him eleven others, and 
no more, that resolved to imitate his bravery: 
but still this was the principal person of them 
all, and went first, as excited by a divine fury. 
Now those that guarded the wall shot at them 
from thence, and cast innumerable darts upon 
them from every side; they also rolled very 
large stones upon them, which overthrew some 
of those eleven that were with him. But as 
for Sabinus himself, he met the darts that were 
cast at him; and though he was overwhelmed 
with them, yet did he not leave off the violence 
of his attack before he had gotten up on the 
top of the wall and had put the enemy to 
flight: for as the Jews were astonished at his 
great strength and the bravery of his soul, and 
as, withall, they imagined more of them had 
got upon the wall than really had, they were 
put to flight. And now one cannot but com- 
plain here of fortune, as still envious of virtue, 
and always hindering the performance of glo- 
rious achievements: this was the case of the 
man before us, when he had just obtained his 
purpose; for Ke then stumbled at a certain large 
‘mone, and fell down upon it headlong, with a 
‘Very great noise: upon which the Jews turned 
back, and when they saw him to be alone, and 
fallen down also, they threw darts at him on 
‘every side. However he got upon his knee, 
and covered himself with his shield, and at the 
first defended himself against them, and wound- 
ed many of those that came near him: but he 
‘was soon forced to relax his right hand, by the 
‘multitude of the wounds that had been given 
‘him, till at length he was quite covered over 
with darts, before he gave up the ghost. He 
was one who deserved a better fate, by reason 
ef his bravery: but, as might be expected, he 


668 


fell under so vast an attempt. As for te rest 
of his partners, the Jews dashed three of them 
to pieces with stones, and slew them, as they 
were gotten up to the top of the wall; the other 
eight being wounded, were pulled down and 
carried back to the camp. These things were 
done upon the third day of the month Pane- 
mus ['Tamuz.] 

7. Now two days afterward twelve of these 
men that were on the forefront, and kept watch 
upon the banks, got together and called to them 
the standard-bearer of the fifth legion, and two 
others of a troop of horsemen, and one trumpet- 
er; these went without noise, about the ninth 
hour of the night, through the ruins, to the 
tower of Antonia; and when they had cut the 
throats of the first guards of the place, as they 
were asleep, they got possession of the wall, 
and ordered the trumpeter to sound his trum- 
pet. Upon which the rest of the guard got up 
on the sudden, and ran away, before any body 
could see how many they were that were got- 
ten up; for, partly from the fear they were in, 
and partly from the sound of the trumpet which 
they heard, they imagined that a great number 
of the enemy were gottén up. But as soon au 
Cesar heard the signal; he ordered the army tu 
put on their armor immediately, and came thi- 
ther with his commanders, and first of all as- 
cended, as did the chosen men that were with 
him. And asthe Jews were flying away to thu 
temple, they fell into that mine which John had 
dug under the Roman banks. Then did the 
seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish army, 
as well that belonging to John, as that belong. 
ing to Simon, drive them away; and_ indeed 
were noway wanting as to the highest degree of 
force and alacrity; for they esteemed them- 
selves entirely ruined if once the Romans got 
into the temple, as did the Romans look upon 
the same thing as the beginning of their entire 
conquest. Soa terrible battle was fought at 
the entrance of the temple, while the Romans 
were forcing their way, in order to get posses- 
sion of that temple, and the Jews were driving 
them back to the tower of Antonia; in which 
battle the darts were on both sides useless, as 
well as the spears, and both sides drew their 
swords, and fought it out hand to hand. Now 
during this struggle, the positions of the men 
were undistinguished on both sides, and they 
fought at random, the men being intermixed 
one with another, and confounded by reason 
of the narrowness of the place; while the 
noise that was made fell on the ear after ap 
indistinct manner, because it was so very 
loud. Great slaughter was now made on bota 
sides, and the combatants trod upon the bo 
dies, and the armor of those that were dead, an 
dashed them to pieces. Accordingly, to whick 
side soever the battle inclined, those that had 
the advantage exhorted one another to go on, as 
did those that were beaten make great lamenta- 


tion. Butstill there wasno room for flight nor for 


pursuit, but disorderly revolutions and retreats. 
while the armies were intermixed one with 
another; but those that were in the first ranks 
were under the necessity of killing or being 


670 


killed, without any way for escaping; for those 
on both sides that came behind, forced those be- 
fore them to go on, without leaving any space 
between the armies. At length the Jews’ violent 
zeal was too hard for the Romans’ skill, and the 
battle already inclined entirely that way; for the 
fight had lasted from the ninth hour of the 
night, till the seventh hour of the day, while the 
Jews came on in crowds, and had the danger 
the temple was in for their motive; the Ro- 
mans having no more here than a part of their 
army; for those legions, on which the soldiers 
on that side depended, were not come up to 
them. So it was at present thought sufficient 
by the Romans to take possession of the tower 
of Antonia. 

8 Sut there was one Julian, a centurion, 
that came from Bithynia, a man he was of 
great reputation, whom I had formerly seen in 
that war, and one of the highest fame, both for 
nis skill in war, his strength of body, and the 
courage of his soul. This man seeing the Ro- 
mans giving ground, and in asad condition, 
foi he stood by Titus at the tower of Antonia, 
leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews 
to flight, when they were already conquerors, 
and made them retire as far as the corner of 
the inner court of the temple: from him the 
multitude fled away in crowds, as supposing 
that neither his strength nor his violent attacks 
could be those of a mere man. Accordingly 
he rushed through the midst of the Jews, as 
they were dispersed all abroad, and killed those 
that he caught. Nor, indeed, was there any 
sight that appeared more wonderful in the eyes 
of Cesar, or more terrible to others than this. 
However, he was himself pursued by fate, 
which it was not possible that he, who was but 
a mortal man should escape; for as he had 
shoes all full of thick and sharp nails,* as had 
every one of the other soldiers; so when he 
ran on the pavement of the temple, he slipped, 
and fell down upon his back with a very great 
noise, which was made by his armor. - This 
made those that were running away to turn 
back; whereupon those Romans that were in 
the tower of Antonia set up a great shout, as 
they were in fear for the man. But the Jews 
got about him in crowds, and struck at him 
with their spears and with their swords on all 
sides. Now he received a great many of the 
strokes of these iron weapons on his shield, 
and often attempted to get up again, but was 
thrown down by those that struck at him; yet 
did he, as he lay along, stab many of them 
with his sword. Nor was he soon killed, as 
being covered with his helmet and his breast- 
late in all those parts of his body where he 
might be mortally wounded; he also pulled his 
neck close to his body, till all his other limbs 
were shattered, and nobody durst come to de- 
fend him, and then he yielded to his fate. Now 
Cesar was deeply affected on account of this 
man of so great fortitude, and especially as he 
was killed in the sight of so many people; he 


* No wonder that this Julian, who had so many nails in 
ais shoes, slipped upon the pavement of the temple, which 
vas smooth, and laid with marble of differeut colors. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 








‘) 
was desirous himself to come tw his assistance 
but the place would not give hiin leave, while 
such as could have done it were too xnuch ter. 
rified to attempt it. Thus when Julian had 
struggled with death a great while, and had 
let but few of those that had given him his 
mortal wound go off unhurt, he had at last his 
throat cut, though not without some difficulty. 
and left behind him a very great fame, not only 
among the Romans, and with Cesar himself, 
but among his enemies also; then did the Jews 
catch up his dead body, and put the Romans 
to flight again, and shut them up in the tower 
of Antonia. Now those that most signalized 
themselves, and fought most zealously in this 
battle of the Jewish side, were one Alexas and 
Gyphtheus of John’s party, and of Simon's 
party were Malachias, and Judas the son of 
Merto, and James the son of Sosas, the com- 
mander of the Idumeans; and of the Zealots, 
two brethren, Simon and Judas, the sons of 
Jairus. 


CHAPTER II. 


How Titus gave orders to demolish the Tower of 
Antonia, and then persuaded Josephus to ez- 
hort the Jews again [to a surrender.] 


§ 1. And now Titus gave orders to his sol- 
diers that were with him to dig up the founda- 
tions of the tower of Antonia, and make him 
a ready passage for his army to come up; while 
he himself had Josephus brought to him, (for 
he had been informed, that on that very day, 
which was the seventeenth day of Panemus, 
[‘Tamuz,*] the sacrifice called the daily sacri- 
fice had failed, and had not been offered to God 
for want of men to offer it, and that the people 
were grievously troubled at it,) and command- 
ed him to say the same things to John that he 
had said before, that “if he had any malicious 
inclination for fighting, he might come out with 
as many of his men as he pleased, in order to 
fight, without the danger of destroying either 
his city or temple; but that he desired he would 
not defile the temple, nor thereby offend against 
God: that he might, if he pleased, offer the sa- 
crifices which were now discontinued, by any 
of the Jews whom he should pitch upon.” 
Upon this, Josephus stood in such a place where 
he might be heard, not by John only, but by 
many more, and then declared to them what 
Ceesar had given him in charge, and this in the’ 
Hebrew language.t So he earnestly prayed 
them “to spare their own city, and to prevent 
that fire which was just ready to seize upon the 
temple, and to offer their usual sacrifices to 
God therein.” At these words of his a great 


* This was a remarkable day indeed, the 17th of Panemt 
(T'amuz,]#a.D.70,when, according to Daniel’s prediction, 606 
years before, the Romans, in half a week caused the sacrifice 
and oblation to cease, Dan. ix. 27, For from the month 
February, A. D. 66, about which time Vespasian entered 
this war, to this very time, was just three years and a hal 
see Bp. Lloyd’s Tables of Chronology, published by Mr. 
Marshall, on this year. Nor is it to be omitted what very 
nearly confirms this duration of the war, that four years be- 
fore the war began was somewhat above seven years five 
months before the destruction of Jerusalem, ch. v. sect. 3. 

{ The same that in the New Testament is alway so calle 
and was then the common language of the Jews in 
which was the Syrian dialect. 













7 BOOK VI.—CHAPTER II. 


eadness anJ silence was observed among the 
people. But the tyrant himself cast many re- 
proaches upon Josephus with imprecations; 
and at last added this withall, “that he did nev- 
er fear the taking of the city, because it was 
God’s own city.” In answer to which Jose- 
phus said thus with a loud voice, “to be sure, 
thou hast kept this city wonderfully pure for 
God’s sake! the temple also continues entirely 
unpolluted! Nor hast thou been guilty of any 
impiety against him for whose assistance thou 
Aw pest! He still receives his accustomed sacri- 
dices! Vile wretch that thou art! If any one 
should deprive thee of thy daily food, thou 
wouldest esteem him to be an enemy to thee; 
but thou hopest to have that God for thy sup- 
porter in this war, whom thon hast deprived of 
his everlasting worship; and thou imputest 
those sins to the Romans, who to this very time 
take care to have our laws observed, and al- 
most compel these sacrifices to be still offered 
to God, which have by thy means been inter- 
mitted. Who is there that can avoid groans 
and lamentations at the amazing change that is 
made in this city, since very foreigners and 
enemies do now correct that impiety which 
thou hast occasioned: while thou, who art a 
Jew, and was educated in our laws, art become 
‘a greater enemy to them than the others. But 
still, John, it is never dishonorable to repent, 
and amend what hath been done amiss, even at 
the last extremity. Thou hast an instance be- 
fore thee in Jechoniah,* the king of the Jews, 
‘if thou hast a mind to save the city, who, when 
the king of Babylon made war against him, 
did of his own accord go out of the city be- 
fore it was taken, and did undergo a voluntary 
captivity with his family, that the sanctuary 
might not be delivered up to the enemy, and 
that he might not see the house of God set on 
fire; on which account he is celebrated among 
all the Jews in their sacred memorials, and his 
memory is become immortal, and will be con- 
veyed fresh down to our posterity through all 
ages. This, John, is an excellent example in 
such atime of danger; and J dare venture to 
‘promise, that the Romans shall still forgive thee. 
And take notice, that 1, who make this exhor- 
tation to thee, am one of thine own nation; [, 
who am a Jew, do make this promise to thee. 
And it will become thee to consider who I am 
that give thee this counsel, and whence I am 
derived; for while [ am alive I shall never be 
‘in such slavery, as to forego my own kindred, 
or forget the laws of our forefathers. ‘Thou 
hast indignation at me again, and makest a cla- 
Mor at me, and reproachest me; indeed, I can- 
“not deny but I am worthy of worse treatment 
‘than all this amounts to, because in opposition 
40 fate I make this kind invitation to thee, and 
_ endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom 
God hath condemned. And who is there that 
does not know what the writings of the ancient 
. prophets contain in them; and particularly that 
‘oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled 





* Our present copies ef the Old Testament want this en- 
-gomizm upon king ech oniah or Jehoiachim, ~hich it seems 
“xe in Josephus’s copy 


671 
upon this miserable city?* For they foretold 
that this city should be taken when somebody 
shall begin the slaughter of his own country- 
men. And are not both the city and the en- 
tire temple now full of the dead bodies of your 
countrymen? It is God,t therefore, it is God 
himself, who is bringing on this fire to purge 
that city and temple by means of the Romans, 
and is going to pluck up this city, which is full 
of your pollutions.” 

2. As Josephus spoke these words, with 
groans and tears in his eyes, his voice was in- 
tercepted by sobs. However, the Romans 
could not but pity the affliction he was under, 
and wonder at his conduct. But for John, and 
those that were with him, they were but the 
more exasperated against the Romans on this 
account, and were desirous to get Josephus 
also into their power; yet did that discourse in- 
fluence a great many of the better sort, and 
truly some of them were so afraid of the guards 
set by the seditious, that they tarried where 
they were, but still were satisfied that both{hey 
and the city were doomed to destruction. 
Some also there were, who, watching a proper 
opporfunity, when they might quietly get away, 
fled to the Romans, of whom were the high 
priests Joseph and Jesus, and of the sons of 
the high priests three, whose father was Ish- 
mael, who was beheaded in Cyrene, and four 
sons of Matthias, as also one son of the other 
Matthias, who ran away after his father’s death,} 
and whose father was slain by Simon the son 
of Gioras, with three of his sons, as I have al- 
ready related; many also of the other nobility 
went over to the Romans, together with the 
high priests. Now Cesar not only received 
these men very kindly in other respects, but, 
knowing they would not willingly live after the 
customs of other nations, he sent them to 
Gophna, and desired them to remain there for 
the present, and told them, that when he was 
gotten clear of this war, he would restore each 
of them to their possessions again; so they 
cheerfully retired to that small city which was 
allotted them, without fear of any danger. But 
as they did not appear, the seditious gave out 
again, that those deserters were slain by the 
Romans, which was done in order to deter the 
rest from running away, by fear of the like 
treatment. This trick of theirs succeeded now 
for a while, as did the like trick before; for the 
rest were hereby deterred from deserting, by 
fear of the like treatment. 

3. However, when Titus had recalled tmose 


* Of this oracle, see the note on b. iv. ch. vi. sect. 3 

t Josephus, both here and in many places elsewhere, speaks 
so, that it is: most evident he was fully satisfied that God 
was on the Romans’ side, and made use of them now for 
the destruction of that wicked nation of the Jews, whica 
was, for certain, the true state of this matter, as the prophet 
Daniel first, and our Savior himself afterw ard, had, clearly 
foretold, see Literal Accomp. of Prophecy, p. 64, & 

t Jose phus had before told us, b. v. ch. xiii. Le 1, that 
this fourth son of Matthias ran away to the Romans vefore 
his father’s and brethren’s slaughter, and not after it, as 
here. The former account is, in all probability, the truest; 
for had not that fourth son escape d before the others were 
caught and put to death, he had been caught ana put to death 
with them. This last account, therefore, looks like an in- 
stance of a small inadvertence of Josephus in the place be- 
fore us. 


572 


men from Gophna, he gave orders that they 
should go round the wall, together with Jose- 
phus, and show themselves to the people; upon 
which a great many fied to the Romans. 
These also got in a great number together, and 
stood before the Romans, and besought the se- 
ditious, with groans and _ tears in their eyes, in 
the first place to receive the Romans entirely 
into the city, and save that their own place of 
residence again; but that, if they would not 
agree to such a proposal, they would at least 
depart out of the temple, and save the holy 
house for their own use; for that the Romans 
would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire, 
but under the most pressing necessity. Yet 
did the sediiious still more and more contradict 
them; and while they cast loud and bitter re- 
proaches upon these deserters, they also set 
their engines for throwing of darts, and javelins, 
and stones, upon the sacred gates of the tem- 
ple, atdue distances from one another, inso- 
much, that all the space round about within the 
temple, might be compared to a burying ground, 
sO great was the number of the dead bodies 
therein; as might the holy house itself be com- 
pared to a citadel. Accordingly, thes® men 
rushed upon these holy places in their armor; 
that were otherwise unapproachable, and that 
while their hands were yet warm with the 
blood of their own people which they had shed: 
nay, they proceeded to such great transgres- 
sions, that the very same indignation which 
Jews would naturally have against Romans, 
had they been guilty of such abuses against 
them, the Romans had now against Jews, for 
their impiety in regard to their own religious 
eustoms. Nay, indeed, there were none of the 
Roman soldiers, who did not look with a sacred 
herror upon the holy house, and adored it, and 
wisned that the robbers would repent before 
their miseries became incurable. 

4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this 
state of things, and reproached John and his 
party, and said to them, “Have not you, vile 
wretches that you are, by our permission put 
up this partition-wall before your sanctuary?* 
Have not you been allowed to put up the pillars 


WARS OF THE JEWs. 


Roman shall either come near your sanctuary 
or offer any affront to it; nay, 1 will endeavor 
to preserve you your holy house, whether yoo 
will or not.’”* | 
5. As Josephus explained these things from 
the mouth of Czsar, both the robbers and the 
tyrant thought these exhortations proceeded 
from Titus’s fear, and not frora his good wil) 
to them, and grew insolent upon it. But when 
Titus saw that these men were neither to be 
moved by commiseration towards themselves 
nor had any concern upon them to have the 
holy house spared, he proceeded unwilling] 
to go on again with the war against them. ite 
could not indeed bring all his army against 
them, the place was so narrow; but choosing 
thirty soldiers of the most valiant out of every 
hundred, and committing a thousand to each 
tribune, and making Cerealis the commander- 
in-chief, he gave orders that they should attack 
the guards of the temple about the ninth hour 
of that night. But as he was now in his ar- 
mor, and preparing to go down with them, hia 
friends would not let him go, by reason of the 
greatness of the danger, and what the com- 
manders suggested to him; for they said, that 
“he would do more by sitting above in the 
tower of Antonia, as a dispenser of rewards to 
those soldiers that signalized themselves in the 
fight, than by coming down, and hazarding his 
own person in the forefront of them; for that 
they would all fight stoutly while Ceesar looked 
apon them.” With this advice Cesar com- 
plied, and said, that “the only reason he had 
for such compliance with the soldiers was this, 
that he might be able to judge of their cou- 
rageous actions, and that no valiant soldier 
might lie concealed, and miss of his reward, 
and no cowardly soldier might go unpunished; 
but that he might himself be an eyewitness, 
and able to give evidence of all that was done, 
who was to be the disposer of punishments 
and rewards to them.” So he sent the soldiers 
about their work at the hour forementioned, 
while he went out himself to a higher place in 
the tower of Antonia, whence he might se¢ 
what was done, and there waited with impa- 


thereto belonging, at due distances, and on it | tience to see the event. 


to engrave in Greek, and in your own letters, 
this prohibition, That no foreigner should go 
beyond that wall? Have we not given you 
leave to kill such as go beyond it, though he 
were a Roman? And what do you do now, 
you pernicious villains? Why do you trample 
upon dead bodiesin this temple? and why do 
vou pollute this holy house with the blood of 
both foreigners and Jews themselves? I ap- 
peal to the gods of my own country, and to 
every god that ever had any regard to this place; 
(for [ do not suppose it to be now regarded by 
any of them;) I also appeal to my own army, 
and to those Jews that are now with me, and 
even to you yourselves, that I do not force you 
to defile this your sanctuary; and if you will 
but change the place whereon you will fight, no 


* Of this partition-wall, separating Jews and Gentiles, 
sith its pillars and inscription, see the description of the 
femple, ch. xv. 


6. However, the soldiers thet were sent did 
not find the guards of the temple asleep, 29 
they hoped to have done, but were obliged to 
fight with them immediately hand to hand, ag 
they rushed with violence upon them with 4 
great shout. Now, as soon as the rest within 
the temple heard that shout of those that weré 
upon the watch, they ran out in troops upoa 
them. 'Then did the Romans receive the op- 
set of those that came first upon them; bu 
those that followed them fell upon their ows 
troops, and many of them treated their own 
soldiers as if they had been enemies; for the 
great confused noise that was made on both 
sides hindered them from distinguishing oné 
another’s voices, as did the darkness of the 


* That these seditious Jews were the direct occasion 07 
their own destruction, and of the conflagration of their city 
and temple, and that Titus earnestly and constantly laboreé 
to save both, is here and everywhere most evident in Jes 
phus. 













BOOK VI.—CHAPTER 11. 


night hinder them from the like distinction by 
the sight; besides that blindness, which arose 
otherwise also from the passion and the fear 
they were in at the same time, for which rea- 
gon it was all one to the soldiers who it was 
they struck at. However, this ignorance did 
less harm to the Romans than to the Jews; be- 
cause they were joined together under their 
shields, and made their sallies more regularly 
than the others did, and each of them remem- 
bered their watchword; while the Jews were 
perpetually dispersed abroad, and made their 


attacks and retreats at random, and so did fre- | 


673 


and had made a ready and broad way to the 
temple. Then did the legions come near the 
first court,* and began to raise their banks. 
The one bank was over against the northwest 
corner of the inner temple;+ another was at 
that northern edifice which was between the 
two gates; and of the other two, one was at the 
western cloister of the outer court of the tem- 
ple,t the other against its northern cloister 
However, these works were thus far advanced 
by the Romans, not without great “ains and 
difficulty, and particularly by being < bliged to 
bring their materials from the distance of & 


ty seem to one another to be enemies; | hundred furlongs. They had farther difficul- 
4 every one of them received those of their | ties also upon them, sometimes by their over- 
own men that came back in the dark as Ro-'! great security they were in, that they should 


mans, and made an assault upon them; so that 
more of them were wounded by their own 
men, than by the enemy, till, upon the coming 
on of the day, the nature of the fight was dis- 
cerned by the eye afterward. Then did they 
stand in battle-array in distinct bodies, and cast 
their darts regularly, and regularly defended 
themselves. Nor did either side yield or grow 
weary. The Romans contended with each 
other who should fight the most strenuously, 
both single men and entire regiments, as being 
under the eye of Titus; and every one conclud- 
ed that this day would begin his promotion, if 
he fought bravely. The great encouragements 
which the Jews had in view to act vigorously, 
were, their fear for themselves and for the tem- 
ple, and the presence of their tyrant, who ex- 
horted some, and beat and threatened others, 
to act courageously. Now, it so happened that 
this fight was for the most part a stationary one, 
wherein the soldiers went on and came back 
in a short time and suddenly; for there was no 
long spacé of ground for either of their flights 
or pursuwis. But still there was a tumultuous 
noise arnong the Romans from the tower of 
Antonia, who loudly cried out upon all occa- 
sions to their own men to press on courageous- 
ly, when they were too hard for the Jews, and 
to stay, when they were retiring backward; so 
that here was a kind of theatre of war; for 
what was done in this fight could not be con- 
cealed either from Titus or from those that 
Were about him. At length it appeared that 
this fight, which began at the ninth hour of 
the night, was not over till past the fifth hour 
of the day, and that in the same place where 
the battle began neither party could say they 
had made the other to retire; but both the ar- 
mies left the victory almost in uncertainty be- 
tween them; wherein those that signalized 
themselves on the Roman side were a great 
many, but on the Jewish side, and of those that 
were with Simon, Judas the son of Merto, and 
| Simon the son of Josias; of the Idumeans, James 
and Simon, the latter of whom was the son of 
\Cathlas, and James was the son of Sosas; of 
those that were with John, Gyptheus and Alex- 
as, and of the Zealots, Simon the son of Jai- 
rus, 
_ 7. In the mean time the rest of the Roman 
my had, in seven days’ time, overthrown 
[some] foundations of the tower of Antonia, 
ery 









overcome the Jewish snares laid for them, and 
by that boldness of the Jews which their de- 
spair of escaping had inspired them withall; 
for some of their horsemen, when they went 
out to gather wood or hay, let their horses feed, 
without having their bridles on, during the 
time of foraging; upon which horses the Jews 
sallied out in whole bodies, and seized them. 
And when this was continually 320e, and 
Cesar believed what the truth was, that the 
horses were stolen more from the negligence 
of his own men than by the valor of the Jews, 
he determined to use greater severity to oblige 
the rest to take care of their horses; so be 
commanded that one of those soldiers who 
lost their horses should be capitally punished; 
whereby he so terrified the rest, that they pre- 
served their horses for the time to come; for 
they did not any longer let them go from them 
to feed by themselves; but, as if they had grown 
to them, they went always along with therm 
when they wanted necessaries. Thus did the 
Romans still continue to make war against the 
temple, and to raise their banks against it. 

8. Now, after one day had been interposed 
since the Romans ascended the breach, many 
of the seditious were so pressed by the famine, 
upon the present failure of their ravages, that 
they got together and made an attack on those 
Roman guards that were upon the mount of 
Olives, and this about the eleventh hour of the 
day, as supposing first, that they would not ex- 
pect such an onset, and, in the next place, that 
they were then taking care of their bodies, and 
that, therefore, they should very easily beat 
them. But the Romans were apprized of their 
coming to attack them beforehand, and run- 
ning together from the neighboring camps on 
the sudden, prevented them from getting over 
their fortification, or forcing the wall that was 
built about them. Upon this came on a sharp 
fight, and here many great actions were per- 
formed on both sides; while the Romans show - 
ed both their courage and their skill in war, us 
did the Jews come on them with immoderate 
violence, and intolerable passion. The one 
part were urged on by shame, and the other by ' 
necessity; for it seemed a very shameful thing 
to the Romans to let the Jews go, now they 
were taken in a kind of net; while the Jews 


* Court of the Gentiles ¢ Court of Israel. 
Court of the Gentiles. 


674 


had but one hope of saving themselves, and 
that was in case they could by violence break 
through the Roman wall; and one whose name 
was Fedanius, belonging to a party of horse- 
men, when the Jews were already beaten and 
forced down into the valley together, spurred 
his horse on their flank with great vehemence, 
and caught up a certain young man belonging 
to the enemy by his ancle, as he was running 
away; the man was, however, of a robust body, 
and in his armor; so low did Pedanius bend 
himself downward from his horse, even as he 
was galloping away, and so great was the 
strength of his right hand, and of the rest of 
his body, as also such skill had he in horse- 
manship. So this man seized upon that his 
preys as upon a precious treasure, and carried 

im as his captive to Cesar; whereupon Titus 
admired the man that had seized the other for 
his great strength, and ordered the man that was 
esught to be punished [with death] for his at- 
tempt against the Roman wall, but betook him- 
self to the siege of the temple, and to pressing 
ou the raising of the banks. 

9, In the mean time the Jews were so dis- 
tressed by the fights they had been in, as the 
war advanced higher and higher, and creeping 
up to the holy house itself, that they, as it were, 
cut off those limbs of their body which were 
infected, in order to prevent the distemper’s 
spreading farther; for they set the northwest 
cloister, which was joined to the tower of An- 
tonia, on fire, and after that broke off about 
twenty cubits of that cloister, and thereby 
made a beginning in burning the sanctuary; 
two days after which, or on the twenty-fourth 
day of the forenamed month, [Panemus or 
Tarmuz}] the Romans set fire to the cloister 
that joined to the other, when the fire went fif- 
teen cubits farther. The Jews, in like manner 
eut off its roof; nor did they entirely leave off 
what they were about till the tower of Antonia 
was parted from the temple, even when it was 
in their power to have stopped the fire; nay, 
they lay still while the temple was first set on 
fire, and deemed this spreading of the fire to 
be for their own advantage. However, the ar- 
mies were still fighting one against another 
about the temple, and the war was managed 
by continual sallies of particular parties against 
one another. 

10. Now there was at this time a man among 
the Jews; low of stature he was, and of a des- 
picable appearance; of no character either as 
to his family, or in other respects: his name 
was Jonathan. He went out at the high priest 
John’s monument, and uttered’ many insolent 
things to the Romans, and challenged the best 
of them all to a single combat. 
those that stood there in the army huffed him, 

_ and many of them (as they might well be) 
were afraid of him. Some of them also rea- 
soned thus, and that justly enough, that it was 
not fit to fight with a man that desired to die, 
because those that utterly despaired of deliver- 
anee, had, besides other passions, a violence 
in attacking men that could not be opposed, 
and had no regard to God himself; and that te 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 7 
hazard one’s self with a person, whoin, if y 


































overcome, you do no great matter, and by whom 
it is hazardous that you may be taken priso- 
ner, would be an instance, not of manly cou- 
rage, but of unmanly rashness. So there be- 
ing nobody that came out to accept the man’s” 
challenge, and the Jew cutting them with a 
great number of reproaches, as cowards, (for 
he was a very haughty man in himself, and — 
great despiser of the Romans, one whose nam. 
was Pudens of the body of horsemen, out ot © 
his abomination of the other’s words, and of 
his impudence withall, and perhaps out of an 
inconsiderate arrogance, on account of th 
other’s lowness of stature, ran out to him, and 
was too hard for him in other respects, but was 
betrayed by his fortune: for he fell down, and 
as he was down, Jonathan came running to 
him, and cut his throat, and then an upon 
his dead body, he brandished his sword, 

as it was, and shook his shield with his left 
hand, and made many acclammations to the 
Roman army, and insulted over the dead man, 
and jested upon the Romans, till at length one 
Priscus, a centurion, shot a dart at him, as he 





But many of 






‘ 


loody 


was leaping and playing the fool with himself, 


and thereby pierced him through; upon which 
a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Ro- 
mans, though on different accounts. So Jona- 


than grew giddy by the pain of his wound, 


and fell down upon the body of his adversary, 
as a plain instance how suddenly vengeance 


may come upon men that have success in war 
without any just deserving the same. 


CHAPTER III. 
Concerning a stratagem that was devised by the 
Jews, by which they burnt many of the Romana, 
with another description of the terrible Fo- 
mine that was in the city. : 
§ 1. But now the seditious that were in the 
temple did every day openly endeavor to beat 
off the soldiers that were upon the banks, an 
on the twenty-seventh day of the forenamed 
month [Panemus or Tamuz,] contrived such & 
stratagem as this: they filled that part of the 
western cloister* which was between the beams, 
and the roof under them, with dry materials, 
as also with bitumen and pitch, and then retir 
ed from that place, as though they were tired 
with the pains they had taken; at which pro- 
cedure of theirs, many of the most inconside- 
rate among the Romans, who were catri 
away with violent passions, followed hard afte 
them as they were retiring, and applied ladders 
to the cloister, and got up to it suddenly, bu 
the more prudent part of them, when herr 
derstood this unaccountable retreat of the. 
stood still where they were before. Howevet 
the cloister was full of those that were gon 
up the ladders; at which time the Jews set It 
all on fire; and as the flames burst out every- 
where on the sudden, the Romans that were 
out of the danger were seized with a very gre 
consternation, as were those that were in tl 
midst of the danger in the utmost distress. * 


when they perceived themselves surroun 
* Of the Court of the Gentiles. 
















‘ . 
rs : 
2 

. 


Hay « 


fo 


ed | BOOK VL—CHAPTER III. 


h, 


bea? 

with the flames, some of them threw themselves 
down backwards into the city, and some among 
‘their enemies [in the temple,] as did many leap 
‘down to their own men, and broke their limbs 
‘to pieces; but a great number of those that 
“were going to take these violent methods, were 
prevented by the fire; though some prevented 
‘the fire by their own swords. However, the 
fire was on the sudden carried so far as to sur- 
round those who would have otherwise perish- 
‘ed. As for Cesar himself, he could not, how- 
ever, but commiserate those that thus perished, 
although they got up thither without any order 
for so doing, since there was no way of giving 
them any relief. Yet was this some comfort 
to those that were destroyed, that every body 
‘might see that person grieve, for whose sake 
‘they came to their end; for he cried out openly 
to them, and leaped up, and exhorted those 
‘that were about him to do their utmost to re- 
lieve them. So every one of them died cheer- 
fully, as carrying along with them these words 
and this intention of Cesar as a sepulchral 
‘monument. Some there were indeed who re- 
‘tired into the wall of the cloister, which was 
‘broad, and were preserved out of the fire, but 
fwere then surrounded by the Jews: and al- 
though they made resistance against the Jews 
for along time, yet were they wounded by 
them, and at length they all fell down dead. 

2. At the last, a young man among them, 
“whose name was Longus, became a decoration 
to this sad affair; and while every one of them 
‘that perished were worthy of a memorial, this 
‘man appeared to deserve it beyond all the rest. 
‘Now the Jews admired this man for his cou- 
page, and were farther desirous of having him 
‘slain; so they persuaded him to come down to 
them, upon security given him for his life. 

But Cornelius, his brother, persuaded him, on 
the contrary, not to tarnish their own glory, 
hor that of the Roman army. He complied 
with this last advice, and, lifting up his sword 
before both armies, he slew himself. Yet there 
was one Artorius among those surrounded with 
the fire, who escaped by his subtility; for when 
he had with a loud voice called to him Lucius, 
-one of his fellow-soldiers that lay with him in 
.the same tent, and said to him, “I do leave thee 
heir of all I have, if thou wilt come and receive 
_me.” Upon this he came running to receive 
him readily; Artorius then threw himself down 
upon him, and saved his own life, while he 
wnat received him was dashed so vehemently 
against the stone pavement by the other’s 
weight, that he died immediately. This me- 
lancholy accident made the Romans sad for a 
, While, but still it made them more upon their 
‘guard for the future, and was of advantage to 
| thera against the delusions of the Jews, by 
| which they were greatly damaged through their 
| UNacquaintedness with the places, and with the 
Mature of the inhabitants. Now this cloister 
was burnt down as far as John’s tower, which 
he built in the war he made against Simon, 
over the gates that led to the Xystus. The 
Jews also cut off the rest of that cloister from 
the temple, after they lad destroyed those that 












he th 


675 


got upto it. But the next day the Romans 
burnt down the northern cloister entirely as faz 
as the east cloister, whose common angle join 
ed to the valley that was called Cedron, and 
was built over it; on which account the depth 
was frightful. And this was the state of the 
temple at that time. 

3. Now, of those that perished by famine in 
the city, the number was prodigious; and the 
miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for 
if so much as the shadow of any kind of food 
did anywhere appear, a war was commenced 
presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting 
one with another about it, snatching from each 
other the most miserable supports of life. Nor 
would men believe that those who were dying 
had no food, but the robbers would search them 
when they were expiring, lest any one should 
have concealed food in their bosoms, and coun- 
terfeited dying; nay, these robbers gasped for 
want, and ran about stumbling and staggering 
along like mad dogs, and reeling against the 
doors of the houses like drunken men; they 
would also, in the great distress they were in, 
rush into the very same houses two or three 
times in one and the same day. Moreover, their 
hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them 
to chew every thing, while they gathered such 
things as the most sordid animals would not 
touch, and endure to eat them; nor did they at 
length abstain from girdles and shoes, and the 
very leather that belonged to their shields they 
pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps of old 
hay became food to some, and some gathered 
up fibres, and sold a very small weight of them 
for four Attic [drachme.] But why do I de- 
scribe the shameless impudence that the famine 
brought on men in their eating inanimate 
things? while I am going to relate a matter of 
fact, the like,to which no history relates,* eith- 
er among the Greeks or Barbarians, It is hor- 
rible to speak of it, and incredible when heard; 
I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of 
ours, that I might not seem to deliver what 1s 
SO pw.tentous to posterity, but that I have in- 
numerable witnesses to it in my own age: and 
besides, my country would have had little rea- 
son to thank me for suppressing the miseries 
that she underwent at this time. 

4, There was a certain woman that dwelt 
beyond Jordan; her name was Mary, her father 
was Eleazar, of the village of Bethezod, which 


* What Josephus observes here, that no parallel exampies 
had been recorded before this time of such sieges, wherein 
mothers were forced by extremity of famine to eat their own 
children, as had been threatened to the Jews, in the law of 
Moses, upon obstinate disobedience, and more than once 
fulfilled (see. my Boyle’s Lectures, p. 210—214,) is by Dr 
Hudson supposed to have had two or three parallel examples 
in later ages. He might have had more examples, I suppose, 
of persons on shipboard, or in a desert island, casting lots 
for each others’ bodies. But al] this was only in cases where 
they knew of no possible way to avoid death themselves but 
by killing and eating others. Whether such examples come 
up tothe present case may be doubted. The Romans were 
not only willing but very desirous to grant those Jews in Je- 
rusalem both their lives and their liberties, and to save both 
their city and their temple. But the Zealots, the robbers, 
and the seditious, would hearken to no terms of submission. 
They voluntarily chose to reduce the citizens to that ex- 
tremity, as to force mothers to this unnatural barbarity, 
which in all its circumstances has not, [| still suppose, beer 
hitherto paralleled among the rest of mankind 


676 
signifies, the house of Hyssop. She was emi- 


nent for her family and her wealth, and_ had | 


fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the 
multitude, and was with them besieged therein 
at this time, The other effects of this woman 
had been already seized upon, such I mean as 
she had brought with her out of Perea, and re- 
moved to the city. What she had treasured 
up besides, as also what food she had contrived 
to save, had been also carried off by the rapa- 
cious guards, who came eyery day running 
into her house for that purpose. ‘This put the 
poor woman into avery great passion, and by 
the frequent reproaches and imprecations she 
cast at these rapacious villains, she had pro- 
voked them to anger against her; but none of 
them, either out of the indignation she had 
raised against herself, or out of commiseration 
of her case, would take away her life: and if 
she found any food, she perceived her labors 
were for others, and not for herself, and it was 
now become impossible for her any way to 
find any more food, while the famine pierced 
through her very bowels and marrow, when 
also her passion was fired to a degree beyond 
the famine itself; nor did she consult with any 
thing but with her passion and the necessity 
she was in. She then attempted a most un- 
natural thing, and snatching up her son, who 
was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “O 
thou miserable infant! for whom shall I pre- 
serve thee in this war, this famine, and this se- 
dition? As to the war with the Romans, if 
they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. 
This famine also will destroy us even before 
that slavery comes uponus. Yet.are these se- 
ditious rogues more terrible than both the other. 
Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury 
to these seditious varlets, and, a byword to the 
world, which is all that is now wapting to com- 
plete the calamities of us Jews.” As soon as 
she had said this, she slew her son; and then 
roasted him, and ate the one-half of him, and 
kept the other half by her concealed. Upon 
this the seditious came in presently, and smell- 
ing the horrid scent of this food, they threatened 
her, that they would cut her throat immediate- 
ly if she did not show them what food she had 
gotten ready. She replied, that “she had saved 
a very fine portion of it for them;” and withall 
uncovered’ what was left of her son. Here- 
upon they were seized with a horror and amaze- 
ment of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, 
when she said to them, “This is mine own son, 
and what hath been done was mine own doing. 
Come eat of this food; for I have eaten of it 
myself. Do not you pretend to be either more 
tender than a woman, or more compassionate 
than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, 
and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have 
eaten the one-half, let the rest be preserved for 
_mealso.” After which those men went out 
trembling, being never so much affrighted at 
any thing as they were at this, and with some 
difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the 
mother. Upon which the whole city was full 
of this horrid action immediately; and while 
every body laid this miserable case before their 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





































own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard 9f 
action had been done by themselves. So those 
that were thus distressed by the famine were 
very desirous to die, and those already dead 
were esteemed happy, because they had ne 
lived long enough either to hear or to see 8 
miseries, . Ay 

5. This sad instance was quickly told to the 
Romans, some of whom could not believe it 
and others pitied the distress which the Jews 
were under: but there were many of them who 
were hereby induced toa more bitter hatred 
than ordinary against our nation. But for Ce. 
sar, he excused himself before God as to this 
matter, and said, that “he had proposed peace 
and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion 
of all their former insolent practices, but that 
they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition 
instead of peace, war; and before satiety and 
abundance, a famine. That they had begur 
with their own hands to burn down that tem 
ple, which we have preserved hitherto; and 
that therefore they deserved to eat such food as 
this was. That, however, this horrid action of 
eating an own child ought to be covered wi 
the overthrow of their very country itself, an 
men ought not to leave such a city upon the 
habitable earth, to be seen by the sun, wherei 
mothers are thus fed, although such food be 
fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to 
eat of, since it is they that continue still ina 
state of war against us, after they have under- 
gone such miseries as these.” And atthe same 
time that he said this, he reflected on the des 
perate condition these men must be in, nor 
could he expect that such men could be rece 
vered to sobriety of mind, after they had en: 
dured those very sufferings, for the avoiding 
whereof it only was probable they might hay 
repented. ‘ 


an 
ey 


CHAPTER IV. , 
When the banks were completed, and the batter 
ing-rams brought and could do nothing, Tits 
gave orders to set fire to the gates of the tem 
le: in no long time after which the ho 
ouse itself was burnt down, even against his 
consent. é 
§ 1. And now two of the legions had com 
pleted their banks on the eighth day of th 
month Lous [Ab.] Whereupon Titus gave 0 
ders that the battering-rams should be brought 
and set over against the western edifice of th 
inner temple; for, before these were brought, th 
firmest of all the others engines had batter 
the wall for six days together without ceasing 
without making any impression upon intr 
the vast largeness and strong connection of tf 
stones was superior to that engine and to tl 
other battering-rams also. Other Romans i 
indeed, undermine the foundations of the nort. 
ern gate, and, after a world of pains, remove’ 
the outmost stones; yet was the gates still up: 
held by the inner stones, and stood still unhurt 
till the workmen, despairing of all such’ \ 
tempts by engines and crows, brought th , 
ladders to the cloisters. Now the Jews | : 
not interrupt them in so doing; bus wher t 


oe. 


tia 

; a 
were gotten up they fell upon them, and fought 
‘with them; some of them they thrust down, 
‘ind threw them backwards headlong; others 
‘of them they met and slew: they also beat many 
‘of those that went down the ladders again, and 
‘slew them with their swords before they could 
oring their shields to protect them; nay, some 
of the ladders they threw down from above 
when they were full of armed men: a great 
slaughter was made of the Jews also at the 
same time, while those that bore the engines 
fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible 
‘king, and what would tend to their great 
shame if they permitted them to be stolen 
iway. Yet did the Jews at length get posses- 
sion of these engines, and destroyed those that 
aad gone up the ladders, while the rest were so 
‘ntimidated by what those suffered who were 
slain, that they retired, although none of the 
Romans died without having done good service 
defore his death. Of the seditious those that 
aad fought bravely in the former battles did the 
ike now; as besides them did Eleazar, the bro- 
‘her’s son of Simon the tyrant. But when Ti- 
‘us perceived that his endeavors to spare a fo- 
reign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers 
and made them be killed, he gave order to set 
she gates on fire. 

_ 2. In the mean time there deserted to him 
Ananus, who came from [immaus, the most 
bloody of all Simon’s guards, and Archelaus, 
the son of Magadatus, they hoping to be still 
forgiven, because they left the Jews at a time 
when they were the conquerors. Titus ob- 
iected this to these men, as a cuuning trick of 
theirs; and as he had been informed of their 
other barbarities towards the Jews, he was go- 
ing in all haste to have them both slain. He 
told them, that “they. were only driven to this 
desertion, because of the utmost distress they 
were in, and did not come away of their own 
guod disposition; and that those did not deserve 
to be preserved, by whom their own city was 
already set on fire, out of which they now hur- 
ried themselves away.” However, the security 
he had promised deserters overcame his re- 
sentments, and he dismissed them accordingly, 
though he did not give them the same privi- 
leyes that he had afforded to others. And now 
the soldiers had already put fire to the gates, 
and the silver that was over them quickly car- 
ried the flames to’ the wood that was within it, 
whence it spread itself all on the sudden, and 
caught hold of the cloisters. Upon the Jews 
seeing this fire all about them, their spirits sunk 
together with their bodies, and they were under 
such astonishment, that not one of them made 
any haste either to defend himself or to quench 
the fire, but they stood as mute spectators of it 
snly. However, they did not so grieveat the loss 
ot what was now burning, as to grow wiser 
thereby for the time to come; but as though the 
oly house itself had been on fire already, they 
whetted their passions against the Romans. 
This fire prevailed during that day and the 
aext also; for the soldiers were not able to 
vurn all the cloisters that were round about to- 
ether at one time, but only by pieces 


’ 


BOOK VI—CHAPTER IV. 


67 


3. But then, on the next day, Titus com 
manded part of his army to quench the fire, 
and to make a road for the more easy march- 
ing up of the legions, while he himself gath-. 
ered the commanders together. Of those there 
were assembled the six principal persons, 'Ti- 
berius Alexander, the commander [under the 
general] of the whole army, with Sextus Ce- 
realis, the commander of the fifth legion, and 
Larcius Lepidus, the commander of the tenth 
legion, and Titus Frigius, the commander of the 
fifteenth legion; there was also with them Eter 
nius, the leader of the two legions that came 
from Alexandria, and Marcus Antonius Julia- 
nus, procurator of Judea; after these came 
together also the rest of the procurators and 
tribunes. ‘Titus proposed to these, that they 
should give him their advice what should be 
done about the holy house. Now some of 
these thought, “it would be the best way to act 
according to the rules of war, [and demolish it,] 
because the Jews would never ieave off rebel- 
ling while that house was standing, at which 
house it was that they used to get all together.” 
Others of them were of opinion, that “in case 
the Jews would leave it, and none of them 
would lay their arms up in it, he might save it; 
but that in case they got upon it, and fought 
any more, he might burn it; because it must 
then be looked upon not as a holy house, but 
as a citadel, and that the impiety of burning it 
would then belong to those that forced this to 
be done, and not to them.” But Titus said, 
that “although the Jews should get upon that 
holy house, and fight us thence, yet ought we 
not to revenge ourselves on things that are in- 
animate, instead of the men themselves; and 
that he was not in any case for burning down 
so vast a work as that was, because this would 
be a mischief to the Romans themselves, as 
it would be an ornament to their government 
while it continued.” So Fronto, and Alex- 
ander, and Cerealis, grew bold upon that de- 
claration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus, 
Then was this assembly dissolved, when Titus 
had given orders to the commanders that the 
rest of their forces should lie still, but that they 
should make use of such as were most coura- 
veous in this attack, So he commanded that 
the chosen men that were taken out of the 
cohorts should’ make their way through the 
ruins and quench the fire. 

4, Now it is true, that on this day the Jews 
were so weary, and under such consternation, 
that they refrained from any attacks. But on 
the next day they gathered their whole force 
tovether, and ran upon those that guarded the 
outward court of the temple very boldly 
through the east gate, and this about the second 
hour of the day. These guards received that 
their attack with great bravery, and by cover- 
ing themselves with their shields before, as if 
it were with a wall, they drew their squadron 
close together; yet it was evident that they 
could not abide there very long, but would be 
overborne by the multitude of those that sal- 
lied out upon them, and by the heat of their 
passion. However, Caesar seeing from the 


678 


tower of Antonia, that this squadron was likely 
to give way, he sent some chosen horsemen 
to support them. Hereupon the Jews found 
» themselves not able to sustain their onset, and 
upon the slaughter of those in the forefront, 
many of the rest were put to flight. But as 
the Romans were going off, the Jews turned 
back upon them, and fought them; and as 
those Romans came back upon them, they re- 
treated again, until about the fifth hour of the 
day they were overborne, and shut themselves 
ip in the inner [court of the] temple. 

5. So Titus retired into the tower of Anto- 
ina, and resolved to storm the temple the next 
day early in the morning, with his whole ar- 
my, and to encamp round about the holy house. 
But as for that house, God had, for certain, 
long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that 
fatal day was come, according to the revolution 
of ages, it was the tenth day of the month 
Lous, [Ab,] upon which it was formerly burnt 
by the king of Babylon; although these flames 
took their rise from the Jews themselves, and 
were occasioned by them: for upon Titus’s re- 
tiring, the seditious lay still for a little while, 
and then attacked the Romans again, when 
those that guarded the holy house fought with 
those that quenched the fire that was burning 
the inner [court of the] temple; but these Ro- 
mans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as 
far asthe holy house itself. At which time 
one of the soldiers, without staying for any or- 
ders, and without any concern or dread upon 
him at so great an undertaking, and being 
hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched 
somewhat out of the materials that were on 
fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he 
set fire to a golden window, through which 
there was a passage to the rooms that were 
round about the holy house, on the north side 
of it. As the flames went upward, the Jews 
made a great clamor, such as so mighty an af- 
fliction required, and ran together to prevent 
it; and now they spared not their lives any long- 
er, nor suffered any thing to restrain their force, 
since that holy house was perishing, for whose 
sake it was that they keptsuch a guard about it. 

6. And now a certain person came running 
to Titus, and told him of this fire, as he was 
resting himself in his tent, after the last battle: 
whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as 
he was, ran to the holy house in order to have 
a stop putto the fire; after him followed all his 
commanders, and after them followed the seve- 
ral legions in great astonishment: so there was 
a great clamor and tumult raised, as was natu- 
ral upon the disorderly motion of so great an 
army. Then did Cesar, both by calling to the 
soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, 
and by giving a signal to them with his right 
hand order them to quench the fire. But they 

- did not hear what he said, though he spoke so 
loud, having their ears already dinned by a 
great noise another way: nor did they attend to 
the signal he made with his hand neither, as 
still some of them were distracted with fight- 
ing, and others with passion. But as for the 
legions that came running thither, neither any 


WARS OF THE JEWS. roe a 


persuasions nor any threatenings could restr, 
their violence, but each one’s own passion we 
his commander at this time; and as they were 
crowding into the temple together, many « 
them were trampled on by one another, whi 
a great number fell among the ruins of the 
cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and 
were destroyed in the same miserable way with 
those whom they had conquered: and when 
they were come near the holy house, they made | 
as if they did not so much as hear Ceesar’s or- 
ders to the contrary, but they encouraged those 
that were before them to set it on fire. As for 
the seditious, they were in too great distress 
already to afford their assistance |towards” 
quenching the fire:] they were everywhere 
slain, and everywhere beaten; and as fora great 
part of the people, they were weak and with-— 
out arms, and had their throats cut wherever 
they were caught. Now, round about the al- 
tar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another, 
as at the steps going up to it ran a quantity © 
their blood,* whither also the dead bodies thar 
were slain above [on the altar] fell down, ; 
7. And now, since Cesar was noway able to 
restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, 
and the fire proceeded on more and more, he 
went into the holy place of the temple, with 
his commanders, and saw it, with what was in 
it, which he found to be far superior to what 
the relations of foreigners contained, and not 
inferior to what we ourselves boasted of, and be- 
lieved about it. But as the flame had not yet 
reached to its inward parts, but was still con- 
suming the rooms that were about’ the holy 
house, and Titus, supposing what the fact was, 
that the house itself might be saved, he, came 
in haste, and endeavored to persuade the sol- 
diers to quench the fire, and gave order to Li- 
beralius the centurion, and one of those spear-_ 
men that were about him, to beat the soldiers 
that were refractory with their staves, and to” 
restrain them; yet were their passions too hard 
for the regard they had for Cesar, and as 
dread they had of him who forbade them, as” 
was their hatred of the Jews, and a certain” 
vehement inclination to fight them, too hard 
for them also. Moreover, the hope of plunder 
induced many to go on, as having this opinion, 
that all the places within were fu!l of money, 
and as seeing that all round about t was made 
of gold. And besides, one Of those that bis he 
into the place prevented Cesar, when he ran 
so hastily out to restrain the soldiers, and threw 
the fire upon the hinges of the gate, in the dark; 
whereby the flame burst out from within the 
holy house itself immediately, when the com- 
manders retired, and Cesar with them, an 
when nobody any longer forbade those tha 
were without to set fire to it. And thus was 
the holy house burnt down, without Ceesar’s 
approbation. a4 
* These steps to the altar of burnt-offering seem here rat 
either an improper or an inaccurate expression of Jose 
since it was unlawful to make ladder steps, (see de 
tion of the temple, ch. xiii. and note on Antiq. b. iv. ch. Ville 
sect. 5,) orelse those steps or stairs we now use were inven 
ed before the days of Herod the Great, and had been 


bujlt by him; though the later Jews always deny is 
5 * even Herod’s altar was ascended to by an 





b 




















[yr 


} 


Li 


, also. 


& Now, altnough any one would justly la- 


‘ment the destruction of such a work as this 


was, since it was the most admirable of all the 
works that we have seen or heard of, both for 
its curious structure and its magnitude, and 


‘also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as 


well as for the glorious reputation it had for its 


_ holiness; yet might such a one comfort him- 


self with this thought, that it was fate that de- 
creed it so to be, which is inevitable, both as 
to living creatures, and as to works and places 
However, one cannot but wonder at the 
accuracy of this period thereto relating; for the 
game month and day were now observed as I 
said before, wherein the holy house was burnt 
formerly by the Babylonians. Now the num- 
ber of years that passed from its first founda- 
tion, which was laid by king Solomon, till this 
its destruction, which happened in the second 

ear of the reign of Vespasian, are collected to 

e one thousand one hundred and thirty, be- 


sides seven months and fifteen days; and from 


the second building of it, which was done by 
Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, 
till its destruction under Vespasian, there were 
six hundred thirty-nine years and forty-five days. 


CHAPTER V. 

The great distress the Jews were in upon the 
conflagration of the holy house. Concernt 
a false prophet, and the signs that preceded this 
destruction. 


§ 1. While the house was on fire, every 


- thing was plundered that came to hand, and 


fended themselves by fighting. 


ten thousand of those that were caught were 
slain; nor was there a commiseration of any 
age, or any reverence of gravity; but children, 
and old men, and profane persons, and priests, 
were all slain in the same manner; so that this 
war went round all sorts of men, and brought 
them to destruction, and as well those that made 
supplication for their lives, as those that de- 
The flame was 
also carried a long way, and made an echo, to- 
gether with the groans of those that were slain; 
and because this hill was high, and the works 
at the temple were very great, one would have 
thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor 


can one imagine any thing either greater or 


more terrible than this noise; for there was at 


‘once a shout of the Roman legions, who were 


marching all together, and a sad clamor of the 
seditious, who were now surrounded with fire 
and sword. The people also that were left 
above, were beaten back upon the enemy, and 
under a great consternation, and made sad 
moans at the calamity they were under; the 


multitude ale shat was in the city joined in 


this outcry witi those that were upon the hill. 


- And besides, many of those that were worn 


away by the famine, and their mouths almost 
closed, when they saw the fire of the holy 
house, they exerted their utmost strength, and 


broke out into groans and outcries again; Perea* 


did also return the echo, as well as the moun- 


tains round about the [city,] and augmented the 


_ * This Perea if the word be not mistaken in the copies, 


_ eannot well be that Perea which was beyond Jordan, whose 
mountains were at a considerable distances from Jordan, 


es 


7 


BOOK VI—CHAPTER V. 


FTE 


force of the entire noise. Yet was tne misery 
itself more terrible than this disorder; for one 
would have thought that the hill itself, on which 
the temple stood, was seething hot, as full of 
fire on every part of it; that the blood was larg 
er in quantity than the fire, and those that were 
slain more in number than those that slew 
them, for the ground did nowhere appear visi- 
ble for the dead bodies that lay on it, but the 
soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as 
they ran upon such as fled from them. And 
now it was that the multitude of the robbers 
were thrust out [of the inner court of the tem- 
ple] by the Romans, and had much ado to get 
into the outward court, and from thence into 
the city, while the remainder of the populace 
fled into the cloister of that outer court. As 
for the priests, some of them plucked up from 
the holy house the spikes* that were upon it, 
with their basis, which were made of lead, and 
shot them at the Romans instead of darts. But 
then, as they gained nothing by so doing, and as 
the fire burst out upon them, they retired to the 
wall, that was eight cubits broad, and there 
they tarried: yet did two of these of eminence 
among them, who might have saved themselves 
by going over to the Romans, or have borne 
up with courage, and taken their fortune with 
others, throw themselves into the fire, and were 
burnt, together with the holy house; their 
names were Meirus the son of Belgas, and Jo- 
seph the son of Daleus. 

2. And now the Romans judging that it was 
in vain to spare what was round about the holy 
house, burnt all those places, as also the remains 
of the cloisters and the gates, two excepted: 
the one on the east side, and the other on the 
south, both which, however, they burnt after- 
ward. They also burnt down the treasury 
chambers, in which was an immense quantity 
of money, and an immense number of gar- 
ments, and other precious goods there repost 
ted; and to speak all in a few words, there it 
was that the entire riches of the Jews were 
heaped. up together, while the rich people 
had there built themselves chambers [to con- 
tain such furniture.] ‘The soldiers also came 
to the rest of the cloisters that were in the 
outer [court of the] temple, whither the wo- 
men and children, and a great mixed multitude 
of the people fled, in number about six thou- 
sand. But before Cesar had determined any 
thing about these people, or given the com- 
manders any orders relating to them, the sok 
diers were in such a rage, that they set that 
cloister on fire; by which means it came te 
pass, that some of these were destroyed by 
throwing themselves down headlong, and sore 
were burnt in the cloisters themselves. Nor 
and. much too remote from Jerusalem to jom in this echo ag 
the conflagration ofthe temple; but Perea must be rather sone 
mountain beyond the brook Cedron, as was the mount of 
Olives, or some others, about such a distance from Jerusa- 
lem: which observation is so obvious, that it is a wonder our 
commentators here take no notice of it. 

* Reland, I think, here judges well, when he interprets 
these spikes (of those that stood on the top of the holy 
house) with sharp points: they were fixed into lead to prevem, 
the birds from setting there, and defiling the holy house 


for such spikes there were now upon it, as Josenhus himse' 
hath already assured us, b. v. ch. v, sect. 6. 


680 


did any one of tiem escape with his life. A 
false prophet was the occasion of these people’s 
destruction,* who had made a public procla- 
mation in the city that very day, that “God 
eommanded them to get up upon the temple, 
and that there they should receive miraculous 
signs for their deliverance.” Now, there was 
then a great number of false prophets suborned 
by the tyrants to impose on the people who 
denounced this to them, that they should wait 
for deliverance from God; and this was in or- 
der to keep them from deserting, and that they 
might be buoyed up above fear and care by 
uch hopes. Now, a man that is in adversity 
does easily comply with such promises; for 
when such a seducer makes him believe that 
he shall be delivered from those miseries which 
oppress him, then it is that the patient is full 
of hopes of such his deliverance. 

3. Thus were the miserable people persuaded 
by these deceivers, and such as belied God him- 
self; while they did not attend nor give credit 
to the signs that were so evident, and did so 
plainly foretell their future desolation, but like 
men mfatuated, without either eyes to see or 
minds to consider, did not regard the denunci- 
ations that God made to them. Thus there 
was 4 start resembling a sword, which stood 
over the city, and a comet,} that continued a 
whole year. Thus also before the Jews’ re- 
bellion, and before those commotions which 
preceded the war, when the people were come 
in great crowds to the feast of unleavened 
bread, on the eighth day of the month Xan- 
thicus,t [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the 
night, so great a light shone round the altar 
aud the holy house, that it appeared to be 
bright day-time; which light lasted for half an 
hour. This light seemed tobe a good sign to 
the unskilful, but was so interpreted by the sa- 
cred scribes as to portend those events that 
followed immediately upon it. At the same 
festival also a heifer, as she was led by the 
high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a 
lamb in the midst of the temple. - Moreover, 
the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] tem- 
ple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and 
had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, 
and -rested upon a basis armed with iron, and 
had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, 
which was there made of one entire stone, 
was seen to be opened of its own accord about 
the sixth hour of the night. Now those that 
Kept watch in the temple came hereupon run- 
ning to the captain of the temple, and told him 
ef it, who then came up thither, and not with- 

* Reland here justly takes notice, that these Jews, who 
Rad despised the true Prophet, were deservedly abused and 
Seluded by these false ones. 

¢ Whether Josephus means, that this star was different 
from that comet which lasted a whole year, [ cannot certain- 


ly determine. His words most favor their being different 
ene from another. 

{ Since Josephus still uses the Syro-Macedonian month 
Xantnicus for the Jewish month Nisan, this 8th, or, as Ni- 
eephorus reads it, this 9th of Xanthicus or Nisan was almost 
a week before the Passover on the 14th: about which time 
we jean from St. John that many used to go out of the coun- 
try fo Jerusalem to purify themselves, John xi. 55, with xii. 1, 
wi agreement with Josephus also b. v. ch. iii. sect.1. Anu 
it might well be, that in the sight of these this +xtraordinary 
hight» ight ap ear. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 





out great difficulty was able to shut the gave 
again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be 
a very happy prodigy, as if God did therepy 
open them the gate of happiness. But th 
men of learning understood it, that the security 
of their holy house was dissolved of its own 
accord, and that the gate was opened for the 
advantage of their enemies. So these publicly — 
declared, that the signal foreshowed the de- 
solation that was coming upon them. Besides — 
these, a few days after that feast, on the ong 
and twentieth day of the month Artemisiug 
[Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible 
phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account 
of it would seem to bea fable were it not rela- — 
ted by those that saw it, and were not the — 
events that followed it of so considerable a na- — 
ture as to deserve such signals; for, before © 
sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in 
their armor were seen running about among _ 
the clouds, and surrounding of cities. More- 
over, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as — 
the priests were going by night into the inner — 
[court of the] temple,* as their custom was, to — 
perform their sacred ministrations, they “a 
that in the first place they felt a quaking, 
heard a great noise, and after that they heard — 
a sound as of a multitude, saying, “Let us re- 
move hence.” But what is still more terrible, 
there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a ple- — 
beian and a husbandman, who, four years be- — 
fore the war began, and at atime when the city 
was in very great peace and prosperity, came — 
to that feast whereon it is our custom for 
every one to make tabernacles to God in the © 
temple,t began on a sudden to cry aloud, “A — 
voice from the east, a voice from the west, a — 
voice from the four winds, a voice against Jeru- 
salem and the holy house, a voice against the — 
the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice © 
against the whole people.” This was his ery, 
as he went about by day and by night, in all 
the lanes of the city. However, certain of the ~ 
most eminent among the populace had great — 
indignation at this dire cry of his, and took 
up the man, and gave him a great number of © 
severe stripes; yet did not he either say any ~ 
thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those 
that chastised him, but still went on with the © 
same words which he cried before. Hereupor 
our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be 
that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, — 
brought him to the Roman procurator, where ~ 
he was whipped till his bones were laid barey — 
yet did not he make any sup}lication for him 
self, nor shed any tears; but tarning his voice — 
to the most lamentable tone possible, at every 
stroke of the whip his answer was, “Wo, wo to — 
* This here seems to be the court of the priests. if 
t Both Reland and Havercainp in this place alter the path _ 


ral punctuation and sense of Josephus, and this contrary — 
to the opinion of Valesius and Dr. Hudson, lest Josephus 

should say, that the Jews built booths or tents within the — 
temple, at the feast of Tabernacles: which the latter rabbins 
will not allow to have been the ancient practice; but then, 
since it is expressly told us in Nehemiah, viii. 16, that in 
still elder times, the Jews made booths in the courts of tha 
house of God at that festival, Josephus may well be permit. 

ted to say the same. And, indeed, the modern rabbins 
of very small authority in all such matters of remote & 
tiquity. 









* 


? 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER VI. 


erusalem.” And wien Albinus (for he was 
then our procurator) asked him, “Who he was? 


and whence he came? and why he uttered 
_ auch words?” he made no manner of reply to 


what he said, but still did not leave off his me- 
lancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a 
madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all 


_ the time that passed before the war began, this 


man did not go near any of the citizens, nor 


was seen by them while he said so; but he 
_ every day uttered these lamentable words, as if 


it were his premeditated vow, “Wo, wo to Je- 
rasalem.” Nor did he give ill words to any of 
those that beat him every day, nor good words 
to those that gave him food; but this was his re- 
ply to all men, and, indeed, no other than a 
melancholy presage of what was to come. This 
cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and 
he continued this ditty for seven years and five 
months, without growing hoarse, or being tired 


therewith, until the very time that he saw his 


resage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when 


it ceased; for as he was going round upon the 


wall, he cried out with his utmost force, “Wo,wo 
to the city again, and to the people, and to the 
holy house.” And just as he added at the last, 


Wo, woto myself also,” there came a stone 
i b) ’ 


outof one of the engines and smote him, and 


killed him immediately; and, as he was uttering 


the very same presages, he gave up the ghost. 

4, Now, if any one consider these things, he 
will find that God takes care of mankind, and 
by all ways possible foreshows to our race 


‘what is for their preservation, but that men 


perish by those miseries which they madly and 
voluntarily bring upon themselves; for the Jews, 
by demolishing the tower of Antonia, had made 
their temple four-square, while at the same 
time they had it written in their sacred oracles, 
that “then should their city be taken, as well 
as their holy house, when once their tem- 
ple should become four-square.” But now, 
what did the most elevate them in undertaking 
this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was 
found also in their sacred writings, how “about 
that time one from their country should be- 
some governor of the habitable earth.” The 
Jews took this prediction to belong to them- 
selves in particular, and many of the wise men 
were thereby deceived in their determination. 
Now, this oracle certainly denoted the govern- 


ment of Vespasian, who was appointed em- 


: 


ror in Judea. However, it is not possible 
for men to avoid fate, although they see it be- 


‘forehand. But these men interpreted some 


; 


] 
i 
N 


' 
4 


= “x. 


of these signals according to their own pleasure, 
and some of them they utterly despised, until 
their madness was demonstrated, both by the 
tak rg of their city, and their own destruction. 


, CHAPTER VI. 


Auw the Romans carried their ensigns to the 
temple, and made joyful acclamations to Titus. 
The speech that ‘Titus made to the Jews when 
they made supplication for mercy. What reply 

_ they made thereto; and how that reply moved 

 Titus’s indignation against them. 

9 1. And now he Romans, upon the flight 
8&6 








682 


of the seditious into tne city, and upon the 
burning of the holy house itself, and of all the 
buildings round about it, brought their ensigns 
to the temple;* and set them over against its 
eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices 
to them, and there did they make Titus Im 
perator,} with the greatest acclamations of joy. 
And now all the soldiers had such vast quantities 
of the spoils which they had gotten by plunder, 
that in Syria a pound weight of gold was sold 
for half its former value. But as for those 
priests that kept themselves still upon the wal 
of the holy house,t there was a boy that, out 
of the thirst he was in, desired some of the 
Roman guards to give him their right hand asa 
security for his life, and confessed he was very 
thirsty. These guards commiserated his age, 
and the distress he was in, and gave him their 
right hands accordingly. So he came down 
himself, and drank some water, and filled the 
vessels he had with him when he came to them 
with water, and then went off, and fled away 
to his own friends; nor could any of those 
guards overtake him; but still they reproached 
him for his perfidiousness, ‘To which he made 
this answer: “I have not broken the agreement; 
for the security I had given me was not in or- 
der to my staying with you, but only in order 
to my coming down safely, and taking up some 
water; both which things I have performed, 
and thereupon think myself to have been faith- 
ful to my engagement.” Hereupon those 
whom the child had imposed upon admired at 
his cunning, and that on account of his age. 
On the fifth day afterward, the priests that were 
pined with the famine came down, and when 
they were brought to Titus by the guards, they 
begged for their lives: but he replied, that “the 
time of pardon was over as to them, and that 
this very holy house, on whose account only 


they could justly hope to be preserved, was de- 


stroyed, and that it was agreeable to their office, 
that priests should perish with the house it- 
self to which they belonged.” So he ordered 
them to be put to death. 

2, But as for the tyrants themselves, and 
those that were with them, when they found 
that they were encompassed on every side, and, 
as it were, walled round, without any.method 
of escaping, they desired to treat with Titus by 
word of mouth. Accordingly, such was the 
kindness of his nature, and his desire of pre 
serving the city from destruction, joined to the 
advice of his friends, who now thought the 
robbers were come to a temper, that he placed 
himself on the western side of the outer [courg 


* Take Havercamp’s note here—“This,’”? says he, “is a 
remarkable place:?? and Tertullian truly saysin his Apole 
getic, ch. xvi. p. 162, that “entire religion of the Roman camp 
almost consisted in worshiping “e ensigns, in swearing by 
the ensigns, and in preferring .e -.e.gns before all .e 
[other] gods;”? see what Havercamp says upon that place of 
Tertullian. 

+ This declaring Titus Imperator by the soldiers, upon 
such signal success, and the slaughter of such a vast num 
ber of enemies, was according to the usual practice of the 
Romans in like cases, as Reland assures us on this place. 

t The Jews of later times agree with Josephus, that there 
were hiding places or secret chambers about the holy house 
as Reland here informs us, where he thinks he has found 
these very walls described by them. e 


682 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 
of the] temple; for there were gates on that | body that are broken or dislocated, you di { then 


i” 
t 


side above the Xystus, and a bridge that con- | lie quiet, waiting for some other time, thoug : 


nected the upper city to the temple. This bridge 
it was that lay Letween the tyrants and Ceesar, 
and parted them; while the multitude stood on 
each side, those of the Jewish nation about 
Simon and John, with great hopes of pardon, 
and the Romans about Cesar, in great expec- 
tation how Titus would receive their supplica- 
tion. So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain 
their rage, and to let their darts alone, and ap- 
pointed an interpreter between them, which 
was a sign that he was the conqueror, and first 
began the discourse, and said: “I hope you, 
sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your 
country, who have not had any just notions, 
either of our great power, or of your own 
great weakness, but have like madmen, after a 
violent and inconsiderate manner, made such 
attempts as have brought your people, your 
city, and your holy house, to destruction. You 
have been the men that have never left off re- 
belling since Pompey first conquered you; and 
have, since that time, made open war with the 
Romans. Have you depended on your mullti- 
tude, while a very small part of the Roman 
soldiery have been strong enough for you? 
Have you relied on the fidelity of your confe- 
derates? And what nations are there out of 
the limits of our dominion, that would choose 
to assist the Jews before the Romans? Are 
your bodies stronger than ours? Nay, you 
know that the [strong] Germans themselves 
are our servants. Have you stronger walls 
than we have? Pray, what greater obstacle is 
there than the wall of the ocean, with which 
the Britons are encompassed, and yet do adore 
the arms of the Romans? - Do you exceed us 
in courage of soul, and in the sagacity of your 
commanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but 
know that the very Carthagenians have been 
conquered by us. It can therefore be nothing 
certainly but the kindness of us Romans which 
hath excited you against us; who, in the first 
place, have given you this land to possess; and, 
in the next place, have set over you kings of 
your own nation, and, in the third place, have 
preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, 
and have withall permitted you to live, either 
by yourselves or among others, as it should 
please vou; and, what is our chief favor of all, 
we have given you leave to gather up that tri- 
bute which is paid to God,* with such other 
gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we 
called those that carried these donations to ac- 
count, nor prohibited them; till at length you 
became ricther than we ourselves, even when 
you were our enemies; and you made prepa- 
rations for war against us with our own money; 
nay, after all, when you were in the enjoyment 
of all these advantages, you turned your too 
“great plenty against those that gave it you, and, 
ake merciless serpents, have thrown out your 
poe against those that treated you kindly. 

suppose, therefore, that you might despise 
the siothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the 


* Spanheim notes here, that the Romans used to permit 
the Jews to collect their sacred tribute, and send it to Jeru- 


still with a malicious intention, and have now: 
shown your distemper to be greater than ever, 
and have extended your desires as far as your. 
impudent and immense hopes would enable. 
you to doit. At this time my father came into | 
this country, not with a design to punish you 
for what you had done under Cestius, but to. 
admonish you; for, had he come to overthrow 

your nation, he had run directly to your foun- 
tain-head, and had immediately laid this city 

waste; whereas, he went and burnt Galilee and 

the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you 

time for repentance; which instance of hu- 

manity you took for an argument of his weak- | 
ness, and nourished up your impudence by our 
mildness. When Nero was gone out of the’ 
world, you did as the wickedest wretches would | 
have done, and encouraged yourselves to act. 
against us by our civil dissensions, and abused | 
that time, when both I and my father were 
gone away for Egypt to make preparations for 
this war. Nor were you ashamed to raise dis- 
turbances against us when we were made ems 
perors, and this while you had experienced 
how mild we had been, when we were no 
more than generals of the army. But when 
the government was devolved upon us, and all 
other people did thereupon lie quiet, and even” 
foreign nations sent embassies, and congratue 
lated our access to the government, then dig” 
you Jews show yourselves to be our enemies — 
You sent embassies to those of your own na — 
tion that are beyond Euphrates, to assist you” 
in your raising disturbances: new walls were 
built by you round your city, sedition 
and one tyrant contended against another, ai . 
a civil war broke out among you; such indeed : 
as became none but so wicked a people as you. 
are. I then came to this city, as unwillingly 
sent by my father, and received melancholy in- 
junctions from him. When I heard that the) 
people were disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it, 
I exhorted you to leave off these proceedings, 
before I began this war; I spared you even’ 
when you had fought against me a great while 
I gave my right hand as a security to the | 
serters: I observed what I had promised faith- 
fully. When they fled to me, I had compas 
sion on many of those that I had taken captive 
I tortured those that were eager for war, in of 























der to restrain them. It was unwillingly on 
I brought my engines of war against your walls 
I always prohibited my soldiers, when they were 
set upon your slaughter, from their severit 
against you. After every victory I persu 
you to peace, as though | had been mysel 
conquered. When I came near your tempk 
I again departed from the laws of war, and x 
horted you to spare your own sanctuary, ane 
to preserve your holy house to yourselves. — 
allowed you a quiet exit out of it, and security 
for your preservation: nay, if yor had a mind, 
I gave you leave to fight in another place. Ye 
have you still despised every one of my pr 


‘ 


a 
salem; of which we have had abundant evidence ir Pi 
phus already on other occasions , ¥. 


lw, 
i BOOK VI.—CHAPTER VII. 


' posals, and have set five to your holy house with 
ie . 

_ your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do 
| you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? 
| To what purpose is it that you would save such 
a holy house as this was, which is now destroy- 
ed? What preservation can you now desire, 
after the destruction of your temple? Yet do 
‘you stand stil! at :his very time in your armor; 
Mor can you oring yourselves so much as to 
_ pretend to be supplicants even in this your ut- 
_mMostextremity. O miserable creatures! What 
is it you depend on? Are not your people 
dead? is not your holy house gone? is not your 


683 


many misfortunes; and also tow Casa became 

master of the upper city. 

§ I. And now the seditious rushed into the 
royal palace, into which many had put their ef- 
fects, because it was so strong, and drove the 
Romans away from it. They also slew all! the - 
people that had crowded into it, who were in 
number about eight thousand four hundred. 
and plundered them of what they had. They 
also took two of the Romans alive; the one was 
a horseman and the other a footman. They 
then cut the throat of the footman, and imme- 
diately had him drawn through the whole city, 
as revenging themselves upon the whole body 
of the Romans by this one instance. But the 
horseman said he had somewhat to suggest to 
them in order to their preservation; whereupon 
he was brought before Simon, but he having 
nothing to say when he was there, he was de- 
livered to Ardalas, one of his commanders, to 
be punished, who bound his hands behind him, 
and put a riband over his eyes, and then brought 
him out over against the Romans, as intend- 
ing to cut off his head. But the man pre- 
vented that execution, and ran away to the Ro- 
mans, and this while the Jewish executioner 
was drawing out his sword. Now when he 


‘lives in my hands? And do you still deem ita 
part of valor to die? However, I will not imi- 
tate your madness. If you will throw down 
your arms, and deliver up your bodies to me, I 
grant you your lives: and I will act like a mild 
_ master of a family; what cannot be healed shall 
‘be punished, and the rest I will preserve for 
/ my own use.” 

3. To that offer of Titus they made this re- 
_ply, that “they could not accept of it, because 
they had sworn never to do so, but they desired 
_they might have leave to go through the wall 
“that had been made about them, with their 


wives and children; for that they would go into 
the desert, and leave the city to him.” At this 
Titus had great indignation, that, when they 
were in the case of men already taken captives, 
‘they should pretend to make their own terms 
with him, as if they had been conquerors. So 
he ordered this proclamation to be made to 
them, that “they should no more come out to 
him as deserters, nor hope for any further se- 
curity; for that he would henceforth spare no- 
body, but fight them with his whole army; and 
that they might save themselves as well as they 
could; forthat he would from henceforth treat 
them according to the laws of war.” So he 
gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to 
plunder the city, who did nothing indeed that 
day, but on the next day they set fire to the re- 
pository of the archives, to Acra, to the coun- 
cil-house, and to the place called Ophlas; at 
which time the fire proceeded as far as the pa- 
lace of queen Helena, which was in the mid- 
“dle of Acra; the lanes also were burnt down, as 
were also those houses that were full of the dead 
bodies of such as were destroyed by famine. 
4. On the same day it was, that the sons and 
brethren of Izates the king, together with many 
Other of the eminent inen of the populace, got 
together there, and besought Cesar to give 
hem his right hand for their security; upon 
which, though he was very angry at all that 
were now remaining, yet did he not lay aside 
his old moderation, but received these men. 
At that time indeed, he kept them all in custo- 
_ dy, but still bound the king’s sons and kinsmen, 
and led them with him to Rome, in order to 
make them hostages for their country’s fidelity 
to the Romans. 


CHAPTER VII. 


_ What afterward befell the seditious, when they had 
_ done a great deal of mischief, and suffered 


city in my power? and are not your own 


was gotten away from the enemy, Titus could 
not think of putting him to death, but because 
he deemed him unworthy of being a Roman 
soldier any longer, on account that he had been 
taken alive by the enemy, he took away his 
arms, and ejected him out of the legion where- 
to he had belonged, which, to one that had a 
sense of shame, was a penalty severer than 
death itself. 

2. On the next day, the Romans drove the 
robbers out of the lower city, and set all on fire 
as far as Siloam. ‘These soldiers were indeed 
glad to see the city destroyed. But they miss- 
ed the plunder, because the seditious had car- 
ried off all their effects, and were retired into 
the upper city; for they did not yet at all re- 
pent of the mischiefs they had done, but were 
insolent as if they had done well; for as they 
saw the city on fire, they appeared cheerful, 
and put on joyful countenances, in expectation, 
as they said, of death to end their miseries. 
Accordingly; as the people were now slain; the 
holy house was burnt down, and the city was 
on fire, there was nothing farther felt for the 
enemy todo. Yetdid not Josephus grow wea- 
ry even in this utmost extremity, to beg of them 
to spare what was left of the city; he spoke 
largely to them about their barbarity and im- 
piety, and gave them his advice in order to 
their escape, though he gained nothing thereby 
more than to be laughed at by them; and as 
they could not think of surrendering theme- 
selves up, because of the oath they had taker. 
nor were strong enough to fight with the Ro- 
mans any longer upon the square, as being sur- 
rounded on all sides, and a kind of prisoners 
already, yet were they so accustomed to kil 
people, that they could not restrain their right 
hands from acting accordingly. So they dis- 
persed themselves before the city, and laid them- 
selves in ambush among its ruins, to catch those 


684 


that attempted to desert to the Romans; ac- 
cordingly many such deserters were caught by 
them, and were all slain; for these were too 
weak by reason of their want of food to fly 
away from them; so their dead bodies were 
thrown to the dogs. Now every other sort of 
deatli was thought more tolerable than famine, 
insomuch, that though the Jews despaired of 
mercy, yet would they fly to the Romans, and 
would themselves, even of their own accord, 
fall among the murderous rebels also. Nor 
was there any place in the city thet had no dead 
bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with 
those that were killed either by the famine or 
the rebellion; and all was full of the dead bo- 
dies of such as had perished either by that se- 
dition or by that famine. 

3. So now the last hope which supported the 
tyrants and that crew of robbers who were 
with them, was in the caves and caverns under 
ground; whither, if they could once fly, they 
did not expect to be searched out, but endea- 
vored, that after the whole city should be de- 
stroyed, and the Romans gone away, they 
might come out again, and escape from them. 
This was no better than a dream of theirs, for 
they were not able to lie hid either from God 
or from the Romans. However, they depend- 
ed on these underground subterfuges, and set 
more places on fire than did the Romans them- 
selves; and those that fled out of their houses 
thus set on fire, into the ditches they killed 
them without mercy and pillaged them also; 
and if they discovered food belonging to any 
one, they seized upon it and swallowed it down, 
together with their blood also; nay, they were 
vow come to fight one with another about their 
plunder; and I cannot but think, that had not 
their destruction prevented it, their barbarity 
would have made them taste even of the dead 
hodies themselves, 


CHAPTER VIII. 


How Cesar raised banks round about the upper 
city,* and when they were completed, gave or- 
ders that the machines should be brought. He 
then possessed himself of the whole city. 


§ 1. Now when Cesar perceived that the 
apper city was so steep that it could not possi- 
bly be taken without raising banks against it, 
he distributed the several parts of that work 
among his army, and this on the twentieth day 
of the month Lous, [Ab.] Now the carriage 
of the materials was a difficult task, since all 
the trees, as I nave already told you, that were 
about the city within the distance of a hundred 
furlongs, had their branches cut off already, in 
order to make the former banks. The works 
that belonged to the four legions were erected 
on the west side of the city, over against the 
royal palace; but the whole body of the aux- 
iliary troops, with the rest of the multitude 
suat were with them, [erected their warts at 
the Xystus, whence they reached to the bridge, 
and that tower of Simon which he had built as 
acitade for himself against John, when they 
were at war with one another. 

* 4, e. Mount Sion. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 







































2. It was at this time that the commander 
of the _Idumeans got together privately, and 
took counsel about surrendering up themselves 
to the Romans, Accordingly, they sent five 
met: to Titus, and entreated him to give them 
his right hand for their security. So Tit 
thinking that the tyrants would yield, if the 
Idumeans, upon whom a great part of the war 
depended, were once withdrawn from them, 
after some reluctancy and delay, complied with 
them, and gave them security for their lives 
and sent the five men back. But as these Idu 
means were preparing to march out, Simon 
perceived it, and immediately slew the five - 
men that had gone to Titus, and took their 
commanders, and put them in prison, of whom 
the most eminent was Jacob the son of Sosas; 
but as for the multitude of the Idumeans, who 
did not at all know what to do, now their com- 
manders were taken from them, he had them 
watched, and secured the walls by a more nue 
merous garrison. Yet could not that garrison 
resist those that were deserting, for although a 
great number of them were slain, yet were the 
deserters many more in number. These were 
all received by the Romans, because Titus him- 
self grew negligent as to his former orders for. 
killing them, and because the very soldiers 
grew weary of killing them, and because they 
hoped to get some money by sparing them; for 
they left only the populace, and sold the rest 
of the multitude,* with their wives and chil- 
dren, and every one of them at a very low. 
price; and that because such as were sold were 
very many, and the buyers were few: and al 
though Titus had made proclamation before- 
hand, that no deserter should come alone by 
himself, that so they might bring out their | 
families with them, yet did he receive such as 
these also. However, he set over them such 
as were to distinguish some from others, in or- 
der to see if any of them deserved to be pun- 
ished. And indeed the number of those tha: 
were sold was immense; but of the populace 
about forty thousand were saved, whom Ceesar 
let go whither every one of them pleased. 

3. But now at this time it was that one of the. 
priests, the son of Thebuthus, whose name 
was Jesus, upon his having security given him 
by the oath of Cesar, that he should be pre- 
served, upon condition that he should deltval 
to him certain of the precious things that had 
been reposited in the temple,t came out of it, 
and delivered him from the wall of the holy 
house two candlesticks, like to those that lay 
in the holy house, with tables, and cisterns, 

* This innumerable multitude of Jews that were sold by 
the Romans were an eminent completion of God’s ancient 
threatening by Moses, that, if they apostatized from theil 
obedience to his laws, they should be sold unto theiy ene 
mies for bondmen and bondwomen, Deut. xxviii. 68; see more 
especially the note on ch. ix. see. 2. But one thing Tere is 
peculiarly remarkable, that Moses adds, though they should 
be sold for slaves, yet no man should buy them; i. e. eithet 
they should have none to redeem from this sale into slavery; 
or, rather, that the slaves to be sold should be more than 
were the purchasers for them, and so they should be sold for 
little or nothing; which is what Josephus here affirms t@ 
have been the case at this time. om 

t+ What became of these spoils of the temple thar eseape: 


the fire, see Josephus himself t ereafter, b. vii. ch. v. 6e@' 
5, and Reland de Spoliis Templi, p. 129--138. _ ; ; 


BOOK VI.—CHAPTER VIII. 638 


and vials, all made of solid gold, and very heavy. | not flee away. And here one may ‘hiefly re- 
_ He also delivered to him the vails and the gar- | flect on the power of God exercised upon these 
| ments, with the precious stones, and a great | wicked wretches, and on the good fortune of 
“number of other precious vessels that belong- | the Romans; for these tyrants did now wholly 
ed to their sacred worship. ‘The treasurer of'| deprive themselves of the security they had in 
| the temple also, whose name was Phineas, was | their own power, and came down from those 
| seized on, and showed Titus the coats and | very towers of their own accord, wherein they 


_ girdles of the priests, with a great quantity of 
_ purple and scarlet, which were there reposited 
for the uses of the vail, as alsoa great deal of 
cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of 
other sweet spices which used to be mixed to- 
gether,* and offered as incense to God every 
day. A great many other treasures were also 
delivered to him, with sacred ornaments of 
the temple, not a few; which things thus deliv- 
ered to Titus obtained of him for this man the 
same pardon that he had allowed to such as de- 
serted of their own accord. 
4, And now were the banks finished on the 
_ seventh day of the month Gorpieus [Elul,] in 
_ eighteen days’ time, when the Romans brought 
their machines against the wall. But for the 
seditious, some of them, as despairing of sav- 
ing the city, retired from the wall to the cita- 
_ del; others of them went down into the subter- 
_ ranean vaults, though still a great many of them 
_ defended themselves against those that brought 
_ the engines for the battery: yet did the Romans 
overcome them by their number, and by their 
strength; and, what was the principal thing 
of all, by going cheerfully about their work, 
_ while the Jews were quite dejected, and be- 
come weak. Now, as soon asa part of the 
wall was battered down and certain of the 
towers yielded to the impression of the batter- 
ing-rams, those that opposed themselves fled 
away, and such a terror fell upon the tyrants, 
as was much greater than the occasion requir- 
ed; for before the enemy got over the breach, 
they were quite stunned, and were immediate- 
ly for flying away. And now one might see 
these men, who had hitherto been so insolent 
and arrogant in their wicked practices, to be 
cast down, and to tremble, insomuch that it 
would pity one’s heart to observe the change 
that was made in those vile persons. Accord- 
ingly, they ran with their violence upon the 
Roman wall that encompassed them, in order 
to force away those that guarded it; and to 
break through it, and get away. But when 
they saw that those who had formerly been 
faithful to them, had gone away, (as indeed 
they were fled whithersoever the great distress 
they were in persuaded them to flee,) as also 
when those that came running before the rest 
told them that the western wall was entirely 
9yerthrown while others said the Romans were 
tten in, and others that they were near, and 
ooking out for them, which were only the 
dictates of their fear, which imposed upon 
their sight, they fell upon their faces, and greatly 
lamented their own mad conduct: and their 
nerves were so terribly loosed, that they could 
* These various sorts of spices, even more than those four 
which Moses prescribed, Exod. xxxi. 34, we see were used 
in the public worship under Herod’s temple, particularly 


emnamon and cassia; which Reland takes particular notice 
ef, as agreeing witb the later testimony of the Talmudists. 


could have never been taken by force, nor in 
deed, by any other way than by famine. And 
thus did the Romans, when they had taken 
such great pains about weaker walls, get by 
good fortune what they could never have got 
ten by their engines; for three of these towers 
were too strong for all mechanical engines 
whatsoever, concerning which we have treated 
of before. 

o. So they now left these towers of them- 
selves, or rather they were ejected out of them 
by God himself, and fled immediately to that 
valley which was under Siloam, where they 
again recovered themselves out of the dread 
they were in for a while, and ran violently 
against that part of the Roman wall which lay 
on that side; but as their courage was too much 
depressed to make their attacks with sufficient 
force, and their power was now broken with 
fear and affliction, they were repulsed by the 
guards, and dispersing themselves at distances 
from each other, went down into the subterra 
nean caverns. So the Romans being now be- 
come masters of the walls, they both placec 
their engines upon the towers, and made joyfu} 
acclammations for the victory they had gained, 
as having found the end of this war much 
lighter than its beginning, for when they had 
gotten upon the last wall without any blood- 
shed, they could hardly believe what they 
found to be true; but seeing nobody to op- 
pose them, they stood in doubt what such an 
unusual solitude could mean. But when they 
went in numbers into the lanes of the city, with 
their swords drawn, they slew those whom 
they overtook without mercy, and set fire to 
the houses whither the Jews were fled, and 
burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great 
many of the rest, and when they were come 
to the houses to plunder them, they found in 
them entire families of dead men, and the 
upper rooms full of corpses, that is, of such 
as died by the famine; they then stood in a hor- 
ror at this sight, and went out without touching 
any thing. Butalthough they had this commi- 
seration for such as were destroyed in that 
manner, yet had they not the same for those 
that were still alive, but they ran every one 
through whom they met with, and obstructed 
the very lanes with their dead bodies, and ma/le 
the whole city run down with blood, to such a 
degree indeed that the fire of many of the 
houses was quenched with these mens blood. 
And truly so it happened, that though the slay- 
ers left off at the evening, yet did the fire greatly 
prevail in the night; and asall was burning, came 
that eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul,} 
upon Jerusalem, a city that had been liable to 
so many miseries during this siege, that, had m 
always enjoyed as much happiness from its 
first foundation, it would certainly have seem 


the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other 
account so much deserve these sore misfortunes, 
as by producing such a generation of men as 
were the occasion of this its overthrow. 


CHAPTER IX. 


What injunctions Cesar gave when he was come 
within the city.. The number of the captives, 
and of those that perished wn the siege; as also, 
concerning those that had escaped into the sub- 
ferranean caverns, among whom were the ty- 
rants Simon and John themselves. 


§ 1. Now when Titus was come into this 
[upper] city, he admired not only some other 
places of strength in it, but particularly those 
strong towers which the tyrants in their mad 
conduct had relinquished: for when he saw 
their solid altitude, and the largeness of their 
several stones, and the exactness of their joints, 
as also how great was their breadth and how 
extensive their length, he expressed himself 
after the manner following: “We have certainly 
had God for our assistant in this war, and it 
was no other than God who ejected the Jews 
out of these fortifications; for what could the 
hands of men, or any machines, do towards 
overthrowing these towers?” At which time 
he had many such discourses to his friends: he 
also let such go free as had been bound by the 
tyrants and were left in the prisons. 'To con- 
clude, when he entirely demolished the rest of 
the city, and overthrew its walls, he left these 
towers as a monument of his good fortune, 
which had proved his auxiliary, and enabled 
him to take what could not otherwise have 
been taken by him 

2. And now, since his soldiers were already 
quite tired with killing men, and yet there ap- 
peared to be a vast multitude still remaining 
alive, Cesar gave orders that they should kill 
none but those that were in arms, and oppos- 
ed them, but should take the rest alive. But, 
together with those whom they had orders to 
slay, they slew the aged and infirm; but for 
those that were in their flourishing age, and 
who might be useful to them, they drove them 
together into the temple, and shut them up with- 
in the walls of the court of the women; over 
which Cesar set one of his freedmen, as also 
Fronto, one of his own friends, which last was 
te determine every one’s fate, according to his 
merit. So this Fronto slew all those that had 
been seditious, and robbers, who were im- 
peached one by another; but of the young men 
he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and 
reserved them for the triumph; and as for the rest 
of the multitude that were about seventeen years 
old; he put them into bonds, and sent them to 
the Egyptian mines.* ‘Titus also sent a great 
number into the provinces, as a present to them, 
that they might be destroyed upon the theatres 
by the sword, and by the wild beasts; but those 
that were under seventeen years of age were 


* See the several predictions, that the Jews, if they be- 
eame obstinate in their idolatry and wickedness, should be 
sent again, or sold, into Egypt, for their punishment, Deut. 
xxviii. 68; Jer. xliv. 7; Hos. viii. 12; ix. 3; xi. 4,5; Esd. xv. 
10—13, with Authentic Records, part i. page 49, 121, and 
Relans’s Palestina, tom. ii. page 715. 


WARS OF THE JEWS. Bee 







t 
sold for slaves. Now during the days wherem 
Fronto was distinguishing these men, there per- 
ished, for want of food, eleven thousand; some 


| 


of whom did not taste any food, through the ha- _ 
tred their guards bore to them, and others would : | 
not take in any when it was given to them _ 
The multitude also was so very great, that they _ 
were in want even of corn for their sustenance — 
3. Now the number* of those that were car- — 
ried captive during this whole war was collect- 
ed to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the 
number of those who perished during the whole 
siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part 
of whom were indeed of the same nation, 
[with the citizens of Jerusalem,] but not be- 
longing to the city itself: for they were come 
up from all the country to the feast of unleav — 
ened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by 
an army, which at the very first occasioned so 
great a straightness among them, that there 
came a pestilential destruction upon them, and 
soon afterward such a famine as destroyed them 
more suddenly. And that this city could con- 
tain so many people in it, is manifest by that 
number of them which was taken under Ces- 
tius, who being desirous of informing Nero of 
the flower of the city, who otherwise was dis- 
posed to contemn that nation, entreated the 
high priests, if the thing were possible, to take 
the number of their whole multitude. So these 
high priests, upon the coming of that feast 
which is called the Passover, when they slay 
their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the 
eleventh, but so that a company not less than 
tent belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not law- 
ful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and 
many of us are twenty in a company, found — 
the number of sacrifices was two hundred fif- 
ty-six thousand and five hundred: which upon — 
the allowance of no more than ten that feast 
together, amounts to two millions seven hun- — 
dred thousand and two hundred persons that _ 
were pure and holy, for as to those who have the 
f 


leprosy, or the gonorrhea, or women that have 


* The whole multitude of Jews that were destroyed dur- — 
ing the entire seven years before this time, in all the coun- ~ 
tries of and bordering on Judea, is summed up by Archbi- ~ 
shop Usher, from Lypsius, out of Josephus, at the year of 
Christ 70, and amounts to 1,337,490. Nor could there have 
been that number of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed 
this siege, as will be presently set down by Josephus; but 
that both Jews and proselytes of justice were just then 
come up out of the other countries of Galilee, Samaria, Ju 
dea, Perea, and other remoter regions, to the Passover, lh 
vast numbers, and therein cooped up, as in a prison, by 
Roman army, as Josephus himself well observes in this 
the next section, and as is exactly related elsewhere. b. Ve 
eh. iii. sect. 1, and ch. xiii. sect. 7. “i 

+ This number ofa company for one paschal lamb, betweem _ 
ten and twenty, agrees exactly with the number thirteen, at 
our Savior’s last passover. As to the whole number of the _ 
Jews that used to come up to the Passover, and eat of it at — 
Jerusalem, see the note on b, ii. ch. xiv. sect.3. This num- 
ber ought to be here, indeed, just ten times the number of — 
the lambs, or just 2,565,000, by Josephus’s own reasoning; 
whereas it is in his present copies no less than 2,700, 
which last number is, however, nearest the other numberia 
the place now cited, which is 3,000,000. But whatis here 
chiefly remarkable is this, that no foreign nation ever camé 
thus to destroy the Jews at any of their solemn festivals, 
from the days of Moses till this time, but came now upom 
their apostacy from God, and from disobedience to him. Nog 
is it possible, in the nature of things, that in any other nation, 
such vast numbers should be gotten together, and perish il 
the siege of any one city whatsoever, as now happened ia 
Terusalem. ; 

















Ft 






q 


7 


{ 
t 


_kers of this sacrifice; nor indeed for any 


: BOOK VII.—CHAPTER 1. 
| dheir moz.thly courses, or such as are otherwise 


eg it is not lawfui for them to be parta- 


foreigners neither, who coine hither to worship. 
4, Now this vast multitude is indeed collect- 
ed out of remote places, but the entire nation 


“was now shut up by fate, as in a prison, and 
_ the Roman army encompassed the city when it 


was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly 
the multitude of those that therein perished, 
exceeded all the destructions that either men 
or God ever brought upon the world; for, to 
speak only of what was publicly known, the 
Romans slew some of them, some they carried 
captives, and others they made a search for 
under ground, and when they found where 
they were, they broke up the ground and slew 
allthey met with. ‘There were also found slain 
there above two thousand persons, partly by 
their own hands, and partly by one another, 
but chiefly destroyed by the famine; but then, 
the ill savor of the dead bodies was most of- 
fensive to those that lighted upon them, inso- 
much that sone were obliged to get away im- 


- mediately, while others were so greedy of gain, 


that they would go in among the dead bodies 
that lay on heaps, and tread upon them; for a 
great deal of treasure was found in these ca- 
verns, and the hope of gain made every way 
of getting it to be esteemed lawful. Many also 
of those that had been put in prison by the ty- 


fants were now brought out: for they did not 


, 


| 


| 
: 


leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very 
last: yet did God avenge himself upon them 
both, in a manner agreeable to justice. As for 
John, he wanted food together with his breth- 
ren, in these caverns, and begged that the Ro- 
mans would now give him their right hand for 
security, which he had often proudly rejected 
before: but for Simon, he struggled hard with 
the distress he was in, till he was forced to sur- 
render himself, as we shall relate hereafter: so 
he was reserved for the triumph, and to be then 
slain; as was John condemned to perpetual 
imprisonment. And now the Romans set fire 
to the extreme parts of the city, and burnt them 
down, and entirely demolished its walls. 


| CHAPTER X. 

That whereas the city of Jerusalem had been five 
times taken formerly, this was the second tume 
of its desolation. A brief account of its history. 


-§1. And thus was Jerusalem taken, in the 
second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the 
eighth day of the month Gorpieus, [Elul.] It 
bad been taken five times before,* though this 


_ * Besidee these five here enumerated, who had taken Je- 
mesiem of »1, Josephus, upon farther recollection, reckons 








687 


was the second time of its desolation; for Shi 

shak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antio 

chus, and after him Pompey, and after him So 

sias and Herod, took the city, but still preserv 

ed it; but before all these the king of Babylon 
conquered it, and made it desolate, one thou 

sand four hundred and sixty-eight years anc. 
six months after it was built. But he who first 
built it* was a potent man among the Canaan 

ites, and is in our tongue called [Melchisedek,] 
the Righteous King, for such he really was; 
on which account he was [there] the first priest 
of God, and first built a temple [there,] and 
called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly 
called Salem. However, David, the king of 
the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled 
his own people therein. It was demolished 
entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and 
seventy-seven years and six months after him, 
And from king David, who was the first of the 
Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction 
under Titus, were one thousand one hundred 
and seventy-nine years; but from its first build- 
ing, till this last destruction, were two thousand 
one hundred and seventy-seven years; yet hath 
not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor 
the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable 
earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid 
to it on a religious account, been sufficient to 
preserve it from being destroyed. And thus 
ended the siege of Jerusalem. 


a sixth, Antiq. b. xii. ch. i. sect. l, who should have been 
here inserted in the second place, I mean Ptolemy, the son 
of Lagus. 

* Why the great Bochart should say, De Pheenic, Colon. 
b. ii. ch. iv. that “there are in this clause of Josephus as 
many mistakes as words,’’ f do by no means understand. 
Josephus thought Melchisedek first built or rebuilt and 
adored this city, and that it was then called Salem, as 
Psal. Ixxvi. 2, that it afterward came to be called Jerusalem; 
and that Melchisedek, being a priest as well as a king, built 
to the true God therein a temple, or place for public divine 
worship and sacrifice; all which things may be very true for 
ought we know to the contrary. And for the word scgov or 
Temple, as if it must needs belong to the Great Temple built 
by Solomon long afterward, Josephus himself uses vx0¢, for 
the small tabernacle of Moses, Antiq. b. iii. ch. vi. sect. 4; 
see also Antiq. b. iii. ch. vi. sect. 1, as he here presently uses 
sspov fora large and splendid synagogue of the Jews at An- 
tioch only, b. vii. ch. iii. sect. 3. 


N. B. This is the proper place for such as have closely at- 
tended to these later Books of the War, to peruse, and that 
with equal attention, those distinct and plain predictions of 
Jesus of Nazareth, in the gospels thereto relating, as compar- 
ed with their exact completions in Josephus’s history; upon 
which completions, as Dr. Whitby well observes, Annotat. 
on Matth. xxiv.2, no small part of the evidence for the 
truth of the Christian religion does depend; and as I have, 
step by step, compared them together in my Literal Accom- 
plishment of Scripture Prophecies. The reader is to observe 
further, that the true reason why I have so seldom taken no- 
tice of those completions in the course of these notes, not 
withstanding their being so very remarkable, and ae the 
8o very obvious, is this, that I had entirely prevented mysel 
in that treatise beforehand; to which, therefore, I must here 
once for all, seriously refer every inquisitive reader. 





BOOK VII. 


CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT THREE YEARS—FROM THE TAKING OF JERUSALEM BY 
TITUS, TO THE SEDITION OF THE JEWS AT CYRENE. 





& CHAPTER I. 
Gow the entire 
excepting three towers: and how Titus com- 


mended his soldiers ina speech made to them, 


iy 
. 
e Ls 
Thy we 


city of Jerusalem was demolished, 





and distributed rewards to them, and then dts- 


missed many of them. 
§ 1. Now as soon as the army had no more _ 
people to slay or to plunder, because there re 


mained none to ve the vvyects of their fury, 
(for they would not have spared any, had there 
remained any other such work ta be done,) Ce- 
sar gave orders that they should now demolish 
the entire city and temple, but should leave as 
many of the towers standing as were of the 
greatest .minency, that is, Phasaelus and Hip- 
picus, and Mariamne, and so much of the wall 
as enclosed the city on the west side. This 
wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for 
such as were to lie in garrison, as were the 
towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to 
posterity what kind of city it was, and how 
well fortified, which the Roman valor had sub- 
dued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so 
thoroughly laid even with the ground by those 
that dug it up to the foundation, that there was 
lett nothing to make those that came thither 
believe it had ever been inhabited. This was 
the end which Jerusalem came to by the mad- 
ness of those that were for innovations; a city 
otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty 
fame among all mankind. 

2. But Ceesar resolved to leave there asa 
guard the tenth legion, with certain troops of 
horsemen, and companies of footmen. So, 
having entirely completed this war, he was de- 
sirous to commend his whole army on account 
of the great exploits they had performed, and 
to bestow proper rewards, on such as had sig- 
nalized themselves therein. He had, therefore, 
a great tribunal made for him in the midst of 
the place where he had formerly encamped, 
and stood upon it with his principal command- 
ers about him, and spoke so as to be heard by 
the whole army in the manner following: “That 
he returned them abundance of thanks for 
their good will which they had showed to him: 
he commended them for that ready obedience 
they had exhibited in this whole war, which 
obedience had appeared in the many and great 
dangers which they had courageously under 
gone; as also, for that courage they had shown, 
and had thereby augmented of themselves their 
country’s power, and had made it evident to all 
men, that neither the multitude of their enemies, 
nor the strength of their places, nor the largeness 
of their cities, nor the rash boldness and brutish 
rage of their antagonists, were sufficient at any 
time to get clear of the Roman valor, although 
some of them may have fortune, in many re- 
spects, on their side. He said further, that it was 
but reasonable for them to put an end to this war, 
now it had lasted so long, for they had noth- 
ing better to wish for when they entered into it; 
and that this happened more favorably for 
them, and more for their glory, that all the Ro- 
mans had willingly accepted of those for their 
governors, and the curators of their dominions, 
whom they had chosen for them, and had sent 
into their own country for that purpose, which 
still continued under the management of those 
whom they had pitched on, and were thankful 
to them for pitching upon them. That accord- 
ingly, although he did both admire and ten- 
aeriy regard them all, because he knew that 
every one of them had gone as cheerfully 
about their work as their abilities and opportu- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. a 









nities would give them leave; yet he said, that k 
would-immediately bestow rewards and dignt 
ties on those that had fought the most bravely 
and with greater force, end had signalized then 
conduct in the most glor.ous manner, and had 
made his army more famous by their noble ex- 
ploits; and that no one who had been willing 
to take more pains than another should miss of 
a just retribution for the same; for that he had 
been exceeding careful about this matter, and 
that the more, because he had much rather re- 
ward the virtues of his fellow-soldiers than pun 
ish such as had offended. f 

3. Hereupon Titus ordered those whose 
business it was to read the list of all that had 
performed great exploits in this wer, whom he 
called to him by their names, and commended 
them before the company, and rejoiced in them 
in the Same manner as a man would have re- 
joiced in his own exploits. He also put on 
their heads crowns of gold, and golden orna- 
ments about their necks, and gave them long 
spears of gold, and ensigns that were made of 
silver, and removed every one of them toa 
higher rank; and besides this, he plentifully 
distributed among them out of the spoils, and 
the other prey they had taker, silver, and gold, 
and garments. So when they had all thee 
honors bestowed on them, according to his 
own appointment made to every one, and he 
had wished all sorts of happiness to the whole 
army, he came down, among the great accla- 
mations which were made to him, and then 
betook himself to offer thank-offerings [to the 
gods,] and at once sacrificed a vast number of 
oxen, that stood ready at the altars, and distri- 
buted them among the army to feast on. And 
when he had stayed three days among the 
principal commanders, and so long feasted with 
them, he sent away the rest of his army to the 
several places where they would be every one 
best situated; but permitted the tenth legion to 
stay as a guard at Jerusalem, and did not sen 
them away beyond Euphrates, where they had 
been before. And as he remembered that the 
twelfth legion had given way to the Jews, un- 
der Cestius, their general, he expelled them out 
of all Syria, for they had lain formerly at Rapha- 
nea, and sent them away to a place called Mele- 
tite, near Euphrates, which is in the limits of 
Armenia and Cappadocia: he also thought fit 
that two of the legions should stay with him, 
till he should go to Egypt. He then went 
down with his army to that Ceesarea which lay 
by the seaside, and there laid up the rest of his 
spoils in great quantities, and gave order that 
the captives should be kept there; forthe win _ 
ter season hindered them from aailing into Italy — 


CHAPTER IL 


How Titus exhibited all sorts of shows at Casa 
rea Philippi. Concerning Simon the tyrant, 
how he was taken and reserved for the 


§ 1. Now at the same time that Titus Caesar 
lay at the siege of Jerusalem did Vespasian go 
on board a merchant ship, and sailed from Ak 
exandria to Rhodes; whence he sailed away it 


ships with three rows of oars and as he touc h 




















ed 
joyfully received by them all, and so passed 
over from Ionia into Greece; whence he set 
‘sail from Corcyra to the promontory of Iapyx, 
whence he took his journey by land. But as 
for Titus, he marched from that Czsarea 
which lay by the seaside, and came to that 
‘which is named Cesarea Philippi, and staid 
there a considerable time, and exhibited all 
sorts of shows there. And here a great num- 
‘ber of the captives were destroyed, some be- 
ing thrown to wild beasts, and others in multi- 
tudes forced to kill one another, as if they 
were theirenemies. And here it was that Ti- 
tus was informed of the seizure of Simon, the 
son of Gioras, which was made after the man- 
ner following: This Simon, during the siege of 
Jerusalem, was in the upper city, but when the 
Roman army was gotten within the walls, and 
were laying the city waste, he then took the 
most faithful of his friends with him, and 
among them some that were stonecutters, with 
those iron tools which belonged to their occu- 
pation, and as great a quantity of provisions as 
would suffice them for a long time, and let 
himself and all of them down into a certain 
subterraneous cavern that was not visible 
above ground. Now, so far as had been dig- 
ged of old, they went onward along it without 
disturbance; but where they met with solid 
earth, they dug a mine under ground, and this, 
in hopes that they should be able to proceed so 
far as to rise from under ground in a safe place, 
and by that means escape. But when they 
came to make the experiment, they were dis- 
appointed of their hope; for the miners could 
make but small progress, and that with difficul- 
ty also; insomuch that their provisions, though 
they distributed them by measure, began to fail 
them. And now Simon, thinking he might be 
able to astonish and elude the Romans, put on 
a white frock, and buttoned upon him a_pur- 
ple cloak, and appeared out of the ground in 
in the place where the temple had formerly 
been. At the first, indeed, those that saw him 
were greatly astonished, and they stood still 
where they were; but afterward they came 
nearer to him, and asked him who he was? 
Now Simon would not tell them, but bade 
them call for their captain; and when they 
ran to call him, Terentius Rufus,* who was 
left to command the army there, came to Si- 
mon, and learned of him the whole truth, and 
kept him in bonds, and Jet Cesar know that he 
was taken. Thus did God bring this man to 
be punished for what-bitter and savage tyranny 
he had exercised against his countrymen, by 
those who were his worst enemies; and this 
winile he was not subdued by violence, but vo- 
luntarily delivered himself up to them to be 
pun‘shed, aud that on the very same account 
that he had laid false accusations against many 
Jews, as if they were falling away to the RKo- 


'* This Terentius Rufus, as Reland in part observes here, 
S the same person whom the T'almudists call Turnus Rufus, 
of whom they relate, that he ploughed up Sion as a field, and 
made Jerusalem become us heaps, and the mountain of the 
‘souse as the high places of a forest; which was long before 
foretold by the prophet Micah, iii. 12, and quoted trom him 
a the prophecies of Jeremiah, xxvi. 18. 

a7 


BOOK VII—CHAPTER III. 
at several cities that lay in his road, he was mans, 


89 
and had barbarously slain them; for 
wicked actions do not escape the divine anger 
nor is justice too weak to punish offenders, bu 
In time overtakes those that transgress its laws, 
and inflicts its punishments upon the wicked in 
a manner so much more severe, as they ex 
pected to escape it on account of their not be 
ing punished immediately.* _ Simon was made 
sensible of this by falling under the indignation 
of the Romans. This rise of his out of the 
ground did also occasion the discovery of a 
great number of others of the seditious at 
that time, who had hidden themselves under 
ground. But for Simon, he was brought to 
Cesar in bonds, when he was come back :o 
that Caesarea which was on the seaside; who 
gave orders that he should be kept against that 
triumph which he was to celebrate at Rome 
upon this occasion. 


CHAPTER III. 


How Titus, upon the celebration of his brother’s 
and father’s birthdays, had many of the Jews 
slain. Concerning the danger the Jews were 
wnat Antioch, by means of the transgression 
and wmprety of one Antiochus, a Jew. 


§ 1. While Titus was at Cesarea, he solem- 
nized the birthday of his brother [Domitian] 
after a splendid manner, and inflicted a great 
deal of the punishments intended for the Jews 
in honor of him; for the number of those that 
were now slain in fighting with the beasts, and 
were burnt, and fought with one another, ex- 
ceeded two thousand five hundred. Yet did 
all this seem to the Romans, when they were 
thus destroyed ten thousand several ways, to be 
a punishment beneath their deserts. After this 
Ceesar came to Berytus,} which isa city of 
Phenicia, a Roman colony, and staid there a 
longer time, and exhibited a still more pompous 
solemnity about his father’s birthday, both in 
the magnificence of the shows, and in the oth- 
er vast expenses he was at, in his devices there- 
to belonging; so that a great multitude of the 
captives were here destroyed after the same 
manner as before. 

2. It happened also about this time tnat the 
Jews who remained at Antioch were under ac- 
cusations, and in danger of perishing, fron: the 
disturbances that were raised against them by 
the Antiochians, and this both on account of 
the slanders spread abroad at this time agaiust 
them, and on account of what pranks they had 
played not long before; which I am obliged to 
describe without fail, though briefly, that 1 may 
the better connect my narration of future ac- 
tions with those that went before. 

3. For, as the Jewish nation is widely dis- 
persed over all the habitable earth among ite 
inhabitants, so it is very much intermingled 
with Syria by reason of its neighborhood, and 
had the greatest multitudes in Antioch, by rea 
son of the largeness of the city, wherein the 
kings, after Antiochus, had afforded them a ha- 
bitation with the most undisturbed tranquillity; 


* See Eccles. viii. 11. 

+ This Berytus was certainly a Roman colony, and has 
coins extant that witness the same, as Hudson and Spanhe- 
im inform us; see the note ow Antiu. b. evi. ch. xi. sect. L, 


G80 


for though Antiochus who was called Epipha- 
nes, laid Jerusalem waste, and spoiled the tem- 

le, yet did those that succeeded him in the 
iceHid restore all the donations that were 
made of brass to the Jews of Antioch, and 
dedicated them to their synagogue, and granted 
them the enjoyment of equal privileges of citi- 
zens with the Greeks themselves; and as the 
succeeding kings treated them after the same 
manner, they both multiplied to a great num- 
ber, and adorned their temple* gloriously by 
fire ornaments, and with great magnificence, 
in the use of what had been giventhem. They 
also made proselytes of a great many of the 
Greeks perpetually, and thereby, after a sort, 
bruught them to be a portion of their own body. 
Bat, about this time, when the present war be- 
gan, and Vespasian was newly sailed to Syria, 
and all men had taken up a great hatred against 
the Jews, then it was that a certain person, 
whose name was Antiochus, being one of the 
Jewish nation, and greatly respected on account 
of his father, who was governor of the Jews 
at Antioch,} came upon the theatre at a time 
when the people of Antioch were assembled 
together, and became an informer against his 
father, and accused both him and others that 
they had resolved to burn the whole city in 
one night: he also delivered up to them some 
Jews that were foreigners, as partners in their 
resolutions. When the people heard this, they 
could not refrain their passions, but command- 
ed that those who were delivered up to them 
should have fire brought to burn them; who 
were accordingly all burnt upon the theatre 
immediately. They did also fall violently upon 
the multitude of the Jews, as supposing, that 
by punishing them suddenly, they should save 
their own city. As for Antiochus, he aggra- 
vated the rage they were in, and thought to 
give them a demonstration of his own conver- 
zion, and of his hatred of the Jewish customs, 
by sacrificing after the manner of the Greeks: 
he persuaded the rest also to compel them to 
do the same, because they would by that means 
discover who they were that had plotted against 
them, since they would not do so; and when 
the people of Antioch tried the experiment, 
some few complied, but those that would not 
do so were slain. As for Antiochus himself, 
he obtained soldiers from the Roman com- 
mander, and became a severe master over his 
own Citizens, not permitting them to rest on 
the seventh day, but forcing them to do all that 
they usually did on other days; and to that de- 
gree of distress did he reduce them in this mat- 
ter, that the rest of the seventh day was dis- 
solved not only at Antioch, but the same thing 
which took thence its rise, was done in other 
cities also, in like manner, for some small time. 

4. Now after these misfortunes had happen- 
-@d to the Jews at Antioch, a second calamity 
befell them, the description of which when 


ns itm is their synagogue; see the note on b. vi. ch. x. 
sect. 1. 

{ The Jews at Antioch and Alexandria, the two principal 
ities in all the east had allowed them, both by the Macedo- 
afans, and afterward by the Romans, a govermor of their 
oven who Was exempt from tie junsdiction of the other civil 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


we were going about, we premised in a 
count, foregoing: for upon this accident, wh 
by the four-square market-place was burt 
down, as well as the archives, and the p 
where the public records were preserved, 
the royal palaces, (and it was not without diffi: 
culty that the fire was then put a stop to, which 
was likely, by the fury wherewith it was car~ 
ried along, to have gone over the whole city, 
Antiochus accused the Jews as the occasion oJ 
all the mischief that was done. Now this in 

duced the people of Antioch, who were now 
under the immediate persuasion, by reason of 
the disorder they were in, that this calumny was 
true, and would have been under the same 
persuasion, even though they had not borne an 
ill will at the Jews before, to believe this man’s 
accusation, especially when they considered 
what had been done before, and this to such & 
degree, that they all fell violently upon those 
that were accused, and this, like madmen, in @ 
very furious rage also, even as if they had seen 
the Jews in a manner setting fire themselves to 
the city: nor was it without difficulty that one 
Cneus Collegas, the legate, could prevail witb 
them to permit the affairs to be laid before Ca- 
sar; for as to Cecennius Petus, the president of 
Syria, Vespasian had already sent him away; 
and so it happened, that he was not yet come 
back thither. But when Collegas had made a 
careful inquiry into the matter, he found out the 
truth, and that not one of those Jews that 
were accused by Antiochus had any hand in it, 
but that all was done by some vile persona 
greatly in debt, who supposed that if they could 
once set fire to the market-place, and burn the 
public records, they should have no farther de- 
mands made upon them. So the Jews were 
under great disorder and terror, in the uncer 
tain expectation of what would be the upshot 


of those accusations against them. HY 


CHAPTER IV. 


How Vespasvan was received at Rome, as also 
how the Germans revolted from the Romans, 
but were subdued. That the Sarmatians over 
ran Mysia, but were compelled to return to 
their own country again. 1 


§ 1. And now Titus Czsar, upon the news 
that was brought him concerning his father, that 
his coming was much desired by all the Italian 
cities, and that Rome especially received him 
with great alacrity and splendor, betook him 
self to rejoicing and pleasures to a great eon 






as now freed from the solicitude he had 
under, after the most agreeable manner. For 
all men that were in Italy showed their respects 
to him in their minds before he came ng the 








as if he were already come, as esteeming 

very expectation they had of him to be | 
real presence, on account of the great desires 
they had to see him, and because the good will 
they bore him was entirely free and uncon 


governors. He was called sometimes barely governor, soi 
times ethnarch, and [at Alexandria} alabarch, as Dr. fu 
takes notice on this place out of Fuller’s Miscellanies. 

had the like governor or governors allowed them at B 
under their captivity there, as the history ef Susanna 


[hy 


= 


‘ BOOK VII.—CHAPTER IV. 


strained; for it was a desirable thing to the se- 
pate, who well remembered the calamities they 
had undergone in the late changes of their go- 
‘yernors, to receive a governor who was adorp- 
ed with the gravity of old age, and with the 
highest skill in the actions of war, whose ad- 
‘vancement would be, as they knew, for nothing 
else but for the preservation of those that were 
‘to be governed. Moreover, the people had 
been so harassed by their civil miseries, that 
they were still more earnest for his coming im- 
mediately, as supposing they should then be 
firmly delivered from their calamities, and be- 
lieving they should then recover their secure 
tranquillity and prosperity; and for the soldiery, 
they had the principal regard to him, for they 
‘were chiefly apprized of his great exploits in 
‘war; and since they had experienced the want 
of skill and want of courage in other com- 
manders, they were yery desirous to be freed 
from that great shame they had undergone by 
‘their means, and heartily to receive such a 
‘prince as might be a security and an ornament 
tothem. And as this good will to Vespasian 
‘was universal, those that enjoyed any remark- 
able dignities could not have patience enough 
to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him 
atavery great distance from it: nay, indeed, 
none of the rest could endure the delay of see- 
ing him, but did all pour out of the city in 
such crowds, and were so universally possess- 
ed with the opinion that it was easier and bet- 
ter for them to go out than to stay there, that 
this was the very first time that the city joyful- 
y perceived itself almost empty of its citizens; 

or those that staid within were fewer than 
those that went out. But as soon as the news 
was come that he was hard by, and those that 
had met him at first related with what good hu- 
mor he received every one that came to him, 
then it was that the whole multitude that had 
remained in the city, with their wives and chil- 
dren, came into the road and waited for him 
there; and for those whom he passed by, they 
made all sorts of acclamations on account of 
the joy they had to see him, and the pleasant- 
ness of his countenance, and styled him their 
denefactor and savior, and the. only person who 
was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome. 
_ And now thecity was like a temple, full of gar- 
-dands and sweet odors; nor was it easy for him 
_to come to the royal palace, for the multitude 
of the people that stood about him, where yet 
at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiv- 
ing to his household gods, for his safe return 
to the city. The multitude did also betake 
themselves to feasting; which feasts and drink- 
_ offerings they celebrated by their tribes, and 
their families, and then their neighborhoods, and 
still prayed God to grant that Vespasian, his 
. sons, and all their posterity, might continue in 
the Roman government for a very long time, 
‘and that his dominion might be preserved from 
all opposition, And this was the manner in 
‘which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian, 
‘and thence grew immediately into a state of 


great prosperity. 







4) 
S 


_ 2 But before this time. and while Vespasian ! 


GS 


was about Alexandria, and Titus was lying at 
the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of the 
Germans were in commotion, and tended tore 
bellion; and as the Gaulsin theirneighborhood 
Joined with them, they conspired together, and 
had thereby great hopes of success, and tha 
they should free themselves from the domin- 
ion of the Romans. The motives that induced 
the Germans to this attempt for a revolt, and 
for beginning the war, were these: In the first 
place, the nature [of the people,] which was 
destitute of just reasonings, and ready to throw 
themselves rashly into danger, upon small hopes 
in the next place, the hatred they bore to those 
that were their governors, while their nation 
had never been conscious of subjection to any 
but to the Romans, and that by compulsion 
only. Besides these motives, it was the oppor- 
tunity that now offered itself, which above all 
the rest prevailed with them so to do; for when 
they saw the Roman government in a great 
internal disorder, by the continual changes of 
its rulers, and understood that every part of the 
habitable earth under them was in an _ unset- 
tled and tottering condition, they thought this 
was the best opportunity that could afford it- 
self for themselves to make a sedition, when 
the state of the Romans was so ill. Classicus* 
and also Vitellius,t two of their commanders, 
puffed them up with such hopes. These had 
for a Jong time been openly desirous of such 
an innovation, and were induced by the pre- 
sent opportunity to venture upon the declara- 
tion of their sentiments: the multitude was 
also ready, and when these men told them of 
what they intended to attempt, that news was 
gladly received by them. So when a great 
part of the Germans had agreed to rebel, and 
the rest were no better disposed, Vespasian, as 
guided by divine Providence, sent letters to Pe- 
tilius Cerealis, who had formerly had the com- 
mand of Germany, whereby he declared him 
to have the dignity of consul, and commanded 
him to take upon him the government of Bri- 
tain; so he went whither he was ordered to go, 
and when he was informed of the revolt of the 
Germans, he fell upon them as soon as they 
were gotten together, and put his army in bat- 
tle-array, and slew a great multitude of them 
in the fight, and forced them to leave off their 
madness, and to grow wiser; nay, had he not 
fallen thus suddenly upon them on the place, 
it had not been long ere they would however 
have been brought to punishment; for as soon 


* This Classicus, and Civilis, and Cerealis, are namea well 
known in Tacitus; the two former as moving sedition agacmt 
the Romans, and the last as sent to repress them by Ves- 
pasian, Just as they are here described in Josephus, which 
is the case also of Fonteius Agrippa, and Rubrius Gallus, im 
sect. 3. But as tothe very favorable account presently giver 
of Domitian, particularly as to his designs in this his Gallic and 
German expedition, itis not a little contrary to that in Sue- 
touius, Vesp. sect. 7. Nor are the reasons unobvious thas 
might occasion this great diversity; Domitian was one of 
Josephus’s patrons, and when he published these books of 
the Jewish war, was very young, and had hardly begum 
those wicked practices which rendered him so infamous af 
terward; while Suetonius seems to have been too young, 
and too low in life, to receive any remarkable favors from 
him; as Domitian was certainly very lewd and cruel, and 
generally hated, when Suetonius wrote about him. 

¢ Civilis Tacit. 


G82 


as ever the news of their revolt was come to 
Rome, and Ceesar Domitian was made acquaint- 
ed with it, he made no delay even at that his 
age, when he was exceeding young, but un- 
dertook this weighty affair. He had a coura- 
geous mind from his father, and had made 
greater improvements than belonged to such 
an age; accordingly, he marched against the 
barbarians immediately; whereupon their hearts 
failed them at the very rumor of his approach, 
and they submitted themselves to him with 
fear, and thought it a happy thing that they 
were brought under their old yoke again with- 
out suffering any further mischiefs. When 
therefore Domitian had settled all the affairs of 
Gaul in such good order, that it would not be 
easily put into disorder any more, he returned 
to Rome with honor and glory, as having per- 
formed such exploits as were above his own 
age, but worthy of so great a father. 

3. At the very same time with the foremen- 
tioned revolt of the Germans, did the bold at- 
tempt of the Scythians against the Romans oc- 
cur; for those Scythians, who are called Sar- 
matians, being a very numerous people, trans- 
ported themselves over the Danube into My- 
sia, without being perceived: after which, by 
their violence and entirely unexpected assault, 
they slew a great many of the Romans that 
guarded the frontiers; and as the consular le- 

te Fonteius Agrippa came to meet them, and 
ought courageously against them, he was slain 
by them. They then overran all the region 
that had been subject to him, tearing and rend- 
ing every thing that fell in their way. But 
when Vespasian was informed of what had 
happened, and how Mysia. was laid waste, he 
gent away Rubrius Gallus to punish these Sar- 
matians; by whose means many of them pe- 
rished in the battles he fought against them, 
and that part which escaped, fled with fear to 
their own country. So when this general had 
put an end to the war, he provided for the fu- 
ture security of the country also; for he placed 
more and more numerous garrisons in the place, 
till he made it altogether, impossible for the 
barbarians to pass over the river any more. 
And thus had this war in Mysia a sudden con- 
clusion. 


CHAPTER V. 


Concerning the Sabbatic River, which Titus saw 
as he was journeying through Syria; and how 
the people of Antioch came with a petition to 
Titus against the Jews, but were rejected by 
him; as also concerning Titus and Vespasian’s 

- Triumph. 

§ 1. Now Titus Cesar tarried some time at 
Berytus as we told you before. He thence re- 
moved, and exhibited magnificent shows in al! 

_those cities of Syria through which he went, 
and made use of the captive Jews as public in- 
stances of the destruction of that nation. He 

then saw ariver as he went along, of such a 

nature as deserves to be recorded in history: it 

runs in the middle between Arcea, belonging 
to Agrippa’s kingdom and Raphanea. It hath 
somewhat very peculiar in it; for when it runs, 


WARS OF HE JEWS. Ba 







at 
its current is strong and has pleucy of wats 
after which its springs fail for six days toge he 
er, and leave its channel dry, as any one may 
see; after which days it runs on the seventh 
day as it did before, and as though it had un- 
dergone no change at all; it hath also : een ob- 
served to keep this order perpetually and ex- 
actly; whence it is that they cal. it the Sabba- 
tic River,* that name being taken from the sa- 
cred seventh day among the Jews. 

2. But when the people of Antioch were in 
formed that Titus was approaching, they were 
so glad at it, that they could not keep within 
their walls, but hasted away to give him the 
meeting; nay, they proceeded as far as thirty 
furlongs, and more, with that intention. These 
were not the men only, but a multitude of wo- 
men also with their children, did the same; 
and when they saw him coming up to them, 
they stood on both sides of the way, and 
stretched out their right hands, saluting him, 
making all sorts of acclamations to him, and 
turned back together with him. They also, 
among all the acclamations they made to him, 
besought him all the way they went, to eject 
the Jews out of their city; yet did not Titus at 
all yield to this their petition, but gave the bare 
hearing of it quietly. However, the Jews were 
in a great deal of terrible fear under the un- 
certainty they were in what his opinion was, 
and what he would dotothem. For Titus 
did not stay at Antioch, but continued his pro- 
gress immediately to Zeugma, which lies upon 
the Euphrates, whither came to him messen- 
gers from Vologesus, king of Parthia, ant 
brought him a crown of gold upon the victory 
he gained over the Jews; which he accepted of, 
and feasted the king’s messengers, and then 
came back to Antioch. And when the senate 
and people of Antioch earnestly entreated him 
to come upon their theatre, where the whole 
multitude were assembled, and expected him, 
he complied with great humanity; but when 
they pressed him with much earnestness, and 
continually begged of him that he would eject 
the Jews out of their city, he gave them this 
very pertinent answer, “How can this be done, 
since that country of theirs, whither the Jews 
must be obliged then to retire, is destroyed, and 
no place will receive them besides.” Where- 
upon the people of Antioch, when they had 
failed of success in this their first request, madé 
him a second; for they desired that he would 
order those tables of brass to be removed, ou 
which the Jews’ privileges were engraver. 
However, Titus would not grant that neither, 
but permitted the Jews of Antioch to continué 
to enjoy the very same privileges in that city 
which they had before, and then departed 1, 


* Since in these latter ages, this Sabbatic river, one #0 fa 
mous, which, by Josephus’s account here, ran eve penn 
day, and rested on siz, but according to Pliny, Nat. Hist 
xxxi. 11, ran perpetually on six days, and rested e€ 
venth, (though it noway appears by either of their ac 
that the seventh day of this river was the Jewish seve 
or Sabbath,) is quite vanished, I shall add no more @ 
only see Dr. Hudson’s note. In Varenius’s Ge 
17, the reader will find several instances of such pe 
fountains and rivers, though none of their periods were U 
of just a week, as of old this appears tobave beem 














fy 


progress, and compared the melancholy condi- 
_fion he saw it then in, with the ancient glory of 
the city, and called to mind the greatness of 
‘jits present ruins, as well as its ancient splen- 
dor, he could not but pity the destruction of 
the city, so far was he from boasting that so 
age and goodly acity as that was, had been 
y him taken by force: nay, he frequently curs- 
ed those that had been the authors of their re- 
- volt, and had brought such a punishment upon 
the city; insomuch, that it openly appeared, 
shat he did not desire that such a calamity as 
this punishment of theirs amounted to, should 
be a demonstration of his courage. . Yet was 
there no small quantity of the riches that had 
been in that city, still found among its ruins, a 
preat deal of which the Romans dug up; but 
the greatest part was discovered by those who 
were captives, and so they carried it away; I 
“mean the gold and silver, and the rest of that 
“most precious furniture which the Jews had, 
and which the owners had treasured up under 
ground against the uncertain fortunes of war. 
___ 3. So Titus took the journey he intended into 
_ Egypt, and passed over the desert very sudden- 
_ly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a reso- 
lution to go to Rome by sea. And as he was 
“accompanied by two legions, he sent each of 
them again to the places whence they had be- 
fore come, the fifth he sent to Mysia, and the 
fifteenth to Panonia: as for the leaders of the 
captives, Simon and John, with the other seven 
hundred men, whom he had selected out of 
the rest as being eminently tall and handsome 
‘of body, he gave order that they should be soon 
carried to Italy, as resolving to produce them 
‘m™ his triumph. So when he had had a pros- 
perous voyage to his mind, the city of Rome 
behaved itself in his reception, and their meet- 
ing him at a distance, as it did in the case of 
his father. But what made the most splendid 
appearance, in Titus’s opinion, was, when his 
fajher met him, and received him, but still the 
-mialtitude of the citizens conceived the great- 
est joy when they saw them all three together,” 
as they did at this time: nor were many days 
Overpast, when they determined to have but 
one triumph that should be common to both of 
them, on account of the glorious exploits they 
had performed, although the senate had de- 
' creed each of them a separate triumph by him- 
‘self. So when notice had been given before- 
| hand of the day appointed for this pompous 
solemnity tobe made on account of their vic- 
‘tories, not one of the immense multitude was 
left in the city, but every body went out so far 
as to gain only a station where they might 
' stand, and left only such a passage as was ne- 
-eessary for those that were to be seen to go 
along it. 
» 4, Now all the soldiery marched out before- 
' hand by companies, and in their several ranks, 
- under their several commanders, in the night- 
time, and were about the gates, not of the up- 
a palaces, but those near the temple of Isis; 
| there it was that the emperors had rested 
ae * Vespasiin and his two sons, Titus and Domitian. 









‘ae BOOK VIL—CHAPTER V. 


Ny ts . . ‘eo ° 
_Egyps aod as he came to Jerusalem in his; the foregoing mght. And as soon. a8 ever it 


693 


was day, Vespasian and 'Titus came oat crown- 
ed with laurel, and clothed in those ancient 
purple habits which were proper to their fami- 
ly, and then went as far as Octavian’s walks 
for there it was that the senate, and the princi 
pal rulers, and those that had been recorded as 
of the equestrian order, waited forthem. Now 
a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, 
and ivory chairs had been set upon it, wher 
they came and sat down upon them. Where- 
upon the soldiery made an acclamation of joy 
to them immediately, and all gave them attes- 
tations of their valor; while they were them- 
selves without their arms, and only in their 
silken garments, and crowned with laurel; then 
Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs; 
but while they were still disposed to go on in 
such acclamations, he gave them a signal of 
silence. And when every body entirely held 
their peace, he stood up, and covering the great- 
est part of his head, with his cloak, he put up 
the accustomed solemn prayers; the like pray- 
ers did Titus put up also; after which prayers 
Vespasian made a short speech to all the people, 
and then sent away the soldiers toa dinner 
prepared for them by the emperors. ‘Then did 
he retire to that gate which was called the gate 
of the pomp, because pompous shows do al- 
ways go through that gate; there it was that 
they tasted some food, and when they had put 
on their triumphal garments, and had offered 
sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the 
gate, they sent the triumph forward, and march- 
ed through the theatres, that they might be the 
more easily seen by the multitude. 

5. Now it is impossible to describe the mul- 
titude of the shows as they deserve, and the 
magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man 
could not easily think of, as performed, either 
by the labor of workmen, or the variety of 
riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all 
such curiosities as the most happy men even 
get by piecemeal, were here heaped one upon 
another, and those both admirable and costly in 
their nature: and all brought together on that 
day, demonstrated the vastness of the domi- 
nions of the Romans: for there was here to be 
seen a mighty quantity of silver, and gold, and 
ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and did 
not appear as carried along in pompous show 
only, but as a man may say, running along like 
a river. Some parts were composed of the 
rarest purple hangings, and so carried alongs 
and others accurately represented to the life 
what was embroidered by the arts of the Ba- 
bylonians. There were also precious stone 
that were transparent, some set in crowns 0 
gold, and some in other ouches, as the work 
men pleased: and of these such a vast number 
were brought, that we could not but thence 
learn how vainly we imagined any of them to 
be rarities. 'The images of the gods were also 
carried, being as well wonderful for their large- 
ness, as made very artificially, and with great 
skill of the workmen. nor werggey of these 
images of any other than very costly materials, 
and many species of animals were brought, 


694 


every one in their cwn natural ornaments. 
The men also who brought every one of these 
shows were great multitudes, and adorned with 
purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; 
those that we:e chosen for carrying these pom- 
pous shows, having also about them such mag- 
nificent ornaments as were both extraordinary 
and surprising. Besides these, one might see 
that even the great number of the captives was 
not unadorned, while the variety that was in 
their garments, and their fine texture, conceal- 
ed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. 
But what afforded the greatest surprise of all, 
was the structure of the pageants, thet were 
borne along; for indeed he that met them could 
not but be afraid that the bearers would not be 
able firmly enough to support them, such was 
their magnitude: for many of them were so 
made, that they were on three or even four 
stories, one above another. The magnificence 
also of their structure afforded one both pleasure 
and surprise; for upon many of them were laid 
carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold 
and ivory fastened about them all; and many 
resemblances of the war, and those in several 
ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a 
most lively portraiture of itself. For there was 
to be seen a happy country laid waste, and en- 
tire squadrons of enemies slain; while some 
of them ran away, and some were carried into 
captivity, with walls of great altitude and mag- 
nitude overthrown, and ruined by machines, 
with the strongest fortifications taken, and the 
walls of most populous cities upon the tops of 
hills seized on, and an army pouring itself with- 
in the walls; as also every place full of slaugh- 
ter, and supplications of the enemies, when 
they were no longer able to lift up their hands 
in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon 
temples was here represented, and houses over- 
thrown, and falling upon their owners: rivers 
also, after they came out of a large and melan- 
choly desert, ran down, not into a land cultivat- 
ed, nor as drink for men, or for cattle, but 
through a land still on fire upon every side; for 
the Jews related that such a thing they had un- 
dergone during this war. Now the workman- 
ship of these representations was so magnificent 
and lively in the construction of the things, that 
it exhibited what had been done to such as did 
not see it, as if they had been there really pre- 
sent. On the top of every one of these pa- 
geants was placed the commander of the city 
that was taken, and the manner wherein he 
was taken. Moreover, there followed those 
pageants a great number of ships; and for the 
other spoils, they were carried in great plenty. 
But for those that were taken in the temple of 
Jerusalem,* they made the greatest figure of 
them all; that is the golden table of the weight 
of many talents: the candlestick also, that was 
* made of gold, though its construction was now 


* See the representations of these Jewish vessels, as they 
still stand on Titus’s triumphal arch at Rome, in Reland’s 
wery curious book, de Spoliis Templi, throughout. But what 
things are chiefly to be noted are these:—(1.) That Josephus 
gays the candlestick here carried in this triumph was not tho- 
roughly like that which was used in the temple, which ap- 
pears in the number of the little knobs and flowers in that 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


changed from that which we made use of; for 
its middle shaft was fixed upoi\ a basis, and the 
small branches were produced out of it toa 
great length, having the likeness of a trident in 
their position, and had every one a socket made 
of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These 
lamps were in number seven, and represented 
the dignity of the number Seven among the 
Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was car 
ried the law of the Jews. After these spoile 
passed by a great many men, carrying the ima- 
ges of victory, whose structure was entirely 
either of ivory or of gold. After which Ves- 
pasian marched in the first place, and 'Titus fol- 
lowed him; Domitian also rode along with 
them, and made a glorious appearance, and 
rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration, 
6. Now the last part of this pompous show 
was at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, whi- 
ther when they were come, they stood still; for 
it was the Roman’s ancient custom to stay till 
somehody brought the news, that the general 
of the enemy was slain. ‘This general was Si- 
mon, the son of Gioras, who had then been led 
in this triumph among the captives; a rope had 
also been put upon his head, and he had been 
drawn into & proper place in the forum, and 
had withall been tormented by those that drew 
him along; and the law of the Romans re- 
quired, that malefactors, condemned to die, 
should be slain there. Accordingly, when it 
was related that there was an end of him, and 
all the people had set upa shout for joy, they 
then began to offer those sacrifices which the 
had consecrated, in the prayers used in suc 
solemnities; which when they had finished, 
they went away to the palace. And as for 
some of the spectators, the encperors enter- 
tuined them at their own feast; and for all the 
rest there were noble preparations made for 
their feasting at home; for this was a festival 
day to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the 
victory obtained by their army over their ene- 
mies, for the end that was now put to their 
civil miseries, and for the commencement of 
their hopes of future prosperity and happiness, 
7. After these triumphs were over, and after 
the affairs of the Romans were settled on the 
surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build 
a temple to Peace, which he finished in 80 
short a time, and in so glorious a manner, 48 
was beyond all human expectation and opinion: 
for he having now by Providence a vast quan- 
tity of wealth, besides what he had formerly 
gained in his other exploits, he had this temple, 
adorned with pictures and statues; for in this 
temple was collected and deposited all such. 
rarities as men aforetime used to wander all 
over the habitable world to see, when they 
had a desire to see one of them after another: 
he also laid up therein those golden vessels and | 


instruments that were taken out of the Jewisb. 
A 


3 
on the triumphal arch not well agreeing with Moses’s de 
scription, Exod. xxv. 31—36. (2.) The smallness of ¢ 
branches in Joeephus, compared with the thickness of th : 
on thatarch. (3.) That the Law or Pentateuch does 
appear on tha arch at all, though Josephus, an eyewitness, 
assures us it was carried in this procession. All whic 
things deserve the consideration of the inquisitive reader. 







BOOK VII—CHAPTER VI. 


temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he 


“gave order that they should lay up their law, 
and the purpie veils of the holy place, in the 
royal palace itself, and keep them there 


CHAPTER VI. 


Concerning Macherus, and how Lucilius Bassus 
took the citadel, and other places. 


§ 1. Now Lucilius Bassus was sent as le- 
gate into Judea, and there he received the ar- 
my from. Cerealis Vitellianus, and.took that ci- 
tadel which was in Herodium, together with 
the garrison that was in it: after which he got 
together all the soldiery that was there, (which 
was a large body, but dispersed into several 
parties,) with the tenth legion, and resolved to 
make war upon Macherus: for it was highly 
necessary that this citadel should be demolish- 
ed, lest it might be a means of drawing away 
many into a rebellion, by reason of its strength: 
for the nature of the place was very capable of 
affording the surest hopes of safety to those 
that possessed it, as well as delay and fear to 
those that should attack it; for what was walled 
in was itself a very rocky hill, elevated to a 
very great height, which circumstance alone 
made it very hard to be subdued. It was also 
s0 contrived by nature, that it could not be easi- 
1y ascended; for it is, as it were, ditched about 
with such valleys on all sides; and tosucha 
depth, that the eye cannot reach their bottoms, 


_and such as are not easily to be passed over, 
and even such as it is impossible to fill up with 


earth. For that valley which cuts it on the 
west, extends to threescore furlongs, and did 
not end till it came to the lake Asphaltitis; on 
the same side it was also that Macherus had 
the tallest top of its hill elevated above the rest. 
But then for the valleys that lay on the north 
and south sides, although they be not so large 
as that already described, yet is it in like man- 
ner an impracticable thing to think of getting 
over them: and for the valley that lies on the 
east side, its depth is found to be no less than 
a hundred cubits. It extends as far as a moun- 
tain that lies over against Macherus, with 
which it is bounded. 

2. Now when Alexander [Janneus, ] the king 


of the Jews, observed the nature of this place, 
he was the first who built a citadel here, which 
afterward was demolished by Gabinius, when 


he made war against Aristobulus. 


But when 


Herod came to be king, he thought the place 


: 
! 
| 


to be worthy of the utmost regard, and of be- 
ing built upon the firmest manner, and this es- 

ecially because it lay so near to Arabia: for it 
4 seated in a convenient place on that account, 
ama nad a prospect towards that country; he 


therefore surrounded a large space of ground 
' with walls and towers, and built a city there, 





out of which city there wasa way that led up 


' to the very citadel itself on the top of the moun- 


tain: nay, more than this, he built a wall round 


. that top of the hill, and erected towers at the 
corners, of a hundred and sixty cubits high; in 
the middle of which place he built a palace, af- 
» ter a magnificent manner, wherein were large 


and beautiful edifices. He also made a great 


695 


many reservoirs for the reception of water, 
that there might be plenty of it ready for all 
uses, and those in the properest places that 
were afforded him there. Thus did he, as it 
were, contend with the nature of the place, 
that he might exceed its natural strength and 
security, which yet itself rendered it hard to be 
taken, by those fortifications which were made 
by the hands of men. Moreover, he put a 
large quantity of darts and other machines of 
war into it, and contrived to get every thing 
thither that might any way contribute to its in- 
habitants’ security, under the longest siege poa- 
sible. 

3. Now within this place there grew asort of 
rue,* that deserves our wonder on account of 
its largeness, for it was noway inferior to any 
fig-tree whatsoever, either in height or in thick 
ness: and the report is, that it had lasted ever 
since the times of Herod, and would probably 
have lasted much longer had it not been cut 
down by those Jews who took possession of 
the place afterward. But still in that valley 
which encompasses the city on the nortn side, 
there is a certain place called Baaras, which 
produces a roott of the same name with itself; 
its color is like that of fiame, and towards the 
evening it sends out a certain ray like lightning; 
it is not easily taken by such as would do it, 
but recedes from their hands, nor will yield it- 
self to be taken quiet!y, until either the urine 
of a woman, or the menstrual blood be pour- 
ed upon it; nay, even then it is certain death te 
those that touch it, unless any one take and 
hang the root itself down from his hands, and 
so carry itaway. It may also be taken anoth- 
er way, without danger, which is this: they dig 
atrench quite round about it, till the bidden 
part of the root be very small; they then tie.a 
dog to it, and when the dog tries hard to fcl 
low him that tied him, this root is easily pluck 
ed up; but the dog dies immediately, as if it 
were instead of the man that would take the 
plant away; nor after this need any one be afraid 
of taking it into their hands. Yet after all this 
pains in getting, it is only valuable on account 
of one virtue it hath, that if it be only brought 
to sick persons, it quickly drives away those 
called demons, which are no other than the 
spirits of the wicked, that enter into men that 
are alive, and kill them, unless they can obtain 
some help against them. Here are also foun- 
tains of hot water, that flow out of this place, 
which have a very different taste from the oth- 
er: for some of them are bitter, and others of 
them are plainly sweet. Here are also many 
eruptions of cold waters, and this not only in 
the places that lie lower, and have their foun- : 


* Spanheim observes here, that in Grecia Major and Sici- 
ly they had rue prodigiously great and durable, like this rue 
at Macherus. 

¢ This strange account of the place and root Baaras seems 
to have been taken from the magicians, and the root te 
have been made use of in the days of Josephus in that 
superstitious way of casting out demens supposed by him 
to have been derived from king Solomon, of which we have 
already seen he had a great opinion; Antig. b. viii. ch. fi. 
sect. 5. We also hence may learn the true notion Josephus 
had of demons and demoniacs, exactly like that of the Jews 
and Christians in the New Testament, and of the first fowr 
centuries; see Antiq. b. vi. ch. Viii. sect. 2; b. xi. ch. ii. sect. B 


696 


tains near one another, but what is still more 
wonderful, here is to be seen a certain cave 
hard by, whose cavity is not deep, but it is cov- 
ered over by a rock that is prominent: above 
this rock there stands up two [hills or] breasts, 
as it were, but a little distant one from another; 
the one of which sends out a fountain that is 
very cold, and the other sends out one that is 
very hot; whicn waters, when they are ming- 
fed together, compose a most pleasant bath: 
they are medicinal, indeed, for other maladies, 
but especially good for strengthening the nerves. 
This place has in it also mines of sulphur and 
aluin. 

4. Now when Bassus had taken a full view of 
this place, he resolved to besiege it, by filling 
up the valley that lay on the east side; so he 
fell hard to work, and took great pains to raise 
his banks as soon as possible, and by that means 
to render the siege easy. As for the Jews that 
were caught in this place, they separated 
themselves from the strangers that were with 
them, and they forced those strangers, as an 
otherwise useless multitude, to stay in the 
lower part of the city, and undergo the princi- 
pal dangers, while they themselves seized on 
the upper citadel, and held it, and this both on 
account of its strength, and to provide for their 
own safety. They also supposed they might 
obtain their pardon, in case they should [at last] 
surrender the citadel. However, they were 
willing to make trial in the first place, whether 
the hopes they had of avoiding a siege would 
come to any thing, with which intention they 
made sallies every day, and fought with those 
that met them, in which conflicts there were 
many of them slain, as they therein slew many 
of the Romans. But still it-was the opportu- 
nities that presented themselves, which chiefly 
gained both sides their victories; these were 
gained by the Jews, when they fell upon the 
Romans as they were off their guard; but by 
the Romans, when upon the others’ sallies 
against their banks they foresaw their coming 
and were upon their guard when they received 
them. But the conclusion of this siege did 
not depend upon these bickerings; but a cer- 
tain surprising accident, relating to what was 
done in this siege, forced the Jews to surrender 
the citadel. There was a certain young man 
among the besieged, of great boldness, and 
very active of his hand: his name was Eleazar. 
He greatly signalized himself in those sallies, 
wand encouraged the Jews to go out in great 
numbers, in order to hinder the raising of the 
banks, and did the Romans a vast deal of mis- 
chief when they came to fighting; he so mana- 
ged matters, that those who sallied out made 
their attacks easily, and returned back without 
danger, and this by still bringing up the rear 
himself. Now it happened that on a certain 
time, when the fight was over, and both sides 
were parted, and retired home, he, in way of 
contempt of the enemy, and thinking that none 
vf them would begin the fight again at that 
time, staid without the gates, and talked with 
those that were upon the wall, and his mind 
wea Wholly intent upon what they said. Now 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


, 








a certain person belonging to the Roman 
whose name was Rufus, by birth an Egyp 
ran upon him suddenly, when nobody exp 
ed such a thing, and carried him off, with his 
armor itself; while in the mean time those tha 
saw it from the wall were under such an amaze 
ment, that Rufus prevented their assistan 
and carried Eleazar to the Roman camp. at 
the general of the Romans ordered that he 
should be taken up naked, set before the city 
to be seen, and sorely whipped before the 
eyes. Upon this sad accident that ; efell the» 
young man, the Jews were terribly confounded, 
and the city with one voice sorely lamented 
him, and the mourning proved greater than” 
could well be supposed upon the calamity of 
a single person. When Bassus perceived that, 
he began to think of using a stratagem against” 
the enemy, and was desirous to aggravate their 
grief, in order to prevail with them to surren- 
der the city for the preservation of that man. 
Nor did he fail of his hopes; for he command-— 
ed them to set up a cross, as if he were just 
going to hang Eleazar upon it immediately; the 
sight of this occasioned a sore grief among 
those that were in the citadel, and they groaned 
vehemently, and cried out that they could not — 
bear to see him thus destroyed. Whereupon 
Eleazar besought them not to disregard him, 
now he was going to suffer a most miserable 
death, and exhorted them to save themselves, 
by yielding to the Roman power and good for- 
tune, since all other people were now conquer- 
ed by them. These men were greatly moved 
with what he said, there being also many 
within the city that interceded for him, because 
he was of an eminent and very numerous” 
family; so they now yielded to their passion” 
of commiseration, contrary to their usual cus- 
tom. Accordingly they sent out immediately 
certain messengers, and treated with the Ro-- 
mans, in order to a surrender of the citadel to 
them, and desired that they might be permitted > 
tc go away, and take Eleazar along with them. 
Then did the Romans and their general ac- 
cept of these terms, while the multitude of — 
strangers that were in the lower part of the 
city, hearing of the agreement that was made 
by the Jews for themselves alone, were resoly- 
ed to fly away privately in the night-time; but 
as soon as they had opened their gates, those 
that had come to terms with Bassus told him” 
of it; whether it were that they envied the 
others’ deliverance, or whether it were done 
out of fear, lest an occasion should be taken 
against them upon their escape, is uncertain 
The most courageous, therefore, of those men 
that went out, prevented the e1emy, and ge 
away, and fled for it; but for those nen tha 
were caught within, they were slain, to the 
number of one thousand seven hundred, as 
were the women ani children made slaves 
But as Bassus thought he must perform th 
covenant he had made with those that ha 
surrendered the citadel, he let them go, ant 
restored Eleazar to them. . ‘7 
5. When Bassus had settled these affairs, I 
marched hastily to the forest of Jarden, as 


ot 
7 






















‘ 


BOOK VIL—CHAPTER VII 


ts called; for he had heard that a great many 
of those that had fled from Jerusalem and 
_Macherus formerly, were there gotten together. 
When he was therefore come to the place, and 
understood that the former news was no mis- 
take, he, in the first place, surrounded the 
whole place with his horsemen, that such of 
the Jews as had boldness enough to try to 
break through, might have no way possible 
for escaping, by reason of the situation of their 
horsemen; and for the footmen, he ordered 
them to cut down the trees that were in the 
wood whither they were fled. So the Jews 
were under a necessity of performing some 
glorious exploit, and of greatly exposing them- 
selves in a battle, since they might perhaps 
thereby escape. So they made a general at- 
tack, and with a great shout fell upon those 
that surrounded them, who received them with 
t courage; and so while the one side 
fought desperately, and the other would not 
ield, the fight was prolonged on that account. 
ut the event of the battle did not answer the 
expectation of the assailants; for so it happen- 
ed, that no more than twelve fell on the Roman 
side, with a few that were wounded; but not 
one of the Jews escaped out of this battle, 
‘butthey were all killed, being in the whole 
not fewer in number than three thousand, to- 
gether with Judas, the son of Jairus, their 
general, concerning whom we have before 
spoken, that he had been a captain of a cer- 
tain band at the siege of Jerusalem, and by go- 
‘ing down into a certain vault under ground, 
had privately made his escape. 

6. About the same time it was that Ceesar 
sent a letter to Bassus, and to Liberius Maximus, 
who was the procurator [of Judea,] and gave 
orders that all Judea should be exposed to 
sale:* for he did not found any city there, but 
reserved the country for himself. However, 
he assigned a place for eight hundred men on- 
ly, whom he had dismissed from his army, 
which he gave them for their habitation; it is 
cailed Emmaus,t and is distant from Jerusa- 
lem threescore furlongs. He also laid a tribute 
upon the Jews wheresoever they were, and 

enjoined every one of them to bring two dra- 
chmz every year into the capitol, as they used 
to pay the same to the temple at Jerusalem. 

_ And this was the state of the Jewish affairs at 
this time. 

. CHAPTER VIL 


Concerning the calamity that befell Antiochus, 
king of Commagene. As also concerning the 
Alans and what great mischiefs they did to the 
Medes and Armenians. 


) § 1. And now, in the fourth year of the reign 
» of Vespasian, it came to pass, that Antiochus, 


i 
a 









* It is very remarkable that Titus did not people this now 
desolate country of Jadea, but ordered it to be all sold; nor, 
indeed, is it properly peopled at this day, but lies ready for 
). ts old inhabitants, the Jews, at their future restoration; see 
|, Lit. Accomp. of Prephecies, p. 77. 

+ That the city of Emmaus or Ammaus in Josephus and 
‘others, which was the place of the government of Juli- 
_ ws Africanus, in the beginning of the third century, and 
which he then procured to be rebuilt, and after which re- 
building it was called Nicopolis, is entirely different from that 

88 


697 
the king of Commagene, with all his family 

fell into very great calamities. The occasion 
was this: Cesennius Petus, who was president 
of Syria at this time, whether it were done out 
of regard to truth, or whether out of hatred to 
Antiochus, (for which was the real motive was 
never thoroughly discovered,) sent an epistle 
to Cesar, and therein told him that “Antiochus. 
with his son Epiphanes, had resolved to rebes 
against the Romans, and had made a league 
with the king of Parthia to that purpose; that 
it was therefore fit to prevent them, lest they 
prevent us, and begin such a war as may cause 
a general disturbance in the Roman empire.” 
Now Ceesar was disposed to take some care 
about the matter, since this discovery was made; 
for the neighborhood of the kingdoms made 
this affair worthy of greater regard; for Samo 

sata, the capitol of Commagene, lies upon Ku 

phrates, and, upon any such design, could af- 
ford an easy passage over it to the Parthians, and 
could also afford them a secure reception. Pe 

tus was accordingly believed, and had authority 
given him of doing what he should think pro 

per in the case; so he set about it without de- 
lay, and fell upon Commagene before Antio- 
chus‘and his people had the least expectation 
of his coming: he had with him the tenth le- 
gion, as also some cohorts and troops of horse- 
men. ‘These kings also came to his assistance; 
Aristobulus, king of the country called Chalci- 
dene, and Sohemus, who was called king of 
Emesa. Nor was there any opposition made 
to his forces when they entered the kingdom, 
for no one of that country would so much as 
lift up his hand against them. When Antio- 
chus heard this unexpected news, he could not 
think in the least of making war with the Ro. 
mans, but determined to leave his whole king- 
dom in the state wherein it now was, and to 
retire privately, with his wife and children, as 
thinking thereby to demonstrate himself to the 
Romans to be innocent as to the accusation 
laid against him. So he went away from that 
city as far asa hundred and twenty furlongs, 
inte a plain, and there pitched his tents. 

2. Petus then sent some of his men to seize 
upon Samosata, and by their means took pos- 
session of that city, while he went himself to 
attack Antiochus with the rest of his army. 
However, the. king was not prevailed upon by 
the distress he was in to do any thing in the 
way of war against the Romans, but bemoan- 
ed his own hard fate, and endured with patience 
what he was not able to prevent. But hissons 
who were young, and unexperienced in war 
but of strong bodies, were not easily induced 
to bear this calamity, without fighting. Epi: 
phanes, therefore, and Callinicus betook them- 
selves to military force: and as the battle was 


Emmaus which is mentioned by St. Luke, xxiv. 13; see Re 
land’s Palestina, lib. ii. page 429, and under the same name 
Ammaus also. But he justly thinks, that that in St. Luke 
may well be the same with this Ammaus before us, especi- 
ally since the Greek copies here usually make it.60 furlongs 
distant from Jerusalem, as does St. Luke, though the Latir 
copies say only 30. The place also allotted for thee 808 
soldiers, as for a Roman garrison, in this place, woula most 
naturally be not soremote from Jerusalem as was th« other 
Enimaus or Nicopolis. 


698 


a sore one, and lasted all the day long, they 
showed their own valor in a remarkable man- 
ner, and nothing but the approach of night put 
a period thereto, and that without any diminu- 
tion of their forces: yet would not Antiochus, 
upon this conclusion of the fight, continue there 
by any means, but took his wife and his daugh- 
ters, and fled away with them to Cilicia, and 
by so doing quite discouraged the minds of his 
own soldiers. Accordingly, they revolted, and 
went over to the Romans, out of the despair they 
were in of his keeping the kingdom; and his 
case was looked upon by all as quite desperate. 
I. was therefore necessary that Epiphanes,and 
his soldiers should get clear of their enemies 
before they became entirely destitute of any 
confederates; nor were there any more than ten 
horsemen with him, who passed with him over 
Euphrates, whence they went undisturbed to 
Vologesus, the king of Parthia, where they 
were not disregarded as fugitives, but had the 
same respect paid them as if they had retained 
their ancient prosperity. 

3. Now when Antiochus was come to Tarsus 
in Cilicia, Petus ordered a centurion to go to 
him, and send him in bonds to Rome. However, 
Vespasian could not endure to have a king 
brought to him in that manner, but thought it 
fit rather to have a regard to the ancient friend- 
ship that had been between them, than to pre- 
serve an inexorable anger, upon pretence of 
this war. Accordingly, he gave orders that 
they should take off his bonds, while he was still 
upon the road, and that he should not come to 
Rome, but should now go and live at Lacede- 
mon: he also gave him large revenues, that he 
might not only live in plenty, but like a king 
also. When Epiphanes, who before was in 
great fear for his father, was informed of this, 
their minds were freed from all that great and 
almost incurable concern they had been under. 
He also hoped that Cesar would be reconciled 
to them, upon the intercession of Vologesus; 
for although he lived in plenty, he knew not 
how to bear living out of the Roman empire. 
So Cesar gave him leave, after an obliging 
manner, and he came to Rome; and as his fa- 
ther came quickly to him from Lacedemon, he 
had all sorts of respect paid him there, and 
there he remained. 

4. Now there was a nation of the Alans, 
which we have formerly mentioned some- 
where,* as being Scythians, and inhabiting at 

he lake Meotis. This nation about this time 
laid a design of falling upon Media and the 
parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with 
which intention they treated with the king of 
Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage 
which king Alexander [the Great] shut up 
with iron gates. The king gave them leave to 
come through them: so they came in great mul- 
titudes, and fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, 
and plundered the country, which they found 
ful of people, and replenished with abundance 
of cattle, while nobody durst make any resist- 
ance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the 
eountry had fled away for fear, into places 
* This is now wanting 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


where they could not easily come at him, am 
had yielded up every thing he had to them, 
had only saved his wife and his concubin 
from them, and that with difficulty also, after 
they had been made captives, by giving them 
a hundred talents for their ransom. These 
Alans therefore plundered the country withou 
opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded 
as far as Armenia, laying all waste before them. 
Now Tiridates was king of that country, whe 
met them, and fought them, but had like to” 
have been taken alive in the battle: for a cer-_ 
tain man threw a net over him froma great dis-_ 
tance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless 
he had immediately cut the cord with his oor 
and run away, and prevented it. So the Alans, 
being still more provoked by this sight, laid — 
waste the country, and drove a great multitude — 
of the men, and a great quantity of other prey 
they had gotten out of both kingdoms, along 
with them, and then retreated back to their 
own country. y 


CHAPTER VIII. ¥ 

Concerning Masada, and those Sicarii who me i 
uw; and how Silva betook peste to form the 
siege of that citadel. Eleazar’s speeches to 
the besieged. E 

§ 1. When Bassus was dead in Judea, Fla-— 
vius Silva succeeded him as procurator theret 
who when he saw that all the rest of the coun-_ 
try was subdued in this war, and that there was 
but only one stronghold that was still in re-— 
bellion, he got all his army together that lay 
in different places, and made an expedition 
against it, This fortress was called Masada. 
It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the com- 
mander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon 
it. He was a descendant from that Judas who 
had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we 
have formerly related, not to submit to the taxa-_ 
tion when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to 
make one; for then it was that the Sicarii gut 
together against those that were willing to sul- 
mit to the Romans, and treated them in all re- 
spects as if they had been their enemies, both 
by plundering them of what they had, by dri- 
ving away their cattle, and by setting fire to 
their houses; for they said, that they differed” 
not at all from foreigners, by betraying, in so 
cowardly a manner, that freedom which the 
Jews thought worthy to be contended for to” 
the utmost, and by owning that they prefer- 
red slavery under the Romans before such @ 
contention. Now, this was in reality no bet 
ter than a pretence, and a cloak for the barba-_ 
rity which was made use of by them; and to 
color over their own avarice, which they af- 
terward made evident by their own actions, 
for those that were partners with ‘hem in ther 
rebellion, joined also with them in the war 
against the Romans, and went farther length 
with them in their impudent undertakings 
against them; and when they were again con-_ 
victed of dissembling in such their pretences, 
they still more abused those that justly re 
proached them for their wickedness. And, ix 
deed, that was a time most fertile in all mam 




























\ 





BOOK VII.—CHAPTER VIII. 


_mer of wicked practices, insomuch that no kind 
_ of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could 
any one so much as devise any bad thing that 
was new, so deeply were they all infected, and 
strove with one another in their single capa- 
city, and in their communities, who should 
run the greatest lengths in impiety towards 
God, and in unjust actions towards their neigh- 
bors, the men of power oppressing the multi- 
tude, and the multitude earnestly laboring to 
destroy the men of power. The one part was 
desirous of tyrannizing over others, and the 
rest of offering violence to others, and of plun- 
dering such as were richer than themselves. 
They were the Sicarii who first began these 
' transgressions, and first became barbarous to- 
wards those allied to them, and left no words 
of reproach unsaid, and no works of perdition 
untried, in order to destroy those whom their 
contrivances affected. Yet did John demon- 
strate by his actions that these Sicarii were 
more moderate,than he was himself, for he 
not only slew all such as gave him good coun- 
sel to do what was right, but treated them 
worst of all, as the most bitter enemies that he 
had among all the citizens; nay, he filled his 
entire country with ten thousand instances of 
wickedness, such as a man who was already 
hardened sufficiently in his impiety towards 
_ God would naturally do; for the food was un- 
lawful that was set upon his table, and he re- 
jected those purifications that the law of his 
country had ordained; so that it was no longer 
_ a wonder if he who was so mad in his impiety 
towards God, did not observe any rules of 
gentleness and common affection towards men. 
Again, therefore, what mischief was there 
which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or 
what kind of abuses did he abstain from as to 
those very freemen who had set him up for a 
tyrant? What friendship or kindred were there 
that did not make him more bold in his daily 
murders? for they looked upon the doing of 
mischief to strangers only as a work beneath 
their courage, but thought their barbarity to- 
wards their nearest relation would be a glorious 
demonstration thereof. The Idumeans also 
strove with these men, who should be guilty 
of the greatest madness; for they [all,} vile 
wretches as they were, cut the throats of the 
high priests, that so no part of a religious regard 
_ to God might be preserved; they thence pro- 
ceeded to destroy utterly the last remains of a 
_ political government, and introduced the most 
_ complete scene of iniquity in all instances that 
. were practicable; under which scene, that sort 
. of people that were called Zealots grew up, 
and who indeed corresponded to the name; for 
_ they imitated every wicked work; nor if their 
. Memory suggested any evil thing that had for- 
merly been done, did they avoid zealously to 
_ pursue the same; and although they gave them- 
selves that name from their zeal for what was 
good, yet did it agree to them only by way of 
, Irony, on account of those they had unjustly 
. treated by their wild and brutish disposition, 
‘ or as thinking the greatest mischiefs to be the 
_ greatest good. Accordingly, they all met with 


698 


such ends as God deservedly brought upop 
them in way of punishment, for all such mise 
ries have been sent upon them as man’s nature 
is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period 
of their lives, and till death came upon them 
in various ways of torment; yet might one say 
justly that they suffered less than they had 
done, because it was impossible that they could 
be punished according to their deserving. » But 
to make a lamentation according to the deserts 
of those who fell under these men’s barbarity, 
this is not a proper place for it: I, therefore 
now return again to the remaining part of the 
present narration. 

2. For now it was that the Roman general 
came, and led his army against Eleazar and 
those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada to- 
gether with him; and for the whole country ad- 
joining he presently gained it, and put garrisons 
into the most proper places of it: he also built a 
wall quite round the entire fortress, that none 
of the besieged might easily escape: he also 
set his men to guard the several parts of it: he 
also pitched his camp in such an agreeable 
place as he had chosen for the siege; and at 
which place the rock belonging to the fortress 
did make the nearest approach to the neighbor- 
ing mountain, which yet was a place of diffi- 
culty for getting plenty of provisions; for it 
was not only food that was to be brought frum 
a great distance [to the army,] and this with a 
great deal of pains to those Jews who were 
appointed for that purpose, but water was also 
to be brought to the camp, because the place 
afforded no fountain that was near it. When, 
therefore, Silva had ordered these affairs be- 
forehand, he fell to besieging the place; which 
siege was likely to stand in need of a great 
deal of skill and pains, by reason of the strength 
of the fortress, the nature of which I will now 
describe. 

3. There was arock, not small in circumfer- 
ence, and very high. It was encompassed 
with valleys of such vast depth downward, that 
the eye could not reach their bottoms: they 
were abrupt, and such as no animal could walk 
upon, excepting at two places of the rock, 
where it subsides, in order to afford a passage 
for ascent, though not without difficulty. Now, 
of the ways that lead to it, one is that from the 
lake Asphaltitis, towards the sun-rising, and 
another on the west, where the ascent is easier: 
the one of these ways is called the Serpent, as 
resembling that animal in its narrowness and its 
perpetual windings; for it is broken off at the 
prominent precipices of the rock, and returns 
frequently into itself, and lengthening again by | 
little and little, hath much ado to proceed for- 
ward; and he that would walk along it must 
first. go on one leg and then on the other: there 
is also nothing but destruction, in case your 
feet slip; for on each side there is a vastly deep 
chasm and precipice, sufficient to quell the 
courage of every body by the terror it infuses 
into the mind. When, therefore, a man hath 
gone along this way for thirty furlongs, the 
rest is the top of the hill, not ending at a small 
point, but is no other than a plain upon the 


70 WARS OF THE JEWS. 


highest part of the mountain. Upon this top 
of the hill Jonathan the high priest first of all 
built a fortress, and called it Masada; after 
which the rebuilding of this place employed 
the care of king Herod to a great degree: he 
also built a wall round about the entire top of 
the hill, seven furlongs long: it was composed 
of white stone; its height was twelve, and its 
breadth eight cubits; there were also erected 
upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of 
them fifty cubits high; out of which you might 
pass into lesser edifices, which were built on 
he inside, round the entire wall; for the king 
reserved the top of the hill, which was of a 
fat soil, and better mould than any valley for 
agriculture, that such as committed themselves 
to this fortress for their preservation, might not 
even there be quite destitute of food, in case 
they should ever be in want of it from abroad. 
Morvover, he built a place therein at the west- 
ern ascent; it was within and beneath the 
walls of the citadel, but inclined to its north 
side. Now the wall of this palace was very 
high and strong, and had at its four corners 
towers sixty cubits high. The furniture also 
of the edifices, and of the cloisters, and of the 
baths, was of great variety, and very costly; 
and these buildings were supported by pillars 
of single stones on every side; the walls also 
and the floors of the edifices were paved with 
stones of several colors. He also had cut many 
and great pits, as reservoirs for water, out of 
the rocks, at every one of the places that were 
inhabited, both above and round about the 
palace, and before the wall; and by this con- 
trivance he endeavored to have water for se- 
veral uses, as if there had been no fountains 
there. Here was also a road dug from the 
palace, and leading to the very top of the moun- 
tain, which yet could not be seen by such as 
were without [the walls;] nor, indeed, could 
enemies easily make use of the plain roads; 
for the road on the east side, as we have already 
taken notice, could not be walked upon by 
reason of its nature; and for the western road, 
he built a large tower at its narrowest place, 
at no less a distance from the top of the hill 
than a thousand cubits; which tower could 
not possibly be passed by, nor could it be easi- 
ly taken; nor indeed, could those that walked 
along it, without any fear, such was its con- 
trivance, easily get to the end of it; and after 
such a manner was this citadel fortified, both 
by nature and by the hands of men, in order 
to frustrate the attacks of enemies. 

4. As for the furniture that was within this 
fortress, it was still more wonderful, on account 
o its splendor and long continuance; and here 
was laid up corn in great quantities, and such 
as would subsist men for a long time; here 
was also wine and oil in abundance, with all 
kinds of pulse and dates heaped up together; 
all which Eleazar found there, when he and 
his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by 
treachery. ‘These fruits were also fresh and 
full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruits 
newly laid in, although they were little short of 
a hundred years from the laying in these pro- 










visions,* [by Herod, ] till the place was taken b 
the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans 
got possession of those fruits that were left, they 
found them not corrupted all that while; nor 
should we be mistaken, if we suppose that the 
air was here the cause of their enduring so — 
long; this fortress being so high, and so free 
from the mixture of all terrene and muddy — 
particles of matter. There wasalso found here — 
a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, 
which had been treasured up by that king and ~ 
were sufficient for ten thousand men; there 
was cast iron, and brass, and tin, which show © 
that he had taken much pains to have all things — 
here ready for the greatest occasions; for the 
report goes how Herod thus prepared this for- 
tress on his own account, as a refuge against — 
two kinds of danger; the one for fear of the 
multitude of the Jews, lest they should depose 
him, and restore their former kings to the go- 
vernment; the other danger was greater and 
more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra, 
queen of Egypt, who did not conceal her in- 
tentions, but spoke often to Antony, and desir- 
ed him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to” 
bestow the kingdom of Judeaupon her. And 
certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did 
never comply with her commands in this point, 
as he was so miserably enslaved to his passion — 
for her; nor should any one have been surpri- 
sed if she had been gratified in such her re-— 
quest. So the fear of these dangers made He- 
rod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for 
the finishing stroke of the Romans in this Jew 
ish war. 

5. Since, therefore, the Roman commander 
Silva had now built a wall on the outside, round — 
about this whole place, as we have said already, 
and had thereby made a most accurate pro-— 
vision to prevent any one of the besieged run- — 
ning away; he undertook the siege himself, 
though he found but one single place that would — 
admit of the banks he was to raise: for behind — 
that tower which secured the road that led to 
the palace, and to the top of the hill, from the — 
west, there was a certain eminency of the rock, — 
very broad and very prominent, but three hun- — 
dred cubits beneath the highest parts of Masa-— 
da; it was called the White Promontory. Ac-— 
cordingly he got upon that part of the rock, and — 
ordered the army to bring earth; and when — 
they fell to that work with alacrity, and abun- ~ 
dance of them together, the bank was raised, 
and became solid for two hundred cubits in” 
height. Yet was not this bank thought s 94 
ciently high for the use of the engines that were — 
to be set upon it; but still another elevated — 
work of great stones compacted together was _ 
raised upon that bank; this was fifty cubits, both — 
in breadth and height. The other machines — 
that were now got ready, were like to those 
that had been first devised by Vespasian, and ~ 
afterward by Titus, for sieges. There was” 
also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits — 
and all over plated with iron, out of which the — 











* Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that pro- 


visions laid up against sieges will continue good a hundred 
years, as Spanheim notes upon this place, 


y 


. 


| 


BOOK VIIL—CHAPTER VIII. 


Romans threw darts and stones from the en- 
gines, and soon made those that fought from 
ew 


alls of the place to retire, and would not 
let them lift up their heads above the works. 
At the same time Silva ordered that great bat- 
tering-ram which he had made to be brought 
thither, and to be set against the wall, and to 


_ make frequent batteries against it, which, with 


some difficulty, broke down a part of the wall 
and quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii 


' made naste, and presently built another wall 


within that, which should not be liable to the 
ame misfortune from the machines with the 
other; it was made soft and yielding, and so 
was capable of avoiding the terrible blows that 
affected the other. It was framed after the fol- 
lowing manner: they laid together great beams 
of wood lengthways, one close to the end of 
another, and the same way in which they were 
cut: there were two of these rows parallel to 


one another, and laid at such a distance from 


each other as the breadth of the wall required, 
and earth was put into the space between those 
rows. Now, thatthe earth might not fall away 
upon the elevation of this bank to a greater 
height, they farther laid other beams over across 


them, and thereby bound those beams together 


that lay lengthways. This work of theirs was 
like a real edifice; and when the machines 
were applied, the blows were weakened by its 


yielding, and as the materials by such concus- 


sions were shaken closer together, the pile by 
that means became firmer than before. When 
Silva saw this, he thought it best to endeavor 
the taking of this wall by setting fire to it: so 
he gave order that the soldiers should throw a 
great number of burning torches upon it, ac- 
cordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood, it soon 


took fire; and when it was once set on fire, its 


hollowness made that fire spread to a mighty 
flame. Now at the very beginning of this fire, 
a north wind that then blew proved terrible to 
the Romans; for, by bringing the flame down- 
ward, it drove it upon them, and they were al- 
most in despair of success, as fearing their ma- 
chines would be burnt: but after this, ona sudden, 
the wind changed into the south, as if it were 
done by divine Providence, and blew strong- 
fy the contrary way, and carried the flame, 
and drove it against the wall, which was now 
on fire through its entire thickness. So the 


Romans, having now assistance from God, re- 


turned to their camp with joy, and resolved to 
attack their enemies the very next day; on 
which occasion they set their watch more care- 
fully that night, lest any of the Jews should 
un away from them without being discovered. 
6. However, neither did Eleazar once think 
of flying away, nor would he permit any one 
else to do so; but when he saw their wall burn- 
ed down by the fire, and could devise no other 
way of escaping, or room for their farther 
courage, and setting before their eyes what the 
Romans would do to them, their children, and 
their wives, if they got them into their power, 
ke consulted about faving them all slain. 
Now, as he judged this to be the best thing they 
gould do in their present circumstances, he 


701 


gathered the most courageous of hs compa- 
nions together, and encouraged them to take 
that course by a speech* which he made to 
them in the manner following: “Since we, long 
ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be 
servants to the Romans, nor to any other than 
to God himself, who alone is the true and just 
Lord of mankind, the time is now come that 
obliges us to make that resolrtion true in prac- 
tice. And let us not at this time bring a re- 
proach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, 
while we formerly would not undergo slavery 
though it were then without danger, but miist 
now, together with slavery, choose such pun- 
ishments also, as are intolerable: I mean this 
upon the supposition that the Romans once re- 
duce us under their power while we are alive. 
We were the very first who revolted from 
them, and we are the last that fight against 
them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor 
that God hath granted us, that it is still in our 
power to die bravely, and in a state of free- 
dom, which hath not been the case of others, 
who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very 
plain that we shall be, taken within a day’s 
time, but it is still an eligible thing to die 
after a glorious manner, together with our 
dearest friends. This is what our enemies 
themselves cannot by any means hinder, al- 
though they be very desirous to iake us alive. 
Nor can we propose to ourselves any more to 
fight them, and beat them. It had been pro- 
per indeed for us to have conjectured at the 
purposes of God much sooner, at the very 
first, when we were so desirous of defending 
our liberties, and when we received such sore 
treatment from one another, and worse treat- 
ment from our enemies, and to have been sen 
sible that the same God, who had of old taken 
the Jewish nation into his tavor, had now con- 
demned them to destruction; for had he either 
continued favorable, or been but in a lesser 
degree displeased with us, he had not over 
looked the destruction of so many men, or de- 
livered his most holy city to be burnt and de- 
molished by our enemies. To be sure, we 
weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, 
and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, 
as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves 
against God, nor been partners with those of 
others; we also taught other men to preserve 
their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God 
hath convinced us that our hopes were in vain 
by bringing such distress upon us in the des. 
perate state we are now in, and which is_be- 
yond al! our expectations; for the nature of this 
fortress, which was in itself unconquerable, 
hath not proved a means of our deliverance; 
and even while we have still great abundanc 
* The speeches in this and the next section, as introduc ed 
under the person of this Eleazar, are exceedingly remarka- 
ble, and on the noblest subjects, the contempt of death, and 
the dignity and immortality of the soul; and that not only 
among the Jews, but among the Indians themselves also, and 
are highly worthy the perusal of all the curious. It seems 
as if that philosophic lady who survived, ch. ix. sect. 1, 2 
remembered the substance of those discourses, as spoken 
by Eleazar, and so Josephus clothed them in his own words 
at the lowest, they contain the Jewish notions on these 


heads, as understood then by our Josephus, and cannot ta 
deserve a suitable regard from us. 


702 


of food, and a great quantity of arms and other 
necessaries more than we want, we are openly 
deprived by God himself of all hope of de- 
liverance, for that fire which was driven upon 
our enemies, did not of its own accord turn 
back upon the wall which we had built: this 
was the effect of God’s anger agzinst us for 
our manifold sins, which we have been guilty 
of in a most insolent and extravagant manner 
with regard to our own countrymen; the pun- 
ishments of which let us not receive from the 
Romans, but from God himself, as executed 
by our own hands; for these will be more mo- 
derate than the other. Let our wives die be- 
fore they are abused, and our children before 
they have tasted of slavery; and after we have 
slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit 
upon one another mutually, and preserve our- 
selves in freedom, as an excellent funeral mo- 
nument for us. But first let us destroy our 
money and the fortress by fire; for I am well 
asuured that this would be a great grief to the 
Rumans, that they shall not be able to seize 
upon our bodies, and shall fail of our wealth 
also: and let us spare nothing but our provi- 
sions; for they will be a testimonial when we 
are dead, that we were not subdued for want 
of necessaries, but that, according to our ori- 
ginal resolution, we have preferred death be- 
fore slavery.” 

7. This was Eleazar’s speech to them. Yet 
did not the opinions of all the auditors acqui- 
esce therein; but although some of them were 
very zealous to put his advice in practice, and 
were in a manner filled with pleasure at it; and 
thought death to be a good thing, yet had those 
that were most effeminate a commiseration for 
their wives and families; and when these men 
were especially moved by the prospect of their 
own certain death, they looked wistfully at one 
another, and by the tears that were in their eyes, 
declared their dissent from his opinion, When 
Eleazar saw these people in such fear, and that 
their souls were dejected at so prodigious a 
proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps these ef- 
feminate persons should by their lamentations 
and tears enfeeble those that heard what he 
had said courageously; so he did not leave off 
exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and re- 
collecting proper arguments for raising their 
courage, he undertook to speak more briskly 
and fully to them, and that concerning the im- 
mortality of the soul. So he made a lamenta- 
ble groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those 
that wept, he spoke thus: “Truly I was greatly 
mistaken, when I thought to be assisting to 
brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, 
and to such as were resolved either to live with 
honor or else to die: but I find that you are such 
people as are no better than others either in vir- 
tue or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though 
you be delivered thereby from the greatest mi- 
series, while you ought to make no delay in this 
matter, nor to await any one to give you good 
advice; for the laws of our country, and of God 
himself, have, from ancient times, and as soon 
us ever we could use our reason, continually 
‘aught us, and our forefathers have corroborat- 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 






ed the same doctrine by their actions, and t 
their bravery of mind, that it is life that is 
calamity to men, and not death; for this 
affords our souls their liberty, and sends them 
by a removal into their own place of purity, 
where they are to be insensible of all sorts of 
misery; for while souls are tied down to a mor= 
tal body, they are partakers of its miseries; and 
really, to speak the truth, they are themselveg 
dead; for the union of what is divine, to what 
is mortal is disagreeable. It is true, the pow | 
er of the soul is great, even when it is impri_ 
soned in a mortal body; for by moving it after a 
way that is invisible, it makes the body a sen- 
sible instrument, and causes it to advance far- 
ther in its actions than mortal nature could 
otherwise do. However, when itis freed from 
that weight which draws it down to the earth, 
and is connected with it, it obtains its own pro- 
per place, and does then become a partaker of 
that blessed power, and those abilities which 
are then every way incapable of being hin- 
dered in their operations, It continues invisi- 
ble, indeed, to the eyes of men, as does 

himself; for certainly it is not itself seen, while 
it is in the body, for it is there after an invisible 
manner, and when it is freed from it, it is still 
not seen. It is this soul which hath one na- 
ture, and that an incorruptible one also; but yet 
is it the cause of the change that is made in 
the body, for whatsoever it be which the soul 
touches, that lives and flourishes, and from 
whatsoever it is removed, that withers away 
and dies; such a degree is there in it of immor- 
tality. Let me produce the state of sleep as a 
most evident demonstration of the truth of what 
I say; wherein souls, when the body does not 
distract them, have the sweetest rest depend- 
ing on themselves, and conversing with God, 
by their alliance to him, they then go every- 
where, and foretell many futurities beforehand. 
And why are we afraid of death, while we are” 
pleased with the rest we have in sleep? And 
how absurd a thing it is to pursue after liberty 
while we are alive, and yet to envy it to our- 
selves where it will be eternal. We, therefore, 
who have been brought up in a discipline of | 
our own, ought to become an example to 
others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we do 
stand in need of foreigners to support us in 
this matter, let us regard those Indians who 
profess the exercise of philosophy; for these 
good men do but unwillingly undergo the ing 
of life, and look upon it as a necessary servi- 
tude, and make haste to let their souls loose 
from their bodies; nay, when no misfort 
presses them to it, nor drives them upon i 
these have such a desire of a life of immorta 
lity, that they tell other men beforehand that 
they are about to depart; and nobody hinders 
them, but every one thinks them happy men, 
and gives them letters to be carried to their fa- 
tmiliar friends [that are dead,] so firmly and 
certainly do they believe that souls converse 
with one another in the [other world.] So 
when these men have heard all such commands” 
that were to be given them, they deliver then 
body to the fire; and, in order to their getting 















$ BOOK VII—CHAPTER VIIL. 


their sc al a separation from the body in the 
greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns 
_of commendation made to them; for their dear- 
est frie: ds conduct them to their death more 
readily chan do any of the rest of mankind 
eonduc. their fellow citizens when they are 
going a very long Journey, who at the same 
ime weep on their own account, but look upon 
the others as happy persons, as so soon to be 
_ made partakers of the immortal order of beings. 
_ Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower 
‘notions than the Indians? and by our own 
cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws 
of our country, which are so much desired 
and imitated by all mankind? But put the 
case that we had been brought up under anoth- 
er persuasion, and taught that life is the great- 
est good which men are cepable of, and that 
fleath is a calamity; however, the circumstan- 
ces we are now in, ought to be an inducement 
_to us to bear such calamity courageously, since 
it #s by the will of God, and by necessity, that 
we are to die; for it now appears that God 
hath made such a decree against the whole 
Jewish nation, that we are to be deprived of 
this life which [he knew] we would not make 
-adue use of. For do not you ascribe the occa- 
gion of our present condition to ourselves, nor 
think the Romans are the true occasion that 
this war we have had with them is become so 
destructive to us all: these things have not 
come to pass by their own power, but a more 
_ powerful cause hath intervened, and made us 
afford them an occasion of their appearing to 
_be conquerors over us. What Roman wea- 
pons, I pray you, were those, by which the 
Jews of Ceesarea were slain? On the contra- 
ry, when they were no way disposed to rebel, 
but were all the while keeping their seventh 
day festival, and did not so much as lift up their 
hands against the citizens of Caesarea, yet did 
these citizens run upon them in great crowds, 
and cut their throats, and the throats of their 
_ wives and children, and this without any re- 
gard to the Roimans themselves; who never 
took us for their enemies till we revolted from 
them. But some may be ready to say, that 
truly the people of Cwsarea had always a quar- 
rel against those that lived among them; and 
_ that when an opportunity offered itself they 
only satisfied the old rancor they had against 
them. What then shall we say to those of 
Scythopolis, who ventured to wage war with 
us un account of the Greeks? Nor did they 
do it by way of revenge upon the Romans, 
_ when they acted in concert with our country- 
men. Wherefore, you see how little our good 
will and fidelity to them profited us, while they 
. were slain, they and their whole families, after 
{the most inhuman manner, which was all the 
_‘requital ‘hat was made them for the assistance 
_ they had afforded the others; for that very same 
destruction which they had prevented from 
falling upon the others, did they suffer them- 
. éelves from them, as if they had been ready to 
_ be the actors against them. ~It would be too 
_ tong for me to speak at this time of every de- 
struction braught upon us; for you cannot but 


{ 


f 





703 


know, that there was not any one Syrian city 
which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, 
and were not more bitter enemies to us than 
were the Romans themselves: nay, even those 
of Damascus, when they were able to allege 
no tolerable pretence against us, filled their city 
with the most barbarous slaughters of our peo- 
ple, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand* 
Jews, with their wives and children. -And as 
to the multitude of those that were slain in 
Egypt, and that with torments also, we have 
been informed they were more than sixty thou- 
sand: those indeed being in a foreign country, 
and so naturally meeting with nothing to op- 
pose against their enemies, were killed in the 
manner forementioned. As for all those of us 
who have waged war against the Romans in 
our own country, had we not sufficient reason 
to have sure hopes of victory? For we had 
arms, and walls, and fortresses so prepared as 
not to _be easily taken, and courage not to be 
moved by any dangers in the’ cause of liberty 
which encouraged us all to revolt from the Ro- 
mans. But then these advantages sufficed us 
but for a short time, and_ only raised our hopes, 
while they really appeared to be the origin of 
our miseries; for all we had hath been taken 
from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, 
as if these advantages were only to render their 
victory over us the more glorious, and were not 
disposed for the preservation of those by whum 
these preparations were made. And as for 
those that are already dead in the war, it is rea- 
sonable we should esteem them blessed, for 
they are dead in defending, and not in betray- 
ing their liberty; but as to the multitude of 
those that are now under the Romans, who 
would not pity their condition; and who would 
not make haste to die before he would suffer 
the same miseries with them? Some of them 
have been put upon the rack, and tortured with 
fire and whippings, and so die; some have 
been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet 
have been reserved alive to be devoured by 
them a second time, in order to afford laughter 
and sport to our enemies; and such of those as 
are alive still, are to be looked on as the most 
miserable, who, being so desirous of death, 
could not come at it. And where is now that 
great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation? 
which was fortified by so many walls round 
about, which had so many fortresses and large 
towers to defend it, which could hardly con- 
tain the instruments prepared for the war, and 
which had so many ten thousands of men to 
fight for it. Where is this city that was believed 
to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is 
now demolished to the very foundations, and 
hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, 
I mean the camp of those that have destroyed it, 
which still dwells upon its ruins; some unfor- 
tunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the 
temple, and a few women are there preserved 
alive by the enemy for our bitter shame and 
reproach, Now, who is there that revolves 
these things in his mind, and yet is able to bear 


* See b. ii. ch. xx. sect. 2, where the number of the slain 
is but 10,000. 


704 


the sight of the sun, though he might live out 
of danger? Who is there so much his coun- 
try’s enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous of 
living, as not to repent that he is still alive? and I 
cannot but wish that we had all died before we 
had seen that holy city demolished by the hands 
of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy 
temple dug up after so profane a manner. 
But since we had a generous hope that delud- 
ed us, as if we might, perhaps, have been able 
to avenge ourselves on our enemies on that ac- 
count, though it be now become vanity, and 
hath left us alone in this distress, Jet us make 
haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves, 
our children, and our wives, while it is in our 
own power to show pity to them; for we were 
vorn to die,* as well as those were whom we 
aave begotten; nor is it in the power of the 
most happy of our race to ayoid it. But for 
abuses and slavery, and the sight of our wives 
led away after an ignominious manner, with 
their children, these are not such evils as are 
natural and necessary among men; although 
such as do not prefer death before those mise- 
ries, when it is in their power so to do, must 
undergo even them on account of their own 
cowardice. We revolted from the Romans 
with great pretensions to courage: and when at 
the very last they invited us to preserve our- 
selves, we would not comply with them. 
Who will not, therefore, believe that they will 
certainly be in a rage at us, in case they can 
take us alive? Miserable will then be the 
young men, who will be strong enough in their 
Lodies to sustain many torments; miserable 
also will be those of elder years, who will not be 
able to bear those calamities which young men 
might sustain. One man will be obliged to 
hear the voice of his son imploring help of his 
father, when his hands are bound. But cer- 
tainly our hands are still at liberty, and have a 
sword in them; let them, then, be subservient to 
us in our glorious design; let us die before we 
become slaves under our enemies, and let us go 
out of the world, together with our children 
and our wives, in a state of freedom. This it 
is that our laws command us to do; this it is 
that our wives and children crave at our hands; 
nay, God himself hath brought this necessity 
upon us; while the Romans desire the contra- 
ry, and are afraid lest any of us should die be- 
fore we are taken. Let us, therefore, make 
haste, and instead of affording them so much 
pleasure as they hope for in getting us under 
their power, let us leave them an example 
which shall at once cause their astonishment 
at our death, and their admiration of our har- 
diness therein.” 


CHAPTER IX. 
How the people that were in the fortress were pre- 
vailed on by the words of Eleazar, two women 
- and five children only excepted, and all sub- 
mitted to be killed by one another. 


§ 1. Now, as Eleazar was proceeding on in 
this exhortation, they all cut him off short, and 


* Reland here sets down a parallel aphorism of one of the 
fewish rabbins: ‘We are born that we may die, and die 
‘hat we mav live.”’ 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 







made haste to do the work, as fuil of an unco 
querable ardor of mind, and moved with a de 
moniacal fury. So they went thei ways, a 
one still endeavoring to be before ano her, and 
as thinking that this eagerness would be a de- 
monstration of their courage and good condi 
if they could avoid appearing in the last class: 
So great was the zeal they were in to slay their 
wives, and children, and themselves also. Nor 
indeed, when they came to the work itself did 
their courage fail them, as one might imagine 
it would have done; but they then held fast 
the same resolution without wavering, which 
they had upon the hearing of Eleazar’s speech, 
while yet every one of them still retained the 
natural passion of love to themselves and their 
families, because the reasoning they went upon 
appeared to them to be very just, even with re- 
gard to those that were dearest to them; for the 
husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and 
took their children into their arms, and gave the 
longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their 
eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete 
what they had resolved on, as if they had been 
executed by the hands of strangers; and they 
had nothing else for their comfort but the ne- 
cessity they were in of doing this execution, 
to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries 
they were to suffer from their enemies. Nor 
was there at length any one of these men 
found that scrupled to act their part in this ter- 
rible execution, but every one of them despatch= 
ed his dearest relations. Miserable men, in- 
deed, were they! whose distress forced them 
to slay their own wives and children with their 
own hands, as the lightest of those evils that 
were before them. So they being not able te 
bear the grief they were under for what they 
had done any longer, and esteeming it an in- 
jury to those they had slain, to live even the 
shortest space of time after them, they present- 
ly laid all they had in a heap, and set fire to it 
They then chose ten men by lot out of the 

to slay all the rest; every one of whom laid 
himself down by his wife and children on the 
ground, and threw his arms about them, and 
they offered their necks to the stroke of those 
who by lot executed that melancholy office: 
and when these ten had, without fear, slain 
them all, they made the same rule for “ta 












Jots for themselves, that he whose lot it was 
should first kill the other nine, and after all 
should kill himself. Accordingly, all th 

had courage sufficient to be no way behin 
one another in doing or suffering; so, for a con- 
clusion, the nine offered their necks to the e: 
ecutioner, and he who was the last of all took 
a view of all the other bodies, lest perchance 
some or other among so many that were slais 
should want his assistance to be quite despatch- 
ed, and when he perceived that they were all 
slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the 
great force of his hand ran his sword entirely 
through himself, and fell down dead near to 
his own relations. So these people died with 
this intention, that they would leave nots 
much as one sou! among them all alive to b 
subject to the Romans. Yet was there an ap 


‘ H 
ey 


‘? 
Dock woman, 
Eleazar, and superior to most women in pru- 
dence and learning, with five children, who 
had concealed themselves in caverns under 
ground, and had carried water thither for their 
drink, and were hidden there when the rest 
were intent upon the slaughter of one another. 
Those others were nine hundred and sixty in 
number the women and children being withall 
included in that computation. This calamitous 
slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the 
month Xanthicus [Nisan.] 
2. Now for the Romans, they expected that 
they should be fought in the morning, when 
accordingly they put on their armor, and laid 
bridges of planks upon their ladders from their 
banks, to make an assault upon the fortress, 
which they did; but saw nobody as an enemy, 
but a terrible solitude on every side, with a 
fire within the place, as well as a perfect silence. 
So they were at a loss to guess at what had 
happened. At length they made a shout, as if 
it had been at a blow given by the battering 
ram, to try whether they could bring any one 
out that was within: the women heard this 
noise, and came out of their underground ca- 
vern, and informed the Romans what had been 
done, ‘as it was done; and the second of them 
clearly described all, both what was said and 
what was done, and the manner of it, yet did 
they not easily give their attention to such a 
seperate undertaking, and did not believe it 
could be as they said; they also attempted to 
put the fire out, and quickly cutting them- 
selves a way through it, they came within the 
palace, and so met with the multitude of the 
slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, 
though it were done to their enemies. Nor 
could they do other than wonder at the cou- 
rage of their resolution, and the immovable 
contempt of death which so great a number 
of them had shown, when they went through 
with such an action as that was. 


CHAPTER X. 


Phat many of the Sicaru fled to Alexandria also, 
and what dangers they were in there; on which 
account, that temple, which had formerly been 
built by Onias the high priest, was destroyed, 

_§ 1. When Masada was thus taken, the gene- 

ral left the garrison in the fortress to keep 1t, 

and he himself went to Cesarea; for there were 
‘now no enemies left in the country, but it was 
all overthrown by so long a war. Yet did this 
war afford disturbances and dangerous disor- 

ders even in places very far remote from Judea; 
for still it came to pass, that many Jews were 
slain at Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the 
Sicarii as were able to fiy thither out of the se- 
ditious wars in Judea, were not content to have 
saved themselves, but must needs be undertak- 
_ing to make new disturbances, and persuaded 
many of those that entertained them to assert 
their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no 
_ better than themselves, and to look upon God 
_ as their only Lord and Master. But when part 
_of the Jews of reputation opposed them, they 
slew some of them, and with the others they 

¥ 89 


BOOK VII—CHAPTER xX. 


and another who was of kin to | were very pressing in their exhortations to re- 


705 


volt from the Romans; but when the principal 
men of the senate saw what madness the 

were come to, they thought it no longer ah 
for themselves to overlook them. So they got 
all the Jews together to an assembly and accus- 
ed the madness of the Sicarii, and demonstrate 

that they had been the authors of all the evils 
that had come upon them. They said also, 
that “these men, now they were run away, from 
Judea, having no sure hope of escaping, be- 
cause as soon as ever they shall be known, they 
will be soon destroyed by the Romans, they 
come hither and fill us full of those calamities 
which belong to them, while we have not 
been partakers with them in any of their sins.” 
Accordingly they exhorted the multitude to 
have a care lest they should be brought to de- 
struction by their means, and to make their apo- 
logy to the Romans for what had been done, 
by delivering these men up to them; who be- 
ing thus apprized of the greatness of the dan- 
ger they were in, complied with what was pro- 
posed, and ran with great violence upon the 
Sicarli, and seized upon them, and indeed six 
hundred of them were caught immediately; 
but as to all those that fled into Egypt,* and to 
the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they 
were caught also, and brought back, whose 
courage, or whether we ought to call it mad- 
ness, or hardness in their opinions, every body 
were amazed at. For when all sorts of tors 
ments and vexations of their bodies that could 
be devised were made use of to them, they 
could not get any one of them to comply se 
far as to confess, or seem to confess, that Ca» 
sar was their lord; but they preserved thea 
Own opinion in spite of all the distress they 
were brought to, as if they received these tor- 
ments and the fire itself with bodies insensible 
of pain, and with a soul that in a manner re 

joiced under them. But what was most of ak 
astonishing to the beholders, was the courage 
of the children; for not one of these children 
were so far overcome by these torments, as to 
name Cesar for their lord: so far does the 
strength of the courage [of the soul] prevail 
over the weakness of the body. 

2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, 
who presently sent Ceesar word of this commo- 
tion, who having in suspicion the restless tem- 
per of the Jews for innovation, and being afraid 
lest they should get together again, and per- 
suade some others to join with them, gave or- 
ders to Lupus to demolish that Jewish temple} 


* Since Josephus here informs us, that some of these Si- 
carii or ruffians went from Alexandria (which was itself in , 
Egypt, in a large sense) into Egypt and Thebes, there situat- * 
ed, Reland well observes from Vosius, that Egyptsometimes 
denotes Proper or Upper Egypt, as distinct from the Delta 
and the lower parts near Palestine. Accordingly as he adds, 
those that say it never rains in Egypt, must mean the Pro- 
per or Upper Egypt, because it does sometimes rain in the 
other parts; see the notes on Antiq. b. ii. ch. vii. sect. 7; and 
b. iii. ch. i. sect. 6, 

¢ Of this temple of Onias’s building in Egypt, see the notes 
on Antiq. b. xiii. ch. iii. sect. 1. But whereas it is elsewhere, 
both Of the War b. i. ch. i. sect 1, and in the Antiquities as 
now quoted, said, that this temple was like to that at Jeru- 
salem, and here that it was not like it, but like a tower, sect. 
3, there is some reason to suspect the reading here, and that 
either the negative particle is bere to be blotted ou’, or the 
word entirely added. 


706 


which was in the region called Onion, and was 
in Egypt; waica was built and had its denomi- 
nation from the occasion following: Onias, the 
son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests, 
fled from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he 
made war with the Jews, and came to Alexan- 
dcia; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly 
on account of his hatred to Antiochus, he as- 
sured him, that if he would comply with his 
proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his as- 
sistance; and when the king agreed to it so far as 
he was able, he desired him to give him leave to 
build a temple somewhere in Egypt, and to 
worship God according to the customs of his 
own country; for that the Jews would then be 
so muck readier to fight against Antiochus, 
who had laid waste the temple at Jerusalem, 
and that they would then come to him with 
greater good will, and. that by granting them 
liberty of conscience, very many of them would 
come over to him. 

3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, 
and gave him a place one hundred and eighty 
furlongs distant from Memphis.* ‘That Nomos 
was called the Nomos of Heliopolis, where 
Onias built a fortress and a temple, not like to 
thet of Jerusalem, but such as resembled a 
cower. He built it of large stones, to the height 
of sixty cubits; he made the structure of the 
altar in imitation of that in our own country, 
and in like manner adorned with gifts, except- 
mg the make of the candlestick, for he did not 
make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp 
hammered out of a peice of gold, which illu- 
minated the place with its rays, and which he 
aung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple 
was encompassed with a wall of burnt brick, 
though it had gates of stone. The king also 
gave him a large country for a revenue in mo- 
ney, that both the priests might have a plenti- 
ful provision made for them, and that God 
might have great abundance of what things 
were necessary for his worship.: Yet did not 
Onias do this out of a sober disposition, but he 
had a mind to contend with the Jews of Jeru- 
salem, and could not forget the indignation he 
had for being banished thence. Accordingly 
he thought that by building this temple he 
should draw away a great number from them 
to himself. There had been also a certain an- 
cient prediction made by [a prophet] whose 
name was Isaiah, about six hundred years be- 
fore, that this temple should be built by a man 
that wasa Jew,in Egypt.t And thisis the his- 
tory of the building of that temple. 

4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexan- 
dria, upon the receipt of Ceesar’s letter came 
to the temple, and carried out of it some of 
the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up 
tne temple itself. And as Lupus died a little 


* We must observe, that Josephus here speaks of Anti- 
echus, who profaned the temple, as now alive, when Onias 
had leave given him by Philometer to build his temple; 
whereas it seems not to have been actually built till about 
fifteen years afterward. Yet because it is said in the An- 
tiquities, that Onias went to Philometer, b. xii. ch. ix. sect. 
7, during the lifetime of that Antiochus, it is probable he 
»etitioned, and, perhaps, obtained his leave then, though it 
were nom actually built or finished till fifteen years after- 
ward. } Isa. xix, 18—33, 


WARS OF THE JEWS. 


. 






afterward, Paulinus succeeded him. This 
left none of those donations there, and th 
ened the priests severely if they did not brin 
them all out; nor did he permit any who we 
desirous of worshiping God there, so much a 
to come near the whole sacred place. Bu 
when he had shut up the gates, he made it en. 
tirely inaccessible, insomuch that there remain- 
ed no longer the least footsteps of any divine 
worship that had been in that place. Now th 
duration of the time, from the building of thi, 
temple till it was shut up again, was three hun- 
dred and forty-three years. : 


CHAPTER XI. 


Concerning Jonathan, one of the Sicari, that 
stirred up a sedition in Cyrene, and was a 
false accuser [of the innocent.] ; 
§ 1. And now did the madness of the Si- 
carii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities 
of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, 
and by trade a weaver, came thither, and pre- 
vailed with no small number of the poorer 
sort to give ear to him; he also led them into 
the desert, upon promising them that he would 
show them signs and apparitions. And as for 
the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his 
knavery from them, and put tricks upon them: 
but those of the greatest dignity among them 
informed Catullus, the governor of the Libyan 
Pentapolis, of his march into the desert, and 
of the preparations he had made for it. So 
he sent out after him both horsemen and foot- 
men, and easily overcame them, because they 
were unarmed men: of these many were slain 
in the fight, but some were taken alive, and 
brought to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the 
head of this plot, he fled away at this time, but 
upon a great and very diligent search, which 
was made over all the country for him, he ye | 
taken also. And when he was brought to Ca 
tullus, he devised a way whereby he both es 
caped punishment himself, and afforded an oc- 
casion to Catullus of doing much mischief; for 
he falsely accused the richest men among the 
Jews, and said that they had put him upon 
what he did. m4 
2. Now Catullus easily admitted of these hi 
calumnies, and aggravated matters greatly, and 
made tragical exclamations, that he might als 
be supposed to have had a hand in the finishir 
of the Jewish war. But what was still harder, 
he did not only give a too easy belief to hi 
stories, but he taught the Sicarii to accuse mé 
falsely. He bade this Jonathan, therefore, 
name one Alexander, a Jew (with whom by 
had formerly had a quarrel, and openly pre 
fessed that he hated him;) he also got him 


















name his wife Bernice, as concerned with hi 
These two Catullus ordered to be slain in | 
first place; nay, after them he caused all | 
rich and wealthy Jews to be slain seing 
fewer in all than three thousanu. This 
thought he might do safely, because he cont 
cated their effects, and added them to Cees 
revenues. ) . an 
3. Nay, indeed, lest any Jews that lived c 
where should convict him of his vill 


a 
extended nfs false accusations further, and per- 
‘suaded Jonathan, and certain others that were 
caught with him, to bring an accusation of at- 
tempts for innovation against the Jews that 
were of the best character both at Alexandria 
and at Rome. One of these, against whom 
this treacherous accusation was laid, was Jo- 
sephus, the writer of these books. However, 
this plot, thus contrived by Catullus, did not 
succeed according to his hopes; for though he 
came himself to Rome, and brought Jonathan 
and his companions along with him in bonds, 
and thought he should have had no further in- 
quisition made as to those lies that were forged 
under his government, or by his means, yet 
did Vespasian suspect the matter, and made an 
inquiry how far it was true. And when he 
understood that the accusation laid against the 
Jews was an unjust one, he cleared them of 
the crimes charged upon them, and this, on 
account of Titus’s concern about the matter, 
and brought a deserved punishment upon Jo- 
nathan; for he was first tormented, and then 
‘burnt alive. 

4. But as to Catullus, the emperors were so 
gentle to him, that he underwent no severer 
condemnation at this time: yet was it not long 
‘before he fell into a complicated and almost 


—_ FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AGAINST APION. 


70? 


incurable distemper, and died miserably. He 
was not only afflicted in body, but the distem~ 
per in his mind was more heavy upon hin. 
than the other; for he was terribly disturbed, 
and continually cried out, “That he saw the 
ghosts of those whom he had slain standing 
before him.” Whereupon he was not able to 
contain himself, but leaped out of his bed, as 
if both torments and fire were brought to him, 
This his distemper grew still a great deal worse 
and worse continually, and his very entrails 
were so corroded, that they fell out of his body, 
and in that condition he died. Thus he be- 
came as great an instance of divine Provi- 
dence as ever was, and demonstrated that God 
punishes wicked men. 

5. And here we shall put an end to this our 
history; wherein we formerly promised to de- 
liver the same with all accuracy, to such as 
should be desirous of understanding after what 
manner this war of the Romans with the Jews 
was managed. Of which history, how good 
the style is, must be left to the determination 
of the readers; but as for the agreement with 
the facts, I shall not scruple to say, and that 
boldly, that truth hath been what I have alone 
aimed at through its entire composition. 








ANTIQUITY OF THE JEWS. 





FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS AGAINST APION.* 
BOOK I. 


.) 1. I surrosz that, by my books of the An- 
. quities of the Jews, most exceilent Epaphro- 
~ tus,t I have made it evident to those that 


* This firat book has a wrong title. It is not written 
against Apion, as is the first part of the second book, but 
against those Greeks in general who would not believe Jo- 
sephus’s former accounts of the very ancient state of the 
‘ewish nation, in his twenty Books of Antiquities; and in 
yarticular against Agatharchides, Manetho, Cheremon, and 

vsimachus. It is one of the most learned, excellent, and 
_seful books of all antiquity; and upon Jerome’s perusal of 
‘us and the following books, he declares, that “‘it seems 
‘: him a miraculous thing, how one that was a Hebrew, 
-* 40 had been from his infancy instructed in sacred learn- 
og should be able to produce such a number of testimonies 
ut ef profane authors, as if he had read over all the Grecian 
‘fibraries.”” Epist. 34, ad magnum. And the learned Jew, 
Manasseh-ben-Israel, esteemed these two books so excel- 
Tent, as to translate them into Hebrew; this we learn from his 
own catalogue of his works which I have seen. As to the 
time and place when and where these two books were writ- 
ten, the learned have not hitherto been able to determine 
them, any farther than that they were written some time af- 
ter his Antiquities, or some time after A. D. 93, which, in- 
deed, is too obvious at their entrance to be overlooked even 
a a careless peruser; they being directly intended against 

ose that would not believe what he had advanced in those 
‘books concerning the great antiquity of the Jewish nation. 
As to the place, they all imagine that these two books were 
Written where the former were, I mean at Rome; and [ 
eonfess, that I myself believed both these determinations 
till I came to finish my notes upon these books, when I met 
With plain indicagions that they were written not at Rome but 
| i. Judea; and this after the third year of Trajan, or A. D. 


__ + Yake Dr. ludson’s note here, which, as it justly contra- 
diets the common opinion that Josephus either died under 
Domitian, or at least wrote nothing later than his days, so 
floes it per sctly agree to my own determinations from Justus 


nM 


peruse them, that our Jewish nation is of very 
great antiquity, and had a distinct subsistence 
of its own originally: as also, I have therein 
declared, how we came to inhabit this country 
wherein we now live. These Antiquities con- 
tain the history of five thousand years, and are 
taken out of our sacred books, but are trans- 
lated by me into the Greek tongue. However, 
since I observe a considerable number of peo- 
ple giving ear to the reproaches that are laid 
against us by those who bear ill will to us, 
and will not believe what I have written con- 
cerning the antiquity of our nation, while they 
take it for a plain sign that our nation is of a 
late date, because they are not so much as 
vouchsafed a bare mention by the most famous 
historiographers among the Grecians; I there- 
fore have thought myself under an obligation 
to write somewhat briefly about these subjects, 


of Tiberias, that he wrote or finished his own life after the 
3d of Trajan, or A. D. 100,to which Noldius also agrees, 
de Herod, No. 383. [Epaphroditus.] “Since Flavius Jose- 
phus,”? says Dr. Hudson, “‘wrote [or eerie his books of 
Antiquities on the 13th of Domitian, [A. D. 93,] and after 
that wrote the memoirs of his own life as an appendix to 
the books of Antiquities, and at last his two books against 
Apion, and yet dedicated all those writings to Epaphroditus, 
he can hardly be that Epaphroditus who was formerly secre- 
tary to Nero, and was slain on the 14th for 15th] of Domi- 
tian, after he had been for a good while in banishment, but 
another Epaphroditus, a freed man and procurator of Trajap 

as says Grotius on Luke i. 3.” 


708 


in order to convict those that reproach us, of 
spite and voluntary falsehood, and to correct 
the ignorance of others, and withall to instruct 
all those who are desirous of knowing the 
truth, of what great antiquity we really are. 
As for the witnesses whom I shall produce for 
the proof of what I say, they shall be such as 
are esteemed to be of the greatest reputation 
for truth, and the most skilful in the knowledge 
of all antiquity, by the Greeks themselves. I 
will also show, that those who have written so 
reproachfully and falsely about us, are to be 
convicted by what they have written them- 
selves to the contrary. I shall also endeavor 
to give an account of the reasons why it hath 
so happened, that there have not been a great 
number of Greeks who have made mention 
of our nation in their histories; I will, how- 
ever, bring those Grecians to light, who have 
not omitted such our history, for the sake 
of those that either do not know them, or pre- 
tend not to know them already. 

2. And now, in the first place, I cannot but 
greatly wonder at those men, who suppose that 
we must attend to none but Grecians, when 
we are inquiring about the most ancient facts, 
and must inform ourselves of their truth from 
them only, while we must not believe ourselves 
nor other men; for 1 am convinced, that the 
very reverse is the truth of the case: I mean 
this, if we will not be led by vain opinions, but 
will make inquiry after truth from facts them- 
selves; for they will find, that almost all which 
concerns the Greeks happened not long ago; 
nay, one may say, is of yesterday only. I 
speak of the building of their cities, the inven- 
tions of their arts, and the description of their 
laws; and as for their care about the writing 
down of their histories, it is very near the last 
thing they set about. However, they acknow- 
ledge themselves so far, that they were the 
Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Pheenicians, 
(for I will not now reckon ourselves among 
them,) that have preserved the memorials of 
the most ancient and most lasting traditions 
of mankind; for almost all these nations in- 
habit such countries as are least subject to des- 
truction from the world about them: and _ these 
also have taken especial care to have nothing 
omitted of what was [remarkably] done among 
them, but their history was esteemed sacred 
and put into public tables, as written by men 
of the greatest wisdom they had among them. 
Butas for the place where the Grecians inha- 
bit, ten thousand destructions have overtaken it, 
and blotted out the memory of former actions; 
so that they were ever beginning a new way of 
living,and supposed that every one of them 
was the origin of their new state. It was also 
late, and with difficulty, that they came to 
know the letters they now use; for those that 
-would advance their use of these letters to the 
greatest antiquity, pretend that they learned 
them from the Phoenicians and from Cadmus; 
yet is nobody able to demonstrate that they 
have any writing preserved from that time, nei- 
ther in their temples, nor in any other public 
monuments. This appears, because the time 


FLAVIUS JOSEPRuUs 






when those lived who went to tne Trojan 
so many years afterward, is in great doubt, 
great inquiry is made, whether the Greek 
used their letters at that time; and the moi 
prevailing opinion, and that nearest the tru 
is, that the present way of using those letters 
was unkncwn at that time. However, there 
is not any writing which the Greeks agree to 
to be genuine among them ancienter than Ho- 
mer’s poems,* who must plainly be confessed. 
later than the siege of Troy: nay, the report 
goes, that even he did not leave the poems in 
writing, but that their memory was preserved 
in songs, and they were put together after. 
ward, and that this is the reason of such a 
number of variations as are found in them, 
As for those who set themselves about writing 
their histories, I mean such as Cadmus of 
Miletus, and Acusilaus of Argos, and 
others that may be mentioned as succeeding: 
Acusilaus, they lived but a little while before 
the Persian expedition into Greece. But then 
for those that first introduced philosophy, and 
the consideration of things celestial and divine 
among them, such as Pherecydes the Syrian; 
and Pythagoras and Thales, all with one con- 
sent agree, that they learned what they knew 
of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and wrote 
but little. And these are the things which aro 
supposed to be the oldest of all among the 
Greeks; and they have much ado to believe 
that the writings ascribed to those men are 
genuine. : 
3. How can it then be other than an absurd 
thing for the Greeks to be so proud, and to 
vaunt themselves to be the only people tha 
are acquainted with antiquity, and that have 
delivered the true accounts of those early times 
after an accurate manner! Nay, who is there 
that cannot easily gather from the Greek wri 
ters themselves, that they knew but little op 
any good foundation when they set to write 
but rather wrote their histories from their own 
conjectures? Accordingly they confute one 
another in their own books to purpose; and 
are not ashamed to give us the most contradic 
tory accounts of the same things: and I should 
spend my time to little purpose, if I should 
pretend to teach the Greeks that which they 
know better than I already, what a great disa- 
greement there is between Hellanicus and 
Acusilaus about their genealogies: in how 
many cases Acusilaus corrects Hesiod; or afte: 
what manner Ephorus demonstrates Hellaniet 
to have told lies in the greatest part of his histo 
ry; as does Timeus in like manner as to Epho 
rus, and the succeeding writers do to Timeus, 
and all the latter writers do to Herodotus,’ nor 




















Pay ' 


* This preservation of Homer’s poems by memory, 
not by his own writing them down, and that thence they 
were styled rhapsodies, as sung by him, like ballads, by parts 
and not composed and connected together in complete 
works, are opinions well known from the ancient commen- 
tators; though such supposal seems to myself, as well as t 
Fabricius, Biblioth, Grec. i. p. 269, and to others, 
improbable. Nor does Josephus say there were no ancient 
writings among the Greeks than Homer’s poems, but tha 
they did not fully own any ancienter writings pretending 
such antiquity, which is true. is 

t It well deserves to be considered, that Josephus hel 
says, how all the following Greek historians looked on He 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK. 1. 


could Tinmieus agree with Antiochus and 


Philistius, or with Callias, about the Sicilian 


history, no more than do the several writers of 
‘the Atthide follow one another about the 


Athenian affairs; nor do the historians the like 
‘that wrote the Argolics, about the affairs of the 


Argives. And now what need I say any more 
about particular cities and smaller places, while 


‘inthe most approved writers of the expedi- 


tion of the Persians, and of the actions which 


‘were therein performed, there are so great dif- 


ferencesr Nay, Thucydides himself is accused 
by some as writing what is false, although he 
seems to have given us the exactest history of 
the affairs of his own time. 

4, As for the occasion of so great a disagree- 
ment of theirs, there may be assigned many 
that are very probable, if any have a mind to 
make an inquiry about them; but I ascribe 
these contradictions chiefly to two causes, 


which I will now mention, and still think what 


I shall mention, in the first place to be the prin- 
cipal of all. For if we remember, that in the 
beginning the Greeks had taken no care to 


have public records of their several transactions 


i 
| 


preserved, this must for certain have afforded 


those that would afterward write about those 
ancient transactions, the opportunity of mak- 
ing mistakes, and the power of making lies also; 
for this original recording of such ancient 


transactions hath not only been neglected by 
the other states of Greece, but even among 


the Athenians themselves also, who pretend to 


be Aborigines, and to have applied themselves 
to learning, there are no such records extant; 
nay, they say themselves that the laws of Draco 
voncerning murders, which are now extant in 
writing are the most ancient of their public re- 
cords; which Draco yet lived but a little be- 
fore the tyrant Pisistratus.* For as to the 
Arcadians, who make such boasts of their an- 
thyuity, what need I speak of them in particu- 
lair, since it was still later before they got their 
letters, and learned them, and that with difficul- 
ty also? naeee 

5. There must, therefore, naturally arise 
great differences among writers, when they 
had no original records to lay for their founda- 


‘tion, which might at once inform those who 


had an inclinat.on to learn, and contradict 
those that would tell lies. However, we are 
rodotus as a fabulous author, and presently, sect. 14, how 


Manetho, that most authentic writer of the Egyptian history, 
greatly complains of his mistakes in the Egyptian affairs; 


8s also that Strabo, b. xi. p. 507, the most accurate geogra- 
_pher and historian, esteemed him such; that Xenuphon, the 


; 


‘ 


more accurate historian in the days of Cyrus, implies, that 
Herodotus’s accounts of that great man are almost entirely 
romantic; see the note on Autiq. b. xi. ch. ii. sect. 1, and 
Hutchinson’s Prolegomena to his edition of Xenophon’s 
tlzidesxKves, that we have already seen in the note on 
Antiq. b. viii. chap. x. sect. 3, how very little Herodotus 


knew about the Jewish affairs and country, and that he 


| 
; 
| 


" 
- 


eatly affected what we call the marvellous, as Monsieur 
‘Rollin has lately and justly determined; whence we are not 
always to depend on the authority of Herodotus, where it is 
@nsupported by other evidence, but ought to compare the 
‘ other evidence with his, and, if it preponderate, to prefer it 
before his. I do not mean by this that Herodotus wilfully 
_selated what he believed to to be false (as Ctesias seems to 
have done,) but that he often wanted evidence, and some- 
times preferred what was marvellous to what was best at- 
tested as really true. 


-* About the dayse “yrus and Daniel 


PS Se SS a ee a ee 


s 


708 


to suppose a second occasion, besides the for- 
mer, of these contradictions, it 1s this: that 
those who were the most zealous to write his 
tory were not solicitous for the discovery otf 
truth,* although it was very easy for them al 
ways to make such a profession; but their busi- 
ness was to demonstrate that they could write 
well, and make an impression upon mankind 
thereby; and in what manner of writing they 
thought they were able to exceed others, to that 
did they apply themselves. Some of them be- 
took themselves to the writing of fabulous nar 
rations; some of them endeavored to please 
the cities or the kings, by writing in their com- 
mendation; others of them fell to finding faults 
with transactions, or with the writers of such 
transactions, and thought to make a great figure 
by sodoing. And indeed these do what is of 
all things the most contrary to true history; 
for it is the great character of true history, that 
all concerned therein both speak and write the 
same things; while these men by writing dif- 
ferently about the same things, think they shall 
be believed to write with the greatest regard 
to truth. We, therefore, [who are Jews,] must 
yield to the Grecian writers as to language and 
eloquence of composition; but then we shall 
give them no such preference as to the verity 
of ancient history, and least of all as to that part 
which concerns the affairs of our several coun- 
tries, 

6. As to the care of writing down the records 
from the earliest antiquity among the Egyp- 
tians and Babylonians; that the priests were 
intrusted therewith, and employed a philoso- 
phical concern about it; that they were the 
Chaldean priests that did so among the Baby- 
lonians, and that the Phoenicians, who were 
mingled among the Greeks, did especially 
make use of their letters both for the common 
affairs of life, and for the delivering down the 
history of common transactions, I think I may 
omit any proof, because all men allow it so to 
be. But now as to our forefathers, that they 
took no less care about writing such records, 
(for I will not say they took greater care than 
the others I spoke of,) and that they committed 
that matter to their high priests and to their 
prophets, and that these records have been 
written all along down to our own times with 
the utmost accuracy; nay, if it be not too bold 

* It is here well worth our observation, what the reasons 
are that such ancient authors as Herodotus, Josephus, and 
others have been read to so little purpose by many learned 
critics, viz. that their main aim has not been chronology o1 
history, but philology, to know words and not things, they nog 
much entering oftentimes into the real contents of their au- 
thors, and judging which were the most accurate discover- 
ers of truth, and most to be depended on in their several 
histories, but rather inquiring who wrote the finest style and 
had the greatest elegance in their expressions, which are 
things of small consequence in comparison of the other. 
Thus, you will sometimes find great debates among the 
learned, whether Herodotus or Thucydides were the finest 
historians in the Ionic and Attic ways of writing, which sig- 
nify little as to the real value of each of their histories 
while it would be of much more moment to let the reader 
know that, as the consequence of Herodotus’s history 
which begins so much earlier, and reaches so much wide. 
than that of Thucydides; is, therefore, vastly greater; so ls 
the most part of Thucydides, which belongs to his own 


times, and fell under his own observation, much the mos: 
certain. 


o 


710 


for me to say it, our history will be so written 
hereafter,—J shall endeavor briefly to inform 
you. 

7. For our forefathers did not only appoint 
the best of these priests, and those that attend- 
ed upon the divine worship, for that design 
from the beginning, but made provision that 
the stock of the priests should continue un- 
mixed and pure; for he who is partaker of the 
priesthood must propagate of a wife of the 
game nation, without having any regard to 

maoney, or any other dignities; but he is to make 
‘a scrutiny, and take his wife’s genealogy from 
the ancient tables, and procure many witnesses 
toit.* And this is our practice not only in Ju- 
dea, but wheresoever any body of men of our 
nation do live; and even there an exact cata- 
logue of our priests’ marriages is kept; 1 mean 
at Egypt and at Babylon, or in any other place 
of the rest of the habitable earth, whitherso- 
ever our priests are scattered; for they send to 
Jerusalem the ancient names of their parents 
in writing, as well as those of their remoter 
ancestors, and signify who are the witnesses 
also. But if any war falls out, such as have 
fallen out a great many of therm already, when 
Antiochus Epiphanes made an invasion upon 
our country, as also when Pompey the Great 
and Quintilius Varus did so also, and princi- 
pally in the wars that have happened in our 
own times; those priests that survive them com- 
pose new tables of genealogy out of the old 
records, and examine the circumstances of the 
women that remain; for still they do not admit 
of those that have been captives, as suspecting 
that they had conversation with some foreign- 
ers. But what is the strongest argument of 
our exact management in this matter is what I 
am now going to say, that we have the names of 
our high priests from father to son set down in 
our records, for the interval of two thousand 
years, and if any of these have been trans- 
gressors of these rules, thev are prohibited to 
present themselves at the altar, or to be partak- 
ers of any other of our purifications: and this 
is justly, or rather necessarily done, because 
every one is not permitted of his own accord 
to be a writer, nor is there any disagreement 
in what is written; they being only prophets 
that have written the original and earliest ac- 
counts of things, as they learned them of God 
himself by inspiration; and others have written 
what hath happened in their own times, and 
that in a very distinct manner also. 

8. For we have not an innumerable multi- 
tude of books among us, disagreeing from and 
contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,] 
but only twenty-two books,} which contain the 
records of all the past times, which are justly 
believed to be divine. And of them, five be- 
long to Moses, which contain his laws and the 
traditions of the origin of mankind till his 


* Of this accuracy of the Jews, before and in our Savior’s 
time, in carefully preserving their genealogies all along, par- 
ticularly those of the priests, see. Josephus’s Life, sect. 1. 
This accuracy seems to have ended at the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Titus, or, however, at that by Adrian. 

¢ Which were these twenty-two sacred books of the Old 
Testament, see the Supplement to the Essay on the Old 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 








death. his interval -f time was Ettle shon 
of three thousand years; but as to the time 
from the death of Moses till the reign of Ar- 
taxerxes, king of Persia, who reigned after 
Xerxes; the prophets, who were after Moses, 


ee if 


wrote down what was done in their t.mes | 
thirteen books. The remaining four books 
contain hymns to God, and precepts for the 
conduct of human life. It is true our history 
hath been written since Artaxerxes very par- 
ticularly, but hath not been esteemed of the 
like authority with the former by our fore — 
fathers, because there hath not been an exact 
succession of prophets since that time: and 
how firmly we have given credit to these books — 
of our own nation, is evident by what we dos 
for during so many ages as have already pass- 
ed, no one hath been so bold as either to add 
any thing to them, to take any thing from them, 
or to make any change in them; but it is be 
come natural to all Jews, immediately and 
from their very birth, to esteem those books — 
to contain divine doctrines, and to persist — 
in them, and, if occasion be, willingly to die 
for them. For it is no new tking for our cap- 
tives, many of them in number, and frequently — 
in time, to be seen to endure racks and deaths 
of all kinds upon the theatres, that they may not” 
be obliged to say one word against our laws” 
and the records that contain them: whereas 
there are none at all among the Greeks who 
would undergo the Jeast harm on that account, 
no, nor in case all the writings that are among 
them were to be destroyed; for they take them 
to be such discourses as are framed agreeably 
to the inclinations of those that write them; 
and they have justly the same opinion of the 
ancient writers, since they see some of the pre- — 
sent generation bold enough to write about 
such affairs, wherein they were not present, 
nor had concern enough to inform themselves” 
about them from those that knew them; exam- 
ples of which may be had in this late war of — 
ours, where some persons have written histories _ 
and published theme without having been in” 
the places concerned, or having been near them > 
when the actions were done; but these men put 
a few things together by hearsay, and insolently 
abuse the world, and call these writings by the 
name of Histories. Be 
9. As for myself, I have composed a true” 
history of that whole war, and of all the par- 
ticulars that occurred therein, as having been 
concerned in all its transactions; for I acted w 
general of those among us that are named Gas | 
lileans, as long as it was possible for us to make 
any opposition. I was then seized on by the 
Romans, and became a captive: Vespasian also 
and Titus had me kept under a gnard, an 
forced me to attend them continually. At 
first I was put in bonds, but was set at .iberty 
afterward, and sent to accompany Titus when 














Testament, p. 25—29, viz. those we call canonical, all ex- 
cepting the Canticles; but still with this farther exception, - 
that the first book of apocryphal Esdras be taken into thé 
number, instead of our canonical Ezra, which seems to bet 
more than a later epitome of the other, which two books‘ 
Canticles and Ezra it no way appears that our Joseph 
ever saw. 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK I. 


he came from Alexandria to the siege of Je- 
_rusalem; during which time there was nothing 
done which escaped my knowledge; for what 
happened in the Roman camp I saw, and wrote 
down carefully; and what information the de- 
serters brought [out of the city,] I was the 
only man that understood them. Afterward I 
got leisure at Rome; and when all my mate- 
rials were prepared for that work, I made use 
of some persons to assist me in learning the 
_ Greek tongue, and by these means I composed 
the history of these transactions. ‘And I was 
so well assured of the truth of what I related, 
that I first of all appealed to those that had the 
supreme command in this war, Vespasian and 
Titus, as witnesses for me, for to them I pre- 
sented those books first of all, and after them 
to many of the Romans who had been in the 
war. lalso sold them to many of our own 
men who understood the Greek philosophy; 
among whom were Julius Archelaus, Herod 
[king of Chalcis,] a person of great gravity, 
and king Agrippa himself, a person that de- 
served the greatest admiration. Now all these 
men bore their testimony to me, that I had the 
strictest regard to truth; who yet would not 
have dissembled the matter, nor been silent, if 
I, out of ignorance, or out of favor to any side, 
either had given false colors to actions, or omit- 
ted any of them. 

10. 'There have been indeed some bad men, 
who have attempted to calumniate my history, 
and took it to be a kind of scholastic perform- 
ance, for the exercise of young men. A strange 
sort of accusation and calumny this! since 
every one that undertakes to deliver the histo- 
ry of actions truly, ought to know them accu- 
rately himself in the first place, as either hav- 
ing been concerned in them himself, or been 
informed of them by such as knew them. 
Now both these methods of knowledge I may 
very properly pretend to in the composition cf 
both my works; for, as I said, 1 have transla- 
ted the Antiquities out of our sacred books; 
which I easily could do, since I was a priest 
by my birth, and have studied that philosophy 
which is contained in those writings; and for 
the History of the War, I wrote it as having 
been an actor myself in many of its transac- 
tions, an eyewitness in the greatest part of the 
rest, and was not unacquainted with any thing 
whatsoever, that was either said or done in it. 
How impudent then must those deserve to be 
esteemed, who undertake to contradict me 
about the true state of those affairs! who al- 
_ though they pretend to have made use of both 
the emperor’s own memoirs, yet could not they 
be acquainted with our affairs who fought 
against them. 

11. This digression I have been obliged to 
make out of necessity, as being desirous to ex- 
pose the vanity of those that profess to write 
histories: and I suppose I have sufficiently de- 
clared that this custom of transmitting down 
the histories of ancient times hath been better 
preserved by those nations whicli are called 
Barbarians, than by the Greeks themselves. I 
- aim now willing, iz the next place, to say a few 


71 


things to those that endeavor to prove that ous 
constitution is but of late time, for this reason 
as they pretend, that the Greek writers have 
said nothing about us; after which I shall pro- 
duce testimonies for our antiquity out of the 
writings of foreigners: I shall also demonstrate 
that such as cast reproaches upon our nation 
do it very unjustly. 

_ 12. As for ourselves, therefore, we neither 
inhabit a maritime country, nor do we delight 
in merchandise, nor in such a mixture with 
other men as arises from it; but the cities we 
dwell in are remote from the sea, and having 3 
fruitful country for our habitation, we take 
pains in cultivating that only. Our principai 
care of all is this, to educate our children well, 
and we think it to be the most necessary busi- 
ness of our whole life, to observe the laws that 
have been given us, and to keep those rules of 
piety that have been delivered down to us. 
Since, therefore, besides what we have already 
taken notice of, we have had a peculiar way of 
living of our own, there was no occasion of- 
fered us in ancient ages for intermixing among 
the Greeks, as they had for mixing among the 
Egyptians, by their intercourse of exporting 
and importing their several goods; as they also 
mixed with the Pheenicians, who lived by the 
seaside, by means of their love of lucre in 
trade and merchandise. Nor did our fore- 
fathers betake themselves, as did some others, to 
robbery; nor did they, in order to gain more 
wealth, fall into foreign wars, although our 
country contained many ten thousands of men 
of courage sufficient for that purpose. For 
this reason it was that the Phenicians them 
selves came soon by trading and navigation to 
be known to the Grecians, and by their means 
the Egyptians became known to the Grecians 
also, as did all those people whence the Phew- 
nicians in long voyages over the seas carried 
wares to the Grecians. The Medes also and 
the Persians, when they were lords of Asia 
became well known to them; and this was ¢s- 
pecially true of the Persians, who led their ar- 
mies as far as the other continent [Europe.]} 
The Thracians were also known to them by 
the nearness of their countries, and the Scythi- 
ans by the means of those that sailed to Pon- 
tus; for it was so in general that all maritime 
nations, and those that inhabited near the east- 
ern or western seas, became most known 
to those that were desirous to be writers; but 
such as had their habitations farther from the 
sea were for the most part unknown to them: 
which things appeared to have happened as to 
Europe also, where the city of Rome, that 
hath this long time been possessed of so much 
power, and hath performed such great actions 
in war, is yet never mentioned by Herodotus, 
nor by Thucydides, nor by any one of their 
contemporaries; and it was very late, and witk 
great difficulty, that the Romans became known 
to the Greeks. Nay, those that were reckonea 
the most exact historians, and E;phorus for one, 
were so very ignorant of the Gauls and the 
Spaniards, that he supposed the Spaniards, whe 
inhabit so great a part of the western regions 


712 


of the earth, to be no more than one city. 
Those historians also have ventured to describe 
such customs as were made use of by them 
which they never had either done or said: and 
the reason why these writers did not know the 
truth of their affairs, was this, that they had not 
any commerce together; but the reason why 
they wrote such falsities was this, that they 
had a mind to appear to know things which 
others had not known. How can it then be 
any wonder, if our nation was no more known 
to many of the Greeks, nor had given them 
any occasion to mention them in their writings, 
while they were so remote from the sea, and. 

had a conduct of life so peculiar to themselves?) 
‘ 13. Let us now put the case, therefore, that 
we made use of this argument concerning the 
Grecians, in order to prove that our nation was 
not ancient, because nothing is said of them in 
our records: would not they laugh at us all, and 
probably give the same reasons for our silence 
that I have now alleged, and would produce 
their neighbor nations as witnesses to their own 
antiquity? Now the same thing will I endea- 
vor to do: for I will bring the Egyptians and the 
Pheenicians as my priucipal witnesses, because 
nobody can complain of their testimony as 
false, on account that they are known to have 
borne the greatest ill will towards us; I mean 
this as to the Egyptians in general all of them, 
while of the Phoenicians it is known the Ty- 
rians have been most of all in the same ill dis- 
position towards us; yet do I confess that I 
cannot say the same of the Chaldeans, since 
our first leaders and ancestors were derived 
from them, and they do make mention of us 
Jews in their records, on account of the kin- 
dred there is between us. Now, when I shall 
have made my assertions good, so far as con- 
cerns the others, I will demonstrate that some 
of the Greek writers have made mention of 
us Jews also, that those who envy us may not 
have even this pretence for contradicting what 
1 have said about our nation. 

14. I shall begin with the writings of the 
Egyptians; not, indeed, of those that have 
written in the Egyptian language, which it is 
impossible for me to do. But Manetho was a 
man who was by birth an Egyptian; yet had 
he made himself master of the Greek learning, 
as is very evident; for he wrote the history of 
hisown country in the Greek tongue, by trans- 
lating it, as he saith himself, out of their sa- 
ered records: he also finds great fault with He- 
rodotus for his ignorance and false relations of 
Egyptian affairs. Now this Manetho, in the se- 
cond book of his Egyptian history, writes con- 
cerning us in the following manner: I will set 
down his very words, as if I were to bring the 
very man himself into a court for a witness.— 
“There was a king of ours whose name was 
Timaus. Under him it came to pass, I know 
not how, that God was averse to us, and there 
came after a surprising manner, men of igno- 
ble birth out of the eastern parts, and had bold- 
mess enough to make an expedition into our 
eountry, and with ease subdued it by force, yet 
without our hazarding a battle withthem So 


FLAVIUS J OSEPHUS 





when they had gotten those fnat governed 

under their power, they afterward burnt down 
our cities, demolished the temples of the gods, 
and used all the inhabitants after a most barba- 
rous manner; nay, some they slew, and led 
their children and their wives into slavery. 
At length they made one of themselves king 
whose name was Salatis; he also lived at Mem- 
phis, and made both the upper and lower re- 
gions pay tribute, and left garrisons in placey 
that were the most proper for them. He chiefly 
aimed to secure the eastern parts, as foreseeing 

that the Assyrians, who had then the greatest 

power, would be desirous of that kingdom, and 
invade them; and as he found in the Saite No- 

mos, [Seth-roite,] a city very proper for his 
purpose, and which lay upon the Bubastic 

channel, but with regard to a certain theolo-— 
gic notion was called Avaris: this he rebuilt, 
and made very strong by the walls he built 

about it, and by a most numerous garrison of 

two hundred and forty thousand armed men 

whom he put into it to keep it. hither Sala- 

tis came in the summer-time, partly to gather 
his corn and pay his soldiers their wages, and 
partly to exercise his armed men, and thereby 

to terrify foreigners. When this man had 
reigned thirteen years; after bim reigned an-_ 
other, whose name was Beon, for forty-four 
years; after him reigned another, called A pach- 

nas, thirty-six years and seven months; after 
him Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and then 

Janias fifty years and one month; after all these — 
reigned Asis forty-nine years and two months. — 
Aud these six were the first rulers among them, © 
who were all along making war with the Egyp- 
tians, and were very desirous gradually to de- 
Stroy them to the very roots. This whole na-— 
tion was styled Hyesos, that is, shepherd-— 
kings; for the first syllable, Hyc, according to. 
the sacred dialect, denotes a king, as is Sos, a i 
shepherd; but this according to the ordinary 
dialect; and of these is compounded Hycsos: 
but some say that these people were Arabians.” _ 
Now, in another copy it is said, that this word 
oes not denote kings, but on the contrary de- © 
notes captive shepherds, and this on account of - 
the particle Hye; for that Hyc, with the aspira- 
tion, in the Egyptian tongue again denotes shep- 
herds, and that expressly also: and this to me 
seems the more probable opinion, and more — 
agreeable to ancient history. [But Manethe 

goes on:] “These people whom we have be 
forenamed kings, and called shepherds alse 
and their descendants,” as he says, “kept pos 
session of Egypt five hundred and eleven years: 
After these,” he says, “That the king of Thebas _ 
is and of the other parts of Egypt, made an in- 

surrection against the shepherds, and that there — 
a terrible and long war was made between 
them.” He says further, “That under a king, — 
whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the shep- 
herds were subdued by him, and were indeea 
driven out of other parts of Egypt, but wer 
shut up in a place that contained ten thousand 
acres: this place was named Avaris.” Mane- 
tho says, “That the shepherds built a wall round 
all this place, which was a large and a strong 




















AGAINST APION.—BOOK L 


wall, and this in order to keep all their posses- 
sions and their prey within a place of strength, 
but that Thummosis, the son of Alisphragmu- 
thosis, made an attempt to take them by force 
and by siege, with four hundred and eighty 
thousand men to lie round about them; but 
that, upon his despair of taking the place by 
hat siege, they came to a composition with 
them, that they should leave Egypt, and go 
without any harm to be done to them, whith- 
ersoever they would; and that after this com- 
position was made, they went away with 
their-whole families and effects, not fewer in 
number than two hundred and forty thousand, 
and took their journey from Egypt, through 
the wilderness, for Syria; but that as they were 
in fear of the Assyrians, who had then the do- 
minion over Asia, they built a city in that coun- 
try which is now called Judea, and that large 
en)ugh to contain this great number of men, 
and called it Jerusalem.”* Now Manetho, in 
another book of his, says, “That this nation, 
thus called shepherds, were also called captives 
in their sacred books.” And this account of 
his is the truth; for feeding of sheep was the 
employment} of our forefathers in the most an- 
cient ages, and as they led such a wandering 
life in feeding sheep, they were called shep- 
Lerds. .Nor was it without reason that they 
were called captives by the Egyptians, since 
one of our ancestors, Joseph, told the king of 
Egypt that he was a captive,t and afterward 
sent for his brethren into Egypt by the king’s per- 
mission. But as for these matters, I shall make 
# more exact inquiry about them elsewhere.|| 
15. But now I shall produce the Egyptians 
as witnesses to the antiquity of our nation. I 
shall, therefore, here bring in Manetho again, 
aud what he writes as to the order of the times 
ii) this case; and thus he speaks—“When this 
teople or shepherds were gone out of Egypt to 
Jerusalem, Tethmosis, the king of Egypt, who 
drove them out, reigned afterward twenty-five 
years and four months, and then died; after him 
his son Chebron took the kingdom for thirteen 
years; after whom came Amenophis, for twenty 
years and seven months; then came his sister 
Amesses, for twenty-one years and nine months; 
after her came Mephires, for twelve years and 
nine months, after him was Mephramuthosis, 
for twenty-five years and ten months; after him 
was Thmosis, for nine years and eight months; 
after him came Atmenophis, for thirty years and 
ten months; after him came Orus, for thirty- 
six years and five months; then came his 
deughter Acencheres, for twelve years and one 
month; then was her brother Rathotis, for nine 
years; then was Acencheres, for twelve years 
‘aud five months; then came another Acen- 


| * Here we have an account of the first building of the 
tity of Jerusalem, according to Manetho, when the Pheeni- 
/@ian shepherds were expelled out of Egypt, about thirty- 
‘#even years before Abraham came out of Haran. 
¢ Gen. xlvi. 33, 34; xlvii. 3, 4. 
_ {In our copies of the book of Genesis and of Josephus, 
diis Joseph never calls himself a captive, when he was with 
“the king of Egypt, though he does call himself a servant, a 
wane, or a captive, many times in the Testament of the 
twelve Patriarchs, under Joseph sect. 1, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16. 
{ This is now wanting 
90 


Vora. 


713 


cheres, for twelve years and three months; af- 
ter him Armais, for four years and one month; 
after him was Ramesses, for one year and four 
months; after him came Armesses Miammoun. 
for sixty years and two months; after him Ame- 
nophis, for nineteen years and six months; af- 
ter him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, who had 
an army of horse, and a naval force. This king 
appointed his brother Armais to be his deputy 
over Egypt. [In another copy it stood thus: 
After him came Sethosis, and Ramesses, two 
brethren, the former of whom had a naval force, 
and in a hostile manner destroyed those that 
met him upon the sea; but as he slew Rames- 
Ses in no long time afterward, so he appointed 
another of his brethren to be his deputy over 
Egypt.] He also gave him all the other au- 
thority of a king, but with these only injune- 
tions, that he should not wear the diadem, nor 
be injurious to the queen, the mother of his 
children, and that he should not meddle with 
the other concubines of the king, while he 
made an expedition against Cyprus and Phe- 
nicia, and besides against the Assyrians and 
the Medes. He then subdued them all, some 
by his arms, some without fighting, and some 
by the terror of his great army; and being puff- 
ed up by the great successes he had had, he went 
still on the more boldly, and overthrew the 
cities and countries that lay in the eastern parts. 
But after some considerable time Armais, who 
was left in Egypt, did all those very things, 
by way of opposition, which his brother had 
forbidden him to do, without fear; for he used 
violence to the queen, and continued to make 
use of the rest of the concubines, without 
sparing any of them: nay, at the persuasion of 
his friends, he put on the diadem, and set up 
to oppose his brother. But then, he who was 
set over the priests of Egypt, wrote letters 
to Sethosis, and informed him of all that had 
happened, and how his brother had set up to 
oppose him: he therefore returned back to Pelu- 
sium immediately, and recovered his kingdom 
again. “The country also was called from his 
name Egypt; for Manetho says, that Sethosis 
was himself called Egyptus, as was his brother 
Armais called Danaus.”* 

16. This is Manetho’s account. And evi- 
dent it is from the number of years by him set 
down belonging to this interval, if they be sum- 
med up together, that these shepherds, as they 
are here called, who were no other than our 
forefathers, were delivered out of Egypt, and 


* Of this Egyptian chronology of Manetho, as taken by 
Josephus, and of these Pheenician shepherds, as falsely sup- 
posed by him, and others after him, to have been the Israel 
ites in Hgypt, see Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, 
page 182—188. And note here that when Josephus telle 
us that the Greeks or Argives looked on this Danaus as 
ne %%so'r et og, a most ancient, or the most ancient king of Argos, 
he cannot be supposed to mean, in the strictest sense, tha: 
they had no one king so ancient as he, for its certain thai 
they owned nine kings before him, and Inachus at the head 
of them; see Authentie Records, partii. p. 983; as Josephus 
could not but know very well; but that he was esteemed as 
very ancient by them, and that they knew they had been 
first of all denominated, Danat, from this very ancient king 
Danaus. Nor does this superlative degree always imply the 
most uncient of all without exception, but is sometimes te 
be rendered very ancient only, as is the case in the like su 
perlative degrees of other words also, 


‘ 


714 


came thence, and inlLabited this country, three 
hundred and ninety-three years before Danaus 
came to Argos; although the Argives look upon 
him as their most ancient king.*. Manetho, 
therefore, bears this testimony to two points of 
the greatest consequence to our purpose, and 
those from the Egyptian records themselves. 
In the first place, that we came out of another 
eounuy into Egypt; and that withall, our deli- 
yerance out of it was so ancient in time as to 
have preceded the siege of Troy almost a thou- 
sand years;* but then, as to those things which 
Manetho adds, not from the Egyptian records, 
but, as he confesses himself, from some stories 
of an uncertain original, I will disprove them 
hereafter particularly, and shall demonstrate 
that they are no better than incredible fables. 
17. I will now, therefore, pass from these 
records, and come.to those that belong to the 
Pheenicians, and concern our nation, and shall 
produce attestations to what I have said out of 
them. There are, then, records among the 
Tyrians, that take in the history of many years, 
and these are public writings, and are kept with 
great exactness, and include accounts of the 
facts done among them, and such as concern 
their transactions with other nations also, those 
I mean which were worth remembering.— 
Therein it was recorded, that the temple was 
built by king Solomon at Jerusalem, one hun- 
dred forty-three years and eight months before 
the Tyrians built Carthage; and in their annals 
the building of our temple is related; for Hi- 
rom, the king of Tyre, was the friend of Solo- 
mon our king, and had such friendship trans- 
mitted down to him from his forefathers. He 
thereupon was ambitious to contribute to the 
splendor of this edifice of Solomon’s, and 
made him a present of one hundred and twen- 
ty talents of gold. He also cut down the most 
excellent timber out of that mountain which 
's called Libanus, and sent it to him for adorn- 
ing the roof. 
many other presents, by way of requital, but 
gave him acountry in Galilee also, that was 
called Chabulon.+ But there was another 
passion, a philosophic inclination of theirs, 
which cemented the friendship that was be- 
twixt them; for they sent mutual problems to 
one another, with a desire to have them unrid- 
dled by each other; wherein Solomon was su- 
perior to Hirom as he was wiser than he in 
other respects: and many of the epistles that 
passed between them are still preserved among 
the Tyrians. Now that this may not depend 
on my bare word, I will produce for a witness 
Dius, one that is believed to have written the 
Phoenician history after an accurate manner. 
This Dius, therefore, writes thus in his history 
of the Phaenicians: “Upon the death of Abiba- 
lus, his son Hirom took the kingdom. This 
king raised banks at the eastern parts of the 
city and enlarged it; he also joined the temple 
of Jupiter Olympus, which stood before on an 
island by itself, to the city, by raising a cause- 
way between them, and adorned that temple 
with donations of gold. He moreover went 


* See the preceding note. ¢ 1 Kings ix. 13. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 


Solomon also not only made him | 










up to Libanus, and had timber cut down 
the building of temples. They say farther, that 
Solomon, when he was king of Jerusalem; sent 
problems to Hirom to be solved, and desired 
he would send others back for him to solve, 
and that he who could not solve the problems 
proposed to him, should pay money to him that 
solved them. And when Hirom had agreed to 
the proposals, but was not able to solve the 
problems, he was obliged to pay a great deal of 
money as a penalty for the same. As also they 
relate, that one Abdemon, a man of Tyre, did 
solve the problems, and propose others which 
Solomon could not solve, upon which he was” 
obliged to repay a great deal of money to Hi- 
rom.” These things are attested to by Dius, 
and confirm what we have said upon the same 
subjects before. 4 
18. And now I shall add Menander the 
Ephesian, as an additional witness. ‘This Me- 
nander wrote the acts that were done both by 
the Greeks and Barbarians undet every one of 
the Tyrian kings, and had taken much pains to” 
learn their history out of their own records, 
Now, when he was writing about those kings 
that had reigned in Tyre, he came to Hirom, 
and says thus: “Upon the death of Abibalus, 
his son Hirom took the kingdom; he lived fif-— 
ty-three years, and reigned thirty-four. He 
raised a bank on that called the Broad Place, 
and dedicated that golden pillar which is in 
Jupiter’s temple; he also went and cut down 
timber from the mountain called Libanus, and” 
got timber of cedar for the roofs of the tem- 
ples. He also pulled down the old temples, 
and built new ones: besides this, he consecra- 
ted the temples of Hercules and of Astarte. 
He first built Hercules’s temple in the month 
Peritius, and that of Astarte, when he mad 
his expedition against the Tityans, who would ; 
not pay him their tribute and when he had 
subdued them to himself, he returned home 
Under this king there was a younger son of” 
Abdemon, who mastered the problems which 
Solomon king of Jerusalem had recommended 
to be solved.” Now the time from this king to” 
the building of Carthage is thus calculated: 
“Upon the death of Hirom, Beleazarus his son 
took the kingdom; he lived forty-three years, 
and reigned seven years: after him succeeded 
his son Abdastartus: he lived twenty-nine 
years and reigned nine years. Now four sons of — 
his nurse plotted against him, and slew him, 
the eldest of whom reigned twelve years: af- 
ter them came Astartus, the son of Deleastar- 
tus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned 
twelve years; after him came his brother Ase 
rymus, he lived fifty-four years, and reigned 
nine years; he was slain by his brother Pheles, 
who took the kingdom, and reigned but eigh 
months though he lived fifty years; he wa 
slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, wh 
reigned thirty-two years; and lived sixty-e 
years: he was succeeded by his son Bade 
who lived forty-five years, and reigned six year 
he was succeeded by Matgenus, his son; h 
lived thirty-two years, and reigned nine year 
Pygmalion succeeded him: he lived fi 























AGAINST APION.—BOOK I. 


years, and reigned forty-seven years. Now, 
‘in the seventh year of his reign, his sister fled 
away from him, and built the city Carthage, in 
Libya.” So the whole time from the reign of 
Hirom, till the building of Carthage, amounts 
to the sum of one hundred fifty-five years and 
eight months. Since then the temple was built 
at Jerusalem, in the twelfth year of the reign 
of Hirom, there were from the building of the 
temple until the building of Carthage, one 
hundred forty-three years and eight months. 
Wherefore, what occasion is there for alleging 
any more testimonies out of the Pheenician 
histories, [on the behalf of our nation,] since 
what I have said is so thoroughly confirmed 
already? And, to be sure, our ancestors came 
into this country long before the building of 
the temple; for it was not till we had gotten 
possession of the whole land by war, that we 
built our temple. And this is the point that I 
have clearly proved out of our sacred writings 
in my Antiquities. 

19. I will now relate what hath been written 
concerning us in the Chaldean histories, which 
records have a great agreement with our books 
in other things also. Berosus shall be witness 
to what I say; he was by birth a Chaldean, 
well known by the learned on account of his 
publication of the Chaldean books of astrono- 
my and philosophy among the Greeks. This 
Berosus, therefore, following the most ancient 
records of that nation, gives us a history of 

the deluge of waters that then happened, and 
of the destruction of mankind thereby, and 
agrees with Moses’s narration thereof. He also 
gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, 
the origin of our race, was preserved, when it 
was brought to the highest part of the Arme- 
nian mountains: after which he gives us a ca- 
talogue of the posterity of Noah, and adds the 
years of their chronology, and at length comes 
down to Nabolassar, who was king of Baby- 
lon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was 
relating the acts of this king, he describes to us, 
“How he sent hisson Nabuchodonosor against 
Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, 
upon his being informed that they had revolted 
from him: and how, by that means, he subdu- 
ed them all, and set our temple that was at Je- 
tusalem on fire; nay and removed our people 
entirely out of their own country, and trans- 
ferred them to Babylon; when it so happened 
that our city was desolate, during the inter- 
val of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus 
king of Persia.” He then says, that “this Baby- 
‘onian ding conquered Egypt, and Syria, and 
Pheenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his ex- 
ae all that had reigned before him in Baby- 
fon and Chaldea.” A little after which, Bero- 
sus subjoins what follows in his history of an- 
gient times: I will set down Berosus’s own ac- 
counts, which are these: “When Nabolassar, 
father of Nabuchodonosor, heard that the go- 
‘yvernor whom he had set over Egypt and over 
the parts of Celosyra and Phoenicia, had re- 
volted from him, he was not able to bear it any 
longer, but committing certain parts of his army 
to his son Nahuchodonosor, who was then but 


715 


young, he sent him against tne rebel: Nabv- 
chodonosor joined battle with him and conquer 
ed him, and reduced the country under his do- 
minion again. Now it so fell out, that his 
father Nabolassar fell into a distemper at this 
time, and died in the city of Babylon after he 
had reigned twenty-nine years, Butas he un- 
derstood, in a little time, that his father Nabo- 
lassar was dead, he set the affairs of Egypt, 
and the other countries, in order, and commit- 
ted the captives he had taken from the Jews 
and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and of the na 

tions belonging to Egypt, to some of his friends, 
that they might conduct that part of the forces 
that had on heavy armor, with the rest of his 
baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in haste, 
having but a few with him, over the desert to 
Babylon; whither when he was come, he found 
the public affairs had been managed by the 
Chaldeans, and that the principal persons among 
them had preserved the kingdom for him. Ac- 
cordingly he now entirely obtained all his 
father’s dominions. He then came and order- 
ed the captives to be placed as colonies in the 
most proper places of Babylonia: but for him- 
self, he adorned the temple of Belus, and the 
other temples, after an elegant manner, out of 
the spoils he had taken in this war. He also 
rebuilt the old city, and added another to it on 
the outside, and so far restored Babylon, that 
none who should besiege it afterward might 
have it in their power to divert the river, so as. 
to facilitate an entrance into it; and this he did 
by building three walls about the inner city, 
and three about the outer. Some of these 
walls he built of burnt brick and bitumen, and: 
some of brick only. So when he had thus for- 
tified the city with walls, after an excellent 
manner, and had adorned the gates magnifi- 
cently, he added a new palace to that which hig. 
father had dwelt in, and this close by it also, 
and that more eminent in its height, and in its 
great splendor. [It would perhaps require too 
long a narration, if any one were to describe 
it: however, as prodigiously large, and as mag- 
nificent as it was, it was finished in fifteen days. 
Now in this palace he erected very high walks, 
supported by stone pillars, and by planting what 
was called a pensile paradise, and_replenish- 
ing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the 
prospect an exact resemblance of a mountain- 
ous country. This he did to please his queen, 
because she had been brought up in Media, and 
was fond of a mountainous situation.” 

20. This is what Berosus relates concerning 
the forementioned king, as he relates many 
other things about him also in the third book 
of his Chaldean history; wherein he complains 
of the Grecian writers for supposing, without 
any foundation, that Babylon was built by Se. 
miramis* queen of Assyria, and for her false 
pretence to those wonderful edifices thereto re- 
lating, as if they were her own workmanship; 
as indeed in these affairs the Chaldean history 

* The great improvement that Nebuchadnezzar made ig 
the building of Babylon, do no way contradict those ancient: 
and authentic testimonies which ascribe its first building: 


to Nimrod, and its first rebuiiding to Semiram*, 3s Berosus 
seems here to suppose. 


716 


cannot ut be the most credible. Moreover 
we meet with a confirmation of what Berosus 
gays in the archives of the Phoenicians, con- 
cerning this king Nabuchodonosor, that he con- 
quered all Syria and Phoenicia; in which case 
Philostratus agrees with the others in that 
nistory which he composed, where he men- 
tions the siege of Tyre; as does Megasthenes 
also, in the fourth book of his Indian history, 
wherein he pretends to prove that the foremen- | 
tioned king of the Babylonians was superior 
to Hercules in strength, and the greatness of 
bis exploits: for he says that he conquered a 
great part of Libya, and conquered Iberia also. ! 
Now as to what I have said before about the | 
temple at Jerusalem, that it was fought against 
by the Babylonians, and burnt by them, but 
was opened again when Cyrus had taken the 
kingdom of Asia, shall be now demonstrated 
from what Berosus adds further upon that head; 
for thus he says in his third book: “Nabucho- | 
donosor, after he had begun to build the fore- 
mentioned wall, fell sick, and departed this 
life, when he had reigned forty-three years; 
whereupon his son Evilmerodach obtained the 
kingdom. He governed public affairs after 
in illegal and impure manner, and had a plot 
aid against him by Neriglissor, his sisier’s hus- 
oand, and was slain by him when he had 
ceigned but two years. After he was slain, 
Neriglissor, the person who plotted against 
him, succeeded him in the kingdom, and 
reigned four years; his son Laborosoarchod 
obtained the kingdom, though he were buta 
child, and kept it nine months, but by reason 
of the very ill temper and ill practices he ex- 
hibited to the world, a plot was laid against 
him also by his friends, and he, was tormented 
todeath. Afier his death the conspirators got 
together, and by common consent put the crown 
upon the head of Nabonned1is, a man of Baby- 
lon, and one who belonged to that insurrection. 
In his reign it was that the walls of the city of 
Babylon were curiously built with burnt brick 
and bitumen; but when he was come to the 
seventeenth year of his reign, Cyrus came out 
of Persia, with a great army, and having al- 
ready conquered all the rest of Asia, he came 
hastily to Babylonia. When Nabonnedus per- 
ceived he was coming to attack him, he met 
him with his forces, and joining battle with 
him, was beaten, and fled away with a few of 
his troops with him and was shut up within the 
city of Borsippus. Hereupon Cyrus took Baby- 
lon, and gave order that the outer walls of the 
city should be demolished, because the city 
hud proved very troublesome to him, and 
eost him a great deal of pains to take it. He 
then marched away to Barsippus, to besiege 
Nabonnedus; but as Nabonnedus did not sus- 
tai the siege, but delivered himself into his 
hands, he was at first kindly used by Cyrus, 
who gave him Carmania, as a place for him to 
inhabit in, but sent him out of Babylonia, 
Accordingly N«viinmeaus spent the rest of his 
time in that country, and there died.” 

21. These accounts agree with the true histo- 
ries in our books: for im them it is written, that 


FLAVIUg JOSEPHUS 







Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of 
reign*, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in 
that state of obscurity for fifty years: but 
in the second year of the reign of Cyrus, its — 
foundations were laid, and it was finished again — 
in the second year of Darius.} 1 will now add 
the records of the Phoenicians; for it will not — 
be superfluous to give the reader demonstrations — 
more than enough on this occasion. In them — 
we have this enumeration of the times of their 
several kings: “Nabuchodonosor besieged Tyre — 
for thirteen years, in the days of Ithobal, thei 
king; after him reigned Baal, ten years; after 
him were judges appointed, who judged the 
people. Ecnibalus, the son of Baslacus, two 
months; Chelbes, the son of Abdeus, ten 
months; Abbar, the high priest, three months; 
Mitgonus and Gerastratus, the sons of Abdele- - 
mus, were judges six years; after whom Bela- 
torus reigned one year; after his death they 
sent and fetched Merabalus from Babylon, who 
reigned four years; after his death they sent 
for his brother Hirom, who reigned twenty 
ears. Under his reign Cyrus became king of 
ersia.” So that the whole interval is ity 
four years besides three months; for on 
seventh year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, © 
he began to besiege Tyre, and Cyrus the Pers 
sian took the kingdom on the fourteenth year 
of Hirom. So that the records of the Chal- 
deans and Tyrians agree with our writings 
about this temple; and the testimonies here 
produced are an indisputable and undeniable 
attestation to the antiquity of our nation. And 
I suppose that what I have already said may be 
sufficient to such as are not very contentious, 
22, But now it is proper to satisfy the in- 
quiry of those that disbelieve the records of 
Barbarians, and think none but Greeks to be 
worthy of credit, and to produce many of 
these very Greeks who were acquainted with — 
our nation, and to set before them such as upon 
occasion have made mention of us in their 
own writings. Pythagoras, therefore, of Samos 
lived in very ancient times, and was esteemed 
a person superior to all philosophers in wisdom — 
and piety towards God. Now it is plain that_ 
he did not only know our doctrines, but was in 
a very great measure a follower and admirer of 
them. There is not indeed extant any writing 
that is owned for his;{ but many there are who 
have writtten his history, of whom Hermippus — 
is the most celebrated, who was a person very 
inquisitive into all sorts of history. Now this 


* This number in Josephus, that Nebuchadnezzard 
ed the temple in the 18th year of his reign, is a mistake in 
the nicety of chronology; for it was in the 19th. ‘ 

+ The true number here for the year of Darius, 









work was interrupted till the second of Darius, when in & 
ven years it was finished, on the ninth of Darius. 
t This is a thing well known by the learned, that we ere 
not sure that we have any genuine writings of Pythagoras: 
those Golden verses, which are his best remains, bein 
erally supposed to have been written not by himself, but by 
some of his scholars only, in agreement with what Josenp 
per effrma of him. : 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK I. 


Hermippus, in his first book concerning Py- 
thagoras, speaks thus: “That Pythagoras, upon 
the death of one of his associates, whose name 
was Calliphon, a Crotoniate by birth, affirmed 
that this man’s soul conversed with him both 
night and day, and enjoined him not to pass 
over a place where an ass had fallen down; as 
also not to drink such waters as caused thirst 
again; and to abstain from all sorts of re- 
proaches.” After which he adds thus: “This 
he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of 
the Jews and Thracians, which he transferred 
into his own philosophy.” For it 1s very truly 
affirmel of this Pythagoras, that he took a 
great many of the laws of the Jews ‘into his 
own philosophy. Nor was our nation un- 
Known of old to several of the Grecian cities, 
and indeed was thought worthy of imitation by 
some of them. This is declared by Theo- 
phrastus, in his writings concerning laws: for 
he says, “That the laws of the Tyrians forbade 
men to swear foreign oaths.” Among which 
he enumerates some others, and particularly 
that called Corban; which oath can only be 
found among the Jews, and declares what a 
man may call a thing devoted to God. Nor in- 
deed was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unac- 
quainted with our nation, but mentions it after 
a way of his own, when he saith thus, in his 
second book concerning the Colchians. His 
words are these: “The only people who were 
circumcised in their privy members originally, 
were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the 
Ethiopians; but the Phoenicians, and those Sy- 
rians that are in Palestine, confess that they 
learned it from the Egyptians. And for those 
Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon 
and Parthenius, and their neighbors the Ma- 
crones, they say they have lately learned it 
from the Colchians; for these are the only 
people that are circumcised among mankind, 
and appear to have done the very same thing 
with the Egyptians. But as for the Egyptians 
and Ethiopians themselves, I am not able to say 
which of them received it from the other.” This 
therefore is what Herodotus says, “That the Sy- 
rians that are in Palestine are circumcised.” 
But there are no inhabitants of Palestine that are 
‘circumcised excepting the Jews; and therefore 
it must be his knowledge of them that enabled 
him to speak so much concerning them. Che- 
rilus* also, a still ancienter writer, and a poet, 
makes mention of our nation, and informs us 
that it came to the assistance of king Xerxes, 


* Whether these verses of Cherilus, the heathen poet, in 
the days of Xerxes, belong to the Solymi in Pisidia, that 
were near a small lake, or to the Jews that dwelt on the 
Solymean or Jerusalem mountains, near the great and broad 
lake Asphaltitis. that were a strange people, and spoke the 
Pheenician tongue, is not agreed on by thelearned. It isyet 
certain that Josephus here, and Eusebius, Prep. ix. 9, p. 412, 
took them to be Jews; and I confess I cannot but very 
much incline to the same opinion. The other Solymi were 
not a strange people, but heathen idolators, like the other 
_ parts of Xerxes’s army; and that these spoke the Phenician 
tongue is next to impossible, as the Jews certainly did; nor 
is there the least evidence for it elsewhere. Nor was the 
iake adjoining the mountains of the Solymi at all large or 
proad in comparison of the Jewish lake Asphaltitis; nor, in- 
deed were they so considerable a people as the Jews, nor 
so likely to be desired by Xerxes for his army as the Jews, 
to whom he was always very favorable. As fort’ rest of 


71 


in his expedition against Greece. For in his 
enumeration of all those nations, he last of all 
inserts Ours among the rest, when he says, “At 
the last there passed over a people, wonderful 
to be beheld, for they spoke the Phoenician 
tongue with their mouths; tney dweit in the 
Solymean mountains, near a broad lake: their 
heads were sooty, they had round rasures on 
them; their heads and faces were like nasty 
horses’ heads also, that had been hardened in 
the smoke.” I think, therefore, that it is evi- 
dent to every body, that Cherilus means us, be- 
cause the Solymean mountains are in our 
country, wherein we inhabit, as is also the lake 
called Asphaltitis; for this is a broader and lar- 
ger lake than any other that is in Syria: and 
thus does Cherilus make mention of us. But 
now, that not only the lowest sort of the Gre- 
cians, but those that are had in the greatest ad- 
miration for their philosophic improvements 
among them, did not only know the Jews, but, 
when they lighted upon any of them, admir- 
ed them also, it is easy for any one to know 
for Clearchus, who was the scholar of Aris- 
totle, and inferior to no one of the Peripatetics 
whomsoever, in his first book, concerning sleep, 
says, “That Aristotle his master related what 
follows of a Jew,” and sets down Aristotle’s 
own discourse with him. The account is this, 
as written down by him: “Now, for a great part 
of what this Jew said, it would be too long 
to recite it, but what includes in it both won- 
der and philosophy, it may not be amiss to dis- 
course of: Now, that I may be plain with thee, 
Hyperochides, I shall herein seem to thee to 
relate wonders, and what will resemble dreams 
themselves. Hereupon Hyperochides answer- 
ed modestly, and said, For that very reason it 
is that all of us are very desirous of hearing 
what thou art going to say, Then, replied 
Aristotle, For this cause it will be the best way 
to imitate that rule of the rhetoricians; which 
requires us first to give an account of the man, 
and of what nation he was, that so we mav 
not contradict our master’s directions. Then 
said Hyperochides, Go on, if it so pleases thee. 
This man then, [answered Aristotle,] was by 
birth a Jew, and came from Ceelosyria: these 
Jews are derived from the Indian philosophers: 
they are named by the Indians Calami, and by 
the Syrians Sudei, and took their name from 
the country they inhabit, which is called Judea: 
but for the name of their city it is a very awk- 
ward one, for they call it Jerusalem. Now 


Cherilus’s description, that their heads were sooty; that they 
had round rasures on their heads; that their heads and faces 
were like nasty norses’ heads, which had been hardened in the 
smoke: these awkward characters probably fitted the Solymi 
of Pisidia no better than they did the Jews in Judea. And, in- 
deed, this reproachful language here given these people, 1s te 
me a strong indication that they are the poor despicable Jews 
and not the Pisidian Solymi celebrated in Homer, whom 
Cherilus here describes; nor are we to expect that either 
Cherilus or Hecateus, or any other Pagan writers, cited by 
Josephus and Eusebius, made no mistakes in the Jewish his- 
tory. If, by comparing their testimonies with the more au- 
thentic records of that nation, we find them, for the main, 
to confirm the same, as we almost always do, we ought te 
be satisfied,and not expect that they ever had an exact 
knowledge of all the circumstances of the Jewish affairs, 
which, indeed, it was almost always impossible for them te 
have; see sect. 23. 


718 


this man, wher: ne was hospitably ucated by a 
great many, came down from the upper coun- 
try to the places near the sea, and became a 
Grecian, not only in his language, but in his 
soul also; insomuch that when we ourselves 
happened to be in Asia about the same places 
whither he came, he conversed with us, and 
with other philosophical persons, and made 
a trial of our skil) in philosophy; and as he 
had lived with many learned men, he commu- 
nicated to us more information than he receiv- 
ed from us.” This is Aristotle’s account of 
the matter, as given us by Clearchus; which 
Aristotle discoursed also particularly of the 
great and wonderful fortitude of this Jew in 
his diet, and continent way of living, as those 
that please may learn more about him from 
Clearchus’s book itself, for I avoid setting 
down any more than is sufficient for my pur- 
pose. Now Clearchus said this by way of di- 
gression, for his main design was of another 
nature. But for Hecateus of Abdera, who was 
both a philosopher and one very useful in an 
active life, he was contemporary with king 
Alexander in his youth, and afterward was 
with Ptolemy, the son of Lagus: he did not 
write about the Jewish affairs by-the-by only, 
but composed an entire book concerning the 
Jews themselves, out of which book I am 
willing to run over a few things, of which I 
have been treating, by way of epitome. And 
in the first place, I will demonstrate the time 
when this Hecateus lived; for he mentions the 
time when this Hecateus lived; for he men- 


tions the fight that was between Ptolemy and 
Demetrius about Gaza, which was fought on 
the eleventh year after the death of Alexander 
and on the hundred and seventeenth olympiad, 
as Castor says in his history. For when he 
had set down this olympiad, he says further, 
“That orn this olympiad, Ptolemy, the son of 
Lagus, beat in battle Demetrius, the son of An- 
tigonus, who was named Poliorcetes, at Gaza.” 
Now, it is agreed by all, that Alexander died 
on the hundred and fourteenth olympiad: it is, 
therefore, evident that our nation flourished in 
his time, and in the time of Alexander. Again 
Hecateus says to the same purpose, as follows: 
“Ptolemy got possession of the places in Syria 
after that battle at Gaza; and many, when they 


heard of Ptolemy’s moderation and humanity, 


went along with him to Egypt, and were will- 
ing to assist him in his affairs; one of which 
(Hecateus says) was Hezekiah,* the high priest 
of the Jews, a man of about sixty-six years of 
age, and in great dignity among his own peo- 
ple. He was a very sensible man, and could 
speak very movingly, and was very skilful in 
the management of affairs, if any other man 
ever were so; although, as he says, all the 


priests of the Jews took tithes of the products | 
of the earth, and managed public affairs, and | 


were in number not above fifteen hundred at 


* This Hezekiah, who is here called a high priest, is not | the truth. The 50 furlongs in compass for the city Jerus 
named in Josephus‘s catalogue; the real high priest at that | lem presently, are not very wide from the truth also, as J 


time being rather Onias, as Archbisho 


Usher supposes. 
H2wever, Josephus often uses the wor 


e» Antiq. b. xx ch viii sect & 


FLAVIUS JUSEPHUS 


high priest in the | sect. 3, makes its wall 33 furlongs, besides the suburbs a 
plural number, as living many at the same time; see the note | gardens; nay, he seys, b. v. ch. xii. sect. 2 that Titus’s 













































the most.” Hecateus ucuuiens this Hezekral 
a second time, aad says, that “as he was pos. 
sessed of so great a dignity, and was become 
familiar with us, so did he take certain of those 
that were with him, and explained to them all 
the circumstances of their people; for he had 
all their habitations and polity down in writing.” 
Moreover, Hecateus declares again, “what re- 
gard we have for our laws, and that we resolve 
to endure any thing rather than transgress them, — 
because we think it right for us to do so.”— 
Whereupon he adds, that “although they are — 
in a bad reputation among their neighbors, and — 
among all those that come to them, and have ~ 
been often treated injuriously by the kings and — 
governors of Persia, yet can they not be dis- 
suaded from acting but what they think best; — 
but that when they are stripped on this account ~ 
and have torments inflicted upon them, and 
they are brought to the most terrible kinds of — 
death, they meet them after an extraordinary 
manner, beyond all other people, and will not — 
renounce the religion of their forefathers.” 
Hecateus also produces demonstrations not a 
few of this their resolute tenaciousness of their ~ 
laws, when he speaks thus: “Alexander was 
once at Babylon, and had an intention to ree 
build the temple of Belus that was fallen to 
decay, and in order thereto, he commanded all” 
his soldiers in general to bring earth thither; — 
but the Jews, and they only, would not come 
ply with that command; nay, they underwent 
stripes and great losses of what they had on ~ 
this account, till the king forgave them, and — 
permitted them to live in quiet.” He adds 

farther, “That when the Macedonians came — 
to them into that country, and demolished the — 
[old] temples and the altars, they assisted them 
in demolishing them all;* but [for not assisting 
them in rebuilding them] they either under- — 
went losses, or sometimes obtained forgive- 
ness.” He adds farther, “That these men de 
serve to be admired on that account.” He also — 
speaks of the mighty populousness of our Da 
tion, and says, “That the Persians formerly 
carried away many ten thousands of our peo- 
ple to Babylon, as also that not a few ten thoa- 
sands were removed after Alexander’s death 
into Egypt and Pheenicia, by reason of the 
dition that was arisen in Syria.” The same 
person takes notice in his history how le 
the country is in which we inhabit, as well a 
of its excellent character, and says, “That the 
land in which the Jews inhabit contains three 
millions of aroure,t and is generally of a most 


* So I read the text with Havercamp, though ihe place bg 
aifficult. me 

t This number of arour® or i acres, 3,000,00¢ 
each aroura containing a square of 100 Egyptian cubit 
(being about three-quarters of an English acre, and. jas 
twice the area of the court of the Jewish tabernacle, 
as contained in the country of Judea, will be about one 
third of the entire number of aroure in the whole land of 
Judea, supposing it 160 measured miles long, and 70 sue 
miles broad; which estimation for the fruitful parts of it, & 
perhaps, here in Hecateus, is not, therefore, very wide fro 


me 


sephus himself describes it, who, Of the War b. v. ch. ff 


Aa 


about it at some small distance, after the gardens 


_gxcellent and most fruitful soil; nor is Judea of 
_ .esser dimensions.” 


The same man describes 
9ur city Jerusalem also itself, as of a most ex- 
cellent structure, and very large, and inhabited 
from the most ancient times. He also dis- 


courses of the multitude of men in it, and of 


the construction of our temple, after the fol- 


» lowing manner: “There are many strong places 


and villages, says he, in the country of Judea; 


but one strong city there is, about fifty furlongs 


- jn circumference, which is inhabited by a hun- 


d and twenty thousand men, or thereabouts:* 

ey call it Jerusalem. ‘There is, about the 
middle of the city, a wall of stone, whose 
kength is five hundred feet, and the breadth a 
hundred cubits, with double cloisters; wherein 
there is a square altar, not made of hewn 
stone, but composed of white stones gathered 
together having each side twenty cubits long, 
and its altitude ten cubits. Hard by it isa large 


_ edifice, wherein there is an altar and a candle- 


_ stick both of gold, and in weight two talents: 


upon these there is a light that is never extin- 


_ guished, neither by night nor by day. There 


=_—= 


= 


| grove, nor any thing of that sort. 


_ is no image, nor any thing, nor any donations 


therein: nothing at all is there planted, neither 
The priests 
abide therein both nights and days, performing 
certain, purifications, and drinking not the least 
trop of wine while they are in the temple.” 
Moreover, he attests, that we Jews went as aux- 


_iliaries along with king Alexander, and. after 


him with his successors. I will add farther 


' what he says he learned, when he was him- 


- among the Greeks or barbarians. 


self with the same army, concerning the ac- 
tions of a man that was a Jew. His words are 
these: “As I was myself going to the Red Sea, 
there followed us a man, whose name was Mo- 
sollam: he was one of the Jewish horsemen 
who conducted us; he was a person of great 
courage, of a strong body, and by all allowed 
to be the most skilful archer that was either 
Now, this 
man, as people were in great numbers passing 
along the road, and a certain augur was obsery- 
ing an augury by a bird, and requiring them 
all to stand still, inquired what they staid for. 
Hereupon the augur showed him the bird from 


whence he took his augury, and told him, that 


a 


er 








| Josephus, which was at least 300 years. 





if the bird staid where he was, they ought all 
to stand still; but that if he got up and flew 
onward, they must go forward, but that if he 
flew backward, they must retire again. Mo- 
sollam made no reply, but drew his bow, and 
shot at the bird, and hit him, and killed him; 
and as the augur and some others were very 


barbs were destruyed, was not less than 39 furlongs. Nor, 


| perhaps, were its constant inhabitants in the days of Heca- 
, teus, many more than these 120,000, because room was al- 


ways to be left for vastly greater numbers which came up at 
_the three great festivals; to say nothing of the probable in- 
erease in their number between the days of Hecateus and 
But see a more 
Guthentic account of some of these measures in my descrip- 
don of the Jewish temples. However, we are not to expect 
| that such heathens as Cherilus, or Hecateus, or the rest that 
fre cited by Josephus and Eusebius, could avoid making 
‘Many mistakes in the Jewish history, while yet they strongly 


‘tonfirm the same history in the general, and are the most 
| valuable attestations to those more authentic accounts we 


‘Mave in the Scriptures ani Josephus concerning them. 
* See the preceding note. 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK 12 


719 


angry, and wished imprecations upon him, he 
answered them thus: “Why are you so mad as 
to take this most unhappy bird into your hands? 
for how can this bird give us any true informa- 
tion concerning our march, who could not 
foresee how to save himself; for had he been 
able to foreknow what was future, he would 
not have come to this place, but would have 
been afraid lest Mosollam the Jew should shoot 
at him and kill him.” But of Hecateous’s tes- 
timonies we have said enough: for as to such 
as desire to know more of them, they may 
easily obtain them from his book itself. How- 
ever, I shall not think it too much for me to 
name Agatharchides, as having made mention 
of us Jews, though in way of derision at our 
simplicity, as he supposes it to be; for when 
he was discoursing of the affairs of Stratonice, 
“how she came out of Macedonia into Syria, 
‘and left her husband Demetrius, while yet Se- 
eucus would not marry her as she expected, 
but, during the time of his raising an army at 
|Babylon, stirred up a sedition about Antioch; 
and how, after that, the king came back, and 
upon his taking of Antioch, she fled to Seleu- 
cia, and had it in her power to sail away im- 
mediately, yet did she comply with a dream 
which forbade her so to do, and so was caught 
and put to death.” When Agatharchides had 
premised this story, and had jested upon Stra- 
‘tonice for her superstition, he gives a like ex- 
ample of what was reported concerning us, 
and writes thus: “There are a people called 
Jews, who dwell in a city the strongest of all 
| other cities, which the inhabitants call Jerusa- 
lem, and are accustomed to rest on every 
seventh day;* on which times they make no 
use of their arms, nor meddle with their hus- 
bandry, nor take care of any affairs of life, but 
‘Spread out their hands in their holy places, and 
pray till the evening. Now it came to pass, 
that when Ptolemy, the -son of Lagus, came 
into this city with this army, that these men, in 
observing this mad custom of theirs, instead of 
guarding the city, suffered their country to 
submit itse:f to a bitter lord; and their law} 
was openly proved to have commanded a fool- 
ish practice. This accident taught all other 
men but the Jews to disregard such dreams as 
these were, and not to follow the like idle sug 
gestions delivered as a law, when in such un 
certainty of human reasonings, they are at a 
loss what they should do.” Now this our pro 
cedure seems a ridiculous thing to Agathar- 
chides, but will appear to such as consider it 
without prejudice a great thing, and what de- 
served a great many encomiums; I mean, when 
certain men constantly prefer the observation 
of their laws, and their religion towards God, 
before the preservation of themselves and their 
country. 

23. Now, that some writers have omitted te 
inention our nation, not because they knew no- 








* A glorious testimony this of the observation of the Sab 
bath by the Jews; see Antiq. b. xvi. ch. ii. sect. 4; ch. vi. 
sect. 2; Of the Life, sect. 54, and War, b. iv. ch. ix. sect. 12, 

+ Not their law, but the superstitious interpretation of their 
jeaders, which neither the Maccabees nor our blessed Savior 
did ever approve of. 


720 


thing of us, but because they envied us, or for 
some other unjustifiable reasons, I think I can 
demonstrate by particular instances: for Hiero- 
nymus who wrote the history of [Alexander’s] 
successors, lived at the same time with Hecate- 
us, and was a friend of king Antigonus, and 
president of Syria. Now it is plain, that He- 
eateus wrote an entire book concerning us, 
while Hieronymus never mentions us ii his his- 
tory, although he was bred up very near to the 
places where we live. Thus different from 
one another are the inclinations of men; while 
the one thought we deserved to be carefully re- 
membered, some ill-disposed passion blinded 
the other’s mind so entirely, that he could not 
discern the truth. And now certainly the fore- 
going records of the Egyptians, and Chaldeans, 
and Pheenicians, together with so many of the 
Greek writers, will be sufficient for the demon- 
stration of our antiquity. Moreover, besides 
those forementioned, Theophilus, and Theodo- 
tus, and Mnases, and Aristophanes, and Hermo- 
genes, Euhemerus also, and Conon, and Zopy- 
rion, and perhaps many others, (for I have not 
lighted upon all the Greek books,) have made 
distinct mention of us. It is true, many of the 
men before mentioned have made great mis- 
takes about the true accounts of our nation in 
the earliest times, gecause they had not peru- 
sed our sacred books; yet have they all of them 
afforded their testimony to our antiquity, con- 
cerning which I am now treating. However, 
Demetrius Phalereus, and the elder Philo, with 
Eupolemus, have not greatly missed the truth 
about our affairs: whose lesser mistakes ought, 
therefore, to be forgiven them; for it was not 
in their power to understand our writings with 
the utmost accuracy. 

24. One particular there is still remaining be- 
hind of what I at first proposed to speak to, 
and that is to demonstrate that those calumnies 
and reproaches, which some have thrown upon 
our nation, are lies, and to make use of those 
writers’ own testimonies against themselves; 
and that, mm general this self-contradiction hath 
happened to many other authors, by reason of 
their ill will to some people, I conclude is not 
unknown to such as have read histories with 
sufficient care; for some of them have endeav- 
ored to disgrace the nobility of certain nations, 
and of some of the most glorious cities, and 
have cast reproaches upon certain forms of go- 
verment. Thus hath Theopompus abused the 
city of Athens, Polycrates that of Lacedemon, 
as hath he that wrote the Tripoliticus (for he is 
not Theopompus, as is supposed by some) done 
by the city of Thebes. 'Timeusalso hath great- 
ly abused the foregoing people and others also: 
and this ill treatment they use chiefly when 
they have a contest with men of the greatest 
reputation; some out of envy and malice, and 
others, as supposing that, by this foolish talk- 
ing of theirs, they may be thought worthy of 
being remembered themselves: and indeed they 
do by no means fail of their hopes, with re- 
gard to the foolish part of mankind, but men 
of sober judgment still condemn them of great 
malignity. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 











25. Now the Egyptians were the first nt 
cast reproaches upon us; in order to please 
which nution, some others undertook to per- 
vert the truth, while they would neither own 
that our forefathers came into Egypt from ano- 
ther country, as the faet was, nor give a true 
account of our departure thence. And indeed 
the Egyptians took many occasions to hate ug 
and envy us; in the first place, because our an- 
cestors* had had the dominion over their coun- 
try, and when they were delivered from them, 
and gone to their own country again, they liv- 
ed there in prosperity. In the next place, the 
difference of our religion from theirs hath oc- 
casioned great enmity between us, while our 
way of divine worship did as much exceed 
that which their laws appointed, as does the 
nature of God exceed that of brute beasts; for, 
so far do they all agree through the whole 
country, to esteem such animals as gods, al- 
though they differ one from another in the pe- 
culiar worship they severally pay to them, 
And certainly men they are, entirely of vain 
and foolish minds, who have thus accustomed 
themselves from the beginning to have such bad 
notions concerning their gods, and could not 
think of imitating that decent form of divine 
worship which we made use of, though, when 
they saw our institutions approved of by many 
others, they could not but envy us.on that ac- 
count; for some of them have proceeded to 


that degree of folly and meanness in their com 
duct, as not to scruple to contradict their own 
ancient records, nay, to contradict themselves 
also in their writings, and yet were so blinded 
by their passions as not to discern it. " 
26. And now I will turn my discourse to one 
of their principal ‘vriters, whom I have a little 
before made use of as a witness to our antiqui- 
ty; I mean Manetho.t He promised to inter- 
pret the Egyptian history out of their sacred 


















writings, and premised this: that “our people 
had come into Egypt, many ten thousands 
number, and subdued its inhabitants;” an 
when he had farther confessed, “That we went 
out of that country afterward, and settled in 
that country which is now called Judea, and 


there built Jerusalem and its temple.” Now 


after this he permits himself, in order to ap- 
pear to have written what rumors and reports 
passed abroad about the Jews, and introduces 
incredible narrations, as if he would have the 
Egyptian multitude, that had the leprosy a’ 


* The Pheenician shepherds, whom Josephus mistook fo 
the Israelites. See the note on sect. 16. 

t In reading this, and the remaining sections of this bool 
and some parts of the next, one may easily perceive that ou 
usually cool and candid author Josephus, was too highly of 
fended with the impudent calumnies of Manetho, and thi 
other bitter enemies of the Jews, with whom he tad now 
to deal, and was thereby betrayed into a greater heat an 
passion than ordinary, and that by consequence he does no 
here reason with his usual fairness and impartiality, he seem 

to depart sometimes from the brevity and sincerity of a fal 

ful historian, which is his grand character, and indulges th 
prolixity and colors of a pleader and a disputant: according! 

1 confess [ always read these sections with less pleasur 
than I do the rest of his writings, though I fully believe t 
reproaches cast on the Jews, which he here enijeavors| 
confute and expose, were wholly groundless and unreasot 
able. E 


other distempers, to have been mixed with us 
as he says they were, and that they were con- 
demned to fly out of Egypt together; for he 


_nophis, who was the son of Papis, and one that 
seemed to partake of a divine nature, both as 


all that had any defect in their bodies out of 


ther, that “there were some of the learned 


— 


-parture of the shepherds for Jerusalem had 


might work in them, and might be separated 


_ pear to have been violence offered them; who 
also added this further, ‘out of his sagacity 
about futurities,} that certain people would 
/ come to the assistance of these polluted wretch- 
es, and would conquer HK.gypt, and keep it in 
‘ their possession thirteen years: that, however, 


‘thus verbatim: “After those that were sent  , t kk 1 pre 
_ work in the quarries had continued in that mi- | Sently marched into Ethiopia, together with hia 
| serable state for a long while, the king was de- 
‘sired that he would sex apart the city Avaris, 
_ which was then left desolate of the shepherds, 
for their habitation and protection; which de- 
‘sire he granted them. Now this erty, accord- 





AGAINST APION.—BOOK I. 72 


But when these men were gutten into it, and 
found the place fit for a revolt, they appointed 
themselves a ruler out of the priests of Helio- 
mentions Amenophis, a fictitious king’s name,| Polis whose name was Osarsiph, and they took 
though on that account he durst not set down! their oaths that they would be obedient to bim 


the number of years of his reign, which yet he: 1" all things. He then, in the first place, made 


) 








had accurately done as to the other kings he/ th's law for them, that they should neither wor- 


mentions; he then ascribes certain fabulous ship the Egyptian gods, nor should abstain 
stories to this king, as having in a manner for-j from any one of those sacred animals which 
gotten how he had already related, that the de-' they have in the highest esteem, but kill and 
destroy them all; that they should join them- 
selves to nobody but to those that were of this 
confederacy. When he had made such laws 
as these, and many more such as were mainly 
opposite to the customs of the Egyptians,* he 
gave order, that they should use the multitude 
of the hands they had in building walls about 
their city, and make themselves ready for a war 
with king Amenophis, while he did himself 
take into his friendship the other priests and 
those that were polluted with them, and sent 
ambassadors to those shepherds who had been 
driven out of the land by Tethmosis to the city 
called Jerusalem; whereby he informed them 
of his own affairs, and of the state of those 
others that had been teeated after such an ig- 
nominious manner, and desired that they would 
come with one consent to his assistance in this 
war against Egypt. He also promised that he 
would in the first place, bring them back to 
their ancient city and country Avaris, and pro- 
vide a plentiful maintenance for their multitude; 
that he would protect them and fight for them 
as occasion should require, and would easily 
reduce the country under their dominion.—- 
These shepherds were all very glad of this 
message, and came away with alacrity all to 
zether, being in number two hundred thousand 
men; and in a little time they came to Avaris. 
And now Amenc phis, the king of Egypt upon 
his being informed of their invasion, was in 
great confusion, as calling to mind what Aimie- 
nophis, the son of Papis, had foretold him: and 
in the first place, he assembled the multitude 
of the Egyptians, and took counsel with their 
leaders, and sent for their sacred animals to Jiiin, 
espscially for those that were principally wor- 
shipped in their temples, and gave a particular 
charge to the priests distinctly, that they should 
hide the images of their gods with the utmiosi 
care. He also sent his son Sethos, who was 
also named Ramesses, from his father Rhauip- 
ses, being but five years old, to a friend of his 
He then passed on with the rest of the Egyprt- 
ians, being three hundred thousand of the most 
warlike of them, against the enemy, who met 
them. Yet did he not join battle with them; 
but thinking that would be to fight against the 


been five hundred and eighteen years before; 
for Tethmosis was king when they went away. 
Now from his days, the reigns of the interme- 
diate kings according to Manetho, amounted to 
three hundred ninety-three years, as he says 
himself, till the two brothers, Sethos and Her- 
mens; the one of which, Sethos, was called by 
that other name of Egyptus, and the other, 
Hermeus, by thatof Danaus. He also says, that 
Sethos cast the other out of Egypt, and reign- 
ed fifty-nine years, as did his eldest son Rhamp- 
ses reign after him sixty-six years. When Ma- 
netho, therefore, had acknowledged, that our 
forefathers were gone out of Fgyptso many 
years ago, he introduces his fictitious king 
Amenophis, and says thus: “This king was de- 
sirous to become a spectator of the gods, as had 
Orus, one of his predecessors in that kingdom, 
desired the same before him; he also commmn- 
nicated that his desire to his namesake Ame- 


to wisdom and the knowledge of futurities.” 
Mavetho adds, “bow this namesake of his told 
him, that he might see the gods, if he would 
clear the whole cuuntry of the lepers and of 
the other impure people; that the king was 
pleased with nis injunction, and got together 


SS 


Egypt, and that their number was eighty tnou- 
sand; whom he sent to those quarries which 
were on the east side of the Nile, that they 


from the rest of the Egyptians.” He says fur- 


priests that were polluted with the leprosy; but 
that still this Amenophis, the wise an and the 
prophet, was afraid that the gods would be an- 
gry at him and at the king, if there should ap- 


he durst uot tell the king of these things, but 
that be left a writing behind him about 11 those 


ned 


matters, and then slew himself, which made | gods, he returned back and came to Memphis 


the king disconsolate.” After which he writes | where he took Apis and the other sacred ani 
mals which be had sent for to him, and pre 


whole army aud multitude of Egyptians, fer 
the king of Ethiopia was under an obligation 
to him, on which account he received him, and 

* This is a very valuable testimony of Manetho, that the 
laws of Osarsiph or Moses were not made in compliance 
; - ; with, but in opposition to the customs of the Egyptians; ave 
ing to the ancient theology, was Tyho’s city. ! the note on Antiq. bh. tii. eh. viii. Be) - 


91 


took care of all the multitude that was with 
him, while the country supplied all that was 
necessary for the food of the men. He also 
alloted cities and villages for this exile, that 
was to be from its beginning during those fa- 
tally determined thirteen years. Moreover, he 
pitc 


acamp for his Ethiopian army, as a 
d to king Amenophis, upon the borders of 
Seah And this was the staie of things in 
Ethiopia. But for the people of Jerusalem, 
when they caine down together with the pol- 
luted Egyptians, they treated the men in such 
a barbarous manner, that those who saw how 
they subdued the forementioned country, and 
the horrid wickedness they were guilty of, 
thought it a most dreadful thing; for they did 
not only set the cities and villages on fire, but 
were not satisfied till they had been guilty of 
sacrilege, and destroyed the images of the gods, 
and used them in roasting of those sacred ani- 
mals that used to be worshiped, and forced 
the priests and prophets to be tle executioners 
and murderers of those animals, and then eject- 
ed them naked out of the country. It was 
also reported, that the priest, who ordained their 
olity and their laws, was by birth of Heliopu- 
fis and his name Osarsiph, from Osyris, who 
was the god of Heliopolis; but that, when he | 
was gone over to these people, his name was | 
changed, and he was calied Moses.” 

27. This is what the Egyptians relate about 
the Jews, with much more, which I omit for 
whe sake of brevity. But siill Manetho goes 
on, that “after this Amenophis returned back 
from Ethiopia with a great army, as did his 
son Rhampses with another army also, and that 
both of them joined battle with the shepherds 
and the polluted people, and beat them, and 
slew a great many of them, and pursued them 
to the bounds of Syria.” These and the like 
accounts are written by Manetho. But I will 
demonstrate that he trifles and tells arrant lies, 
after I have made a distinction which will re- 
late to what I am going to say abovt him; for 
this Manetho hat granted and conf se. that 
this nation was not originally Egypt! 1, but 
that they had come from another couutry, and 
subdued Egypt, and then went away / Zain out 
of it. But that those Egyptians, who were 
thus diseased in their bodies were not mingled 
with us afterward, and that Moses who brought 
the people out was not one of that company, 


but lived many generstions earlier, | shall en-! bound the multitude by oaths to be sure to cor 
deavor to demonstrate from Manetho’s own ac- | 


counts themselves. 

28. Now, for the first occasion of this fic- 
tion, Manetho supposes what is no better than 
a ridiculous thing; for he says, that “king Ame- 
hnophis desired to see the gods.” Whaat gods, [ 
pray, did he desire to see? If he meant the 
gods whom their laws ordained to be wo ship- 
ed, the ox, the goat, the crocodile, and the ba- 
boon, he saw them already; but for the heav- 
enly gods, how could he see them, and what 
sbould occasion this his desire? To be sure,* 
‘ it was because another king before him had al- 
ready seen them. He had then been informed 

* Gr. By Jupiter 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 






what sort of gods they were, and after w 
manner they had been seen, insomuch that 
did not stand in need of any new artifice 
obtaining this sight. However, this prophet 
by whose means the king mie} to comp 
his design, was a wise man. If so, how cam 
he not to know that such his desire was impos. 
sible to be accomplished? for the event did not 
succeed. And what pretence could there be 
to suppose that the gods could not be seen by 
reason of the people’s maims in their bodies, 
leprosy? for the gods are not angry at the im- 
perfection of bodies, but at wicked practices: 
and as to eighty thousand lepers, and those in 
an ill state also, how is it possible to have them 
gathered together in one day? ay, how came 
the king not to comply with the prophet? for 
his injunction was, that those that were maim- 
ed should be expelled out of Egypt, while the 
king only sent them to work in the quarries, ag 
if he were rather in want of laborers, than in- 
tended to purge his country. He says further, 
that “this prophet slew himself, as reas 
the anger of the gods, and those events which 
were to come upon Egypt afterward; and that 
he left this prediction for the king in writing.” 
Besides, how came it to pass, that this prophet 
did not foreknow his own death at the 

nay, how came he not to contradict the king in 
his desire to see the gods immediately? how 
came that unreasonable dread upon him of judg- 
ments that were not to happen in his lifetime; 
or what worse thing could he suffer, out of the 
fear of which he made haste to kill himself? 
But now let us see the silliest thing of all: the 
king, although he had been informed of these 
things, and terrified with the fear of what was 
to come, yer did not he even then eject these 
maimed people out of bis country, when it had 
been foretold him that he was to clear Egypt 
of them; but, as Manetho says, “He then upon 
their request, gave them that city to inhabit, 
which had formerly belonged to the shepherds” 
and was calied Avaris; whither, when they 
were gone in crowds,” he says, “they chose one 
that had formerly been priest of Heliopolis; 
and that this priest first ordained, that they 
should neither worship the gods, nor abstain 
from those animals that were worshiped by 
the Egyptians, but should killand eat them all 
aud should associate with nobody but thos 
that had conspired with them: and that b 


















(nue in those laws; and that when he had bui 
a wall about Avaris, he made war against th 
kin.” Manetho adds also, that “this pries 
sent to Jerusalem to invite that people to come 
to his assistance, and promised to give them 
Avaris; for that it had belonged to the fore 
fathers of those that were conung from Jerusa 
lem; and that when they were«- es. they mad 
a war immediately against the king, and got 
possession of all Egypt.” He says also, th 
“the Egyptians came with an army of two hun 
dred thousand men, and that Amenophis, th 
king of Egypt, not thinking that he oughtt 
fight against the gods, ran away presently inl 
Ethiopia, and committed Apis and certa 


ether of their sacred animals, to the priests, and 
‘commanded them to take care of preserving 
them.” He says further, that “the people of 
‘Jerusalem caine accordingly upon the Egyp- 
‘tians, and ove. threw their cities, and burnt their 
temples, and slew their horsemen, and in short 
‘abstained from no sort of wickediess nor bar- 
‘barity: and for that priest who setiled their po- 
lity and their Jaws,” he says, “he was by birth 
of Heliopolis, and is namie was Osarsiph, from 
Osiris the god of Heliopolis, but that he chang- 
ed his name and called himself Moses.” He 

hen says, that “on the thirteenth year afterward, 
_Amenophis, according to the fatal time of the 
‘duration of his misfortunes, came upon them 
out of Ethiopia with a great army, and joining 
battle with the shepherds and with the polluted 
“people, overcame them in battle, and slew a 
great many of them, and pursued them as far 
as the bounds of Syria.” 

29. Now Manetho does not reflect upon the 
‘umprobability of his lie: for the leprous people, 
and the multitude that was with them, although 

they might formerly have been angry at the 
king, and at those that had treated them so 
-@arsely, and this according to the prediction 
‘ef the prophet; yet certainly, when they were 
eome out of the mines, and had received of 
the king a city and a country, they would have 
grown milder towards him. However, had 
they ever so much hated him in particular, they 
‘might have laid a private plot against himself, 
put would hardly have made war against al] 
‘she Egyptians; I mean this on the account of 
she great kindred they who were so numerous 
‘anust have hadamengthem. Nay still, if they 
“had resolved to fight with the men, they would 
“not have had impudence enough to fight with 
| their gevis: nor would they have ordained laws 
“quite contrary to those of their own cuuntry, 
~and to those in which they had been bred up 
themselves. Yet are we beholden tv Manetho, 
‘that he does not lay the principal charge of 
this horrid transgression upon thove that came 
from Jerusalem, but says that i+: Egyptians 
‘themselves were the most guiliy, and that they 
were their priests that contrived these things, 
and made the multitude take their oaths for do- 
ing so. But still, how absurd it is to suppose 
that none of these people’s own relations or 
friends should be prevailed with to revolt, nor 
‘to undergo the hazards of war with them? 
while these polluted people were forced to send 
/ to Jerusalem, and bring their auxiliaries from 
‘thence. What friendship, I pray, or what re- 
lation was there formerly between them, that 
‘required this assistance? On the contrary, 
| these people were enemies, and greaily differed 
| from them in their customs. He says, indeed 
‘thet they complied imuuediately, upon their 
gromising them that they should conquer 
Egypt; as if they did not themszives very well 
‘know that country out of which they had 
‘been driven by force. Now, had these men 
peen in want, or Jived miserably perhaps they 
“might have undertaken so hazardous an enter- 
ee but as they dwelt in a happy city, and 
had alarge country, and one better than Egypt it- 







AGAINST APION.—BOOK i. 


723 


self, how came it about, that for the sake of those 
that had of old been their enemies, and those that 
were maimed in their bodies, and of those whom 
none of their own relations would endure, 
they should run such hazards in assisting them? 
For they could not foresee that the king would 
run away from them: on the contrary, he saith 
himself, that “Amenophis’s son had three hun- 
dred thousand men with him, and met them at 
Pelusium.” Now, to be sure, those that came 
could not be ignorant of this; but for the king’s 
repentance and flight, how could they possibly 
guess at it? He then says, that “those who 
came from Jerusalem, and made this invasion, 
got the granaries of Egypt into their possession, 
and perpetrated many of the most horrid ac- 
tions there.” And thence he reproaches them, 
4s though he had not himself introduced them 
48 enemies, or as though he might accuse such 
as Were invited from another place for so doing, 
when the natural Egyptians themselves had 
done the same things before their coming, and 
had taken oaths so to do. However, “Ame- 
nophis, some time afterward, came upon them, 
and conquered them in baitle, and slew his 
enemies, and drove them before him as far as 
Syria.” As if Egypt were so easily taken by 
people that came from any place whatsoever, 
and as if those that had conquered it by war, 
when they were informed that Amenophis was 
alive, did neither fortify the avenues out of 
Ethiopia into it, although they had great ad- 
vantages for doing it, nor did get their other 
forces ready for their defence; but that “he 
followed them over the sandy desert, and slew 
them as far as Syria;” while yet it is not an easy 
thing for an army to pass over that country, 
even without fighting. 

30. Our nation, therefore, according to 
Manetho, was not derived from Egypt, nor 
were any of the Egyptians mingled with us, 
For it is to be supposed that many of the le- 
prous and distempered people were dead in the 
mines, since they had been there a long time, 
and in so ill a condition; many others must be 
dead in the battles that happened afterward, 
and more still in the last battle and flight after it. 

31. It now remains that I debate with Ma- 
netho about Moses. Now, the Egyptians ac- 
knowledge him to have been a wonderful and 
a divine person: nay, they would willingly lay 
claim to him themselves, though after a most 
abusive and incredible manner, and pretend 
that he ‘was of Heliopolis and one of the 
priests of that place, and was ejected out of it 
among the rest, on account of his leprosy: al- 
though it had been demonstrated out of their 
records, that he lived five hundred and eigh- 
teen years earlier, and then brought our fore 
fathers out of Egypt into the country that is 
now inhabited by us. But now that he was 
not subject in his body to any such calamity, 
is evident from what he himself tells us; for 
he forbade those that had. the leprosy either to 
continue in a city, or to inhabit in a village, but 
commanded that they should go about by them- 
selves with their clothes rent; and declares, 
that such as either touch them, or live under 


ee 


724 


the sume root with them, should be esteemed 
unclean: nay more, if any one of their dis- 
eases be healed, and he recover his natural 
constitution again, he appointed them certain 
purifications, and washings with spring water, 
and the shaving off all their. hair, and enjoins 
that they shall offer many sacrifices, and those 
of several kinds, and then at length, to be ad- 
mitted into the holy city; although it were to 
be expected that, on the contrary, if he had 
been under the same calamity he should have 
taken care of such persons beforehand, and 
have had them treated after a kinder manner, 
as affected with a concern for those who were 
to be under the like misfortunes with himself. 
Nor war it only those leprous people for whose 
sake he made these laws, but also for such 
as should be maimed in the smallest part of 
their body, who yet are not permitted by him 
to officiate as priests: nay, although any priest 
already initiated, should have such a calamity 
fall upon him afterward, he ordered him to be 
deprived of his honor of officiating. Now 
ean it then be supposed that Moses should or- 
dain such laws against himself, to his own re- 
proach and damage who so ordained thetn? 
Nor indeed is that other notion of Manetho’s 
at all probable wherein be relates the change 
of his name, and says, that “he was formerly 
called Osarsiph;” and this a name no way 
agreeable to the other, while his true name was 
Moiises, and signifies a person who is preserved 
out of the water, for the Egyptians call water 
Moi. I think, therefore, | have made it suffi- 
ciently evident that Manetho, while he follow- 
ed his ancient records, did not much mistake 
the truth of the history; but that when he had 
recourse to fabulous stories, without any cer- 
tain author, he either forged them himself, 
without any probability, or else gave credit 
to some men who spoke so out of their ill will 
to us. 

32. And now I have done with Manetho, I 
will inquire into what Cheremon says. For 
he also, when he pretended to write the Egyp- 
tian history, sets down the same name for his 
king that Manetho did, Amenophis, as al<o of 
his son Ramesses, and then goes on thus. “The 
goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in_ his 
sleep, and blamed him that her temple had 
been demolished in the war. But thet Phriti- 
phanites, the sacred scribe, said to him, that in 
case he would purge Egypt of the men who 
had pollutions upen them, he should be no long- 
er troubled with such frightful apparitions: that 
Amenophis accordingly chose out two hundred 
and fifty thousand of those that were thus diseas- 
ed, and cast them out of the country: that Moses 
and Joseph were scribes, and Joseph was a sa- 
cred scribe: that their names were Egyptian 
originally, that of Moses had been Tesithen, 
and that of Joseph Peteseph: that these two 
came to Pelusium, and lighted upon three 
hundred and eighty thousand that had been 
left there by Amenophis, he not being willing 
to carry them into Eg ypt: that these scribes 
made a league of friendship with them, and 
made with ioueinn expedition against Egypt, 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUsS 


é 


that Amenophis could not susta.n their attacks 

but fled into Ethiopia, and left his wife witb 
child behind t:im, who lay concealed in cer 

tain caverns, and there brought forth a son, 
whose name was Messene, and who, when he 
was grown up to man’s estate, pursued the 
Jews into Syria, being about two hundred 
thousand, and then received his father Amono- 
phis out of Ethiopia.” 

33. This is the acrount Cheremon gives us 
Now I take it for granted, that what I have 
said already hath plainly proved the falsity of 
both these narrations; for had there been any 
real truth at the bottom, it was impossible that 
they should so greatly disagree about the par- 
ticulars. But for those that invent lies, what 
they write will easily give us very different ac- 
counts while they forge what they please out 
of their own heads. Now, Manetho says, that 
the king’s desire of seeing the gods, was the 
origin of the ejection of the polluted people; 
but Cheremon feigns that it was a dream of his 
own, sent upon him by Isis, that was the oc- 
casion of it. Manetho says, that the person 
who foreshowed this purgation of Egyptto the 
king, was Amenophis; but this man says it waa 
Phritiphantes, As to the numbers of the mul- 
titude that were expelled, they agree exceed- 
ingly well,* the former reckoning them eighty 
thousand, and the latter about two hundred 
and fifty thousand. Now, for Manetho, he de- 
scribes these polluted persons as sent first to 
work in the quarries, and says, that after that, 
the city Avaris was given them for their habi- 
tation. Asalso he relates, that it was not til) 
after they had made war with the rest of the 
Egyptians, that they invited the people of Je- 
rusalem to come to their assistance; while 
Cheremon says only, that they were gone out 
of Egypt, and lighted upon three hundred and 
eighty thousand men about Pelusium, who had 
been left there by Amenophis, and so they in- 
vaded Egvpt with them again; that thereupon 
Amenophis fled into Ethiopia. But, then, this 
Cheremon commits a most ridiculous blunder 
in not informing us who this army of so many 
ten thousands were, or whence they came; 
whether they were native Egyptians, or whether 
they came from a foreign country. Nor in- 
deed has this man, who forged a dream from 
Isis, about the leprous people, assigned the 
reason why the king would not bring them 
into Egypt. Moreover, Cheremon sets jJown 
Joseph as driven away at the same time with 
Moses, who yet died four generations} before 
Moses, which four generations make almost 
one hundred and seventy years. Besides all 
this, Ramesses, the son of Amenophis, by Ma- 
netho’s account, w*9 = young man, and assisted 
his father in this war, and left the country at 
the same time with him and fled into Ethiopia. 
But Cherenson makes him to have been born 
in a certain cave, after his father was dead, 


* By way of irony, I suppose. 

t Here we sec that Josephus esteemed a generation be- 
tween Joseph and Moses to be about 42 or 43 years; which, 
if taken between the earlier children well agrees with the 
duration of human life in those ages; see Authent. Ree. 
part ii. p. 966, 1U19, 1020 


AGAINST APION.—BOOKk i. (p~ 3 


and that ke then ov-rcame the Jews in battle, | worst, and to overturn all those temples and al- 
and drove them into Syria, being in number |tars of the gods they should meet with: that 
_ about tyre hundred thousand. O the levity of | the rest commended what he had said with one 
the mar! For he had weither told us who |consent, and did what they had resolved on, 
_ these three hundred and eighty thousand were, | and so travelled over the desert. But that the 
nor how the four hundred and thirty thousand | difficulties of the journey being over, they came 
_ perished; whether they fell in war, or went|to, a country inhabited, and that there they 
_ over to Ramesses. And what is the strangest | abused the men, and plundered and burnt their 
‘of all, it is not possible to learn out of him|temples, and then came into that Jand which is 
who they were whom he calls Jews, or to|called Judea, and there they buiit a city, and 
which of these two parties he applies that de-|dwelt therein, and that their city was named 
nomination, whether to the two hundred and} Hierosyla, from this their robbing of the tem- 
fifty thousand leprous people, or to the three hun-| ples; but that still, upon the success they had 
dred and eighty thousand that were about Pe-|afterwards, they ia time changed its denomina- 
lusium. But, perhaps, it will be looked upon|tion, that it might not be a reproach to them, 
as a silly thing in me to make any larger con-|and called the city Hierosolyma, and themselves 
futation of such writers as sufficiently confute Hierosolymites,” 
themselves; for had they been only confuted 85. Now this man did not discover nor men- 
by other men, it had been more tolerable. tion the same king with the others, but feigned 
;@ newer name, and passing by the dream and 
the Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupi- 
ter] Hammon, in order to gain oracles about 
the scabby and leprous people; for he says, that 
the multitude of Jews were gathered together 
at the temples. Now it is uncertain whether 





34. I shall now add to these accounts about 
_Manetho and Cheremon, somewhat about Ly- 
simachus, which hath taken the same topic of | 
falsehood with those forementioned, but hath 
gone far beyond them in the incredible nature 


of his forgeries: which plainly demonstrates . a 
that he contrived them out of his virulent ha.| 2& ascribes this name to these lepers, or to those 


tred of our nation. His words are these: “The | ‘Pat were subject to such diseases among the 
people of the Jews being leprous and scabby, Jews only; for he describes them asa ig ie of 
and subject to certain other kinds of distem-|te Jews. What people does ny mean? fo- 
pers, in the days of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, |"eigners, or those of that country? Why then 
they fled to the temples, and got their food|dost thou call them Jews, if they were Egyp- 
then by begging, and as the numbers were/|tians? But if they were foreigners, why dost 
very great that were fallen under those diseases, thou not tell us whence they cume? And how 
there arose a scarcity in Egypt. Hereupon|could it be that, after the king had drowned 
Bocchoris, the king of Egypt, sent some to|many of them in the sea, and ejected the rest 
consult the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon about] into desert places, there should be still so great 
this scarcity. The god’s answer was this, that|a multitude remaining? Or after what manner 
he must purge his temples of impure and im-' did they pass over the desert, and get the land 
pious men, by expelling them out of those tem-! which we now dwell in, and build our city, and 
les into desert places; but as to the scabhy and | that temple which hath been so famous among 
Prot people, he must drown them, and purge | all mankind? And besides, he ought to have 
his temples, the sun having an indignation at | spoken more about our legislator, than by giv- 
these men’s being suffered to live; and by this | ing us his bare name; and to have informed us 
means the land will bring forth its fruits. Upon | of what nation he was, and what parents he 
Bocchoris’s having received these oracles, he | was derived from; and to have assigned the 
called for their priests, and the attendants upon | reasons why he undertook to make such laws 
their altars, and ordered them to make a col-| concerning the gods, and concerning matters 
lection of the impure people, and to deliver | of injustice with regard to men during that 
them co the soldiers, to carry them away into | journey. For, in case the people were by birth 
the desert, but to take the leprous people, and | Egyptians, they would not on the sudden have 
wrap them in sheets of lead, and let them |so easily changed the customs of their country: 
Jown into the sea. Hereupon thé scabby and | and in case tney had been foreigners, they had 
eprous people, were drowned, 2nd the rest | for cer:ain some laws or other, which had been 
were gotten together and sent into lesert places, | kept by them from long custom. It is true, 
in order to be exposed to destruction. In| that with regard to those who ejected then 
this ease they assembled themselves together, | they might have sworn never to bear good wi 
and took counse: what they should do, and de- | to them, and might have had a plausible reason 
termined thai ax u.e night was coming on, they | for so doing. But if these men resolved to 
ghould kindle fires and lamps, and keep watch: | wage an implacable war against all men, in 
that they aiso should fast the next night, and | case they had acted as wickedly as he relates 
propitiate the gods, in order to obtain deliver- | of them, and this while they wanted the assist- 
ance from the:u: that on the next day there | ance of all men, this demonstrates a kind of 
was one Moses, who advised them that they | mad conduct indeed, but not of the men them- 
should venture upou a journey, and go along /|selves, but very greatly so of him who tells 
one road till they should come to places fit for | such lies upon them. He hath also impudence 
aabitation: that he charged them to have no | enough to say, that a name implying robbers* 
kand regards for any man, nor give gond coun- |  . this is the meaning of Hyer. sy. ix Gres k, not ir He 
sel to any, but always to advise them for the! brew. 





SNe 


726 


é 
of the temple was given to their city, and that 
this name was afterward changed. The rea- 
son of which is plain, that the former name 
brought reproach and hatred upon them in the 
times of their posterity, while, it seems, those 
that built the city thought they did honor to the 
city by giving it such a name. So we see that 
this fine fellow had such an unbounded inclina- 
on to reproach us, that he did not understand 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 







that robbery of temples is not expressed by the 
same word and name among the Jews as it 
amung the Greeks. But why should a m 
say any more to a person who tells such impu- 
dent lies? However, since this book is arisen’ 
to competent length, I will make another begin- 
ning, and endeavor to add what still remains to 


perfect my design in the following book. 





BOOK II. , 


§ 1. Inthe former book, most honored Epa- 
phroditus, I have demonstrated our antiquity, 
and confirmed the truth of what I have said, 
from the writings of the Pheenicians, and Chal- 
deans, and Egyptians. I have moreover, pro- 
duced many of the Grecian writers as witness- 
es thereto, I have also made a refutation of 
Manetho and Cheremon, and of certain others 
of our enemies. I ‘shall now, therefore,* be- 
gin a confutation of the remaining authors who 
have written any thing against us; although I 
confess I have had a doubt upon me about 
Apiont the grammarian, whether I ought to 
take the trouble of confuting him or not; for 
some of his writings contain much the same 
accusations which the others have laid against 
us, some things that he hath added are very 
frigid, and contemptible, and for the greatest 
part of what he says, it is very scurrilous, and 
to speak no more than the plain truth, it speaks 
him to be a very unlearned person, and what 
he lays together looks like the work of a man 
of very bad morals, and of one no better in 
his whole life than a mountebank. Yet be- 
cause there are a great many- men s0 very fool- 
ish, that they are rather caught by such orations 
than by what is written with care, and take 
pleasure in reproaching other men, and cannot 
abide to hear them commended, I thought it to 
be necessary not to let this man go off without 
examination, who had written such an accusa- 
tion against us, as if he would bring us to make 
an answer in open court. For I also have 
observed, that many men are very much de- 
lighted when they see a man who first began 
to reproach another, to be himself exposed to 
contempt on account of the vices he hath him- 
self been guilty of. However, it is not a very 
easy thing to get over this man’s discourse, nor 
to kaow plainly what he means: yet does he 
seem, amidst a great confusion and disorder in 
his falsehoods, to produce, in the first place, 
such things as resemble what we have examin- 
ed already, and relate to the departure of our 
forefathers out of Egypt; and, in the second 
place, he accuses the Jews that are inhabitants 
of Alexandria; as, in the third place, ine mixes 

* ihe former part of this second book is written against 
te calumnies of Apion, and then, more briefly, against the 
lixe calumnies of Apollonius Molo. But after that Jose- 
phus leaves off any more particular reply to those adversa- 
ries of the Jews, and gives us a large and excellent descrip- 
tion and vindication of that theocracy which was settled for 
the Jewish nation by Moses, their great legislator. 


{ Called }y Tiberius +; balum Mundi, the drum of the 
wor!) 


with those thinss such accusations as concern 
the secre:} purifications, with the other legal 
rites used in the temple. 

2. Now, although I cannot but think that ¥ 
have already demonstrated, and that abundant- 
ly more than was necessary, that our fathers 
were not originally Egyptians, nor were thence 
expelled, neither on account of bodily diseases 
or sry other calamities of that sort; yet will 
I briefiy teke notice of what Apion adds upon 
that subject; for in his third book, which re- 
lates to the affairs of Egypt, he speaks thus: 
“I have heard of the ancient men of Egypt, 
that Moses was of Heliopolis; and that he 
thought himself obliged to follow the customs 
of his forefathers, and offered his prayers in 
the open air towards the city walls; but that le 
reduced them all to be directed towards sun- 
rising, which was agreeable to the situation of 
Heliopolis: that he also set up pillars instead 
of gnomons* under which was represented a 
cavity like that of a boat, and the shadow that 
fell from their tops fell dewn upon that cavity, 
that it might go round abcut the like course as 
the sun itself goes round in the other.” This 
is that wonderful relation which we have given 
us by this great grammarian. But that it is a” 
false one is so plain, that it stands in need of — 
few words to prove it, but is manifest from the 
works of Moses; for when he erected the first 
tabernacle to God, he did himself neither give 
order for any such kind of representation to be 
made at it, nor ordain that those that came after 
him should make such a one, Moreover, when 
in a future age, Solomon built his temple in 
Jerusalem, he avoided all such needless deco- 
rations as Apion hath here devised. He says 
further, how “he had heard of the ancient men. 
that Moses was of Heliopolis.” To be sure 
that was because, being a younger man himself, 
he believed those that by their elder age wers 
acquainted and converse. with him! Now thia 
grammarian as he was, could not certainly teh 
which was the poet Homer’s country, no more — 
than he could which was the country of Py : 
thagoras, who lived comparatively but a little” 
while ago: yet does he thus easily determine 
the age of Moses who preceded them such a 
vast number of years, as depending on his an-— 
cient men’s relation; which shows how notori- 

* This seems to have been the first dial that had been m: 
in Egypt, and was a little before the time that Ahaz made 
his [first] dial in Judea, and about anno 755, in the first y 


of the seventh olympiad, as we shall see presently: see — 
Kings xx. 11; Isaiah xxxviii. 8. . 






AGAINST APION.—BOCOK II, 


ous a liar he was. But then as to his chrono- 
logical determination of the time when he says 
he brought the leprous people, the blind and 
the lame, out of Egypt, see how well this most 
accurate grammarisnh of ours agrees with those 
that have written before him. Manetho says, 
that the Jews departed out of Egypt in the reign 
of 'Tethmosis, three hundred and ninety-three 
years before Danaus fled to Argos; Lysimachus 
says it was under king Bocchoris, that is, one 
thousand seven hundred years ago; Molo and 
»me others determined it as every one pleased; 
put this Apion of ours, as deserving to be be- 
lieved before them, hath determined it exactly 
to have been in the seventh olympiad, and the 
first year of that olympiad; the very same 
bese in which he says that Carthage was built 
y the Pheenicians. 


727 
by chance: this would be prodigiously absurd ta 
be supposed. However, our admirable author 
Apion had before told us, that “they came to 
Judea in six days’ time;” and again, that “Mo- 
ses went up to a mountain that lay between 
Eigypt and Arabia, which was called Sinai, and 
was concealed there forty days, and that when 
he came down from thence, he gave laws to 
the Jews.” But then, how was it possible for 
them to tarry forty days in a desert place 
where there was no water, and at the same 
time to pass all over the country between that 
and Judea in six days? And as for this grain- 
matical translation of the word Sabbath, it 
either contains an instance of his great impu- 
dence or gross ignorance; for the words Sab- 
no and Sabbath are widely different from one 


The reason why he added | another; for the word Sabbath in the Jewish 


this building of Carthage was, to be sure, in| language denotes rest from all sorts of work 
order, as he thought, to strengthen his asser-| but the word Sabbo, as he affirms, denoted 
tion by so evident a character of chronology. ; among the Egyptians a malady of a bubo in 


But he was not aware that this character con- 


futes his assertion; for if we may give credit to | 


the Phoenician records as to the time of the 
first coming of their colony to Carthage, they 
relate that Hirom their king was above a hun- 


dred and fifty years earlier than the building of 


Carthage, concerning whom I have formerly 
produced testimonials out of those Pheenician 
records; as also that this Hirom was a friend 
ef Solomon when he was building the teinple 
at Jerusalem, and gave him great assistance in 
his building that temple; while still Solomon 
himself built that temple six hundred and 
twelve years after the Jews came out of Egypt. 
As for the number of those that were expelled 
out of Egypt, he hath contrived to have the 
very same number with Lysimachus, and says 
they werea hundred and ten thousind. He 
then assigns a certain wonderful and plausible 
occasion for the name ef Sabbath; for he says, 
that “when the Jews had travelled a six days’ 
journey, they had buboes in their groins; and 
that on this account it was that they rested on 
the seventh day, as having got safely to that 
country which is now called Judea; that then 
they preserved the language, of the Egyptians 
and called that day the Sabbath, for that mala- 
dy of buboes on their groin was numed Sab- 
batosis by the Egyptians.” And would not a 
man now laugh at this fellow’s trialing, or ra- 
ther hate his impudence in writing thus? We 
must, it seers, take it for granted that all these 
hundred and ten thousand men must have these 
buboes. But, for certain, if those men had 
been bliad and lame, and had all sorts of dis- 
rempers upon them, as Apion says they had, 
ney could not have gone one single day’s 
journey: but if they had been all able to trave’ 


pvet a large desert, and besides that to fight | 


aii, conquer those that opposed them, they had 
not all of them had buboes on their groins after 
the sixth day was over: for no such distemper 
comes naturally and of necessity upon those 
that travel; bat still, when there are many ten 
thousands in a camp together, they constantly 
march a settled space [in a day.] Nor is it at 
all probable that such a thing should happen 


thereto. 


the groin. 

3. This is that novel -account which ihe 
figyptian Apion gives us concerning the Jews’ 
departure out of Egypt, and is no better than 
a contrivance of his own. But why should 
we wonder at the lies he tells about our fore 
fathers, when he affirms them to be of Egyp- 
tian eriginal, when he lies also about himself? 
for although he was born at Oasis in Egypt, he 
pretends to be, as a man may say, the top man 
of ail the Egyptians; yet does he forswear his 
reel country and progenitors, and, by falsely 
pretending to be born at Alexandria, cannot 
deny the privity of his family; for you see how 


justly he calls those Egyptians whom he hates 
and endeavors to reproach; for had he not 


deemed Egyptians to be a name of great re- 
proach, he would not have avoided the name 
of an Egyptian himself; as we know that those 
who brag of their own countries, value thero- 


selves upon the denomination they acquire 


thereby, and reprove s.*> as unjustly lay claim 
As for the Eyyptians’ claim to be of 
our kindred, they do it on one of the following 


accounts: I mean, either as they value them- 


selves upon it, and pretend to bear that rela- 
tion to us; or else as they would draw us in te 
be partakers of their own infamy. But this 


fine fellow Apion seems to broach this re- 


proachful appellation against us, [that we were 
originally Egyptians,] in order to bestow it on 
the Alexandrians as a reward for the privilege 
they had given him of being a fellow-citizen 
with them: se also is apprized of the ill will 


the Alexandrians bear to those Jews who are 


their fellow citizens, and so purposes to him 


self to reproach them, although he must thereby 


include all the other Egyptians also, while in 
isth cases ne is no better than an impudent 


‘liar. 


4, But let us now see what those heavy and 
wicked crimes are, which Apion charges upon 
the Alexandrian Jews. “They came, says he, 
out of Syria, and inhabited near the tempestu- 
ous sea, and were in the neighborhood of the 
dashing of the waves.” Now, if the place of 
habitation includes any thing that is reproach 


728 


ful, this man reproaches not his own real 
country, [Egypt,] but what he pretends to be 
nis own country, Alexandria; for all are agreed 
in this, that the part of that city which is near 
the sea is the best part of all for habitation. 
Now, if the Jews gained that part of the city 
by force, and have kept it hitherto without im- 

achment, this is a mark of their valor; but 
49 reality it was Alexander himself that gave 
them that place for their habitation, when they 
sbtai xed eaual privileges there with the Mace- 
doniars. Nor can I devise what Apion would 
have said, had their habitation been at Necro- 
polis,* and not been fixed hard by the roval 
palace [as it is;] nor had their nation had the 
denomination of Macedonians given them «ill 
this very day [as they have.] Had this man 
now read the epistles of king Alexander, or 
those of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, or met with 
the writings of the succeeding kings, or that 
pillar which is still standing at Alexandria, and 
contains the privileges which the great [Julius] 
Czsar bestowed upon the Jews; had this man, 
I say, known these records, and yet had the 
impudence to write in contradiction to them, 
he hath shown himself to be a wicked man, 
but if he knew nothing of these records, 
he hath shown himself to be a man very igno- 
raut; nay, when he appears to wonder how 
Jews could be called Alexandrians, this is 
another like instance of his ignorance; for all 
such as are called out to be colonies, although 
they be ever so far remote from one another tn 
their original, receive their names from those 
that bring them to their new habitations. And 
what cecasion is there to speak of others, when 
these of us Jews that dwell at Antioch are 
named Antiochians, because Seleucus the 
founder of that city gave them’ the privileges 
belonging thereto? After the like manner do 
those Jews that inhabit Ephesus and the other 
civues of Jonia, enjoy tie same name with those 
that were originally |, rn there, by the grant of 
the succeeding princes; nay, the kindness and 
“urmanity of the Romans hath been so great, 
tauat it hath granted Jeave to almost all others 
to take the same name of Romans upon them; 
+ mean not particularly men only, but entire 
and large nations themselves also; for those an- 
ciently named Iberi, and Tyrrheni, and Sabini, 
are now called Romani. And if Apion reject 
this way of obtaining the privilege of a citi- 
zen of Alexandria, let him abstain from calling 
buaself an Alexandrian hercvafter; for other- 
wise, how can he who was born in the very 
heart cf Egypt be an Alexandrian, if this way 
ef accepting such a privilege of what he would 
have us deprived, be once abrogated? although, 
indeed, these Romans, who are now the lords 
of the habitable earth, have forbidden the 
Egyptians to have the privileges of any city 
whatsoever; while this fine fellow, who is will- 
tug to partake of such a privilege himself, as 
he is forbidden to make use of, endeavors by 
calumnies to deprive those of it that have just- 
ty received it: for Alexander did not, therefore, 
get some of our nation to Alexandria, because 


* The burial -place for dead bodies, as suppose 


FULAVIUS JOSHPHUS 


he wanted inhabitants for this his city, on whose 
building he had bestowed so much pains; but — 


this was given to our people as a reward, be- 
cause he had, upon a careful trial, found them 
all to have been men of virtue and fidelity to 
him; for, as Hecateus says concerning us, “Al- 
exander honored our nation to such a degree, 






that, for the equity and the fidelity which the — 


Jews had exhibited to him, he permitted them 
to hold the country of Samaria free from tri- 
bute. Of the same mind also was Ptolemy, the 
son of Lagus, as to those Jews who dwelt at 
Alexandria.” For he intrusted the fortresses 
of Egypt into their hands, as believing they 
would keep them faithfully and valiantly for 


him; and when he was desirous to secure the . 


government of Cyrene and the other cities of 
Libya to himself, he sent a party of Jews to 
inhabit them. And for his successor Ptolemy, 
who was called Philadelphus, he did not only 
set all those of our nation free who were cap- 
tives under him, but did frequently* give mo- 
ney [for their ransom;] and what was his great- 
est work of all, he had a great desire of know- 
ing our laws, and of obtaining the books of our 
sacred scriptures; accordingly, he desired that 
such men might be sent him as might interpret 
our law to him: and in order to have them well 
compiled, he committed that care to no ordi- 
nary persons, but ordained that Demetrius 
Phalereus, and Andreus, and Aristeas; the 
first, Demetrius, the most learned person of his 
age, and the others, such as were intrusted with 
the guard of his body, should take the care of 
this matter: nor would he certainly have been 
so desirous of learning our law and the philo- 
sophy of our nation, had he despised the men 
that made use of it, or had he not indeed had 
them in great admiration. 

5. Now this Apion was unacquainted with 
almost all the kings of those Macedonians 
whom he pretends to have been his progeni- 
tors; who were yet very well affected towards 
us: for the third of those Ptolemies, who was 
called Euergetes, when he had gotten posses- 
sion of all Syria by force, did not offer his 


victory, but came to Jerusalem, and, according 
to our own laws, offered many sacrifices to 
God, and dedicated to him such gifts as were 
suitable to such a victory; and as for Ptolemy 
Philometor and his wife Cleopatra, they com- 
mitted their whole kingdom to the Jews, when 
Onias and Dositheus, both Jews, whose names 
are laughed at by Apion, vere the generals of 
their whole army. But certainly, instead of 
reproaching them, he ougut to admire their ac- 
tions, and return them thanks for saving Alea- 
andria, whose citizen he pretends to be; for 
when these Alexandrians were making war 
with Cleopatra the queen, and were in danger 
of being utterly ruined, these Jews brought 
them to terms of agreement, and freed them 


* For zokduxis, or frequently, I would here read woAA@, 


a great deal of money; for we, indeed, read both in 
i and Josephus, that this Ptolemy Philadelphus once gave @ 
very great sum of money to redeem above 100,000 Jewish 
; captives, but, not of any sums of money, which he disburs 
ed on their account at other times, that I know of. 


CT i eS 


thank-offerings to the Egyptian gods for his 


ee a ee ee a ees 


a 





TE 


son* and successor: nay, she corrupted An- 
tony with her love-tricks, and rendered him an 
enemy to his country, and mede him treacher- 
ous to his friends, and [by his means] despoiled 
some of their royal authority, and forced others 


ie AGAINST AP] JN.—BOOK II. 


from the miseries of a civil war. “But then 

(says Apion) Onias brought a small army af- 
_ terward upon the city, at the time when Ther- 
mus the Roman ambassador was there present.” 
| Yes, do I venture to say, and that he did right- 








: 


o>," —p a aa 


_ly and very justly in so doing; for that Ptolemy 


who was called Physco, upon the death of his 
brother Philometor, came from Cyrene, and 
would have ejected Cleopatra as well as her 
ans out of their kingdom, that he might ob- 
tain it for himself unjustly.* For this cause, 
then, it was, that Onias undertook a war against 
him on Cleopatra’s account; nor would he de- 
sert that trust the royal family had reposed in 
him in their distress. Accordingly, God gave 
a remarkable attestation to his righteous pro- 
cedure, for when Ptolemy Physcot had the 
presumption to fight against Onias’s army, and 


had caught all the Jews that were in the city, 
_{Alexandria,] with their children and wives, 


and exposed them naked and in bonds te his 
elephants, that they might be trodden upon and 
destroyed; and when he had made those ele- 
phants drunk for that purpose, the event 
proved contrary to his preparations; for these 
elephants left the Jews who were exposed to 
them, and fell violently upon Physco’s triends, 
and slew a great number of them: nay, after 


this, Ptolemy saw a terrible ghost, which pro- 


hibited his hurting those men: his very concu- 
bine whom he Joved so well, some call her 
Ithaca, and others Irene, making supplication 


to him, that he would not perpetrate so great 
a Wicxcedness, 


So }:s complied with her re- 
quest, and repented of what he either had al- 
ready done or was about to ‘tc; whenre it is 


well known that the Alexandrian Jéws do 


with good reason celebrate this day, on the ac- 
count that they had thereon heen vouchsafed 
such an evident deliverance from God. 


_éver, Apion, the common ca!umniator of men, 


hath the presumption to accuse the Jews for 
making this war against Physco, when he 


ought to have commended tuem for the same. 
This man also makes mention of Cleopatra, the 
last queen of Alexandria, and abuses us, be- 


cause she was ungrateful to us; whereas he 
ought to have reproved her, who indulged her- 
self in all kinds of injustice and wicked prac- 


' tices, both with regard to her nearest relations 
and husbands who had loved her, and, indeed, 
- in general, with regard to all tte Romans, and 


those emperors that were her benefactors; who 
also had her sister Arsinoe slain in a temple, 
when she had done her no harm: moreover, she 


_ had her brother slain by private treachery, and 


she destroyed the gods of her country and the 


_sepulchres of her progenitors; and while she 


had received her kingdom from the first Cesar, 


she had the impudence to rebel against his 


* Here begins a great defect in the Greek copy; tut the old 


Latin version fully supplies that defect. 


jy What error is here generally believe *2 have been com- 
mitted by our Josephus in ascribing a deliverance of the 


. Jews to the reign of Ptolemy Physco, the seventh of those 


Ptolemies, which has been universally supposed to have 
Nappened under Ptolemy Philopater, the fourth of them, is 


no better than a gross error of the moderns, and not of Je- 


sephus, as I have fully proved in the Authent. Rec. part i. p. 
4, whither I refer the inquisitive reader. 








in her madness to act wickedly. But whas 
need [ enlarge upon this head any farther 
when she left Antony in his fight at sea, though 
he were her husband, and the father of them 
common children, and compelled him to re- 
sign up his government, with the army, and to 
follow her [into Egypt:] nay, when last of ali 
Cesar had taken Alexandria, she came to that 
pitch of cruelty, that she declared she had 
some hope of preserving her affairs still, in 
case she could kill the Jews, though it were 
with her own hand; to such a degree of bar- 
barity and perfidiousness had she arrived. 
And doth any one think that we cannot boast 
ourselves of any thing, if, as Apion says, this 
queen did not at a time of famine distribute 
wheat among us? However, she at length 
met with the punishment she deserved. As 
for us Jews, we appeal to the great Ceesar what 
assistance we brought him, and what fidelity 
we showed to him against the Egyptians; as 
also, to the senate and its decrees, and the epis- 
tles of Augustus Cesar, whereby our merits 
{to the Romans] are justified. Apion ought to 
have looked upon those epistles, and, in parti- 
cular, to have examined the testimonies given 
on our behalf under Alexander and all the 
Ptolemies, and the decrees of the senate and 
of the greatest Roman emperors. And if Ger- 
manicus was not able to make a distribution of 
corn to all the inhabitants of Alexandria, that 
only shows what a barren time it was, and 
how great a want there was then of corn, but 
tends nothing to the accusation of the Jews; 


How- | for what all the emperors have thought of the 


Alexandrjan Jews is well known; for this dis- 
tribution of wheat was no otherwise omitted 
with regard to the Jews than it was with re- 
gard to the other inhabitants of Alexandria. 
But they still were desirous to preserve what 
the kings had formerly entrusted to their. care, 
I mean the custody of the river; nor did those 
kings think them unworthy of having the en- 
tire custody thereof upon all occasions. 

6. But, besides this, Apion objects to us thus: 
“If the Jews, says he, be citizens of Alexan- 
dria, why do they not worship the same gods 
with the Alexandrians?” 'To which I give this 
answer: Since, you are yourselves Egyptians, 
why do you fight it out one against another 
and have implacable wars about your religion? 
At this rate we must not call you all Egyptians. 
nor, indeed, in general men, because you bree¢ 
up with great care beasts of a nature quite con- 
trary to that of men, although the nature of ah 
men seems to be one and the same. Now, it 
there be such differences in opinion among you 
Egyptians, why are you surprised that those 
who came to Alexandria from another country, 
and had original laws of their own before, 
should persevere in the observance of those 
laws? But still he charges us with being the 

* Sister’s son, and adopted son. 


730 


authors of sedition: which accusation, if it be 
a just one, why is it not laid against us all, since 
we are known to be all of one mind. More- 
over, those that search into such matters will 
soon discover that the authors of sedition have 
been such citizens of Alexandria as Apion is; 
for while they were the Grecians and Macedo- 
nians who were in possession of this city, there 


PLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 





forbidden us to pay honors to worthy men p 
vided they be of another kind, and inferior te 
those we pay to God; with which honcrs we | 
willingly testify our respect to our emperors, 
and to the people of Rome: we also offer per- 
petual sacrifices for them: nor do we only of- 
fer them every day at the common expenses of 
all the Jews, but although we offer no other 


was no sedition raised against us, and we were ; such sacrifices out of our common expenses, 
permitted to observe our ancieut solempities; | no, not for our own children, yet do we this as 


but when the number of the Egyptians therein 
came to be consiJterable, the times grew confu- 
sed, and then these seditions broke out still n:ore 
and more, while our people continued uncor- 
rupted. These Egyptians, therefore, were the 
authors of these troubles, who having not the 
constaney of Macedonians, nor the prudence 
of Grecians, indulged all of them the evil man- 
ners of the Egyptians, and continued their an- 
cient hatred against us; for what is here so 
presumptuously charged upon us, is owing to 
the differences that are amongst themselves; 
while many of them have not obtained the pri- 
vileges of citizens in proper times, but style 
those who are well known to have had that 
privilege extended to them all, no other than 
foreigners: for it does not appear that any of 
the kings have ever formerly bestowed those 
privileges of citizens upon Egyptians, no more 
than have the emperors done it more lately; 
while it was Alexander who introduced us into 
this city at first, the kings augmented our pri- 
vileges therein, and the Romans have been 
leased to preserve them always inviolable. 
Mobabeer Apion would lay a blot upon us, be- 
“cause we do not erect images for out emperors; 
as if those emperors did not know this before, 
or stood in need of Apion as their defender; 
whereas he ought rather to-have admired the 
magnanimity and modesty of the Romans, 
whereby they do not compel those that are sub- 
ject to them to transgress the laws of their coui- 
tries, but are willing to receive the honors due 
to them after such a manner as those who are 
to pay them esteem consistent with piety, aud 
with their own laws; for they do not thank 
people for conferring honcrs upon them, when 
they are compelled by violence so te do. Ac- 
cordingly, siuce the Grecians and some other 
nations think it a right thing to make in xges, 
nay, when they have painted the pictures of 
their parents, and wives, and children, they ex- 
ult for joy; and some there are who take pic- 
ures for themselves of suck persons as were 
noway related to them: nay, some take the pic- 
tures of such servants as they were fond of. 
What wonder is it then if such as these appear 
willing to pay the same respect to their princes 
and lords? But then, our legislator hath for- 
bidden us to make images, not by way of de- 
nunciation beforehand, that the Roman authori- 
ty was not to be honored, but as despising a 
thing that was neither necessary nor useful for 
either God or man; and he forbade them as we 
sha!l prove hereafter, to make these images for 
any part of the animal creation, and much less 
for God himself, who is no part of such animal 
creation Yet hath our legislator no where 





OL A 


} 


a peculiar honor to the emperors, and to them 
alone, while we do the same to no other per: 
son whomsoever. And let this suffice for an 
answer in general to Apion, as to what he says 
with relation to the Alexandrian Jews. 

7. However, I cannot but admire those other 
authors who furnished this man with such his 
materials: I mean Possidonius and Appolloniug 
[the son of] Molo,* who, while they accuse us 
for not worshiping the same gods whom others 
wership, they think themselves not gvilty of 
imjiety when they tell lies of us, and frame 
absurd and reproachful stories about our tem- 
ple; whereas it isa most shameful thing for 
freemen to forge lies on any occasion, and 
much more so, to forge them about our temple, 
which was so famous over all the world, and 
was preserved so sacred by us; for Apion had 
the impudence to pretend, “that the Jews placed 
an ass’s head in their holy place,” and he affirms, 
“that this was discovered when Antiochus Epi- 
phanes spoiled our temple, and found that ass’s 
head there made of gold, and worth a great 
deal of money.” To this my first answer shall 
be this, that had there been any such thing 
among ws, an Egyptian ought by no means to 
have thrown it in our teeth, since an ass is not 
a more contemptible animal than*** and goats, 
and other such creatures, which among them 
are gods. But besides this answer, I say far-— 
ther, how comes it about that Apion does not 
understand this to be no other than a palpable 
lie, and to be confuted by the thing itself as ut- 
terly incredible? For we Jews are always go- 
verned by the same laws, in which we con- 
stantly persevere; and although many misfor-— 
tunes have befallen our city, as the like have 
befallen others, and although Theos, [Epipha- 
nes,}| and Pompey the Great, and Licinius 
Crassus, and last of all Titus Cesar, have con- 
quered us in war, and gotten possession of our 
temple, yet have they none of them found any — 
such thing there, nor indeed any thing but what 
was agreeable to the strictest piety, although 
what they found we are not at liberty to reveal 
to other nations. But for Antiochus, [Epipha-- 
nes,] he haa n< just cause for that ravage im 
our temple that he made; he only came to it — 
when he wanted money, without declaring him-_ 
self cur enemy, and attacked us while we were 
his associates and his friends; nor did he find — 
any thing there that was ridiculous, This is 
atteeted by many worthy writers; Polybius of 
Megalapolis, Strabo of Cappadocia, icolauy 

* Cal.ed more properly Molo or Apollonius Molo, as here- 7 
after; for Apollonius, the son of Molo, was another person, — 
as Strabo informs us, lib. xiv. ; qi ) 


t Furones in the Latin, but what animal it denotes does 
not now appear. i 





i #i 


‘ 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK 1. 


of Damascus. Ticiagenes, Castor the chronolo- 
ger, and Apollodorus,* who all say, that it was 
out of Antiochus’s want of money that he 
broke his league with the Jews, and despoiled 
their temple when it was full of gold and sil- 
ver. Apion ought to have had a regard to these 
facts, unless he had himself had either an ass’s 
heart or a cog’s impudence; of such a dog I 
mean as they worship; for he had no other ex- 
ternal reason for the lies he tellsof us. As for 
us Jews, we ascribe no honor or power to asses, 
as do the Egyptians to crocodiles and asps, 
when they esteem such as are seized upon by 
the former, or bitten by the latter, to be happy 
persons, and persons worthy of God. Asses 
are the same with us which they are with other 
wise men, viz. creatures that bear the burdens 
that we lay upon them; but if they come to 
our threshing-floors, and eat our corn, or do 
not perform what we impose upon them, we 
beat them with a great many stripes, because 
it is their business to minister to us in our 
fr:sbandry affairs. But this Apion of ours was 
eitner perfectly unskilful in the composition of 
such fallacious discourses, or however when 
ke began [somewhat better] he was not able to 
paneer in what he had undertaken, since he 
hath no manner of success in those reproaches 
he casts upon us. 

8. He adds another Grecian fable, in order 
to reproach us. In reply to which, it would 
be enough to say, that they who presume to 
speak about divine worship, ought not to be 
ignorant of this plain truth, that it is a degree 
of less impurity to pass through temples, than 
to forge wicked calumnies of its priests. Now, 
such men as he, are more zealous to justify a 
sacrilegious king, than to write what is just and 
what is true about us and about our temple; 
for when tney are desirous of gratifying An- 
tiochus, and of concealing that perfidiousness 
and sacrilege which he was guilty of, with re- 
gard to our nation, when he wanted money, 
they endeavor to disgrace us, and tell lies, even 
relating to futurities. Apion becomes other 
men’s prophet upon this occasion, and says, 
“that Antiochus found in our temple a bed and 
aman lying upon it, with a small table be- 
fore him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of 
the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land; thac 
this man was amazed at these dainties thus set 
before him; that he immediately adored the 
king upon his coming in, as hoping that he 
would afford him all possible assistance; that 
he fell down upon his knees, and stretched out 
‘o him his right hand, and begged to be releas- 

d; and that when the king bade him sit down, 
ad tell him who he was, and why he dwelt 
here, and what was the meaning of those va- 
rious sorts of food that were set before him, 
the man made a lamentable complaint, and with 
sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this ac- 
count of the distress he was in, and said, that 


*It isa great pity that these cix Pagan authors here men- 
tioned to have described the famous profanation of the 
Jewish temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, should be all lost; 
T mean so far of their writings as contained that description; 
ecsah it is plain Josephus perused them all, as extant in his 

e. 


73} 


he was a Greek, and that as he went over this 
province, in order to get his living, he was 
seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and 
brought to this temple, and shut up therein, 
and was seen by nobody, but was fattened 
by these curious provisions thus set before 
him; and that truly, at the first, such unex- 
pected advantages scemed to him matter of 
great joy; that after a while, they brought a sus- 
picion upon him, and, at length, astonishment, 
what their meaning should be; that at last he 
inquired of the servants that came to him, and 
was by them informed, that it was in order to 
the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they 
must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and 
that they did the same at a set time every year; 
that they used to catch a Greek foreigner and 
fat him thus up every year, and then lead him 
to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice 
with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of 
his entrails, anj take an oath upon thus sacrific- 
ing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity 
with the Greeks; and that then they threw the 
remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a 
certain pit.” Apion adds farther, “that the 
man said, there were but a few days to come 
ere he was to be slain, and implored Antiochas, 
that, out of the reverence he bore to the Gre- 
cian gods, he would disappoint the snares the 
Jews laid for his blood, and would deliver him. 
from the miseries with which he was encom- 
pep Now, this is such a most tragical fa- 
le as is full of nothing but cruelty and impu- 
dence; yet does it not excuse Antiochus of his 
sacrilegious attempts, as those who wrote it in 
his vindicaticn are willing to suppose; for he 
could not presume beforehand that he should 
meet with any such thing in coming to the 
temple, but must have found it unexpectedly. 
He was therefore still an impious person, that 
wes given to unlawful pleasures, and had no re- 
gard to God in his actions. But [as.for oper 
he hath done whatever his extravagant love o 
lying hath dictated to him, as it is most easy tc 
discover by a consideration of his writings; for 
the difference of our laws is known not to re- 
gzxrd the Grecians only, but they are principally 
opposite to the Egyptians, and to some other 
nations also; for while it so falls out, that mep 
of all countries come sometimes and sojourn 
among us, how comes it about that we take an 
oath, and. conspire only against the Grecians, 
and that by the effusion of their blood also? Or, 
how is it possibie, that all the Jews should get 
together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of 
one man should be sufficient for so many thou- 
sands to taste of them, as Avion pretends? Or, 
why did not the king carry this man, whoso- 
ever he was, and whatsoever was his name, 
(which is not set down in Acion’s book,) with 
great pomp back into his own country, when 
he might thereby have been esteemed a religi- 
ous person himself, and a mighty lover of 
the Greeks, and might thereby have pro- 
cured himself great assistance from all men 
against that hatred the Jews bore to him. 
But I leave this matter: for the proper way 
of confuting fools is not to use bare words 


732 


but to appeal to the mings themselves that 
make against them. Now, then, all such as 
ever saw the construction of our temple, of 
what nature it was, know well enough how the 
purity of it was never to be profaned; for it 
had four several courts;* encompassed with 
cloisters round about, every one of which had 
by our law a peculiar degree of separation 
from the rest. Into the first court every body 
was allowed to go, even foreigners, and none 
but women, during their courses, were prohib- 
ited to pass through it; all the Jews went into 
the second court, as well as their wives, when 
they were free from all uncleanness; into the 
third went in the Jewish men when they were 
clean and purified; into the fourth went the 
priests, having on their sacerdotal garments: but 
for the most sacred place, none went in but the 
high priests clothed in their peculiar garments. 
Now there is so great caution used about these 
offices of religion, that the priests are appointed 
to go into the temple but at certain hours; for 
is the morning, at the opening of the inner 
temple, those that are to officiate receive the 
sacrifices, as they do again at noon, till the 
doors are shut. Lastly, it is not so much as 
lawful to carry any vesse? into the holy house, 
nor is there any thing therein but the altar (of 
incense, ) the table (of show-bread,) the censer, 
and the candlestick which are all written in the 
law; for there is nothing farther there, nor are 
there any mysteries performed that may not be 
spoken of; nor is there any feasting within the 
ace. For what I have now said is publicly 
‘assialy and supported by the testimony of the 
whole people, and their operations are very 
manifest; for although there be four courses of 
the priests, and every one of them have above 
five thousand men in them, yet do they officiate 
on certain days only; and when those days are 
over, other priests succeed in the performance 
ef their sacrifices, and assemble together at 
mid-day, and receive the keys of the temple, 
and the vessels by tale, without any thing re- 
lating to food or drink being carried into the 
temple; nay, we are not allowed to offer such 
things at the altar, excepting what is prepared 
for the sacrifices. 

9. What then can we say of Apion, but that 
he examined nothing that concerned these 
things, while still he uttered incredible words 
about them? but it is a great shame for a gram- 
marian not to be able to write true history. 
Now, if he knew the purity of our temple, he 
hath entirely omitted to take notice of it; but 
he forges a story about the seizure of a Gre- 
eian, about ineflable food, and the most deli- 
cious preparation of dainties; and pretends 
that strangers could go into a place whereinto 
the noblest men amozg the Jews are not al- 
owed to enter, uuless they be priests. "This, 
therefore, is the utmost degree of impiety, and 


* It is remarkable that Josephus here, and, I think, no- 
where else, reckons up four distinct courts of the temple: 
that of the Gentiles, that of the women of Israel, that of the 
men of Israel, and that of the priests; as also, that the court 
ef the women admitted of the men, (I suppose only of the 
husrinds of those wives that were therein,) while the court 
ef ene men did not admit any women into it at all. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 


a voluntary lie, in order to the delusion of those 
who will not examine into the truth of matters, 
Whereas, such unspeakable mischiefS as are — 


above related, have been occasioned by such 
calumnies that are raised upon us. 

10. Nay, this miracle of piety derides us far- 
ther, and adds the following pretended facts to 
his former fable; for he says, that this man re- 
lated how, “while the Jews were once in a 
long war with the Idumeans, there came a 
man out of one of the cities of the Idumeans, 
who there had worshiped Apollo. This man, 
whose name is said to have been Zabidus, came 
to the Jews, and promised that he would deliv- 
er Apollo, the god of Dora, into their hands, 
and that he would come to our temple, if they 
would all come up with him, and bring the 
whole multitude of the Jews with them; that 
Zabidus made him a certain wooden instru- 
ment, and put it round about him, and set three 
rows of lamps therein, and walked after such 
a manner, that he appeared to those that stood 
a great way off him te be a kind of star, walk- 
ing upon the earth; that the Jews were terribly 
frightened at so surprising an appearance, and 
stood very quiet at some distance; and that 
Zabidus, while they continued so very uiet, 
went into the holy house, and carried off that 
golden head of an ass, (for so facetiously does 
he write,) and then went his way back again 
to Dora, in great haste.” And say you so, sir? as 
I may reply, then does Apion load the ass, that 
is himself, and lays on him a burden of foole- 
ries and lies; for he writes of places that have no 
being, and not knowing the cities he speaks of, 
he changes their situation; for Idumea borders 
upon our country, and is nea; to Gaza, in which 
there is no such city as Dore: although there 
be, it is true, a city named Dora, in Phoenicia, 
near mount Carmel, but it is four days’ journey 
from Idumea.* Now, then, why does this man 
accuse us, because we have not gods in com- 
mon with other nations? If our forefathers 
were so easily prevailed upon to have Apollo 
come to them, and thought they saw him walk- 
ing upon the earth, and the stars with him; for 
certainly those who have so many festivals 
wherein they light lamps, must yet, at this rate 

have never seen 4 candlestick! but still it seems 
‘that while Zabidus took his journey over the 
country, where were so many ten thousands of 
‘people nobody met him. He also, it seems, 
even in a time of war, found the walls of Je- 
rusalem destitute of guards: I omit the rest. 
Now the doors of the holy house were seven- 
tyt cubits high, and twenty cubits broad; they 
were all plated over with gold, and almost of 
solid gold itself, and there were no fewer than 
twenty} men required to shut them every day; 
nor was it lawful ever to leave them open, 
though it seems this lamp-bearer of ours open- 
ed them easily, or thought he opened them, as 
he thought he had the ass’s head in his hand. 
Whether, therefore, he returned it to us again, 
*Judea, in the Greek, by a gross mistake of the transcribers. 
t Seven, in the Greek, by a like gross mistake of the 
transcribers; see Of the War, b. v. ch. v. sect. 4. 


¢ Two hundred in the Greek, 
‘ the War, b. vii. ch. v. sect. 3. 








contrary to the twenty m@m 





AGAINST APION.—-BOOK IL. 


vu. wnether Apion took it and brought it into 
tre temple again, tat Antiochus might find it, 
and afford a handle fora second fable of Apion’s, 
i# uncertain. 

1}. Apion also tells a false story, when he 
mentions an oath of ours, as if we “swore by 
God, the maker of the heaven, and earth, and 
sea, to bear no good will to any foreigner, and 
particularly to none of the Greeks.” Now 
this liar ought to have said directly, that “we 
would bear no good will to any foreigner, and 
particularly to nore of the Egyptians.” For 
then his story about th. oath would have 
squared with the rest of his original forgeries, 
in case our forefathers had been driven away 
by their kinsmen, the Egyptians, not on ac- 
count of any wickedness they had been guilty 
of, but on account of the calamities they were 
under; for as to the Grecians, we are rather re- 
mote from them in place, than different from 
them in our institutions, insomuch that we 
have no enmity with them, or any jealousy of 
them. On thecontrary, it hath so happened, 
that many of them have come over to our 
laws, and some of them have continued in 
their observation, although others of them had 
not courage enough to persevere, and so de- 
pees from them again; or did any body ever 

ear this oath sworn by us; Apion, it seems, 
we? the only person that heard it, for he indeed 
was if e first composer of it. 

12. However, Apion deserves to be admired 
for his great prudence, as to what I am going 
to say, which is this, that “there isa plain mark 
amone us, that we neither have just laws, nor 
workip God as we ought to do, because we are 
not governors, but are rather in subjection to 
Gentiles, sometimes to one nation, and some- 
times to another; and that our city hath been 
liable to several calamities, while their city 
(Alexandria) hath been of old time an imperial 
city, and not used to be in subjection to the Ro- 
mans.” But now this man had better leave off 
his bragging, for every body but himself would 
think, thac Apion said what he hath said 
egainst himself; for there are very few nations 
that have had the good fortune to continue 
many generations in the principality, but still 
the mutations in ruman affairs have put them 
into subjection under others; and most nations 
have been often subdued, and brought into sub- 
jection by others. Now for the Egyptians, 
perhaps they are the only nation that have had 
this extraordinary privilege, to have never serv- | 
ed any of those morarchs who subdued Asia 
and Europe, and this on account, +3 they pre- | 
tend, that the gods fled into'theiy . atry, and 
gaved themselves by being changed into the 
shapes of wild beasts. Whereas these Egyp- 
jans* are the very peopl who appear to have 
never inall the past ages, had one day of free- 
dem, no, not so much as from their own lords. 


ee eee a oa Se et Sn a IE a ne eae ee ee 


* This notorious disgrace belonging peculiarly to the peu; 
re of Egypt, ever since the times of the old prophets of the 
ews, noted both section 4 already, and here, may be con 
firmed by the testimony of Isodorus, an Egyptian of Pelusi- 
am, Epist. lib. i. ch. 489. And this is a remarkable comple- 
don of the ancient prediction of God, by Ezek. xxix. 14, 15. 
—Thac the Egyptians should be a base kingdom, the basest 
%f the kingdoms;” and that it “should not exalt itself any 


733 


For I will not reproach the: with relating the 
manner how the Persians used them, and thie 
not once only, but many times, when they laid 
their cities waste, demolished their temples, 
and cut the throats of those animals whom 
they esteemed to be gods; for it is not reasona 
ble to imitate the clownish ignorance of Apion. 
who hath no regard to the misfortunes of the 
Athenians, or of the Lacedemonians, the latter 
of whom were styled by ail men the mos 
courageous, and the former the most religions 
of the Grecians. J say nothing of such kinys 
as have been famous for piety, particularly of 
cone of therm whose name was Cresus, nor 
what calamities he met with in his life: I say 
nothing of the citadel of Athens, of the temple 
at Ephesus, of that at Delphi, nor of ten thou 
sand others which have been burnt down. 
while nobody cast reproaches on those that 
were the sufferers, but on those that were the 
actors therein. But now we have met with 
Apion, an accuser of our nation, though one 
that still forgets the miseries of his own people 
the Egyptians; but it is that Sesostris, who was 
once so celebrated a king of Egypt, that hath 
blinded him: now we will not brag of ow 
kings, David and Solomon, though they con 
quered many nations: accordingly we will let 
them alone. However, Apion is ignorant of 
what every body knows, that the Egyptians 
were servants to the Persians, and afterwards 
to the Macedonians, when they were lords of 
Asia, and were no better than slaves, while we 
have enjoyed liberty formeriy; nay, more than 
that, have had the dominion of the cities that 
lie round about us, and this nearly for a hun- 
dred and twenty years together, until Pompeius 
Magnus. And when ali the kings everywhere 
were conquered by the Romans, our ancestors 
were the only people who continued to be es- 
teemed their confederates and friends, on ac- 
count of their fidelity to them. 

13. But says Apion, “we Jews have not had 
any wonderful men amongst us, not any in- 
ventors of arts, nor any eminent for wisdom.” 
He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and 
Cleanthes, and some others of the same sort; 
and, after all, he adds himself to them, which 
is the most wonderful thing of all that he says 
ard pronounces Alexandria to be happy, be- 
cause it hath such a citizen as he is in it; for 
he was the fittest man to be a witness to his 
own deserts, although he hath appeared to all 
others no better than a wicked mountebank, of 
a corrupt life and ill discourses; on which ac- 
count one may justly pity Alexandria; if i 
should value itself upon such a citizen as he is. 
But as to our own men, we have had those 
who. have been as deserving of commendation 
as any other whosoever; and such as have perus- 
ed our Antiquities cannot be ignorant of ther: 

14. As to the other things which he sete 
more above the nations.”? The-truth of which still farther 
appears by the present observation of Josephus, that these 
Egyptians had never, in all the past ages since Sesostris, had 
one day of liberty, no notso much as to have been free froin 
despotic power under any of the monarchs to that day. And 
all this has been found equally true in the latter ages, unde» 


the Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes, and Turks, from the 
days of Josephus to the present age also, 


yee 


down ws ‘\iame- vorthy, it inay perhaps be the 
‘best Way to let them pase without apology, that 
‘ie may be allowed to be his own accuser, and 
the accuser of the rest of the Egyptians. How- 
ever, he accuses us for sacrificing animals, and 
for abstaining from swine’s flesh, and laughs at 
us for the circumcision of our privy members. 
Now, as for our slaaghter of tame animals for 
sacrifices, it is common to us and to all other 
men: but this Apion, by making it a crime to 
sacrifice them, demonstrates himself to be an 
Egyptian; for had he been either a Grecian or 
a Macedonian, (as he pretends to be,) he had 
not showed any uneasiness at it; for those peo- 
ple glory in sacrificing whole hecatombs to the 

ods, and make use of those sacrifices for 
easting; and yet is vot the world thereby ren- 
dered destitute ef cattle, as Apion was afraid 
would come to pass. Yet, if all men had fol- 
lowed the manners of the Egyptians, the world 
had certainly been made desolate as to man- 
kind, but had been filled full of the wildest 
sort of brute beasts, which, because they sup- 
pose them to be gods, they carefully nourish. 
However, if any one should ask Ap‘on, which 
of the Egyptians he thinks to be the most wise, 
and most pious of them all, he would certainly 
acknowledge the priests to be so; for the his- 
tories say, that two things were originally com- 
mitted to their care by their king’s injunc- 
tions, the worship of the gods, and the support 
of wisdom and philosophy. Accordingly, 
these priests are all circumcised, and abstain 
from swine’s flesh: nor does any one of the 
other Egyptians assist them in slaying those 
sacrifices they offer to the gods. Apion was 
therefore quite blinded in his mind, when, for 
the sake of the Egyptians, he contrived to re- 
proach us, and to accuse such others as not 
only make use of that conduct of life which 
he so much abuses, but have also taught other 
men to be circumcised, as says Herodotus, 
which makes me think that Apion is hereby 
justly punished for his casting such reproachor 
on the laws of his own country; for he was 
circumcised himself of necessity, on account 
of an ulcer in his privy member; and when he 
received no benefit by such circumcision, but 
his member became putrid, he died in great 
torment. Now men of good tempers ought to 
observe their own laws concerning religion ac- 
curately, and to persevere therein, but not pre- 
sently abuse the laws of other nations; while 
this Apion deserted his own laws, and told lies 
about ours. And this was the end of Apion’s 
‘ife, and this shall be the conclusion of our 
discourse about him. 

15. But now, since Apollonius, Molo, and 
Lysimachus, and some others, write treatises 
about our lawgiver Moses, and about our laws, 
which are neither just nor true, and this partly 
out of ignorance, but chiefly out of ill will to 
us, while they calumniate Moses as an impos- 
tor and deceiver, and pretend that our laws 


FLAVILS JOSEPHUS 


; 





es of it. For I suppose it will thence become 
evident that the laws we have given us are dis- 
posed after the best manner for the advance~ 
ment of piety, for mutual communion with one 
another, for a general love of mankind, as also 
for justice, and for sustaining labors with forti- 
tude, and for acontempt of death. And I beg 
of those that shall peruse this writing of mine, 

to read it without partiality; for it is not my 

purpose to write an encomium upon ourselves, 

but I shall esteem this as a most just apology 

for us, and taken from those our laws, accord-. 
ing to which we lead our lives, against the 

many and the lying objections that have been 

made against us. Moreover, since this Apollo- 

nius does not do like Apion, and lay a contin- 

ued accusation against us, but does it only by 

starts, and up and down his discourse, while 

he sometimes reproaches us as atheists, and 

man-haters, and sometimes hits us in the teeth 

with our want of courage, and yet sometimes, 

on the contrary, accuses us of too great boldness, 

and madness in our conduct: nay, he says, that 

we are the weakest of all the barbarians, and 

that this is the reason why we are the only 

people who have made no improvements in 

human life. Now TI think I shall have then 

sufficiently disproved all these his allegations, 

when it shall appear that our laws enjoin the 

very reverse of what he says, and that we very 

carefully observe those laws ourselves. And 

if 1 be compelled to make mention of the laws 

of other nations, that are contrary to ours, those 

ought deservedly to thank themselves for it, 

who have pretended to deprecate our laws in 

comparison of their own: nor will there, I think, 

be any rcom after that for them to pretend, 

either that we have no such laws ourselves, an 

epitome of which [ will present to the reader, 

or that we do not, above all men, continue in 

the observetior vf them. 

16. To begin then a good way backward: | 
would advance ‘his, in the first place, that those 
who have beet aa.nirers of good order, and of 
living under commo, laws, and who began to 
introduce them, may well have this testimony, 
that they are better tnan other men, both for 
moderation, and such viriue as is agreeable to 
nature. Indeed, their eadeavor was to have 
every thing they ordained believed to be very 


; wicient, that they might nov be thought to imi- 


tate others, but might appear te have delivered — 
a regular way of living to otwers after them. 
Since, then, this is the case, the excellency of 


a legislator ix seen in providing for the people’s — 


living after the best manner, and in prevailing 
With those iat are to use’the laws he ordains 
for them, to have a good opinion of them, and 
in obliging the multitude to persevere m thern, 
and to make no changes in them, neithe: in 
prosperity nor adversity. Now, I venture wo 
say, that our legislator is the most ancient of — 
all the legislators whom.we have anywhere 


heard of; for as for the Lycurguses, and Solons, _ 


4 


and Zaleucus Locrensis, and all those legisla- 
tors who are so admired by the Greeks, they — 
seem to be of yesterday, if compared with our 

legislator, insomuch as the very name of alaw he 


F 


teach us wickedness, but nothing that is virtu- 
ous, I have a mind to discourse briefly, accord- 
ing to my ability, about our whole constitution 
of government, and about the particular branch- 





was notso much as knov.n in old times among 
the Grecians. Homer is a witness to the truth 


_ of this observation, who never uses that term 


in all his poems: for indeed there was then no 
#uch thing among them, but the multitude was 
governed by wise maxims, and by the injunc- 
tions of their king. It was also a long time* 
that they continued in the use of these unwrit- 


_ ten customs, although they were always chang- 


ing them upon several occasions. But for our 
legislator, who wag of so much greater antiqui- 
ty than the rest, (a3 even those who speak 
against us upor. a!) occasions do always con- 
fess,) he exhibited himself to the pesple as 


their best governor and counsellor, and includ- 


ed in his legislation the entire conduct of their 
lives, and prevailed with them to receive it, and 
brought it so to pass, that those tliat were made 
acquainted with his laws did most carefully 
“bserve them. 

17. But lt us consider his first and greatest 
work: for when it was resolved on by our fore- 
fathers to leave Egypt, and return to their own 
country, this Moses took the many ten thou- 
sands that were of the people, and saved them 
out of many desperate distresses, and brought 
them homme in safety. And certainly it was 
here necessary to travel over a country with- 
out water, and full of sand, to overcome their 
enemies, and during these battles, to preserve 
their children, and their wives, ard their prey; 
on all which occasions he became an excellent 
general of an army, and a most prudent coun- 
sellor, and one that took the truest care of them 
all; he also so brou zht it about, that the whole 
multitude depended upor him. And while he 
had them always obedient to what he enjoined, 
he made no manner of use of his authority for 
his own private advantage, which is the usual 
fime when governors gain great powers to 
themselves, and pave the way for tyranny, and 
accustom the multitude to live very dissolutely: 
whereas, when our legislator was in so great 
authority, he, on the contrary, thought ne ought 


to have regard to piety, and to show his great 


good will to the people; and by this means he 
thought he might stow the degree of virtue 
that was in him, and might procure the most 
tasting security to those who had made him 
their governor. Wuen he had, therefore, come 
to such a good resolution, and had performed 
such wondertul exploits, we had just reason to 


_ look upon ourselves as having him for a divine 


governor and counsellor. And when he had 


_ first persuaded himself} that his actions and 


" 


* Viz. After the greatest part of the world had left off their 
pedience to God, their original legislator; see Scripture Po- 
tities, page 6, 7. 

+ This language, that Moses ze1rs savrov, persuaded him- 
self that what he did was according to God’s will, can mean 
no more by Josephus’s own constant notions elsewhere, 
than that he was firmly persuaded, that he had fully satisfied 
himself, that so it was, viz. by the many revelations he had 
received from God, and the numerous miracles God had en- 
abled him to work, as he, botn in these very two books 
against Apion and in his Antiquities most clearly and fre- 
quently assures us. This is farther evident from several pas- 
gages lower, where he affirms that Moses was no impostor 
aor deceiver, and where he assures us that Moses’s consti- 
tution of government was no other than a theocracy; and 
q@here he says, they are to hope for deliverance out of their 

tetresses by prayer to God, and tmat withall it was owing in 


AGAINST’ APION.—BOOK {1 


735 


desiyns were agreeable to God’s will, he thought 
it his duty to impress, above all things, that no- 
tion upon the multitude: for those who have 
once believed that God is the inspector of then 
lives, will not perinit themselves in any sin. And 
this is the character of our legislator: he was no 
impostor, no deceiver, as his revilers say, though 
unjustly, but such a one as they brag Minos* to 
have been among the Greeks, and other legis- 
lators after him: for some of them suppose that 
they had their laws from Jupiter, while Minos 
said, that the revelation of his laws was to be 
referred to Apollo, and his oracle at Delphi,whe- 
ther they really thought they were so derived,, 
or supposed, however, that they could persuadet 
the people easily that so it was. But which of 
these it was who made the best laws, and 
which had the greatest reason to believe that 
God was their author, it will be easy, upon com- 
paring those laws themselves together, to deter- 
mine; for it is time that we come to that point.[]} 
Now there are innumerable differences in the 
particular customs and laws that are among all 
mankind, which a man may briefly reduce 
urder the following heads: some legislators 
have permitted their governments to be under 
monarchies, others put them under oligarchies, 
and others urder a republican form; but our 
legislator had ro regard to any of these forms, 
but he ordained our government to be what, by 
a strained expression, may be termed a theo- 
cracv.t by ascribing the authority and the 
power to God, and by persuading all the people 
to have a regard to him, as the author of all 
things that were enjoyed either in common by 
all mankind, or by each one in particular, and 
of ail that they themselves obtained by praying 
to him in their greatest difficulties. He in- 
formed them, that it was impossible to escape 
God’s observation, even in any of our outward 
actions, or in eny of our inward thoughts, 
Moreover, he represented God§ as unbegotten 


part to this prophetic spirit of Moses, that the Jews expect 
ed a resurrection from the dead; see almost as sirange a use 
of the like words wsirissy tov Ocov, to persuade God, An- 
tiq. b. vi. ch. v. sect. 6. 

* That is, Moses really was, what the heathen legislators 
pretended to be, under divine direction; nor does it yet 
appear that these pretensions to a supernatural conduct 
either in these legislutur. or oracles, were mere delusions 0 
men, without any demuitjzeal impressions, nor that Josephus 
iook them so to be, as the ancientest and contemporary au- 
thers did still believe them to be supernatural. 

j This whole very large passage from [ ] to ***, is cor- 
rected by Dr. Hudson, from Eusebius’s citation of it, Prep. 
Evangel. viii. 3, which is here not a little different from the 
present MSS. of Josephus. 

¢ This expression itself, @soxparsay cemrsdesee TO move 
tevyety that Moses ordained the Jewish government to be a 
theocracy, may be illustrated by that parallel expression ip 
the Antiquities, b. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9, that ‘Moses left it te 
God to be present at his sacrifices when he pleased, and when 
he pleased to be absent.” Both ways of speaking sound 
harsh in.the ears of the Jews and Christians, as do several 
others which Josephus uses to the heathen; but still they 
were not very improper in him, when he all along thought 
fit to aeeummuéate himself, both in his Antiquities and in 
these his books against Apion, all written for the use of the 
Greeks and Romans, to their notions and language, and this 
as far as ever truth would give him leave. Though it be 
very observable withall, that he never uses such expressions 
in his books Of the War written originally for the Jews be 
yond Euphrates, and in their language. In all these cases, 
however, Josephus directly supposes the Jewish settlement 
under Moses to be a divine settlement, and, indeed, no other 
than a real theocracy. eh f 

§ These excellent accounts of the divine attributes and 


736 


and immutable, through all eternity, superior 
to all mortal conceptions in pulchritude; and, 
though known to us by his power, yet un- 
known to us as to his essence. I do not now 
explain how these notions of God are the sen- 
timents of the wisest among the Grecians, and 
how they were taught them upon the princi- 
ples that he afforded them. However, they 
testify with great assurance, that these notions 
are just, and agreeable to the nature of God, 
and to his majesty; for Pythagoras, and Anaxa- 
goras, and Plato, and the Stoic philosophers 
that succeeded them, and almost all the rest, 
are of the same sentiments, and had the same 
notions of the nature of God; yet durst not 
these men disclose those true notions to more 
than a few, because the body of the people 
were prejudiced with other opinions before- 
hand. But our legislator, who made his ac- 
tions agree to his laws, did not only prevail 
with those that were his contemporaries to 
agree with these his notions, but sq firmly im- 
printed this faith in God upor. all their pos- 
terity, that it never could be removed. The 
reason why the constitution of this legisla- 
tion was ever better directed to the utility of 
all, than other legislations were, is this, that 
Moses did not make religion a part of virtue, 
but he saw and he ordained other virtues to be 
parts of religion; I mean justice, and fortitude, 
and temperance, and a universal agreement of 
the members of the community with one 
another; for all our actions and studies, and all 
our words (in Moses’s settlement) have a refer- 
ence to piety towards God; for he hath left 
none of these in suspense, or undetermined. 
For there are two ways of coming at any sort 
of learning, and a moral conduct of life; the 
one is by instruction in words, the other by 
practical exercises. Now other lawgivers have 
separated these two ways in their opinions, 
and choosing one of those ways of instruction, 
or that which best pleased every one of them, 
neglected the other. Thus did the Lacedemo- 
nians and the Cretians teach by practical exer- 
cises, but not by words; while the Athenians, and 
almost all the other Grecians, made laws about 


what was to be done or left undone, but had | that 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 








person himself; accordingly, he made a fixed 
rule of law what sorts of food they should ak 

stain from, and what sorts they should mak 
use of; as also, what communion they should 
have with others; what great diligence they 
should use in their occupations, and what | 
times of rest should be interposed; that, by 
living under that law as under a father and a 

master, we might be guilty of no sin, neither 
voluntary "er out of ignorance; for he did not 

suffer the guilt of ignorance to go en without 

punishment, but demonstrated the law to pe. 

the best, and the most necessary instruction of 

all others, permitting the people to leave off 

their other employments, and to assemble to- 

gether for hearing of the law, and learning it 

exactly, and this not once or twice, or oftener 
but «very week; which thing all other legisla- 

tors seem to have neglected. 

1%. And indeed the greatest part of mankind 
are so far from living according to their own 
laws, that they hardly kncw them; but when 
they have sinned, they learn from others that 
they have transgressed the law. Those also 
who are in the highest and principal posts of 
the government confess they are not acquainted 
with those laws, and are obliged to take such 
persons for their assessors in public adrvinis- 
trations as profess to have skill in those 'aws: 
but for our people, if any body do but ask any 
one of them about our laws, he will more rea- 
dily tell them all than he will tell hisown name, 
and this in consequence of our having learned 
them immediately as soon as ever we became 
sensible of any thing, and of our having them 
as it were epgraven on our souls. Our trans- 
gressors of them arc but few, and it is impossi- 
ble, when any do off:na, to escape punishment 

20. And this very thing it is that principally 
creates such a wonderful agreement of minds- 
amongst us all; for this entire agreement of 
ours in all our notions concerning God, and our 
having no difference in our course of life and 
manners, procures among us the most excellent 
concord of these our manners that is anywhere 
among mankind: for no other people but we 
Jews have avoided all discourses about God 
any way contradict one another, which yet 


no regard to the exercising thein thereto in| are frequent among other nations; and *’ is w 


practice. 

_ 18. But for our legislator, he very carefully 
joined these two methods of instruction to- 
gether: for he neither left these practical exer- 
cises to go on without verbal instruction, nor did 
he permit the hearing of the law to proceed 
without the exercises for practice, but begin- 
ning immediately from the earliest infancy, 
and the appointment of every one’s diet, he 
left nothing of the very smallest consequence 
to be done at the pleasure and disposal of the 


that God is not to be at all known in his essence, as also 
some other clear expressions about the resurrection of the 
dead, and the state of departed souls, &c. in this late work 
of Josephus, look more like the exalted notions of the Es- 
genes, Or, rather, Ebionite Christians, than of a mere Jew or 
Pharisee. The following large accounts also of the laws of 
Moses seem to me to show a regard to the higher interpre- 
tations and improvements of Moses’s Jaws, derived from 
Jesus Christ, rather than to the bare letter of them in the Old 
festament, whence alone Josephus took them when he 
vrote his antiquities: nor, as I think, can some of these 


| 


true not only among ordinary persons, accord- 
ing as every one is affected, but some of the 
philosophers have been insolent enough to in- _ 
dulge such contradictions, while some of them 
have undertaken to use such words as entirely 
take away the nature of God, as others of the: 
have taken away his providence over mankina _ 
Nor can any one perceive amonget us any dif- 
ference in the conduct of our lives, but all our 
works are common to us all. We have one | 
sort of discourse concerning God, which is . 
laws, thoug? generally excellent in their kind, be prope:ty ; 
now found either in the copies uf the Jewish Pentateueh, 
or in Pho, or in Josephus himself before he became a Na- gy 
zaren* or Ebionite Christian, nor even all of them among the _ 
laws ov Catholic Christianity themselves. I desire, there- _ 
fore, the learned reader to consider, whether some of these _ 
improvements or interpretations might not be peculiar to the 
Essenes among the Jews, or, rather, to the Nazarenes oF 
Ebionites among the Christians; though we have, vrertiy ba 


impertect accounts of these Nazarenes or Ebionite 
tians transmitted down to us at this day. 





| 
. 
4 
| 


» ful cases, and the punishers of those that were | 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK 11. 731 


conformal ‘e to our law, and affirms that he |a being eve: way perfect and happy, self-sufti- 
sees all things; as also we have but one way of | cent, and s-pplying all other beings; the begin- 
sperking concerning the conduct of our lives, ‘wing, the middle, and the end of all things. He 
t...t all other things ought to have piety for |is manifest in his works and benefits, and more 
their end; and this any body may hear from our | conspicuous than any other being whatsoever; 
women and servants themselves. but as to his form and magnitude, he is most 

21. And indeed, hence hath arisen that ac-jchscure. All materials, let them be ever so 
eusation which some make agains. us, that we | cus’'y, are unworthy to compose an image for 
have not produced men that have been the in- | him, and all erts are unartful to express the 
ventors of new operations, or of n2w ways cf notion we ought to have of him. We can 
speaking ; for others think it a fine thing to per-|neither see nor think of any thing like him 
severe in nothing that has been delivered down | Nor is it agreeable to piety to form a resem- 
from their forefathers, and these testify it to be|blance of him. We see his works, the light, 
an instance of the sharpest wisdom when these | the heaven, the earth, the sun and the moon, 
men venture to transgress those traditions; l the waters, the gunerations of animals, the pro- 
whereas we, on the contrary, suppose it to be; ductions of fruits. These things hath God 
our only wisdom and virtu« to admit no activns | made, not with hands, not with labor, nor e# 
nor supposals that are ccutrary to our origival | wanting the assistance of any to co-operate 
laws; which proc-dure of ouis is a just and | with him: but as his will resolved they should 
sure sign that our :aw is admirably constituted; | be made, and be good also, they were made 
for such laws as are not thus well made are | and became good immediately. All men ought 
convicted upon trial to want amendment. to follow this being, and to worship him in the 

22. But while we are ourselves persuaded |exercise of virtue; for this way of worship of 
that our law was made agreeably to the will of | God is the most holy of all others. 


God, it would be impious for us not to observe 


the same; for what is thers in it that any body; 24. There ought also to be but one temple 
would change? end what can be invented that for one God; for likeness is the constant foun- 


_is better? or what can we take out of other peo- |dation of agreement. This temple ought to be 


common to all men, because he is the common 
|God of all men. His priests are to be contin- 
ually about his worship, over whom he that is 
the first by his birth is to be their ruler perpetu- 


ple’s laws that will exceed it? Perhaps some 
would have the entire cettlerment of our govern- 
ment altered. And where shall we find a bet- 
ter or more righteous constitution than ours? ally. His business must be to offer sacrifices 
while this makes us esteem God eC be the 6°" to God, together with those priests that are 
vernor of tie universe, and permits the priests joined with him, to see that the laws be observ- 
in general to be the e¢-ninistrators of the prin- |eq, to determine controversies, and to punish 
cipal affairs, a4 withall intrusts the goveru ment | those that are convicted of injustice; while he 
over the other priests to the chief high priest |that does not submit to him shall be subject to 
himself; which priests our legislator, at their the same punishment as if he had been guilty 
first appointment, did not advance to that dig-|of impiety towards God himself. When we 
nity for their riches, or any abundance of other offer sacrifices to him, we do it not in order te 
possessions, or any plenty they had, as the gifts | surfeit ourselves or to be drunken; for such ex- 
of fortune: but he intrusted the principal ma- cesses are against the will of God, and would 
nagement of divine worship to thosethat exceed- |be an occasion of injuries and of luxury; but 
ed others in an ability to persuade men, and in 'by keeping ourselves sober, orderly, and ready 
prudence of conduct. These mon had the for our other occupations, and being more tem- 
main care of the law and of the other parts of ;perate than others. And for our duty at the 
the people’s conduct committed to them; for Ml themselves, we ought, in the first 
they were the priests who were ordained to be |P/ace, to pray® for the common welfare of all, 


judges in doubt-|}22¢ after that our own: for we are made for 
the spectators of all, and the judg fellowship one with another, and he who pre- 


q q ff pe a fers the common good before what is peculiar 
condemned to Suller punisoment. i be |to himself is above all acceptable to God. And 
23. What form of government t en can Y© | let our prayers and supplications be made hum- 
aOR? holy than this? what more worthy kind bly to God, not [so much] that he would give 
of worship can be paid to God than ~e pay, | yg what is good, (for he hath already given that 
where the entire body of the people are pre- | of his own accord, and hath proposed the same 
pared for religion, where an extraordinery de- | publicly to all ), as that we may duly receive it, 
gree of care is required in the priests, and 
where the whole polity is so ordered as if it * We may here observe how Known a thing it was among 


i io} itve the Jews and heathens, in this and many other instances, 
ob fa aac ovata religious solemnity: For what that sacrifices were still accompanied with prayers; whence 


things foreigners, when they solemnize such | most probably came those phrases of the sacrifice of prayer, 


i observe for a few days’ |. the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of thanksgiving. How- 
festivals, me 7 pt-able to . i d sacred ne .| ever, those ancient forms used at sacrifices are now gener. 
time, and cal them mysteries and sacred cere- ally lost, to the no small damage of true religion. It is here 


monies, we observe with great pleasure, and an | also exceeding remarkable, that although the temple of Jern- 


} 1 j salem was built as the only place where the whole nation of 
unshaken resolution during our whole lives. the Jews were to offer their sacrifices, yet is there no mention 


What are the things then that we are command- of the sacrifices themselves, but of prayers only, in Solomen’s 


. : ? imply and easily | long and famous form of devotion at its dedication; 1 Kings 
ed or forbiaden: They Rite Sees G f viii; 2 Chron. vi. See also many j.ssages cited in the 
Known. The first command is pede LL ON a ebe tae Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 37, and «i ihe War ahove, 


and affirms that God contains all things, and is | b. vii. ch. v. sect. 6. 
9° 


738 


and when we have received it, may preserve it. 
Now the law has appointed several purifica- 
tions at our sacrifices, whereby we are cleansed 
after a funeral, after what so:netimes happens 
to us in bed, and after accompanying with our 
wives, and upon many other occasions which 
it would be too long now to set down. And 
this is our doctrine concerning God and his 
worship, and is the same that the law appoints 
for our practice. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 


Pal 


27. Our law hath also taken care of the 
cent burial of the dead, but without any extra- 
vagant expenses for their funerals, and with- 
out the erection of any illustrious monuments 


for them; but hath ordered that their nearest — 
relations should perform their obseqnies: and — 
hath shown it to be regular, that all who pass 


by when any one is buried should accompany 
the funeral, and join in the lamentation. It 


also ordains, that the house and its inhabitants 


95. But then, what are our laws abvut mar- | Should be purified after the funeral is over, that 
riage? That law owns no other mixture of sexes | €very one may thence learn to keep ata great 
but that which nature hath appointed, of a , distance from the thoughts of being pure, if he 
man with his wife, and that this be used only for | Once hath been guilty of murder, 


the procreation of children. But it abhors the 
mixture of a male with a male; and if any one 
do that, death is his punishment. It commands 
us also, when we marry, not to have regard to 
portion, nor to take a woman by violence, nor 
to persuade her deceitfully and knavishly, but 
to demand her in marriage of him who hath 
power to dispose of her, and is fitto give her 
away by the nearness of his kindred: for (says 
the Scripture) “A woman is inferior to her hus- 
band in all things.”* Let her, therefore, be 
obedient to him; not so that he should abuse 
her, but that she mayacknowledge her duty to 
her husband; for God hath given the authority 
to the husband. A husband, therefore, is to 
lie only with his wife whom he hath married; 
out to have to do with another man’s wife is a) 
wicked thing, which, if any one veatures upon, 
death is inevitably his punishment: no more 
ean he avoid the same who forees a vir- 
gin betrothed to another men, or entices ano- 
ther man’s wife. The ls, moreover, en- 
joins us to bring up ail our offspring, and for- 
bids women to cause abortion of what is be- 
gotten, or to destroy it afterwird; and if any 
woman appears to have so done, she will be a 
murderer of her child, by destroying a living 
ereature, aud diminishing human kind; if any 
one, therefore, proceeds to such fornication or 
murder, he cannot be clean. Moreover, the 
law enjoins, that after the man and wife have 
ain together in a regular way, they shall bathe 
themselves; for there is » defUement contracted 
thereby, both in soui and budy, as if they had 
gone into another country; for indeed the soul, 
by being united to the body, is subject te mise- 
ries, and is not freed therefrom again but hy 
death; on which account the law requires this 
purification to be entirely performed. ! 
26. Nay, indeed, the law does not permit us 


j 
! 


28. The law ordains also, that parents should 
be honored immediately after God himself; and 
delivers that son who does not requite them 
for the benefits he hath received from them, 
but is deficient on any such occasion, to be 
stoned. It also says, that the young men 
should pay due respect to every elder, since 
God is the eldest of all beings. It does not 
give leave to conceal any thing from our friends 
because that is not true friendship which will 
not commit all things to their fidelity: it also 
forbids the revelation of secrets even though 
an enmity arise between them. [If any judge 
take bribes, his punishment is death: he that 
overlooks one that offers him a petition, and this 
when he is able to relieve him, he is a guilty 
person. What is not by any one intrusted to 
another, ought not to be required back again. 
No one is to teuch another’s goods. He that 
lends money must not demand usury for its 
loan. These, and many more of the like sort, 
are the rules that unite us in the bonds of so- 
ciety one with another. 

29. It will also be worth our while to see 
what equity our legislator would have us ex- 
ercise in our intercourse with strangers, for it 
will then appear, that he made the best provi- 
sion he possibly could, both that we should not 
dissolve our own constitution, nor show any 
envious mind towards those that would eulti- 
vate a friendship with us. Accordingly, our 
legislator admits all those that have a mind te 
observe our laws, so to do; and this after a 







friendly manner, as esteeming that a true union, — 


which not only extends to our own stock, but 
to those that would live after the same manner 
with us: yet does he not allow those that come 
to us by accident only, to be admitted inte 
communion with us. 


30. {fowever, there are other things whicu — 


wo make festivals at the births of our children, | our leyislator ordained for us beforehand, which — 


and thereby afford occasion of drinking to ex- | of necessity we ought to do in common to all 
cess; but it ordains, that the very beginning of | men; as to afford fire, and water, and food, te 
our education should be immediately directed | such as want it; to show them the roads; nor — 
tosobriety. Italso commands us to bring those | to let any one lie unburied. He also would 
children up in learning, and to exercise them! lave us treat those that are esteemed our ene — 
in the laws, and make them acquainted with | mies with moderation; for he doth not allow 
the acts of their predecessors, in order to their | us to set their country on fire, nor permit us te © 
imitation of them, and that they might be nou- ; cut down those trees that bear fruit: nay, fur-— 
rished up in the laws from their infancy, and | ther, he forbids us to spoil those that have been — 
might neither transgress them nor have any |slain in war. He hath also provided for such 
pretence for their ignorance of them. as are taken esptive, that they may not be in-— 
jured, and especially that the women may not 
be abused. Indeed, he hath taught us gentle 


* This text is nowhere in our present copies of the Old 
Testament 















“ges and humanity sv effectually, that he hath 


_ got despised the care of brute beasts, by per- 


mitting no other than a regular use of them, 


and forbidding any other; and if any of them 


come to our houses, like suvolicants. we are 
forbidden to slay them; nor may we kill the 
dams, together with their young ones, but we 
are obliged, even in an enemy’s country, to 
spare and not kill those creatures that labor for 
mankind. Thus hath our lawgiver contrived 
to teach us an equitable conduct every way, by 
using us to such laws as instruct us therein: 
while at the same time he hath ordained, that 
such as break these laws should be punished, 
without the allowance of any excuse whatso- 
ever. 


31. Now the greatest part of offences with 
us are Capital; as, if any one bo guilty of adul- 
tery; if any one force a virgin; if any one be 
80 impudent as to attempt sodomy with a male, 
or if, upon another’s making an utter , t upon 
him, he submits to be so used. There is also 
a law for slaves of the like nature, that 
can never be avoided. Moreover, if any one 
cheats another in measures or weights, or makes 
a knavish bargain and sale, in order to cheat 
another; if any one steal what belongs to ano- 
ther, and takes what he never deposited, all 
these have punishments allotted them; not 
such as are met with among other nations, but 
more severe ones. And as for attempts cf un- 
just behavior towards parents, or for impiety 

ainst God, though they be not actually accom- 

lished, the offenders are destroyed immediate- 
'y. However, the reward for such as live exactly 
according to the laws, is nut silver nor gold; it 
is not a garland of olive branches or of small- 
age, nor any such public «cn of commendation; 
but every good man hat his own conscience 
bearing witness to himself; and by virtue of 
our legislator’s prophetic spirit, and the firm 
security God himself effords such a one, he 
believes thai Ged hath made this grant to those 
that observe these laws, even though they be 
obliged readily to die for them, that they shall 
come into being again, and at a certain revolu- 
tion of things shall receive a better life than 
hey had enjoyed before. Nor would I ven- 
ure to write thus at this time, were it not well 
nnown to all by their actions, that many of our 
people have many a time bravely resolved to 
endure any sufferings rather than speak one 
word against our law. 

32. Nay, indeed, in case it had so fallen out 
that our nation had not been so thoroughly 
known among all men as they are, and our 
voluntary submission to our laws had not been 
go open and manifest as it is, but that somebody 
aad prevended to have written these laws him- 
self, and hnd read them to the Greeks, or had 
greteuced that he had met with men out of 
ibe limiew of the known world, that had such 
severent notions of God, and had continued a 
iong time in the firm observance of such laws 
as ours. J cannot but suppose that al! men 
would admire them on a reflection upon the 
frequeut changes they had therein Leen them- 
selves subject to; and this while tose that 


o 


AGAINST APION.--BOUK IL 


739 


have attempted to write somewhat of the same 
kind for political government, and for laws, are 
accused as composing monstrous things, and 
are said to have undertaken an impossible task 
upon them. And here I will say nothing of 
those other philosophers who have undertaken 
any thing of this nature in their writings. But 
even Plato himself, who is so admired by ‘the 
Greeks on account of that gravity in his man- 
ners, and force in his words, and that ability 
he had to persuade men beyond all other phi- 
losophers, is little better than laughed at and 
exposed to ridicule on that account, by those 
that pretend to sagacity in political affairs; al- 
though he that shall diligently peruse his wri- 
tings, will find his precepts to be somewhat 
gentle, and pretty near to the customs of the 
generality of mankind. Ney, Plato himself 
confesseth, that it is not safe to publish the 
true notion concerning God among the ig- 
norant multitude. Yet do some men look 
upon Plato’s discourses as no better than cer- 
tain idle words set off -with great artifice. 
However, they admire Lycurgus as the princi- 
pal lawgiver, and all men celebrate Sparta for 
having continued in the firm observance of his 
laws for avery long time. So far then we 
have gained, that it is to be confessed a mark 
of virtue to submit to laws.* But then let 
such as admire this in the Lacedemonians, 
compare that duration of theirs with more 
than two thousand years which our _ political 
government hath continued; and let them 
further consider, that though the Lacedemo- 
nians did seem to obsérve their laws exactly 
while they enjoyed their liberty, yet that when 
they underwent a change of their fortune, they 
forgot almost all those laws; while we, having 
been under ten thousand changes that happen- 
ed among the kings of Asia. we have never 
betrayed our laws under the most pressing dis 
tresses we have been in: nor have we neglect 
ed them either out of sloth or for a livelihood.t 
Nay, if any one will consider it, the difficulties 
and labors laid upon us have been greater than 
what appears to have been borne hy the Lace- 
demonian fortitude, while they neither plough- 
ed their land, nor exercised any trades, but 
lived in their own city, free from all such pains- 
taking, in the enjoyment of plenty, and using 
such exercises as might improve their bodies, 
while they made use of other men au their ser- 
vants for all the necessaries of life, aud had 
their food prepared for them by the others: and 
these good and humane actions they do for no 
other purpose but this, that by their actione 
and their sufferings they may be able to con- 
quer all those against whom they make war. 
I need not add this, that they have not been 
fully able to observe their laws; for, not only a 
few single persons, but multitudes of them 
’ * It may not be amiss to set down here a very remarkabk: 
testimony of the great ,iilocusher Cicero, as to the pre- 
ference of laws to philopry. ‘IT will,” siys he, “boldly de- 
clare my opinion, though the whole world be offended at is. 
1 preser this little book ef the Twelve Tables alone to all the 
» volumes of the philosophezs. I ‘indit to be not only of more 


| weight, but also much more useful.”” De Oratore. 
| + Ory we have ebserved “ur times of rest and sore «f 


‘ food al’s wed us [during those ?ivtresues.} 


n\ 


740 
have in heaps neglected those laws and have 
delivered themselves, together with their arms, 
into the hands of their enemies. 

33. Now, as for ourselves, I venture to say, 
that no one can tell of so many, nay, not more 
than one or two that have betrayed our laws, 
no, not out of fear of death itself: I do not 
mean such an easy death as happens in bat- 
tles, but that which comes with bodily tor- 
ments, and seems to be the severest kind of 
death of all others. Now I think those that 
have conquered us have put us to such deaths 
not out of their hatred to us when they hed 
subdued us, but- rather out of their desire of 
seeing a surprising sight, which is this, whe- 
ther there be such men in the world, who be- 
lieve that no evil is to them so great as to be 
compelled todo or to speak any thing contrary 
to their own laws! Nor ought men to wonder 
at us, if we are more courageous in dying for 
our laws than all other men are; for other men 
do not easily submit to the easier things in 
which we are instituted, I mean working with 
our hands, and eating but little, and being con- 
tented to eat and drink, not st random or at 
every one’s pleasure, or being under inviolable 
rules in lying with our wives, in magrificent 
furniture, and again in the observation of our 
times of rest; while those that can use their 
swords in war, and can put their enemies to 
flight when they attack them, cannot bear to 
submit to suc, {pws about their way of living: 
whereas our being accustomed willingly to sub- 
mit to laws in these instances, renders us fit to 
show our fortitude upon other occasions also. 

34. Yet do the Lysimachi and the Molunes, 
and some other writers, (unskilful sophists as 
they are,) and the deceivers of young men, re- 
proach us as the vilest of mankind. Now I 
have no mind to make an inquiry into the laws 
of other nations; for the custom of our coun- 
try is to keep our own laws, but not to bring 
accusations against the laws of others. And 
indeed our legislator hath expressly forbidden 
us to laugh at and revile those that are esteem- 
ed gods by other people,* on account of the 
very name of God ascribed to them. But 
since our antagonists think to run us down 
upon the comparison of their religion and 
trs, it is not possible to keep silent here, es- 

-pecially while whet I shall say to confute these 
men wil not be now first said, but hath been 
already said by many, and these of the highest 
reputation also: for who is there among those 
that have been admired among the Greeks for 
wisdom, who hath not greatly blamed both the 
most famous poets, and most celebrated legis- 
lators, for spreading such notions originally 
among the body of the people concerning the 
gods? such as these, that they may be allowed 
to be as numerous as they have a mind to have 
them; that they are begotten one by another, 
and that after all the kinds of generation you 
can imagine. They also distinguish them in 
their places and ways of living, as they would 
distinguish several sorts of animals; as some to 
be under the earth, as some to be in the sea; 


See Antiq. b. iv, ch. xiii, sect. 10, and its notes. 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS 


{ 








and the ancientest of them all to be bound 
hell; and for those to whom they have allo 
heaven, they have set over them one who in 
title is their father, but in his actions a tyrar” 
and a lord, whence it came to pass that his 
wife, and brother, and daughter, (which daugh- 
ter he brought forth from his own head,) made_ 
a conspiracy against him to seize upon him and — 
confine him, as he had himself seized upon and ~ 
confined his own father before. h 
35. And justly have the wisest men thought 
those notions deserved severe rebukes; they also: 
laugh at them for determining that we ought 
to believe some of the gods to be beardless and - 
vonng, and others of them to be old, and to 
have beards accordingly; that some are set to 
trades; that one god is a smith, aud another 
goddess is a weaver; that one god is a warrior — 
and fights with men; that some of them are — 
harpers, or delight in archery; and besides, that — 
mutual seditions arise ornong them, and that — 
they quarrel about men, and this so far, that — 
they not only lay hands upon one another, but 
that they are wounded by men, and lament and 
mourn for such their afflictions. But what is — 
the grossest of all in point of lasciviousness, 
are those unbounded lusts ascribed to almost 
all of them, and their amors; which how can — 
it be other than a most absurd supposal, espe- 
cially when it reaches to the male gods, and to 
the female goddesses also? Moreover, the chief 
of all their gods, and their first father himself, 
overlooks those goddesses whom he hath de- 
luded and begotten with child, and suffers” 
them to be kept in prison, or drowned in the 
sea. He is alsoso bound up by fate, that he 
cannot save his own offspring, nor can he- 
bear their deaths without shedding of tears. 
These are fme things indeed! as are the rest _ 
that follow. Adulteries, truly, are so impudently 
looked on in heaven by the gods, that some of — 
them have confessed they envied those that 
were found in the very act. And why should 
they not do so, when the eldest of them, who” 
is their king also, hath not been able to restrain 
himself in the violence of his lust, from lying” 
with his wife so long as they might get into their 
bedchamber! Now some of the gods are ser- 
vants to men, and will sometimes be builders” 
for a reward, and sometimes will be shepherds; 
while others of them, like malefactors, are 
bound in a prison of brass. And what sober 
persons are there who would not be provoked at 
such stories, and rebuke those that forged them, 
and condemned the gree silliness of those that 
admit them for true? Nay, others there 













fear, as also madness and fraud, and any other 
of the vilest passions, into the nature and form 
of gods, and have persuaded whole cities to offer 
sacrifices to the better sort of them; on which ac=_ 
count they have been absolutely forced to esteem 
some gods as the givers of good things, and to 
call others of them averters of evil. They also 
endeavor to move them as they would the v1 
lestof men, by gifts and presents, as looking fo! 
nothing else than to receive some great niall ef 
from them unless they pay them each wages. 





? AGAINST APION.—BOOK II. 741 


_ 96 Wherefore it deserves our inquiry, what | sation against us, tuet we do not admit of such 
should be the occasion of this unjust manage-|as have different notions about God, nor will 
‘ment, and of these scandals about the Deity? | we have fellowship with those that choose te 
‘And truly I suppose it to be derived from the | observe a way of living different from our- 
imperfect knowledge the heathen legislators | selves; yet is not this method peculiar to us, 
had at first of the true natur~ of God; nor did| but common to all other men; not among the 
‘they explain to the pec pic even <o far as they | ordinary Grecians only, but among such of 
did comprehend of it, nor did they compose | those Grecians as are of the greatest reputation 
the other part of their political ::tthements ac- | among them. Moreover, the Lacedemonians 
cording to it, but omitted it as a thing of very | continued in their way of exrelling foreigners, 
little consequence, and gave leay. both to the} and would not, indeed, give leave to their own 
poets to introduce what gods th~y pleased, and | people to travel abroad, as suspecting that those 
\hose subject to all sorts of prssions;and to the | two things would introduce a dissolution of 
orators to procure politicai decrees from the|their own laws: and perhaps there may be 
people for the admission of such foreign gods | soine reason to blame the ri:id severity of the 
as they thought proper. ‘Tne painters also, | Lacedemonians, for they bestowed the privilege 
and statuaries of Greece. had herein great pow- | of their city on no foreigners, nor mdeed would 
er, as each of them could contrive a shape] give leave to them to stay among them; where- 
{proper for a god,] the one to be formed out|as we, though we do not think fit to imitate 
of clay, and the other by making the bare pic | other institutions, yet do we willingly admit of 
ture of such a one. But those workmen that| those that desire to partake of ours, which I 
were principally admired, had the use of ivory | think I may reckon to be a plain indication of 
and of gold asthe constant materials for their | OUT humanity, and at the same time of our mag- 
new statues, [whereby it comes to pass that | 24nimity also. 
some temples are quite deserted, while others! 38. But I shall say no more of the Lacede- 
are in great esteem, and adorned with all the | monians. As for the Athenians, who glory in 
rites of all kinds of purification]. Besides this, | having made their city to be common to all 
the first gods, who have long flourished in the; men, what their behavior was, Apollonius did 
honors done them, are now grown old, [while| not know, while they punished those that did 
those that flourished after them are come in| but speak one word contrary to iheir laws about 
their room as a second rank, that I may speak | the gods, without any mercy; for on what 
the most honorably of them that I can:] nay, | other account was it that Socrates was put tv 
certain other gods there are, who are newly | death by them? For certainly he neither he- 
introduced and newly worshiped, [as we, by | trayed their city to its enemies, nor was he 
way of digression, have said already, and yet| guilty of any sacrilege with regara to any of 
have left their place of worship desolate:] and | their temples; but it was on this acccunt, that he 
for their temples, some of them are already | swore certain new oaths,* and that Se affirmed 
left desolate, and others are built anew, accord- | either in earnest, or, as some say, only in jest, 
ing to the pleasure of men; whereas, they | that a certain demon used to make signs to him 
ought to have preserved their opinion about) [what he should not do.] For these reasons 
God, and that worship which is due to him,}he was condemned to drink poison and kill 
always and immutably the same. himself. His accuser also complained that he 
27. But now this Apollonius Molo was one |corrupted the young men by inducing them 
of these foolish and proud men. However, to despise the political settlement and laws of 
nothing that I have said was unknown to those | their city; and thus was Socrates, the citizen 
that were real philosophers among the Greeks, | of Athens, Bane Heidi ae at Anaxa- 
nor were they unacquainted with those frigid ee anaes : sane aurea 
pretences of allegories, [which had been alleg- | 28 Wit11n a Tew subrages Ot eens 
; : ed to die because he said the sun, which the 
ed for such things;] on which account they Voss ane a oh elte bald | ood weaial DAL Las 
justly despised them, but have still agreed with fire tethey ey Sa acta mublic Repolaiaent 
us asto the true and becoming notions of God: | 117} they would give a talent to any one that 
whence it was that Plato would not have poli: | vould kill Diagorus of Meles, because it was 
tical settlements admit of any of the other reported of him that he laughed at their mys- 
poets, and dismiss es even Homer himself min teries. Protagoras also, who was thought to 
® gerland on his Dead, aud with ane tet have written somewhat that was not owned 
Seer ie ucdecd this because he. s net for truth by the Athenians, about the gods, had 
mot destroy the right notions of God with his EM SLE Dd htt GREEDA RB  Seed 
Bats sae d pon aud put to death, if he 
Peres. Nays Eleta.priteipally im Ht art ihaeg not fled immediately away. Nor need we & 
gislator in this point, that he enjoined his citi- all wonder, that they thus treated such consi- 
zens to have the main regard to this p recephs | derable men, when they did not spare even 
that every one of them should learn their laws women also; for they very lately slew a cer- 
accurately. He also ordained that they should | | +. priestess, because she was accused by 
_ not admit of foreigners intermingling with their somebody that she initiated people into the 
own people at random; and provided that the 
commonwealth should keep itself pure, and 
consist of stich only as persevered in their own 
laws. Apollonius Molo did no way consider 
this, when he made it one branch of his accu- 


EEE nnn 


%*® See what these novel oaths were in Dr. Hudson’s note, 
viz. : To swear by an oak, by a goat, and by a dog, as also 
by a gander, as says Philostratus and others. This swear- 
ing strange oaths was also forbidden by the Tyrians, b. i. 
sect. 22, as Spanheim here notes. 


en 


742 


worship of strange g‘»!s, it having been forbid- 
den so to do by one of their laws; and a capi- 
tal punishment had been decreed to such as 
introduced a strange god; it being manifest, 
that they who make use of such a law, do not 
believe those of other nations to be really gods, 
otherwise they had not envied themselves the 
advantage of more gods than they already had. 
And this was the happy administration of the 
affairs of the Athenians! Now, as to the Scy- 
thians, they taSe a pleasure in killing men, and 
differ little from brute beasts; yet do they think 
it reasonable to have their institutions observed. 
They also slew Anacharsis, a person greatly ad- 
mired for his wisdom among the Greeks, when 
he returned to them, because he appeared to 
come fraught wih Grecian customs; one may 
also find maty to have been punished among 
the Persians on the very same account. And to 
be sure Apollonius was greatly pleased with the 
laws of the Persians, and was an admirer of 
them, because the Greeks enjoyed the advan- 
tage of their courage, and had the very same 
opinions about the gods which they had! This 
last was exemplified in the temples which they 
burnt, and their courege in coming and almost 
entirely enslavitig the Grecians. However, 
Apollonius has imitated all the Persian institu- 
tions, and that by his offering violence to other 
men’s wives, and castrating hisown sons. Now, 
with us it is a copital crime, if any one does 
thus abuse even 2 brute beast: and as for us, 
neither hath the fear of our governors, nor a 
desire of following what other nations have in 
80 great esteem been able to withdraw us from 
our own laws; nor have we exerted our cou- 
rage in raising up wars to increase our wealth, 
but only for the observation of our laws: and 
when we with patience bear other losses, yet 
when any persons would compel us to break 
our laws, then it is that we choose to go to war, 
though it be beyond our ability to pursue it, 
and bear the greatest calamities to the last with 
much fortitude. And, indeed, what reason 
can there be why we should desire to imitate 
the laws of other nations, while we see they 
sre not observed by their own legislators? And 
why do not the Lacedemonians think of abo- 
lishing that form of their government which 
suffers them not to associate with any others, 
as well as their contempt of matrimony? And 
why do not the Eleans and Thebans abolish 
that unnatural and impudent lust .“hich makes 
them lie with males? For they will not show 
a sufficient sign of their re, entance of what 
they of old thought to be very excellent, and 
very advantageous in their practices, unless 
they entirely avoid ali such actions for the time 
to come: nay, such thing are still inserted into 
the body of their laws, and had once such a 
power among the Greeks, that they ascribed 
these Sodomitical practices to the gods them- 
selves, as a part of their good character; and, 
indeed, it was according to the same manner 
that the gods married their own sisters, This 
the Greeks contrived as an apology for their 
own absurd and unnatural pleasures. 

39. I omit to speak concerning punishments, 


FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS | 
and how many ways of escaping them the 


Sm, 


greatest part of the legislators, have afforded 
malefactors, by ordaining that for adulteries 


i 
a 


fines in money should be allowed, and for cor- ‘ 
rupting [virgins]* they need only marry them: — 


as also, what excuses they may Lave in deny- 
ing the facts, if any one attem ,*s to inquire 
into them: for amongst other nations it is a 


studied art, how men may transgress their laws, - 


But no such thing is permitted amongst us; for 
though we be deprived of our wealth, of our 
cities, or of the other advantages we have, our 
law continues immortal; nor can any Jew go so 
far from his own country, nor be so affrighted 
at the severest lord, as not to be more affright- 
ed at the law than at him. If, therefore, this 
be the disposition we are under, with regard to 
the excellency of our laws, let our enemies 
make us this concession, that our laws are 
mot excellent; and if still they imagine, that 
though we so firmly adhere to them, yet are 
they bad lav-s notwithstanding, what penalties 
then do they deserve to undergo, who do not 
observe their own laws, which they esteem so 
far superior to them? Whereas, therefore, 
length of time is esteemed to be the tru2st 
touchstone in all cases, I would make that a 
testimonial of the excellency of our laws, and 
of that Belief thereby delivered to us concern 
ing God. For as there hath been a very long 
time for this comparison, if any one will but 
compare .its duration with the duration of the 
laws made by other legislators, he will ficd 
our legrslater to have been the ancientest of 
them all. . 

40. We have already demonstrated that cw 
laws have been such as have always inspired 
admiration and imitation in all other men; nay 
the earliest Grecian philosophers, though m 
appearance they observed the laws of their own 
countries, yet did they, in their actions and 
their philosophical doctrines, follow our legis- 
lator, and instructed men to live sparingly, and 
to have friendly communication one with ano- 
ther. 
itself have had a great inclination of a long 
time to follow our religious observances; for 
there is not any city, of the Grecians, nor any 
of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever 
whither our custom of resting on the seventh 
day hath not come, and by which our fasts, and 
lighting up lamps, and many of our prohibi- 
tions as to our food, are not observed; they 
also endeavor to imitate our mutual concord 
with one another, and the charitable distribution 
of our goods, and our diligence in our trades, 
and our fortitude in undergoing the distresses 
we are in, on account of our laws; and what is 
here matter of the greatest admiration, our law 


* Why Josephus here should blame some heathen legisla 
tors when they allowed so easy a composition for simple for- 
nication, as an obligation to marry the vixgin that was cor- 
rupted, is hard to say, seeing he had himself truly informed 
us that it wax a law of the Jews, Antiq. b. iv. chap. viii 
vect. -@, as it is the law of Christianity also, see Horeb Co. 
venant, page 61. I sm almost ready to suspect that for 
yéuss,,\.° should hr rvad >«uev, and that corrupting 
wel ch, Ur © er x.en wives, is the crime for which these 
.e& ° » wickedly allowed this composition in money. 

+ Or for corrupting other men’s wives the same allowance 


Nay, farther, the multitude of mankind 


- 


AGAINST APION.—BOOK [1. 


_ hath no bait of pleasure to allure men to it, 
but it prevails by its own force; and as God 
_ himself pervades all the world, so hath our Jaw 

passed through all the world also. So that ifany 
one will but reflect on his own country, and his 
own family, he will have reason to give credit 
to what I say. It is, 1erefore, but just, either 
to condemn all mankina of indulging a wicked 
disposition, when they have been so desirous 
of imitating laws that are to them foreign and 
evil in themselves, rather than following laws 
ef their own that are of a better character, or 
else our accusers must leave off their spite 
against us. Nor are we guilty of any envious 
behavior towards them when we honor our 
own legislator, and believe what he, by his 
prophetic authority, hath taught us concerning 
God. For though we should not be able our- 
selves to understand the excellency of our own 
laws, yet would the great multitude of those 
who desire to imitate them, justify us in great- 
ly valuing ourselves upon them. 

41. But as for the [distinct] political laws by 
which we are governed, I have delivered them 
accurately in my books of Antiquities; and 
have only mentioned them now, so fir as was 
necessary to my present purpose; without pro- 
posing to myself either to blame tie laws of 
other nations, or to make an encomium upon 
our own; but in order to convict those that 
have written about us unjustly, and in an im- 
vudent affectation of disguising the truth. And 
10w I think I have sufficiently completed what 
I proposed in writing these books. For where- 
as our accusers have pretended, that our nation 
are a people of a very late origin:, 1 have de- 
monstrated that they are exceeding ancient; 
for I have produced as witnesses thereto 
many ancient writers, who have mede men- 
tion of us in their books, while they said no 
such writers had so done. Moreover they 
had said, that we were sprung from the Egyp- 
tians, while I have proved that we came 
from another country into Egypt; while they 
had told lies of us, as if we were expelled thence 
on account of diseases on our bodies, it has 
appeared on the contrary that we returned to 
our country by our own choice, and with sound 
and strong bodies. Those accusers reproached 
our legislator as a vile fellow: whereas God in 
old time bore wimess to his virtuous conduct; 


ee 





7& 


and since that testimony of Gad, time itself hath 
been discovered to have borne witness to the 
same thing. 

42. As to the laws themseives, mure words 
are unneccessary, for they are visible in their 
own nature, and appear to teach not impiety 
but the truest piety in the world. They de not 
make men hate one another, but encourage 
pecple to communicate what they have one te 
anciher freely; they are enemies to injustice, 
they take care of righteousness, they banish 
idleness and expensive living, and instruct men 
to be content with what they have, and to be 
laborious in their callings: they forbid men tc 
make war from a desire of getting more, but 
make +n courageous in defending the laws: 
they are inexorable in punishing malefactors: 
they adinit no sophistry of words, but are al- 
ways established by actions themselves, which 
actions we ever propose as surer demonstra- 
tions than what is contained in writing only: 
on which account I am so bold as to say, that 
we a‘e become the teachers of other men im 
the greatest number of things, and those uf th« 
most excellent nature only,—for what is more 
excellent than inviolable piety? what is more 
just than submission to laws? and what is more 
advantageous than mutual love and concord? 
And this so far that we are to be neither divi- 
ded by calamities, nor to become injurious and 
seditious in prosperity; but to contemn death 
when we are in war, and in peace to apply 
ourselves to our nfechanical cccupations, or to 
our tillage of the ground; while we in all things 
and all ways are satisfied that God is the in- 
spector and governor of our actions. If these 
precepts had either been written at first, or more 
exactly kept by any others before us, we should 
have owed them thanks as disciples owe to 
their masters: but if it be visible that we have 
made use of them, more than any other men, 
and if we have demonstrated, that the original 
invention of them is cur own, let the Apions, 
and the Molons, with all the rest of those that 
delight in lies and reproaches stand confuted; 
but let this and the foregoing book be dedica- 
ted to thee, Epaphroditus, who art so great a 
lover of truth, and by thy means to those that 
have been in like manner desirous to be ar- 
quainted with the affairs of our uation. 








AN EXTRACT OUT OF JOSEPHUS’S DISCOURSE TO THE GREEKS 


& 


CONCERNING HADES. 





9 1. Now as to Hades, wherein the souls of 
the righteous and unrig!.teous are detained, it 
is necessary to speak of it. Hades isa place 
in the world not regularly finished; 2 subterra- 
neous region, wherein the light of this world 
does not shine; from which circumstance, that 
in this region the light does not shine, it cannot 
be but there must be in it perpetual darkness. 
This region is allotted as a place of custody for 
wouls, in which angels are appointed as guar- 


dians to them, who distribute to them temp: 
rary punishments, agreeable to every one’s be 
havior and manners. 

2. In this region there is a certain place set 
apart, asa lake of unquenchable fire, whereintc 
we suppose no one hath hitherto been cast, but 
it is prepared fora day afore-determined by 
God, in which one righteous sentence shall de 
servedly be passed upon all men; when the 
unjust, and those that have heen disobediew 


744 


to God, and have given honor to such idols as 
have been the vain operations of the hands of 
men, as to God himself, shall be adjudged to 
this everlasting punishment, as having been the 
causes of defilement ; while the just shall obtain 
an incorruptible and never-fading kingdom. 
These are now indeed confined in Hades, but 
not in the same place wherein the unjust are 
confined. 


3. For there is one descent in this region, at 
whose gate we believe there stands an archan- 
gel with a host; which gate when these pass 
through that are conducted down by the angels 
appointed over souls, they do not go the same 
way, but the just are guided to the right hand, 
and are led with hymns, sung by the angels 
appointed over that place, unto a region of light, 
in which the just have dwelt from the begin- 
ning of the world; not constrained by necessi- 
ty, but ever enjoying the prospect of the good! 


CONCERNING iiADES. | 
as a compound of the same elements, to mame 


things they see, and rejoicing in the expecta- | 


tion of those new enjoyments which will be 
peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming 
those things beyond what we have here; with 
whom there is no place of toil, no burning 
heat, no piercing cold ; nor are any briers there; 
but the countenances of the fathers and of the 
just, which they see always, smiles upon them, 
while they wait for the rest and eternal new 
life in heaven, which is to succeed this region. 
This place we call the bosom of Abraham. 


4, But as to the unjust, they are dragged by 
force to the left hand by the angels allotted for 
punishment, no longer going with a good will, 
but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom 
are sent the angels appointed over them to re- 
proach them, and threaten them with their ter- 
rible looks, and to thrust them still downwards. 
Now these angels that are set over these souls 
drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself; 
who, when they are hard by it, continually hear 
the noise of it, and do not stand clear of the 
hot vapor itself; but when they have a near 
view of this spectacle, as of a terrible and ex- 
ceeding great prospect of fire, they are struck 
with a fearful expectation of a future judg- 
ment, and in effect punished thereby ; not only 
so, but where they see the place [or choir] of 
the fathers and of the just, even hereby are 
they punished, for a chaos deep and large is 
fixed between them; insomuch that a just man 
that hath compassion upon them cannot be ad- 
mitted, nor can one that is unjust, if he were 
bold enough to attempt it, pass over it. 

& This is the discourse concerning Hades, 
wherein the souls of all men are confined until 
a proper season which God hath determined, 
when he will make a resurrection of all men 
from the dead; wot procuring a transmigration 
of souls from one body to another, but raising 
again those very bodies, which you Greeks, 
seeing to be dissolved, do not believe [their re- 
surrection.}] But learn not to disbelieve: for 
while you believe that the soul is created, and 
yet is made immortal by God, according to the 
doctrine of Plato, and this in time, be not in- 
eredulous, but believe that God is able, when 
ne hath raised to life that body which was made 


it immortal; for it must never be said of God 


that he is able to do some things and unable to” 
We have therefore believed that— 
the body will be raised again, for although is 


do others. 


be dissolved, it is not perished; for the earth 


receives its remains, and preserves them;-and_ 


while they are like seed, and are mixed among 
the more fruitful soil, they flourish, and what 
is sown is indeed sown bare again, but at the 
mighty sound of God the Creator, it will sprout 
up, and be raised in a clothed and glorious con- 
dition, though not before it has been dissolved 
and mixed [with the earth.] So that we have 
not rashly believed the resurrection of the bo- 
dy; for although it be dissolved for a time on 
account of the original transgression, it exists 
still, and is cast into the earth, as into a potter’s 
furnace, in order to be formed again, not in or- 
der to rise again such as it was before, but in 
a state of purity, and so as never to be destroy- 
«si any more. And to every body shall its own 
soul be restored. And when it hath clothed 
itself with that body, it will not be subject to 
misery, but being itself pure, it will continue 
with its pure body, and rejoice with it, with 
which it having walked righteously now in this 
world, and never having it as a snare, it will 
receive it again with great gladness. But as 
for the unjv»t, they will receive their bodies 
not changed, uct freed from diseases or distem- 
pers, nor made glorious, but with the same 
diseases wherrin they died; and such as they 
were in unbehef, the same shall they be when 
they shall be faithfully judged. 

6. For all men, the just as well as the unjust, 
shall be brought before God the Word; for to 
him hath the Father committed all judgment, 
and he, in order to fulfill the will of his Father, 
shall come as judge, whom we call Christ 
for Minos and Rhadamanthus are not the 
judges, as you Greeks do suppose, but he whom 
God and the Father bath glorified, conceRNING 
WHOM WE HAVE ELSEWHERE GIVEN A MORE 
PARTICULAR ACCOUNT, FOR THE SAKE OF THOSE 
WHO SEEK AFTER TRUTH. This person, ex 
ercising the righteous judgment of the Fa- 
ther towards all men, hath prepared a just sen- 
tence for every one, according to his works 
at whose judgment-seat, when all men, and 
angels, and demons shall stand, they will send 


forth one voice, and say, JusT Ig THY suD6~ 


MENT; the rejoinder to which will bring a just 
sentence upon both parties, by giving justly 10 
those who have done well, ap everlasting trui- 
tion; but alloting to the lovers of wicked works 
eternal punishment. To these belong tne un- 
quenchable fire, and that without end, and a 
certain fiery worm never dying, and not destroy- 
ing the body, but continuing its eruption out of 
the body wah never-ceasing grief: neither will 
-leep give ease to these men, nor will the 
night afford them comfort; death will not free 
them from their punishment, nor will the in- 
terceding prayers of their kindred profit them; 
for the just are no longer seen by them, nor 
are they thought worthyy of remembrance. 
But the just shall remember only their righte 


Se a 







| 3 DISSERTATION 1. 
eus actions whereby they have attained the 


heavenly kingdom, in which there is no sleep, 
nO sorrow, No corruption, no care, no night, no 
day measured !\y time, no sun driven in his 
course along the circle of heaven by necessity, 
and measuring out the hounds and conversions 


_ 748 


7. And now, if you Gentiles will be persuad= 
ed by these motives, and leave your vain ima. 
ginations about your pedigrees, and gaining v1 
riches, and philosophy, and will not spend your 
time about subtilities of words, and thereby lead 
your minds into error, and if you will apply 


of the seasons, for the better illumination of| your ears to the hearing of the inspired pro- 


the life of men; no moon decreasing and in 
creasing, or introducing a variety of seasons, 
nor will she then moisten the earth; no burn- 
ing sun, no bear turning round [the pole,] no 
Orion to rise, no wandering of innumerable 
stars. The earth will not then be difficult to 
be passed over, nor will it be hard to find out 
the court of paradise, nor will there be any 
fearful roaring of the sea, forbidding the pas- 
sengers to walk on it, even that will be made 
easily passable to the just, though it will not be 
void of moisture. Heaven will not then be 
uninhabitable by men, and it will not be im- 
possible to discover the way of ascending 
thither. The earth will not then be unculti- 
vated, nor require too much labor of men, but 
will bring forth its fruits of its own accord, 
and will be well adorned with them. There 
will be no more generations of wild beasts, 
nor will the substance of the rest of the ani- 
mals shoot out any more: for it will not pro- 
duce men, but the number of the righteous 
will continue, and never fail, together with 
righteous angels, and spirits [of God,] and 
with his word, as a choir of righteous men and 
women that never grow old, and continue in 
an incorruptible state, singing hymns to God, 
who hath advanced them to that happiness, by 
the means of a regular institution of life; with 
whom the whole creation also will lift up a 
perpetual hymn from corruption to incorrup- 
tion, as glorified by a splendid and pure spirit. 
t will not then be restrained by a bond of ne- 
sess ty, but with a lively freedom shall offer up 
a volu tary hymn, and shal] praise him that 
made then, together with the angels, and spi- 
rits, and m n, now freed from all bondage. 


phets, the interpreters both of God, and of his 
word, and will believe in God, you shall both 
be partakers of these things and obtain the good 
things that are to come: you shall see the as- 
cent into the immense heaven plainly, and thag 
kingdom which is there. For what God hath 
now concealed in silence [will be then made 
manifest,] “what neither eye hath seen, nor ear 
hath heard, nor hath it entered into the heart 
of man, the things that God hath prepared for 
them that love him.” 

8. “In whatsoever ways I shall find you, in 
them shall I judge you entirely:” so cries the 
END of all things. And he who hath at first 
lived a virtuous life, but towards the latter end 
falls into vice, these labors, by him before en- 
dured, shall be altogether vain and unprofitable, 
even as in a play brought to an ill catastrophe. 
Whosoever shall have lived wickedly and Jux- 
uriously, may repent; however, there will be 
need of much time to conquer an evil habit, and 
after repentance, his whole life must be guard- 
ed with great care and diligence, after the man- 
ner of a body, which, after it had been a long 
time afflicted with a distemper, requires a strict- 
er diet and method of living: tur though it may 
be possible, perhaps, to break off the chain of 
our irregular affections at once, yet our amend- 
ment cannot be secured without the grace of 
God, the prayers of good men, the help of the 
brethren, and our own sincere repentance and 
constant care. It is a good thing not to sin at 
all; it is also good, having sinned, to repent: as 
it is best to have health always, but it is a good 
thing to recover from a distemper.—To God 
be glory and dominion for ever and even 
Amen. 


END OF THE WRITINGS OF JOSEPHUS. 


APPENDIX. 


DISSERTATION lL. 


The Testumomes of Josephus concerning JEsus 





Curist, John.the Baptist, and James the Just, 


vindicated. 


SINCE we meet with certain important testi- 
monies in Josephus the Jewish historian, con- 
cerning John the Baptist, the forerunner of 
Jesus of Nazareth, concerning Jesus of Naza- 
reth himself, and concerning James the Just, 
the brother of Jesus of Nazareth; and since 
the principal testimony, which is that concern- 
ing Jesus of Nazareth himself, hath of late 
been grea*’y questioned by many, and rejected 
by some of the learned as spurious, it will be 
fit for me, who have ever declared my firm be- 
lief that these testimonies were genuine, to set 
down fairly, some of the original e tidence and 
gitations | have m ‘ith in the first Gfteen 

94 


centuries concerning them, and then to mage 
proper observations upon that evidence, for the 
reader’s more complete satisfaction 

But before I produce the citations themselveg 
out af Josephus, give me leave to prepare the 
reader’s attention, by setting down the senti 
ments of perhaps the most learned person, and 
the most competent judge that ever was, as to 
the authority of Josephus, I mean of Joseph 
Scaliger, in the Prolegomena to |is book De 
Emendatione Temporum, p. 17, “Josephus is 
the most diligent and the greatest lover of truth 
of all writers; nor are we afraid to affirm of 
him, that it is more safe to believe him, nas 


na | DISSERTATION 1 


vnly as to the affairs of the Jews, but also as to 
those that are foreign to them, than all the 
Greek and Latin writers, and this, because his 
fidelity and lis compass of learning are every- 
where conspicuous.” 


The ancieni citations of the testumonies of Jose- 
phus, from his own time till the end of the fif- 
teenth century. 


About A. D.110. Tacit. Annal. lib. xv. cap. 
44.—-Nero, in order to stifle the rumor, as if 
he himself had set Rome on fire, ascribed it 
to those people who were hated for their wick- 
ed practices, and called by the vulgar “Chris- 
tians;” these he punished exquisitely. The 
author of this name was Christ, who, in the reign 
of Tiberius was brought to punishment by Pon- 
tius Pilate the procurator. 

About A. D. 147. Just. Mart. Dialog. cum. 
Trypho, p. 230.—You Jews knew that Jesus 
was risen from the dead, and ascended into hea- 
ven, as the prophecies did foretell was to happen. 

About A. D.230. Origen. comment. in Matt. 
p. 234.—This James was of so shining a cha- 
racter among the people, on account of his 
righteousness, that Flavius Josephus, when, 
in his twentieth book of the Jewish Antiquities, 
he had a mind to set down what was the cause 
why the people suffered such miseries, till the 
very holy house was demolished, he said, that 
thése things befell them by the anger of God, 
on account of what they had dared to do to 
James, the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ: and wonderful it is that while he did 
not receive Jesus for Christ, he did neverthe- 
less bear witness that James was so righteous 
aman. He says farther, that the people thought 
that they suffered these things for the sake of 
James. : 

About. A.D. 250. Contra Cels. lib. i. p. 35, 
36.—I would sav to Celsus, who personates a 
Jew, that admitted of John the Baptist, and 
how he baptized fesus, that one who lived but 
a little while after John and Jesus, wrote, how 
that John was a baptizer unto the remission of 
sins. For Josephus testifies in the eighteenth 
book of Jewish Antiquities, that John was the 
baptist, and that he promised purification to 
those that were baptized. 'The same Josephus 
also, although he did not believe in Jesus as 
Christ, when he was inquiring after the cause 
of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the de- 
molition of the temple, and ought to have said, 

hat their machinations against Jesus were the 
cause of those miseries coming on the people, 
because they had slain that Christ who was fore- 
told by the prophets, he, though as it were un- 
willingly, and yet as one not remote from the 
truth, says, “These miseries befell the Jews by 
way of revenge for James the Just, who was 
the brother of Jesus, that was called Christ, 
because they had slain him who was a most 
righteous person.” Now this James was he 
whom that genuine disciple of Jesus, Paul, 
said he had seen as the Lord’s brother; Gal. i. 
19 which relation implies not so much near- 
ness of blood, or the sameness of education, 
ag it does the agreement of manners and 


preaching. If, therefore, he says the desolatios, ; 


of Jerusalem befell the Jews for the sake of 
James, with how much greater reason might 
he have said, that it happened for the sake of 
Jesus? &c. 

About A. D. 324. Euseb. Demonstr. Evan 
ib. iii. p. 124.—Certainly the attestation cf those 
I have already produced concerning our Savior 
may be sufficient. However, it may not be 
amiss, if, over and above, we make use of Jo- 
sephus the Jew for further witness; who, in the 
eighteenth book of his Antiquities, when he 
was writing the history of what happened un- 
der Pilate, makes mention of our Savior in these 
words: “Now there was about this time Jesus, 
u wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, 
for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teach- 
er of such men as had a veneration for truth. 
he drew over to him both many of the Jews 
and many of the Gentiles: He was the Christ. 
And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the prin- 
cipal men among us, had condemned him to the 
cross, those that loved him at first did not for 
sake him; for he appeared unto them alive again 
the third day, as the divine prophets had spok- 
en of these and ten thousand other wonderful 
things concerning him; whence the tribe of 
Christians, so named from him, are not extinct 
at this day.” If, therefore, we have this histo- 
rian’s testimony, that he not only brought over 
to himself the twelve apostles, with the seventy 
disciples, but many of the Jews and many of 
the Gentiles also, he must manifestly have had 
somewhat in him extraordinary above the rest 
of mankind, for how otherwise could he draw 
over so many of the Jews and of the Gentiles, 
unless he performed admirable and amazing 
works, and used a method of teaching that was 
not common? Moreover, the scripture of the 
Acts of the Apostles bears witness, that there 
were many ten thousands of Jews, who were 
persuaded that he was the Christ of God, who 
was foretold by the prophets. Acts xxi. 20. 

About A. D. 330. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. 11. 
Now the divine scripture of the Gospels make 
mention of John the Baptist as having his head 
cut off by the younger Herod. Josephus also 


concurs 1n this history, and makes mention of — 


Herodias by name, as the wife of his brother 
whom Herod had married, upon divoreing his 
former lawful wife. She was the daughter of 
Aretas, king of the Petrean Arabians; and 
which Herodias he had parted from her hus- 
band while he was alive: on which account 
also, when he had slain John, he made war 
with Aretas, Aretas made war with him, be- 
cause his daughter had been usec dishonc rably 
In which war when it came to a battle, he says, 
that all Herod’s army was destroyed, and that 
he suffered this because of his wicked contri- 
vance against John. Moreover, the same Jose- 


phus, by acknowledging John to have been a 


most righteous man, and the Baptist, conspires 
in his testimony with what is written in the 
Gospels. He also relates, that Herod lost his 
kingdom for the sake of the same Herodias, to- 
gether with whom he was himself condemned 
to be banished to Vienne, a city of Gaul. 


Avd — 








ee 


DISSERTATION 1} 


this is his account in the eighteenth book of 
the Antiquities, where he writes this of John, 
verbatim: some of the Jews thought that the 
destruction of Herod’s army came from God, 
and that very justly, as a punishment for what 
he did against John, that was called the Bap- 
tist; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, 
and one that commanded the Jews to exercise 
virtue, both as to righteousness towards one 
another, and piety towards God, and so to come 
to baptism, for that by this means the washing 
[with water] would appear acceptable to him, 
when they made use of it, not in order to the 
putting away [or the remission] of some sins 
[only,} but for the purification of the body; 
supposing still that the soul was thoroughly: 
purfied beforehand by righteousness. Now 
when [many] others came in crowds about him, 
for they were greatly delighted in hearing his 
words, Herod was afraid that this so great pow- 
er of persuading men might tend to some se- 
dition or other, for they seemed to be disposed 
to do every thing he should advise them to, so 
he supposed it better to prevent any attempt 
of a mutation from him, by cutting him off, 
than after any such mutation should be brought 
about, and the public should suffer, to repent 
[of such negligence.} Accordingly, he was 
‘sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious tem- 
per, to Macheerus, the castle I before mention- 
ed, and was there put to death. When Jose- 
pbus had said this of John, he makes mention 
also of our Savior in the same history, after 
this manner: “Now there was about this time 
one Jesus, a wise map, if it be lawful to call 
him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful 
works, a teacher of such men as receive the 
truth with pleasure; he drew over to him both 
many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles 
also: he was the Christ. And when Pilate, at 
the suggestion of the principal men among us, 
had condemned him to the cross, those that 
loved him at the first did not forsake him, for 
he appeared to them alive again the third day, 
as the divine prophets had foretold these, and 
ten thousand other wonderful things concerning 
him. And still the tribe ef Christians, so nain- 
ed from him, are not extinct atthis day.” And 
since this writer, sprung from the Hebrews 
themselves, hath delivered these things above 
in his own work, concerning John the Baptist 
and our Savior, what room is there for any fur- 
ther evasion? &c. 

Now James was so wonderful a person, and 
was so celebrated by all others for righteous- 
ness, that the judicious Jews thought this to 
tave been the occasion of that siege of Jeru- 
salem, which came on presently after his mar- 
tyrdom, and that it befell them for no other 

_ reason, than that impious act they were guilty 
of against him. Josephus, therefore, did not 
refuse to attest thereto in writing, by the words 
following: “These miseries befell the Jews by 
way of revenge for James the Just, who was 
the brother of Jesus that was called Christ, on 
this account, that they had slain him who was 
@ most righteous person.” 

The same Josephus declares the manner of 




















747 


his death in the twenueth book of the Antiqui 
ties, in these words: “Ceesar sent Albinus into 
Judea to be procurator, when he had heard 
that Festus was dead. Now Ananus junior 
who, as we said, had been admitted to the high 
priesthood, was in temper bold and daring in 
an extraordinary manner. He was also of the 
sect of the Sadducees, who are more savage 
in Judgment than the other Jews, as we have 
already signified. Since, therefore, this was 
the character of Ananus, he thought he had 
now a proper opportunity [to exercise his au- 
thority,] because Festus was dead, and Albinus 
was but upon the road; so he assembles the 
sanhedrim of judges, and brings before them 
James, the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ, and some others [of his companions,] 
and when he had formed an accusation against 
them as breakers of the law, he delivered them 
to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the 
most equitable of the citizens, and those who 
were the most uneasy at the breach of the 
laws, they disliked what was done. ‘They also 
went to the king [Agrippa,] desiriing him to 
send to Ananus that he should act so no more, 
for that what he had already done could not 
be justified,” &c. > 

About A. D. 360. Ambrose, or Hegesippus 
de Excid. Urb. Hierosolym. lib. ii. cap. 12.—We 
have discovered that it was the opinion and be- 
lief of the Jews, as Josephus affirms, (who is 
an author not to be rejected, when he wrives 
against himself,) that Herod lost his army, not 
by the deceit of men, but by the anger of God, 
and that justly, as an effect of revenge for what 
he did to John the Baptist, a just man, who 
had said to him, It ts not lawful for thee to huve 
thy brother’s wife. 

The Jews themselves also bear witness to 
Christ, as appears by Josephus, the writer of 
their history, who says thus: That there was 
at that time a wise man; if, says he, it be lawful 
to have him called a man; a doer of ,wondertu! 
works, who appeared to his disciples after the 
third day from his death alive again, according 
to the writings of the prophets, who foretold 
these and innumerable other miraculous events 
concerning him; from whom began the con- 
gregation of Christians, and hath penetrated 
among all sorts of men; nor does there remain 
any nation in the Roman world which conti- 
nues strangers to his religion. If the Jews do 
not believe us, let them at least believe their 
own writers. Josephus, whom they esteem a 
very great man, hath said this, and yet hath he 
spoken truth after such a manner, and so far 
was his mind wandered from the right way 
that even he was not a believer as to what he 
himself said; but thus he spoke, in order to 
deliver historical truth, because he thought it 
not lawful for him to deceive, while yet he was 
no believer, because of the hardness of his 
heart and his perfidious intention. However, 
it was no prejudice to the truth that he was not 
a believer; but this adds more weight to his 
testimony, that while he was an nnbeliever 
and unwilling this should be true he has no 
denied it to be so. 


748 


About A. D, 400. Hieronym. de Vir. Illustr. 
tm Josepho.—Josephus in the eighteenth book 


of Antiquities, most expressly acknowledges | 


that Christ was slain by the Pharisees, on ac- 
count of the greatness of his miracles, and that 
John the Baptist was truly a prophet, and that 
Jerusalem was demolished on account of the 
slaughter of James the apostle. Now, he wrote 
concerning our Lord after this manner: “At 
the same time there was Jesus, a wise man, if 
yet it be lawful to call him a man, for he was 
a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of those 
who willingly receive the truth. He had many 
followers both of the Jews and of the Gen- 
tiles. He was believed to be the Christ. And 
when, by the envy of our principal men, Pilate 
bad condemned him to the cross, yet notwith- 
standing, those who had loved him at first per- 
severed, for he appeared to them alive on the 
third day, as the oracles of the prophets had 
foretold many of these and other wonderful 
things concerning him; and the sect of Chris- 
tians, so named from h’m, are not extinct at 
this day.” 

About A. D. 410.  Isidorus Pelusvta, the 
Scholar of Chrysostom, lib. iv. epist. 225.—There 
was one Josephus, a Jew, of the greatest repu- 
tation, and one that was zealous of the law; 
one also that paraphrased the Old Testament 
with truth, and acted valiantly for the Jews, 
and had showed that their settlement was no- 
ler than can be described by words. Now, 
since he made their interest give place to truth, 
for he would not support the opinion of im- 
pious men, I think it necessary to set down his 
words. What then does he say? “Now there 
was about that time one Jesus, a wise man, if 
it be lawful to call him aman, for he wasa 
tluer of wonderful works, a teacher of such 
Inen as receive the truth with pleasure. He 
ilrew over to him both many of the Jews, and 
inany of the Gentiles: He was the Christ. 
And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the prin- 
cipal men among us, had condemned him to the 
cross, those that loved him at first did not for- 
sake him, for he appeared to them the third 
day alive again, as the divine prophets had said 
these and a vast number of other wonderful 
things concerning him: and the tribe of Chris- 
tians, so named from him, are not extinct at 
this day.” Now I cannot but wonder greatly 
at this man’s love of truth in many respects, 
but chiefly where he says, “Jesus was a teach- 
er of men who received the truth with plea- 
sure.” 

ibvut A. D. 440. Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. 
i cap. 1.—Now Josephus, the son of Mattathi- 
as, a priest, a man of very great note both 
among the Jews and Romans, may well bea 
witness of credit, as to the truth of Christ’s 
history; for he scruples to call him a man, as 
being a doer of wonderful works, and a teach- 
er of the words of truth. He names him 
Christ openly, and is not ignorant that he was 
condemned to the cross, and appeared on the 
third day alive; and that ten thousand other 
wonderful things were foretold of him by the 
‘iyine prophets. He testifies also, that those 


DISSERTA LION 


| 












whom he drew over to him, being many of the 
Gentiles as well as of the Jews, continued to 


love him; and that the tribe named from him — 


was not then extinct. Now he seems to me by 
this his relation, almost to proclaim that Christ 
is God. However, he appears to have been so 
affected with the strangeness of the thing, as_ 
to run as it were ina sort of middle way, so 
as not to put any indignity upon believers in 
him, but rather to afford his suffrage to them 
About A. D.510. Cassidorus, Hist. Tripar 


(tit. e Sozomeno.—Now Josephus, the son ot 


Mattathias, and a priest, a man of great nobility 
among the Jews, and of great d gnity amon 
the Romans, bears witness to the truth o 


| Christ’s history; for he dares not call hima 


man, as a doer of famous works, and a teacher 
of true doctrines: he names him Christ openly; 
and is not ignorant that he was condemned to 
the cross, and appeared on the third day alive, 
and that an infinite number of other wonder- 
ful things were foretold of him by the holy 
prophets. Moreover, he testifies also, that there 
were then alive many whom he had chosen, 
both Greeks and Jews, and that they continued 
to love him; and that the sect which was nam 
ed from him was by no means extinct at that 
time. 

A. D. 640. Chron. Alex, p. 514.—Now Jo- 


sephus also relates in the eighteenth book of 


Antiquities, how John the Baptist, that holy 
man, was beheaded on account of Herodias, 
the wife of Philip, the brother of Herod him- 
self; for Herod had divorced his former wife, 
who was still alive, and had been his lawftt 
wife: she was the daughter of Aretas, king of 
the Petreans. When, therefore, Herod had ta- 
ken Herodias away from her husband, while 
he was yet alive, (on whose account he slew 
John also,) Aretas made war against Herod, 
because his daughter had been dishonorably 
treated. In which war, he says, that all He- 
rod’s army was destroyed, and that he suffer- 
ed that calamity because of the wickedness he 
had been guilty of against John. The same 
Josephus relates, that Herod lost his kingdom 


on account of Herodias, and that with her he — 


was banished to Lyons, &e. 

P. 526, 527.] Now that our Savior taught 
his preaching three years, is demonstrated both 
by other necessary reasonings, as also out of 
the holy Gospels, and out of Josephus’s wri 


tings, who was a wise man among the He- 


brews, &c. 

P. 584, 586.] Josephus relates in the fifth 
book of the [Jewish] war, that Jerusalem was 
taken in the third Mea year of Vespasian, 
as after forty years since they dared to put Je- 
sus to death: in which time he says, that James 
the brother of our Lord, and bishop of Jeru- 
salem, was thrown down [from the temple] and 
slain of them by stoning. 

About A..D.740. Anastasras Abbas contr. Jud. 
—Now Josephus, an author and writer of 
your own, says of Christ, that he was a just 
and good man, showed and declared so to be 
by divine grace, who gave aid to many by signa 
and miracles | 


.., —.. 


ee i 5 e 


“a 
> 
3 
bi 
x 





DISSERTATION L 


fbout 1. D. 790. Georgrus, Syncellus Chron. 
p. 339.-'These miseries befell the Jews by 
way of :cevenge for James the Just, who was 
the brother of Jesus that was called Christ, on 
she account that they had slain him who was 
& most righteous person. Now, as Ananus, a 
nerson of that character, thought he had a 
proper opportunity, because Festus was dead, 
and Albinus was but upon the road, so he as- 
sembles the sanhedrim of judges, and brings 
before them James, the brother of Jesus, who 
was called Christ, and some of his companions; 
and when he had formed an accusation against 
them, as breakers of the law, he delivered 
them to be stoned; but as for those that seemed: 
the most equitable of the citizens, and those 
that were the most uneasy at the breach of the 
laws, they disliked what was done. They also 
sent to the king [Agrippa] desiring him to 
send to Ananus, that he should act so no more, 
for what he had done already could not be jus- 
tified, &c. 

About A. D.850. Johan. Malela Chron. lib. 
x.—F rom that time began the destruction o 
the Jews, as Josephus, the philosopher of the 
Hebrews, hath written; who also said this, that 
from the time the Jews crucified Christ, who 
was a good and righteous man, (that is, if it be 
fit to call such a one a man, and not a God,) 
the land of Judea was never free from trouble. 
These things the, same Josephus, the Jew, has 
related in his writings. 

About A. D. 860. Photius Cod, lib. x\viii.— 
I have read the treatise of Josephus about the 
universe, whose title I have elsewhere read to 
be, Of the Substance of the Universe. It is 
contained in two very small treatises. He 
treats of the origin of the world in a brief 
manner. However, he speaks of the divinity 
of Christ, who is our true God, in a way very 
like to what we use, declaring that the same 
name of Christ belongs to him, and writes of 
his ineffable generation of the Father, after 
such a manner, as cannot be blamed; which 
thing may perhaps raise a doubt in some, 
whether Josephus were the author of the work, 
though the phraseology does not at all differ 
from this man’s other works. However, I have 
found in some papers, that this discourse was 
not written by Josephus, but by one Caius a 
presbyter. 

Cod. cexxxviii.} Herod the tetrarch of Ga- 
lilee and of Perea, the son of Herod the Great, 
fell in love, as Josephus says, with the wife of 
his brother Philip, whose name was Herodias, 
wano was the grand-daughter of Herod the 
Great, by his son Aristobulus, whom he had 
slain. Agrippa was also her brother. . Now 
Herod took her away from, her husband, and 
married her. This is he that slew John the 
Baptist, that great man, the forerunner [of 
Christ, being afraid, as Josephus says, lest he 
should raise a sedition among his people: for 
they all followed the directions of John, on ac- 
count of the excellency of his virtue. In his 
time was the passion of our Savior. 

Cod. xxxiii.}] IT have read the Chronicle of 
iuatusof Tiberias. “ie omits the greatest part 


749 


of what was most necessary to be related; out 
as infected with Jewish prejudices, being alse 
himself a Jew by birth, he makes no mention 
at all of the advent, or of the acts done, or of 
the miracles wrought, by Christ. 

The time uncertain. Macarius in Actis Sanc 
torum, tom. v. p. 149 ap. Fabric. Joseph. p. 61.— 
Josephus, a priest of Jerusalem, and one that 
wrote with truth the history of the Jewish af- 
fairs, bears witness that Christ, the true God, 
was incarnate, and crucified, and the third day 
rose again; whose writings are deposited in the 
public library. Thus he says: “Now there was 
about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be law- 
ful to call him a man, for he was a doer of 
wonderful works, a teacher of such men as re- 
ceive the truth with pleasure: he drew over to 
him both many of the Jews, and many of the 
Gentiles also: this was the Christ. And when 
Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men 
among us, had condemned him to the cross, 
those that loved him at the first, did not for- 
sake him, for he appeared to them alive again 
the third day, as the divine prophets had fore- 
told these, and ten thousand otner wonderful 
things concerning him. And still the tribe of 
Christians, so named from him, are not extinct 
at thisday.” Since, therefore, the writer of the 
Hebrews has engraven this testimony concern- 
ing our Lord and Savior in his own books, what 
defence can there remain for the unbelievers? 

About A. D. 980. Suidas in voce Jesous.— 
We have found Josephus, who hath written 
about the taking of Jerusalem, (of whom Eu- 
sebius Pamphili makes frequent mention in bis 
Ecclesiastical History,) saying openly in his 
memoirs of the captivity, that Jesus officiated 
in the temple with the priests. Thus we have 
found Josephus saying, a man of ancient times, 
and not very long after the apostles, &c. 

About A. D. 1060. Cedrenus Compend. Mist. 

. 126.—Josephus does indeed write concern- 
ing John the Baptist as follows: “Some of the 
Jews thought that the destruction of Hercd’s 
army came from God, and that he was punish- 
ed very justly for what punishment he inflicted 
on John, that was called the Baptist; for He- 
rod slew him, who was a good man, and com- 
manded the Jews to exercise virtue, both by 
righteousness towards one another and piety 
towards God, and so tocome to baptism.” But 
as concerning Christ, the same Josephus says, 
that about that time there was Jesus, a wise 
man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he 
was a doer of wonderful works, and a teach- 
er of such men as receive the truth with plea. 
sure, for that Christ drew over many even from 
the Gentiles; whom when Pilate had crucified, 
those who at first had loved him, did not leave 
off to preach concerning him, for he appeared” 
to them the third day alive again, as the divine 
prophets had testified, and spoke these and 
other wonderful things concerning him. 

About A. D. 1080. Theophilact. in Joan. lib 
xiii—The city of the Jews was taken, and the 
wrath of God was kindled against them; as 
also Josephus witnesses, that this came upor 
them on account of the leath of Jesus. 


750 


“bout A. D.1120 = Zonoras Annal. tom i. p. 
267.—Josephus, in the eighteenth book of An- 
tiquities, writes thus concerning our Lord and 
God Jesus Christ: “Now there was about this 
time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him 
a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, 
a teacher of such men as receive the truth 
with pleasure. . He drew over to him many of 
the Jews and many of the Gentiles: He was 
the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion 
of the principal men among us, had condemn- 
ed him to the cross, those that had loved him 
at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to 
them the third day alive again, as the divine 
prophets had said these and ten thousand other 
wonderful things concerning him; and the 
tribe of Christians, so named from him, are 
not extinet at this day.” 

About A. D. 1220. Glycas Annal. p. 234— 
Then did Philo, that wise man, and Josephus 
flourish. This last was styled, The lover of truth, 
because he commended John, who baptized our 
Lord: and because he bore witness that Christ, 
in like manner, was a wise man, and a doer of 
great miracles; and that when he was crucified 
he appeared the third day. 

About A. D. 1240. Gotfridus Viterbiensis 
Chron. p. 366, e. Vers. Rufini.—Josephus relates, 
that a very great war arose between Aretas, 
king of the Arabians, and Herod, on account 
of the sin which Herod had committed against 
John. Moreover, the same Josephus writes 
thus concerning Christ: “There was at this 
time Jesus, a wise man, if at least it be lawful 
to call him a man, for he was a doer of won- 
derful works, a teacher of such men as will- 
ingly hear truth, He also drew over to him 
many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles: 
He was Christ. And when Pilate, at the ac- 
cusation of the principal men of our nation, 
had decreed that he should_ be crucified, those 
that had loved him from the beginning did not 
forsake him, for he appeared to them the third 
jay alive again, according to what the divinely 
-nspired prophets had foretold, that these and 
innumerable other miracles should come to 
pass abouthim. Moreover, both the name and 
sect of Christians, who were named from him, 
continue in being unto this day. 

About A. D.1360. Nicephorus Callistus Hist. 
Eccles. lib, i. p. 90, 91.—Now this [concerning 
Herod the stab is attested to, not only by 
the book of the holy Gospels, but by Josephus, 
that lover of truth; who also makes mention 
of Herodias his brother’s wife, whom Herod 
had taken away from him, while he was alive, 
and married her, having divorced his former 
awful wife, who was the daughter of Aretas, 
king of the Petrean Arabians. This Herodias 
he had tnarried, and lived with her; on which 
account also, when he had slain John, he made 
war with Aretas, because his daughter had 
been dishonorably used: in which war he re- 
lates, that all Herod’s army was destroyed, and 
hat he suffered this on account of the most 
anjust slaughter of John. He also adds, that 
John was a most righteous man. Moreover, 
‘e makes mention of his baptism, agreeing in 


DISSERTATION 1. 


all points thereto re.ating with the Gospel. He 


also informs us, that Herod lost his kingdom | 


on account of Herodias, with whom also he 
was condemned to be banished to Vienne, 
which was their place of exile, and a city bor- 
dering upon Gaul, and lying near the utmost 
bounds of the west. 

About A. D. 1450. Hardmanus Schedelius 
Chron. p. 100.—Josephus, the Jew, who was 
called Flavius, a priest, and the son of Matta- 
thias, a priest of that nation, a most celebrated 
historian, and very skilful in many things; he 
was certainly a good man, and of an excellen 
character, who had the highest opinion of 
Christ. 

About A. D. 1480. Platim de Vitis Pontif- 
cum tn Christo.—I shall avoid mentioning what 
Christ did until the 30th year of his age, when 
he was baptized by John, the son of Zacharias, 
because not only the Gospels and Epistles are 
full of those acts of his, which he did in the 
most excellent and most holy manner, but the 
books of such as were quite remote from his 
way of living, and acting, and ordaining, are 
also full of the same. Flavius Josephus him- 
self, who wrote twenty books of the Jewish 
Antiquities in the Greek tongue, when he had 
proceeded as far as the government of the em- 
peror Tiberias, says, “there was in those days 
Jesus, a certain wise man, if at least it be law- 
ful to call him a man, for he was a doer of 
wonderful works, and a teacher of men, of 
such especially as willingly hear the truth. 
On this account he drew over to him many 
both of the Jews and Gentiles: He was Christ. 
But when Pilate, instigated by the principal 
men of our nation, had decreed that he should 
be crucified, yet did not those who had loved 
him from the beginning forsake him: and be- 
sides, he appeared to them the third day after 
his death, alive, as the divinely inspired pro- 
phets had foretold that these and innumerable 
other miracles should come to pass about him. 
And the famous name of Christians, taken from 
him, as well as their sect, do still continue in 
being.” 

The same Josephus also affirms, that John 
the Baptist, a true prophet, and on that account 
one that was had in esteem by all men, was 
slain by Herod, the son of Herod the Great, a 
little before the death of Christ, in the castle of 
Macherus; not because he was afraid for him- 
self and his kingdom, as the same author says, 
but because he had incestuously married He- 
rodias the sister of Agrippa, and the wife of 
that excellent person his brother Philip, 

About A. D. 1480. Trithumius Abbas de 
Scriptor. Eccles.—Josephus the Jew, ataough 
he continued to be a Jew, did frequently com- 
mend the Christians; and in the eighteenth 
book of Antiquities, wrote down an eminent 
testimony concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. 


Observations from the foregoing Evidence oma 
Citations. 


1. The style of all these original testimenies 


belonging to Josephus is exactly the style of 
the same Josephus, and especially the style 








DISSERTA:iION 1 


about tnose parts of his Antiquities where- 
in we find these testimonies. This is denied 
ny nobody as to the other, concerning John 
the Baptist and James the Just, and is now 
become equally undeniable as to that concern- 
ing Christ. 

IL. These testimonies, therefore, being con- 
fessedly and undeniably written by Josephus 
himself, it is next to impossible that he should 
wholly omit some testimony concerning Jesus 
Christ; nay, while his testimonies of John the 
Baptist, and James the Just, are so honorable, 
and give them so great characters, it is also im- 
possible that this testimony concerning Christ 
should be other than very honorable, or such 
as afforded him a still greater character also. 
Could the very same author, who gave such a 
full and advantageous character of John the 
Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus of Nazareth, 
all whose disciples were by him directed to 
Jesus of Nazareth, as to the true Messias, and 
all whose disciples became afterwards the dis- 
ciples of Jesus of Nazareth, say nothing ho- 
norable of that Jesus of Nazareth himself? 
And this is a history of those very times in 
which he was born, and lived, and died, and 
that while the writer lived but a little after him, 
_in the same country in which he was born, 
and lived, and died. This is almost incredible. 
And further, could the very same author, who 
gave such an advantageous character of James 
the Just, and this under the very appellation of 
James the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ, which James was one of the principal 
disciples or apostles of this Jesus Christ, and 
had been many years the only Christian bishop 
of the believing Jews of Judea and Jerusalem, 
in the very days, and in the very country of 
this writer; could he, I say, wholly omit any, 
nay, a very honorable account of Jesus Christ 
himself, whose disciple and bishop this James 
most certainly was? ‘This is also almost incre- 
dible. Hear what Ittigius, one of the wisest 
and most Jearned of all those who have lately 
_ ipclined to give up the testimony concerning 
Christ, as it stands in our copies, for spurious, 
says upon this occasion: “If any one object to 
me, that Josephus hath not omitted John the 
Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, nor James 
the disciple of Christ, and that, therefore, he 
conld not have done the part of a good histo- 
rian, if he had been entirely silent concerning 
Christ, I shall freely grant that Josephus was 
not entirely silent concerning Christ; nay, I 
shall further grant, that when Josephus was 
speaking of Christ, he did not abstain from his 
commendation; for we are not to determine 
from that inveterate hatred which the modern 
Jews bear to Christ, what was the behavior of 
those Jews, upon whom the miracles that were 
daily wrought by the apostles in the name of 
Christ imprinted a sacred horror.” 

III. The famous clause in this testimony of 
Josephus concerning Christ, This was Christ, 
or the Christ, did not mean that this Jesus was 
the Christ of God, or the true Messiah of the 
Jews, but that this Jesus was distinguished 
from all others of that name, of which there 


7354 


were not a few, as mentioned by Josephus 
himself, by the addition of the other name of 
Christ: or that this person was no other than 
he whom all the world knew by the name of 
Jesus Christ, and his followers by the name of 
Christians. This I esteem to be a clear case, 
and that from the arguments following: 

(1.) The Greeks and Romans, for whose use 
Josephus wrote his Antiquities, could no other- 
wise understand these words. The Jews, in- 
deed, and afterward the Christians, who knew 
that a great Messiah, a person that was to be 
Christ, the Anointed of God, and that was to 
perform the office of a King, a Priest, and a 
Prophet, to God’s people, might readily so un- 
derstand this expression; but Josephus, as I 
have already noted, wrote here, not to Jews or 
Christians, but to Greeks and Romans, who 
knew nothing of this, but knew very well that 
an eminent person living in Judea, wnose 
name was Jesus Chrest, or Jesus Christ, had 
founded a new and numerous sect, which took 
the latter of those names, and were every where 
from him called Chrestians, or Christians; in 
which sense alone could they understand these 
words of Josephus, and in which sense I be- 
lieve he desired they should understand them; 
nor does Josephus ever use the Hebrew term 
Messiah in any of his writings, nor the Greek 
term Christ in any such acceptation elsewhere. 

(2.) Josephus himself as good as explains 
his own meaning, and that by the last clause of 
this very passage, where he says, the Chris- 
tians were named from this Christ, without a 
syllable, as though he really meant he was the 
true Messiah, or Christ of God. He farther 
seems to me to explain this his meaning in 
that other place, where alone he elsewhere 
mentions this name of Christ, that is, when 
upon occasion of the mention of James, when 
he was condemned by Ananus, he calls him 
the Brother of Jesus, not, that was the true 
Messiah, or the true Christ, but only that was 
called Christ. 

(3.) It was quite beside the purpose of Jose- 
phus to delare himself here to be a Christian, 
or a believer in Jesus as the true Messiah. 
Had he intended so to do, he would surely 
have explained the meaning of the word Christ 
to his Greek and Roman readers; he would 
surely have been a great deal fuller and larger 
in his accounts of Christ and of the Christian 
religion: nor would such a declaration at thac 
time have recommended him, or his nation, or 
his writings, to either the Greeks or the Ro- 
mans; of his reputation with both which peo» 
ple, he is known to have been, in the writing 
of these Antiquities, very greatly solicitous. 

(4.) Josephus’s usual way of writing is his- 
torical and declarative of facts, and of the opi- 
nions of others, and but rarely such as directly 
informs us of his own opinion, unless we pru- 
dently gather it from what hie says historically, 
or as the opinions of others. This is very 
observable in the writings of Josephus, and in 
particular as to what he says of John the Bap 
tist, and of James the Just; so that this inter 
pretation is most probable, as most .grees 


ray 


».e-to Josephus’s way of writing in parallel 
cases. - 

(5.) This seems to be the universal sense of 
all the ancients without exception, who cite 
this testimony from him; and though they al- 
most everywhere own this to be the true read- 
ing, yet do they everywhere suppose Josephus 
to be still an unbelieving Jew, and not a be- 
lieving Christian: nay, Jerome appears so well 
assured of this interpretation, and that Jose- 
phus did not mean to declare any more by these 
words than a common opinion, that, according 
to his usual way of interpreting authors, not to 
the words, but to the sense, (of which we have, 
I think, two more instances in his accounts out 
of Josephus, now before us,) he renders this 
clause credebatur esse Christus, i. e. He was 
believed to be Christ. Nor is this parallel ex- 
pression of Pilate to be otherwise understood 
when he made that inscription on the cross. 
This is Jesus, the king of the Jews, (a) which is 
well explained by himself elsewhere, and cor- 
responds to the import of the present clause, 
What shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ? 
(b) And we may full as well prove from Pilate’s 
inscription u,on the cross that he hereby de- 
clared himself a believer in Christ, for the real 
King of the Jews, as we can from these words 
of Josephus, that he thereby declared himself 
to be a real believer in him, as the true Mes- 
siah, 

IV. Though Josephus did not design here 
to declare himself openly to be a Christian, yet 
could he not possibly believe all that he here 
asserts, concerning Jesus Christ, unless he were 
so far a Christian as the Jewish Nazarenes or 
Ebionites then were, who believed Jesus of 
Nazareth to be the true Messiah, without be- 
lieving he was more than a man; who also be- 


DISSERT iTION 1. 






our Josephus to pe m any sense a belie 
a Christian, as from all these testimonies vh 
were very great ones, all those, and many >ther 
reasons could not but conspire to assure us hé 
was no other than a Nazarene or EKhie nite 
Christian: and this J take to be the plain ane 
2vident key of this whole matter. | 
V. Since, therefore, Josephus appears to have 
deen, in his own heart and conscience, no other 
-han a Nazarene or Ebionite Christian, and, by 
sonsequence, with them rejected all our Greek 
gospels and Greek books of the New ‘Testa- 
ment, and received only the Hebrew gospel of 
the Nazarenes or Ebionites, styled by them, 
The Gospel according to the Hebrews; or ac- 
cording to the twelve apostles, or even accordt 
to Matthew, we ought always to have that Na 
zarene or Ebionite gospel, with the other Na- 
zarene or Ebionite fragments in view, when we 
consider any passages of Josephus relating to 
Christ or to Christianity. Thus, since that gos- 
pel omitted all that is in the beginning of our 
St. Matthew and St. Luke’s gospels, and began 
with the ministry of John the Baptist; in whick 
first parts of the gospel history are the accouns 
of the slaughter of the infants, and of the er. 
rolment or taxation under Augustus Ceesar ana 
Herod, it is no great wonder that Josephus ha 
not taken care particularly and clearly to pre — 
perve those histories to us. Thus, when we 
find that Josephus calls James the brother of 
Christ, by the name of James the Just, and 
describes him as a most just and righteous man 
in an especial manner, we are to remember 
that sucii is his name and character in the gos 
+] according to the Hebrews, and the other 
bionite remains of Hegesippus, but nowhere 
else that I remember, in the earliest antiquity: 
uor are we to suppose they herein referred te 


lievea the necessity of the observation of the | any other than that righteousness which was 


ceremonial law of Moses in order to salvation 
for all mankind, which were the two main ar- 
ticles of those Jewish Christian’s faith, though 
in Opposition to all the thirteen apostles of Je- 
sus Christ in the first century, and in opposi- 
tion to the whole Catholic Church of Christ 
in the following centuries also. Accordingly, I 
have elsewhere proved, that Josephus was no 
other in his own mind and conscience than a 
Nazarene or Ebionite Jewish Christian; and 
have observed that this entire testimony, and 
all that Josephus says of John the Baptist, and 
of James, as well as his absolute silence about 
all the rest of the apostles and their compa- 
miong, exactly agrees to him under that charac- 
ter and no other. And indeed to me it is most 
astonishing, that all our learned men, who have 
of late considered these testimonies of Josephus, 
except the converted Jew Galatinus, should 
miss such an obvious and natural observation. 
We all know this from St. James’s own words, 
¢) that so many ten thousands of the Jews as be- 
lieved in Christ, in the first century, were all 
zealous of the ceremonial law, or were no other 
than Nazarene or Ebionite Christians; and, by 
consequence, if there were any reason to think 


a) Matth. xxvii 37 (6) Matth. xxvu_ 17, 92. 


) Acts xxi. 20. 








by the Jewish law, wherein St. Paul, (d) be- 

fore he embraced Christianity, professed him- | 
self to have been blameless. Thus when Jo- 

sephus, with other Jews, ascribed the miseries 
of that nation under Vespasian and Titus, with 

the destruction of Jerusalem, to the barbarous” 
murder of James the Just, we must remember 
what we learn from the Ebionite fragments of — 
Hegesippus, that these Ebionites interpreted a 
prophecy of Isaiah, as foretelling this very 
murder, and those consequent miseries: Let us_ 
take away the just one, for he 1s unprofitable to uss 

therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own” 
ways.(e) ‘Thus when Josephus says, as we have” 
seen, that the most equitable citizens of Jerusa- 
lem, and those that were most zealous of the 
law, were very uneasy at the condemnation of 
this James, and some of his friends or fellow 
Christians, by the high priest and sanhedrim 
about A. D. 62, and declares that he himself 
was one of those Jews who thought the terr- 
ble miseries of that nation, effects of the ven- 
geance of God for their murder of this James, 
about A. D. 68, we may easily see these opin 
ions could only be the opinions of conve 
Jews or Ebionites. The high priest and s 
hedrim, who always persecuted the Christi 

‘@) Philipp. iii. 4—8 fe) Is. di. 10. 














a 


f 
‘ 


DISSERTATION 1. 
_ and now condemned these Christians, and the 


bedy of these unbelieving Jews, who are sup- 


¥ poet to suffer for murdering this James, the 
e 


ad of the Nazarene or Ebionite Christians 
in Judea, could not, to be sure, be of that opin- 
ion; nor could Josephus himself be of the same 
opinion, as he declares he was, without the 
strongest inclinations to the Christian religion, 
or without being secretly a Christian Jew, i. e. 
a Nazarene or E:bionite, which thing is, by the 
way, a very great additional argument that 
such he was and no other. Thus, lastly, when 
Josephus is cited in Suidas as affirming that 
Jesus officiated with the high priests in the 
temple, this account is by no means disagreea- 
ble to the pretensions of the Ebionites. Hege- 
sippus affirms the very same of James the Just 
also. 

VI. In the first citation of the famous testi- 


mony concerning our Savior, from Tacitus, al- 


mest all that was true of the Jews is directly 
taken by him out of Josephus, as will be demon- 
strated under the third Dissertation hereafter. 

VII. The second author I have alleged for 
it is Justin Martyr, one so nearly coeval with 
Josephus, that he might be born about the time 
that he wrote his Antiquities, appeals to the 
same Antiquities by that very name; and though 
he does not here directly quote them, yet does 
he seem to me to allude to this very testimony 
in them concerning our Savior, when he af- 
firms in this place to Trypho the Jew, that his 
nation originally knew that Jesus was risen from 
the dead, and ascended into heaven, as the prophets 
did foretell was to happen. Since there neither 
now is, nor probable in the days of Justin was, 
apy other Jewish testimony extant, which is so 
agreeable to what Justin here affirms of those 
Jews, as is this of Josephus the Jew before us; 


nor indeed does he seem to me to have had 


the Christ. 


any thing else particularly in his view here, but 
this very testimony, where Josephus says, 
“That Jesus appeared to his followers alive the 
third day after his crucifixion, as the divine 


prophets had foretold these, and ten thousand 


other wonderful things concerning him.” 
VIII. The third author I have quoted for 
Josephus’s testimonies of John the Baptist, of 
Jesus of Nazareth, and of James the Just, is 
Origen, who is, indeed, allowed on all hands 
to have quoted him for the excellent character 
of John the Baptist, and of James the Just, but 
whose supposed entire silence about this testi- 
mony concerning Christ is usually alleged as 
the principal argument against its being genu- 
‘pe, and particularly as to the clause, this was 
he Christ; and that, as we have seen, because 


he twice assures us, that in his opinion, Jose-- 


phus did not himself acknowledge Jesus for 
Now as to this latter clause, I have 
already shown, that Josephus did not here, in 
writing to Greeks and Romans, mean any such 


thing by those words as Jews and Christians 


naturally understood by them: J have also ob- 

served, that all the ancients allow still, with 

Origen, that Josephus did not, in the Jewish 

and Christian sense, acknowledge Jesus for the 

true Messiah, or the true Christ of God; not- 
95 


73 


withstanding their express quotation of that 
clause in Josephus as genuine, so that unless 
we suppose Origen to have had a different no- 
tion of these words from all the other ancients, 
we cannot conclude from this assertion of Ori 

gen’s, that he had not these words in his copy, 
not to say that it is, after all, much more likely 
that his copy a little differed from the other 
copies in this clause or indeed omitted it en- 
tirely, than that he, on its account, must be 
supposed not to have had the rest of this testi- 
mony therein, though indeed I see no necessity 
of making any such supposal at all. However 
it seems to me that Origen affords us fou 
several indications that the main parts at least 
of this testimony itself were in his copy. 

(1.) When Origen introduces Josephus’s tes- 
timony concerning James the Just, that he 
thought the miseries of the Jews were an in- 
stance of the divine vengeance on that nation 
for putting James to death instead of Jesus, he 
uses an expression noway necessary to his 
purpose, nor occasioned by any words of Jo- 
sephus there, that they had slain that Christ 
which is foretold in the Prophecies. Whence 
could this expression.come here into Origen’s 
mind, when he was quoting a testimony of Jo- 
sephus concerning the brother of Christ, but 
from his remembrance of a clause in the testi- 
mony of the same Josephus concerning Christ 
himself, that the prophets had foretold his death 
and resurrection, and ten thousand other wonder- 


ful things concerning him? 


(2.) How came Origen to be so surprised at 
Josephus’s ascribing the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem to the Jews’ murdering of James the Just, 
and not to their murdering Jesus, as we have 
seen he was, if he had not known that Jose- 
phus had spoken of Jesus and his death be- 
fore, and that he had a very good opinion of 
Jesus, which yet he could learn noway so au- 
thentically as from this testimony? Nor do 
the words he here uses, that Josephus was not 
remote from the truth, perhaps allude to any 
thing else but to this very testimony before us 

(3.) How came the same Origen, upon ano- 
ther slight occasion, when he had just set down 
that testimony of Josephus concerning James 
the Just, the brother of Jesus, who was called 
Christ, to say, that “it may be questioned 
whether the Jews thought Jesus to be a man, 
or whether they did not suppose him to be a 
being of a diviner kind?” 'This looks so very 
like the fifth and sixth clauses of this testimony 
in Josephus, that Jesus was a wise man, if it be 
lawful to call him a man, that it is highly pro- 
bable Origen thereby alluded to them: and 
this is the more to be depended on, because all 
the unbelieving Jews, and all the rest of the 
Nazarene Jews, esteemed Jesus with one con- 
sent as a mere man, the son of Joseph and 
Mary, and it is not, I think, possible to produce 
any one Jew but Josephus. who, in a sort of 
compliance with the Romans and the Catholis 
Christians, who thought him a God, wouid say 
any thing like his being a God. 

(4.) How came Origen to affirm twice, 86 
expressly, that Josephus did not himself own 


754 


m the Jewish and Christian sense, that Jesus 
was Christ, notwithstanding his quotation of 
such eminent testimonies out of him for John 
the Baptist, his forerunner, and for James the 
Just, his brother, and one of his principal dis- 
ciples? There is no passage in all Josephus 
so likely to persuade Origen of this as is the 
famous testimony before us, wherein, as he 
and all the ancients understood it, he was gen- 
erally called Christ indeed, but not any other- 
wise than as the common name whence the 
sect of Christians was derived, and where he 
all along speaks of those Christians as a sect 
then in being, whose author was a wonderful 
person, and his followers great lovers of him 
and of the truth, yet as such a sect as he had 
not joined himself to. Which exposition, as it 
is a very natural one, so was it, I doubt, but 
too true of our Josephus at that time: nor can 
[ devise any other reason but this, and the 
sarallel language of Josephus elsewhere, when 
he speaks of James as the brother, not of Jesus 
who was Christ, but of Jesus who was called 
Christ, that could so naturally induce Origen 
and others to be of that opinion. 

(X. There are two remarkable passages in 
Suidas and Theophylact, already set down, as 
citing Josephus; the former that Jesus offi- 
ciated with the priests of the temple; and the 
latter, that the destruction of Jerusalem and 
iniseries of the Jews, were owing to their put- 
ting Jesus to death, which are in none of our 
present copies, nor cited thence by any an- 
cienter authors, nor indeed do they seem alto- 
gether consistent with the other more au- 
thentic testimonies. However, since Suidas 
cites his passage from a treatise of Josephus’s, 
called Memoirs of the Jews’ captivity, a book 
never heard of elsewhere, and Since both cita- 
tions are not at all disagreeable to Josephus’s 
character as a Nazarene or Ebionite, I dare not 
positively conclude that they are spurious, but 
must leave them in suspense, for the farther 
consideration of the learned. 

X. As to that great critic Photius, in the ninth 
century, who is supposed not to have had this 
testimony in his copy of Josephus, or else to 
have esteemed it spurious, because, in his ex- 
tracts out of Josephus’s Antiquities, it is not 
expressly mentioned; this is a strange thing in- 
deed! that a section which had been cited out 
of Josephus’s copies all along before the days 
of Photius, as well as it has all along been 
cited out of them since his days, should be 
supposed not to be in his copy, because he does 
not directly mention it in certain short and im- 
perfect extracts, noway particularly relating to 
such matters. Those who lay a stress on this 
silence of Photius, seem little to have attended 
to the nature and brevity of those extracts. 
They contain little or nothing, as he in effect 
professes at their entrance, but what concerns 
Antipater, Herod the Great, and his brethren 
and family, with their exploits, till the days of 
Agrippa, junior, and Cumanus, the governor 
of Judea, fifteen years after the death of our 


DISSERTATION 1. 


Savior, without one word of Pilate, or what 


happened under his government, which vet 
was the only proper place in which this testi- — 


mony could come to be mentioned. Howeve 
since Photius seems, therefore, as we have 


seen, to suspect the treatise ascribed by some 


to Josephus, of the Universe, because it speaks 
very high things of the eternal generation and 
divinity of Christ, this looks very like hi 
knowledge and belief of somewhat really i 
the same Josephus, which spoke in a lowe. 


manner of him, which coulc Je hardly any 


other passage than this testirzony before us. 
And _ since, as we have also seen, when he 
speaks of the Jewish history of Justus of Tibe 
rias, as infected with the prejudices of. the 
Jews, in taking no notice of the advent, of the 
acts and of the miracles of Jesus Christ, while 
yet he never speaks so of Josephus himself, 
this naturally implies also, that there was not 
the like oceasion here as there, but that Jose- 
phus had not wholly omitted that advent, those 
acts, or miracles, which yet he has done every 
where else, in the books seen by Photius, as 
well as Justus of Tiberias, but in this famous 
testimony before us; so that it is probable Pho- 
tius not only had this testimony in his copy 
but believed it to be genuine also. 

XI. As to the silence of Clement of Alex- 
andria, who cites the Antiquities of Josephus, 
but never cites any of the testimonies now be- 
fore us, it is no strange thing at all, since he 
never cites Josephus but once, and that for a 
point of Chronology only, to determine how 
many years had passed from the days of Moses 
to the days of Josephus; so that his silence 
may almost as well be alleged against a hun- 
dred other remarkable passages in Josephus’s 
works as against these before us. 

XII. Nor does the like silence of Tertullian 
imply that these testimonies, or any of them, 
Were not in the copies of his age. ‘Tertullian 
never once hints at any of Josephus’s treatises 
but those against Apion, and that in general 
only for a point of chronology: nor does it any 
way appear that Tertullian ever saw any of 







Josephus’s writings beside, and far from being» 


certain that he saw even those. He had par- 
ticular occasion, in his dispute against the Jews, 
to quote Josephus, above any other writer, to 
prove the completion of the prophecies of the 
Old Testament in the destruction of Jerusalem 
and miseries of the Jews at that time, of which 
he there discourses, yet does he never once 
quote him upon that solemn occasion; so that 
it seems to me, that Tertullian never read 
either the Greek Antiquities of Josephus, or 
his Greek books of the Jewish Wars; nor ie 
this at all strange in Tertullian, a Latin writer 
that lived in Africa, by none of which African 
writers is there any one clause, that I know of, 
cited out of any of Josephus’s writings: nor is 
it worth my while, in such numbers of posi- 
tive citations of these clauses, to mention the 
silence of other later writers, as being here of - 
very small consequence. : 





hry 


DISSERTATION IL. 


756 


DISSERTATION IIL. 


Concerning God’s Command to Abraham 


‘Since this command to Abraham (/) has of 
late been greatly mistaken by some, who ven- 
ture to reason about very ancient facts, from 
very inodern notions, and this without a due 
regard to either the customs, or opinions, or 
circumstances of the times whereto these facts 
belong, or indeed to the true reasons of the 
facts themselves; since the mistakes about those 
customs, opinions, circumstances, and reasons, 
have of late so far prevailed, that the very same 
action of Abraham’s, which was so celebrated 
by St. Pail, (g) St. James, (h) the author of the 
Heorews, (1) Philo, (k) and Josephus, (¢) in the 
first century, and by innumerable others since, 
as an uncommon instance of signal virtue, of 
veroic faith in God, and piety towards him; 
nay, isin the sacred (m) history highly com- 
mended by the divine Angel of the Covenant, 
in the name of God himself, and promised to 
be plentifully rewarded; since this command, 
I say, is now at last in the eighteenth century, 


become a stone of stumbling and a rock of 


offence among us, and that sometitnes to per- 
sons of otherwise good sense, and of a reli- 
gious disposition of mind also, I shall endeavor 
to set this matter in its true, i.e. in its ancient 
and original light, for the satisfaction of the in- 
quisitive. In order whereto we are to consider, 

1. That till this very profane age, it has 
been, I think, universally ajlowed by all sober 
persons, who owned themselves the creatures 
of God, that the Creator has a just right over 
all his rational creatures, to protract their lives 
to what length he pleases; to cut them off 
when and by what instrument he pleases; ,to 


afflict them with what sickness he pleases, and 


to remove them from one state or place in this 
his great palace of the universe to another, as 
he pleases; and that all those rational creatures 
are bound in duty and interest to acquiesce 


under the divine disposal, and to resign them- 


selves up to the good providence of God in al! 
such his dispensations towards them. I do 
not mean to intimate, that God may, or ever 
does act in these cases after a mere arbitrary 
manner, or without sufficient reason, believing, 
according to the whole tenor of natural and 
revealed religion, that he hateth nothing that 
he hath made; (n) that whatsoever he does, 
how melancholy soever it may appear at first 
sight to us, is really intended for the good of 
his creatures, and, at the upshot of things, will 
fully appear so to be: but that still he is not 
obliged, nor does in general give his creatures 
an account of the particular reasons of such 
his dispensations toward them immediately, 


but usually tries and exercises their faith and 


patience, their resignation and obedience, in 
their present state of probation, and reserves 
those reasons to the last day, the day of the re- 
veation of the righteous udgment of God. (0) 


(g) Rom. iv. 16—25. 

{t) Heb. xi. 17—19. 

(1) Jos. Antiq. b. i. c. xiii. 
‘(n) Wisd. xi. 24. 


(f) Gen. xxii. 

(h) James ii. 21, 22. 

(kK) Phil. de Gyant. p, 204. 
qm Gen. xxii. 15-—18. 

fo) Bom. ii. 5. 


a NS 


to offer up Isaac his Son for a Sacrifice. 


2. That the entire histories of the past agea 
from the days of Adam till now, do show, that 
almighty God has exercised his power over 
mankind, and that without giving them an im- 
mediate account of the reasons of such his 
conduct; and that withall the best and wisest 
men of all ages, Heathens as well as Jews and 
Christians, Marcus Antonius as well as the 
patriarch Abraham and St. Paul, have ever 
humbly submitted themselves to this conduct 
of the divine providence, and always confessed 
that they were obliged to the undeserved good- 
ness and mercy of God for every enjoyment, 
but could not demand any of them of his jus- 
tice, no, not so much as the continuance of that 
life whereto those enjoyments do appertain. 
When God was pleased to sweep the wicked 
race of men away by a flood, the young inno- 
cent infants as well as the guilty old sinners; 
when he was pleased to shorten the lives of 
men, after the flood, and still downward till 
the days of David and Solotnon; when he was 
pleased to destroy impure Sodom and Go- 
morrah by fire and brimstone from heaven, 
and to extirpate the main body of the Amo- 
rites out of the land of Canaan, as soon as their 
wmiquities were full, (p) and in these instances 
included the young innocent infants, together 
with the old hardened sinners; when God was 
pleased to send an angel, and by him to de- 
stroy 185,000 Assyrians, (the number attested 
to by Berosus the Chaldean, as well as by our 
own Bibles,) in the days of Hezekiah, most of 
whom seem to have had no other pec'iliar guilt 
upon them than that common to soldiers in 
war, of obeying, without reserve, their king 
Sennacherib, his generals and captains; and 
when, at the plague of Athens, London, Mar- 
seilles, &c. so many thousand righteous men 
and women, with innocent babes, were swept 
away ona sudden by a fatal contagion; I do 
not remember that sober men have complained 
that God dealt unjustly with such his creatures, 
in those to us seemingly severe dispensations: 
nor are we certain when any such seemingly 
severe dispensations are really such, nor do we 
know but shortening the lives of men may 
sometimes be the greatest blessing to them, and 
prevent or put a stop to those courses of gross 
wickedness which might bring them toa greater 
misery in the world to come; nor is it fit for 
such poor, weak, and ignorant creatures as we 
are, in the present state, to call our almighty 
and all-wise, and all-good Creator and Bene- 
factor to an account, upon any such occasions; 
since we cannot but acknowledge that it is 
He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; (q, 
that we are nothing, and huve nothing of our- 
selves, independent of him; but that all we are, 
all we have, and all we hope for, is derived 
from him, from his free and undeserved bounty. 
which therefore he may justly take from us in 
what way soever, and whensoever he pleases, 
all wise and good men still saying in sucb 

(p) Gen. tv. 16. (q) Psal. c. 3. 


756 


all we have, and all we hope for, is derived 
from him, from his free and undeserved boun- 
ty, which therefore he may justly take from us 
in what way soever, and whensoever he pleases; 
all wise and good men still saying in such 
cases, with the pious Psalmist, xxxix. 9, “I was 
dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou 
didst it?’ and with patient Job, i. 21, ii. 10, 
“Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and 
shall not we receive evil? The Lord gave 
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the 
name of the Lord.” If, therefore, this short- 
ening or taking away the lives of men be an 
objection against any divine command for that 
purpose, it is full as strong against the present 
system of the world, against the conduct of 
divine providence in general, and against na- 
tural religion, which is founded on the justice 
of that providence, and is no way peculiar to 
revealed religion, or to the fact of Abraham 
now before us. Nor is this case much differ- 
ent from what was soon after the days of Abra- 
ham thoroughly settled, after Job and_ his 
friends’ debates, by the inspiration of Elihu, 
and the determination of God himself, where 
the divine providence was at length thorough- 
ly cleared and justified before all the world, as 
it will be, no question, more generally cleared 
and justified at the final judgment. 

3. That till this profane age, it has also, I 
think, been universally allowed by all sober 
men, that a command of God, when sufficient- 
ly made known to be so, is abundant authority 
for the taking away the life of any person 
whomsoever, I doubt both ancient and mo- 
dern princes, generals of armies, and judges, 
even those of the best reputation also, have 
ventured to take many men’s lives away upon 
much less authority; nor indeed do the most 
sceptical of the moderns care to deny this au- 
thority directly: they rather take a method of 
objecting somewhat more plausible, though it 
amount to much the same: they say that the 
apparent disagreement of any command to the 
moral attributes of God such as this of the 
slaughter of an only child seems plainly to be, 
will be a greater evidence that such command 
Joes not come from God, than any pretended 
revelation can be that it does, But as to this 
matter, although divine revelations have now 
so long ceased, that we are not well acquainted 


with the manner of conveying such revelations’ 


with certainty to men, and by consequence the 
apparent disagreement of a command with the 
moral attributes of God, ought at present, ge- 
nerally, if not constantly, to deter men from 
acting upon such a pretended revelation, yet 
there was no such uncertainty in the days of 
the old prophets of God, or of Abraham, the 
friend of God, (r) who are ever found to have 
had an entire certainty of those their revela- 
tions: and what evidently shows they were not 
deceived, is this, that the events and conse- 
quences of things afterward always correspond- 
ed, and secured them of the truth of such divine 
revelations. ‘Thus the first miraculous voice 
from heaven, (s) calling to Abraham not to ex- 
(r) Isaiah xli. 8. (s) Gen. xxii. 11, 12. 


DISSERTATION IJ 


ecute this command, and the performance of 


those eminent promises made by the second 


voice, (£) on account of his obedience to that 


command are demonstrations that Abraham’s © 


commission for what he did was truly divine, 
and are an entire justification of his conduct 
in this matter. The words of the first voice 
from heaven will come hereafter to be set down 


in a fitter place; but the glorious promises made _ 


to Abraham’s obedience by the second voice, 
must here be produced from verse 15--18 
“And the angel of the Lord called unto Abra- 
ham out of heaven the second time, and said, 
by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for be-~ 
cuuse thou hast done this thing, and hast not 
withheld thy son, thine only son, from me, that 
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I 
will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and 
as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy 
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and 
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be 
blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.’ 
Every one of which promises have been emi 
nently fulfilled; and what is chiefly remarka 
ble, the last and principal of them, that in Abra 
ham’s sEED all the nations of the earth shall he 
blessed, was never promised till this time. It haé 
been twice promised him, ch. xii. 3, and xviii. 18 
that in himself should the families of the earth t 
blessed, but that this blessing was to belong tc 
future times, and to be bestowed by the means 
of one of his late posterity, the Messias, tha: 
great Seed and Son of Abraham only, war 
never revealed befofe; but, on such an amaz- 
ing instance of his faith and obedience, as was 
this his readiness to offer up his only begottev 
son Isaac, was now first promised, and lws 
been long ago performed, in the birth of Jesus «f 
Nazareth, the son of David, the son of Abrahan 
(u) which highly deserves our observation in tls 
place; nor can we suppose that any thing else 
than clear conviction that this command care 
from God, could induce so good a man, and 
so tender a father as Abraham was, to sa- 
crifice his own beloved son, and to lose thereby 
all the comfort he received fromm him at present, 


and all the expectation he had of a numerous — 


and happy posterity from him hereafter. 
4. That long before the days of Abraham, 
the demons or heathen gods had required and 


received human sacrifices, and particularly that — 


of the offerer’s own children, and this both be- 
fore and after the deluge. This practice had 
been indeed so long left off in Egypt, and the 
custom of sacrificing animals there, was con- 
fined to so few kinds in the days of Herodo- 
tus, that they would not believe they had ever 
offered human sacrifices at all: for he says, v 
“That the fable, as if Hercules was sacrificed 
to Jupiter in Egypt was feigned by the Greeks, 


who were entirely unacquainted with the na- ~ 


ture of the Egyptians, and their laws; for how 


should they sacrifice men, with whom itis un- — 


lawful to sacrifice any brute beast? (boars, and 
bulls, and pure calves, and ganders, only ex 
cepted.”) However, it is evident from Sarcho 


(t) Gen. xxii. 17, 18. (w) Matth. i. lL. 
(v) Ap. Marsh. Chron. p. 303. 





sa Tas 






*¥ 
iv 


3 
=, 
‘ 


DISSERTATION IL. 


9h, Manetho, Pausarias, Diodorus Siculus, 
Philo. Plutarch, and Porphyry, that such sa- 
srifices were frequent both in Phoenicia and 
"gypt, and that long before the days of Abra- 
4am, as Sir John Marsham and Bishop Cum- 
nerland have fully proved; nay, that in other 
olaces, (though not in Egypt,) this cruel prac- 
(ice continued long after Abraham, and this till 
she very third, if not also the fifth century of 
Christianity, before it was quite abolished. Take 
the words of the original author in English, as 
most of them occur in the originals in Sir John 
Marsham’s Chronicum, p. 76—78, 200—304. 
(w) “Chronus offered up his only begotten 
son as a burnt-offering, to his father Ouranus, 
when there was a famine and a pestilence.” 
(rz) “Chronus, whom the Phenicians named 
israel, [it should be J/,] and who was after his 
Jeath consecrated unto the star Saturn, when 
ne was king of the country, and had by a 
aymph of thatcountry, named Anobret, an only 
degotten son, whom, on that account, they call- 
ed Jeud, (the Pheenicians to this day calling an 
only begotten son by that name,) he, in his dread 
of very great dangers that lay upon the country 
from war, adorned his son with royal apparel, 
and built an altar, and offered him in sacrifice.” 
(y) “The Pheenicians, when they were in great 


‘dangers by war, by famine, or by pestilence, sa- 


crificed to Saturn one of the dearest of their 
people, whom they chose by public suffrage 
for that purpose. And Sanchoniatho’s Phe- 
nician history is full of such sacrifices. ['These 
hitherto I take to have been before the flood.”] 

(z) “In Arabia the Dumatii sacrificed a child 
every year.” 

(a) “They relate, that of old the [Egyptian] 
kings sacrificed such men as were of the same 
color with Typho at the sepulchre of Osiris.” 

(b) “Manetho relates, that they burnt 'T'ypho- 
nean men alive inthe city Idithya, [or Ilithya,] 
and scattered their ashes like chaff that is win- 
nowed; and this was done publicly, and ata 
set season in the dog-days.” 

(c) “The barbarous nations did a long time 
admit of the slaughter of children, as of a holy 
practice, and acceptable to the gods. And this 
thing both private persons, and kings, and en- 
tire gations, practice at proper seasons.” 

(d) “The human sacrifices that were enjoined 
by the Dodonean oracle, mentioned in Pausani- 
as’s Achaics, in the tragical story of Coresus 
and Callirrhoe, sufficiently intimate that the 
Phoenician and Egyptian priests had set up this 
Dodonean oracle before the time of Amosis,who 
destroyed that barbarous practice in Egypt.” 


——Isque adytis hec tristia dicta reportat: 

Sanguine placastis, ventos, et virgine cesa, 

Cum primum Illacas, Danai, venistis ad oras; 

Sanguine querendi reditus, animaque litandum 

Airgolica. (e) 

——He from the gods this dreadful answer brought 

O Grecians, when the Trojan shores you sought, 

Your passage with a virgin’s blood was bought; 

So must your safe return be bought again, 

And Grecian blood once more atone the main.— Dryden. 


w) Philo Bib. ex Sanch. p. 76. (x) Philo. Bib.ex Sanch. p. 77. 
y (z) Porphyry, p. 7. 

{a) Diod. p. 78. (b) Plutarch, p. 78. 

ce) Nonnulli ap. Philon. p. 76. (d) Cumberl. Sanch. p. 378. 
e) Vig. Aneid. b. ii. ver. 115. 


73s 

These bloody sacrifices were, for certain, in- 
stances of the greatest degree of impiety, ty 
ranny, and cruelty, in the world, that either 
wicked demons, or wicked men, who neither 
made nor preserved mankind, who had there- 
fore no right over them, nor were they able to 
make them amends in the next world for what 
they thus lost or suffered in this, should, after so 
inhuman a manner, command the taking awa 
the lives of men, and particularly of the offerer’s 
own children, without the commission of any 
crime. This was, I think, an abomination deriv 
ed from him who wasa murderer from the begin- 
ning; (/) a crime truly and properly diabolical. 

_5. That, accordingly, Almighty God himself, 
under the Jewish dispensation, vehemently 
condemned the Pagans, and sometimes the 
Jews themselves, for this crime: and for this, 
and other heinous sins, cast the idolatrous na- 
tions (nay, sometimes the Jews too) out of Pa- 
lestine. Take the principal text hereto relat-, 
ing, as they lie in order in the Old Testament. 

(g) “Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass 
through the fire to Molech. Defile not yourselves 
in any of these things, for in all these the nations 
are defiled which I cast out before you,” &c. 

(hk) “Whosoever he be of the children of 
Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Is- 
rael, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech, 
he shall surely be put to death; the people of 
the land shall stone him with stones.” 

“Take heed to thyself, that thou be not snared 
by following the nations, after that they be 
destroyed from before thee; and that thou in- 
quire not after their gods, saying, How did 
these nations serve their gods? even so will I 
do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the 
Lord thy God; for every abomination of the 
Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto 
their gods, for even their sons and their daugh- 
ters have they burnt in the fire to their gods.” 
See Deut. xii. 30,31; xviii. 18; 2 Kings xvii. 17. 

(i) “And Ahaz made his son to pass through 
the fire according to the abominations of the 
heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the 
children of Israel.” 

ie “Moreover Ahaz burnt incense in the 
valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his 
children [his son in Josephus] in the fire after 
the abominations of the heathen, whom the 
Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.” 

(l) “And the Sepharvites burnt their children 
in the fire to Adrammelech and Anamelech, 
the gods of Sepharvaim,” &c. 

(m) “And Josiah defiled Tophet, which is in 
the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no 
man might make his son or his daughter to 


| pass through the fire unto Molech.” 


(n) “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and them 
daughters unto demons, and shed innocent 
blood, the blood of their sons and of their 


-| daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols 


of Canaan, and the land was polluted with 


blood.” See Isa. lvii. 5. 
(f) John viii. 44. (g) Lev. xviii. 21, 34. 
(A) Lev. xx. 2. (t) 2 Kings xvi. 3. 


(k) 2 Chron. xxviii. 3 
(m) 2 Kings xxiii. 10. 


(l) 2 Kings xvii. 31. 
(n) Psal. evi. 37, 38. 


758 


(o) “The chi.dren of Judah hath done evil 
in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their 
abominations in the house which is called by 
my name to pollute it: and they have built the 
high places of Tophet, which is in the valley 
of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and 
their daughters in the fire, which I commanded 
them not, neither came it into my heart.” 

(p) “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God 
of Israel, Behold I will bring evil upon this 
place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears 
shall tingle, because they have forsaken me, 
and have estranged this place, and have burned 
incense unto other gods, whom neither they 
nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of 
Judah, and have filled this place with the blood 
of innocents. They have built also the high 
places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for 
burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded 
not, nor spake it, neither came it into my 
mind,” &c. 

(q) “They butit the high places of Baal, 
which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, 
to cause their son» and their daughters to pass 
through the fire umo Molech, which I com- 
inanded them not, neither came it into my 
mind that they should do this abomination to 
cause Judah to sin.” 

(r) “Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and 
thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, 
and these hast thou sacrinced unto them to be 
devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small 
matter, that thou hast slain my children, and 
delivered them to cause them to pass through 
the fire for them?” See chap. xx. 26; 1 Cor. x. 20. 

(3) “Thou hatedst the old inhabitants of thy 
holy land for doing most odious works of witch- 
craft and wicked sacrifices; and also those 
merciless murderers of children, and devourers 
of man’s flesh, and the feasts of blood, with 
their priests out of the midst of their idolatrous 
crew, and the parents that killed with their 
own hands souls destitute of help.” 

6. That Almighty God never permitted, in 
any one instance, that such a human sacrifice 
should actually be offered to himself, (though 
he had a right to have required it, if he had 
so pleased,) under the whole Jewish dispensa- 
tion, which yet was full of many other kinds 
of sacrifices, and this at a time when mankind 
generally thought such sacrifices of the greatest 
virtue for the procuring pardon of sin and the 
divine favor; this the ancient records of the 
heathen world attest. Take their notion in 
the words of Philo Byblius, the translator of 
Sanchoniatho: (¢) “It was the custom of the 
ancients, in the greatest calamities and dan- 
gers, for the governors of the city or nation, in 
order to avert the destruction of all, to devote 
their beloved son to be slain, as a price of re- 
demption to the punishing [or avenging] de- 
mons: and those so devoted were killed after a 
mystical manner.” This the history of the 
king of Moab, (u) when he was in great dis- 
tress in his war against Israel and Judah, in- 


(0) Jer. vii. IO—32. (p) Jer. xix, 3—5. 

\g) Jer. xxxii. 35. (r) Ezek. xvi. 20, 21. 

(8) Wisdom xii. 4—9. (¢) Ap. Marsh. p. 76, 77. 
«) 2 Kings iii. 27 


MPISSERTATION II. 


forms us of; who “then took his eldest com, 
that should have reigned in his stead, and of: 
fered him for a burnt-offering upon the city 


wall.” This also the Jewish prophet Micah (% 


implies, when he inquires, “wherewith shal 


come before the Lord, and bow myself before — 
the high God? Shall I come before him with — 


burnt-offerings, with calves of a year od? 
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
rams, with ten thousands of fat kids of the 
goats? Shall I give my first-born for my 


transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin — 


of my soul?” No, certainly, “For he hath 
showed thee, O man, what is good; and what 
doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, 


and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to 


walk with thy God?” 

It is true, God did here try the faith and obe- 
dience of Abraham to himself, whether they 
were as strong as the Pagans exhibited to their 
demons or idols, yet did he withall take effec- 
tual care, and that by a miraculous interposition 
also, to prevent the ey :ution, and provided 
himself a ram, as a vicarious substitute, to sup- 
ply the place of Isaac immediately: (w) “And 
the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham, 
and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, 
Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand 
upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto 
him; for now I know that thou fearest God, 
seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine 
only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up 
his eyes and looked, and behold, aram caught 
in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went 
and took the ram, and offered him up fora 
burnt-offering in the stead of his son.” ' Thus 
though Jephthah (x) has, by many, been thought 
to have vowed to offer up his only daughter 
and child for a sacrifice, and that as bound on 
him, upon supposition of his vow, by a divine 
law, Lev. xxvii. 28, 29, of which opinion I was 
once myself; yet, upon more mature consider- 
ation, I have, for some time, thought this to be 
a mistake, and that his vow extended only to 
her being devoted to serve God at the taberna- 
cle, or elsewhere, in a state of perpetual virgi- 


nity; and that neither that law did enjoin any 


human sacrifices, nor do we meet with any ex- 
ample of its execution in this sense aftegward. 
Philo never mentions any such law no more 
than Josephus: and when Josephus had thought 
that Jephthah had made such a vow, and exe- 
cuted it, he is so far from hinting at its being 
done in compliance with any law of God, that 
he expressly condemns him for it, as having 
acted contrary thereto; or, in his own words, (y) 
“as having offered an oblation neither conform- 
able to the law, nor acceptable to God, nor 
weighing with himself what opinion the hear- 
ers would have of such a practice. 


7. That Isaac being at this time, according to — 


Josephus, (z) who is herein justly followed by 
Archb. Usher, (a) no less than twenty-five years 
of age, and Abraham being, by consequence, 


one hundred and twenty-five, it is not to he 


v) Micah vi. 6—8. (w) Gen. xxii. 11—13. 
z) Judges xi. 36—39. (y) Antiq. b. v. ch. vii. sect. 10. 
z) Antig. b. i. chap. xiii. (a) Ush. Annal. a.d. 4. M, 2133 






Joe 
ns - 


—_ 


oo a ee 





= 
— 


DISSERTATION I). 


supposed that Abraham could bind Isaac, in 
order to offer him in sacrifice, but by his own 
free consent; which free consent of the party 
wno is to be offered seems absolutely necessary 


in all such cases: and which free consent St. 


Clement, as well as Josephus, distinctly takes 
notice of on this occasion. St. Clement de- 
scribes it thus: (b) “Isaac being fully persuaded 
of what he knew was to come, cheerfully 
yielded himself up for a sacrifice.” And for 
Josephus, (c) after introducing Abraham in a 
pathetic speech, laying before Isaac the divine 
command, and exhorting him patiently and 
joyfully to submit to it, he tells us, that “Isaac 
very cheerfully consented;” and then intro- 
duces him as giving a short, but very pious 
answer, acquiescing in the proposal; and adds, 
that “he then immediately and readily went to 
the altar to be sacrificed.” Nor did Jephthah (d) 
perform his rash vow, whatever it were, till his 
daughter had given her consent to it. 

8. It appears to me that Abraham never de- 
spaired entirely of the interposition of Provi- 
dence for the preservation of Isaac, although 
- in obedience to the command he prepared to 
sacrifice him to God. This seems to me inti- 
mated in Abraham’s words to his servants on 
the third day, when he was in sight of the 
' mountain on which he was to offer his son 
Isaac; (e) “We will go and worship, and we 
will come again to you.” As also in his an- 
swer to his son, when he inquired, “Behold 
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb 
for a burnt offeringr” And Abraham said, 
“My son, God will provide himself a lamb for 
a burnt-offering.” Both these passages look 
to me, somewhat like such an expectation. 
However, 

9. It appears most evident, that Abraham, 
and I suppose Isaac also, firmly believed, that 
if God should permit Isaac to be actually slain 
as a sacrifice, he would certainly and speedily 
raise him again from the dead. This, to be 
sure, is supposed in the words already quoted, 
that both “he and his son would go and wor- 
ship, and come again to the servants:” and is 
clearly and justly collected from this history 
by the author to the Hebrews, chap. xi. 17, 18, 
19. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, 
offered up Isaac, and-he that had received the 
promises offered up his only begotten, of whom 
it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be call- 
ed; accounting, or reasoning, that God was 
able to raise him from the dead.” Anc this 
reasoning was at once very obvious, and 
wholly undeniable; that since God was truth 
itself, and had over and over promised that he 
would (f) “multiply Abraham exceedingly; 
that he should be a father of many nations; 
that his name should be no longer Abram, but 


Abraham, because a father of many nations. 


God had made him, &c.; that Sarai his wife 
should be called Sarah; that he would bless 
her, and give Abraham a son also of her; and 
ahat he would bless him, and she should be- 


(5) 1 Clem. sect. 31. 
(d) Ludges xi. 36, 37. 
(f) Gen. xvii. 2—6, | 


(c) Antiq. b. i. ck, xiii. sect. 3. 
(e) Gen. xxii. 5, 7. 


759 


come nations, and kings of people should be 
of her, &c.; and that (g¢) in Isaac should hie 
seed be called.” And since withall it is here 
supposed, that Isaac was to be slain as a sacri- 
fice, before he was married, or had any seed 
God was, for certain, obliged by his promises 
in these circumstances, to raise Isaac again 
from the dead; and this was an eminent in- 
stance of that faith whereby (hk) “Abraham be- 
lieved God, and it was imputed to him for 
righteousness,” wz: that if God should permit 
Isaac to be sacrificed, he would certainly and 
quickly raise him up again from the dead, (2) 
“from whence also he received him in 8 
figure,” as the author to the Hebrews here 
justly observes. 

10. That the firm and just foundation of 
Abraham’s faith and assurance in God for such 
a resurrection, was this, besides the general 
consideration of the divine veracity, that dur- 
ing the whole time of his sojourning in strange 
countries, in Canaan and Egypt, ever since he 
had been called out of Chaldea or Mesopota- 
mia at seventy-five years of age, he had (k) 
had constant experience of a special, of an 
overruling, of a kind and gracious providence 
over him, till this his 125th year, which against 
all human views had continually blessed him, 
and enriched him, and, in his elder age, had 
given him first Ishmael by Hagar, and after- 
ward promised him Isaac to (/) spring from his 
own body now dead, (m) and froin the dead- 
ness of Sarah’s womh, when she was past age, 
and when it ceased to be with Sarah after the 
manner of women, (n) and had actually per- 
formed that and every other promise, how im- 
probable soever that performance had appeared, 
he had ever made to him, and this during fifty 
entire years together; so that although at his 
first exit out of Chaldea, or Mesopotamia, he 
might have been tempted to stagger at such a 
promise of God through unbelief, (0) yet might 
he now, after fifty years’ constant experience, 
be justly “strong in faith, giving glory to God: 
as being fully persuaded, that what God had 
promised,” the resurrection of Isaac, “he was 
both able and willing to perform.” 

11. That this assurance, therefore, that God, 
if he permitted Isaac to be slain, would infalli- 
bly raise hiin ayain from the dead, entirely 
alters the state of the case of Abraham’s sacri- 
ficing Isaac to the true God, from that of all 
other human sacrifices whatsoever offered. te 
false ones, all those others being done without 
the least promise or prospect of such a resur- 
rection; and this indeed takes away all pre 
tence of injustice in the divine command, as 
well as of all inhumanity or cruelty in Abra- 
ham’s obedience to it. 

12, That, upon the whole, this command te 
Abraham, and what followed upon it, Ileoks se 
very like an intention of God to typify .r re 
present beforehand in Isaac, “a beloved,” or 
“only begotten son,” what was to happen lon 
afterwards to the great “Son and Seed o 


(A) Gen. xv. 6. 
(k) Gen. xii. 4. 
(mn) Heb. xi. 1) 
(o) Rom. iv. 20, 2° 


g) Gen. xxi. 12. 
(t) Heb, xi. 19. 

(lt) Rom. iv. 19. 
(n) Gen. xviil. It. 


760 . DISSERTATION IL eee 


Aoraiam,” the Messiah, the beloved and “the 
only degotten of the Father,whose day Abraham 
saw by faith beforehand, and rejoiced to see it,” 
(p) viz. that “he by the determinate counsel and 
Rrckrigvelndos of God should be crucified and 
slain,” (q‘ as a sacrifice, and should “be raised 
again the third day,” and this at Jerusalem also; 
and that in the mean time, God would accept 
of the sacrifices of rams, and the like animals, 
at the same city Jerusalem, that one cannot 
easily avoid the application. This seems the 
reason why Abraham was obliged to go to the 
land of Moriah, or Jerusalem, and why it is 
noted, that it was “the third day” (r) that he 
came to the place, which implies that the re- 
turn back, after the slaying of the sacrifice, 
would naturally be “the third day” also: and 
why this sacrifice was not Ishmael “the son of 
the flesh,” ofly, but Isaac the son by promise, 
(s) the beloved son of Abraham, and why Isaac 
was styled the only son, or only begotten 
son of Abraham, though he had Ishmael be- 
sides; and why Isaac himself was to bear the 
wood on which he was to be sacrificed, (¢) and 
why the place was no other than the laid of 
Moriah, (u) or vision, i. e. most probably a 
place where the Shechinah or Messiah had 
been seen, and God by him worshiped, even 
before the days of Abraham, and where lately 
lived, and perhaps now lived, Melchisedek, the 
grand type of the Messiah, (who might then pos- 
sibly be present at the sacrifice,) and why this 
sacrifice was to be offered either on the mountain 
called afterward distinctly Moriah, where the 
temple stood, and where all the Mosaic sacrifices 
were afterward to be offered, as Josephus(v) and 
the generality suppose, or perhaps, as others sup- 
pose, that where the Messiah himself was to be 
offered, its neighbor mount Calvary. Thisseems 
also the reason why the ram was substituted as 
a vicarious sacrifice instead of Isaac. These 
circumstances seem to me very peculiar and 
extraordinary, and to render the present hypo- 
thesis extremely probable. Nor perhaps did 
St. Clement mean any thing else, when in his 
forecited passage he says, that “Isaac was fully 
persuaded of what he knew was to come,” 
and therefore “cheerfully yielded himself up 
for a sacridice.” Nor indeed does that name of 
this place, Jehovah-Jireh, which continued 
till the days of Moses, and signified, God will 
see, or rather, God will provide, seem to be 
given it by Abraham, or any other account, 
than that God would there, in the fulness of 
time “provide himself a lamb {that Lamb of 
God (w) which was to take away the sins of the 
world] for a burnt-offering.” 

But now, if, after all, it be objected, that how 
peculiar, and how typical soever the circum- 
stances of Abraham and Isaac might be in 
themselves, of which the heathens about them 
could have little notion, yet such a divine com- 
mand to Abraham for slaying his beloved son 
fsaac, must however be of very ill example tothe 


(p) John viii. 56. (q) Acts ii. 23. 
Or) Gen. xxil. 2, 4. (s) Heb. xi. 17. 
“$) Gen. xxi. 6. (u) John xix. 17. 


9) Antiq. b.i os. xiii. sect. 2. (w) John i. 29. 


Gentile world, s12. that it probably did either 
first occasion, or at least greatly encourage — 
their wicked practices in offering their children — 
for sacrifices to their idols, I answer by the next — 
consideration: . = 
13. That this objection is so far from truth, — 
that God’s public and miraculous prohibition — 
of the execution of this command to Abraham, 
(which command itself the Gentiles would not 
then at all be surprised at, because it was se ? 
like to their own usual practices,) as well ap f' 
God’s substitution of a vicarious oblation, seem 4 
y 

* 

Py 

; 







to have been the very occasion of the imme- 
diate abolition, of those impious sacrifices by 
Tethmosis or Amosis, among the neighboring 
Egyptians, and of the substitution of more in- 
offensive ones there instead of them. Take. 
the account of this abolition, which we shall 
presently prove was about the time of Abra- 
ham’s offering up his son Isaae, as it is preserv- 
ed by Porphyry, from Manetho, the farnous 
Egyptian historian and chronologer, which 
is also cited from Porphyry, by Eusebius 
and Theodoret: “Amosis, (r) says Porphyry, 
abolished the law for slaying of men in Heli- 
opolis of Egypt, as Manetho bears witness in 
his book of Antiquity and Piety. They were 
sacrificed to Juno, and were examined, as were 
the pure calves, that were also sealed with them; 
they were sacrificed three in a day. In whose 
stead Amosis commanded that men of wax, of 
the same number should be substituted.” 

Now I have lately shown, that these Egyp- 
tians had Abraham in great veneration, and that 
all the wisdom of those Egyptians, in which Mo 
ses was afterward learned, was derived from no 
other than from Abraham. Now it appears - 
evidently by the forecited passage, that the first 
abolition of these human sacrifices, and the 
substitution of waxen images in their stead, 
and particularly at Heliopolis, in the northeast 
part of Egypt, in the neighborhood of Beer- 
sheba, in the south of Palestine, where Abra- 
ham now lived, at the distance of about a hun 
dred and twenty miles only, was, in the days, 
and by the order of Tethmosis or Amosis, who 
was the first of the Egyptian kings, after the 
expulsion of the Phoenician shepherds. Now 
therefore, we are to inquire, when this Teth- 
mosis or Amosis lived, and compare his time 
with the time of the sacrifice of Isaac. Now, 
if we look into my chronological table, pub- 
lished A. D. 1721, we shall find that the bun- 
dred and twenty-fifth year of Abraham, or, 
which is all one, the twenty-fifth year of Isaac, 
falls into A. M. 2573, or into the thirteenth year 
of Tethmosis or Amosis, which is the very 
tniddle of his twenty-five years’ reign; so that 
this abolition of human sacrifices in Egypt, 
and substitution of others in their room, seems 
to have been occasioned by the solemn pro- 
hibition of such a sacrifice in the case of Ab- 
raham, and by the following substitution of a 
ram in its stead: which account of this matter — 
not only takes away the groundless suspicions _ 
of the moderns, but shows the great seasona- 
bleness of the divine prohibition of the execu- 

(z) Marsh. p. 301. 





DISSERTATION I" 


76: 


__ thon of this command to Abraham, as proba-| sacrifices, and that for many, if not for all gene» 
__ bly the direct occasion of putting a stop to the | rations afterward. 
_ barbarity of the Egyptians in offering human 


4. 


fo 


DISSERTATION III. 
Tacitus’s accounts of the i of the Jewish nation, and of the particulars of the last Jeunsh War, 
a 


that the former was pr rb 


was for certain almost all directly taken from Josephus’s 


ly written in opposition to Josephus’s Antiquities, and that the latter 


astory of the Jewish War 





Since Tacitus, the famous Roman historian, 
who has written more largely and professedly 
about the origin of the Jewish nation, about 
the chorography of Judea, and the last Jewish 
war, under Cestius, Vespasian, and Titus, than 
any other old Romea historian; and since both 
Josephus and Tacitus were in favor with the 
same Roman emperors, Vespasian, Titus, and 
Domitian; and since Tacitus was an eminent 
pleader and writer of history at Rome, during 
the time, or not long after our Josephus had 
been there studying the Greek language, read- 
ing the Greek books, and writing his own 
works in the same Greek language, which 
language was almost universally known at 
Rome in that age; and since therefore it is next 
to impossible to suppose that Tacitus could be 
unacquainted with the writings of Josephus, it 
cannot but be highly proper to compare their 
accounts of Judea, of the Jews, and of Jewish 
affairs together. Nor is it other than a very 
surprising paradox to me, how it has been 
possible for learned men, particularly for the 
several learned editors of Josephus and Tacitus, 
to be so very silent about this matter as they 
have hitherto been, especially when not only 
the correspondence of the authors as to time 
and place, but the likeness of the subject mat- 
ter, and circumstances, is so very remarkabie: 
nay, indeed, since many of the particular facts 
belonged peculiarly to the region of Judea, and 
to the Jewish nation, and are such as could 
hardly be taken by a foreigner from any other 
author than from our Josephus, this strange si- 
lence is almost unaccountable, if not inexcusa- 
ole. The two only other writers whom we 
know of, whence such Jewish affairs might 
be supposed to be taken by Tacitus, who never 
appears to have been in Judea himself, -as Jus- 
tus of Tiberias, a Jewish historian, contempo- 
rary with Josephus, and one Antonius Julia- 
nus, once mentioned by Minutius Felix, in his 
Octavius, sect. 33, as having written on the 
same subject with Josephus, and both already 
mentioned by me on another occasion, Dissert. 
L Asto Justus of Tiberias, he could not be the 
historian whence Tacitus took his Jewish 
affairs, because, as we have seen in the 
place just cited, the principal passage in Taci- 
tus of that nature, concerning Christ, and his 


sufferings under the emperor Tiberius, and by. 


bis procurator Pontius Pilate, was not there, as 
we know from the testimony of Photius, Cod. 
xxx. And as to Antonius Julianus, his very 
name shows him not to have been a Jew, but a 
Roman. He is never mentioned by Josephus, 
and so probably knew no more of the country or 


affairs of Judea than Tacitus himself. He was 
I suppose, rather an epitomizer of Josephus, 
and not so early as Tacitus, than an original 
historian himself before him. Nor could so 
exact a writer as Tacitus ever take up with 
such poor and almost unknown historians ag 
these were, while Josephus’s seven books of 
the Jewish War were then so common; were 
in such great reputation at Rome; were attest- 
ed to, and recommended by Vespasian and 'Ti- 
tus, the emperors, by king Agrippa, and king 
Archelaus, and Herod, king of Chalcis; and he 
was there honored with a statue; and these 
his books were deposited at the public library 
at Rome, as we know from Josephus himself, 
from Eusebius, and Jerome, while we never 
heard of any other of the Jews that had then 
and there any such attestations or recommend- 
ations. Some things indeed Tacitus might 
take from the Roman records of this war, I 
mean from the commentaries of Vespasian, 
which are mentioned by Josephus himself, in 
his own Life, sect. 65, and some others from 
the relations of Roman people, where the af- 
fairs of Rome were concerned; as also other 
affairs might be remembered by old officers and- 
soldiers that had been in the Jewish war. Ac 

cordingly, I still suppose that 'Tacitus had some 
part of his information these ways, and par- 
ticularly where he a little differs from, or makes 
additions to Josephus; but then, as this will all 
reach no further than three or four years du- 
ring this war, so will it by no means account 
for that abridgment of the geography of the 
country, and entire series of the principal facts 
of history thereto relating, which are in Taci- 
tus, from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
240 years before the war; with which Antio- 
chus, both Josephus and Tacitus begin their 
distinct histories of the Jews, preparatory to 
the history of this last war. Nor could Taci- 
tus take the greatest part of those earlier facts 
belonging to the Jewish nation from the days 
of Moses, or to Christ and Christians in the days 
of Tiberius, from Roman authors; of which 
Jewish and Christian affairs those authors had 
usually very little knowledge, and which the 
heathens generally did grossly pervert and 
shamefully falsify; and this is so true as to 'Ta- 
citus’s own accounts of the origin of the Jew- 


‘ish nation, that the reader may almost take it 


for a constant rule, that when Tacitus contra- 
dicts Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities, he either 
tells direct falsehoods, or truths so miserably 
disguised, as renders them little better than 
falsehoods, and hardly ever lights upon a 
thing relating to them that is true and soli 






7e2 DISSERTATION Il. . 


but when the same is in those Antiquities at 
this day, of which matters more will be said 
in the notes on this history immediately fol- 


their.present miseries. They agreed to it; ane 


though they were unacquainted with every 
thing, they began their journey at randotn, 





lowing. 


History or THE JEws.—Book V. Chap. II. 
Since we are now going to relate the final 
period of this famous city [Jerusalem,] it seems 
roper to give an account of its original. (y) 
The tradition is, tha: the Jews ran away from 
tra island of Crete, and settled themselves on 
the coast of Libya, and this at the time when 
Saturn was driven out of his kingdom by the 
power of Jupiter: an argument for it is fetched 
The mountain Ida is famous 
in Crete, and the neighboring inhabitants are 
named Idi, which, with a barbarous augment, 
becomes the name of Judei [Jews.] Some 
say they were a people that were very numer- 
ous in Egypt under the reign of Isis, and that 
the Egyptians got free from that burden, by 
sending them into the adjacent countries, un- 
der their captains Hierosolymus and Judas, 
The greatest part, say they, were those Ethio- 
pians whom fear and hatred obliged to change 
their habitations, in the reign of king Cepheus. 
(z) There are those who report that they were 
Assyrians, who, wanting lands, got together, and 
obtained part of Egypt, and soon afterward 
settled themselves in cities of their own, in the 
land of the Hebrews, and the parts of Syria 
that lay nearest to them.(a) Others pretend 
their origin to be more eminent, and that the 
Solymi, a people celebrated in Homer’s poems, 
were the founders of this nation, and gave this 
their own name, Hierosolyma, to the city which 


from their name. 


they built there. (b) 


Cuap. IIT.) Many authors agree, that when 
once an infectious distemper was arisen in 
Egypt, and made men’s bodies impure, Boc- 
choris their king went to the oracle of [Jupiter] 
Hammon, and begged he would grant him 
some relief against this evil; and that he was 
enjoined to purge his nation of them, and to 
Jranish this kind of men into other countries 
as hateful to the gods.(c) That when he had 
sought for, and gotten them all together, they 
were left in a vast desert: that hereupon the 
rest devoted themselves to weeping and inac- 
tivity; but one of those exiles, Moses by name, 
advised them to look for no assistance from any 
of the gods, or from any of mankind; since 
they had been abandoned by both, but bade 
them believe in him as in a celestial leader. (d) 

y whose help they had already gotten clear of 


(y) Most of these stories are so entirely groundless and 
#0 contradictory to one another, that they do not deserve 
& serious confutation. It is strange Tacitus could persuade 
himself thus crudely to set them down. 

(z) One would wonder how Tacitus or any heathen could 
suppose the African Ethiopians under Cepheus, who are 
known o be blacks, could be the parents of the Jews, who 
are known to be whites. 

(a) This account comes nearest the truth; and this Taci- 
tus might have from Josephus, only disguised by himself. 

(6) This Tacitus might have out of Josephus, Antiq. b. 
vii. chap. iii. sect. 2. 

(c) Strange doctrine to Josephus! who truly observes on 
this occasion, that the gods are angry notat bodily imperfec- 
tions, but at wicked practices. Apion, b. i. sect. 28. 

(d) This believing in Moses as in a celestial leader, seems 
# blind confession of Tacitus that Moses professed to have 
bls laws from God. 









































as conjecturing that there was thereabouts} 
some grassy soil, and so he opened 
of water for them. (e) That was an ease te 


ally six entire days, (f) on the seventh day they 
drove out the inhabitants, and obtained those 
lands wherein their city and temple were dedi- 
cated. 

Cuar. IV.] As for Moses, in order to secure 
the nation firmly to himself, he ordained new 
rites, and such as were contrary to those of 
other men. All things are with them profane 
which with us are sacred; and again, those 
practices are allowed among them which are 
by us esteemed most abominably. (g+) 

They place the image of that animal in their 
most holy places, by whose indication it was 
that they had escaped their wandering condi- 
tion and their thirst. (h) 

They sacrifice the rams by way of reproack 
to [Jupiter] Hammon. An ox is also sacri- 
ficed, which the Egyptians worship under the 
name of Apis, (t) 

They abstain from swine’s flesh, as a memo- 
rial of that miserable destruction which the 
mange, to which that creature is liable, brought 
on them, and with which they had been defi- 
ed. (k . 

That they had endured a long famine they 
attest still by their frequent fastings. (1) And 
that they stole the fruits of the earth, we have 
an argument from the bread of the Jews, which 
is unleavened. (m) 

It is generally supposed that they rest on 
the seventh day, (n) because that day gave them 
[the first] rest from their labors. Besides 
which they are idle on every seventh year, (0) 


(e) This looks also like a plain confession of Tacitus, 


that Moses brought the Jews water out of a rock in great 
plenty, which he might have from Josephus, Antiq. b. iii. 
ch.i. sect. 7. 

(f) Strange indeed! that 600,000 men should travel above 
200 miles over the deserts of Arabia in six days, and conquer 
Judea the seventh. 

(g) This is not true in general, but only so far, that the 
Israelites were by circumcision and other rites to be kept 
separate from the wicked and idolatrous nations about them, 

(4) This strange story contradicts what the same Tacitus 
will tell us presently, that when Pompey went into the holy 
of holies he found no image there. 

(i) These are only guesses of Tacitus or of his heathen 
authors, but no more. 

(k) Such memorials of what must have been very re 
proachful, are strangers to the rest of mankind, and withom 
any probability. 

(1) The Jews had but one solemn fast of old in the wi.ale 
year, the great day of expiation. 

(m) Unleavened bread was ouly used at the passover. 

(n) It is very strange that Tacitus should not know or con- 
fess that the Jews? seventh day, and seventh year of rest 
were in memory of the seventh, or Sabbath-day’s rest, after 
the six days of creation. Every Jew, as well as every Chris- 
tian, could have informed of him those matters. ~ 


(0) A strange hypothesis of the origin of the sabbatie — 
year, and all without good foundation. Tacitus probable 
had never heard of the Jews’ year of Jubilee, so he says 
nothing of it. 


But nothing tired them so much as the want 
of water; and now they laid themselves down 
on the ground to a great extent, as just ready — 
to perish, when an herd of wild asses caine 
from feeding, and went to a rock oyershadow- 
ed by a grove of trees. Moses followed them, 


rge sources — 


them; and when they had journeyed continu-— 


‘ 
' 





— a | 


a ea ee ee 


%, 









DISSERTATION ITI. 


»as being pleased with a lazy life. Others say, 
that they do honor thereby to Saturn;(p) or 
perhaps the Idzi gave them this part of their 
religion, who [as we said above] were expelled, 
together with Saturn, and who, as we have 
been informed, were the founders of this na- 
tion; or else it was because the star Saturn 
moves in the highest orb, and of the seven 
planets exerts the principal part of that energy 
whereby mankind are governed; and indeed 
most of the heavenly bodies exert their power, 
and perform their courses according to the 
number of seven. (q) 

Cuar. V.] These rites, by what manner so- 
ever they were first begun, are supported by 
their antiquity.(r) The rest of their institutions 
are awkward, (s) impure, and got ground by 
their pravity; for every vile fellow, despising 
the rights of his forefathers, brought thither 
- their tribute and contributions, by which means 
the Jewish commonwealth was augmented. 
And because among themselves there is an un- 
alterable fidelity and kindness, always ready 
at hand, but bitter enmity towards all others; (¢) 
they are a people separated from others in their 
food, and in their beds; though they be the 
lewdest nation upon earth, yet will they not 
corrupt foreign women, (w) though nothing be 
esteemed unlawful among themselves. (v) 

‘They have ordained circumcision of the part 
used in generation, that they may thereby be 
distinguished from other people: the prose- 
lytes(w) to their religion have the same usage. 

They are taught nothing sooner than to des- 
pise the gods, to renounce their country, and 
to have their parents, children, and brethren, 
in the utmost contempt; (2) but still they take 
care to increase and multiply, for it is esteem- 
ed utterly unlawful to kill any of their children. 

They also look on the souls of those that die 
in battle, or are put to death for their crimes, 
as eternal. Hence comes their love of posteri- 
ty and contempt of death. 

They derive their custom of burying (y) in- 


(p) As if the Jews, in the days of Moses, or long before, 
knew that the Greeks and Romans would long afterward call 
the seventh day of the week Saturn’s day; which Dio ob- 
serves was not so called of old time; and it is a question 
whether before the Jews fell into idolatry, they ever heard 
of such a star or god as Saturn. Amos v. 25; Acts vii. 43. 

(q) That the sun, moon, and stars, rule over the affairs of 
mankind, wasa heathen and not a Jewish notion: neither 
Jews nor Christians were permitted to deal in astrology, 
though Tacitus seems to have been deep in it. 

(r) This acknowledgment of the antiquity of Moses, and 
of his Jewish settlement, was what the heathen cared not 
always to own. ree 

(s) What these pretended awkward and impure institu- 
tions were, Tacitus does not inform us. 

(t) Josephus shows the contrary, as to the laws of Moses, 
ontr. Apion, book ii. sect. 22. \ 

(u) A high, and I doubt, a false condemnation of the Jews, 

(v) An entirely false character, and contrary to their many 
‘aws against uncleanness. See Josephus, Antiq. b. iii. chap. 
ai. sect. 12. : 

(wv) The proselytes of justice only, not the proselytes of 
the gate. yal 

(x) How does this agree with that unalterable fidelity and 
kindness which Tacitus told us the Jews had towards one 
another? unless he only means that they preferred the divine 
eommands before their nearest relations, which is the high- 
est degree of Jewish and Christian piety. 

(y) This custom is at least as old among the Hebrews as 
she days of Abraham, and tlie cave of Machpelah long be- 
fore the Israelites wentinto Egypt. Gen. xxiii. 1—-20; xxv. 
&—10. 


TSS 
stead of burning their dead from the Egyptiane 
they have also the same care of the dead with 
them, and the same persuasion about the in 
visible world below; but of the gods above, 
their opinion is contrary to theirs. "The Egyp- 
tians worship abundance of animals, and ima- 
ges of various sorts. 

The Jews have no notion of any more than 
one Divine Being, (z) and that known only by 
the mind. They esteem such to be profane 
who frame images of gods out of perishable 
matter, and in the shape of men. That this 
Being is supreme, and eternal, and immutable, 
and unperishable is their doctrine. According- 
ly, they have no images in their cities, much 
less in their temples: they never grant this 
piece of flattery to kings, or this kind of ho- 
nor to emperors.(¢) But because their priests, 
when they play on the pipe and timbrels, wear 
ivy round their head, and a golden vine has 
been found in their temple,(b) some have 
thought that they worshiped our father Bac- 
chus, the conqueror of the East; whereas the 
ceremonies of the Jews do not atall agree with 
those of Bacchus, for he appointed rites that 
were of a jovial nature, and fit for festivals, 
while the practices of the Jews are absurd and 
sordid. 

Cuap. VI.] The limits of Judea easterly are 
bounded by Arabia: Egypt lies on the south; on 
the west are Phoenicia and the [great] sca. 
They have a prospect of Syria on the north 
quarter, as at some distance from them. (c) 

The bodies of the men are healthy, end such 
as will bear great labors. 

They have not many showers of rain: their 
soil is very fruitful: the produce of their Jand 
is like ours in great plenty. (d) 

They have also, besides ours, two trees pecu- 
liar to themselves, the balsam tree and the palm 
tree. Their groves of palms are tall and beau- 
tiful. The balsam tree is not very large. As 
soon as any branch is swelled, the veins quake 
as for fear, if you bring an iron knife to cut 
them. They are to be opened with a broken 
piece of a stone, or with the shell of a fish. 
The juice is useful in physic. 

Libanus is their principal mountain, and is 
very high, and yet, what is very strange to be 
related, it is almost shadowed with trees, and 
never free from snow.’ The same mountain 


(z) These are very valuable concessions, which Tacitus 
here makes, as to the unspotted piety of the Jewish nation, 
in the worship of one infinite, invisible God, and absolute 
rejection of all idolatry, and of all worship of images, nay, 
of the image of the emperor Caius himself, or of affording 
it a place in the temple. 

(a) All these concessions were to be learned from Jose- 
phus, and almost only from him; out of whom, therefore, | 
conclude Tacitus took the finest part of his character of the 
Jews. 

(b) This particular fact, that, there was a golden vine in 
the front of the Jewish temple, was m all probability taken 
by Tacitus out of Josephus: but as tie Jewish priests were 
never adorned with ivy, the signal of Bacchus, how Tacitus 
came to imagine this, I cannot tell. 

(c) See the chorography of Judea in Josephus, Of the 
War, b. iii. sect. 3; whence most probably Tacitus framed 
this short abridgment of it. It comes in both authors na- 
turally before Vespasian’s first campaign. 

(d) The latter branch of this, Tacitus might have from Jo 
sephus, Of the War, b. iii. ch. iii. sect. 2,3,4 The other 
is not in the present copies. 


764 


supplies the river Jordan with water, and af- 
fords it its fountains also. Nor is this Jordan 
carried into the sea; it passes through one and 
a second lake, undiminished, but it is stopped 
by the third. te) 

This third lake is vastly great in circumfe- 
rence, as if it were a sea. (f) It is of an ill taste, 
and is pernicious to the adjoining inhabitants 
by its strong smell. The wind raises no waves 
there, nor will it maintain either fishes or such 
birds as use the water. The reason is uncer- 
tain, but the fact is thus, that bodies cast into it 
are borne up as by somewhat solid. Those 
who «an, and those who cannot swim, are 
equally borne up by it.(g) At acertain time of 
the year it casts out bitumen;(h) the manner of 
gathering it, like other arts, has been taught by 
experience. The liquor is of its own nature 
of a black color; and, if you pour vinegar upon 
it, it clings together, and swims upon the top. 
Those whose business it is, take it into their 
hands, and pull it into the upper parts of the 
ship, after which it follows, without further 
attraction, and fills the ship full, till you cut it 
off; nor can you cut it off either with a brass 
‘Or an iron instrument; but it cannot bear 
the touch of blood, or of a cloth wet with 
the menstrual purgations of women, as the 
ancient authors say. But those that are ac- 
quainted with the place assure us that those 
waves of bitumen are driven along, and by 
the hand drawn to the shore, and that when 
they are dried by the warm steams from the 
earth, and the force of the sun, they are cut in 
pieces with axes and wedges, as timber and 
stones are cut in pieces. 

Cuap. VII.] Not far from this lake are thos: 
plains which are related to have been of old 
fertile, and to have had many cities full of peo- 
ple, (t) but to have been burnt up by a stroke 
of lightning; it is also said, that the footsteps 
of that destruction still remain, and that the 
earth itself appears as burnt earth, and has lost 
its natural fertility; and that as an argument 
thereof, all the plants that grow of their own 
accord, or are planted by the hand, whether 
they arrive at the degree of an herb, or of a 
flower, or at complete maturity, become black 
and empty, and as it were vanish into ashes, 
As for myself, as I am willing to allow that 
these once famous cities were burnt by fire 
from heaven, so would I suppose that the earth 
is infected with the vapor of the lake, and the 
spirit [or air] that is over it thereby corrupted, 


(v) These accounts of Jordan, of its fountains derived 
from Mount Libanus, and of the two lakes it runs through, 
and its stoppage by the third, are exactly agreeable to Jose- 
phus; Of the War, b. iii. ch. x. sect. 7, 8. 

(f) No less than 580 furlongs long and 150 broad, in Jose- 
pous; Of the War, b. iv. ch. viii. sect. 4. 

(g) Strabo says, that a man could not sink into the water 
of this lake so deep as the navel. 

(i) Josephus never says that this bitumen was cast out at 
8 certain time of the year only, and Strabo says the direct 
contrary, but Pliny agrees with Tacitus. 

(i) This is exactly according to Josephus, and must have 
ween taken from him in the place forecited, and that particu- 
larly because itis peculiar to him, so far as I know, in all 
antiquity. The rest thought the cities were in the very same 
piace, where now the lake is, but Josephus and Tacitus say 
they were in its neighborhood only, which is Mr. Reland’s 
opinion also 


DISSERTATION ITI. 


and that by this means the fruits of the eart! 
both corn and grapes, rot away, both the so 
and the air being equally unwholesome. 


The river Belus does also run into the sckont 2 
Judea, and the sands that are collected about 


its mouth, when they mix nitre with them, are 


melted into glass: this sort of shore is but small, — 
but its sand, for the use of those that carry it — 


off, is inexhaustible. 

Cuap. VIII.] A great part of Judea is com- 
posed of scattered villages; it has also larger 
towns: Jerusalem is the capital city of the 
whole nation. In that city there was a temple 
of immense wealth; in the first parts that are 
fortified are the city itself, next it the royal 
palace. The temple is inclosed in its most in- 
ward recesses. A Jew can come no farther 
than the gates; all but the priests are excluded 
by their threshold. While the Past was under 
the dominion of the Assyrians, the Medes, and 







the Persians, the Jews were of all slaves the 


most despicable. (k) 

(1) After the dominion of the Macedonians 
prevailed, king Antiochus tried to conquer thei 
superstition, and to introduce the customs of 
the Greeks; but he was disappointed of his 
design, which was to give this most profligate 
nation a change for the better, and that was by 
his war with the Parthians, for at this time Ar- 
saces had fallen off Ears the Macedonians. } 
Then it was that the Jews set kings over them, 
because the Macedonians were become weak, 
the Parthians were not yet very powerful, and 
the Romans were very remote: which kings 
when they had been expelled by the mobility 
of the vulgar, and had recovered their domin- 
ion by war, attempted the same things that 
kings used to do, I mean they introduced the 
destruction of cities, the slaughter of brethren, 
of wives, and parents, but still went on in their 
superstition; for they took upon them witha! 
the honorable dignity of the high priesthood, 
as a firm security to their power and authority. 

Cuap. [X.] The first of the Romans that 
conquered the Jews was Caius Pompieus, who 
entered the temple by right of victory. Thetce 
the report was everywhere divulged, that there- 
in was no image of a god, but an empty place, 
and mysteries, most secret places that have no- 
thing in them. The walls of Jerusalem were 
then destroyed, but the temple continued still. 
Soon afterward arose a civil war among us 
and when therein these provinces were reduced 
under Marcus Antonius, Pacorus, king of the 
Parthians, got possession of Judea, but was him- 
self slain by Paulius Ventidius, and the Par- 
thians were driven beyond Euphrates, and for 
the Jews, Caius Sosius subdued them. Antoni- 
us gave the kingdom to Herod: and when Augus- 
tus conquered Antonius, he still augmented it. 

After Herod’s death, one Simon, without 
waiting for the disposition of Casar, took upon 
him the title of king, who was brought to pun- 


(k) A great slander against the Jews, without any just 
foundation. Josephus would have informed him better. 
(1) Here begins Josephus’ and Tacitus’s true accounts of 


the Jews preliminary to the last war. See Of the War 


Proem. sect. 7 





by 


DISSERTATION IIL. 


ishtnent by [or under] Quintilius Varus, when 
he was president of Syria. Afterward the na- 
tion was reduced, and the children of Herod 
governed it in three partitions. 

Under Tiberius the Jews had rest. After 
some time they were enjoined to place Caius 
Ceesar’s statue in the temple; but rather than 
permit that, they took up arms; (m) which sedi- 
tion was put an end to by the death of Cesar. 

Claudius, after the kings were either dead 
or reduced to smaller dominions, gave the pro- 
vince of Judea to Roman knights, or to freed 
men, to be governed by them. Among whom 
was Antonius Felix, one that exercised all kinds 
of barbarity and extravagance, as if he had 
royal authority, but with the disposition of a 
slave. He had married Drusilla the grand- 
daughter of Antonius, so that Felix was the 
granddaughter’s husband and Claudius the 
grandson of the same Antonius. 


Annat.—Book XII. 


But he that was the brother of Pallas, whose 
sirname was Felix, did not act with the same 
moderation [as did Pallas himself] He had 
been a good while ago set over Judea, and 
thought he might be guilty of all sorts of wick- 
_edness with impunity, while he relied on so 
sure an authority. 

The Jews had almost given a specimen of 
sedition: and even after the death of Caius was 
known, and they had not obeyed his command, 
there remained a degree of fear, lest some fu- 
ture prince should renew that command, [for 
the setting up the prince’s statue in their tem- 
ple.}] And in the mean time Felix, by the use 
of unseasonable remedies, blew up the coals of 
sedition into a flame, and was imitated by his 
partner in the government, Ventidius Cumanus, 
the country being thus divided between them, 
that the nation of the Galileans were under 
Cumanus, and the Samaritans under. Felix: 
which two nations were of old at variance, but 
now, out of contempt of their governors, did 
jess restrain their hatred: they then began to 
plunder one another, to send in parties of rob- 
bers, to lie in wait, and sometimes to fight bat- 
tles, and withal to bring spoils and prey to the 
procurators, (Cumanus and Felix.} Where- 
upon these procurators began to rejoice: yet 
when the mischief grew considerable, soldiers 
were sent to quiet them, but the soldiers were 
killed; and the province had been in the flame 
of war, had not Quadratus, the president of 
Syria, afforded his assistance. Nor was it long 
in dispute whether the Jews, who had killed 
the soldiers in the mutiny should be put to death: 
it was agreed they should die; only Cumanus 


and Felix occasioned a delay, for Claudius, | 


upon hearing the causes as to this rebellion, 
had given [Quadratus] authority to determine 
the case, even as to the procurators themselves: 
but Quadratus showed Felix among the judges, 


(m) They came to Petronius, the president of Syria, in vast 
numbers, but without arms, and as humble supplicants only; 
gee Tacitus presently, where he afterward sets this matter 
almost right, according to Josephus, and by way of correc- 
tion, for that account is in his annals, which were written 
after this, which is in his histories. 


765 


and took him into his seat of judgment on pur- 
pose that he might discourage his secusers 
So Cumanus was condemned for those flagi- 
tious actions, of which both he and Felix had 
been guilty, and peace was restored to the pro- 
vince. (n) 

Histrory.—Book V. Chap. X. 

However, the Jews had patience till Gessius 
Florus was made procurator. Under him it 
was that the war began. Then Cestius Gallus. 
the president of Syria, attempted to appease ‘t, 
and tried several battles, but generally with iil 
success, 

Upon his death, (0) whether it came by fate 
or that he was weary of his life is uncertain, 
Vespasian had the fortune, by his reputation 
and excellent officers, and a victorious army, 
in the space of two summers, to make himself 
master of all the open country, and of all the 
cities, Jerusalem excepted. 

[Flavius Vespasianus, whom Nero had cho 
sen for his general, managed the Jewish war 
with three legions. Histor. b. i. chap. 10.] 

The next year which was employed in a ci- 
vil war [at home,] so far as the Jews were con- 
cerned, passed over in, peace. When Italy was 
pacified, the care of foreign parts was revived. 
The Jews were the only people that stood out, 
which increased the rage [of the Romans.] It 
was also thought most proper that 'T'itus should 
stay with the army, to prevent any accident or 
misfortune which the new governinent might 
be liable to. 

[Vespasian had put an end to the Jewish 
nation: the siege of Jerusalem wns the only 
enterprise remaining, which was a work hard 
and difficu:t, but rather from the nature of the 
mountain, and the obstinacy of the Jewish super- 
stition, than because the besieged had strength 
enough to undergo the distresses [uf a seige.] 
We have already informed [the reader] that 
Vespasian had with him three legions, well ex- 
ercised in war. Histor. book ii. chap. 5.] 

When Vespasian was a very young man, it 
was promised him that he should arrive at the 
highest pitch of fame: but what did first of all 
seem to confirm the omen, was his triumphs, 
and consulship, and the glories of his victories 
over the Jews, when he had once obtained 
these, he believed it was portended that he 
should come to the empire. (p) 

There is between Judea and Syria a moun- 
tain and a god, both called by the name of Car- 
mel, though our predecessors have informed us 
that this god had no image, and no temple, and 
indeed no more than an altar and solemn wor- 
ship. Vespasian was once offering a sacrifice 
there, at a time when he had some secret 
thought in his mind: the priest, whose nam 
was Basilides, when he over and over lookea 
at the entrails, said, Vespasian, whatever thou 


(n) Here seems to be a great mistake about the Jewish 
affairs in Tacitus; see Of the War, b. ii. ch. xii. sect. 8. 

(0) Josephus says nothing of the death of Cestus; su Taci- 
tus seems to have known nothing in particular about it. 

(p) Josephus takes notice in general of these many omens 
of Vespasian’s advancement te the empire, and distinctly 
adds his own remarkable prediction of it also. Of the War, 
b. iii. chap. viii. sect. 3 


796 


art about, whether the building of thy house | 


or enlargement of thy lands, or augmentation 
of thy slaves, thou art granted a mighty seat, 
very large bounds, a huge number of men. 
These doubtful answers were soon spread 
about by fame, and at this time were explain- 
ed; nor was any thing so much in public vogue, 
and very many discourses of that nature were 
made before him, and the more because they 
foretold what he expected. 

Mucianus and Vespasianus went away, hav- 
ing fully agreed on their designs: the former to 
Antioch, the latter to Ceesarea. Antioch is the 
capital of Syria, and Cesarea the capital of Ju- 
dea. The commencement of Vespasian’s ad- 
vancement to the empire was at Alexandria, 
where Tiberius Alexander made such haste, 
that he obliged the legions to take the oath of 
fidelity to him on the calends of July, which 
was ever aftercelebrated as the day of his in- 
auguration, although (7) the army in Judea had 
taken that oath on the fifth of the nones of Ju- 
ly, with that eagerness that they would notstay 
br his son Titus, who was then on the road, 
returning out of Syria, chap. 79. Vespasian 
delivered over the strongest part of his forces 
to Titus, to enable him to finish what remain- 
ed of the Jewish war. Hist. book iv. chap. 51. 

During these months in which Vespasian 
continued at Alexandria, waiting for the usual 
set time of the summer gales of wind, and 
stayed for settled fair weather at sea, many mi- 
raculous events happened, by which the good 
will of heaven, and a kind of inclination of the 
Deity in his favor, was declared. 

A certain man of the vuigar sort at Alexan- 
dria, well known for the decay of his eyes, 
kneeled down by him and groaned, and beg- 
ged of him the cure of his blindness, as by the 
admonition of Serapis, that god which this su- 
perstitious nation worships above others. He 
also desired that the emperor would be pleased 
to put some of his spittle upon the balls of his 
eyes. Another infirm man there, who was 
lame of his hand, prayed Cesar, as by the same 

od’s suggestion, to tread upon him with his 
oot. Vespasian at first began to laugh at them, 
and to reject them, and when they were instant 
with him, he sometimes feared he should have 
the reputation of a vain person, and sometimes 
upon the solicitation of the infirm, he flattered 
Limself, and others flattered him with the hopes 
of succeeding. At last he ordered the physi- 
cians to give their opinion, whether this sort of 
blindness and lameness were curable by the art 
of man or not? The physicians answered un- 
certainly, that the one had not his visual faculty 
utterly destroyed, and that it might be restored, 
if the obstacles were remioved: that the other’s 
limbs were disordered, but if an healing virtue 
were made use of, they were capable of being 


(q) This although seems to imply that Vespasian was pro- 
elaimed emperor in Judea before he was so proclaimed at 
Alexandria, as the whole history of Josephus implies, and 
the place where now Vespasian was, which was no other 
than Judea, requires also, though the inauguration day might 
be celebrated afterward from his first proclamation at the 
great city Alexandria, only then the nones or ides in Tacitus 
and Suetonius must be of June, and not of July 


DISSERTATION III. 


























uF a a) 


made whole. Perhaps, said they, the gods are — 
willing to assist, and that the emperor is chosen — 
by divine interposition: however, they said at — 
last, that if the cures succeeded, Cesar would 
have the glory, if not, the poor miserable ob- 
jects would only be laughed at. Whereupon 
Vespasian imagined that his good fortune would 
be universal, and that nothing on that account 
could be incredible, so he looked cheerfully and 
in the sight of the multitude, who stood in 
great expectation, he did what they desired 
him: upon which the lame hand was recover- 
ed, and the blind man saw immediately. Both 
these cures (r) are related to this day by those 
that were present, and when speaking falsely 
will get no reward. b 


Boox V.—Cuap. I. , 

At the beginning of the same year, Titus C@- 
sar, who was pitched upon by his father to fin- 
ish the conquest. of Judea, and while both he 
and his father were private persons, was cele- 
brated for his martial conduct, acted now with 
greater vigor, and hopes of reputation, the kind 
inclinations both of the provinces and of the 
armies striving one with another who should 
most encourage him. He was also himself in 
a disposition to show that he was more than 
equal to his fortune; and when he appeared in 
arms, he did all things after such a ready and 
graceful way, treating all after such an affable 
manner, and with such kind words, as invited 
the good will and good wishes of all. He ap- 
peared also in his actions and in his place in 
the troops: he mixed with the common soldiers, 
yet without any stain to his honor as a gene- 
ral.(s) He was received in Judea by three le- 
gions, the fifth, and the tenth, and the fifteenth 
who were Vespasian’s old soldiers. Syria also 
afforded him the twelfth, and Alexandria sol- 
diers out of the twenty-second and twenty-thira 
legions. Twenty cohorts (t) of auxiliaries ac- 
companied, as also eight troops of horse. 

King Agrippa also was there, and king So- 
hemus, and the auxiliaries of king Antiochus, 
and a strong body of Arabians, who as is usual 
in nations that are neighbors to one another, 
went with their accustomed hatred against 
the Jews, with many others out of the city of 
Rome, as every one’s hopes led him of getting 
early into the general’s favor, before others 
should prevent them. 


(r) The miraculous cures done by Vespasian are attested 
to both by Suetonius in Vespasian, sect. 7, and by Dio, p. 
217, and seem to me well attested. Our Savior seems to 
have overruled the heathen oracle of Serapis to procure the 
divine approbation to Vespasian’s advancement to the em- 
pire of Rome, as he suggested the like approbation to the ad- 
vancement both of Vespasian and Titus to Josephus, which 
two were to be his chosen instruments in bringing on that 
terrible destruction upon the Jewish nation, which he had 
threatened to execute by these Roman armies. Nor could 
any other Roman generals than Vespasian and Titus, at that 
time, im human probability, have prevailed over the Jews, 
and destroyed Jerusalem, as this whole history in Josephus 
implies. Josephus also everywhere supposes Vespasian and 
Titus raised up to command against Judea and Jerusale 
and to govern the Roman empire by divine Providence, an 
not in the ordinary way: as also, he always supposes this 
destruction a divine judgment on the Jews for their sirs. 

(#) This character of Titus agrees exactly with the history 
of Josephus upon all occasions. 

(¢) These twenty cohorts and eight troo 
psy enumerated by Josephus, Of the 
sect. 6. 


of hurse are not 
ar, b. v. chap. i 


- 


DISSERTATION IIL. 


He entered into the oorders of the enemies’ 
country with these forces in exact order of war; 
ard looking carefully about him, and being 
ready for battle, he pitched his camp not far 
from Jerusalem. 

Cuap. X.] When, therefore, he had pitched 
his camp, as we said just now, before the walls 
of Jerusalem, he pompously showed his le- 
gions (u) ready for an engagement. 

Cuap. XI.] The Jews formed their camp un- 
der the very walls (v) [of the city;] and if they 
succeeded, they resolved to venture further, but 
if they were beaten back, that was their place 
of refuge. When a body of cavalry (w) were 
sent against them, and with them, cohorts that 
were expedite and nimble, the fight was 
doubtful; but soon afterward the enemy gave 

ound, and on the following days there were 

equent skirmishes before the gates, till after 
many losses they were driven into the city. 
The Romans then betook themselves to the 
siege, for it did not seem honorable to stay till 
the enemies were reduced by famine.(r) The 
soldiers were very eager to expose themselves to 
dangers, part of them out of true valor, many 
out of a brutish fierceness, and out of a desire 
of rewards. 

Titus had Rome, and the riches and plea- 
sares of it, before his eyes, all which seemed to 
be too long delayed, unless Jerusalem could be 
soon destroyed. 

The city (y) stood on a high elevation, and it 
had great works and ramparts to secure it, such 
as were sufficient for its fortification, had it 
been on plain ground, for there were two hills, 
of a vast height, which were enclosed by walls 
made crooked by art, or [naturally] bending in- 
wards, that they might flank the besiegers, and 
cast darts on them sideways. The extreme 
parts of the rock were craggy, and the towers, 
when they had the advantage of the ground, 


- were sixty feet high; when they were built on 


the plain ground, they were not built lower 
than one hundred and twenty feet; they were 
of uncommon beauty, and to those who looked 
at them at a great distance, they seemed equal. 
Other walls there were beneath the royal palace, 
besides the tower of Antonia, with its top par- 
ticularly conspicuous. It was called so by He- 
rod, in honor of Marcus Antonius, 

Cuap. XII.] The temple was like a citadel, 
having walls of its own, which had more labor 
and pains bestowed on them than the rest. 
The cloisters wherewith the temple was enclos- 
ed were an excellent fortification. 


(w) This word in Tacitus, pompously showed his iegions, 
r00ks as if that pompous show which was some months af- 
terward, in Josephus, ran in his mind, Of the War, b. v. 
chap. ix. sect. 1. 


(v) These first bickerings and battles near the walls of 


Jerusalem are at large in Josephus, Of the War, b. v. chap. ii. 

(w) Josephus distinctly mentions these horsemen or caval- 
cy, 600 in number, among whorn Titus had like to have been 
slain or taken prisoner, Of the War, b. v. chap. if. sect. 1---3. 

(z) Such a deliberation and resolution, with this very rea- 
son, that it would he dishonorable to stay till the Jews were 
starved out by famine, is in Josephus, Of the War, b. v. 
chap. xii. sect. 1. 


(y) This description of the city of Jerusalem, 1ts two hills, 


4s three walls, and four towers, &c. are in this place at large 
om Josephus, Of the War, b. v. ch. iv.; see also Pompey’s 
siege, Antiq, b xiv. ch. iv. sect. 2. 


767 


They had a fountain of water that ray per 
petually, and the mountains were hollowed un- 
der ground; they had moreover pools (z) and 
cisterns for the preservation of the rain water. 

They that built this city foresaw, that from 
the difference of their conduct of life from their 
neighbors they should have frequent wars; 
thence it came to pass, that they had provision 
for a long siege. After Pompey’s conquest al- 
so their fear and experience had taught them 
generally what they should want. (a) 

Moreover, the covetous temper that prevail- 
ed under Claudius, gave the Jews an opportu- 
nity of purchasing for money (6) leave to forti- 
fy Jerusalem; so they built walls in time of 
peace, as if they were going to war, they be- 
ing augmented in number by those rude mul- 
titudes of people that retired thither on the 
ruin of the other cities, for every obstinate fel- 
low ran away thither, and there became more 
seditious than before. - 

There were three captains and as many ar- 
mies. Simon had the remotest and largest 
parts of the walls under him. John, who was 
also called Bar-Gioras, [the son of Gioras,] had 
the middle parts of the city under him; and 
Eleazar had fortified the temple itself. John 
and Simon were superior in multitude and 
strength of arms, Eleazar was superior by his 
Situation, but battles, factions, and burnings, 
were common to them all; and a great quantity 
of corn was consumed by fire. After a while 
John sent some, who, under the pretence of of- 
fering sacrifice, might slay Eleazar and his body 
of troops, which they did, and got the temple 
under their power. So the city was now part- 
ed into two factions, until, upon the coming of 
the Romans, this war abroad produced peace 
between those that were at home. 

Cuap. XIII.] Such prodigies (c) had happen- 
ed, as this nation, which is superstitious enough 
in its own way, would not agree to expiate by 
the ceremonies of the Roman religion, nor 
would they atone the gods by sacrifices and 
vows, as these used to do on the like occasions. 
Armies were seen to fight in the sky, and their 
armor looked of a bright light color, and the 
temple shone with sudden flashes of fire out of 
the clouds. The doors of the temple were 
opened on a sudden, and a voice greater than 
human was heard, that the gods were retiring, 
and at the same time there was a great motion 
perceived as if they were going out of 1, 


(z) Of these pools, see Josephus, Of the War, b. v. ch. 
xi. sect. 4. The cisterns are not mentioned by him here. 
though they be mentioned by travellers; see Reland’s Pales- 
tine, tom. 1. p. 304. 

(a) This is Tacitus’s, or the Romans’ own hypothesis, un- 
supported by Josephus. 

-(b) This sale of leave for the Jews to build the walls of 
Jerusalem for money is also T'acitus’s or the Romans’? own 
hypothesis, unsupported by Josephus. Nor is Josephus’s 
character of Claudius near so bad, as to other things alzo, 
asit is in Tacitus and Suetonius. Dio says he was far from 
covetousness in particular. The othersseem to have miisre- 
presented his meek and quiet temper and learning, but with- 
out ambition, and his great kindness to the Jews, as the mos$ 
contemptible folly; see Antiq. b. xix. ch. iv. sect. 4. He 
was, indeed, much ruled at first by a very bad minister 
Pallas; and at last was ruled and poisoned by a very 
wife, Agrippina. 

(c) These prodigies, and more, are at large in Josephisa, 
Of the War. b. vi. chap. v. seet. 3. 


which some esteemed tu be the causes of ter- 
ror. The greater part had a firm belief that it 
was contained in the old sacerdotal books, that 
at this very time the East would prevail, and 
that some that came out of Judea should ob- 
tain the empire of the world, which obscure 
oracle foretold Vespasian and Titus; but the 
generality of the common people, as usual, in- 
dulged their own inclinations, and when they 
had once interpreted all to forbode grandeur to 
themselves, adversity itself could not persuade 
hem to change their minds, though it were 
from falsehood to truth. (d) 


We have been informed, that the number of 


the besieged, of every age, and of both sexes, 
male and female, was six hundred thousand. (e) 
There were weapons for all that could carry 
them, and more than could be expectec, for 
their number were bold enough todo so. The 
men and the women were equally obst.nate; 
and when they supposed they were to be car- 
ried away captive, they were more afreid of 
life than of death. 

Against this city and nation Titus Cesar re- 
solved to fight, by ramparts and ditches, since 
the situation of the place did not admit of 
taking it by storm or surprise. He parted the 
duty among the legions; and there were no fur- 
ther engagements, until whatever had been in- 
vented for the taking of cities by the ancients, 
or by the ingenuity of the moderns, was got 
ready. 

AnnaL.—Boox XV. 

Nero, in order to stifle the rumor, [as af him- 
self had set Rome on fire,] ascribed it to those 
people who were hated for their wicked prac- 
tices, and called by the vulgar, Christians: these 
he punished exquisitely. The author of this 
name was Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius 
was brought to punishment by Pontius Pilate, 
the procurator.(f) For the present this perni- 
cious superstition was in part suppressed, but it 
vroke out again, not only over Judea, whence 
this mischief first sprang, but in the city of 
Rome also, whither do run from every qaurter, 
and make a noise, all the flagrant and shame- 
ful enormities. At first, therefore, those were 
seized who confessed, after a vast multitude 
were detected by them, and were convicted, 
not so much as really guilty of setting the city 
on fire, but as hating all mankind; nay, they 
made a mock of them as they perished, and 
destroyed them by putting them into the skins 
of wild beasts, and setting dogs upon them to 
tear them to pieces; some were nailed to cross- 
es, and others flamed to death: they were also 
used in the night-time instead of torches for 
illumination. Nero had offered his own garden 


(4) These interpretations and reflections are in Josephus, 
Of the War, b. vi. chap. v. sect. 4. 

(e) The number 600,000 for the besieged ig no where in 
Josephus, but is there for the poor buried at the public charge, 
Of the War, b. v. chap. xiii. sect. 7, which might be about 
the number of the besieged under Cestius Gallus, though 
they were many more afterward at Titus’s siege, as Jose- 
phus implies, Of the War, b. vi. ch. ix. sect. 3. 

(f) This passage seems to have been directly taken from 
Josephue’s famous testimony concerning Christ and the 
Christians, Antiq. b. xviii chap. iii, sect. 3, of which see 
Dissert. I. before. 


DISSERTATION III. 


jan’s answer or rescript to Pliny, cited by Ter- 















for this spectacle. He also gave them Cire 
Sian games, and dressed himself like the driv : 
of a chariot, sometimes appearing among 
common people, and sometimes in the cirele 
itself; whence a commiseration arose, though 
the punishments were levelled at guilty persons, 
and such as deserved to be made the most flag- 
rant examples, as if these people were de-— 
stroyed, not for the public advantage, but to 
satisfy the barbarous humor of one man. 
N. B. Since I have set down all the vile ca- _ 
lumnies of Tacitus upon the Christians as well 
as the Jews, it will be proper, before I come to _ 
my observations, to set down two heathen re- 
cords in their favor, and those hardly inferior 
in antiquity, and of much greater authority — 
than Tacitus; I mean Pliny’s Epistle to Trajan 
when he was proconsul of Bithynia, with Tra- 


= a 
ee 


tullian, Eusebius, and Jerome. These are re- 
cords of so great esteem with Havercamp, the 
last editor of Josephus, that he thinks they not 
only deserve to be read, but almost to be learnt 
by heart also. 


Purny’s Epistiue tro Trajan. 


About A. D. 112. 

Sir—lIt is my constant method to apply my- 
self to you for the resolution of all my doubts; 
for who can better govern my dilatory way of 
proceeding or instruct my ignorance? I have 
never been present at the examination of the 
Christians [by others,] on which account I am 
unacquainted with what usesto be inquired into, 
and what and how far, they use to be punished; _ 
nor are my doubts small, whether there be not _ 
a distinction to be made between the ages [of — 
the accused,] and whether tender youth ought 
to have the same punishment, with strong men? 
whether there be not room for pardon upon 
repentance? (g) or whether it may not be an 
advantage to one that had been a Christian, that — 
he hath forsaken Christianity? whether the 
bare name, (kh) without any crime besides, or 
the crimes adhering to that name, be to be pun- 
ished? Inthe mean time, I have taken this 
course about those who have been brought be- 
fore me as Christians; I asked them whether 
they were Christians or not? If they confessed 
that they were Christians, I asked them again 
and a third time, intermixing threatenings with 
the questions; if they persevered in their con- _ 
fessions, I ordered them to be executed; (t) for 
I did not doubt but, let their confessions be of 
any sort whatsoever, this positiveness and inflex- 
ible obstinacy deserved to be punished. ‘There 
have been some of this mad sect whom I took 
notice of in particular as Roman citizens, that 


Pe ee ee 






t 


(g) Till now it seems repentance was not commonly 
lowed those that had been once Christians, but though they 
recanted, and returned to idolatry, yet were they commonly 
put to death. This was persecution in perfection! 

(h) This was the just and heavy complaint of the ancient _ 
Christians, that they commonly suffered for that bare name, 
without the pretence of any crimes they could prove againsi 
them. This was also persecution in perfection! 

(t) Amazing doctrine! that a firm and fixed resojution of 
keeping a good conscience should be thought without dis 


DISSERTATION UL 


chey might be sent to that city. (k) After 
some time as is usual in such examinations, the 
crime spread itself, and many more cases came 
before me. A libel was sent to me, though 
without an author, containing many names (of 
persons accused.) These denied that they were 
Christians now, or ever had been. They call- 
ed upon the gods and supplicated to your im- 
- age, (1) which I caused to be brought to me for 
that purpose, with frankincense and wine: they 
also cursed Christ: (m) none of which things, 
8 it is said, can any of those that are really 
Shristians be compelled to do; so I thought fit 
.o let them go. Others of them that were 
named in the libel said they were Christians, 
but presently denied it again, that indeed they 
had been Christians, but had ceased to be so, 
some three years, some many more; and one 
there was that said, he had not been so these 
twenty years. All these worshiped your im- 
age, and the images of your gods; these also 
cursed Christ. However, they assured me, that 
the main of their fault, or of their mistake, was 
this, that they were wont, on a stated day, to 
meet together before it was light, and to sing 
a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternately; and 
to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath,] 
not to do any thing that was ill, but that they 
would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery; 
that they would not break their promises, or 
deny what was reposited with them, when it 
was required back again; after which it was 
their custom to depart, and to meet again at a 
common but innocent meal, (n) which yet they 
had left off upon that edict which I published 
at your command, and wherein I had forbid- 
den any such conventicles. These examina- 
tions made me think it necessary to inquire by 
torments what the truth was, which I did of 
two servant maids, who were called deacones- 
ses; but still I discovered no more than that 
they were addicted to a bad and to an extrava- 
gant superstition. Hereupon I have put off 
any further examinations, and have recourse to 
you, for the affair seems to be well worth con- 
sultation, especially on account of the num- 
per(o) of those that are in danger; for there 
are many of every age, of every rank, and of 
both sexes, who are now and hereafter likely 
to be called to account, and to be in danger, for 
this superstition is spread like a contagion, not 
only in cities and towns, but into country vil- 
lages also, which yet there is reason to hope may 
be stopped and corrected. To be sure, the 
(k) This was the case of St. Paul, who being a citizen of 
Rome was allowed to appeal unto Cesar, and was sent to 
Rome accordingly. Acts xxii. 25—29; xxv. 25; xxvi. 32; 
“Amazing stupidity! that the emperor’s image, even 
while he was alive, should be allowed capable of divine 
worship, even by such comparatively excellent heathens as 
Pliny and Trajan. 

(m) Take here a parallel account out of the martyrdom of 
Polycarp, sect. 9. The proconsul said—‘*Reproach Christ.”? 
Polycarp replied—“‘Eighty and six years have I now served 
Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong; how 
then can I[ blaspheme my King and my Savior??? 

(n) This must most probably be the feast of charity. 

(0) Some of late are very loath to believe that the Chris- 
tians were numerous in the second century; but this is such 
an evidence that they were very numerous, at least in Bithy- 


nia, even in the beginning of that century, as is wholly un- 
deniable. ah 


7S 


temples, which were almost forsaken, begin al 
ready to be frequented; and the holy solemni- 
ties, which were long intermitted, begin to be 
revived. The sacrifices begin to sell well every- 
where, of which very few purchasers had of 
late appeared; whereby it is easy to suppose 
how great a multitude of men might be amend- 
ed, if place for repentance be admitted. 


Trasan’s EpistLe To Pury. 

My Purny—You have taken the method 
which you ought in examining the causes of 
those that had been accused as Christians, for 
indeed no certain and general form of judging 
can be ordained in this case. These people 
are not to be sought for; but if they be accus- 
ed,-and convicted, they are to punished; bus 
with this caution, that he who denies himself 
to be a Christian, and makes it plain that he is 
not so, by supplicating to our gods, although 
he had been so formerly, may be allowed par- 
don upon his repentance. As for libels sent 
without an author they ought to have no place 
in any accusation whatsoever, for that would 
be a thing of very ill example, and not agreea- 
ble to my reign. 

OBSERVATIONS upon the Passages taken out of 
Tacitus. 

I. We see here what a great regard the best 
of the Roman historians of that age, Tacitus, 
had to the history of Josephus, while though 
he never names him, as he very rarely names 
any of those Roman authors whence he de- 
rives other parts of his history, yet does it ap- 
pear that he refers to his seven books of the 
Jewish Wars several times in a very few pages, 
and almost always depends on his accounts of 
the affairs of the Romans and Parthians, aa 
well as of the Jews, during no fewer than two 
hundred and forty years, to which these books 
extend. 

II. Yet does it appear, that when he now 
and then followed other historians or reports 
concerning the Romans, the Parthians, or the 
Jews, during that long interval, he was com- 
monly mistaken in them, and had better have 
kept close to Josephus than hearken to any of 
his other authors or informers. 

III. It also appears highly probable that Ta- 
citus had seen the Antiquities of Josephus, and 
knew that the most part of the accounts he 
produced of the origin of the Jewish nation 
entirely contradicted those Antiquities. He also 
could hardly help seeing that those accounta 
contradicted one another also, and were child- 
ish, absurd, and supported by no good evidence 
whatsoever; as also he could hardly avoid seeing 
that Josephus’s accounts in these Antiquities 
were authentic, substantial, and thoroughly at- 
tested to by the ancient records of that nation, 
and of the neighboring nations also, which in- 
deed no one can avoid seeing, that carefully pe- 
ruses and considers them. 

IV. Tacitus, therefore, in concealing the 
greatest part of the true ancient history of the 
Jewish nation, which lay before him in Jose- 
phus, and producing such fabulous, ill-ground- 
ed, and partial histories, which he had from the 
heathens, acted a most unfair part: and this 


vO 


procedure of his is here the more gross, in re- 
ard he professed such great impartiality, [ Hist. 

E. i. chap. i} and is allowed to have observed 

that impartiality in the Roman affairs also. 

V. 'Tacitus’s hatred and contempt of God’s 
peculiar people, the Jews, and his attachment 
to the grossest idolatry, superstition and astral 
fatalily-of the Romans, were therefore so strong 
in him, as to overbear all restraints of sober rea- 
son and equity in the case of those Jews, though 
he be allowed so exactly to have followed them 
on other occasions relating to the Romans. 

YI. Since, therefore, Tacitus was so bitter 
against the Jews, and since he knew that 
Christ himself was a Jew, and that his apostles 
and first followers were Jews, and also knew 
that the Christian religion was derived into the 
Roman provinces from Judea, it is no wonder 
that his hatred and contempt of the Jews ex- 
tended itself to the Christians also, whom the 
Romans usually confounded with the Jews: as 
therefore his hard words of the Jews appear 
to have been generally groundless, and hurt his 
own reputation instead of theirs, so ought we 
to esteem his alike hard words of the Christians 
to be blots upon his own character and not 
upon theirs. 

VIL. Since, therefore, Tacitus, soon after the 
publication of Josephus’s Antiquities, and in 
contradiction to them, was determined to pro- 
duce such idle stories about the Jews, and since 
one of those idle stories is much the same with 
that published in Josephus, against Apion, from 
Manetho and Lysimachus, and no where else 
met with so fully in all antiquity, it is most pro- 
bable that those Antiquities of Josephus were 
the very occasion of Tacitus giving us these 
stories, as we know from Josephus himself 
eenir. Apion, b. i. sect. 1, that the same Anti- 
quities were the very occasion of Apion’s 
publication of his equally scandalous sto- 
mee about them, and which Josephus so tho- 


DISSERTATION UL ut) 









roughly confuted in these two books writte 
against him, And if Tacitus, as I suppose, ha 
also read these two books, his procedure # — 
publishing such stories, after he had seen so 
thorough a confutation of them, was still more — 
highly criminal. Nor will Tacitus’s fault be — 
much less, though we suppose he neither saw _ 
the Antiquities nor the books against Apion, be- — 
cause it was very easy for him then at Rome, — 
to have had more authentic accounts of the 
origin of the Jewish nation, and of the nature 
of the Jewish and Christian religions, from the 
Jews and Christians themselves, which he 
Owls were very numerous there in his days; 
s0 that his publication of such idle stories is 
still utterly inexcusable, 

VILL. It is, therefore, very plain, after all, that 
notwithstanding the encomiums of several of 
our learned critics upon Tacitus, and hard sus- 
picious upon Josephus, that all the (involunta- 
ry) mistakes of Josephus, in all his large worke 
put together, their quality as well as quantity 
considered, do not amount to near so great @ 
sum as do these gross errors and misrepresen- 
tations of Tacitus about the Jews amount to in 
a very few pages; so little reason have some of 
our later and lesser critics to prefer the Greek 
and Roman historians and writers, to the Jew- 
ish, and particularly to Josephus. Such later 
and lesser critics should have learned more 
judgment and modesty from their great father 
Joseph Scaliger, when, as we have seen, after 
all his deeper inquiries, he solemnly pronounc- 
es, De Emend. Temp. Prolegom. p. 17, that 
“Josephus was the most diligent and the great- 
est lover of truth of all writers;” and is’ not 
afraid to affirm, that; “it is more safe to believe 
him, not only as to the affairs of the Jews, but 
also to those that are foreign to them, than al) 
the Greek and Latin writers, and this because 
his fidelity and compass of learning are every 
where conspicuous. 





JEWISH WEIGHTS, &e. | 771 
{IE ASSIA GRA YE AE ROME i SETA RESTATE SES V2 ENS 


TABLE OF THE JEWISH WEIGHTS, MEASURES, &c. AND PARTICULARLY 
THOSE MENTIONED IN JOSEPHUS’S WORKS. 


OF JEWISH MEASURES OF LENGTH, 


Inches Feet. Inches. 
Cubit, the standard, . ...... Laat §) Sagas cade ey'st a site on ub 19 
Zereth, or large span,. ......- 104 Bene avai a eles 0 103 
Small span, .- 62.05% eee s O18 bbe oie le, 8/0) id 76 tele 8 ode ey A 
Palm, or hand’s breadth, ........ 34. ela aiele lave Gnaletanthate 0 34 
Inch, or thumb’s breadth, ....... LLG Si steel ace: aes lank ; 0 1,16 
Digit, or finger’s breadtn,....... gad Diets: ial ciao ch. gated ial mavens 0 873 
Orgyia, or fathom,..... ..- oe RRO © she ele Sela ele soap 7 0 
Ezekiel’s Canneh, or reed, .... Dee aie eraks eats wWatalsties 10 6 
Arabian Canneh, or pole, ..... NOR ew cie. 6s sviscul ates Pr Dg 14 0 
Scheenus’s line, orchain, ...... DOBO Fe Nees She (Shas ar eats inte 140 0 
Sabbath-day’s journey, .... BQ000 oe 'w ie 0 oe 'ele 0 6's ¢ o8e OUD 6 
Jewish mile, ...... a Ns S4000 043 5's Soaico is in cayar alway cw cre ee 
Stadium, or furlong, .....-..- PAUUE Oia tele ae! eo 6 diel aisle sever CO uO 
Parasang, Boas Gidile wuel's a aie SOPUTOA Sele isi's))e a a.6:/¢ ats 9:0) 0/0. 0h @LOUUY) 40 
OF THE JEWISH MEASURES OF CAPACITY 
Cub. Inches. Pints or Pounds, 
PROC MUDNAL. 6.586) 6 ay be ee UMM eta cat Giellay & pire : che! s heltae pou 
Corus, or Chomer, ..... anes oto eR Rees Guta Wit ate. Lo wie unital vehtarh lane! aad teas 
ee RPMOU sss calc ei'sis\ e002 0 0 Pe) Rivet! oo a')8 i.e the aiete - 9,266 
Ditto, according to Josephus, ... ..~. 82828 ...2.065- ccsovevee 
BUEN a sce at hinge sis 6.0 8 134,54 ei be: eh iy Mein ole ath a aenee ti 4,4633 
Ditto, according to Josephus,. ..... 41412 2... 2. wesccece 14,3 
Omer, or Assaron,-. ... 2.252 PUN Gere Gu rdiial eievelien ef ae te ieee ie 2,78 
OBI yee cos 's 6! > '° Pale che ats WEB slices (sel dle veleneveiishicntie 1,544 
Log, OG ee SRR eed ae ET ak so” bi Bid cailietiat erate 6 went ente oo 
Metretes, or Syrian firkin, Fh Rae Cees POE ae ok elise) b os Se Lees 7,125 
OF THE JEWISH WEIGHTS AND COINS. 
£. 8. a. $ cte. 
Stater, Siclus, or shekel of the sanctuary, the standard,.. ... 0 2 6 0 55 
Tyrian Coin, equal to the shekel,. ........2.2.-. isirenit O very. 0 55 
Prenamemel ofthe ehekel, 0.) sie so a eo sleet el eee ae On Ces 0 27% 
Breen attich, OMe-10UIth, . 04 56 6s je 8 a ce eae ele 0 74 0 13 
Drachma Alexandrina, or Darchmon, or Adarchmon, one-half,. 0 1 3 0 274 
Gerah, or Obolus, one-twentieth, .. .. 2.222 eeeseoe 0 14 0 26 
Maneh, Mna—100 shekels in weight—21900 grains Troy 
Maneh, Mna, or Mina, as a coin,—60 shekels, ........ 710 0 30 30 
Talent of silver—300 BUBROISe eaten ein te tel ely reier si) sia -..375 0 O 1666 663 
Drachma of gold, not more than ...... «2+... posh n VE he ON | 2A 
Shekel of gold, not more than. ...... : pies ate (Oa oe 96 
Daric'of gold, ...'...- Si raill st cede o's : deca eek Oe 4 51,2 
Talent of gold, not more than ine sa muer ast fa. Wiese lee)" s 648 0 0 2880 00 


TABLE OF THE JEWISH MONTHS IN JOSEPHUS AND OTHERS, 
With the a ean Names Josephus gives them, and the Names of the Julian or Roman 


Months corresponding to them. 
Hebrew Names. Syro- Macedonian Names. Roman Names. 
1. Nisatl,:. ss. os - Manthicus, 6. sys eo 8 « «March and April. 
PEMA eelicl wi eis + 6-0) a) | ATIBIMESIUB, 96°), 0's 0 0 0's April and May. 
SeRIV ATI ste! Shas feo es MOEBIUS a le So eo os) May and June, 
MP EIDU PUES ie hs ni ols a. 6h ei) EAUOMUS) 6 (in) (Mise 6: 4. 10) June and July. 
ey eekieve! Bids). 0.0.4), VOUS, » eee ee oe ~ July and August. 
EPL RLS SUS shes SR SS oe Gorpieus, SACO hv le Ni simu August and September, 
7, Tisri,....... +. . Hyperbereteus,....... . September and Octobe. 
8. Marhesvan,. . . chi aiek CAMMIS eee’ iai(s\ei. sie a Blow ite October and November. 
9. Casleu,...... «..-. Appellwua,.......=. +. + ## November and December 
10; Tebeth, ..... .. .Audinwus, . 2... sees December and January. 
}1. Shebat,. .......... Peritius, ......+.-+-+-s «January and February. 
WeAder,,; +... Se IV SELIE Te eh ie 00 6 Bay February and March. 


13. Ve Adar, or the ‘second Adar intercalated. 





TABLE I. 
COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS, 


FROM ADAM TO THE DELUGE.—ACCORDING TO THE HEBREW COMPUTATION 












A. M.)B.C. 
1/4004;ADAM created in the first year ofthe World; died A. M. 930. 
130/3874/130 &...SeTs born A. M. 130; died in 1042. 
235/3769/235 &. . .105&. . .ENos born A. M. 235; died in 1140. 
.  195§. .. 90 by. . .Carnan born A. M. 325; died in 1235. 
395|3609/395 &. . .265 =: «1605... 700. ..Manaca.een born A. M. 395; died in 1290. 





330 $. . AD. feed . 135 s.. ee 65 =. . JARED born A. M. 460; died in 1422. 

2 492 S. «387. . 2978. . 78. . 162%... .Exocn born A. M. 629; translated 987. 
687|3317|/687 &. . 55755. . 4528... 362%. . 2028... 2979... 65 
874/3130/874e . . .744e. « 6390. . 5495... 4792. ..414%, . 252 





a - METHUSELAH born A. M. 687, died 1656. 
ite Aloe &: - LamMecu born A, M. 874; died 1651. 









930/3074)930 8. .8008.. 6955. . 6058. . 5358. . A705: . BOSE... . 56 

987/3017}...9.. 8578.4 .75de. . 662 o . 592 =. 300 = 

1042/2962 oS + 582 oe ee ML. 3558... 1688 

1056 9948 *"@eeeeeeeeeee 821 3. . 731 ee .661 mat . -596 BS: eeee eee .369 8. ° 182, . -Noag born 1056; died 2006. 
1140/2864). eee cece s 905... 8158...7458... eeesee « 453 =. . 2665... [ He lived 950 years. 
1235]2769}. 

1290/2714]. 





*"®eeeeeeteee er tee eeeeeet ween Bee B62. e605. oe .735B, . 548 o « OG 

BUD WSC ss Wins 0's ce betis sleeeee ee SF eeeees wee tt Ceeees +. + B7le.. 684e.. 502. . .Saem b.1558; d.215s. 
se eee wee tear eens SEES e puisineders s+ Ss tees pean ge) atte 

*@ee ee eeeeese + 8te FSFE H we SHH eSe SSeS ee se - 9698.....8.. .600.. 98 
Migs 16 Wis, 2 were eT ele de ae DELUGE......- . 













TABLE II. 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, 


FROM THE CREATION TO THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD. 









PEZRON, (follow- 
ing the Septuagint.) 


USHER, (follow- 
ing the Hebrew.) 










JOSEPHUS. 

































op ay ee Se ee Oe. WET Ew EF ae Ae 
Aceording to the Supputations of three celebrated § ||~—|~/~— malanalan PP IR 2, 
. -|,¢ 3s}, #13 = 
Writers elsgige SBISEISE SEs 
S » & ae FS ty oe wk £2 Slim & 
abel SI Ed Ei goles 
o “4 
gals "ah erg SPS] 
he Leeation: (Gk eeise ee ss % 2 Oless . ke 
2 The Deluge, » e . . eee e 9348) 1656 3617/56 


4. The Vocation of Abraham, aver i@ 


4. The Exodus of Israel, . . « « s+ «  «« |{2513] 85711491! 4yol!2953/139711705] 4301/3943]168711920) 130 
The Death of Moses, . « -« ro aion he aie 

5. The Foundation of the Temple, . « « «© «© « e« « {/2992/1396/101 161256011057] 873 
Captivity, “Ve ea wee fen ee a? ue ak wee Pe he. ee Yc eae 3397 74l 607 - : 452 

3. The Temple burned, od 6) Oa6: Faeroe, 2 ie eee | é 3416 760 588 424 4015 2459 643 47 287 3031 19 
The Ist yor {det pion ° H sta a ite Lwaee es ok 8 ee y 
The 2nd ict, by Darius Hy 9. oe dcsire . . 3 

7. The Nativity of our Lord, . + «2 s.¢ « « 1/4004/2348 582 


Total number of Years, . . 


. 
e 
_ 
- 
° 


. 
. 
. 
% 
a i nee al ss 





INDEX. 





@ ARON, 68, 495; is made high priest, 85; his sons, 87; 
his death, 100. 

Abassar, or Senabassar, 270. 

Abbar, king of the Tyrians, 716. 
Abdemon, a Tyrian, 206, 714. 
Abednego, 257. 

Abdon succeeds Helen as judge, 134. 
Abel, 30; his sacrifice, ibid. 

Abennerig, king of Charax-Spasini, 484. 
Abia, king of the Arabians, 477. 

Abiathar, the son of Abimelech, 159; saves his life, and 
flies to David, ibid; is high priest, 166, 175, 181, 186, 188; 
is deprived of the high priesthood, 196. 

Abibalus, king of the Tyrians, 714. 

Abigail, 162; married to David, ib; Amasa’s mother, 184. 
Abihu, the son of Aaron, 87. 

Abijah, or Abia, the son of Rehoboam, 184, 213; succeeds 
his father, 214; conquers the ten tribes, 216. 
Abilamaradochus; see Evsl-Merodach. 


= 


-Abimael, 36. 


Abimelech tyrannizes over the Shechemites, 133; is ex- 
pelled, ibid; he destroys them all, ibid; is killed by a mill 
stone, ibid. 

Abinadab, 141, 197. 


-Abiram, 96, 98. 


Abishag, a virgin, David’s nurse, 192. 

Abishai, 163. 

Abner, son of Ner, and Saul’s kinsman, 145; general of 
his army, 168; reconciles the Israelites to David, 169; is 
killed, 170. 

Abram, or Abraham, the son of Terah, 36; leaves Chal- 
dea, and goes to Canaan, 37; lives at Damascus, ibid ; 
advises his sons to plant colonies, 43; instructs the Egyp- 
tians in the mathematical sciences, 38; divides the coun- 
try between himself and Lot, ibid; God promises him a 
son, 39; he beats the Assyrians, 38; dies, 44. 

Absalom, 179; flies to Geshur, 180; is recalled by a strata- 
gem of Joab, ibid; rebels against David, 181; pursues 
after him, ibid; his army is put to flight, 184; he hangs 
on a tree by his hair, ibid; isstabbed by Joab, and dies, ib. 
Acencheres, king of Egypt, 713. 

Acenchres, queen of Egypt, 713. 

Achar, or Hachan, is guilty of theft, 119; is punished, 120. 
Achimas; see 4hsmaaz. 

Achish, or Anchus, king of Gath, 163. 

Achitophel; see Ahithophel. 

Acme, 545, her letters to Antipator and Herod, 423; her 
death, 426. : 
Achmon, son of Araph, of the race of the Giants, attacks 
David, 188; is killed by Abishai, ibid. 

Acratheus, or Hatach, 277. 

Actium, battle at, in the seventh year of Herod's reign, 
372, 375, 525. 

Ada, the wife of Lamech, 31. 

Adad; see Hadad. 

Adam created, 29; his fall, 30. 

Ader, or Hadad, an [dumean, 210. 

Adonias, or Adonijah, pretends to the crown, 192; takes 
sanctuary at the altar, 193; demands Abishag to wife, 
1953 is refused, 196. ‘ 

Adonibezek, king of Jerusalem, 125; is made a prisoner, 
and has his hands and feet cut off, and dies at Jerusalem, ib. 
Adoram, 199. 

Adrammeleeh, 247. 

Adrassar; see Hadadezer. 

#lius Gallus, 385. 

Z£sop, a servant, 368. 

Agag, king of the Amalekites, 150, is killed, 151. 

Agar; see Hager. 


&yyapverdus, or forcible pressure taken off the Jews by 


Demetrius, 310. 

Agseus; see Haggai. ; 

Agones, or games every fifth year, in honor of Cesar, 
instituted by Herod, 381; at the finishing of Cesarea, 399. 
Agrippa, Marcus, (the Roman,) his bounty towards the 
Jews, 291; is splendidly entertained by Herod, 392; makes 
equal return to him at Sinope, 393; his expedition to the 
Bosphorus, ibid; his speech to the Jews at Jerusalem, 
568; he confirms their privileges, 395; his letter to the 
Ephesians, in favor of the Jews, 401; and to those of 
Cyrene. ibid. 


Agrippa the Great, or Elder, Herod’s grandson, 416, 538) 
his various adventures, 446; is manacled and imprisoned 
449; his future liberty and happiness foretold, 450; is ret 
leased and made lord of two tetrarchies, with the tit 
of king, 452; gives Caius a sumptuous entertainment a 
Rome 456; is sent by the senate to Claudius, 475; his 
advice to Claudius, 476; is sent back to his kingdom, 478, 
Claudius bestows on him all the dominions of his grand 
father, 477; his bounty towards those of Berytus, 280, 
he treats several kings splendidly, 481; entertains Cesa- 
rea with shows; and appears himself upon the stage in 
a magnificent dress, and is applauded as a god, ibiti; dies 
soon after an unnatural death, ibid; his dominion and 
children, 561. 

Agrippa, son of Agrippa the Great, by Cypros, 561; did not 
immediately succeed in his father’s kingdom, 482; Clau- 
dius gave him that of his uncle Herod [of Chalcis,] 4883 
to which he added the tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, 
595; he is hurt by a sling stone at the siege of Gamala, 
609; his letters to Josephus, 22; his famous speech to the 
Jews to dissuade them from a war with the Romans, 568 

Agrippa, son of Felix and Drusilla, 490. 

Agrippa, (Fonteius,) slain, 692. 

Ahab, king of Israel, 218; isreproved by Elijah, 221; fights 
with Benhadad and beats him, 223; pardons him, ibid; is 
afterward killed himself by the Syrians, 225; his sons, 234, 

Ahaz, king of Judah, 242. 

Ahaziah, son of Ahab, 225, 227, 233. 

Ahaziah, king of Judah, 233. 

Ahijah the prophet, 210; his prophecy, ibid. 

Ahikam, 255. 

Ahimaaz, or Achimas, the son of Zadok, 181, 185; high 
priest, 255. 

Ahimelech, the high priest, slain by the order of Saul, 138. 

Ahitub, 196. 

Ahithophel, or Achitophel, 181; gives evil counsel, 182; 
hangs himself, 183. 

Ai, besieged, 119; taken, 120. 

Aizel, or Uzal, grandson of Heber, 36. 

Alans, nation of, 698. 

Albinus, procurator of Judea, 494. 

Alcimuas, or Jacimus, tbe wicked high priest, 306; calum 
niates Judas before Demetrius, ibid; dies, 307. 

Alcyon, a physician, 470. 

Alexander Lysimachus, the alabarch, 447, 468, 477. 

Alexander, the son of Alexander, by Glaphyra, 538. 

Alexander, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, 310; surna- 
med Bala, note, ibid; king of Syria, ibid; his letter te 
Jonathan, 311; engages in a battle with Demetrins, 312; 
demands Ptolemy Philometor’s daughter in marriage, 313; 
is killed in Arabia, and his head sent to Ptolemy, 315. 

Alexander and Aristobulus, Herod’s sons, put in prison, 
410; strangled by their father’s order, 414, 532. 

Alexander. the eldest son of Aristobulus, 341, 511; troubles 
Syria, 342; makes war upon the Romans, 509; is conquer- 
ed by Gabinius, 510; killed by Pompey’s order, 343, 511. 

Alexander Janneus, succeeds his brother Aristobulus, 5043 
a sedition raised against him, 331; his expedition against 
Ptolemais, 329; he is called Thracida, for his barbarous 
cruelty, 332; dies of a quartan ague, after three years’ 
sickness, 333, 505; his sons Hyrcanus and Aristobulua, 
334, 506. 

Alexander the Great, succeeds his father Philip, 281; cone 
quers Darins, ibid; pursues his victories through Asia 
282; sends a letter to the high priest at Jerusalem, ibid; 
goes himself to Jerusalem, ibid; his dream, 283; he adores 
the name of God on the high priest’s forehead, ibid ; enters 
the temple, ibid; grants privileges to the Jews, ibid; the , 
Pamphylian sea gives way to his army, 73; his arms and 
armor kept in the temple of Diana at Elymais, 304; hig 
empire divided after his death, 234. 

Alexander, the son of Phasaelus and Salampsio, 446. 

Alexander, (Tiberius,) succeeds Cuspius Fadusas procuratog 
of Judea, 488, 561; is made procurator of Egypt, 566, 576; 
is made chief commander of the Roman army under Vea- 
pasian, 635, 677. 

Alexander Zebina, king of Syria, is conquered by Antie- 
chus Grypus, and dies, 325. 

Alexandra, Alexander Janneus’s widow, holds the admin- 
istration after his death, 334; falls sick and dies, 336; hee 
eulogium, ibid. 


74 


Alexandra, daughter of Hyrcanus, wife of Alexander, the 
son of Aristobulus, Hyrcanus’s brother, and mother of 
another Aristobulus and of Mariarnne, 367; writes a let- 
ter to Cleopatra, ibid; sends the pictures of her son and 
daughter to Antony, by the advice of Dellius, ibid; is 
feignedly reconciled to Herod, ibid; is suspected by Herod, 
368; prepares to fly into Egypt, ibid; bemoans the death 
of Aristobulus, 363; acquaints Cleopatra with the snares 
of Herod, and the death of her son, ibid; is put into pri- 
son, 370; her indecent bekavior towarda her daughter 
Mariamne, 379; is killed by Herod’s order, 380. 
Alexandra, daughter of Phasaelus and Salampsio, 446; is 
married to Timius of Cyprus, ibid. 

Alexandria, a great pari of that city assigned to the Jews, 
343; the Jews declared its citizens on a brazen pillar, by 
Julius Cesar, 347. 

Alexas, Salome’s husband, 415, 539. 

Alexas Selcias, Alexas’s son, 446. 

Alisphragmuthosis, king of Egypt, 712 

Aliturius, a Jew, 4. 

Alliance between Ptolemy and Antiochus, 292. 

Altar of incense, 82; of burnt-Gdering, made of unhewn 
stone, 719. 

Amedatha, or Hammadetha, 974. 

Amalekites attack the Israe},tes, 
plundered, 77. 

Aman; see Haman. 

Amarinus, or Omri, king of the Israelites, 218. 

Amasa, general of Absalom 8 army, 184, 186; the son of 
Jether, 194; killed by Joa, 187. 

Amasias, or Maaseiah, governor of the city, 249. 

Amathus, son of Canasn, 36. 

Amaziah, or Amasias, king of Judah, 238; makes war on 
Joash, king of Israel, ibid; is beaten, and murdered in a 
conspiracy, ibid. 

Ambassadors sent with presents to Hezekiah, 247; ambas- 
sadors of the Jews slain by the Arabs, 373; this a viola- 
tion of the law of nations, 374; Jewish ambassadors had 
“Si to sit among the Roman senators in the theatre, 

8. 


76, are conquered and 


Ambassage sent by Jonathan to the Romans and Lacede- 
monians, 31°; sent by the Jews to Rome, 307. 

Ambition and avarice, causes of many mischiefs, 170. 

Ambivius, (Marcus,) procurator of Judea, 439. 
Amenophis, king of Egypt, 713, 722, 724. 

Amesses, queen of Egypt, 713. 

Aminadab, 269. 

Ammonius, killed, 315. 

Amnon, David’s son, 172; fa.ls in love with his sister Ta- 
mar, 179; is slain by Absalom’s order, 180. 

Amorites, refuse to give the Israelites assage, 100; given 
to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of 
Manasseh, 106. 

Amphitheatre, built at Jerusalem, and another in the ad- 
joining plain, by Herod the Great, 381; another at Jeri- 
cho, 427. 

Amram, Moses’s father, 64. 

-Amram, a seditious Jew, 483. 

Amrephel, 38. 

Amutal; see Hamutal. 

Anacharis, or Rabsaris, a general of Sennacherib, 245. 

Ananelus, made high priest, 367; deprived of that dignity, 
ibid; restored to it, 369. 

Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, made high priest, 488, 
562, 573; his son Ananus, 562; slain together with his bro- 
ther Hezekiah, 374. 

Ananias, (different from the former,) 271; son of Onias, 
326, 330. 8 
Ananias, the son of Masambalus, high priest, 664. 

Ananus, senior, made high priest, 494; his eulogium, 615; 

Ananus, junicv, the son of Ananus, made high priest, 494, 
13, 616; his speech to the people, 616; accused of the 
murder of James the bishop, 494; deprived of the dignity 
of the high priesthood, ibid; his death, 623. 

Ananus, (or Annas,) son of Seth, made high priest, 439; 
deposed, 440. 

Ananus, son of Bamadus, one of Simon’s life-guard, 664; 
flies to Titus, 677. 

Ananus, governor of the temple, 490. 

Ananus, son of Jonathan, 578. 

Andreas, captain of Philadelphus’s life-guard, 285. 
Andromachus, expelled the court of Herod, 405. 
And¢onicus, son of Messalamus, 313. 

Angels of God become familiar with women, 32. 

-Anileus, 457, 458, 459; killed by the Babylonians, 461. 
Annius, (Lucius,) takes Gerasa, 630. 

Annius, (Minucianus,) 462. 

Annius Rufus, procurator of Judea, 439. 

Anteius, killed, 468. 

Antigonus, governs Asia after Alexander’s death, 284. 
Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, 341, 342; impeaches Hyr- 
eanus and Antipater, 345; is conquered by Herod, 354; 
invades Judea, by the help of the Parthians, 356; is re- 
established in the government, 358, 517; cuts off Hyrca- 


INDEX. 











Antony, (Mark,) his valor, 341, 510; his and Dolabella’s 






nus’s ears, and causes the death of Phasaelus, 68 sur , 

renders himself to Sosius, 364, 523; is sent in fetters te 

Marcus Antonius, 524; was the first king whose head 

is cut off by the Romans, 366; reigned before Herod, 

420. , 

Antigonus, son of Hyrcanus I. and brother of king Aris. 
tobulus, made commander at the siege of Samaria, 326; 

is beloved by his brother, 327; is watched by the queen 

and her favorites, and by their calumnies slain, 328,503, — 

Antioch, is the chief city in Syria, and the third cityin the 
Roman empire, 587; the Jews made citizens thereo{ by 

Seleucus Nicator, 291; it is burnt down, 690. | 

} 

: 








Antiochians, at first rebel against Demetrius, 315, their 
envy against the Jews, 689. 
Antiochus, king of Commagene, 441, 481, 661, 697; a part 


of Cilicia, together with Commagene, granted him by 


Claudius, 477. 


Antiochus Cyzicenus, 325; assists the Samaritans, but is 
put to flight, 326, 503; is killed, 331. 

Antiochus Dionysus, fifth son of Antiochus Gry pus, king 
of Syria, makes an expedition against the Jews, 333, 505. 

Antiochus the Great, his letters in favor of the Jews, 292, 
his wars with Ptolemy Philopater and Physcon, 291; 
marries his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy, 293. 

Antiochus Epiphanes makes an expedition into Egypt, 
297; takes Jerusalem, and plunders the temple, 298, 501, 
687; goes into Persia, 300; designs to destroy the Jews 
upon his return, 301; his impiety, 324; he dies, and leaves 
the administration to Philip, 304. 

Antiochus Eupator, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, invades 
Judea, 305; fights with Judas, ibid; 501; makes peace 
with the Jews, 305; breaks it, ibid; is killed by Deme. 
trius, 306. 

Antiochus Grypus, son of Demetrius Soter, 325; his 
death, 331. 

Antiochus Philometor, 329. 

Antiochus Pius, son of Antiochus Cyzicenus, makes war 
with Seleucus, 331; is slain in battle, ibid. 

Antiochus Eusebius, or Pius, the brother of Demetrius, 
besieges Jerusalem, 323; raises the siege, 324; makes an 
expedition against the Parthians, is defeated and killed, 
ibid. 

Antiochus, the grandson of Seleucus, and son of Alexan- 
der, is commonly called The God, 291; is crowned in his 
youth, 318; enters into alliance with Jonathan the high 
priest, ibid; is slain by Trypho, his tutor, 322, 502. 

Antiochus, the brother of Seleucus, slain in battle, 331. 

Antiochus Soter, brother of Demetrius, father of Gry pus, 
325; makes war with Trypho, 322. 

Antipas, Herod’s son by Malthace, a Samaritan, 416, 539; 
is tetrarch of Galilee, 426; goes to Rome to get to be a 
king, 429, 549; what was left him by Herod, 430; what 
was given him by Cesar, 553; once declared king by 
Herod, 545. 

Antipas, one of the royal lineage, is put in prison ané 
slain, 614. 

Antipater, the Idumean, Herod’s father, called Antipas, 
excites troubles, 336; is sent ambassador to Aretas, by 
Scaurus, 337; his wife Cypros, the Arabian, and his chil- 
dren, 343; his valor, 344; he advises Hyrcanus to put 
himself under the protection of Aretas, 507; makes his 
son Phasaelus governor of Jerusalem, and Herod of Gali- 
lee, 345, 512; endeavors to deserve Crsar’s favor, 344, 
511; is honored by Cesar, and made citizen of Rome, 
344, 512; his defence against Antig-nus, 344, 512; ig 
made governor of Judea, ibid ; is great:y esteemed among 
the Jews, 346; is poisoned, 353, 574. 

Antipater, son of Phasaelus and Salar psio, grandson of 
Herod the Great, 446. 

Antipater, son of Salome, impeaches Archelaus before 
Cesar, 429 

Antipater, son of Herod, 354; is sent to Rome to Cesar, 
396, 540, 542; while he is there, he, by ietters, sets his 
father against his brethren, ibid, 531, §3%; his subtility, 
403; he reigns jointly with his father, 415, is hated by 
every body, after the slaughter of his bretbren, ibid; at- 
tempts his father’s life, ibid; is concerned for himself, 
ibid, 541; appears before Varus’s tribunal, 420, 543; his’ 
plea for himself, 544; is put in irons, 423, 545; is put te 
death, 426, 547. 

Antipater, a Samaritan, 541. 

Antipater, Herod’s sister’s son, 416. 

Antipatris, taken by Vespasian, 628. 

Antiphilus, 419, 341; his Jetter to Antipater, Herod's son, 
423 


Antonia, Claudius’s daughter by Petina, 562. 

Antonia, Claudius’s mother and Drusus’s wife, lends money 
to Agrippa the elder, 448; her eulogium, 449. 

Antonia, the tower, called Baris before, 669, 670. 

Antonius, a captain, 586. 

Antonius, a centurion, 590. 


decree in favor of the Jews, 349; he marches into Asia, 
after Cassius’s defeat, 354; his letter to Hyrcanus, ibid; 


: 
: 
: 
‘ 
c 





INDEX. 


to the Tyrians, ibid; he falls in love with Cleopatra, 355; 
makes Phasaelus and Herod tetrarchs, ibid; orders their 
accusers to be put to death 356; confers signal favors on 
Herod, 359; sojourns at Athens, 361, 520; his luxury, 370. 

Antonius, (Lucius,) Mark Antony’s son, sends a letter to 
the Sardians, in favor of the Jews, 350. 

Antonius Primus, 636, 637. 

Anubis, a god, 442. 

Apachnas, king of Egypt, 712. 

Apame, Darius’s concubine, 267. 

Apior , ambassador for the Alexandrians to Caius, 454. 

Apollo’s temple at Gaza, 331. 

Apollo’s temple in the yang at Rome, 434. 

Apollodotus, captain of the Gazeana, 331; killed, ibid 

Apollonius, son of Alexander, 325. 

Apollonius Daus, governor of Cwlosyria, 314; challenges 
Jonathan to an engagement, and is defeated, ibid. 

Apollonius, governor of Samaria, 299, 300. 

Aponius, 476. 

Apophis, king of Egypt, 712. 

Apsalom, 574. 

Apsan, or Ibzan, judge after Jephtha, 134. 

Aquila, the murderer of Caius, 468. 

Arabians circumcise their children when thirteen years old, 
41; twelve towns taken from them by Alexander, king of 
the Jews, 337; Ethiopians are their neighbors, 233. 

Arabia borders on Judea, 337; Petra the king’s residence, 
ibid; Zabdiel their prince, 316; Arabians are defeated, 375; 
their women are great poisoners, 418. 

Aram, 36. 

Arn, or Haran, the father of Lot, 37. 

Araske, or Nisroch, a temple, 247. 

Arases, or Rezin, king of the Syrians, 242. 

- Araunah, or Orona, the Jebusite, 191; his threshing-floor, 
ibid; the place where Isaac was to have been sacrificed, 
and where the temple was afterward built, ibid. 

Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, comes to Herod, 406, 410, 
334; goes with him to Antioch, 5385; reconciles Herod to 
his son Alexander, and to his brother Pherorasg, ibid. 

Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, 416, 419, 539, 542; is 
Made ethnarch, 435, 553; marries Glaphyra, 436, 554; is 
proclaimed king after Herod’s death, 427, 547; his speech 
to the people, 427, 548; endeavors to appease the peo- 
ple, 428; goes to Rome, 429, 549; is accused there by the 
deputies of the people, 434, 554; is banished to Vienna in 
Gaul, ibid; his dreams and Glaphyra’s, 437, 554. 

Archelaus, son of Chelcis, 482. 

Archelaus, son of Magadatus, 677. 

Aretas, king of the Arabians, 331, 337, 408, 507, 540; makes 
an expedition against Aristobulus, 337; succeeds Obodas, 
408; affords succors to Hyrcanus, 507; impeaches Sylleus, 
jointly with Antipater, before Cesar, 418. 

Aretas, king of Ccelosyria, makes an expedition into 
Judea, 333. 

Aretas, of Petra,.433, 445. 

Arioch, captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s life-guards, 257. 

Arion, treasurer of Alexandria, 295. 

Aristras, or Aristeus, one of Ptolemy Philadelphus’s life- 
guards, 285. 

Aristobulus, son of Hyrcanus I. 327; the first high priest 
who assumed the title of king of the Jews, ibid; called 
Philielen, or lover of the Greeks, 328. 

Aristobulus, son of Alexander Janneus, a bold and enterpris- 
ing man,334; complains of the Pharisees, ibid; reproaches his 
mother Alexandra, 335; endeavors to take possession of the 
kingdom during his mother’s life, ibid; fights with his elder 
brother Hyrcanus for thecrown,336; brings him to an accom- 
modation, 336, 506; sends a golden vine to Pompey, 338; his 
children brought captive to Rome by Pompey, 341; escapes 
out of prison, but isretaken and sent back again to Rome 
by Gabinius, 342, 510; his firmness in adversity, 342; is poi- 
soned by the partisans of Pompey, 343; his children, ibid. 
Aristobulus, son of Herod the Great, 386; marries Bernice, 
Salome’s daughter, 392; is put in prison, 410; is accused 
by his father in an assembly at Berytus, and condemned, 
412; is strangled, 414, 538; his children, 415, 538. 

Aristobulus, son of Herod, king of Chalcis, 491, 697. 
Aristobulus, son of Joseph arid Mariamne, 446 
Aristobulus, son of Aristobulus, and brother to the famous 
Mariamne, a beautiful youth, is made high priest by Ile- 
rod, 368; is drowned by the secret order -of the same 
Herod, 369, 530. 

Aristobulus, son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and grandson 
of Herod the Great, 446. ; 
Aristocracy the best form of government, 110; instituted 
in Judea by Gabinius, 510. 
Arithmetic and Astronomy came 
and thence into Gre ce, 38. 
Arius, the king of the Lacedemonians, sends a letter to 
Onias the high priest, 296. 

Ark of God, its description, 82; taken bv the Philistines, 
139; restored to the Israelites, 141; carried to Jernsalem 
and lodged in the house of Obed edom, after it had been 

with Aminadab, 173. 


from Chaldea to Egypt, 


ry 


Ark of Noah, where it rested, 33; mentioned by ali bar 
barian historians, ibid; its remains long preserved, 454. 
Armais, king of Egypt, 713. 

Armenia conquered by Antonius, 371; Cotys, king of the 
Lesser Armenia, 481. 

Armesses, king of Egypt, 713. 

Armory of David in the temple, 236. 

Aropheus, or Armariah, 196. 

Arphaxad, 37. 

Arruntius, (Enaristus,) 469. 

Arruntius, (Paulus,) 467. 

Arsaces, king of the Parthians, 319, 324. 

Artabanus, king of Media, 440. 

Artabanus, king of the Parthians, 444, 458, he flies te 
Izates, 485; is kindly received by him, and restored te 
his kingdom, 486; dies, ibid. 

Artabazes, or Artavasdes, son-of Tigranes, is given as a 
present to Cleopatra by Antonius, 524. 

Artaxerxes, king of the Persians, 274; his edict against 
the Jews, 276; contradicted, 279. 

Artaxias, king of Armenia, 371. 

Artorius cunningly saves his own life, 675. 

Arucas, 37. 

Arudeus, 37. 

Asa, king of Jerusalem, 216; makes an alliance with the 
king of Damascus, 217. 

Asahel, killed by Abner, 168. 

Asamoneus, 299. 

Asamoneans, the end of their reign, 365. 

Aschanaz, 35. 

Asermoth, or Hazarmaveth, 36., 

Aserymus, king of the Tyrians, 714. 

Ashdod, or Azotus, taken by Jonathan, 334; its inhabitants 
plagued on account of the ark of God, 140. 

Ashpenaz, an eunuch, 257. 

Ashur, 36, ‘ 

Asia, its convention at Ancyra, 401; Valerius, pr sonsul 
of Asia, 470; five hundred cities of Asia, 570. 

Asineus aud Anileus, two brethren, 457. 

Askelonites, punished for their stubbornness, 293. 
Asocheus, or Shishak, king of Egypt, 687. 

Asprenas, 466; cut in pieces, 468. 

Assemblies forbidden to al! at Rome, but to the Jew? only, 
by Julius Cesar, 350, 

Ass’s head falsely reported by Apion as an object of wor- 
ship among the Jews, 730. 

Assyrian empire overthrown, 247. 

Astarte’s temple, 167, 714. 

Astartus, king of the Tyrians, 714. 

Astronomy, for its improvement the first men lived near 
a thousand years, 34; came out of Chaldea into Egypt, 
and thence into Greece, 38. 

Asylum, or right of Sanctuary, belonging to some towns 
in Judea, 106. 

Athenians, decree honors to Hyrcanus, 345. 

Athenion, 294. 

Athenion,a general of Cleopatra,524; his perfidiousness,374, 
Athronges, a shepherd, crowns himself king of Judea, 438, 
551; is conquered with his brethren, ibid. 

Atratinus, Herod’s advocate, 359. 

Augustus’s arrival in Syria, 387; his letter to Herod, 4 
holds a council about the affairs of Judea, 429; his edict an 
letter in favor of the Jews, 401; is angry with Herod, 408; 
is reconciled to him by the means of Nicolaus of Damas- 
cus, 412; divides Herod’s dominions, 553. 

Axioramug, high priest, 255. 

Azariah, the prophet, 217. 

Azarias, high priest, 255. 

Azarias, one of Daniel’s companions, 257. 

Azarias, a commander under Judas, 303; is defeated by 
Gorgias at Jamnia, 304. 

Azau, or Hazo, 37. 

Azizus, king of Emesa, 490; is circumcised, and marnes 
Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa junior, ibid; dies, 491. 
Azotus, or Ashdod, its inhabitants plagued on account of 
the ark of God, 140; taken by Jonathan, 314. 

Azricam, 242. 

Baal, king of the Tyrians, 716. 

Baal, god of the Tyrians, 235. i 
Baalis, king of the Ammonites, 255. 

Baanah, the son of Rimmon, 171. 

Baaras, a place and a plant there growing, 695. 

Baasha, king of Israel, 216; kills Nadab his predecessor, 
ibid; dies, 218. 

Baba’s children preserved by Costobarus, 381, afterward 
killed by Herod, ibid. 3 
Kabylon, derived from Babel, (confusion of languages,) 33 
taken by Cyrus under the reign of Baltasar, 261; great num- 
ber of Jews who lived there, 457; Nebuchadnezzar’s build- 
ing at Babylon, 260; its walls not built by Semiramis, but by 
Nebuchadnezzar, according to Berosus, 715; its walls curs 
ously built by Nabonnedus, of brick and bitumen, eet tag 
to Berosus, ibid; its pensile gardens erected by Nebueh 
nezzar, in imitation of the mountains of Meda, 200, 71a 


Ue) 


against them, and is slain, 50). 
Badezorus, king of the Tyrians, 714. 
Badus, or Bath, a Jewish measure, 199, 
Bagoas, an eunuch, 417. 
Bagoses, an enemy of the Jews, 281. 
Balak, king of Moab, 101. 
Baladan, king 22 Babylon, 247. 
Balaam, the prophet, 102; his ass speaks, ibid. 
Ballas, or Barea, king of Sodom, 38. 
Balm, or Balsam, near Jericho, 339, 371, 508. 


Baltasar, (Belshazzar, or Naboandelus, or Nabonadius,) 
king of Babylon, 260; his terrible vision, ib. and its inter- 


pretation, 261; his death, ibid. 

Baltasar, (Belteshazzar,) Daniel’s name, 257 
Banacates, 197. 

Banus, an hermit, Josephus’s master, 3. 

Barak, excited by Deborah, encounters Sisera, 130. 

Bardanes, king of the Parthians, 486; he is slain, ibid. 

Baris, a tower built at Ecbatana by Daniel, 262. 

Barnabazus, 276. : 

Barsas, king of Gomorrah, 38. 

Baruch, well skilled in the Hebrew tongue, and left with 
Jeremiah the prophet in Judea at the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, 255. 

Barzaphernes, governor in Parthia, 516. 

Barzillai, 184. 

Basan, or Baasha, king of Israel, 217; slays Nadab his 
predecessor, ibid. 

Basima, or Basmath, Solomon’s daughter, 197. 

Baskets carried upon the head, the chief baker’s vision, 55. 

Bassus, (Ventidius.) See Ventidius. 

Bassus, (Cecilius, murderer of Sextus Casar,) 352, 513, 

Bassus, (Lucilius,) is sent with an army into Judea, 695; 
he besieges and takes Macherus, 696. 

Baths, hot, at Callirrlioe beyond Jordan, 425, 

Bathsheba, 177, 178. 

Bathyllus, 542. 

Bathyllus, Antipater’s freedman, 419, 

Battering-ram, its description, 595. 

Beeltethmus, 265. 

Bela, or Zoar, the king of it, 38. 

Belatorus, king of the Tyrians, 716. 

Beleazarus, king of the Tyrians, 714. 

Belus, the god of the Tyrians, 218. 

Belus, the god of the Babylonians, 260; his temple there, ib. 

Benaiah, a priest by birth, a man of valor, 188; son of 
Jehoiada, 175; made commander of some troops of Solo- 
mon, 196; son of Achilus, 197. 

Beneficence, its commendation and reward, 165. 

Benhadad, (or the son of Hadad,) king of Syria, besieges 
Samaria the first time, 221; the second time, 223; falls 
sick, and is smothered by Hazael, 232. - 

Benjamites are attacked for their enormous crime at Gib- 
eah, and at last terribly defeated and cut off, 128; their 
tribe restored, ibid. 

Beon, 712. 

Berechiah, 242, i 

Bernice, daughter of Agrippa senior, 448; she is married 
to Herod, Agrippa's brother, 477. 

Bernice, Agrippa’s mother, dies, 447. 

Bernice, Archelaus’s and Mariamne’s daughter, 490, 

Bernice, the widow of Herod, marries Polemon, 49]; 
leaves him, ibid. 

Bernice, Salome’s daughter, Aristobulus’s wife, 392. 

Bernice, Agrippa senior’s daughter, and junior’s sister, in 
danger of her life, 566. 

Bernicianus, Herod of Chalcis’s son by Bernice, his brother 
Agrippa’s daughter, 561. 

Berytus, where the cause between Herod and his sons was 
debated in a council or court, 412; Romans living at, ibid. 
Bethuel, 37. 

Besaleel and Aholiab, sacred architects, 80. 

Bicthan, 276. 

Birth-day of Ptolemy’s son kept by the Syrians, 295; pre- 
sents made thereupon, ib. 

Bobelo, 271. 

Bocchoris, king of Egypt, 725. 

Book of the law found, 249. 

Books composed by Solomon, 198; twenty-two most sa- 

ered books among the Jews, 710. 

%oo0z, of Elimelech’s family, 137; his kindness towards 

Ruth, 138; he marries her, ibid. 

Brazen vessels more valuable than gold, 272. 

Breastplate. high priest's, called by the Greeks, The Oracle, 
its shining splendor, 87; when it left off shining, ibid. 

Bride, how she was to part from one that refused to marry 
her, according to the law of Moses, 138. 

Rritanicus, son of Claudius by Messalina, 562. 

Britons, 682. 

Brocchus, a tribune, 475. 

Grother, a title which Al«eander Balas gave to Jonathan 

.M high priest, 274; the same title was also given him ty 


bLemetrang Pater %.6 


INDEX. 
Bacehides, 306, 08; he attacks the Jews, ibid; he rages 





















Alexander, king of Sycia, 315; and by Demetaius, 317 
Bukki, son of Abishua, high priest, 196. 


Buz, Nahor’s son, 37. 


sius, 352. 
Jerusalem, 504. 


the finishing of Cesarea Augusta, 399. 
Cain murders his brother Abel, 31; his punishment, ibid 
he peoples the land of Nod, ib. 


Tiberius, the grandson of Tiberius the emperor, to death, 
ibid; his cruelty, 453; his behavior in the government. 
454; he orders his statue to be erected in the temple at 
Jerusalem, ibid; gratifies Agrippa, and forbids its erec. 
tion, 456; his letters to Petronius, ibid; he rages against 
the Jews, 461; calls himself the brother of Jupiter, 462: 
a conspiracy formed against him, ibid; the conspirators 
increase in number, 465; his death, 468; his threatenin 
letter to Petronius retarded till he was dead, 457, 

his character, 473. 

Caleb, one that searched the land of Canaan, 93, 126. 

Calf, (golden,) near Daphne or Dan, 609, - 

Calleas, 415. 

Callimander, 326. 

Callinicus, son of Antiochus, king of Commagena, 697. 

Callistus, a freed-man of Caius, 465. 

Cambyses, succeeds Cyrus, 265; dies after a reign of six 
years, ibid. 

Camp of the Jews, 92; of the Assyrians, 663. 

Camuel, or Kemuel, Nahor’s son, 37. 

Canaan, land of, its description and division, 122. 

Canaanites, distress the tribe of Dan, 129; are spared 
God, ibid, war denounced against them by the tribes 
Judah and Simeon, 126. 

Candlestick, in the tabernacle, 82. 

Cantheras removed from the high priesthood, 483. 

Capellus, son of Antyllus, 7. 

Capito, a centurion, or captain of an hundred soldiers, 565. 

Capitol, the end of the triumphal shows, 694. 

‘aptives of the Jews, how many killed, and how many 
Kept alive, 686; captives carried in the triumph, ibid. 

Captivities, of the ten, and of the two triges, 257. 

Careas, (Kareah,) 256. 

Carus, Herod’s catamite, 417. , 

Cassander, governs Macedonia after Alexander's death, 284 

Cassius Longinus, president of Syria, 352, 390; favors Antk 
pater and Herod, 353; repels the Parthians, and then retires 
to Judea, 343, 511; is defeated at Phillippi, 354. 

Castles or Citadels, two at Jerusalem, one in the city, and 
the other by the temple, 304, 380, 383. 

Castor, the Jew, his cunning trick, 653. 

Castration of men or beasts forbidden by the law of Moses, 
114; young men of royal blood castrated by Nebuchadnes- 
zar’s order, and among others Daniel the prophet, 257. 

Catullus, governor of Libya Pentapolitana, 706; his ca, 
lumny against the Jews, ibid; his death, and the divine 
vengeance on hiin, 707. 

Cecilius Bassus, the murderer of Sextus Cesar, 352, 513. 

Cecinna, 636; sent to Vespasian, 637. 

Celadus, 436, 554. 

Celenderis, 543. 

Celer,a tribune, 490; is put to death, ibid. 

Celtic legion, 468. 

Cendebeus, commander of Antiochus’s troops, 322, 502 

Cerealis, (Petelius,)sent against the Samaritans,599; march 
es towards Hebron, 633; is ordered to attack the temple, 
672; called to a counsel of war about the temple, 667. 

Cesennius Petus, president of Syria, 697. 

Cesonia, wife of Caius, killed by Lupus, 472. 

Cestius Gallus, president of Syria, 15, 564; gathers am 
army against the Jews, 577; enters Jerusalem, 578; ia 
beaten, 579, 

Cethimus, 35. 

Chalaman, king of the Syrians, 176. 

Chalcol, 198. 

Cham, or Ham, the son of Noah, 34; his posterity, 35. 

Chanaan, or Canaan, the son of Ham, 36; his posterity, ibid 

Charan, or Haran, 37. F 

Chares, 609; dies, 611. 

Chatura, or Keturah, Abraham’s last wife, 43. 

Chebron, king of Egypt, 713. 

Chebron, or Hebron, older than’ Memphis, (Tanis) 63% 
taken by the Israelites, 123. 

Chelbes, king of the Tyrians, 716. 

Chelcias, 326, 330. 

Chelion, or Chilion, 137. ; 

Chereas, (Cassius,) is stirred up against Uaius, 462; drawe 
others into the conspiracy, ibid; gives Caius the first blow 
467; is beheaded» 477 


Buckle, or button, a gu.den one, sent to Jonathan, m 







Burrhus, Nero’s Greek secretary, 493. m “ 


Cesar, (Julius,) makes war in Egypt, 344 his decrees in ‘ 
favor of the Jews, 347; is murdered by Brutus and Cas. a 


Cesarea, built by Herod, 386; it was 600 furlongs Yom. a 
Cesarean games instituted by Herod, 38:, 528; begun ai 


Caius, the son of Germanicus, 13 made emperor, 451; puts 





q 
4 
i 
4 
“ 
i 

‘ 


(INDEX. 


_ Cherubim, their shape not known, 200 

Chesed, Nahor’s son, 37. 

Children not always like their parents, 143. 

Christ, 441; Christians, 442. 

Chusarthes, or Cushan, the king of Assyria, oppresses the 
Israelites, 129. 

Chusi, or Hushai, 183. 

Chodorlaomer, 38. 

Cinnamus, 486. 

Vircumcision, is received in Palestine by the Jews, 717; 
its institution, 39; the Arabians circumcise their children 
after the thirteenth year of their age, 41; the Syrians in 
Palestine receive circumcision from the Egyptians, ac- 
cording to Herodotus, 213; not to be forced upon any 
body, in the opinion of Josephus, 9; the Idumeans forced 
to be circumcised, or leave their country, by John Hyr- 
eanus, 324; the Itureans forced to be circumcised by Aris- 
tobulus, 328. 

Classicus, 691. 

Claudius Cesar, 470, 560; he 1s dragged out of a corner to 
the imperial dignity, 473; he is favored by the army, 
474; his liberal ity to Agrippa, 477; his edict in favor of 
the Jews, ibid; his lecier to the Jews, 483; he dies, 491, 
562; his wife and children, ibid. 

Clement, 464, 

Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus, married to Ptolemy, 293. 

Cleopatra, wife of Philometor, 312, 728; she takes up arms 
against Ptolemy Lathyrus, 330; takes Ptolemais, ibid; 
makes an alliance with Alexander, 331. 

Cleopatra, wife of Demetrius [I., 322; married to Antio- 
chus Soter, ibid. 

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, meets Antony in Cilicia 355; 

_ her cruelty and avarice, 370, 371, 524; kills her sister Arsi- 
noe, 371; obtains from Antony a part of Arabia and Ju- 
dea, ibid; tempts Herod to lie with her, ibid; Herod con- 
ducts her towards Egypt, ibid. 

Cleopatra, (Selene,) besieged by Tigranes, 335, 506. 

Cleopatra, of Jerusalem, the wife of Herod, 416, 539. 

“Cleopatra, wife of Florus, 497. 

Clitus, author of a rebellion at Tiberias, 12; cuts off his 
left hand by the order of Josephus, ibid, 585. 

Cluvius, 467. 

Collegas, (Cneus,) 690. 

Colonies within and without Italy, 478. 

Columns, or pillars, in the land of Siriad, 32; of the Corinth- 
ian order in Solomon’s palace, 205; in Herod’s temple, 647. 

Commandments written upon two tables, 80; written by 
the hand of God, ibid; not to have their very words pub- 
lished, ibid. 

Conscience, of good actiuns, is safer to be relied on, than 
on the concealment of evil ones, 51. 

Conspiracy against Herod, 282. 

Convention of Asia at Ancyra, 401; convention at Jeru 
salem, 6. 

Coponius, procnrator of Judea, 437, 439, 554. 

Coracinus, a fish, 607. 

Corah, or Korah, raises a sedition against Moses, 95, 
96; perishes with his faction, 98. 

Corban, or secret treasure, 552. 

Corinthus, one of Herod’s life-guards, 418; an Arabian by 
birth, 540. / 

Cornelius Faustus, son of Syila, 340, 508. 

Cornelius, the brother of Longus, 675. 

Corus, a Jewish measure of ten attic medumni, 94. 

Costobarus, an Idumean, Salome’s husband, 380. 

Costobarus, a ringleader of the robbers, 495 

otylaa, or Zeno, 323, 502. 

Uotys, king of Lesser Armenia, 481. 

Cozbi, a Midianitish woman, 104. 

Coze, or Koze, an idol of the ldumeans before they turned 
Jews, 380 

Crassus, governor of the east, succeeds Gabinius, 342, ar- 
=‘yves in Judea, and plunders the temple of its treasures, 
svid, 511; perishes in an expedition against the Parthians, 
ibid. 

Creation, of the world, 29. 

Crimes, are encouraged by induigence to those that 
them, 157. 

Crown, or mitre, of the high priest, 83. 

umanus, procurator of Judea, 488, 489, 561. 

Curses, denounced from mound Ebal, 115, 122. 

Cuspius Fadus, procurator of Judea, 390, 482, 561. 

_, Customs, or taxes of Syria, Phenicia, Judea, and Sama- 

., ria, 8000 talents, 294, 

“iCutheans, (people of Cutha,) who they were, and whence 
they came, 245; go to Samaria, 257, hinder the rebuilding 
of the temple, 269. 

Cypros, king Agrippa’s wife, 561. 

Cynros, Antipater senior’s wife, by whom he had four 
children, 343, 511. ¥ 

Cypros, Antipater’s daughter by Cypros, 446; married to 
Alexas Selcias, ibid. ‘ 

ypros, Herod’s daughter, married te 4™tipater, Salome’s 
eon, 446. 

98 


commit 


771 


Cypros, daughter of Phasaelus and Salampsio, married te 
Agrippa senior, 446. 

Cyrenius, or Quirinius, 437, 698. 

Cyreneans, derived from the Lacedemonians, 570. 

Cyrus, king of Persia, 261; purpuses to rebuild the Jewish 
temple, 264; releases the Jews from their captivity by as 
edict, ibid; his death, 265. 

Cyrus, the son of Xerxes, called by the Greeks Artaxerxes 
et king, 274; his letter rescinding the edict of Haman 

Demons, 198. 

Dagon, the god of Ashdod, 140; his temple burnt, 314. 

Damascene colonies, transported into Higher Media, 243. 

Damascus, taken by Tiglathpileser, 242; taken by the Re 
mans, 338. 

Dan, built by the Danites, 129. 

Danaus, or Hermeus, king of Egypt, 721. 

Daniel the prophet, 257; is castrated with his companions, 
ibid; their austerity of life, ibid; Daniel foretells the 
times of future events, 258; tells Nebuchadnezzar his 
dream, and interprets it to him, ibid; is honored for it, 
259; his companions are cast into a fiery furnace, ibid; 
Daniel explains the hand-writing upon the wall, 261; car- 
ried into Media by Darius, ibid; is made one of the presi 
dents of the kingdom, ibid; a conspiracy against him 
ibid; is thrown into the lion’s den, 262; builds a tower at 
Ecbatana, ibid; the manner and certainty of his prophe- 
cies, ibid; his vision of the ram and the he-goat, 263; his 
prophecy of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, 
ibid; of the profanation of the temple by Antiochus Epi. 
phanes, 302. : 

Darda, 198. 

Darins, the son of Astyges, called by another name ameny 
the Greeks, 261. 

Darius, the son of Hystaspes, made king, 266; makes a 
splendid entertainment, ibid; proposes questions to be re 
solved, ibid; his letters in favor of Zorobabel, for re 
building the temple, 267; has Cyrus’s records searcher 
about that temple, 270; gives orders forits rebuilding, ibid. 
his edict against the Samaritans, 271. 

Dathan, 96. 

David's genealogy, 138; is anointed by Samuel, 152; plays 
upon the harp before Saul, ibid; fights Goliath, 153; his 
and Jonathan?’s friendship, 155, 160; is reconciled to Saul 
by Jonathan, 155; is in danger of being killed by Saul, 
160; his flight, ibid; he spares Saul’s life twice, 161, 163; 
proinises to assist the hing of Gath, 165; pursues after 
the Amalekites, and puts them to flight, 166; writes la- 
mentations and makes a funeral oration for Saul and 
Jonathan, 168; is made king of Juduh, ibid; and of the 
Israelites, 171; takes Jerusalem, 172; casts the Jebusites 
out of it, ibid; marries several wives, and begets eleven 
children, ibid; conquers the Philistines, 173; has the ark 
carried to Jerusalem, ibid; is reproached by Michal, ibid; 
purposes to build the temple, 174; his victories, ibid, 175; 
his liberality to Mephibosheth, 176; he falls in love with 
Bathsheba, 177; causes Uriah to be slain, ibid; marries 
Bathshbeba, 178; is 1eproved for all by Nathan the proph- 
et, ibid; his son by Bathsheba dies, ibid; he. mourns for 
Absalom/’s death, 185; orders the peuple to be numbered, 
190; chooses the pestilence rather than famine or the 
sword, ibid; makes great preparations for the building 
of the temple, 191; exhorts Solomon to build it, ibid, 194; 
divides the priests into twenty-four courses, 193; he dies, 
195; is buried with great pomp, ibid; the treasures hidden 
in his monument, ibid, 324, 402, 502. 

Day, unusually lengthened, 121. 

Deborah, 131. 

Deceased, what care was taken of them by the Jews, 738. 

! Decla, 36. 

i Decrees of the Romans, &c. in favor of the Jews, 345, 348, 

349, 355.” 

Dellius. the wicked, 359, 367, 519. 

Deluge, 33. 

Demetrius, alabarch at Alexandria, 491. 

Demetrius, the son of Demetrius, joins with Jonathan and 
Ptolemy his father-in-law, and conquers Alexander, 315 
called Nicator, 316; his letter in favor of the Jews, ibid; 
is hated by the Antiochians, ibid; breaks friendship with 
Jonathan, ibid; is conquered by Antiochus, and flies into 
Cilicia, ibid; is made prisoner by Arsaces, and released, 
320; Trypho rebels against him, 322; is hated by the army, 
325; is defeated, and flies in vain to Cleopatra his wife, 
ibid; goes thence to Tyre, is made prisoner and dies, ibid. 

| Demetrius Eucerus, fourth son of Antiochus Grypus, is 

made king of Syria Damascena, 331; his assistance desi- 
red by the Jews, 332; he makes war upon Alexander, and 
conquers him, ibid, 505; he makes war with his brother 
Philip, is carried prisoner into Parthia, and dies there, 332, 

Demetrius of Gadara, Pompey’s freed-man, obtains the re- 
building of that city, 341. 

Demetrius Phalereus, keeper of the Alexandrian library, 
285, 728; his petition to king Philadelphus, 286; he places 
the se~spr”” “"“"- interpreters near the sea-side, 290. . 


ee ee 


78 


Demetrius Soter, son of Seleucus, 
puls king Antiochus to death, ibid 
Nicanor against the Jews, 306, 307, 
his letter to Jonathan, 
Alexander, 312, 

Demoteles, 318, 

Diana’s temple at Elymais, in Persia, 
temple in Egypt, 312. 

Jina, Jacob’s daughter, 49. 

Dioclerus, 197. 

Diodorus, son of Jason, 325. 

Diodotus, or Trypho, 316. 

Dionysius, tyrant of Tripoli, 338, 
Diophantus, a forger of letters, 410. 
Divorce, what. are the causes of it, 112; whether it be law 

ful for a wife to send a bill of divorce to her husband, 3¢1. 

Doeg, the Syrian, 159. 
Dogs, according to Elijah 
Jezebel, 234, 
Dolabella’s letter to the Ephesians in favor of the Jews, 349, 
Dolesus, 627. 

Domitia, kind to Josephus, 26. 
Domitian, son to Ve spasian, is mac 
absence, 637; is kind to Jose 
the Germans, 692, 
Domitius Sabinus, 654. 
Doris, Herod’s first wife, 354; is mother of Ant 
539; is expelled the court, 541. 
Dorians, erect Cesar’s statue in 
J'etronius’s edict against them, 
Dorotheus, 289, 

Dortus, 490. 
lhysitheus, a Jew, his perfidiousness, 375, 

I}sitheus, a general of the Jews, 728, 

Idove, sent out of the ark, 33. 

livaco'’s laws, 709. 

Pansilla daughter of Agrippa senior, 
ried to Azizus, king of Emesa, 490; 
p. ocurator of Judea, ibid. 

Mrasus, her brother, 446. 

Drusus, son of Tiberius, 368. 

Duration of the Jewish law, 739. 

Wagle, golden eagle pulled down from the front of the tem- 

ie, 424; holding a dragon in his claws, is the seal of the 

»acedemonians, 297. 

Warthquake, wherein the followers of Dathan and Abiram 
‘vere swallowed up, 98. 

&aithquake, a very great one in Judea, 373. 

“tap. the sinew upon the hip, why refused by the Jews, 49. 

al, 36. 

Phan, David's son, 172. 

Eisutius, a decurion, 592; slain in battle, 610. 

Ei lipse, of the moon, 425. 

Eenibalus, king of Tyre, 716. 

h'gton, king of Moab,oppresses 

Fgypt, named from a king, 713. 

Eryptian kings were called Phuraohs for 1300 years, till 
the reign of Solomon, 206. 

Eyyptian false prophet, put to flight by Felix, 492, 563. 

&syptians, famous before all other aations for Wisdom, 198; 
learned mathematics of Abraham, 33; their sacred scribes 
ar priests, 63; they held it unlawful to feed cattle, 61. 

Elah, succeeds Baasha in the kingdom or Israel, 281. 

Elam, 36. 

Eleanah, or Elkanah, 242. 

Elcanah, or Elkanah, Samuel’s father, 139. 

E\cias, the high priest, 255. 

Eleazar’s house, 193. 

Eleazar, commander of the Zealots, 650. 

Eleazar, the son of Aaron, 86. 

Eleazar, the son of Ananias, the hi 

Eleazar, the son of Dineus, A489, 4 

Eleazar, the son of Dodo, 189, 

Eleazar, casts out a demon, 198. 

E.eazar, the brother of Joazar, made high priest, 436; de- 
prived, ibid. 

Eleazar, brother of Judas 

305; is crushed to death by an elephant, ibid, 501. 

Bleazar, a ring-leader of the robbers, 483, 698; is taken 

isoner, and sent to Rome, 491, 563. 

leazar’s (of Masada) speech to his garrison, 701. 

Eleazar, the son of Moses, 68. 

Eleazar,the high priestin the days of Joshua,100; he dies,125. 
Eleazar, the high priest in the days of Philadelphus, 27, 
286, 433; his letter to Philadel phus, 287; he dies, 293. 
Eleazar, treasurer of the temple, 343. 

Eleazar, the son of Sameas, his valor, 595. 

Eleazar, the son of Simon, 580, 618, 638, 643. 

Eleazar, the companion of Simon, dies, 632. 

Eleazar, commander of the tempk, 404, 572. 

Eleazar, taken prisoner by Rufus, 696. 

Eleutheri, or Freemen, horsemen so called, 516. 

Eli, the high priest, 137; is judge in Israel after Samson, 

‘bid; his profligate sons, 138. 


304; country Diana's 


’s prophecy, devour the body of 


le regent in his father’s 
phus, 26; his expedition against 
ipater, ibid, 


a Jewish synagogue, 478; 
479, 


by Cypros, 446; mar- 
afterward to Felix, 


the Israelites, 129; is slain, 130. 


nigh priest, #40, 572. 


Maccabeus, called Auran, 299 


’ 


INDEX. 


made king of Syria, 306; 
3 sends Bacchides and 
308; his character, 310; 
31]; is killed in the war against 


Eliakim, 245. 
Eliashib, the high pnest, 27 
Elien, David’s son, 172. 
Elijah, the prophet, 218; his mirac 
widow of Zarephath, 2 
ibid; foretells rain, 220; 
his order, ibid; calls for fi 
up, ibid; his letter to ki 
Elimelech, 137. 
Elioneus, the son of Cantheras, is made high priest, 481. 
pices or Eliphalet, David's son, 172. 
‘lisa, 35. 


Elisha, the prophet, the son of Shaphat, 221, 228; his mi 


racles, 229; his death and eulogium, 238; hia eure of the — 
barren fountain, 629. 
Elkanah, or Elcanah, 242, 
Elkanah, or Elcanah, Samuel's father, 139. 
Elmodad, 36. 
Elpis, Herod’s wife, 416, 539. 
Elthemus, general of the Arabians, 526. 
Eluleus, king of the Tyrians, 244. 
Embassage, sent by Jonathan to the Romans and Lace. 
demonians, 318; sent by the Jews to Rome, 397. 
Emilius Regulus, 462, 
Emnos, David’s son, 172. 
Eneas, surnamed Aretas, succeeds Obodas in Arabia, 408. 
Ennaphen, David’s son, 172. 
Enemies, when conquered, may be lawfully killed, 230. 
Enoch, 31, 32. 
Enoch and Elijah, translated, 228. 
Enos, the son of Seth, 32. 
Ensigns of the Romans, with Cesar’ 
fices offered to them, 681. 
Epaphroditus, his character,27;a great friend of Josephus,26 
Ephesians, their decree in favor of the Jews, 352. 
Ephod, 34. 
Epicrates, 326. 
Epicureans, their error concerning providence confuted, 263, 
Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, king of Commagena, 482, 
Epistle, of Jonathan the high priest to the Lacedemoniana, 
318; of Philadelphus, for freeing the captive Jews, 285; te 
Eleazar the high priest, 286; of Solomon, and Hiram, king 
of the T'yrians, 199; of Xerxes to Esdras, 271; of Arta- 
xerxes to the governors near Judea, 279; of Antiochus the 
Great to Ptolemy Epiphanes, 292; of the Samaritans to 
Antiochus, 298; of Alexander Balas to Jonathan, 311; of 
Onias to Ptolemy and Cleopatra, 312; of Demetrius to 
Jonathan and the Jews, 316; of Julius Cesar to the Roman 
Inagistrates, 347; of Mark Antony to the Tyrians, 355. 
Esau, or Edom, 50; his birth, 44. 
Eschol, 39. 
Esdras, 271; his grief for the foreign marriages, 272; he 
reads ‘the law of Moses to the people, 273; he dies, ibid. 
Essen, or high priest's breast-plate, 84; when its shining 
ceased, 87. 
Essenes, honored by Herod, 388; 
555; their manners, rites, 
439, 554, 555; the 


205 






2; dies, 281. 


les wrought for the 
19; he presents himself to Ah 
the false prophets are killed by 
re from heaven, ibid, 227; is taken 
ng Jehoram, 233. 


>, ae es? Ce 


8 image, 441; sacri- 


I 


ee er ae 


, 
) 
a 
‘ 
q 


are against swearing, 

and doctrines described, 3] 

y abstained from anointing themselves 
with oil, ibid; their diligence in reading their sacred 
books, ibid; Simon the Essen an interpreter of dreams, 437. 
Esther, 275; is married to the king, 276; is concerned for 
the Jews, 277; invites the king and Haman to an enter 
tainment, &c. 278. 

Etham, 209. 

Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, king of Tyre, 219, 716. 

Ethiopian commodities, 207, 208. 

Ethiopians, bordering on the Arabians, 233. 

Ethnarch, (Simon,) 321; contracts thence dated, ibid 
Ethnarch, arieaeie 435, 553. 

Euaratus of Cos, 409, 537. 
Enaristus Arruntius, 469, 

Eve, created, 29; her fall, 30. 

Evi, king of the Midianites, J06. 

Evilas, the son of Cush, 36. 
Evil-Merodach, 260, 716. 

Eunuchs, 114. 

Euodus, freed-man of Tiberius, 450. 

Eupolemus, son of John, 307. 
Eurycles, slanders the sons of Herod, 409, 536; be returns te 
his own country, 537. . 

Eutychus, Agrippa’s freed-man and charioteer, 448, 

Eutychus, Caius Cesar’s eoachman, 476. 

Exorcisms, or forms of casting out demons, composed by 
Solomon, 198. yy 

Ezekiel, the prophet, 250, 254; is carried captive into Babylon, 
251; his prophecy concerning the destruction of the Jews, 
252; his prophecy reconciled to that f Jeremiah, ibid 

Fabatus, Cesar’s servant, 418. 

Fabius, governor of Damascus, 353 575. 

Fabius, a centurion, 340, 508. 

Factions, three in Jerusalem, 639. 

Fadus, (Cuspius,) procurator of Judea, 390, 482, 561. : 

Famine, in Judea, in the thirteenth year of Herod’s reign, 
383; another in the reign of Claudius, 94, 485 488: a 





INDEX. 


77$ 


mal famine in Jerusalem, 659, 663; for Saul’s cruelty to | God, (the true God,) his presence in the tabernacle, 86; his 


the Gibeonites, 188; at Samaria, 326; famine and pesti- 
lence, two of the greatest evils, 253. 

Fanius, a Roman pretor, 325. 

Fast, observed at Jerusalem, 365; on the day on which 
Pompey took Jerusalem, ibid. : 

Fate, unavoidable, 225, 666, 669, 670, 679, 681. 

Feast of unleavened bread. See passover. Guests placed 
at feasts according to their condition, 296; funeral feasts 
among the Jews, 548. 

Felicity too great, the cause of many evils, 214. 

Felix, 353, 575; brother of Pallas, and procurator of Judea, 
490, 491, 563; he punishes the mutineers, 492; is accused 
at Rome, 493. 
estivals, of the Hebrew s.89; three great ones, ibid, 443; at 
those festivals Roman guards were posted at the temple, 
561; immunity granted them st those festivals by Deme- 
trius Soter, 311; celebrated by Antigonus in splendid gar- 
ments, 271; and on them did no manner of work, 89; cel- 
ebrated by the Gentiles in idleness and pleasure, 50; no 
mourning among the Jews at such times, 273; truce, on 
account of, 324; Egyptian women appeared at such times 
in public, 53; wood carried on a festival day for the altar, 
573; festival at the dedication of the temple by Judas 
Maccabeus, 302. 

Festus, (Porcius,) procurator of Judea, 493; he dies, 494. 

Fiaccus (Norbanus,) proconsul, 401; president of Syria, 447. 

Flesh of horses, mules, &c. forbidden to be brought with- 
in the walls of Jerusalem, 292. 

Flies, (the god of,) i. e. Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, 227. 

Florus, (Gessius,) procurator of Judea, 439, 482, 497; is the 
cause of the Jewish war, 4, 497, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568; is 
derided by the people, 565; he plunders the city, 567; he 
calumniates the Jews before Cestius, ibid. 

Fonteius Agrippa, killed by the Scythians, 692. 

Fountain, near Jericho, 629; is cured by Elisha, ibid; its 
wonderful virtue, ibid. 

Frigius, (Titus,) 667. 

Fronto, 667. 

Fulvia, a lady defrauded of her money by a Jew, 443. 

Furius, a centurion, 340, 503. 

Gaal, protects the Shechemites against Abimelech, 133. 

Gaam, 37. 

Gabarius, 197. 

Gabinius, 338, 340, 508; is made president of Syria, 341, 509. 

Gad, the prophet, 191. 

Gadara, taken by Vespasian, 627; the Gadarens made pri- 
soners, and killed, 628. 

Gaddis, (John,) 309. 

Galba, : 1; succeeds Nero, 630; is murdered in a conspira- 
cy, ibid. 

Galilee, ravaged by the Romans, 588, 612. 

Gallicanus, : 

Gallus, (Cestius,) president of Syria, 15, 364. 

Gallus, a centurion, 610. 

Gallus, (Rubrius,) 692. 

Gamala, besieged, 609. 

Games of the circus, 463; Olympic games restored by 
Herod, 400; Cesarean games instituted by Herod, 381, 399, 
528; ordained by Titus on the birth-days of his father 
and brother, 689. 

Gauls, 569; possess at home the source of happiness, 570; 
become Herod’s life-guards, 527. 

Gaza, taken and demolished, 331. 

Gazeaus, grievously punished by Jonathan, 317. 

Gamellus, (Tiberius,) 450. 

Gamellus, Herod’s friend, expelled his court, 405. 

Gather, the son of Aram, 36. 5 

Gentile gods not to be derided, in the opinion of Jose- 
phus, 109, 741. 

Geometry, invented by the long-lived patriarchs, 34. 

Gera, the father of Ehud, 129. 

Gerastratus. king of the Tyrians, 716. 

Gerizzim, its temple demolished, 324. 

Germanicus’s house, 468; the father of Caius, ibid; is sent 
into the east, 441; is poisoned by Piso, ibid. 

Germans described, 570; are enslaved by the Romans, 692; 
they mutiny, 691; a German’s predictions concerning 
Agrippa, 450; s#erman guard, 468. 

Gessinus Florus, procurator of Judea. See Florua. 

Giants, 93, 125; their remains in Hebron, ibid.— 

Gibeah, its inhabitants guilty of a rape, 127. 

Gibeonites, by a wile, make a covenant with Joshua, 121; 
their fraud detected and punished, ibid; they are satisfied 
for the attempt of Saul to slay them, 188. 

Gideon’s stratagem, 131; he dies, ibid. 

Gileadites, their queen Laodice, 331. 

Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, is 
married to Alexander the son of Herod, 392, 403; her en- 
mity with Salome, ibid, 533; her pride, ibid; her lamenta- 
tion when her husband was put in chains, 410; she is sent 
ba:k a widow to her father, 415; she is afterward mar- 
ried to Juba king of Libya, and afterward to Archelaus, 
ethnarch of Judea, 437; her dream, and death, ibid. 


mercy only obtained by religioa, 125; his foreknowledge, 
and that his decrees cannot be avoided, 97, 98; his will 
is irresistible, 64; without his will nothing can happen, 57; 
his providence asserted, against the Epicureans, 203; that 
nothing is concealed from him, 52; it is dangerous tu diso 
bey him, 151; whether it is easier to serve God or man, 
214; he uses beasts to punish the wicked, 262; judged to 
be only the god of the hills by the Syrians, 222; is not to 
be imposed on by the wicked, 114; delights not in sacri 
fices, but in good men, 15]; is called on in time of danger, 
by even bad men, 422; foretells futurities, that men may 
provide against them, 55; affords assistance only when 
the case is desperate, 72; delights in those that promote 
his worship, 394; discovers his ineffable name to Mosea, 
68; is by nature merciful to the poor, 113; is omnipresent, 
52, 99; his bounty the cause of all men’s happiness, 10% 

Gods (false gods) of Laban stolen, 48; of Cutha in Persia, 
brought to Samaria, 245; of the conquered Amalekitea, 
worshiped by Amaziah, 239; of the heathen, not to be 
cursed or blasphemed, in the opinion of Josephus, 109, 
741; Baalzebub, the god of flies at Ekron, 227. 

Goliath, of Gath, 4 giant, 153; challenges the Jews toa 
single combat, ibid; is slain by David, 154. 

Gomer and Gomerites, 35. 

Gorgias, governor of Jamnia, is put to flight, 301; hag bet- 
ter success afterward, 304. 

Gorion, the son of Josephus, and Simeon the son of Gama- 
liel, exhort the people to attack the mutineers, 615; is 
put to death, 625. 

Gratus, procurator of Judea, 449; puts Simon, Herod’s old 
slave, to death, 432; meets Varus coming to Jerusalem, 
552; one Gratus discovers Claudius, and brings him out 
to be emperor, 475. 

Greeks, called old nations by names of their own, 35. and 
put the Hebrew names into their own form, ibid. 

Guards, placed about the temple by the Romans, 488 

Hadad, king of Syria, 174. 

Hadad, or Adar, an Edomite, becomes Solomon’s enemy 210 

Hadadezer, or Hadarezer, king of Sophane, or Zobab, 210, 

Hades, Josephus’s discourse concerning, 743—745. 

Hagar und Ismael, are sent away by Abraham, 41. 

Haggai, a prophet after the captivity, 269; the temple is 
rebuilt acccording to his and Zechariah’s prophecy, 270. 

Haggith, David’s wife, 192. 

Halicarnassean’s decree, in favor of the Jews, 351. 

Ham, the son of Noah, 34; his posterity, 35. 

Haman, an enemy of the Jews, 276; his edict against the 
Jews, in the name of Artaxerxes, ibid; he orders a gibbet 
to be erected for Mordecai, 278; is obliged to honor Mor- 
decai, ibid; the edict is contradicted, 279; he is hanged 
on his own gibbet, ibid. 

Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, 139. 

Haran, the father of Lot, 37 

Haran, or Charan, a city of Mesopotamia, 37 

Harlots, (common ones,) excluded from marriage, 111. 

Hatach. See Acratheus. 

Hazael, king of Syria, 221, 233; he plunders Judea, 236, he 
dies, 238. 

Hazo, or Azau, 37. 

Heber, 36. 

Hebrews, twice carried captives beyond Euphrates, 257; 
thought by some to have come originally from Egypt, and 
not from Chaldea, 61; not put to servile labor in the 
days of Solomon, 207; of those Hebrews that came to 
offer their sacrifices from beyond Euphrates, 94; they have 
peculiar rules about meats and drinks, 104; they fight the 
Canaanites against Moses’s order, 95; ten tribes lived 
beyond Euphrates, and out of the bounds of the Roman 
empire, 271; their language and character came near to 
the Syriac, 285; their nouns have all the same forma- 
tion and termination, 35; they have but one temple and 
altar, 108: met at Shiloh thrice in a year, 128; only the 
two tribes under the dominion of the Romans, 271; an 
unexampled sedition among them, 95; their wise men, in 
the days of Solomon, 198. 

Hebron, an older city than Memphis, 632; taken by the 
Israelites, 125. 

Hecatontomachi, 330. 

Heifer, the red, for purification, 100. 

Helcias, the Great, 455. 

Helcias, treasurer of the temple, 493. 

Helena, queen of Adiabene, embraces the Jewish veligtoay 
493; goes to Jerusalem, 4°5; is buried there, 488. 

Helon, succeeds Ibzan as judge, 134. 

Hephzibah, 248. 

Hercules’s temple, 714. 

Herennius Capito, governor of Jamnia, 447. 

Hermeus, or Danaus, king of Egypt, 721. 

Herod, the son of Antipater, 343, 512; began to rule tm 
Galilee in the 15th and [25th] year of his age, 346; puts 
Ezekias and other robbers to death, ibid; being accused 
for it, he takes his trial, ibid; makes his escape, 347; goes 
to Sextus Cesar, and is by him made general of the army 


of Colosgria, ibid; is in favor with Cassius and the Ro- 
mans, 352; made a procurator of Syria by him, 574; puts 
Malichus to death, 353, 575; beats Antigonus out of Ju- 
dea, 354; bribes Mark Antony, ibid; is impeached by the 
Jews, but is notwithstanding made a tetrarch by Antony, 
255; gets the better of the Jews that oppose him, 356; es- 


capes the snares of the Parthians, 357; the accidents of 


his flight, ibid, 517; goes to Egypt, and thence to Rhodes, 
and thence to Rome, 358, 518; made king by the Roman 
@enate, at the desire of Antony, 359, 518; sails back to 
Judea, and fights against Antigonus, 359; takes Joppa, 
and besieges Jerusalem, 519; takes Se pphoris; 361; con- 
quers his enemies, and the robbers of Judea, ibid; joins 
his troops with Antony’s at the siege of Samosata, and 
is received there with great honor, 362; is providentially 
delivered from great dangers, 363; defeats Pappus, ibid; 
desieges Jerusalem, takes it, makes Antigonus prisoner, 
364; sends him in chains to Antony, 365, 524; promotes 
nis friends and destroys those of Antigonus, 365; marries 
the famous Mariamne, the daughter of Alexandra, 367, 
$23; complains of Alexandra, his mother-in-law, ibid; 
causes his wife’s brother, Aristobulus, to be cunningly 
drowned at Jericho, 369; is summoned by Antony to take 
his trial for it, ibid; brings Antony over to his interest 
by bribes, 370; puts Joseph to death, ibid; is solicited to 
adultery by Cleopatra, 371; makes war against. the Ara- 
dians by Antony’s order, 2, 524; his speech to the army 
in distress, after he had been beaten, 378, 374, 525; he 
yeats the Arabians in battle, ibid, 326; he puts Hyrcanus 
to death, 376; Herod’s commentaries, ibid: orders Mari- 
amne to be put to death, if he himself comes to an ill 
end, ibid; his presence of mind before Augustus Cesar, 
377; he is confirmed in his kingdom by Cesar, ibid, 526; 
he entertains Cesar magnificently, ibid; he receives more 
favors from Cesar, and has his dominions enlarged, 378, 
527; he puts Mariamne his wife to death, 379, 530; he is 
very uneasy at her death, ibid; he is afflicted with a kind 
of madness hy divine vengeance, 380; departs from the 
manners and customs of the Jews, 381; builds theatres 
aud exhibits shows to the people, ibid; a conspiracy 
against him, 382; builds a temple at Samuria, 383; a palace 
at Jerusalein, 385; and a citadel threescore furlongs from 
Jerusalem, ibid; relieves the people in a great famine, 
384; marries Simon’s daughter, 385; his policy, ibid; he 
builds Crsarea, 386; he sends his sone to Rome, ibid; he 
builds a temple to Cesar, 388; eases the people of a third 
part of their taxes, ibid; forbids the people to meet to- 
Hea privately, ibid; keeps his spies, and becomes one 
himself, ibid; honors the Essenes, ibid; rebuilds the tem- 
ple at Jerusalem, 381, 527; makes a new law concerning 
thieves, 392; goes to Cesar, brings home his sons, and 
marries them, ibid; entertains Marcus Agrippa, ibid; is 
in great favor with Agrippa, 393; eases his subjects of the 
fourth part of their taxes, 305; the quarrels in his fami- 
ly, ibid; he favors Antipater in opposition to the sons of 
Mariamne, 396; goes to Aquileia, and impeaches his song 
at Rome before Cesar, 397; is reconciled to them, 399, 531; 
velebrates games in honor of Cesar, 399; builds towns 
and castles, 400; builds Apollo's temple, and renews the 
Olympic games, ibid, 529; his temper described, 400; he 
opens David’s sepulchre, 402; he suspects his kindred, 
403; he is accused by Sylleus before Cesar, 408; his cru- 
elty to his sons, 410; he accuses them ina council at Bery- 
tus, 412; inquires of Nicolaus of Damascus what they 
think of him and his sons at Rome, ibid; he orders them 
both to be strangled, 414; provides for their children, 415; 
his wives and children, ibid, 446; he contracts marriages 
for Mariamne’s children, 415, 539; alters those contracts, 
ibid; sends Antipater to Cesar, 417, 540; is made to believe 
that his brother Pheroras waa poisoned, 418, 541; finds 
the poison was for himself, 419, 542; tries Antipater, and 
puts him in chains, 423; his bitterness in his old age, 426; 
he nakes his will, 423; his terrible sickness, 425, 546; his 
barbarous order for murdering the principal of the Jews, 
425; he attempts to murder himself, 426; he aiters his 
will, ibid; his character, ibid; his death and burial, 427, 
347; his will opened and read, 427; not to take place til] 
confirmed by Cesar, ibid. 
flerod, the sou of Herod, made tetrarch, 439, 452, 557; 
builds towns in honor of Cesar, 558; sends a letter to 
Cesar. 444; makes war upon Aretas king of Arawia, 445; 
ig banished, 558. 
ferod, half brother to the tetrarch, 445. 
Herod, son of Aristobulus by Salome, 446. 
ferod, son of Aristobulus, by Bernice, Salome’s daughter, 
338. 
Herod, Herod’s son by Mariamne, Simon’s daughter, 415, 
418, 445, 539; he is blotted out of Herod’s will, 541. 
Herod, Herod's son, by Cleupatra of Jerusalem, 416, 539, 
Herod, Agrippa senior’s brother, king of Chalcis, 477; he 
marries Mariamne, daughter of Joseph, by Olympias, 
king Herod’s daughter, 446; he has the power over the 
temple given him by Claudius, 483; his death and chil- 
tren, 488, 561. 


INDEX. 













































































Herod, son of Phasaeius and Salampsio, 446. 

Herod, Polemo’s brother, king of Chalcis, 482. 
Herodias, daughter of Aristobulus, 
daughter, 445, 538; Agrippa, 
Herod the tetrarch, eny 
558; follows her husba 


by Bernice, Salome: 

. oe sister, bate wife © 

ies Agrippa the royal dignit : 

nd in his banishment, 453; mide 
to Herod, son of Herod the Great, by Mariamne, Simon's 
daughter, 446; afterward married to Herod, the former 
Henge: brother, while her former husband was alive, 
ibid. 

Hezekiah, king of Judah, 243; his reli 
people, ibid; his lustration of the t 
celebration of the passover, 244; he makes war upon the 
Philistines, ibid; defends himself from Sennacherib, 24h, 
recovers from sickness, 247; dies, : 

Hezekias, a ringleader of the robbers, 346. 

High Priest. See Priest, high. 

Hin, a Hebrew measure, 8&6. 

Hiram, king of Tyre, David’s friend, 172. 

Hiram, king of Tyre, sends ambassadors to Solomon, 196 
Hirom, king of Tyre, 207, 714. i 
Historians, their duty, 27. 

Hophni, son of Eli, 138; he is slain in battle, 139. 

House, of the forest of Lebanon, 207, 

Hoshea, king of Israel, 243; he is made a prisoner, 244 
Huldah, the prophetess, 249. 

Human sacrifice, 229. 

Hur, a prince of the Midianites, 106. 

Hushai, 182, 183. 

Huz, 37. 

Hymns, composed by Devid in various sorts of metre, 188, 

Hyrcanus, son of Joseph Tobias, 294; his artful invention, 
296; he is sent to Ptolemy, and kindly received by him, 
ibid; his actions and death, 297. 

Hyrcanus, (John,) son of Simon the Maccabee, escapes 
being slain, 323; attacks Ptolemy, ibid, 502; is made high 
priest, 323, 502; is besieged by Antiochus, 323, 502; buys a 
peace with three thousand talents taken out of David’s 
sepulchre, 324; marches into Syria and recovers the towns 
that had been taken away, and renews the alliance 
with the Romans, ibid; besieges Samaria, takes it, and 
demolishes it, 326; his intercourse with God, ibid; his 
knowledge of futurity concerning his sons, 327; he was 
ethnarch, high priest and prophet, 503. 

Hyrcanus If. son of Alexander Janneus, made higk 
priest, 334, 506; agrees to leave the civil government te 
his brother, 336; his inactive genius, and why he fled te 
Aretas, 337; he in vain tries to bribe Scaurus to be for 
him, 338; pleads against his brother before Pompey, ibid; 
recovers the high priesthood, 340; is confirmed therein by 
Cesar, 344; is honored by the Romans and Atheniana, 
345; and by Julius Cesar, ibid; ia taken prisoner, and 
has his ears cut off by Antigonus, 358; is released by the 
Parthians, and returns to Herod, 366; he is perfidiousl 
treated, ibid; and put to death by him, 376; the various Pe 
ventures of his life, 366. 

Hystaspes, father of Darius, 266. 

Jabal, 31. 

Jahesh, father of Shallum, 241. 

Jabesh Gilead, demolished, 128. 

Jabin, king of Canaan, enslaves the Israelites, 130. 

Jacimus. See Alcimus. 

Jacob, born, 44; contracts with Laban for Rachel, 47; he 
wrestles with an angel, 49; his sons, 47, 52; he privately 
departs from Laban, 48; his posterity, when they went 
down into Egypt, 61; he weeps upon sending away his 
sh. Benjamin into Egypt, 57; he meets with his brother 
ysau, 49. 

Jacob, son of Sosas, 619, 684. 

Jacob, an Idumean, betrays his country, 632. 

Jacundus, master of horse, 565. 

Jadus, or Jaddua, son of John, high priest, 281, he Ineats 
Alexander in his pontifical garments, 283; he dies, 284, 

Jadelph, 37. 

Jadon, the prophet, 212; is killed by a lion, 213. 

Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, kills Sisera, 131, 

Jahaziel, the prophet, 226. 

Jamblicus, the Syrian ruler, 344, 511. 

James, the brother of Jesus Christ, stoned, 494, 

Janias, king of Egypt, 712. 

Japhet, 34; what countries his sons possessed, 

Jarden, a woodland, surrounded by Bassus, 696. 

Jared, 31, 32. 

Jason, or Jesus, 297. 

Jason, son of Eleazar, 307. 

Javan, 35. 

Jazaniah, 255. 

Ibbar, or Jeban, son of David, 172. 
Ibes, an animal in Egypt that destroys Zerpents, 66. 

(bzan, a judge of Israel after Jephthah, 134. 

Ide, a freed-woman, 442; she is crucified, ibid, 

Idumeans, 302, 619, 623, 699; turn Jews, 324; are but half 
Jews, 360; Coze, their former idol, 380; celebrate the Jew- 
ish festivals, 431. 





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INDEX. 


Jeban. See Ibhar 
Jeeoliuh, 240 
Jedidah, king Josiah’s mother, 248. 

Jehoahaz, king of Judah, 250; he dies in Egypt, 251. 

Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, 237. 

Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, saved, 235; is made king, 236; 
murdered, 237. 

Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, king of Judah, 251. 

Jehoiada, 171. 

Jehoiada, the high priest, 235. ' 

dehoiakim, king of Judah, 250; he rebels against the Ba- 
bylonians, 251; he is slain by Nebuchadnezzar, and cast 
out of the gate of Jerusalem, ibid. 

Jehonadab, an old friend of Jehu, 234. 

Jehoram, king of Judah, 232. 

Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahitub, 175. 

Jehoshaphat, a pious king of Judah, 224, 226; pardoned for 
making an alliance with Ahab, 225; his fleet broken to 
pieces, 227; his death, 229. 

Jehoshebah, sister of Ahaziah, king of Judah, 235. 

Jehu, son of Nimshi, 221; is made king of Israel, 233; his 
actions, 234, 235; he puts Baal’s priests to death, ibid; 
dies, 197. 

Jehu, the prophet, the son of Hanani, 217. 

Jeng, David’s son, 172. 

Jephthah, puts the Ammonites to flight, 134; sacrifices his 
duughter, (according to the opinion of Josephus,) ibid; 
makes a great slaughter among the Ephraimites, ibid. 

Jeremiah, the prophet, 250; his lamentation upon the death 
of Josiah, ibid; his prophecy against Jerusalem, 251; his 
scribe Baruch, ibid; he is accused and discharged, ibid; his 
prophecy read in the temple, and his roll burnt, ibid; his 
prophecy of the Jews’ release from captivity, 252; he is 


. putin prison, and thrown into the dungeon, 253; is left 


with Baruch in Judea, afler Zedekiah’s captivity, 255. 

Sericho, taken, 119; its rebuilder cursed, ibid; it is plunder- 
ed by the Romans, 360. 

‘eroboam, the son of Nebat, conspires against Solomon, 
210; he is made king of the ten tribes, 212, &c.; erects 
golden calves, ibid; his hand withered, ibid; his expedition 
against Abijah, 215; he dies, 216. 

fJeroboam II. the son of Joash, king of Israel, 239; he 
makes war against.the Syrians, ibid; he dies, 240. 

Jerusalem, taken by David, 172; whence that name was de- 
rived, ibid; besieged and taken by the Babylonians, 254; 
besieged and taken hy Pompey, 340; by Herod and Sosius, 
364; by Ptolemy the son of Lagus, 284; how many times 
taken, 687; made tributary to the Romans, 341; levelled 
with the ground, 687; declared holy, inviolable, and free, 
by Demetrius, king of Syria, 311; two citadels therein, 
8%; who first built it, 687; situated in the middle of Ju- 
&+a, 588; set on fire by the Romans, 685; a fast kept there 
lige 35; as also when it was taken by Pompey, and 

y Herod, and Sosius, 340, 365; a Jebusite king of Jeru- 
salem, with four others, make war on the Gibeonites, 
121; they wre put to flight by Joshua, ibid; Jerusalem de- 
eribed, 644, 719. 

serushah, J¢tham’s mother, 241. 

Jessai, the son of Achimaaz, 189. 

Jesse, the sun of Obed, and father of David, 152. 

Jesus Christ, a testimony to him, 441. 

Fesua, the soi: of Phabet,deprived of the high priesthood, 385. 

Jesus, son of Ananus, his ominous clamor and death, 680. 

, or Jason, 297. 

——, the so.1 of Sapphias, governor of Tiberias, 6, 10, 580. 

, brother of Onias, deprived of the high priesthood by 
Antiochus Lipiphanes, 368. 

Jesus, son of Gamaliel, made high priest, 495; deprived of 
it, ibid; the sidest priest after Ananus, 619, 623; his speech 
to the Idum ans, 619. 

Jesus, son of Damneus, made high priest, 494. 

,s0n of Gamala, 14. 

, or Josh aa, the son of Nun, 93; becomes the successor 
of Moses, 11’; commands the Iaraelites against the Ama- 
lekites, 77; rophecies in the life-time of Moses, 116; leads 
the Israelites to the river Jordan, 117; consults about the 
partition of the land, 122, &c.; his speech to the two 
tribes and half, 123; his death, 125. 

Jesus, soa of Baphat, ringleader of the robbers, 9. 

, of Thebuthus, a priest, 684 

Jeshua, son of Josedek, 268. 

jethro, the Midianite, 126. i 

Jews, governed of old by an aristocracy, 342, 510; Jewish 
priests carefsl to marry according to their law, 710; at 
Alexandria bad equal privileges with the Greeks, 576; are 
in great danger at Antioch, 690; at Ecbatana, near Gali- 
lee, 6; are tut off at Cxsarea, 7; at Scythopolis, 575; are 
in factions on account ofthe high priesthood, 297; are 
killed on the Sabbath day, 299; Jews beyond Euphrates, 
366; at Alexandria in Egypt, and Cyprus, 326; are carri- 
ed into Egypt by Ptolemy Lagus, 284; are banished Rome, 
443; desire to be a Roman province, 434; are favored by 
Beleucus Nie: tor, 291; by Vespasian and Titus, ibid; by 
Mareus Agri) @ ibid; by Aatiochus the Great, 202; are 

















782 
shut up in the Hippodrome, but afterward released, 428% 
pray for the welfare of the Spartans, 318; Antiochua, a 
Jew, accuses his own father at Antioch, 690; Jews have 
privileges granted them by the kings of Asia, 401; Egyp 
tians and Tyriaus chiefly haied the Jews, 712; Demetn- 
us remits them part of their tribute, 311; Jews at Alex 
andria are allowed an ethnarch, or alabarch, 343; are ak 
lowed to gather their sacred collections at Rome, 344 
are derived from the same origin with the Spartans, 2963 
have their own laws under Alexander the Great, 283; are 
prohibited to meddle with foreign women, 294; are very 
tenacious of their own laws, 718; their ambassadors’ place 
at Rome in the theatre, 348; are powerful in Egypt, 343 
are ntimerous at Babylon, 366; the form of their govern- 
ment, 270; their quarre] with the Syriaus at Cesarea abous 
their privileges, 492; their marriages, 738; they had a syna- 
gogue ut Avtioch, 690; their privileges under the Romans 
395; they send an embassy to Cesar,against Archelaus, 439 
the Asiatic Jews send an embassy to Cesar, 401; great 
slaughter of Jews, 461, 523, 685; their calamities in Meso- 
potamia and Babylonia, 457; beginning of the Jewish war, 
498; antiquity of the Jewish rites, 394; towns in Syria, 
Phenicia, and Idumea, belonging to the Jews, 333. 

Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, 218; is torn to pieces by dogs, 234. 

Images, or brazen oxen, were not lawful to be made by 
Solomon, in the opinion of Josephus, 209; images of ani- 
mals are against the Jewish law, 382, 385; to set them up. 
or consecrate them, was forbidden the Jews, 424, 

Impostors, throughout Judea, 491. 

Incense, only to be offered by the posterity of Aaron, 241. 

Infants, murdered in Egypt, 63. 

Joab, general of David’s army, 168; takes the citadel o1 
Jerusalem, 172; conspires with Adonijah, 192. 

Joatham, or Jotham, high priest, 196, 255. 

Joazer, son of Boethus, high priest, 425, 438; is deprived 
by Archelaus, 439. 

Joctan, 36. 

Johanan, the son of Kareah, 255; he pursues after Ish 
mael, 256. 

Johanan, son of Eliasib, 272. 

John, Hyrcanus. See Hyrcanus. 

, the Baptist, put to death by Herod, 445. 

——_, the son of Dorcas, 615. 

, called Gaddis, Jonathan’s brother, is killed, 319. 
,80n of Levi, rebuilds Gischala, 5, 582; an enemy to 
Josephus, 7, 8, 582; aims at absolute dominion, 612, 626. 

John, son of Sosas, 619. 

, the Essene, 580, 586. 

,8on of Judas, high priest, 281; murders his brother 
in the temple, ibid. 

John, captain of the Idumeans, killed, 652. 

Jonadab, Amnon’s kinsman, 179; son of Shimeah, 180. 

Jonah, the prophet, 239. 

Jonathan, son of Ananus, 479; refuses the high priesthood, 
ibid; his actions, 562; he is murdered by the Sicarii, 563. 

Jonathan, called Apphus, the Maccabee, 299; he makes a 
league with Antiochus Eupator, 502; is surprised by Try- 
pho, and killed, ibid. 

Jonathan, son of Saul, 147; beats a garrison of the Philis- 
tines, 148; reconciles Saul to David, 155; his conference 
with David, ibid; is slain in battle by the Philistines, 167. 

Jonathan, a Sadducee, provokes Hyrcanus against the 
Pharisees, 327. 4 

Jonathan, a Jew, challenges the Romans to a single com 
bat, 674; he is killed by Priscus, ibid. 

Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, 181. 

Jonathan, ringleader of the Sicarii, 706. 

Jonathan, high priest, murdered by order of Felix, 492. 

Jonathan, the Maccabee, made commander of the Jews 
after Judas, 309; with his brother Simon defeats the Na- 
bateans, ibid; makes peace with Bacchides, 310; restores 
the divine worship, 311; defeats Demetrius’s captains, 318 
renews the league with the Romans and Spartans, ibid; 
hisletter to the Spartans, ibid; he is killed by Trypho, 321, 

Jonathan, the son of Shimeah, kills a giant, 189. 

Joppa, taken by the Romans, 577; demolished, 603. 

Joram, king of Israel, 228; his expedition against the Moab 
ites, ibid; his distemper and death, 234. 

Joram, high priest, 255. 

Jordan, the Israelites pass over it, 118. 

Josedek, rca hay at the captivity, 255. 

Joseph, son of Zacharias, 303. 

Joseph, son of Antipater, 511. 

Joseph Cabi, son of Simon the high priest, 494; he ie @» 
prived, ibid. 

Joseph, son of Camua, is made high priest, 483; he is de- 
prived, 488. 

Joseph, called Caiaphas, is made high priest, 440; he is de- 
prived, 444. 

Joseph, son of a female physician, stirs up a sedition at 
Gamala, 13. 

Joseph, son of Daleus, 679. 

Joseph, son of Ellemus, officiates for Matthias the high 


priest, 425, 





















T82 INDEX. | " 


Joseph, a relation of Archelaus, 552. 
Joseph, a treasurer, 376. 

Joseph, Herod’s uncle, 369; he marries Salome, Herod’s sis- 
ter, 530; he discovers his injunction to kill Mariamne, and 
is put to death, 369, 370, 530. 

Joseph, Herod's brother, 361, 446; he 1s sent into Idumea, 
361; his death, 521. 

Joseph, son of Joseph, Herod’s brother, 446. 

Joseph, son of Tobias, reproaches his uncle Onias, 293; 
goes on an embassy to Ptolemy, ibid; becomes his tax-ga- 
therer, 294; goes to Syria to gather the taxes, ibid; his 
wealth and children, ibid; begets Hyrcanus on his bro- 
ther’s daughter, ibid; dies, 295. 

Joseph, son of Jacob, his dreams, 51; he is sold to the Ish- 
maelites, 52; his chastity, 53; he is put in prison, 54; he 
is released 55; he discovers his brethren, 56; he tries 
them, ibid; he discovers himself to them, 60; his death, 62. 

Josephus, son of Mattathias, made governor of Galilee, 
580; his danger at Tarichex, 582; he reduces Tiberias by 
stratagem, 584; isin great danger again, 596; his speech 
to the Tarichezans, 11; his stratagems, 11, 12, 15, 19, 20, 
594; he escapes a great danger, 10; he goes to Tiberias, 12; 
his wonderful dream 14; he goes to Tariches, 18; his fa- 
ther put in chains, 654; he is betrayed by a woman, 600; he 
surrenders himself to Nicanor, ibid; his speech to his 
companions, 601; he is in danger of his life, 602; he ad- 
Vises the casting of lots, ibid; he is carried to Vespasian, 
ibid; his speech to Vespasian, ibid; he is honored by Ves- 
pasian and Titus, 603, 25; by Domitian and Domitia, ibid; 
he is set at liberty, 636; his speeches to the Jews, ad- 
vising them to surrender, 655, 670; he is accused of a con- 
epiracy, 707; Titus gives him Janda in Judea, 26; he had 
in all three wives, ibid: his children, ibid; he was greatly 
skilled in Hebrew and Greek learning, 497; of the sect of 
the Pharisees, 3; he goes to Rome, ibid; he is made gov- 
ernor of Galilee, 4; frees the Sepphorites from fear, 5; 
stays in Galilee, 6; his moderation, 7; his design in writ- 
ingthe Antiquities, 497; his diligence in writing history, 

ibid; he promises other works, 28, 498; and a book of Jew- 

ish custoins and their reasons, ibid; when he finished the 

Antiquities, 497; when he was born, 3; his conduct in Gali- 

lee, 6; he appeals to Vespasian, Titus, and others, for the 

truth of his history, 711. 

Joshua, son of Nun. See Jesus. 

Joshua, or Jesus, son of Sie, high priest, 436. 

Josiah, king of Judah, his piety, 250; his death, 251. 

Jotapata, besieged, taken, and demolished, 592 to 600. 

Jotham, son of Gideon, hia parable to the Shechemites, 132. 

Jotham, king of Judah, 241; his death, 242. 

Ireneus, the pleader, 429. 

Iron, harder than gold, or silver, or brass, 258; blunted by 
elaughter, 330. 

Isaac, 39. 

Isaiah, the prophet, 244, 246; his eulogium, 248; his prophe- 
cy concerning the Assyrians, 242; concerning Cyrus two 
hundred and ten years before his reign, 264; the same read 
by Cyrus, ibid; his prophecy concerning the temple of 
Onias, 706. 

Ishbosheth, son of Saul, is made king, 168; is murdered by 
treachery. 171. 

Ishmael, 39. 

Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, murders Gedaliah, the son of 
Ahikam, 256. 

Isis, her temple polluted and demolished, 442. 

Israel. See Jacob. 

Israelites, numbered, 92, 191; their religious zeal slacken- 


ed, 126; they are carried captive into Media and Persia, 244. 
Istob, or Ishtob, king, 176. 

Isus, high priest, 255. 

Ithamar, son of Aaron, 86; his family, 196; looses the high 
priesthood, ibid. 

Ithobalus. See Ethbaal. 

Ittai, the Gittite, 182, 

Juba, king of Libya, 554. 

Jubal, 31. 

Jubilee, 92. 

Jucundus, one of Herod's life-guards, raises a calumny 
against Alexander, 409. 

Judadas, or Dedan, 36. 

Judas, the Essene, a prophet, 328. 

eudas, & Galilean or Gaulonite, the author of a fourth sect 
among the Jews, 438, 439, 554. 

Judas, son of Jairus, is slain, 697. 

Judas, son of Aminadab, 269, N 

Judas, the Maccabee, 299; succeeds Matthias his father,300, 
501; his speech to his men before a battle, 301; he is 
victor, ibid; he comes to Jerusalem, and restores the tem- 
ple worship, 302, &c.; takes vengeance onthe Idumeang 
and others, ibid; besieges the citadel at Jerusalem, 304; 
ks made high priest, 307; makes an alliance with the Ro- 
mans, ibid; fights Bacchides, 308; is killed in the battle, ib. 

Zudas, son of Chapseus, 318. 

Judas, son of Sariphus, or Sepphoreus, 424, 546. 

Jadas, son of Eliasib. high priest, 281, 
























Judas son of Ezekias, ringleader of the robbers, 433, 53) 
Jude’ .t begins at Corem, 339: a great earthquake in Ju 
de , 373; its fertility, 719; contains 3,000,000 of Egyptian — 
acres of good land, ibid; its descripticn 588; length, 
breadth and limits, ibid; but lately known tothe Greeks, — 
712; abounding with pasture, 588; taken from Archelaus, 
and annexed to Syria, 437; parted by Gabinius into five 
Jurisdictions, 342; entirely subdued and pacified by Titus, 
705; made tributary to the Romans, 342. 

Judges of the Hebrews, single governors, 270 

Judges at Jerusalem, the Sanhedrim, 226. 

Judges of the council in Syria and Phanicia, 267; seven i 
inferior judges in every city, but an appeal from them te 
the great Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, 109. 

Juelus, high priest, 255. . 

Julia, or Livia, Augustus Cesar’s wife, 400, 415. 

Julia, Caius’s sister, 476. | 

Julian, of Bithynia, a valiant captain, 670; his death, ihid, 

Jutius Capellus, 5. 

Julius Cesar’s letter to the Sidonians, with his and other 
decrees in favor of the Jews. See Cesar and Decrees. 

Julius Lupus, 472. 

Julius, commander of a Roman legion, 370. 

Jupiter Hellenius’s temple upon Mount Gerizzim, 299. 

Jupiter the Conqueror’s temple, 475. 

Jupiter Olympius’s temple, 714; his statue, 462. 

Justus, son of Josephus, 26. | 

Justus, of Tiberias, the historian, 21; when they oe 
his history, ibig; he is condemned by Vespasian, but saved 
by king Agrippa, 25. d 

Justus, son of Pistus, stirs up sedition, 5; his character, ib. } 

Izates, son of queen Helena, embraces the Jewish religion, 

483; is circumcised, 485; conquers his enemies, 487; sue- 

ceeds Monobazus, 484; he dies, 487; his children aud F 

Seger are carried to Rome and retained as hostages 


Kareah, 255. 

Kemuel, son of Nahor, 37. 
Keturah, Abraham's last wife, 43, 
King, his principa! qualifications, 193; three duties of a 
king, piety towards God, justice towards his subjects, and 
care of the public welfare, 241; need not give account of : 
his actions, in the opinion of Antony, 370; should be east 
nently good, 165. : 
King Solomon’s palace, 205. E 

Kings of David's race, how many, 254. 5 

Kingdom, a reward of virtue, 152. ‘ 

Kittim, or Cethium, 35. 

Korah, see Corah. 

Koze, an idol of the Idumeans before they turned Jews #@ A 

Laban, son of Bethuel, 37; his fraud, 47. . y 

Labor, nothing gotten without it, 77. 

Laborosoarchod, or Labosordacus, 260, 716. 

Lacedemonians, derived from Abraham, as wellas the Jere, 
296, 318. 

Lamech, 31. 

Language, abusive, not to be punished with death, 327 

Languages, confounded, 35. a 

Laodice, queen of the Gileadites, 331. . 


Laodiceans, their letter to Caius Rubilius, in favor of :he Y 
Jews, 350. j 
Lasthenes, a Cretian, 316. 4 
Laws, given to the Israelites by Moses upon Mount Siuai, 
78, 108, 109; to be read on the feast of tabernacles, ibid; ' 
to be learned by children before all thin 8, ibid; to be writ- ¢ 
ten in the mind and memory, ibid; forbid the punish- 
ment of children for their parents” crimes, 237; for a re- : 
bellious son to be stoned, 412; Jewish laws, 738; the ta- | 
bles of the law, or ten commandments, 80; law of Moses 
translated into Greek under Ptolemy Philadelphus, 27, 
285; a law made by Herod to sell thieves to foreigners, 
392; law carried in triumph at Rome, 695. 

Laws, among the Persians left to the interpretation of se- : 
ven persona, 275. Y 
Lentulus’s, (Lucius,) decree in faver of the Jews, 350. | 
Lepidus, killed by Caius, 463. 

Lepidus, (Larcius,) 667. ’ 

Leprous persons, obtain placesof honor among several na- ; 
tions, 91; are to live out of cities, by the Samaritan and ‘ 
Jewish laws, 231; the lepers of Samaria resolve in a fa- 4 
mine to go over to the enemy, ibid. 

Letters, of the alphabet, whether brought into Greece by 
Cadmus and the Phasnicians, 708. 

Letters, of Solomon and Hiram, and the Tyrians, 199; of 
Xerxes, king of the Persians, to Ezra, 271; of Artaxerxes 
tothe governors of the hundred and twenty-seven provin- 
ces, 276, 279; of Antiochus the Great to Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
292; to Zeuxis, ibid; of Areus, king of the Lacedemonians, 
to Onias, 296; of the Samaritans to Antiochus Theos, 29& 
of Alexander Balas to Jonathan, 311; of Onias to Ptole- 
my and Cleopatra, 312; of Ptolemy and Cleopatra to Onias, 
313; of Demetrius Nicator to Jonathan and the Jews, 31& 
of Julius Cesar to the Roman magistcates, 348; and te 
the Sidonians, 347; of Mark Antony to the Tyrians, 334 





INDEX. 


Levite’s wife, abused by the inhabitants of Gibeah, 127. 
Levites, exempted from military functions, 99. 

Leviticai tribe, consecrated by Moses, 99; their allowance, 
ibid; how many cities belonged to them, ibid. 

Liberius Maximus, governor of Judea, 607. 

Liberty, granted the Jews by Demetrius, 311]. 

Libya, 36. 

Longinus, a tribune, 579, 

Longinug, a knight, his bravery, 653. 

Longus, a violent Roman, kills himself, 675. 

Lot, 38. 

Lot's wife, 40. 

Lucilius Bagsus, 695; takes Mucheras, 696. 

Lucullus, 335. 


Lydda, burnt, 577. 

Lysanias, son of Ptolemy, is put to death, 371, 516. 

Lysias, comimander of Antiochus’s army, 301. 

Lysimachus, obtains the government of the Hellespont af- 
ter the death of Alexander, 284. 

Maachah, Rehoboam’s wife, 213. 

Maaseiah, governor of a city, 249. 

Maccabeus, his character, 300. 

Macedonians, governed by a Roman proconsul, 570. 

Macha, son of Nahor, by his concubine Reuma, 37. 

Macheras, 362, 363, 521, 522. 

Macherus, surrendera to Basaus, in order to set Eleazar at 
bbherty, 696. 

Machines, or engines, of the Romans, 650; forcasting stones, 
of how great force, 596. 

Machir, 176. 

Madai, or Medes, 35. 

Magicians, 563. 

Magog, 35. 

Mahion, son of Elimelech, 138. 

Malaleel, or Mahalaleel, 33. 

Malchus, or Malichus, king of the Arabians, 316, 358, 518. 

Malichus, a Jewish commander, 510, 514; he poisons Anti- 
pater, ibid; he is a great dissembler, ibid; he is killed by 
a device of Herod, 515. 

Malthace, Archelaus’s mother, dies, 430; she was a Sama- 
ritan, and Herod’s wife, 539. 

Mambre, or Mamre, 39. 

Manahem, an Essene, 388. 

Manahem, son of Judas the Galilean, 4, 573. 

Manasseh. king of Judah, 248; he is carried into captivity, 
ibid; heis sent back to his kingdom, and dies, ibid. 

Manasseh, brother of Jaddua, marries the daughter of San- 
ballat, 282; he is made high priest among the Samaritans, 
ibid. 

Manlius, (Lucius,) son of Lucius, 325. 

Manna, rained from heaven, 75; the signification of the 
word, 76; a sort of manna fell in Arabia in the days of 
Josephus, ibid, note. 

Manneus, son of Lazarus, 666. 

Manoah, 135. 

Manslaughter, suspected, how purged among the Jews, 
139. 

Marcellus, 443, ji 

Marcus, or Murcus, president of Syria, after Sextus Casar, 
352,513. 

Marcus, president of Syria, succeeds Petronius, 479, 481. 

Mariamne, Agrippa senior’s daughter by Cypros, 446; mar- 
ried to Archelaus, 490; divorced, 491; afterward married 
to Demetrius, ibid. 

Mariamne, daughter of Alexander the son ot Aristobulus, 
is married to Herod, 515; she grows angry with Herod, 
378, 530; her temper, 379; she is Bat to death, ibid; her 
eulogium, ibid; her sons strangled, 538. 

Mariamne, daughter of Joseph and Olympias, 446. 

Mariamne, daughter of Simon the high priest, 446. 

Marion, tyrant of the Tyrians, 354. 

Marriage, of freemen with slaves unlawful among the 
Jews, i111. 

Marriage contracts, altered by Herod at Antipater’s desire, 
415. 

Mfarsyas, freedman of Agrippa, 447, 450, 452. 

Marullus, procurator of Judea, 452. : 

Mary, a noble woman, eats her own child, 675, 676. 
Massada, 359, 572. 

Matiathias, great grandson of Asmoneus, the father of the 
Maccabees, 299; refuses to offer sacrifice to an idol, ibid; 


persuades the Jews to fight on the Sabbath-day, ibid; ex- 


horts his sons to defend the law, 300; he dies, ibid. 

Mattathias, son of Absalom, 318. 

Matthes, son of Mattathias, 299. 

Matthias, made high priest, 479. 

Matthias Curtus, and Matthias Ephitas, two of Josephus's 
ancestors, 3. 

Matthias, son of Margalothus, or Margalus, 424, 546; he 
and his partners are burnt alive, 425. 


78a 


Matthias, son of Theophilus, made nigh-priest, ¢19, 495; he 
is deprived, 425. 

Matthias, Josephus’s father, 3. 

Matthias, son of Boetbus, calls in Simon to his assistanes, 
and is afterward put to death by him, 654. 

Maximus, Ohrebaline governor of Judea, 697. 

Maximus, Trebellius,) 472. 

Meal, the purest used in the Jewish oblation, 89. 

Megassarus, 661. 

Meirus, son of Belgas, 679. 

Melas, an ambassador of Archelaus, 410. 

Melchisedec, entertains Abram, 38. 

Melchishua, son of Saul, 167. 

Memucan, one of the seven princes of Persia, 275. 

Menahem, general of Shallum’s army kills him and takes 
his kingdom, 241; he dies, ibid. 

Menedemus, the philosopher, 290. 

Menelaus, or Onias, 297. 

Menes, or Mineus, built Memphis, 206. 

Men’s lives had been happy, if Adam had not sinned, 30. 

Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, is highly favored by Da 
vid, 176, 186. 

Mephramuthosis, king of Egypt, 713, 

Mephres, king of Egypt, 713. 

Merabulus, king of the Tyrians, 716. 

Meraioth, son of Joatham, 196. 

Mesha, king of Moab, 228. 

Meshech, or Mosoch, 35. 

Meshach, one of the three holy children, 257. 

Mesraiin, or Mestraim, 36. 

Mesraites, or Mestreans, Egyptians, 36. 

Mesa, or Mash, 36. ; 

Messalina, wife of Claudius, 491, 562, 

Methusela, 32. 

Metilius, a Roman commander, 574. 

Micah, the prophet, quoted in Jeremiah, 251. 

Micaiah, the prophet, 223; he is put in prison, ibid. 

Mice, spoil the country of Ashdod, 140; five golden mice 
sent as a sacrifice, with the ark, by the Philistines, 141. 

Micha, son of Mephibosheth, 176. 

Michal, Saul’s daughter, married to David, 155; she savee 
Davids life, 156. 

Midianites, bring Israel into subjection, 131; Moses makes 
war upon them and heats them, 105; their women seduee 
the Israelites, 104. 

Miicha, wife of Nahor, 37. 

Milk, with the firstlings of the flock, offered by Abel, 31. 

Minucianus, anne 462, 464. 

Minucianuas, as 476. 

Miracles, a foundation of credibility, 247. 

Miriam, Moses’s sister, dies, 100. 

Misael, one of the three holy children, 257. 

Mitgonas, judge of the Tyrians, 716. 

Mithridates, the treasurer, 264. 

Mithridates, king of Pergamus, 343; brings succors te 
Cesar in Egypt, 344, 511. 

Mithridates, Sinax, king of Parthia, 332. 

Mithridates, king of Pontus, dies, 339. 

Mithridates, a Parthian,marries king Artabanus’s daughter 
460; he is taken prisoner by Anileus, ibid; and set at liber 
ty, ibid; his expedition against the Jews, ibid; he routs 
Anileus, ibid. 

Modius Aquiculus, 6, 9, 13. 

Monobazus, king of Adiabene, 483, 578; his death, 484. 

Moon, eclipsed, 425. 

Moses, length of life determined by his, 37; his birth fore 
told, 63; how born and saved alive, 64; why called Mouses. 
or Moses, ibid, 724; adopted by Thermuthis, 65; brought 
up to succeed her father, ibid; tramples the crown under 
his feet, ibid; he is made genera} of the Egyptian army, 
ibid; beats the Ethiopians, 66; he marries Tharbis, the 
king of Ethiopia’s daughter, ibid, he flies out of Egypt, 
ibid; he assists Raguel’s daughters against the shepherds, 
67; sees the burning bush at Sinui, ibid; is appointed to be 
the deliverer of the Israelites, ibid; he does miracles, and 
hears the most sacred name of God, 68; he returns te 
Egynt,ibid; he works miracles before Pharaoh, ibid; he teads 
the Israelites out of Egypt, 70; how many was their num. 
bers, ibid; how old he was at that time, ibid; his prayer te 
God, 72; he leads the Israelites through the Red Sea, ibid; 
he makes the bitter waters sweet, 74; he procures the Is- 
raelites quails and manna, 75; he brings water out of the 
rock, 76; he beats the Amalekites, 77; he brings to the peo- 
ple the tables of the convenant, 80; he stays forty days 


- upon Mount Sinai, sbid; his so long stay causes great 


doubts and uneasiness among the people, ibid; he confers 
the priesthood on Aaron, 85; offers sacrifices at the taber- 
nacle, 8&6; receives laws and commands at the taberna- 
cle, 87; consecrates to God the tribe of Levi, 90; numbers 
the people, 92; gives orders for their marching, ibid, &c., 
sends spies to search the Jand of Canaan, 93; quells the 
faction of Corah, 97; his justice, ibid; his prayer to God, 
concerning Abiram and Dathan, ibid; he cleanses the pee- 
pie, 100; he destroys Sihon and Og, 101; he defeats tne 


kings of Midian, 105 he appoints Joshua to be his succes- 
sor, 106; his predictions before his death, 116; his song in 


hexaineter verse, 115; a recapitulation of his laws, 116; 
he binds the Israelites by an oath to observe them, 115; he 
blesses Joshua, and exhorts hiin to lead the Israelites 
courageously into the land of Canaan, 116; he is surround- 


ed with a cloud and disappears, 117; his death greatly la- 
mented by the people for thirty days, ibid; he is scandal- 


ized as afflicted with the leprosy, 90; his great authority, 


94; his books laid up in the teinple, 249; what they con- 


tain, 71); called by Manetho Osarsiph, a priest of Osiris 


of Heliopolis, 723; allowed by the Egyptians to be a di- 


vine man, ibid; the ages in which he lived, 734; his vir- 
his posterity honored by Da- 


tue and great actions, 736; 
vid, 193. 
Mosoch, or Mesech, 35. 
Mucianus, president of Syria, 610, 631, 636, 637, 
Mule, the king’s mule, 193. 


Mundus, (Decius,) ravishes Paulina, the wife of Saturni- 


nus, 442, 
Murcus. See Marcus. 
Musical instruments of the Jews, described, 189. 
Mysian war, 692. | 
Naamah, an Ammonitess, the mother of Rehoboam, 211. 
Naamah, daughter of Lamech, 31. 


Naash, or Nahash, king of the Ammonites, 176; his war 


against the Israelites, 146. 
Nabal, a foolish man, 161. 
Naboandelus, or Nabonadius, or Baltasar, king of Baby- 
lon, 260, 716. 
Nabolassar, or Nabopollassar, king of Babylon, 715. 
Naboth, 221. ‘ 
Nabuchodonosor, or Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 
715; he conquers a great part of Syria, 251; he lays a tax 
upon the Jews, ibid; he takes Jerusalem, 252; his fa- 


mous dream or vision, 258; his golden image, 259; he lives 


among the beasts of the field, ibid; he dies, ibid. 

Nabuzaradan, or Nebuzaradan, plunders and burns the 
temple, 254; his other memorable actions, 255, 

Nacebus, captain of the Arabians, 408, 411. 

Nachor, or Nahor, 37. 

Nadab, son of Aaron, 86, 87. 

Nadab, king of Israel after Jeroboam, 216. 

Nahash. See Naash. 

Nahum, the prophet, 242; his prophecy concerning Nineveh; 
*SId. 

Naomi, Elimelech’s wife, 137. 

Nathan, David’s son, 172. 

Nathan, the prophet, 174, 178, 192. 

Nations, dispersed, 35; called by new names by the Greeks, 
od. 

Nazarites, 99, 478. 

Neco, or Necho, king of Egypt, 250; he is conquered by 
Nebuchadnezzar, 251. 4 

Nehemiah, 273; his love to his country, ibid; he exhorts 
the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusa em, 274; his death 
and eulogium, ibid. 

Nehushta, mother of Jehoiachin, 851. 

Neopolitanua, 9, 568, 

Nephan, or Elhanan, 188. 

Nergal-sharezer, 254. 

Nerias, high priest, 255. 

Nero, made emperor, 491, 562; a most cruel tyrant, 491; his 
death, 630. 

Netir, a Galilean, 595. 

Nicanor, 299, 30], 600; sent by Demetrius against Judas, 
307; defeated and killed, ibid. 

Nicanor, a friend of Titus, wounded with an arrow, 650. 

Nicaso, married to Manasseh, 282. 

Nicaule, or Nitocris, qaeen of Egypt, 207. 

Nico, (or the conqueror,) the name of the principal Roman 
battering-ram, 652. 

Nicolaus, of Damascus, the Jews’ advocate, 291, 393; he is 
sent to Herod by Augustus, 409; his speech before Augus- 
tus in favor of Archelaus, 430, 435, 550; he exaggerates 
Antipater’s crimes, 421, ; his brother Ptolemy, 549. 

qizer. of Perea, 578, 580, 586, 625; his wonderful escape, 587. 

iglissar, king of Babylon, 260. 

Nimrod, or Nebrodes, 34. 

Nisroch, or Araske, a temple at Nineveh, 247. 

Noe, or Noah, 32; he is saved in the ark, ibid; invocates 
God after the deluge, 34; God answers his prayer, ibid; 
laws given to him, ibid; he is overtaken with wine, 36; 
his genealogy, 34; his death, ibid. 

Nomos, of Heliopolis, one hundred and eighty furlongs 
from Memphis, 706. 

Norbanus Flaccus’s (Caius) letter to the Sardians in behalf 
of the Jews, 401. 

Norbanus, (another person,) slain, 468. 

Numenius, son of Antiochus, 319. ; 

Oath, prevails with Saul above natural affection, 149, 

Obadiah, a protector of the true prophets, 219. 

Obed, the father of Jesse, 138. 

Obed, the prophet, 242, 


INDEY. | a 


Sy amen’s soon he favor of ber Jews, mere reo X 
erjury, suppos y some not dangerous, ne ae 


Obedience,to be learned before men undertaxe gove 
107. iy 

Obedas, king of the Arabians, 332. Wa 

Octavia, daughter of Claudius, 562. a 

Odeas, high priest, 255. ; y 4 

Og, king of Gilead, 101; his iron bed, ibid. a 

Oil, used in the Jewish oblations, 89; consumed by the se 
ditions, 665; prepared by foreigners not used by the Jews ; 
291, Ss. as 

Olympias, Herod’s daughter by Malthace, a Samaritan, “al 
416; she is married to Joseph,the son of Herod’s brother 53% _ 

Olympius Jupiter, statue of, 462. ‘ 

Olympus, sent to Rome, 410, 411, 537. 

Omri, king of Israel, 218. 

On, the son of Peleth, 96. ¢ 

Onias, son of Jaddua, suceceds in the high priesthood, 284, _ 

Onias, the gon of Simon, made high priest, 293; causes great 
troubles, ibid. 

Onias, brother of Jesus, or Jason, made high priest, 368. - 

Onias and Dositheus, two Jewish captains, saved Alexam — 
dria from ruin, 728. ; } 

Onias, son of Onias, flies into Egypt, and there desires te 
build a Jewish temple, 312, 501, 706; his letter to Ptole. — 
my and Cleopatra, 312; their answer, 313; he builds the 
temple Onion, ibid; that temple is shut up, 706. 

Onias, a just man, procures rain in a famine wy his pray: 
ers, 337; he is stoned to death, ibid. 

Ophellius, 356, 516. 

Ophir, 36. 

Opobalsamum, 226, 339. 

Oracles of the prophets, concerning the destruction of Je 
rusalem, 626, 681; concerning a great prince to arise im 
Judea, ibid. 4 

Oreb, a king of Midian, 132. 

Orodes, 440. 

Oronna, or Araunah, the Jebusite, 191; his threshing 
floor, ibid; where Isaac was to be offered and thetem _ 
ple was afterward built, ibid. 

Orpah, 137. 

Orus, king of Egypt, 713. 

Osarsiph, (for Moses,) a priest at Heliopolis, 722, 724. 

Otho, made emperor, 632; he kills himself, 633. 

Oxen, brazen, the Jews forbidden to make them, 209. 

Pacorus, king of Media, 486; redeems his wife and cones. 
bines from the Alans, 698. ~af 

Pacorus, the king of Parthia’s son, gets possession of Sy. _ 
ria, 356; laya a plot to catch Hyrcanus and Phasaelus, ibid? 
marches against the Jews, 516; is admitted into Jerus» 
lem, ibid; is slain in battle, 362. 

Pageants, or Pegmata, at Titus’s triumph, 694. 

Palace at Rome, 474. 

Pallas, Herod’s wife, 539. 

Pallas, Felix’s brother, 493, 562. 

Palm-trees, at Jericho, very famous, 226, 290, 

Pannychis, the concubine of Archelaua, 535. 

Papinius, a tribune, 464. 

Pappus, is sent into Samaria by Antigonus 363, 522. 

Paradise, described, 29; a pensile paradise, or garden, at Ba 
bylon, 715. 

Parents’ good deeds are advantageous to their children 
209; how to be honored by the law of Moses, 738. 

Parthians, possess themselves of Syria, and endeavor to 
settle Antigonus in Judea, 516; their expedition into Ju- 
dea, 356; they besiege Jerusalem, ibid; they take the city 
and temple, 358; their perfidiousness, 358, 517. 

Passover, a Jewish festival, 70, 89, 337; the manner of its 
celebration, 686; called the feast of unleavened bread, 
337, 428, 643; to be kept on the fourteenth day of Nisan, 
270, 643; very numerous sacrifices then offered, and vas? 
numbers come up to it, 428, 548; from the ninth hour te 
the eleventh, and not lesa than ten to one paschal lamb, 
686; the number of paschal lambs in the days of Cestius ‘of 
was found to be 256,500, ibid. 

Paulina, ravished by Mundus, 442 

Paulinus, a tribune, 600. 

Paulinus, succeeds Lupus as governor of Alexandria, 706 
he plunders and shuts up the temple of Onion, ibid. 

eps ag. son of Cerastes, murders Philip, king of Mace 

on, 281. 

Peace and good laws the greatest blessings, 191. 

Peace, as a goddess, has a temple at Rome, 694. 

Pedanius, 537, 674. 

Pekah, slays Pekahiah, and succeeds him, 241; he defeata 
the king of Judah, 242; he is slain by Hoshea, 242. 

Pekahiah, king of Israel, 241. 

Peninnah, 139. . a 

Pentecost, a Jewish festival, 90, 431; whence it had thet 
name, 550; vast numbers came to it, ibid; the priests thay 
attended the temple in the night, 680. a 

Perea, entirely subdued by the Romans, 027, 628. 









yr 


cessity, 128; dreaded by Joshua and the ; 
ed also by the people, 128, Se 


~ A WV \ 





fermans, their seven principal families, 266; their king is 
watehed during his sleep, ibid; their law forbade stran- 
gers to see their kings’ wives, 275; seven men were the in- 
terpreters of their iaws, ibid; their royal robes, 278. 

Pestilence. See Plague. 

Petilius Ceréalis, the proconsul, reduces the Germans, 691. 

Petina, the wife of Claudius, 491, 562. 

Petronius, governor of Egypt, 384; he supplies Herod with 
corn in time of famine, ibid. ; 

Petronius, (Publius,) is made president of Syria, 454; is 
sent with an army to Jerusalem by Caius, to set up his 
statue in the temple, ibid, 559; his endeavors to prevent 
it, and to save the Jews, ibid; his and their wonderful de- 
liverance, 560; his edict against the Dorites, 479. 

Petus, (Cesennius,) president of Syria, 697; his expedition 
into Commagena, ibid. 

Phaleg, 36. ; 

Phalion, Antipater’s brother, 338. 

Phaina, David’s son, 172. 

Phalti, or Phaltiel, son of Laish, 162, 169, 

Phanius’s (the consul) decree in favor of the Jews, 350. 

Phannius, son of Samuel, made high priest, 615. 

Pharaoh, denoted king in the Egyptian tongue, 206. 

Pharisees, a sect among the Jews, 326, 438, 506; they envy 
Hyrcanus, 326; were opposite to the Sadducees in their 
principles, 327; their great authority, 417; especially in 
the reign of queen Alexandra, 333, 506; which lasted nine 
years, ibid; they refuse the oaths of allegiance to Cesar 
and Herod, 417; they are fined for it, ibid; their unwritten 
traditions, 319, 327; their moderation in inflicting punish- 
ments, the common people side with them 327; they are 
most skilful in the knowledge of the law, 13. 
Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, 339. 

Phasaelus, son of Antipater, 343,511; his death, 358, 317. 

Phasaelus, son of Herod, 416. 

Phedra, Herod’s wife, 416. 

Phieldas, 37. 

Pheles, king of the Tyrians, 714. 

-Pheroras, Antipater’s son by Cypros, 511; makes Alexan- 
der jealous of his wife Glaphyra, with Herod his father, 
403; provokes Herod to anger, 404; lays the blame upon 
Salome, ibid; enters into friendship with Antipater, 416; 
is hated by Herod, 418; is ordered to retire to his tetrarchy, 
ihid. 

Pheroras’s wife, pays the fine laid upon the Pharisees, 417; 
slie associates with the other court ladies, 416, 540; Phe- 
roras’s freed-men charge her with getting poison, 418; she 
throws herself down from the house-tup, 419, 542; her 
eonfession, 419. 

Phideas, the high priest, 255. 

Philadelphus, (Ptolemy,) his skill and industry about me- 
cehanic arts, 287; he proposes problems to the seventy-two 
interpreters, 290; he procures the seventy-two interpre- 
ters to translate the law, 287, 289. . 
Philip, Herod’s son by Cleopatra, 416, 419; brother of Ar- 
chelaus, 553; what Herod left him by his will, 426; what 
Cesar gave him, 435; tetrarch of Gaulanitis, and Tracho- 
ae and Paneas, 426, 428; he dies, 444; his eulogium, 

bid. 

Philip, a Galilean, 595. 

Philip, son of Jacimus, 416, 5, 13, 573, 580. 

Philip, made regent of Syria during the minority of Hu- 
pator, 304. , 

Philip, king of Syria, 331, 332. 

Philip, king of Macedon, is slain, 281. 

Philippion, son of Ptolemy, marries Alexandra, the daugh- 
ter of Aristobulus, 344; he is killed by his father, ib. 511. 
Philistines, their chief towns, Gaza, Accaron, or Ekron, 
Askelon, Gath, and Azotus, or Ashdod, 140, 163. 

Philo, chief deputy of the Jews to Caius, 454. 

Philosophy of the Je ws, contained in the books of their law, 
728 


Philostephanus, 330. j 

Phineas, son of Clusothus, 619. 

Phineas, son of Eleazar, slays Zimri and Cosbi, 105; leads 
the Israelites against the Midianites, ibid; his speech to 
the Jews beyond Jordan, 124; he is made high priest, 125; 
the high priesthood returns to his family, 196. 

Phineas, son of Eli, 138; he officiates as high priest, 140; 
he is slain, ibid. 

Phraates, king of the Parthians, 366; his death, 440. 

Phraataces, the son of Phraates, ibid. i 

Phul, or Pul, king of Assyria, 241. 

Phurim, or Purim, a Jewish festival, 281. 

Phut, the founder of Libya, 36. 

Pilate, (Pontius,) the procurator of Judea, occasions tu- 
mults among the Jews, 441; causes a great slaughter of 
them, ibid, 558; and of the Samaritans, 443; he is accused 
for it, and sent to Rome, ibid. 

Pillars, erected by the children of Seth, in the land of §8i- 
riad, 32; pillars of the Corinthian order in Solomen’s ya- 
lace, 205; in Herod’s temple, 646, 

Piso, governor of Rome, 448. 

Pitholaus, 341, 343, 509, 90 


a Petia el a INTER 8 


785 


Placidus’s skirmishes with Josephus, 15, 25; his other ac- 
tions, 590, 592, 599, 611, 627. 

Plague, or pestilence, rages among the Israelites, 190; h 
ceases upon David’s repentance, 191; another pestilence 
in Judea, 686. 

oe 739; he excludes the poets from his commonealth, 
4 * 

Polemo, king of Cilicia, 491. 

Polemo, king of Pontus, 481. 

Polity of the Jews, after the captivity, 270. 

Poilio, a Pharigee, 388. 

Pollio, a Roman, 386. 

Pompedius, 463. 

Pompey the Great, goes through Syria to Damaseus, 338, 
507; and to Jerusalem, 339, 508; the city delivered up te 
him, 340; he takes the temple by force, and kills abun- 
dance of the Jewa, ibid, 509; the Jews send him a golden 
vine, 338; he goes into the holy of holies, 340, 509; med- 
dies with nothing in the temple, ibid; he hears the cause 
between Hyrcanusand Aristobulus, 339; determines it in 
favor of Hyrcanus, and makes war upon Aristobulug, ih, 
he flies into Epirus, 343. 

Pontus Pilate. See Pilate. 

Poplas, 549. 

Poppea, Nero’s wife, 4, 494, 497; a religious lady and fa- 
vorer of the Jews, 494. 

Porcius Festus. See Festus. 

Present things, queen Alexandra’s care, more than future, 
335. 

Presents, sent to Joseph in Egypt, 57. 

Priests, if maimed, are excludea from the altar and tem: 
ple, 91, 724; are not to marry several sorts of women, 91; 
washed their hands and feet before they went to minis- 
ter, 81; succeed one another according to their courses, 
732; their allowances, 88, 99; their courses, in number 
twenty-four, 193, 732; are very numerous, ibid; two fami 
lies from Aaron’s two sons, 140; their offices and em- 
ployments, 732; their sucred garments, 83, 84,649. priests 
and Levites exempted from taxes by Xerxes, 271; have 
places of the greatest trust committed to them, 737; none 
but priests of the posterity of Aaroy might burn incense 
at the temple, 241]; not to drink wine in their sacred gar- 
ments, 91; priesthood a mark of nobility among the 
Jews, 3; priests among the Egyptians, only kept theiz 
lands in the days of Joseph, 62. 

Priesthood, high, translated from one family to an »ther, 
140; of Onias, at Heliopolis, 305, 326; vacant at Jerusalem 
for four years, 311; during life, excepting under Antio- 
chus Epiphanes, Aristobujus, and Herod, 368; taken from 
Jesus, and given to Simon by Herod, 385; settled upon the 
family of Aaron originally, 495. 

Priest, high, not to be the son of a captive woman, 3273 
high priests went into the temple to officiate on Sabbath. 
days, new moons, and festivals, 642; were to marry a vir- 
gin, and not to touch a dead body, 91; the high priests de- 
sired by Saul to prophesy for him, 149; high priests with 
the prophets and sanhedrim, were to determine difficult 
causes, 109; several high priests at the same time in later 
ages, 615; to succeed by birth, 737; elected by lot among 
the seditious, 615; they abolish the regular succession, 
ibid; Herod, king of Chalcis, made the high priests till his 
death, 483; a series of the high priests from Aaron to the 
destruction of the temple by Titus, 495; another series, 
from the building of the temple to the captivity, 255; 
high priest’s robes kept by the Romans, 483; where they 
were laid up, 443, 390, 483; high priest’s ornaments de 
scribed, 83, 84, 649. 

Primogeniture, its privileges sold by Esau, 51. 

Primus, (An canines 6; he marches against Vitellius, 636. 

Priscus, bivrannhi) 578. 

Priscus, shoots Jonathan dead with a dart, 674. 

Privileges, granted the Jews by Alexander the Great and 
Julius Cesar, 728. 

erghrerne, or riddles, proposed by Samson at his wedding, 
136; 

Proculus (Vitellius,) 479. 

Prophecies, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem 323, 
680; of Jeremiah and Ezekiel reconciled, 252; couki not 
agree to the events, if the world were governed by chance, 


Prophecy of Isaiah, accomplished, 312, 


Prophets, excepting Daniel, chiefly foretold ealamities, 90& _ 
how greatly to be esteemed, 225. 

Prophets, (false ones,) suborned by the Jewish tyrants, 680 

Proseuche, or houses of prayer, among the Jews, i@. 


Prostitution of the body, a most heinous crime, 109 


Providence, asserted against the Epicureans, 263. 

Prudence requires us to prevent the growing power of au 
enemy, 76. 

Psaltery, a musical instrument among the Jews, deseribed, 
189. 

Pseudo (or false) Alexander, 435, 554. 

Ptolemy, the administrator of Herod’s kingdom, 10, 403, 40 

Ptolemy the brotuer of Cleopatra, poisoned by her, 371. 


Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus of Damascus, 429. 
Ptolemy Epiphanes, 291; he dies, 297. 

Ptolemy Euergetes, or Eupator, 293, 728. 

Ptolemy, the son of Jamblicus, 344, 511 


Ptolemy Lathyrus, 326, 504; he is driven out of his king- 
he makes an alliance with Alexander, and 
breaks it, 329; his bold soldiers called Hecatontomachi, 
330; defeats Alexander’s army, ibid; his barbarous cruel- 


dom, 330; 


ty, ibid. 


Ptolemy, son of Lagus, called Soter, obtains Egypt after 
the death of Alexander the Great, 284; takes Jerusalem, 


and carries many Jews into Egypt, ibid. 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second king of 


Moses by the advice of Demetrius Phalerus, 285; sets a 
vast number of Jews free, ibid; sends a letter to Eleazar 
the high priest, 286; his libera) oblations and presents, 287, 
201 


Ptolemy Philometor, 297, 312, 728; he and his queen Cle- 
opatra permit Onias to build the temple Onion, 313; he 
makes an expedition into Syria, 315; discovers Alexan- 
der and Ammonius’s plot against him, ibid; takes his 
daughter from Alexander, and gives her to Demetrius, 
ibid; he might have put two crowns upon his head, that 
of Asia, and that of Egypt, ibid; he is wounded, and dies 
of his wounds, ibid. 

Ptolemy Philopater, 291, 293. 

Ptolemy, called Menneus, 333, 335. 

Ptolemy, son of Menneus, 338, 354, 505; prince of Chalcis, 
343, 511, he marries Alexandra, 344. 

Ptolemy, the murderer of Simon the Maccabee, 323; he mur- 
ders John Hyrcanus’s mother and brother, ibid, 502. 

Ptolemy Physcon, 297, 325, 729. 

Ptolemy VI. 500. 

Pudens. engages in a duel with Jonathan, and is killed, 
674. 

Pul, or Phul, king of Assyria, 241. 

Punishment of the wicked, a joyful sight to good men, 235. 

Purple robes, worn by the Chaldean kings, 261; by the Per- 
sian kings, 279; Joseph is clothed in purple by Pharaoh, 
56 


Pythian, or Apollo's temple, built by Herod, 400. 
Quadratus, (Ummidius.) president of Syria, 489. 

Quails, are numerous in the Arabian gulf, and fall upon 
the camp of Israel, 75. 

Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia comes to king Solomon, 
207; she returns to her own country, 208. 

Quintillius Varus, president of Syria. See Varus. 

Quirinius, or Cyrenius, sent by Cesar to tax Syria, 437. 
Rabsases, (Themasius,) 267. 

Rabsaris, a commander of the Assyrian army, 245. 
Rabshakeh, general of the Assyrian army, 245; his speech 
to the people of Jerusalem, ibid. > 

Rachel, Laban’s daughter, 48; she steals away, and con- 
ceals her father’s idols, ibid. 

Ragau, or Rue, son of Phaleg, 37. 

Ragmus, or Ruamah, 36. 

Raguel, Moses’s father-in-law, 78; his advice to Moses for 
the government of the Israelites, ibid. 

Rahab, an inn-keeper at Jericho, 118; her life saved, ibid. 

Rainbow, 34. 

Ramesses, king of Egypt, 713. 

Rathotis, king of Egypt, 713. 

Rathumus, the historiographer, 265. 

Rationale, or breastplate of judgment of the high priest, 
84, 87. 

Raven, sent out of the Ark, 33. 

Reba, king of the Midianites, 106. 

Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel, 37; demanded for a wife to 

Isaac, 44; she bears twins, ibid; imposes upon her husband, 

45. 

Rechab, son of Rimmon, 171. 

Records, of the T'yrians, 714. 

Regulus, (Emilius,) 462. 

RXehoboam, succeeds Solomon, 211; he gives the people a 
rough answer, ibid; ten tribes revolt from him, ibid; he 
builds and fortifies several towns, 213; he has eighteen 
wives and thirty concubines, ibid; he dies, 214 

Remaliah, 241. 

Repentance cannot revoke past crime, 53. 

Reu, or Ragau, the son of Phaleg, or Peleg, 36. 

Reuma. See Rumah. 

Revenues of Celosyria, Phoenicia, Judea, and Samaria, 
amounted to 8000 talents, 293. 

Rezin, king of Syria, 242. 

Rezon, Solomon’s enemy, 210. 

Rhodes, relieved by Herod, 358. 

Riches, great riches laid up in David’s monument, 195. 
Riddles, or problems, between Solomon and Hiram, 206. 
Rimmon and his two sons, 171. 

Riphath, 35. 

Rod of Aaron, 99. 

Roman army, described, 589. 

senate’s decree in favor of the Jews, 325, 345. 


INDEX. 













pt of that 
race, 284, 728; he procures a translation of the law of 





Rorana, Herod’s daughter by Phaedra, 416, 538 
Rubrius Gallus, 567. ~ ya 
Rue, of a prodigious magnitude, 692. 

Rufus, 551, 552. : ny 

Rufus, c Egyptian,) takes Eleazar prisoner, 696. Ke 

Rufus, (Terentius, or Turnus,) takes Simon, the son ¢ 
Gioras, 689; he is erusalem af 
it was taken, ibid. j 

Rumah, or Reumah, Nahor’s concubine, 37. ; i" 

Ruth, gleans in Booz’s field, 138; is married by Booz, and 
becomes the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse, ibid. 

Sabactas, or Sabtecha, 36 

Sabas, or Seba, 36. 

Sabathes, or Sabrah, 36. § 

Sabbath-day, kept very strictly by the Essenes, 556; Sab 
bath, according to Apion, so called from the Egyptiag 
word Sabo, 727; Sabbath-day, so superstitiously observ __ 
by the Jews, that they came to great mischiefs thereby 
299, 508; they are advised by Matthias to defend them | 
selves on the Sabbath-day, 299; and by Jonathan, 309; al 
lowed to repel but not to attack an enemy on that day, 
340, 458; Antiochus, a Jew, forces the Jews to break the y 
Sabbath-day at Antioch, 565; Sabbath-day spentin read. 
ing tne law, 690; ushered in, and ended with the sound — 
of a trumpet, 634; Jews un the Sabbath-day dined at the — 
sixth hour, 18; the seditious kill the Romans on the Sab 
bath-day, 574; unlawful to travel far on the Sabbath-day, — 
324; pretended to be unlawful either to make war or 
peace on the Sabbath-day, 613; not allowed by some, even — 
in case of necessity, to take arms either on the Sabbath 
day, or the evening before, 12. 

Sabbatic river, 692. 

Sabbeus, 313. j 
Sabion, discovers Alexander’s designs to Herod, 368. 

Sabec, or Shobach, captain of the Syrians, 176. : 

Sabinus, Cesar’s steward in Judea, 428, 550; he accuses’ 
Archelaus by letters, 429; falls heavy upon the Jews, 431 

peri one of the murderers of Caius, 476; he kills him- 
self, 477. 

Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, taker the eapitol ‘Gi 
is killed by Vitellius, ibid. pitch, Ne 

Sabinus, by birth a Syrian, a man of great valor, 669. 

Sabinus, (Domitian,) one of the tribunes, 654. 

Sabtah, or Sabathes, 36. 

Sabtecha, or Sabactas, 36. 

Sacrifice of Abel was milk, and the firstlings of the flock, 
31; sacrifices were either private or public, 88; either all, 
or part only burnt, ibid; how the former were offered, ibid; _ 
how the latter, ibid; how sin offerings were offered, ibid; 
those of swine forbidden, 298; Titus desires John not te 
leave off the Jewish sacrifices, 670; daily sacrifices, 270 
670; sacrifices every day for Cesar’s prosperity, 559, 730; _ 
omission thereof the beginning of the Jewish war, 572 _ 
offerings of foreigners usually received by the Jews, ibid “y 
the same prohibited by the seditious, ibid; what parts of 
sacrifices were due to the priest, 100; the sacrifices inthe _ 
temple, not to be viewed by others than Jews, 493; sacri- 
flices not to be tasted till the eblation is over, 295; not to 
be bought by the hire of a naYlot, or the price of a dog, 
109; meat-offerings joined to bloody sacrifices, 88; not to 
be abused to luxury, 737; ought to be entire and without 
blemish, 91; of what were burnt offerings, 88; animals 
not offered till the eighth day after their birth, 89 wine — 
and oil reserved for sacrifices consumed by the seditious, mt 
665. 5 

Sadduc, a Pharisee, stirs up a sedition, 438. a 

Sadducees, deny fate, 319; are contrary to the Pharisees, ; 
327; observed only precepts of the written law, ibid; theis 
opinions, 438, 557; have the rich men of their side, 327. 

Sadrach, or Shadrah, 257. : 

Sadraces, 271. 

Sages, or wise men among the Israelites, 198. ; ee 

Salampsio, daughter of Herod, married to Phasaelus, A 
446. 

Salathiel, Zorobabel’s father, 268. 

Salatis, king of Egypt, 712. h,. 

Saleph, 36. 4 

Salmana, or Zalmunna, captain of the Midianites, 132. 

Salmanasser, or Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, 244; invades 
Syria, and Phenicia, ibid; carries the ten tribes away 
into Media and Persia, ibid. 

Salome, Antipater’s daughter, Herod’s sister, 343, 511; _ 
charges her husband, Joseph with adultery, 370, 530; sends _ 
a bill of divorce to her second husband Costobarus, 380; 
envies Herod’s sons and their wives, 392, 395; she clears — 
herself, ibid; Herod forces her to be married to Alexas, — 
415; she discovers to Herod the conspiracy of Antipates — 
and Pheroras, 417, 540; what Herod left her by his will, — 
426; what Cesar gave her, 435. ; 

Salome, Herod’s daughter by Elpis, 416. ; 

Salome, grand-daughter of Herod the Great, and daugh- 
ter of Herod Philip by Herodias, 446; she is marned te 
Philip the tetrarch, and afterward to A , the 
grandson of Herod and brother of Agrippa senier, ibid. 


an 


left with an army at J 

















wis 


4 


y4Le 





INDEX. | A 


Galt, sown apon the ruins of a demolished town, 133. 

Galt-tax, and crown-tax, remitted to the Jews by Demetri- 
us, 311. 

Samacha, Abennerig’s daughter, 484. 

Samaria, built,218; whence its name was derived, ibid; it is 
besieged by the Syrians, and wonderfully relieved, 231; a 
mother there eats her own gon in a famine, 230; is be- 
sieged again by Hyrcanus, suffers famine, is taken, and 
levelled with the ground, 326, 503. 

Samaritans, acolony from Cutha in Persia, 245, 257; pre- 
tend to be the posterity of Joseph, 283; sometimes deny, 
and sometimes profess themselves Jews, 245, 283, 298; 
they harass the Jews under Onias, the high priest, 293; 
pretend to be Sidonians, 299; their temple upon Mount 
Gerizzitn, 284; they pollute the temple of Jerusalem, 439; 
they are enemies tothe Jews, 270, 489; they dispute with 
the Jews in Egypt about their temple, 313; they gave An- 
tiochus the title of a god, 299. 

@ambabas, 271. 

Samgar, or Semegar, 254. 

3ampsigeramus, king of Emega, 446. 

Samson’s birth, 135; he marries a woman of the Philis- 
tines, ibid; kills a lion, ibid; proposes a riddle at his wed- 
ding, 135; burns the Philistines’ corn, ibid; he is deliver- 
ed up to the Philistines, 137; he slays them with the jaw- 
bone of an ass, 136; he carries the gates of Gaza away 
upon his shoulders, ibid; he falls in love with Delilah, 
137; he is betrayed by her, is bound, and his eyes put 
out, ibid; he pulls a house down upon the Philistines, and 
slays above three thousand of them, ibid. 

Bamuel, is born and consecrated to God, 139; God ealls to 
him, ibid; he conquers the Philistines, 142; his sons prove 

- very bad judges, 143; he is offended at the people’s de- 
manding a king, ibid; he tells the people the manners of 
a king, ibid, 145; threatens Saul with the loss of his 
kingdom, 151; anoints David to be king, 152; dies, 161; is 
raised out of Hades, and foretells Saul’s death, 164. 

- fanabassar, governor and president of Syria and Phoni- 

cia, 270 

Sanballat, 281. 

Sanctum sanctorum, or holy of holies, 82. 

Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, 6; none could be put to death but 

by the Sanhedrim, 347. 

Sapinnius, 335. 

Sapphora. See Zipporah. 

Barai, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, 37; she goes with him into 

Egypt, ibid; the king falls in love with her, 38; her death,43. 

Baramalla, 356, 516. 

Saraser, son of Sennacherib, 247; slew his father, ibid. 

Sardians, their decree in favor of the Jews, 351. 

Sareas, or Seraiah, high priest, 255. 

Sarepta. See Zarephath. 

Sarmatians, invade Mysia, 692. 

Seer ea (Sentius,) president of Syria, 411, 412, 415, 418, 

420, 538. 


Sathrabuzanes, 264, 269. 

Saul, son of Kish, 144; seeks his father’s asses, and comes 
to Samuel, ibid;dines with Samuel, and seventy others, ib.; 
Samuel anoints him for king, ibid; he is actually made 
king, 145; he promises to assist the Gileadites, ibid; is in- 
augurated again, 146; conquers the Philistines, 149; his 
wars and family, ibid; he makes war on the Amalekites, 
150; spares Agag against God’s command, ibid; for which 
Samuel foretelis him the loss of his kingdom, 15]; his cru- 
el order for murdering Ahimelech and the priests, 159; 
being forsaken of God, he consults with a necromantic 
woman, 164; his death 167. 

Saulus, a ringleader of the robbers, 495. 

Beaurus, president of Syria, 507,509; he returns into Syria, 
338; he raises the siege of Jerusalem, ibid; his expedition 
into Arabia, 341. 

Scopas, general of Ptolemy’s army, defeated by Antiochus 
the Great, 292. 

Sea, the seventy interpreters wash their handg in the sea 
before they begin their translation, 290. 

Sea, divided for the Israelites, 72. 

Sebas, or Sheba, the son of Ilus, 189. 

Sects of the Jews, 3, 318, 438, 554. 

Secundus Emilius, 579. 

Sedition, among the priests, 493; sedition of Corah and his 
followers 95, 96, 98; of the {sraelites, 92; is quelled by 
Joshua, 93; sedition at Cesarea between the Jews and 
Syrians, 492. 

Sejanus, put to death, 149. 

Seisan, the scribe, 175. : 

Selene, queen of Syria, otherwise called Cleopatra, 335. 

BSeleucus, possesses Syria after the death of Alexander the 
Great, 284; he is called Nicator, (the conqueror,) 291; his 
bounty towards the Jews, ibid. 

Beleucus, Soter, or Philopater, son of Antiochus, 296. 

Seleucus, son of Antiochus Grypus, 331; his death, ibid. 

Sellum, or Shallum, 241. 

Bemeas, Poilio’s disciple, 346, 365, 388; speech against 
Hered, 346; he is honored by Herod, 347. 


Semegar, or Samgar 254. 

Semelius, the scribe, 265. 

Sempronius, (Caius,) son of Vaius, 269. 

Senabar, 38. 

aks tee as makes war on- Hezekiah, 245; his death 

Senate of Rome’s decree concerning the Jews, 307; they 
renew their league with the Jews, 345; another decree of 
theirs concerning the Jews, 349. 

Sepphoris burnt, 433; taken by Josephus, 23. 

Seraiah. See Sareas. 

Seraiah, high priest, 255. 

Serebeus, 268. 

Seron, general of the army of Ca@losyria, 30). 

Serpent, deprived both of speech and feet, 30. 

Serug, 37 

Servilius, (Publius,) his letter to the Milesians in favor e 
the Jews, 351. 

Sesac. See Shishak. 

Seth, son of Adam, 31; his posterity’s pillars in the land 
of Siriad, 32. 

Sethos, king of Egypt, 721. 

Sethosis, or Sesostris, king of Egypt, 713. 

Seventy-two interpreters, sent by Eleazar, the high priest, 
with the books of the law, 287; their arrival at Alexaa- 
dria, 289; they bring with them the law written upon 
parchment in golden letters, ibid; they wash in the sea be 
fore they fall to their work, 290; they finish their transla 
tion in seventy-two days, ibid. 

Sextus Cesar, president of Syria, 346, 512; he is slain by 
Cecilius Bassus, 513. 

Shadrach, 257. 

Shallum, 241. 

Shamgar, son of Anath, succeeds Ehud as judge, 130. 

Shaphan, the scribe, 249. 

Sheba, 187. 

Shechem, the place of Joshua’s habitation, 122. 

Shechemites, meet Alexander the Great, 283; their kindred 
with Raguel, Moses’s father-in-law, 150. 

Shekel, a coin equal to four Attic drachme, 86. 

Shem, 34; his posterity, 37. 

Shenaber, king of Sodom; 38. 

Shield, covered the left eye in war, 145. 

Shield, a token of league between the Jews and Romans, 
345. 

Shiloh, a town where the tabernacle was fixed, 122. 

Shimei, son of Gera, curses David, 182, 186, 195; put te 
death by Solomon, 196. 

Ships, sent to Pontus and Thrace under Ahaziah, son of 
Ahab, 227. 

Shishak, or Sesac, king of Egypt, 175, 210. 

Shobach, captain of the Syrians, 177. 

Sibbechai, the Hittite, 188. 

Sicarii, or banditti, flee to Alexandria, 705; cannot be 
forced to own Cesar for their lord, ibid. 

Sidon, 36. 

Signs, appearing before the destruction of Jerusalem, 68& 

Sihon, king of the Amorites, conquered, 101. 

Silanus, president of Syria, 441. 

Silas, governor of Tiberias, 8, 18. 

Silas, tyrant of Lysias, 338. ’ 

Silas, an attendant on king Agrippa senior, in his adver. 
sities, 450, 479; he becomes troublesome to the king, 48& 
he is killed, ibid. 

Silas, a Babylonian, 578, 586. 

Silo, the Roman captain, 360, 361. 

Silva, (Flavius,) governor of Judea, 698; he besieges Ma- 
sada, 699, 700. 

Silver, of little value in the days of Solomon, 208. 

Simeon, one of Jacob’s sons by Lea, 47. 

Simon, son of Boethus, made high priest, 385; his daugh 
ter married to Herod, ibid; he is deprived, 419. 

Simon, son of Cathlas, captain of the Idumeans, 621. 

Simon the Just, Eleazar’s brother, high priest, 286, 293. 

Simon, son of Onias the high priest, dies, 296. 

Simon, the Essene, a prophet, 437. 

Simon, son of Giora, 578, 631; fights with the Zealots, ibid; 
conquers Idumea, 632; is made a prisoner, and reserved 
for the triumph, 684; is put to death at the triumph, 694, 

Simon, brother of Judas and Jonathan, the Maccabees, 
beats the enemy in Galilee, 299; is made captain of the 
Jews, 308; he makes a speech to them, 320; is made theix 
prince, ibid; is made high priest, 321; is killed by Ptole 
my, his son-in-law, 323. 

Simon, son of Dositheus, 325. 

Simon. a life-guard man to Josephus, 10. 

Simon, a magician, 490. 

Simon, of Jerusalem, persnades the people to exciude Agrip 
pa out of the temple, 480. 

Simon, a Pharisee, 13. 

Simon, a slave of Herod, assumes the crown, 432. 

Simon, son of Saul, 575. 

Simonides Agrippa, Josephus’s son, 6. 

Siphar, the Ammonite, 184 


788 


Sisera, oppresses the Israelites, 

Sisinnes, 269; governor of Syria and Phenicia, ibid, 270. 

Slaughter, the greatest that ever was in one battle, 216. 

oe and their associates, conquered by the Assyri- 
aus, 38. 

Sodomites, so wicked that they are burnt with fire from 
heaven, 40. 

pips king of Emesa, succeeds his brother Azizus, 
491. 


Sohemus, tetrarch, 6, 418. 

Sohemus of Iturea, 378; betrays Herod’s secret order for 
killing Mariamne, ibid; is put to death by Herad, 379. 
Solomon, son of David, promised, 174; born, 179; anoint- 
ed and proclaimed king, 193; anointed and proclaimed a 
second time, 194; marries Pharaoh’s daughter, 196; deter- 
mines the case of two harlots, 197; his power, grandeur, 
and wisdom, 198, &e.; the books he wrote, ibid; his letter 
to Hiram, king of Tyre, 199; he builds the temple, ibid, 
200, 201, 202; his addresses to God and the people after it 
was built, 203; he offers abundance of sacrifices, 204; he 
builds himself a royal palace, 205, &c.; solves the prob- 
lems proposed by the king of Tyre, 206; Dius says Solo- 
mon could not solve them all, ibid; he fortifies Jerusalem, 
and builds several towns, ibid; lays a tax on the remain- 
ing Canaanites, 207; fits out a fleet, ibid; his great riches, 
208; hia immoderate love of women, 209; his death, 210. 

Bolymex, or Salem, the old name of Jerusalem, 172. 

Sosibus of Txrentum, 285. 

Sosius, a Roman captain in Judea, 364, 365; joins with 
Herod against Antigonus, 364, 522; he takes Antigonus 
prisoner and carries him to Anthony, 364, 365, 523, 524. 

Souls of Heroes, slain in war, supposed to be placed among 
the stars, 668. t 

Speech of Herod to his army, 373, 374; to the people, 389; 
speech of Moses to Corah and the people, 96; to the peo- 
ple before his death, 116. 

Spies, sent by Moses to view the land 
Joshua to Jericho, 117; they bring back 

Bpoils of barbarians, reposited in Herod’s temple, 390. 

Spoils in war, to be equally divided between those that 
fight and those that guard the baggage, 166. 

Btechus, 450 

Stephanus, Cesar’s servant, 489, 

Bterility of the country, is one of the punishments for the 
king's doing ill, 174. 

Stratto, tyrannizes over Berea, 332. 

Bubjects, follow the manners of their princes, 214. 

Bumober, or Shemeber, king of Zeboim, 38. 

Supplicants in Syria, used to come with a halter about 
their heads, 223. 

Bur, or Zur, king of the Midianites, 106. 

Bylla, a captain of king Agrippa’s life-guards, 24. 

Sylleus, an Arabian, first minister to king Obodas, 404, 
534, 537; he goes to Rome, 408; accuses Herod before Au- 
gustus, ibid; demands Salome in marriage, 404; is refu- 
sed because he would not turn Jew, ibid; is charged with 
several murders, 407, 540; is accused before Augustus by 
Nicolaus of Damascus, 410: received sentence of death, 


130; is killed by Jael, 131. 


of Canaan, 93; by 
a faithful account, 


*ymeon, the son of Gamaliel, 615. 

Syrian commodities, 52. 

Syrian’s hatred to the Jews, 505. 

Syrian king of Mesopotamia, 176. 

Tabernacle, built, 80; its description, 81; its purification, 
&6 


Tabernacles, feast of, a great festival of the Jews, 202, 368; 
celebrated in war by the leave of king Antiochus, 324; 
celebrated for fourteen days upon the dedication of Solo- 
mon’s temple, 204; Jews then carry boughs with fruit, 
whereby Alssunaar the high priest was pelted, 331; Jews 
then fixed tabernacles in the temple, 680; it 1s celebrated 
after the Babylonian captivity, 268, 273. 

Tabie, (of show bread,) golden, made by Ptolemy, 287 with 
his cups and vials, 288. 

Table, Delphic, 82. 

Table, in the court of the priests, 83 

Tachas, 37. 

Tamar, Absalom’s daughter, married to Rehoboam, 184. 

Tamar, David?’s daughter, 172, 179. 

Tanganas, 271 

Tarichee, battle at, upon the lake of Gennesareth, 605. 

Tartan, a captain of the Assyrians, 245. 

Mery eee signs of great joy or sorrow, 289. 

‘eba, 37, 

Temple, built up »n Gerizzim, 284, 313; like to that at Jeru- 
salem, 282. 

Temple, built by Herod near Panium, in honor of Augus- 

us 


Temple of the golden calf, 609. 

Temples in Egypt, many and different, 313. 

Temples of the Canaanites, were to be demolished, 108. 

Temples of foreign nations, not to be plundered, nor their 
donations taken away, 109. 












C ‘ fC Se 
oi en 
INDEX. Bam 
y Paty act”: 7 st 
Temple of Hercules and Astarte, at Tyre 
Temple of Demus and the Graces at Athene eae cree 
Temple of Belus, at Babylon, 260, tn 
Temple, built by Herod at Samaria, 383, Cea 
Temple, (Herod’s) at Jerusalem, described, 389.00 02¢2CS” 
irate nion in Egypt, built like that at Jerusalem, 31% 
Temple of Diana at El mais, $04; of Dagon at Ashdod. e : 3 
Azotus, 315; of Apalte as Gaza, 331. 3 ey: 
Temple of Jerusalem, rebuilt by Zorobabel, 264, 269, 40% 


the Jews hindered in bnildin it, 265, 269; they go on 
order of Darius, 267; it is finished in seven years, 27& 
sixty cubits lower than Solomon’s temple, 390; it is plun- 
dered by Antiochus Epiphanes, 298; taken b: Pompey, 
and its most holy place seen b him, but without detri. 
ment thereto, 340, 509; new built by Herod, 389, 390 


burnt by Titus 678; Titus g0es into the most holy place, e, 


ibid. 2 
Temple of Solomon, described, 199; dedicated Solomon, 
203; foreigners could go but toa certain partition-wall in — 


Herod’s temple, 391; 


courts, ibid; open to Samaritans and other nations fin 


prayer, 269; David’s armory in the temple, 
of the temple treasure remitted by Demetrius, 312; Daniel’s 


prophecy of Antiochus’s profanatio = 
steed Pp »n of the annie; ful 


Tephetus of Garsis, 66). 

cerah, Abraham/’s father, 36. hee 
erebinth, or turpentine tree, near Heb; pposed 
old as the world, 639, bmg: a 

Terentius or Turnus Rufus, 689, 

Sahigy dt 3 
‘ero, an old soldier, 413, 538; charged with treaso - 
pho, Herod's barber, ibid. : Wyiagid 

Tethmosis, or Thummosis, king of Egypt, 713, 721. 

Thaumastus, 450. 

Theat “fo erected at Jerusalem by Herod, 381, 528; at Cosa- 
rea, . 

Theft, how punished by the law of Moses, 113. 

Themasius, 267. 

Theodorus, son of Zeno, 331, 504. 

Theodosius, 313. . : 

Theophilus, son of Ananus, deprived of the nigh priest. 
hood, 478, 

Theophilus, brother of Jonathan, made high priest, 446. 

Thermus, a Roman ambassador, 729, 

Thermusa, Phraataces’s concubine, and then his wife, 446 

Theudas, an impostor, 488. 

Theudion, brother of Doris, Antipater’s mother, 419. : 

Tholomy, son of Sohemus, 344. 

Tiberius Alexander, procurator of Judea, 488, 

Tiberius Alexander, governor of Alexandria, 576, 640; he 
brings Egypt over to Vespasian, 636. . 

Tiberius the Emperor, 441, 558; his dilatory proceedings, 
448; his skill in astrology, 451; his prognostic of a sucees 
sor, ibid; his death, 452. 


oe, 
8 





Tibni, 218 a 


Tidal, 38. 

Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, 242. 

Tigranes, king of Armenia, 335, 371, 446, 506. 
Tigranes, son of Alexander and Glaphyra, 538. 
Timaus, king of Egypt, 712. 

Timidius, 463. iP 

Timius, a Cypriot, “ 

Timotheus, 302, 303; he 1s put to flight by Judas, ibid. 


Tiridates, king of Armenia, 486, 698. Sag 
Tithes and first fruits, given to the Levites, 99; their tithes 


or tenth parts given to the 
by Hezekiah, — eae 
Titus, president. of Syria, , ; j 
Titus ate son of Vespasian, sent to Alexandria, 586; 
he brings a great number of troops to Vespasian, 588; his 
piety towards his father. 596; he and Vespasian take Jo- 
tapata, 599; his mildness to Josephus 602; he is sent 
against Tarichex, 605; his valor in this ex dition, 606; 
his speech to the soldiers, 605; he takes aricher, 606; — 
he is sent to Rome, with king Agrippa, to compliment 
Gatba, 631; the order of his army, 640; he arrives &t Jeru- 
salem, and is exposed to great danger, 641; hia great va- 
lor, ibid, 642; his great concern to save Jerusalem, 655, 
and the temple, 670; his speech to his soldiers, 667; his 
speeches to the Jewish tyrants, 682; he ascribes the con- 
quest of the city to God, 686; h¢ thanks the army and 
distributes rewards, 688; celebrates his father’s and 
brother’s birth days, 689; is greatly moved at the sight of 
the ruins of Jerusalem, 693; he makes great shows, ibid, 
694; comes to Antioch, 692; and to Rome, 693; what per- 
sons he carried with him for the triumph, ibid; hisa 
bation of Josephus’s history, 22; his generosity to Jose. 
phusg, 25, 
Tobias’s sons, expelled Jerusalem, 500. b 
Toparchies, (three,) or prefectures, added to Judea, 316. 


priests, ibid; this law restored 


- 


Tower of Babel, and the Siby#'s testimony conceraing ft. a 
35. ie 


om 





ys 


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Pe 
va 


- 


ihe INDEX. 
| Praditione, of the Phar.sces, unwritten, 327 


Trajan, captain of the tenth legion, 308. 
en of the law, made by seventy-two elders, 287, 


are nrerCenetet,) kon in the temple by some of the priests, 


en mon Israel, and their portions of land determined by 


? 

Tribute, paid out of Judea te Antiochus Pius, 324; great 
men farm such tributes, 294; poll-money paid the kings 
ef Syria by the Jews, 311; ten thousand drachme paid 
out of the temple to them, ibid; three hundred talents 

id by Jonathan to Demetrius for tribute, 316; Jews 
freed from paying such tribute by Simon the Maccabee, 321; 
high priests used to pay twenty talents tribute to the 
kings of Egypt out of their own revenues, 293; poll-mo- 
ney and crown-tax, &c. forgiven the prirzeipal orders of 
the Jews by Antiochus the Great, 208. 

Triumpha! gate at Rome, 693. - 

Triumphal pomp described, 693, 694. 

Trophies, give offence to the Jews, 38%. 

Trumpet, its invention and form, 98. 

Truth and accuracy, to be observed by an historsan, 336; 
observed accordingly by Josephus, 21. 

Trypho, the tyrant, brings young Antiochus baek to Syria, 
316; his perfidious behavior to the same Antiochus, 320; 
he draws Jonathan into a snare, ibid; he makes an irru 
tion into Judea, 321; imposes upon Simon, ibid; kills Jon- 
athan, ibid; he causes Antiochus, whose guardian he 
was, to be killed, 322; he is made king by the army, ibid; 
is killed by Apamia, ibid. 

Trypho, king Herod’s barber, 413, 538. 

Trypho, king Ptolemy’s jester, 206. 

Tubal, 31. 

Tyrannius Priseus, 578. 

Tyrannus’s deposition against Alexander, 408, 537. 

Tyre, when built, 200; oppressed by Marion, 354; besieged 
five years by the Assyrians, 245. 

Tyrians, their god Baal, 235; their ancient records, 714; 
they beat the Assyrians at sea, 244; their temple of Jupi- 
ter Olympias, 906, 714; of Hercules, ibid; of Astarte, ibid. 

Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria, 489. 

Ures, 197. 

Uriah, slain, 177. 

Urias, high priest, 255. 

eget and Thummim, note, 87, 

Zy e 

Uzzah, smitten by God for touching the ark; 174. 

Uszziah, or Azariah, king of Judah, 240; he burns insense 
in the temple, ibid; he is smittem with the lepresy for 
usurping the priest’ office, 241. 

Valerian, a decurion, 604. 


_ Valerius Asiaticus, 467, 470. 


Varro, president of Syria, 387. 

Varus, (Quintilius,) president of Syria, 6, 486, egies 543, 
550; he comes to succor Sabinus, 433, 562; he 
the mutineers, 430. 

Vashti, wife of king Artaxerxes, 385. 

Vatinius, 466. 

Veils of the tabernacle, 85. 

Ventidius Bassus, bribed by Antigonusa, 36% sent to repel 
the Parthians, ibid; he kills Paeorus in battle, and defeats 
the Parthians, 362. 

Veranius, 475. 

Vespasian and Titus’s generosity towards the Jews, 291; 

Vespasian’s wars in Judea, 608 to 6H. 

Vindex, rebels against Nero, 028. 

en (golden,)in Herod's temple, 36% anether sext to Reme, 


Vinicius, (Marcus,) 467. 
Virtue, its own rew 
Virtues, (reyal,) 5 


~ 


Vitellius, Proeulus, 479. : ‘ 

‘Vitellius, president of Syria, 390,691; he ix highly treated 
by the Jews, 443, 445; his expedition against Aretas,446, 
is ordered by Tiberius to enter into an alliance with Ar- 
tabanus, 444. 

Vitellius is made emperor after Otho, 634; he is slain, 632 

Voice heard, in the temple, 680. 

Volumnius, procurator of Syria, 407, 410, 537. 

Vonones, 440. 

Vow uf Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter, neither lawft: 
nor acceptable to God, 134. 

Vologases, king of Parthia, 486, @0%; he declares war 
against Izates, 487. 

War, not ap ot with foreign nations till ambassadors ave 
sent, 115, 197, 

War, (laws of,) among the Jews, 115. 

War, (Jewish,) whence begun, 564, 565, 537%, 573. 

Water of Bethlehem, offered to God by David, 1989. 

Witch, or necroman*e woman, of Endor, eoraforte Saul, 
164, her eulogium, 163. 

Woman’s power, 267; their cunning in preventing accu- 
sations, 54; their dress forbidden men, 115; foreign we- 
men not to be meddled with by Jews, 205; when divoreed 
eannot marry another without their former husband's 
consent, 112; Persian women, or wives, not to be seen by 
strangers, 275; not allowed to be witnesses, 110. 

Xanthicue, the Syro-Macedonian name of the Jewish 
month Nisan, 32; and so elsewhere. 

Xerxes, succeeds Darius, 271; his letter to Eara, ibid. 

Year, two beginnings of Jewish years, 32. 

Year, (Great,) & period of six hundred common yeara, 3. 

Zabdiel, a prince of the Arabians; 315. 

Zabidus, an Idumean, 732. 

Zachariah, son of Jehoiada, a prophet, is stoned, 937. 

Zacharias, son of Baruch, 684; he is murdered im the tem- 
ple, 625. 

Zacharias, son of Phalek, 619. 

Zadoc, or Sadoc, high priest, 171, 175, 188, 19%, 296. 

Zalmunna, captain of the Midianites, 13%. 

Zamaris, a Babylonian Jew, 416. 

Zarepheth, or Sarepta, the widow's habitation, whose mean! 
and oil were multiplied on aceount of Elijah, 218. 

Zealots, 616, 617, 62%, 699. 

Zeb, or Zeeb, captain of the Midianites, 132. 

Zechariah, king of Israel, 240. 

Zechariah, the prophet, 269. 

Zechariah, son of Ahaz, is slain by Amaziah, 342. 

Zedekiah, a false prophet, 224; persuades Ahab net to 
hearken to Micaiah, ibid; strikes Micaiah, and hee his 
judgment pronounced, ibid. 

Zedekiah, king of Judah, 252; he revolts from the Babyix- 
nians, ibid; calls for Jeremiah’s advice, ibid; he is car 
ried captive to Babylon, 254; his death, ibid. 

Zebina, (Alexander,) king of Syria, is conquered by Aptt- 
ochus Grypus, and dies, 269. 

Zebul, 133. 

Zeno, styled Cotylas, tyrant of Philadelphia, 383. 

Zenodoras, 386, 407; his death, 387. 

Zepheniah, a priest, 255. - 

Zerah, an Ethiopian king, 216; defeated by Ava, 2{7. 

Ziba, Saul’s freed-man, 176; aecuses Mephibosheth, 192. 

Zimri, prince of the Simeonites, 104; his speech against 
Mosee, 144; is slain by Phineas the priest, and the plagwa 
stayed thereby, 105. 

Zimri, kills Elah, 218; his death, ibid. 

Zipporah, Moses’s wife, 78. 

Zizon, an Arabian, 333. 

Zoilus, a tyrant, 329. 

Zorobabel, 266, 267, 268. 

Zur, king of the Midianites, 106. 

Xylophory, 2 Jewish festival; whem they carried wood te 
the temple for the sacrifices, 572. 

















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